Anyone feeling the call of the wild may find themselves entranced with the stories of Northlore. This thoughtful documentary is now streaming for free from the National Film Board of Canada fresh off its premiere on opening night of the Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse. The film directed by Melaina Sheldon and David Hamelin explores the connections between humans and non-human animals by drawing upon traditions of oral storytelling and harnessing our shared experiences with wildlife.
Adventurers gather around an animated fire and share stories about moments in which they interacted with animals in northern nature. The film mixes documentary elements—conventional interviews and vérité shots in the wild—with animated sequences that conjure the animal encounters. One story includes mountaineer Michael Code who saved a goose that was lost amid a snowstorm, while another sees Elisabeth Pilon and friends on a canoe expedition hunted and saved by a wolf, and Gary Sidney Johnson shares how his first moose hunt taught him to understand consent and respect among animals. Meanwhile, Melissa Matheson remembers a transformative moment from her youth when she took sick and her grandmother saved her with the help of an altruistic beaver, and Dennis Shorty recalls a tricky hunting episode that informed him how animals’ fears and emotions endure in the hides and furs they leave behind.
Northlore captures the unique draw of the wilderness, and brings to life the many emotions—fear, joy, bravery—shared by humans and animals alike.
