Being Caribou - 6

This is a documentary made by newlyweds Leanne Allison and Karsten Heuer. They decided to try to make the journey that caribou in northern Alaska make every year. The film has both a naturalist and political perspective as it chronicles the migration of caribou to the shores of Northern Alaska to get away from the bugs inland for calving season. It is also a project to try to dissuade oil companies from starting drilling projects there. The film is informative about a part of creation that I had known little about. It also falls victim to trying to connect nature up with spirituality in order to search for a greater meaning to the world. The film ends rather cynically as Leanne and Karsten are unable to feel like they have been effective in changing the political process or legislation concerning the caribou.
The film is similar to March of the Penguins and Grizzly Man, although each of these films has its own approach to the meaning of nature and humans relationship to it.