Some of the most amazing and adorable footage of polar bears can be seen in the new U.S. Emmy-nominated and Canadian Emmy-winning “Polar Bears 3D: Ice Bear” (Universal, $26.98).
Much of it is in the simultaneously charming and disturbingly informative movie itself, and the rest is included in the deleted and behind-the-scenes bonus features.
Filmmaker Adam Ravetch, an award-winning documentary cinematographer, filmmaker, SCUBA diver, and Long Form Marine naturalist, spent a year in the Canadian arctic waters and on rugged land masses where temperatures dropped as low as -38-degrees Farenheit. His story chronicles the sad struggles of Hudson Bay polar bears who are suffering through summers that are increasing in duration, leaving them without enough winter time and frozen land masses to gobble up enough seals to create enough body fat to survive the summers.
Ravetch captures incredible footage while chronicling the desperate efforts of the bears, mostly a teenage male, to survive by scaling nearly-shear rock walls of 800-feet just to grab a couple bird eggs, swimming non-stop 24/7 for 250 km and navigating only by the sun/stars in hopes of finding scraps of food, only to endure temperatures of as high as 86 degrees while being eaten alive by bugs, and charging head-long into a nest of walruses in hopes of grabbing a baby walrus.
It’s a sobering portrait that Ravetch clearly hopes will provoke viewers to wake up to the effects of climate change and the impact on these bears.
But along the way the viewer enjoys the wonder and awe of the bears and the environment, with stagerring images and stunning moments captured on film, including a walrus swimming underwater and reaching out with its fins to cradle its baby. So many shots leave the viewer wondering how in the world Ravetch managed to capture them.
Most of the secrets are revealed in the behind-the-scenes footage, where Ravetch demonstrates his use of small remote-controlled helicopter/drones and Mars rover-like carts to carry cameras where he couldn’t go. He also shows himself in a small boat just a few feet away from the polar bear while tracking its 250 km swim for life.
The deleted scenes include a lengthy shot that will melt your heart of a mother lying on the snow with her two cubs who are rambunctious but unwilling to leave the safety of their mother’s back and head while puzzling over the camera and person operating the camera just a few yards away. Equally adorably fun are shots of an adult pawing at and chasing down the remote controlled camera cart like a cat playing with a ball of yarn.
Adam Ravetch at work with walruses.Ravtech formed the non-profit Arctic Bear Productions in 1996 and is the founder of Arctic Exploration Fund created in 2005 to generate tax-deductible donations to fund new technology that will allow filmmakers to better chronicle how wildlife adapts to a new and warming environment without having to be near the animals. (310-633-4984 or e-mail adamravetch@mac.com or sarahrobertson@mac.com)
— By Scott Hettrick