AIFF2022 Our 21st Annual Festival

Short Docs 3: STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

Expired April 11, 2022 6:59 AM
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5 films in package
Winter Worm Summer Grass
Set in remote mountains along the Tibetan Plateau, "Winter Worm Summer Grass" is an intimate portrait of a family who forges the meadow for medicinal caterpillar fungus.
Nuisance Bear
Documentary study of the polar bears who draw tourists to Churchill, Manitoba.
Closed captions available
No Soy Óscar
A first-generation Latinx father journeys through unrecognizable, unceded lands in the border regions between the U.S. and Mexico in search of the place where Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his young daughter Angie Valeria drowned.
Closed captions available
Some Kind of Intimacy
The filmmaker tries to communicate with the sheep living where his parents are buried.
Closed captions available
The Lifers Network
Searching for redemption, Roberto helps other released lifers change their lives.
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Churchill, Manitoba, is famous as an international destination for photographing polar bears. We’ve seen the majestic images and classic wildlife series captured here - but what do these bears see of us?


Through a shift in perspective 'Nuisance Bear' reveals an obstacle course of tourist paparazzi and wildlife officers whom bears must navigate during their annual migration.



Part of our Short Docs 3: STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND Program


Directors Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden


Director's Statement:

Like most people, Gabriela and I were introduced to the bears of Churchill, Manitoba through Planet Earth. In 2015, fresh out of university, we were hired to shoot a short film about Churchill.


Went up there with a romantic vision of majestic beasts in pristine arctic wilderness. What we saw instead was a majestic pest swarmed by a circus of human activity.


It quickly became obvious to us that the most interesting perspective in this story is the bears'.

  • Year
    2021
  • Runtime
    15 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Director
    Jack Weisman, Gabriela Osio Vanden
  • Producer
    Jack Weisman
  • Executive Producer
    Soo-Jeong Kang
  • Cinematographer
    Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Sam Holling
  • Editor
    Andres Landau, Will N. Miller, Jack Weisman
  • Animator
  • Sound Design
    Dave Rose
  • Music
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