Enewsletter

This fall, the worlds of birders, movie celebs and environmentalists will collide at a Toronto film festival, and Nature Canada is going to be in the middle of it all.

The 11th Annual Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival opens on Wednesday, October 13, with the Toronto premiere of Ron Mann's In the Wake of the Flood (Sphinx Productions). Nature Canada and its volunteers play a minor role in the film.

The film follows acclaimed Canadian author, birder and conservationist Margaret Atwood as she embarks on a world book tour for her novel, The Year of the Flood. The tour, unlike any before it, featured performances that were part book reading, part dramatic interpretation, and part hymnal singing, involving local choirs and actors performing inside churches.

Nature Canada joined Atwood for four stops on the Canadian leg of her tour, which were also fundraisers and awareness raising events for Nature Canada. Donations made at performances in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver went directly to support conservation work at Important Bird Areas throughout Canada.

Mann, director of Comic Book Confidential and Go Further, chronicled Atwood's journey from Edinburgh to London to New York and across Canada. Former Nature Canada board member, Anne Murray, has a fleeting glimpse at fame as she was filmed taking Atwood birdwatching along Vancouver's coast!

Nature Canada Executive Director Ian Davidson will brave the paparazzi to attend the premiere, as well as a special Nature Canada fundraising reception at which Atwood and her partner Graeme Gibson will receive Planet in Focus' Canadian Eco Hero Award.

Atwood and Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Club within BirdLife International, a global alliance of conservation organizations working together for the world's birds and people. As BirdLife in Canada, Nature Canada and Bird Studies Canada deliver the Important Bird Areas Program, which aims to identify, conserve and monitor a network of sites that provides essential habitat for bird populations.

On the tour, and in the film, Atwood cited bird conservation as a cause dear to her heart, and the members of BirdLife International as effective protectors of birds and their habitat.

A second Nature Canada fundraising event to promote the DVD release of the film is planned for December 2, so mark your calendars and we will keep you posted with details in the coming weeks.