Only three people have seen the film Sacred Grizzly as it is set to make its debut Friday night in Smithers.
Local filmaker Monty Bassett is premiering the film at the Della Herman Theatre at 7:30 p.m. as part of a double documentary feature with Bassett’s Leo award-winning film Cliff Hangers, about Mt. Todagin and it’s Stone sheep.
Bassett said he wanted the world premiere in Smithers because so much of the talent behind the film is local: Dan Mesec was the main cameraman, Taylor Fox was editor, Lynnda McDougall is the production manager, and Roy Henry Vickers contributed the story and art for Raven Brings Daylight to the Planet.
Shannon McPhail from Kispiox and Wade Davis are interviewed in the documentary.
Sacred Grizzly is the last film of an award-winning series called Exotics (Not the Dancers) that examines how exotic habitats create exotic inhabitants, focusing on the volcano Mt. Edziza, Mt. Todagin and it’s Stone sheep, the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, and finally the Sacred Headwaters Basin.
Bassett describes Sacred Grizzly as the story of how the headwaters of three of Canada’s important west coast watersheds, all beginning within metres of each other, is dominion for North America’s biggest and likely most prolific grizzly bear.
Two years in the making, the film follows the grizzly of the Sacred Headwaters region to the coastal fjords, from the mountains of Spatsizi to the Kurzamateen, an area the size of England.
Tickets are $15 and available at Mountain Eagle Books and Interior Stationary.