Adventure filmmaker Dale Johnson will screen and discuss his travel documentary “Canada’s Incredible Parks” on Saturday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in King Concert Hall.
Tickets for “Canada’s Incredible Parks” will be available at the door. One child age 12 or younger will be admitted free with each adult ticket purchase. The final event in the 2005-2006 World Travel Series at Rockefeller Arts Center, “Canada’s Incredible Parks” is sponsored by The Waters of Westfield, The Waters of Dunkirk and The Waters of Eden.
Away from the major metropolitan areas, Canada can be as serene as legendary Green Gables at Prince Edward Island National Park or as savage as the wolves that roam Ellesmere Island. Canada is the second-largest nation in the world and, since 1887, has been home to an impressive system of national parks. There are now 39 Canadian national parks, representing the country’s wide range of climates, wildlife and landscapes.
“Canada’s Incredible Parks” visits 21 of the 39 parks and exposes both the beauty of nature and the stark reality of life in the wild
In one scene, Mr. Johnson captures breathtaking images of the ancient glacier-carved fjords of Gros Morne in western Newfoundland. Soon after, the audience watches as a red fox prowls at dawn in the harsh Cape Breton Highlands for prey to feed her pups.
Mr. Johnson is no stranger to rugged filmmaking. His most recent visits to SUNY Fredonia included screenings for his films “Grand Canyon” and “Norway: From The Land of Vikings,” productions that took him to deep into the Arizona desert and the arctic hinterlands of Scandinavia.
“The idea of a film about Canada’s park was suggested to me, and it was very easy to take that idea up because I have made so many nature films before,” said Mr. Johnson, former director of the outdoor television program “The Lone Star Sportsman.” “I had visited Canada’s parks many times in the past, and all in all, this project took us about two years to put together.”
“Canada’s Incredible Parks” proves this was a worthy investment. Audiences will enjoy the dichotomy of visits to a park like Kejimkujik – where one can contemplate the mysteries of life among the shimmering lakes and lavish forests of Nova Scotia – and Point Pelee, where 100,000 tourists gather each May to welcome the return of migrating birds to southern Ontario.
In Quebec’s La Mauricie National Park, Mr. Johnson shows his viewers an exposed rock. This hunk of stone happens to be part of the Canadian Shield, a massive geological formation that serves as the foundation for half of the country. Out west, Mr. Johnson marvels at the lush plant life of Pacific Rim National Park – a rainforest located on the British Columbian coast that the filmmaker describes as a “soft and inviting land.”
The World Travel Series will resume with a new season, new films and more visits from the filmmakers in Fall 2006.
