Photos courtesy of Archipelago Films
A field mouse scurries across the kitchen floor. Birds perch on tree branches just outside the house. Raccoons amble by the driveway, and frogs creep across the windows. The film Backyard Wilderness reminds us that wild animals are often close by—feeding, mating, hunting, taking care of their young—and sometimes in plain view, if we humans just take the time to notice.
While Katie is composing her report indoors, viewers witness the world outside bursting to life after the long winter. Thanks to time-lapse photography, we see plants push up from the ground, leaves unfurl, and flowers blossom. Newly formed vernal pools teem with life.
As she gradually tunes into the world beyond her doorstep, Katie undergoes her own awakening. “I can’t believe I never really noticed nature’s drama going on all around me.”
But the film is not just about the animals. It’s about the ecosystem on which they—and we—depend. Viewers see the seasons change; the vernal ponds, fed by snowmelt, enable new life and then dry up. Springtime buds feed the deer, which in turn feed the coyotes. Birds deliver a summer’s bounty of insects to their chicks. “This film is really about the interconnectedness of all the species and how they rely on each other,” Todd says.
Together, Todd and Young have shot nature films around the world, including Brazil, Madagascar, and Alaska. The idea for this project took root in between trips to these far-flung places. “We’d be relaxing at home and think, ‘How come no one is ever hiring us to film the amazing nature right here?’” Young says. “The way it’s treated on television, real nature only exists in faraway places, and that’s just not fair to kids.”
Both filmmakers grew up exploring the woods behind their houses—Young in New York and Todd in Ohio—but since they started raising their own kids (they have an 18-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter), they’ve had to come to terms with just how much the wonder of nature now has to compete with the lure of technology.
“We hope the film will inspire kids to go out into their own backyards and look around in a new way, whether it’s with their eyes, their phone, or apps like inaturalist,” Todd says.
To find Backyard Wilderness at a theater near you, check backyardwildernessfilm.com/theaters. New dates and locations are added weekly.
Wendy Becktold is the former senior story editor at Sierra. Follow her on Twitter @wlbecktold.
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