Film Info6 minutes
New West Studios Available for Free AND Ticketed Events! Synopsis: When Professor Diana Six, from the University of Montana, enters the forest, she is on a mission to crack the genetic code of the pine tree. She's driven to understand the trees, the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and their relationship with our forests. Hear about what this beetle--recently responsible for the largest insect outbreak in recorded history--can tells us about the future of our forests and climate. Action ItemsFilmmaker Q&A● What inspired this story?
Professor Diana Six has dedicated her life to decoding the scientific mysteries of the forests, trees, and wildlife around her. Her unique character and her desire to understand the effects of climate change inspired this short film. In making the film, we tried to capture her unstoppable passion for uncovering the mysteries hidden in the complex interactions between the mountain pine beetle and the pine trees of North America. |
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● Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
This film was produced during the International Wildlife Film Festival (IWFF) Labs filmmaker fellowship program. We were given a total of 3 days of production time, start to finish. This included story development, pre-interviews and interviews, traveling 4 hours round trip to Professor Six’s research forest, capturing drone footage and b-roll in the lab and in the field, and collection of archival media.
In order to meet this deadline we did all-night and all-day shifts for the final edit. The first team spent all night working on the edit, and the second team took over at 5AM. After a rough-cut review with the IWFF team, we received some great feedback, but soon realized we would have to re-edit the entire film, with only 24 hours remaining before screening. The time constraint was a challenge, but also pushed us to pour everything we had into creating something we would be proud to screen for Professor Six and festival attendees.
● How do you approach science storytelling?
We took a human-centered approach. We knew that if we wanted to communicate the science, we had to tell Professor Six’s story as well. Our approach was intentionally unbiased and scientific. We recognized that a key aspect of the story was to remove blame for the destruction of these forests from the mountain pine beetle and place it instead on the root cause of the problem, which is that climate change is creating optimal conditions for the beetle to spread. We also wanted the viewer to look at the forest from a different perspective, as Professor Six is attempting to understand how individual trees show different levels of resilience to pine beetle infestation. Professor Six’s words urging us to look at the forest not as a field of trees, but as a forest of faces, gracefully captured the story we wanted to tell.
● What impact do you hope this film will have?
We hope that the viewer will gain insight into the elusive beetle that is at the center of the largest insect outbreak in recorded history. We also hope viewers will learn that there may be genetic traits that help resist beetle attack. The science isn’t conclusive, but it is worth understanding and following.
● Were there any surprising or meaningful moments/experiences you want to share?
BEARTREK became an important part of life for our small team. To the extent that the team has become more like a family. The film was made over a period of nine years, and it triggered so many good things that the story got better as we went along. We’re glad to jumped right in, but we had no idea what would become possible. The friends we’ve made, and the good things BEARTREK has been able to support. We would encourage anyone to dive in and start - even if you don’t have a fully fleshed out plan! You never know where it might lead you :)
● What next?
We hope that this film helps highlight the importance of Professor Six’s work, and that it may help her promote the continuation of her research well into the future. This is an issue that is critical to the health of North American forests, and we hope this work continues to be funded and showcased. As a film collective, we plan to continue working on film projects surrounding human-nature issues.
This film was produced during the International Wildlife Film Festival (IWFF) Labs filmmaker fellowship program. We were given a total of 3 days of production time, start to finish. This included story development, pre-interviews and interviews, traveling 4 hours round trip to Professor Six’s research forest, capturing drone footage and b-roll in the lab and in the field, and collection of archival media.
In order to meet this deadline we did all-night and all-day shifts for the final edit. The first team spent all night working on the edit, and the second team took over at 5AM. After a rough-cut review with the IWFF team, we received some great feedback, but soon realized we would have to re-edit the entire film, with only 24 hours remaining before screening. The time constraint was a challenge, but also pushed us to pour everything we had into creating something we would be proud to screen for Professor Six and festival attendees.
● How do you approach science storytelling?
We took a human-centered approach. We knew that if we wanted to communicate the science, we had to tell Professor Six’s story as well. Our approach was intentionally unbiased and scientific. We recognized that a key aspect of the story was to remove blame for the destruction of these forests from the mountain pine beetle and place it instead on the root cause of the problem, which is that climate change is creating optimal conditions for the beetle to spread. We also wanted the viewer to look at the forest from a different perspective, as Professor Six is attempting to understand how individual trees show different levels of resilience to pine beetle infestation. Professor Six’s words urging us to look at the forest not as a field of trees, but as a forest of faces, gracefully captured the story we wanted to tell.
● What impact do you hope this film will have?
We hope that the viewer will gain insight into the elusive beetle that is at the center of the largest insect outbreak in recorded history. We also hope viewers will learn that there may be genetic traits that help resist beetle attack. The science isn’t conclusive, but it is worth understanding and following.
● Were there any surprising or meaningful moments/experiences you want to share?
BEARTREK became an important part of life for our small team. To the extent that the team has become more like a family. The film was made over a period of nine years, and it triggered so many good things that the story got better as we went along. We’re glad to jumped right in, but we had no idea what would become possible. The friends we’ve made, and the good things BEARTREK has been able to support. We would encourage anyone to dive in and start - even if you don’t have a fully fleshed out plan! You never know where it might lead you :)
● What next?
We hope that this film helps highlight the importance of Professor Six’s work, and that it may help her promote the continuation of her research well into the future. This is an issue that is critical to the health of North American forests, and we hope this work continues to be funded and showcased. As a film collective, we plan to continue working on film projects surrounding human-nature issues.
