Dr. Lynn Rogers is a biologist who began studying black bears in the North Woods of Minnesota in the late ’60s. Early on, he developed an entirely new method for research: He adopted trust, instead of traps, to enter the world of black bears. In this manner, he tromps around the forest following the bears—playful, gentle and always hungry—and gathering piles of data about how they behave in the wild. It’s hard to watch the film and not think of Timothy Treadwell, who was a Mountainfilm guest several times and the tragic star of Grizzly Man. Lynn, however, is more avuncular and focused on science as he follows the black bears through the passage of each season. For him, each day of research is a part of his larger mission: to change people’s beliefs that black bears are aggressive, dangerous animals.
—KK