NOVEMBER 10th FILM PROGRAM at the Dairy Arts Center
THE WOMAN WHO LOVES GIRAFFES with guest speakers Joanna Lamberts and Becca McCloskey
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In 1956, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees and seven years before Dian Fossey left to work with mountain gorillas - in fact, before anyone, man or woman had made such a trip - 23-year-old Canadian biologist, Anne Innis Dagg, made an unprecedented solo journey to South Africa to become the first person in the world to study animal behavior in the wild on that continent. When she returned home a year later armed with ground-breaking research, the insurmountable barriers she faced as a female scientist proved much harder to overcome.
In 1972, having published 20 research papers as an assistant professor of zoology at University of Guelph, the Dean of the university, denied her tenure. She couldn't apply to the University of Waterloo because the Dean there told Anne that he would never give tenure to a married woman. This was the catalyst that transformed Anne into a feminist activist.
For three decades, Anne Innis Dagg was absent from the giraffe world until 2010 when she was sought out by giraffologists and not just brought back to into the fold, but finally celebrated for her work.
In "The Woman Who Loves Giraffes", an older (now 85), wiser Anne takes us on her first expedition back to Africa to retrace where her trail-blazing journey began more than half a century ago.
“Naturally enlightening, inspirational, and rousing...makes the viewer feel joy and pride.”
Andrew Parker, The Gate
“A fascinating tale...fine storytelling, combining ecology and social justice issues while focusing on a woman ahead of her times.”
Bruce DeMara, Toronto Star
“Shows the important scientific contributions and fascinating life of a giraffe-loving feminist pioneer.”
Gillian Anderson, The Stranger (Seattle)
Anne Innis Dagg is our heroine: pioneer, groundbreaking scientist, underdog, animal rights activist, feminist, teacher and mother. The youngest child of academics Harold Innis and Mary Quayle Innis, Anne has received worldwide recognition for her work with giraffes, becoming not only the first person to study giraffe behaviour in the wild, but also the first person to study any wild animal behaviour in Africa. She is the author of over 60 scientific papers and 24 books including, Pursuing Giraffe: A 1950’s Adventure (2006); 5 Giraffes (2016); and Smitten by Giraffe: My Life as a Citizen Scientist (2016). Anne’s academic interests include giraffes and Africa; gaits of mammals; sexual bias in behavioural biology; feminism (especially in academia); a historical study on Canadian women non-fiction authors; sociobiology; animal behaviours; aggression; and human evolution. Her honours include being named one of the top eight women biologists in Canada (1975); receiving a pioneering award from the Association of Giraffe Care Professionals (2010); and a lifetime achievement award from the International Giraffid Conference (2016). More recently, Anne was featured in “Courage and Passion: Canadian Women in Natural Sciences”, an exhibition which celebrates Canadian women who broke barriers to pursue their passion for science at the Canadian Museum of Nature. She was also named the 2018 Canadian Eco-Hero at Planet in Focus.
Director : ALISON REID
Principal Cast: Anne Innis Dagg, John Doherty, Lisa Clifton Bumpass and others
Country: CANADA
Year: 2019
Running Time: 83 minutes
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER Dr. Joanna Lambert
Born and raised in industrial England, and an immigrant to the rust belt of the United States, Joanna Lambert spent her formative years observing animals in heavily urbanized landscapes. She has spent her adult life making up for this by traveling to some of the most remote regions of the planet in order to study wild animals in wild places. While her work has now taken her to every continent, a major focus has been on equatorial Africa where for almost 30 years she has studied mammal ecology, with a focus on primates and carnivores. There, she has witnessed extraordinary challenges to biodiversity and human quality of life – realities that have fundamentally impacted her approach to science. In addition to her ongoing research in Africa, Lambert has current work underway on carnivore nutrition and resilience at sites throughout the Rocky Mountain West, including Yellowstone National Park and right here in the greater Denver area. Formerly faculty at University of Oregon, University of Wisconsin - Madison, and University of Texas, as well as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, Lambert also serves as advisor to the United Nations Environmental Program and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. She was voted Oregon’s Emerald Professor of the Year, held a Vilas Professorship at UW-Madison, and is an elected fellow of both the AAAS and the Linnean Society of London. In 2015 Lambert landed at University of Colorado - Boulder, where she is a Professor in the Program in Environmental Studies as well as faculty in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Microbial Exploration. She spends as much time as she can in wild places, striving for optimism and solutions in a challenging world.
Special Guest Speaker: Becca McCloskey
In the middle of her Oregon State University education, Rebecca McCloskey took some time away from school to serve as an intern at Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia Africa. Those three months would change her life and direct her career.
After graduating, Rebecca began her career at Wildlife Safari in southern Oregon caring for African cheetahs. After creating a successful breeding program for this notoriously difficult to breed species, her aspirations led her to a curator position at the Denver Zoo where she’s worked for the last 11 years. Rebecca has worked with almost every mammal species at the zoo from giraffes to snakes, elephants to otters. Knowing and caring for animals in a zoo-setting fosters a deep level of intimacy and knowledge about individuals and species. Her work at Denver Zoo has also opened up opportunities to assist conservation efforts across the world. From tracking carnivore spoor in Botswana to trapping and collaring fishing cats in Thailand, Rebecca’s passion for animals and conservation has never waned.
THE PUSH with EXPEDITION GUIDE & PRODUCER TAL FLETCHER
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The Push is an inspirational documentary about the power of never giving up. Grant Korgan is a world-class adventurer, nano-mechanics professional, and husband. On March 5, 2010, while filming a snowmobiling segment in the Sierra Nevada back country, the Lake Tahoe native burst-fractured his L1 vertebrae, and suddenly added the world of spinal cord injury recovery to his list of pursuits.
On January 17, 2012, along with two seasoned explorers, Grant attempted the insurmountable, and became the first spinal cord injured athlete to literally PUSH himself ~nearly 100 miles (the final degree of latitude) to the most inhospitable place on the planet - the bottom of the globe, the geographic South Pole.
Grant and his guides reached their destination on the 100th anniversary of the first explorers to travel to the South Pole. Facing brutal elements, demanding topography and presumed physical limitations are just some of the challenges they faced along the journey. With this inspirational documentary, The Push team hopes to inspire people in all walks of life to achieve the seemingly insurmountable in their life, to push their own everyday limits, and to live their ultimate potential.
JURY PRIZE for BEST DOCUMENTARY AT the 33rd Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Audience Award for BEST DOCUMENTARY at the Sonoma International Film Festival
Audience Award for BEST DOCUMENTARY at American Documentary Film Festival
Director : GRANT KORGAN
Principal Cast: Grant Korgan, Shawna Korgan, Tal Fletcher
Country: USA
Year: 2018
Running Time: 83 minutes
Supported in part by JUSTIN’S Chocolates
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER/EXPEDITION GUIDE & PrOducer Tal Fletcher
Truckee resident (and CU-Boulder grad) Tal Fletcher is an expert in assessing snow safety, emergency medical care, rescue, weather, wilderness evacuation, winter mountaineering and group dynamics. A lifelong outdoor athlete, Tal started his guiding career at Points North Heli-Adventures, a helicopter skiing operation based in Cordova, Alaska. He has taken skiers to remote destinations in Europe, South America and the Antarctic Peninsula but the Push Expedition to the South Pole marked his first time guiding at the most remote location on the planet. He is also an FAA certified pilot, licensed skydiver, paraglider, and is notorious for his ability to accomplish "off-the-couch adventures" including his most ambitious athletic accomplishment: completion of a full Iron Man distance triathlon, with zero training, only 12 hours after being challenged by friends over dinner and drinks the night before. Without an official triathlon scheduled the next day, he swam 2.4 miles in Donner Lake and then rode his bike back and forth between Truckee and Squaw Valley to cover 112 miles before completing the 26.2 mile marathon. Less than 17 hours later he retired from his short-lived Iron Man career.