A Whale of a Tale

In an increasingly urban nation, Canada’s national parks are a treasured escape into extraordinary beauty and rugged wilderness. If the Group of Seven were an introduction to the landscape’s majesty, National Parks Project is the next logical chapter. Fifty-two contemporary artists from across the country, whose talents are as diverse as the parks they set out to explore, used their surroundings as a source of inspiration to blend musical and cinematic skills into collaboratively crafted vignettes. Epic in its ambition to celebrate these locales during Parks Canada’s centennial year, this omnibus film resonates with the knowledge that our unprotected land is more vulnerable than ever. Including films by Zacharius Kunuk, Peter Lynch, Sturla Gunnarsson and John Walker, and music by Sarah Harmer, Sam Roberts, Cadence Weapon and The Besnard Lakes, among many others, National Parks Project is a one-of-a-kind documentary experience.

Documentary on the work of Steve Mann, Univeristy of Toronto Associate Professor in Computer and Electrical Engineering, who wears computers to collect and process the images he sees. He encounters misunderstanding from peers and opposition from business owners who refuse cameras into their places of business.

Using a robotic chair as the axis of entwined stories tied to the theme of suspension, Lynch and Dean explore autobiography in this challenging and complex work.

A man claims to have found a dinosaur skeleton in a vacant lot next to his apartment building.

An ex-cop whose marriage is on the rocks hides surveillance cameras in her home and watches her husbands transgressions, becoming a voyeur of her own life.

A plan to herd reindeer across Alaska to aid Canadian Inuit gets bogged down in logistical difficulties and personal baggage.

Documentary about the lifelong project of Troy Hurtubise, a man who has been obsessed with researching the Canadian grizzly bear up close, ever since surviving an early encounter with such a bear. The film documents Hurtubise's diligent work to improve his homemade "grizzly-proof" suit of armour, his efforts to test its resilience, and his forays into the Rockies to track down the grizzlies he dreams of meeting. The film manages to capture the humor of the project as well as its sincerity.