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Documentary Films

Trailwood Films & Media has produced documents from many parts of the world. Review our work below and contact us with any questions or comments.

A land mamal that survives in the water.

A land mamal that survives in the water.

CANADA’S NATIONAL PARKS

Canada. This colossus of land spans six time zones. It was once a dramatic land...bounded by three seas and the sky...a land that never sleeps. The drama is still played out in isolated pockets.

Canada’s National Parks are a gateway to a wilderness experience for millions of people, where the tingling arousal of danger can still be felt. Wild creatures unify the land...without them it would only be dead scenery.

The fresh morning of exploration began with the voyagers...and now the Parks keep alive small fragments of what they saw. The primal rhythms still pulse across the land...sometimes wild...sometimes serene...always splendid!

Three hundred years ago, the steady beat of stocky Frenchmen, called voyagers, would dispel much of the mystery. They would turn their faces west and paddle across this northern continent...in search of furs. They rode the watery veins and arteries of the land--to open its secrets to the trappers and traders who would follow. The voyagers would touch many of the areas now set aside as National Parks.

“Canada’s National Parks” will take us through 21 Canadian Parks from East to West. Starting with L’Anse aux Meadows Park in Newfoundland, where Vikings waded ashore a thousand years ago. We explore the forested Parks of central Canada to the stunning mountains of the West. Included are Gros Morne, Cape Breton Highlands, Kejimkujik, Prince Edward Island, Kouchibouquac, Fundy, La Mauricie, Point Pelee, Ellesmere Island, Grasslands, Riding Mountain, Waterton Lakes, Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, Yoho, Wood Buffalo, Nahanni, Pacific Rim and Kluane...majestic and resplendent.

Today people come from crowded cities, to get back to the roots of our collective memories. The commonplace is left behind in this land that too few see. In this program we explore the natural heart...the true spirit...of Canada’s National Parks!

A spectacular wild land !

History emerges from jungle !

America’s Grand Canyon

Out of the somber gray limbo that fills the screen, a mountain appears near the bottom of the screen through the mists. Anywhere else in the world this would be considered a mountain. Here, it is only a small peak in The Canyon

Using B&W stills, Major Powell’s 1869 expedition down the Colorado River and it’s historical significance will be highlighted. Continuing to use B&W, we take a look at the Kolb brothers who explored and publicized the Canyon extensively during the early part of the 20th Century. They were instrumental in the creation of Grand Canyon National Park because of the public awareness generated by their writings and pictures.

The arrival of spring has sent flowers pulsing into full bloom. Mule deer browse in the forests on the rims of the Canyon and fawns cavort with each other and nurse their mothers. On the North Rim the Kaibab squirrel, rarest squirrel in North America, displays his white tail, searches for pine cones.

On the edge of the Canyon cicadas buzz in the morning air and canyon lizards pick up ants. Suddenly the lizard lunges for the cicada. The cicada makes a narrow escape, only to be plucked up and eaten by a huge raven who has just landed under the tree. The raven pauses on the lip of the Canyon, then launches himself out over the abyss. From the raven’s point of view, we soar over the various formations within the Canyon

Now clouds begin to coalesce in the sky; building; growing. The sky darkens, lightening flashes and crashes. A chipmunk darts into a hollow log. A horned lizard scurries to avoid the downpour. In the distant desert it’s not even raining, but a wall of muddy water rushes down a dry riverbed. Flashflood!

Nightfall and the clearing sky allows us to see the full moon rising through pine trees as a chorus of frogs and crickets make the air vibrate with what seems a “joyful noise”.

Morning finds us now at the western end of the Grand Canyon, near Toroweep. A remote, little visited area - - unknown to most. Depressions form tiny ponds here after the rains. But, magically it seems, there is life here. Tadpoles and shrimp have appeared in these ponds from nowhere.

On the plateau the endangered desert tortoise encounters a tarantula. The huge tortoise seems intimidated by the tarantula, and clumsily puts himself into reverse, trying to avoid the hairy insect. A bit panicked, the tortoise bites the spider, first on the leg, then on his large abdomen, whereupon the tarantula takes refuge in a clump of grass, subdued.

As the morning sky lightens, wranglers saddle mules. Now tourists are helped up on their mules after a speech from the head wrangler. Ponderously the ride gets underway. Down through the ponderosa pines and into the very bowels of the Canyon. The riders are nervous, the mules bored.

In another part of the Canyon a lone hiker explores. Coming to the end of the trail, he looks over the ledge at a 500 foot drop. Below that is another 1,000 foot sheer wall. The camera pulls back to show the stupendous immensity of the Canyon as the hiker recedes and vanishes into a speck on the Canyon wall…looking like an insect.

These same trails have been used for thousands of years. The Anasasi, the “ancient ones. If you linger in these quiet places, you may fancy that you can even see their ghosts. There are over 2,000 sites where they left buildings or petroglyphs, the figures carved on rock faces.

At Lee’s Ferry on the Colorado the Canyon walls loom overhead, and the rapids make each runner feel he has reclaimed the spirit of Major Powell...the spirit of adventure.

These formations stand like timeless castles. They are, in fact, not timeless. This awesome, gorgeous splendor is only a passing moment in Earth’s history. The days spin by. They have circled over these rock formations billions upon billions of times. Ultimately the Grand Canyon may end as it began, cut down by the very forces that created it, to a flat, level plain once again.

You haven't seen it like this !

For children three to ninety-three

For children three to ninety-three

It still has Wilderness

It still has Wilderness

World class historic sites.

World class historic sites.

A colossal, modern, Country!

A colossal, modern, Country!

Still a historical impact on the World!

Still a historical impact on the World!

He's the dominant predator !

He's the dominant predator !

A frolicking, casual critter !

A frolicking, casual critter !

It really is the GREEN Isle !

It really is the GREEN Isle !

Some of the stories are even true!

Some of the stories are even true!

A young boy's one day adventure!

A young boy's one day adventure!

The Bibical sites, and much more!

The Bibical sites, and much more!

World class historic sties!

World class historic sties!

A year on the Arctic coast of Alaska!

A year on the Arctic coast of Alaska!

An important Country, though small !

An important Country, though small !

Land of my Ancestors !

Land of my Ancestors !

The glaciers speak

The glaciers speak

Trumpeter swans are coming home !

Trumpeter swans are coming home !

The adventure is still here!

The adventure is still here!

A mother and daughter !

A mother and daughter !

They're still here.

They're still here.

The Islands of Eden!

The Islands of Eden!

Some of it is still wild !

Some of it is still wild !

Three award winning films!

Three award winning films!

The great fires actually were a benefit !

The great fires actually were a benefit !

It's still big...and surprising!

It's still big...and surprising!

Wildlife among the thermals!

Wildlife among the thermals!

A National treasure!

A National treasure!

<strong>ALCAN - ADVENTURE ROAD TO ALASKA

In 1941, a roadless wilderness lay unbroken for 1500 miles between Alberta in Canada and Fairbanks Alaska. A Japanese attack on Alaska seeming eminent, the Canadian and American Governments felt compelled to build an emergency highway to Alaska in the summer of 1942. Rare film footage from that year allows us to witness that struggle - ripping out a ribbon of road from some of the wildest forests of the North American continent. We join men and machines as they tear, bulldoze, plow down and grade the earth to create a 1500 mile path of highway completed in a mere 8 months - a military Olympiad to rival any other in history.

Set to the urgency of WWII happenings in Europe and Pearl Harbor and the voice of Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaiming it “A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY.”

What was built to serve as a temporary military access to a strategic geographic location was opened to the public in 1949. The highway saw its share of strange sights in the 1950’s, and we share in the reminisces and nostalgia of those early civilian adventurers - an early hunting expedition with packhorses, camp fires and exquisite vistas, washed out sections of road and delays to tame the shifting roadbed.

Today the road is still of major importance to thousands. Though paved and much straighter, the Alcan Highway still provides adventure to those venturing to the northern wilderness of Western Canada and Alaska It’s still a lifeline to the hardy souls that depend on it for livelihood and even survival.

Starting at Mile Zero in Dawson Creek there are the highway’s residents, loggers, dall sheep, porcupine, water fowl and fox, amid ever-changing scenes and seasons.

Jade colored Muncho Lake, is surrounded by impressive geological formations of Folded Mountain that tower above the road. Tectonic deformations with a unique folded shape dominate the view. Nearby is Liard River and Liard Hotsprings offering the traveler a warm bath, even in winter.

At Watson Lake the Sign Post Forest has grown to over 10,000 names of Cities, States and places since being started by a lonely soldier back in 1942. Wondering through, we watch the addition of a new hometown sign going up, and even one sign being read by a moose!

Down the road lies the worlds smallest desert. A real desert in northern Canada, and virtually unknown to almost all visitors.

Still a part of traveling the ALCAN Highway, road crews have to maintain the roadbed, so delays are still part of the travel experience. But this is mostly done so that traffic is not delayed.

The poetry of perhaps the Yukon’s best known pen, Robert Service is performed by Tom Byrnes, a Scottish actor who each summer lives in the old Service cabin and reenacts the life of the author of “The Ballad of Sam McGee” and “The Shooting of Dan McGrew”.

Arriving at White Horse, we’re just in time for the Sour Dough Reunion. It’s a midwinter celebration in the streets with contests, races and general craziness of cabin fever released. Another kind of craziness hit this area in 1898 - the race for gold! We return to those days and times, reliving the struggle as prospectors climbed the treacherous ice covered rocks of Chilcoot Pass, carrying 2,000 lbs of supples on their way to the Yukon gold fields - and Dawson City - mecca for thousands who gambled everything they had, including their lives, hoping to strike it rich. We can relive those days through rare photos of the time, and explore the town today, still with dirt streets, gambling halls and 100 year old buildings. A local grocer here shows off his Yukon farm where precious fresh food is grown to generous sizes.

Remembering the early trappers who played a important part of Yukon life in the past, a modern day trapper allows us to join him on his dog sled for a run of his trap lines through the snow. He doesn’t use a compass, even in the night. He knows that the dogs will take him home.

Farther up the road otters romp in winter, spring flowers appear, rose hips are gathered for tea, and giant machines are still straightening the highway. Near Klucksho Village, an isolated salmon fishing camp used by the Tuchone Indians for over 400 years, a Tuchone family gaff salmon in an isolated stream…collecting their winter food supply.

Up the road a gigantic log house is being erected - all in one day. The huge logs are fitted together like some giant tinker toy project.

On the border with Alaska, the ice fields and glaciers of Kluani National Park are a special wonder. Mt. Logan is found here, Canada’s highest mountain. And Lowell Glacier too, where ice cliffs sheer off into the water hundreds of feet below, in a process called calving. The wildlife that not many visitors experience are captured in this film - birds, foxes, otters, and dall sheep rams, banging horns together in their ritual of rutting.

Crossing the border, the wonders of Alaska too, open along the highway. For life here in the mountains and valleys there no boundaries. Especially for the romping dall sheep lambs, displaying the joy of new life on the steep mountian sides.

Our journey ends at milepost 1500 - Fairbanks, Alaska, and we visit one of the States most modern cities. It may signal the stop of the Alcan, a monument to the men who built it in such a short time span and those who travel it today.

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Twelve hundred miles to Alaska !

He was top dog. But no more.

He was top dog. But no more.

An audio tour of Yellowstone!

An audio tour of Yellowstone!

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