In this feature documentary, husband-and-wife team Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison (Being Caribou), along with their 2-year-old son and dog, retrace the literary footsteps of Canadian writer Farley Mowat. They canoe east from Calgary towards the Prairies (the geography of Farley's Born Naked and Owls in the Family) and then traverse the same paths that Mowat took more than 60 years earlier in Never Cry Wolf and People of the Deer. Their epic 5,000 km journey—trekking, sailing, portaging and paddling—ends in the Maritimes, at Mowat's Nova Scotia summer home.
Ages 13 to 15
Study Guide - Guide 1
English Language Arts - CanLit
Family Studies/Home Economics - Feminism
Health/Personal Development - Careers & Education
Health/Personal Development - Substance Use and Abuse/Addiction
Social Studies - Social Policies and Programs
A warm-up to reading Mowat, depicting the beauty of the North and its habitat, accompanied by ethical questions about truth in storytelling. Activities: 1) Point of view in literature: students assume the point of view of one of the adventurers (wife, child, dog) or someone encountered, and imaginatively retell a film sequence; 2) Environment: students select an environmental issue suggested by the film, research and communicate it through story, drawing, video, letters or journalistic report.