ICE BEARS OF THE BEAUFORT
Pacific NW Premiere!
Directed by Arthur C. Smith III
United States, 52 Minutes
Documentary/Family Friendly
SAT APR 25, 12:45pm; SUN APR 26, 12:30pm
Filmmakers Jennifer Smith & Arthur Smith in attendance
Shown in partnership with Chemeketa Community College
Stunning, unrushed cinematography and editing, natural sound without narration and a sparse music score by Patrick O'Hearn transform Arthur C. Smith's documentary into a meditative plea to save one of the earth's most powerful -- and comically playful -- animals. This documentary is witness to Alaska's Beaufort Sea coast as a critical polar bear habitat, endangered by efforts to drill for oil. Five years in the making by a single resident of an Inupiat Eskimo village, the film is a color-intense, cinematic portrait of Alaskan polar bears never before captured. The body of the documentary chronicles polar bear activity and year-round use of the coastal and offshore areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the adjacent Beaufort Sea.
Filmography: First Feature
Arthur C. Smith III (Director)
As a professional still photographer, Arthur went to Alaska on assignment in 1992. One of the locations was the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge where within one mile of the Arctic Ocean, he emerged from his tent to find polar bear tracks in the sand. He spent the next ten years wondering why this polar bear didn't kill him and finally, in 2004, returned to reconcile this contradiction.
Jennifer A. Smith (Writer)
Jennifer went to Alaska for the summer in 1996 and has been there ever since. She was a graduate student in communication at University of Alaska Fairbanks, and then operated an ecotourism guide/small business in the roadless arctic for eight years. While spending a season in Kaktovik to see what an arctic coastal winter was like, she met Art, who was there filming polar bears and the two became inseparable in their mission to document and deliver the visual truth of the arctic, to enjoin as many "witnesses" as possible for its protection.
From their home in the Alaskan arctic island village of Kaktovik, Jennifer & Arthur run PolarArt Productions, which specializes in embedded natural history & documentary productions. www.polarartproductions.com
