SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2004


The Explorers Club's 2004 Documentary Film Festival is a day-long celebration of the best in films on the subjects of Scientific Exploration, Field Research, Wildlife and Conservation.

The Explorers Club Documentary Film Festival represents a continuation and extension of the Club’s longstanding mission, as we seek to honor filmmakers who share our vision for, and commitment to, a healthier planet in the 21st century.

The Festival will be held at The Explorers Club's headquarters located at 46 East 70th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues in Manhattan. We will begin accepting reservations on January 12 and suggest that if you know any one who wishes to attend, that they secure their reservations early, as we expect to sell out rather quickly.

F e s t i v a l S c h e d u l e M o r n i n g S e s s i o n
9:00am–1:30pm

Special Jury Award Winners
SEARCH FOR THE FIRST DOG
Lloyd Fales, Bryan Cole, Tom Simon,
John Bowman, National Geographic Channel
USA

BODY JARS
Sue Clothier
Australia

THE TALE OF THE HARE AND THE SUN
Waltraud Paschinger, Franz Hafner
Austria

F e s t i v a l S c h e d u l e A f t e r n o o n S e s s i o n
1:30–5:00pm


Best Explorers Club Member Film
POLAR BEARS: LIFE ON THE FIELD OF BONES
Ralph C. Ellis
Canada

Best in Films in Wildlife & Conservation
TEMPEST FROM THE DEEP
Michael V. deGruy Mimi Armstrong deGruy for National Geographic
USA

Best in Short Films
CHINA BEAR RESCUE… THE BEGINNING
Libby Halliday
Honk Kong

F e s t i v a l S c h e d u l e E v e n i n g S e s s i o n
5:30–9:30pm

Best in Scientific Exploration & Best Photography
SAHARA: THE ENGLISH PATIENT'S DESERT
ORF Universum/ NHU Michael Schlamberger
Austria

Best in Festival & Best in Field Research
HEROES OF THE HIGH FRONTIERS
Tim Scoones Cathy McConnell
USA


Film Synopses

SEARCH FOR THE FIRST DOG
We have created more than 400 dog breeds. Yet, most of them are no more than 200 years old. What were the earliest dogs? When and how did they really evolve? Search For The First Dog travels to remote parts of the world to seek out isolated populations of free ranging dogs whose appearance and behavior suggests that they may be descendents of the first canines.

BODY JARS
Deep in the tropical jungle of Cambodia an incredible discovery has been made. Dozens of burial jars have been uncovered. Local legend says they contain the bones of ancient royalty. Are these the burial jars of the last rulers of Angkor Wat? Or are they evidence of a much earlier unknown civilization? Body Jars follows an elite team of forensic scientists and archeologists from America, France, and Singapore as they try to solve the mystery of these ancient treasures.

THE TALE OF THE HARE AND THE SUN
"There was a time the hares allied themselves with the sun, creating the world and the moon. Ever since that time the hares can hide in the sunlight and return from its rays"--an ancient Native American legend, but one with a real scientific background. This documentary unfolds the secret of the snowshoe hares in Canada’s Yukon Territory--an animal with very peculiar population dynamics connected to solar cycles. It’s through their legendary fertility rates that hares and rabbits are perfectly in tune with nature’s rhythms--as fascinating examples from all over the world show.

POLAR BEARS: LIFE ON THE FIELD OF BONES
Wrangel Island lies 90 miles north of Siberia on the edge of the permanent polar ice. This harsh, barren environment is the setting for some truly ground- breaking discoveries in the science of polar bear behavior. Nikita Ovsyanikov is the lead researcher on the study of the Wrangel Island bears. His years of close-encounter observation of this bear population contradicts what has previously been believed about the solitary nature of polar bears.

TEMPEST FROM THE DEEP
Every seven to ten years an "El Nino" hits the West cost of America with devastating fury. This one-hour film chronicles one of these events and in graphic detail follows El Nino’s destruction through the kelp forest and the creatures living within, as well as the total annihilation of the marine mammals of California’s Channel Islands.

CHINA BEAR RESCUE… THE BEGINNING
Animals Asia Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, first uncovered bear farming in 1993 and has worked tirelessly on the ground in China to bring an end to this horrendously cruel practice. China Bear Rescue… the Beginning, documents the poignant and uplifting story of the arrival, rehabilitation and miraculous recovery of the first group of beautiful bears to be nursed back to health by the dedicated Animals Asia team at their Chengdu Rescue Center.

SAHARA: THE ENGLISH PATIENT'S DESERT
The Sahara, one of the world’s most extreme, hostile regions, is the paragon of a desert. In 1933, Austrian adventurer Ladislaus Almasy discovered rock paintings in the very heart of the desert which showed a paradisiacal world populated by Africa’s big animals, with rivers, lakes, and bathing people. Award-winning Austrian documentarist Michael Schlamberger followed Almasy's trail in search of evidence from the most fascinating period of the Sahara’s natural history.

HEROES OF THE HIGH FRONTIERS
A hundred feet or more above the earth’s surface floats the last biological frontier--the rainforest canopy. Using innovative technology, from mountain-climbing gear to hot air balloons, courageous canopy researchers brave dizzying heights to explore this previously unknown and incredibly complex web of life.