People Love Turtles, a locally filmed and produced documentary about the endangered Western painted turtle, has won the People’s Choice Award at BC SPCA’s 2012 Paws and Claws Film Festival.
The 20-minute film was written by Terry L. Brown and directed by Jude Abrams. They both filmed it. Brown and Abrams co-own Otter Be Good Productions, a Powell River-based film production company that specializes in “playful nature educational videos designed to inspire a deep love for all the amazing life forms with whom we share planet Earth,” reads the festival’s submissions guide.
BC SPCA showed the film online and had an afternoon showing of all the films in the festival.
“It got a lot of support online,” said Brown, acknowledging that social media and email networks helped.
The video is published on the Otter Be Good Productions website and has received 322 views as of a couple of days ago. “It’s not thousands or millions, but for us it is 322 more people that wouldn’t have watched if we hadn’t entered it in the contest,” said Brown. “We’re quite pleased that the turtles are getting known by more people.”
Most people don’t know that there are Western painted turtles on the coast, said Abrams.“They can, and do, live with us in the urban environment,” she said. “But in order for these endangered turtles to thrive, humans need to help.”
Biologists confirmed the northern-most sighting of a Western painted turtle on the coast after Joseph McLean of Second Flux Information Services took a photo of a painted turtle on Dogleg Pond near Little Sliammon lake.
“We’re at the northern limit of their range,” said Brown.
The Western painted turtle is named after the bright yellow stripes on its head, neck, tail and legs, and the red on its underside shell.
“It shows how important local knowledge is,” said Abrams. “We’d like to know if the Tla’amin [(Sliammon) First Nation] have any stories about the painted turtles.”
Brown and Abrams’ turtle film began when they heard about local turtle sightings while they were working on a film about the stickleback fish of Texada Island.
The filmmakers hope that viewers take away more than just a story about the turtle.
“People are used to the drama of nature videos,” said Abrams. “Our mission is to get families outside interacting with each other and really developing their awareness.”
The filmmakers want to encourage people to go outside and “find the dramas outside your door.” But they warn that it takes skills of patience and awareness to be able to see the dramas. “It’s not like nature videos that have had time compressed,” said Brown.
Brown and Abrams estimate that for every one minute of produced video, they spent about 20 hours on taping and editing.
Biologist Aimee Mitchell, who has worked with the filmmakers, travelled to Victoria to accept the prize at the SPCA dinner auction on November 3. Mitchell and her colleague Vanessa Kilburn created a turtle nesting area at Cranberry Lake in 2010 with the City of Powell River’s parks, recreation and culture department’s assistance.
Brown and Abrams are asking the public to call them at 604.487.0168 if anyone has a turtle sighting. The film can be seen on the Otter Be Good Production’s website.
