This film employs a multi-image technique to contrast scenes of natural grandeur--mountains, forests, and wildflowers filmed in Canada's national parks--with images of the polluted rivers and countryside that result from the heedless exploitation of the environment. Without words.
Ages 10 to 17
Geography - Environmental Issues
Geography - Human Geography
Media Education - Documentary Film
Social Studies - Environmental Challenges
"They say better times are coming," sings Mashmakan, but do the filmmakers believe it? What does this film say about our relationship to our surroundings? What do the sometimes unrelated images add up to? Have students explore some of the paired or contrasting images. What is conveyed? Discuss the closing poem by Thoreau. This could be an opportunity to explore Thoreau's utopian writings (Walden) and the concept of an idealized world.