The Alaska Wilderness Adventure (1978)

Report from the Aleutians

A documentary propaganda film produced by the U.S. Army Signal Corps about the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II. The film opens with a map showing the strategic importance of the island, and the thrust of the 1942 Japanese offensive into Midway and Dutch Harbor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Dust to Glory

An action-adventure documentary chronicling the most notorious and dangerous race in the world--the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. Rivaling the Indy 500 and 25 Hours of Daytona, the race across Baja's peninsula is unpredictable, grueling and raw--just like the uncharted American West of yesteryear.

The Living Desert

Although first glance reveals little more than stones and sand, the desert is alive. Witness moving rocks, spitting mud pots, gorgeous flowers and the never-ending battle for survival between desert creatures of every shape, size and description.

Alaska Far Away

'Alaska Far Away' tells the story of the Matanuska Colonization Project of 1935, a creative and controversial New Deal program that relocated 202 families devastated by the Great Depression, taking them from the upper Midwest to the Matanuska Valley in Alaska to start an experimental farming colony. It generated a whirlwind of publicity and controversy at the time, not only as a federally-funded social experiment, but also as one of the last pioneer movements in America. The Matanuska Colony isn't just a fascinating footnote to the history of Alaska. It encompasses the despair of the Depression, the creative energy of the New Deal, the adventure of pioneering in Alaska, and the best and worst of our government and ordinary citizens in facing those extraordinary challenges.

Encounters at the End of the World

Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger go to Antarctica to meet people who live and work there, and to capture footage of the continent's unique locations. Herzog's voiceover narration explains that his film will not be a typical Antarctica film about "fluffy penguins", but will explore the dreams of the people and the landscape.

Alaska: Spirit of the Wild

Alaska... Here, in this vast and spectacularly beautiful land teeming with abundant wildlife, discover the "Spirit of the Wild." Experience it in the explosive calving of glaciers, the celestial fires of the Aurora Borealis. Witness it in the thundering stampede of caribou, the beauty of the polar bear and the stealthful, deadly hunt of the wolf pack.

Alone in the Wilderness

Dick Proenneke retired at age 50 in 1967 and decided to build his own cabin in the wilderness at the base of the Aleutian Peninsula, in what is now Lake Clark National Park. Using color footage he shot himself, Proenneke traces how he came to this remote area, selected a homestead site and built his log cabin completely by himself. The documentary covers his first year in-country, showing his day-to-day activities and the passing of the seasons as he sought to scratch out a living alone in the wilderness.

Brothers

A film about the close relationship between two brothers. Markus (10) and Lukas (7) live in an old, yellow townhouse in the middle of Oslo. The river runs close to their home. A paradise in the heart of a big city. Here the brothers grow up with their dreams and longings for the future.

No Loitering

An intimate portrait of teenagers trying to understand their world and their possibilities. The film weaves together video shot by teens and by the filmmaker, as they work together to make a film and create expressive outlets for youth in the community. They organize dances and community events and paint a mural. At the same time, with humor and pathos, these young people raise issues around violence, feeling misunderstood by adults and lacking respect in their community. Set in the small town of Sitka, Alaska, home to a large Alaska Native population, the video chronicles their creativity, concerns and dreams.

Alaska's Giant Bears

In Canada and Alaska, the consequences of global warming are being keenly felt by brown bears - but in different ways by different populations. Their survival depends mainly on the quantity of wild salmon available in the region, as it is the fruit of their catch that enables the bears to accumulate fat reserves for the winter. While salmon populations off Canada's Pacific coast continue to decline year after year, in the immense Bristol Bay in western Alaska, as well as on Kodiak Island, they are increasing considerably. The water temperature in the North Pacific is now ideal for salmon development. From Canada to Alaska, the documentary follows different bear populations over a two-year period.

Gates of the Arctic

Glenn Close narrates this National Park Service movie about the many varied aspects of Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve. Shown at Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center.

Big Bend: The Wild Frontier of Texas

Roam the Wild West frontier land of the Rio Grande’s Big Bend alongside its iconic animals, including black bears, rattlesnakes and scorpions.

Grizzly Man

Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

The Story of the Weeping Camel

When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.

Sweetgrass

An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture, revealing a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.

Back Water

In the middle of New Jersey exists a strange landscape of wetlands and wildlife migrations, garbage dumps and the ruins of industry, toxic waste sites and a river that tells the story of a civilization's new frontier. That is what seven young people have chosen to paddle through for 10 days, in canoes - A singular expedition, as romantic as it is political.

Denali's Wife

The film of the first ascent of Mont Foraker (5,304 m) in the Denali chain in Alaska, by the southeast ridge of independence in 1976, which remains years after an unequaled sporting and human adventure. The 7 members of the expedition, Henri Agresti, Jean-Paul Bouquier, Jean-Marie Galmiche, Werner Landry, Gérard Creton, Isabelle Agresti, Hervé Thivierge, all came to the top after thirty days of climbing in conditions still limits. Breathtaking images where the grandiose views of the icy desert and the scenes of daily life alternate on a most rough mountains on the planet. The film received the Gentiane d'Or Festival prizes from Thirty 1977, Public Prize Festival des Diablerets 1977, SFP Festival de la Plagne in 1977.

Return to the Wild: The Chris McCandless Story

Twenty years ago, a young American hiker named Chris McCandless, the accomplished son of successful middle class parents, was found dead in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness and became the subject of the best-selling book and movie “Into the Wild.” Now, PBS retraces Chris McCandless’ steps to try to piece together why he severed all ties with his past, burnt or gave away all his money, changed his name and headed into the Denali Wilderness. McCandless' own letters, released for the first time, as well as new and surprising interviews, probe the mystery that still lies at the heart of a story that has become part of the American literary canon and compels so many to this day.

Alien Abduction: Travis Walton

In 1975, six loggers in Arizona witnessed their crewmate's abduction by UFO. The Travis Walton story became an international sensation and ripped apart a small town. Four decades later, shocking new evidence reveals the true story behind Fire in the Sky.

Okavango: A Flood of Life

A great flood arrives in a desert kingdom, transforming a dustbowl into a vast and lush wetland, in one of the most diverse habitats on earth. This breath-taking blue-chip natural history film is a journey through Okavango’s seasons, seen through the eyes of an indigenous River Bushman. Our storyteller guides us through the course of Okavango’s flood and into a savage drought, interweaving intimate and spectacular wildlife stories. The arrival and disappearance of precious water determines the destiny of the millions of animals that call Okavango home. For many, the flood is a lifeline. For others, it brings the greatest challenges. Everyone lives or dies by this epic event. It is the heartbeat of the Kalahari.

Camp Yoshi

After moving to Oregon and falling in love with the ability to explore the outdoors with ease with his wife and two kids, Rashad Frazier knew he had to extend the invitation to others. Driven by the magic of his experiences, his background as a chef, and his love of good food and connecting people to incredible places that open up to conversation, he created Camp Yoshi, which curates custom outdoor adventures centered around shared meals and shared experience with the goal of creating a space for Black people and allies to unplug and in turn reconnect with the wilderness. By virtue of being in these places, Camp Yoshi's trips transform historically segregated spaces into safe havens for the community, conversation, and nourishment.

Project Grizzly

Documentary about the lifelong project of Troy Hurtubise, a man who has been obsessed with researching the Canadian grizzly bear up close, ever since surviving an early encounter with such a bear. The film documents Hurtubise's diligent work to improve his homemade "grizzly-proof" suit of armour, his efforts to test its resilience, and his forays into the Rockies to track down the grizzlies he dreams of meeting. The film manages to capture the humor of the project as well as its sincerity.

Alaskan Summer

In the ice-gripped environment of Alaska's Admiralty Island, summer offers the briefest of respites. Year-round residents such as bears and seals turn to the salmon-filled waterways for sustenance. Meanwhile, migrants descend in droves, from humpback whales to over 140 million seabirds--almost half the birds in the Northern Hemisphere.

Explorer: The Last Tepui

This documentary starring climber Alex Honnold and famous biologist Bruce Means document their expedition to the South American sky islands in search of new species and discoveries. Follows elite climber Alex Honnold and a world-class climbing team led by National Geographic Explorer and climber Mark Synnott on a grueling mission deep in the Amazon jungle as they attempt a first-ascent climb up a 1000 foot sheer cliff.

Elementa

A black-and-white visual meditation of wilderness and the elements. Wildlife filmmaker Richard Sidey returns to the triptych format for a cinematic experience like no other.

Alaska: Silence & Solitude

Alaska Silence & Solitude is the follow up to Alone in the Wilderness, filmed 20 years later. Bob Swerer and Bob Swerer Sr. visit Dick Proenneke at his famous cabin on Twin Lakes where the wildlife is still abundant and the scenery is spectacular.

An Aleutian Adventure

A once-lost silent documentary from the late 1920s, “P. E. Harris & Company: An Aleutian Adventure” chronicles a journey to Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands. Commissioned by a Seattle-based cannery company, this rare film captures stunning maritime landscapes and the daily life of workers in an early 20th-century cannery operation. Preserved from original 35mm nitrate prints and undergoing full restoration in 2K, the film offers a rare visual record of American industrial and environmental history.

The Strait Guys

THE STRAIT GUYS follows Czech-born mining engineer, George, and his fast-talking protégé, Scott, along the proposed route of the InterContinental Railway through Alaska, to the Bering Strait and onward to Russia. The “Strait Guys” endeavor to convince international governments, corporations, and indigenous tribes to green-light their $100 billion railway project, which would provide ground-based infrastructure across the continents, relieve overcrowded Pacific ports, improve global supply chains, and ease tensions between the superpowers. The US and Russia have been successfully collaborating in space for decades. Now the Strait Guys are out to prove it is also possible down here on earth.

The Frozen North

For more than 30 years a man by the name of Dick Proenneke lived alone in the Alaskan Bush. His only neighbors were the wolves and grizzly bears and his only transportation was his canoe and a good set of legs. Through the years, Dick kept written journals of daily life at Twin Lakes but would also document much of his adventure on film with his 16 mms Bolex camera. The Frozen North is Dick's own filmed account of his life alone in this "One Man's Wilderness", produced from original footage not included in "Alone in the Wilderness" or "Alaska Silence & Solitude".

Werner We Love You

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.

Touring Alaska

This fascinating video captures the uniqueness of Alaska, from the wilderness of the great parks to the life of the people in the cities and countryside. Cruise up the Inside Passage and visit the colorful coastal towns of Southeastern Alaska. Explore Glacier Bay's tremendous fjords and glaciers. Ride the Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks and see Denali National Park (Mt. McKinley), the Matunukska Valley, and Anchorage. Travel to the remote Eskimo lands in the Far North. Other wonders of Alaska included are Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Skagway, Homer, Katmai National Park, Kotzebue, Gates of the Arctic National Park, the sternwheeler "Discovery", Alaskaland and Earthquake Park.

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

In the center of the story is the life of the indigenous people of the village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei in the Siberian Taiga. The camera follows the protagonists in the village over a period of a year. The natives, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, keep living their lives according to their own cultural traditions.

The River and the Wall

Five friends embark on a 1,200 mile journey along the US-Mexico border from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico to learn first hand what effect a border wall will have on the natural landscape and the wild animals roaming the land.

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Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story

Directed by award winning filmmaker Ben Masters, Deep in the Heart is a visually stunning celebration of Texas’ diverse landscapes and remarkable wildlife found nowhere else. Told through the eyes of wildlife species ranging from the mysterious blind catfish to the elusive mountain lion, the film follows our ever-changing relationship with the natural world and how we affect it. Narrated by beloved Texan, Matthew McConaughey, the film aims to safeguard our remaining wild places and to recognize the importance of Texas’ conservation on a continental scale.

Citadel

Dubbed ‘The Mountain God’, the Citadel is a stunning 3000m peak in one of the remaining untouched corners of the Great Alaskan Range: The Neacola Mountains. Due to their typically poor conditions and remote location are largely unexplored. Matt Helliker and Jon Bracey are one the UK's most formidable partnerships in alpine climbing with many world class ascents to their names from the UK to the Alps and the greater ranges. Their objective is to make the first ascent of the extraordinary 1200m long north-west ridge.

Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica

The Douglas Mawson Antarctic Expedition of 1912 is considered one of the most amazing feats of endurance of all time. Although his two companions perished, Douglas Mawson survived, but how? In a bold historical experiment, scientist and adventurer Tim Jarvis is retracing the gruelling experience, with the same meagre rations, primitive clothing and equipment to uncover what happened to Mawson physically — and mentally — as a man hanging on the precipice of life and death.

Midnight Kids

Utquiagvik is the northernmost city in Alaska, located 555 km beyond the Arctic Circle. This meditative documentary follows its young Inuit inhabitants, who explore the desolate snowy landscape under the midnight sun and transform their home into a vast playground full of melting glaciers and abandoned ships.