Its image projected onto a screen, a ruffed grouse prances and drums its wings on a log, somewhere in Alberta’ s woodlands. In rows of plastic chairs, an audience of around 20 people watches at Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement’ s community centre.
Its image projected onto a screen, a ruffed grouse prances and drums its wings on a log, somewhere in Alberta’ s woodlands.
In rows of plastic chairs, an audience of around 20 people watches at Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement’ s community centre.
The grouse is filmmaker Albert Karvonen’ s favourite type of bird, which is why it was the subject of his first documentary, “Drummer In The Woods,” all the way back in the 1970s.
The film shown in Buffalo Lake on Thursday night, “The Forest Is Calling,” might just be Karvonen’ s last film, although he doesn’ t know for sure.
The 84-year-old Karvonen and his wife and fellow filmmaker Pirkko live in the Amisk Lake area of Athabasca County and are officially retired, but gathering footage of nature and wildlife is a professional hobby that hasn’ t left either of them yet.
The duo founded Karvonen Films in 1976. Over the course of more than 36 years and over 120 films, the two have traveled around the world but have always returned to the forest wilderness they call home.
“My interest has always been in the boreal forest,” Karvonen said. “I was born and raised not far from here. I had fun, always traveling, always seeing different places-in Canada and North America, primarily, although we’ ve traveled on every continent except the Antarctic.”
While the ever-popular grouse features in “The Forest Is Calling,” the 55-minute film focuses on the entire boreal forest ecosystem. Animals like wolves, caribou and bears are shown one by one, but the film’ s overarching message is that they’ re all connected.
Shot in northern Alberta and Finland, it’ s also a call to action, containing footage of deforestation and the oilsands developments in the Fort McMurray area.
People should realize that humans are a part of nature, not separate from it, so environmental stewardship is extremely important, Karvonen says.
“The message is that we need to pay attention to what’ s happening to our environment,” he said. “We need to look at some of the fundamental issues that we face. With the way the world is going today with global warming and habitat loss and pollution of the water and air and land, I think nature is becoming more and more important.”
“The Forest Is Calling” opens with a quote by Chief Seattle that summarizes that message: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
Karvonen has never stopped focusing on nature in his work as a filmmaker. Beginning with 15-minute educational segments, he and his wife progressed to making half-hour and one-hour television programs.
“The Forest Is Calling” is different in that it’ s not intended to be televised. It’ s meant more for public viewings like the showing in Buffalo Lake last week, he says.
Earlier this year, the film was shown to an audience of more than 120 people at Athabasca University. The showings are being coordinated in partnership with the university’ s Science Outreach department.
“The Karvonens have devoted much of their life to environmental education and conservation and this passion has generously opened up opportunities for all of us to develop a deeper understanding of the natural environment,” said Science Outreach’ s Linda Lindballe.
The Karvonens have donated funds to Science Outreach, she says, and have helped to create a pair of student awards for scientific and environmental studies.
“It’ s basically helping another generation to study and understand our natural world,” she said.
Albert Karvonen says the young people of today should be taught about environmental stewardship, because they’ ll be responsible for the natural world one day.
“I’ m an environmental activist-that’ s what I call myself-but I’ m also a naturalist,” he said. “My strength for what I do and what I believe in comes from nature and that’ s what I’ m trying to get across to audiences, especially the younger people. How are these future generations going to look at nature and the environment if they don’ t understand it?”
His own convictions have kept him filming and observing in the backcountry all over the world. His belief that there’ s a lot to be learned from nature has sustained a David Attenborough-esque career of nature and wildlife films.
It often means many long hours spent in hideouts, waiting for animals to pass by, but the act of documenting is its own reward, he says.
“It’ s very therapeutic. There’ s something about it that, for me, creates a higher level of energy and makes me feel good,” he said. “At my age now, 84 years old, I have never felt more convinced about what I’ m doing, how important it is.”
He has a hunch that “The Forest Is Calling” might be his final documentary, but “others who know me better say it’ s probably not.”
The focus on nature has remained the same over the years, but the equipment hasn’ t. In the early days, he and his wife would haul heavy cameras and tripods and delicate film rolls into the wilderness. Now they know they can rely on simple memory cards.
“The Forest Is Calling” is Karvonen’ s first HD project. The 16:9 format lends itself well to nature films, he says.
The film should resonate with local and regional audiences, he says, because people in the Lac La Biche and Athabasca areas are literally surrounded by nature.
“Let’ s look at nature and how it’ s all connected. Look at how it can energize us and get us thinking,” said Karvonen.
There’ s also the impact of human activity to be considered. As the film shows, industrial developments are harming the boreal forest region-and people need to pause and take a moment to think about what that means in the long run, says Karvonen.
“They can remove 160 acres of forest in a matter of days. It took hundreds of years, decades, for that to grow. It’ s gone,” he said. “We only have one planet. At the rate North Americans are consuming natural resources, we almost need three or four planets, according to some scientists.”
He says the goal of “The Forest Is Calling” is to get people thinking about their own roles in the natural world.
He’ s no longer interested in trying to convince people who deny climate change and environmental damage. He has a different target audience in mind.
“I’ m not interested in talking to the deniers anymore,” he said. “I’ m more interested in talking to people who find it difficult to look at the earth today with all the problems-and I try to give them hope.”
Regardless of whether or not “The Forest Is Calling” is truly his last documentary, he doesn’ t think he’ ll ever stop trying to tell stories about the natural world through film.
“It’ s something that’ s evolved with me and I’ ll probably leave this world with a camera still in my hand,” he said.
