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Grin and bear it
Wonderful film tells the story of a gentle man with a noble mission
Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Edge of Eden: Living With Grizzlies tells the remarkable story of Charlie Russell. A native of Alberta, Russell rescues orphaned grizzly bear cubs from circuses in Russia. Every spring, he takes the cubs to the remote Kamchatka peninsula on the country’s east coast where some 400 grizzly bears live in a sanctuary.

Once in the wilderness, Russell begins teaching the cubs how to survive on their own. Initially wary because of how badly they’ve been treated by humans, the cubs quickly warm to Russell’s maternal treatment. On a set schedule, he feeds them a mixture of sunflower seeds and rolled oats that he’s developed over the course of 10 seasons raising grizzly cubs. He takes them on walks and teaches them how to catch fish. In a wonderful sequence, Russell shows them how to slide down a hillside covered in snow. Russell never treats the cubs as pets, although he scratches their ears and rubs their chests so that they get used to his touch. Russell knows there’s a line he can never cross: he always respects them as the wild and potentially dangerous animals that they are.

As the documentary follows a season with Russell, one remarkable incident after another keep happening. When two young bears arrive, Russell at first doesn’t recognize them. But he soon realizes that they’re Buck and Sky, the pair he raised the previous year. They’ve come back to Russell, the only mother they’ve ever known.
Because they’re a year older, they require more food — up to 20 kilograms a day of salmon. While out looking for fish one day, Russell leads them along the shoreline of a lake. Ahead of them is an older, adult male grizzly. Russell tries to teach the cubs to steer clear of adult males because some of them are so dangerous that they wouldn’t hesitate to kill and eat a cub.

“Get outta here, you old bugger!” Russell says. In what obviously is an extremely dangerous situation — facing an adult grizzly bear in the wild — Russell doesn’t start yelling or waving his arms. Instead, he speaks sternly and powerfully, projecting his own determination to protect his cubs.

The grizzly won’t yield, but Russell is prepared. Although he never goes out with a gun, he always carries pepper spray. When the bear lunges at the cubs, Russell sprays him and he retreats.

“No question that these animals are dangerous,” Russell says in the film. “The question I want to ask is: what makes them dangerous?”

In the past century, the documentary points out, 91 humans have been killed by grizzlies and another 597 seriously injured; during the same period, 200,000 grizzlies have been killed by humans. What’s driving grizzlies to the edge of extinction, Russell believes, is not their so-called unpredictability but our ignorance about what motivates them.

Directed by Jeff and Sue Turner, The Edge of Eden is a wonderful film on several levels. It works as a portrait of Russell, a gentle man who has dedicated his life to understanding grizzly bears. Not only does the film capture the beauty of the rugged landscape, it also portrays the grizzly bears as magnificent wild animals with their own distinct personalities.

The Edge of Eden opens the DOXA Documentary Film Festival this evening at 7:30 p.m. at Empire Granville 7 (at Robson). Russell along with the directors will be at the opening. More information is available at www.doxafestival.ca and 604-646-3200.

kgriffin@png.canwest.com
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© The Vancouver Sun 2007