The International Wildlife Film Festival - 2012 - Missoula,MT.

THE 35^TH INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE FILM FESTIVAL –

Overcoming geographical boundaries

BY Apoorva Joshi

In a world where video games and PlayStations are toppers on the list of things that juvenile heirs of well-off families enjoy most, the natural world is rapidly turning into a Narnia-like experience. 


Except in Montana.

Some 35 years ago, a group of wildlife biologists and their students, along with an executive producer of The Nature Of Things, pulled off the first wildlife film festival in the world. The idea was hatched and nurtured on the grounds of The University of Montana in Missoula, MT.

“The point was to bring together a whole collection of spectacular visuals from across the world,” Janet Rose, executive director of the International Wildlife Media Center and Film Festivals, said. 

“It’s a feast for the eyes, the ears, and the mind. These are films about places which most people won’t end up going to, species they won’t get a chance to see in the wild." 

Talking about films like Broken Tail – voted best film of the festival in 2012 – Rose emphasized the potential for a top notch film like this one to influence an audience longitudes away from where it was filmed.

Based on the journey of director Colin Stafford-Johnson, Broken Tail was filmed in the dry wilderness of northwestern India’s Ranthambhore national park. Broken Tail, the ‘protagonist’, was one of India’s and the world’s most famous wild tigers. Named for his tail, which looked as though it were broken because of the way it suddenly curved upwards, he suddenly disappeared from Ranthambhore and managed to survive for a year in rural Rajasthan – a northwestern state in India.

“ This film just had it all. A great story, phenomenal cinematography, and a script that tugs at your heart’s strings,” Rose said. “Tigers are globally recognized and they are just so charismatic. Stories like these that have a human component to them really resonate with people more than films that are just hard science. India has done such an amazing job in engaging local people to participate in tiger conservation,” she said.

Speaking of India, among the winners this year, voted as one of the best television series films, is Secrets of Wild India – Elephant Kingdom. Second of a three-part series, Elephant Kingdom was filmed in the dense forests of northeastern India that share borders with Bhutan, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar.

Back in 2010, Bristol, U.K., was the birthplace of the idea for this film. Members of National Geographic Wild and the producers and team of Icon Films met to discuss the rough idea for filming in the lush but difficult terrain of northeastern India.

“The main idea was to create a lovely, pure, highly visual naturalistic documentary which could pictorially bring out the uniqueness of India’s wildlife and its epic animals,” Sandesh Kadur, principal cinematographer for Elephant Kingdom, said.

Kadur has worked extensively in the region, and his deep knowledge of the area and its wildlife were a definite advantage for the team.

“The specifications just evolved along with the story and with what the animals were doing at the time,” he said.

With the number of films entered in the competitive festival rising each year, Janet Rose highlighted their educational and inspirational value.

“The filmmakers get to see how the audience reacts to their film and the audience gets an intimate, personal experience even though they might be in a crowd of a thousand people,” Rose said. “Many of these films have never been seen before and may never be seen again if they don’t make it to television.”

A COMPLETE LIST OF THE 2012 IWFF AWARD WINNING FILMS CAN BE FOUND HERE