''Bear 71'' is a 20-minute 2012 interactive

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

(NFB) web documentary by Leanne Allison and Jeremy Mendes about a female

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada, Canada's first National Parks of Canada, national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous ter ...

named Bear 71, who had a tracking collar implanted at the age of three and was watched via

trail camera A remote camera, also known as a trail camera or game camera, is a camera placed by a photographer in areas where the photographer generally cannot be at the camera to snap the shutter. This includes areas with limited access, tight spaces where ...

s in the park from 2001 to 2009. The documentary follows the bear, exploring the connections between the human and animal world, and the far-ranging effects that human settlements, roads and railways have on wildlife.

Production

Through the work of Leanne Allison's husband and film collaborator Karston Heuer ('' Being Caribou'', '' Finding Farley''), a

park ranger A ranger, park ranger, park warden, field ranger, or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands and Protected area, protected areas – private, national, state, provincial, or local parks. Their duties include ( ...

at Banff, Allison was aware of thousands of hours of wildlife footage captured on remote trail cameras in the park. After obtaining permission from researchers, including

Parks Canada Parks Canada ()Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 37 National Parks, three National Marine Co ...

, Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation, and

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana, United States. It enrolls more students than any other college or university in the state. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's d ...

, she spent months sifting through these low-res images. Allison originally pitched the idea to the NFB as a traditional documentary. Rob McLaughlin, then head of the NFB's digital studio in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, suggested an interactive project. The story was written by J.B. MacKinnon, co-author of the '' 100 Mile Diet''. The bear is voiced by Mia Kirshner. The two co-directors were

remote work Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of work (human activity), working at or from one's home or Third place, another space rather than from ...

ers: Allison was based in

Canmore, Alberta Canmore is a List of towns in Alberta, town in Alberta, Canada, located approximately west of Calgary near the southeast boundary of Banff National Park. It is located in the Bow Valley within Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains. The to ...

and Mendes was based in Vancouver. The website was designed by Toronto-based digital design firm Jam3. The film had a budget of $350,000.

Release

''Bear 71'' went live on the NFB website on January 19, 2012. It was also the subject of an

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

exhibit at the

2012 Sundance Film Festival The 2012 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 until January 29, 2012 in Park City, Utah. 64 short films were selected for the festival from 7,675 submissions, including 27 international shorts from 3,592 submissions. Non-competitio ...

's New Frontier program beginning January 20, and at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art or via webcam through the documentary’s website. The webdoc features a map of Banff National Park that allows users to follow Bear 71's movements by scrolling over the cameras, and look at other users by activating the computer's webcam. In April 2012, DOXA Documentary Film Festival opened its 2012 season with a public showing of the film at St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church, with a live musical accompaniment by

Tim Hecker Tim Hecker is a Canadian electronic musician, producer, composer, and sound artist. His work, spanning albums such as '' Harmony in Ultraviolet'' (2006), '' Ravedeath, 1972'' (2011) and '' Virgins'' (2013), has been widely critically acclaimed. ...

, Loscil, and Heather McIntosh. In March 2017, the film was re-released as a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

work, viewable on Google Daydream and

Google Cardboard Google Cardboard is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and developm ...

Awards

In June 2012, Jam3 received a Gold Cyber Lion Award the

Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

in the category of Charities, Public Health & Safety and Public Awareness Messages, for its work on ''Bear 71''. Also in June 2012, Sheffield Doc/Fest awarded Bear 71 the Sheffield Innovation Award sponsored by

BT Vision EE TV (formerly BT Vision and then BT TV until 2023) is a subscription IPTV service offered by EE; a brand of British telecommunications company BT Group. It requires the signing up to and use of the EE Broadband internet and phone service, w ...

. In December 2012, ''Bear 71'' was named the best non-fiction web series at the Digi Awards (formerly Canadian New Media Awards). On January 15, 2013, ''Bear 71'' was named Site of the Year for 2012 by the Favourite Website Awards. On April 30, 2013, ''Bear 71'' received the

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

for best internet art. The film also received Webby nominations for best public service & activism video, best use of interactive video and best green website.

References

External links

* * * {{NFB interactive works 2012 films Banff National Park Films about bears Individual animals in Canada Individual grizzly bears Individual wild animals National Film Board of Canada web documentaries Canadian virtual reality films Webby Award winners 2010s Canadian films

Production

Release

Awards

See also

References

External links