With her high-spirited and highly engaging documentary, director Alison Reid invites viewers along for a journey they won’t soon forget. In 1957, two young Canadians named Robert Bateman and Bristol Foster set off in a Land Rover they nicknamed “the Grizzly Torque” for a 30,000-km trek spanning three continents. Along with cementing a lifelong friendship, their experiences and encounters while on the road helped instill the love of the natural world they would demonstrate in their careers to come: Bateman as Canada’s most renowned wildlife painter and Foster as a pioneering biologist and conservationist. Reid brings this true-life adventure story to the screen through her film’s lively mix of new interviews and fascinating archival material. 

This screening will be preceded by the short film SING FOR JOY: 23 YEARS OF OPEN VOICES (d. Timothy Gauthier). After 23 years in the Kingston, Ontario community, Open Voices Community Choir’s founding artistic director, Andy Rush, is set to retire. But not without a blowout concert, pulling out all the stops on vision, collaboration, musicality, hard work, and just plain fun. With guest artists David Francey, Peter Katz, Anna Sudac, and Blue Canoe Productions, and all 100+ Open Voices choir members, get behind the scenes of the gritty, grin-inducing, and heart-warming creation of an Open Voices concert. It will be sure to live up to the choir’s motto, “always fun, often quirky, and sometimes beautiful!”

Director: Alison Reid

Language: English

Runtime: 90 minutes

Content warning: nudity

Alison Reid, director

Alison Reid is an award winning filmmaker whose storytelling focuses on adventure and exploration of the human spirit. She began her career as a stunt performer and stunt coordinator accumulating over 350 stunt credits and is recognized as one of the first female stunt coordinators in North America. Her career evolved to directing episodic television and making her own passion projects – including THE WOMAN WHO LOVES GIRAFFES a feature documentary about pioneering giraffe scientist Anne Innis Dagg which is rated 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, won multiple awards, and was the opening night film at KCFF in 2019.