Volume 1 Number 8
August 4, 1995

Great Northern Forest.
Karvonen Films/National Film Board of Canada, 1994.
VHS, 48 minutes, $26.95. Closed-Captioned.
Distributed by the NFB, P.O. Box 6100, Station Centre-Ville, Montreal, PQ, H3C 3H5
Fax: (514) 496-2573/ Phone: 1-800-267-7710

Review by Lorrie Andersen.

The Great Northern Forest is a 48-minute production examining the flora, fauna, and majesty of the boreal forest. In spectacular photography, the video follows the activity in the forest through the four seasons. Spruce, fir, pine, aspen, and birch trees grow in this northern region and make a home the beaver, loon, bear, moose, timber wolf, and many other animals and birds. The photography is superb; particularly outstanding are the underwater sequences showing the beaver kits at home with their parents in the beaver lodge.

This beautiful wilderness is depicted through the changing seasons, but the film-maker reminds the viewers at the end of this visual treat that the glorious richness and diversity of this landscape is under threat -- threat from environmental damage as a result of human mining and industrial pursuits. The film-maker devotes no more than three or four minutes to this urgent message, but it's a message that viewers feel keenly nonetheless.

The Great Northern Forest could be compared favourably to another award-winner, the Manitoba production Spirit Sands (Whiteway Films, 1993), which examines the natural history of the glacial-laid sand dunes in a little-known area of Manitoba.