Bears on the Big Screen

The Brentwood Environmental Action Team organized a trip to Victoria just before Spring Break to see a showing of The Great Bear Rainforest which is an enlightening film that follows many animals in the last temperate rainforest. Since the film had many rave reviews, many other classes organized a second trip to the IMAX cinema for students or faculty that didn’t attend before Spring Break.  A Brentwood parent and the Executive Director of Pacific Wild, which is a wilderness and wildlife protection organization in British Columbia, wrote the book The Great Bear Rainforest which the IMAX film follows. Ian McAllister also spoke Brentwood TedX 2016 about the Great Bear Rainforest and about his conservation work within the organization, Pacific Wild. Mr McAllister also directed the film and continues to work to protect the Great Bear Rainforest as well as all of its furry residents.   The film follows a female spirit bear named Mox as well as many other types of bears to show their day-to-day lives and the impacts that humans and natural causes have on their habitats. Mox’s home is destroyed in a storm, forcing her to relocate to a new area with a stream that hasn’t been destroyed. It shows the decisions that bears, and other animals, make every day to survive.  The rainforest has been protected and cared for by the region’s indigenous peoples for millenia. They continue to study the animals within the forest and check up on Mox as she is a part of one of the rarest species of bears on earth.  The impact that humans have on the environment is discussed throughout the film. With rising river levels, it is more difficult for salmon to make it to their breeding areas in many rivers. This is particularly a problem because they are a main food source for bears. The Great Bear Rainforest needs to be protected as it is the last temperate rainforest and is considered one of the wildest places on earth in terms of animals and nature.  Hannah C, Alex ‘19