Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Perkins, Robert / All Films

One Man's Journey series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

One Man's Journey series
Buy Now: $705.00

One Man's Journey is a three-part series featuring naturalist/explorer/filmmaker Robert Perkins paddling his canoe through his personal and geographic journeys. All three films were broadcast on WGBH in the winter of 2005.

“One Man's Journey... is an adventure story, but not the kind with bravado or derring-do. Instead, it's the contemplative, solitary kind... Much of the film consists of radiant nature shots narrated by Mr. Perkins as he reflects on the meaning of life... the movie is also unexpectedly stirring, informed by Mr. Perkins's considerable, if dark, charm, and the beauty of the remote landscapes he is drawn to. (The film's) meditative style becomes hypnotic...”
— New York Times

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Home Waters

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Home Waters
Buy Now: $320.00

Home Waters documents naturalist Robert Perkins' five-week journey down the length of the Connecticut River, from the Canadian border to Long Island Sound. Full of humor, adventure and insight, the one-hour film paints a stunning portrait of New England in autumn, and captures the spirit of the river, and the people who live, work and take pleasure on it.

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Looking For John Muir

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Looking For John Muir
Buy Now: $320.00

Robert Perkins retraces the steps of 19th century Scottish naturalist John Muir, who walked through one thousand miles of the American South in 1867. Perkins takes to the road to provide a personal assessment of how the Southern landscape has changed since Muir's time and examines some of the environmental damage in the region.

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One Man In A Boat

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

One Man In A Boat
Buy Now: $320.00

With whimsy and insight, Robert Perkins canoes from London to Scotland on the canals and rivers of Great Britain to deliver a letter to the head of his ancestral clan, Lord Nigel Forbes. The film is a moving portrait of a land and its people.

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One Man's Journey, Part I

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

One Man's Journey, Part I
Buy Now: $320.00

Winner of many major awards, his best-known work provides a captivating look at Perkins as a young man willing to take on the challenges of the Canadian Arctic on a long solo canoe trip. Battling rapids and black flies, while dancing with his own demons and his shadow, Perkins explores what it means to survive in the stark beauty of the Canadian tundra. Perkins not only takes on arduous physical challenges, but he lyrically describes in film and language how the journey helps him make peace with a difficult father.

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One Man's Journey, Part II

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

One Man's Journey, Part II
Buy Now: $320.00

Perkins returns to the Canadian Arctic to paddle again into the great unknown, this time while struggling with the unsettling news of his girlfriend's breast cancer. Their two film journals are blended together to relate a powerful story about love in the face of adversity. About the One Man's Journey series One Man's Journey is a three-part series featuring naturalist/explorer/filmmaker Robert Perkins paddling his canoe through his personal and geographic journeys. All three films were broadcast on WGBH in the winter of 2005.

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One Man's Journey, Part III

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

One Man's Journey, Part III
Buy Now: $320.00

The Crocodile River explores how crossing international borders and emotional boundaries enables two people of vastly different cultures - one American and one African - to find common ground. The film begins when Perkins embarks on a ten-week exploration of the Limpopo River in southern Africa with Bonus Lunga, a Zimbabwean man who had never left his small village on the shores of Lake Cariba. Perkins' initial goal is to investigate the Africa behind the headlines, but he soon finds himself challenging his own assumptions and stereotypes about Africans. Both travelers come to unique discoveries about the river, its region, its people and each other. The result is a remarkable tale of friendship and the discovery of joy, resilience, and human connection amidst political and economic suffering. About the One Man's Journey series One Man's Journey is a three-part series featuring naturalist/explorer/filmmaker Robert Perkins paddling his canoe through his personal and geographic journeys. All three films were broadcast on WGBH in the winter of 2005.

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Yankee in Kamchatka

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:26:00 GMT

Yankee in Kamchatka
Buy Now: $320.00

Kamchatka, Siberia - a remote land of stunning natural beauty. As Russia opens its doors, nature writer/adventurer Robert Perkins is the first American to enter this territory which has been kept strictly off-limits to all foreign travelers since World War II. With his host, Russian wildlife photographer Vasily Peskov, Perkins' remarkable adventure takes him canoeing on a precarious, log-jammed river; climbing to the top of an active volcano; cruising the jagged Pacific coastline, rich in marine wildlife; hiking the untouched Kronotsky wilderness preserve with its snow-clad mountains, bubbling craters, pristine lakes and waterfalls.

He meets Russians whose love for their culture and their land make them dedicated to preserving their traditions and the environment - from an architect who, despite threats from the authorities, is recreating a stately church in his village; to fishermen who resist a plan to dam their major salmon river; to a tribe of wandering Koryak reindeer herders, still living in the traditional ways of their ancestors. Beautifully photographed, Yankee In Kamchatka immerses the viewer in an extraordinary cross-cultural journey that brings to life a previously unfilmed world.

"Breathtaking vistas and stirring adventures make this a wonderful choice for both and active canoeists and armchair travelers." -- Booklist

"Expertly condensed into 56 minutes of spectacular scenery and charming encounters with the Russians... Production values, photography, and editing are uniformly excellent." -- Library Journal

"A fascinating and eye-opening look at an unusual subject...the informal narrative style and technical excellence make this film a winner." -- American Film & Video Festival

"Excellent and unusual documentary. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice." -- Video Librarian

"This is a sharply lensed, well-produced video replete with telling details." -- Wilson Library Bulletin

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Blind Bird Singing Rain

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 09:36:00 GMT

Blind Bird Singing Rain
Buy Now: $320.00

Blind Bird Singing Rain is Robert Perkins' latest journey: canoeing down the Lower Colorado River in the American Southwest. The film conveys the hard truth of water running out, and the odd reaction people have to this truth. Perkins creates a poetic homage to water and nature's resilience.

As the poet William Carlos Williams says in his poem Asphodel:

It is difficult

to get the news from poems

Yet men die miserably every day

for lack

of what is found there.

Perkins feels the same about ignoring water issues on the Colorado. He says we're like a blind bird singing rain. He passes through Las Vegas. All along he encounters people who care and those who don't.

Once again his unique storytelling style creates a film that transcends the topical and captures a taste of the eternal. It's not the answers he provides, but the questions he asks that make the film worth watching.

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