Should humans have a fearful respect of nature, or should we seek to connect with nature, no matter the dangers we might encounter? Do humans “belong” in the natural environment?
These are some questions that both Grizzly Man (2005) and Song of the Sea (2014) address. A documentary by Werner Herzog based on the video recordings of bear enthusiast, Timothy Treadwell, Grizzly Man suggests that the gap between the human/animal world cannot be bridged. In contrast, Song of the Sea portrays an idealized natural environment that serves as the backdrop for the rekindling of a lost human/animal/nature connection.
To give a brief synopsis of Grizzly Man:
Treadwell travelled to Alaska for extended periods of times over a series of years to live with the wild grizzly bears. While there, he filmed footage of the bears and of his “changing” relationship with them—how he was able to “tame” them and make them used to his presence. Treadwell believed that his encounters with the bears proved that humans and wild animals can live together in harmony, if only we make the effort. Tragically, Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed by a grizzly during their 13th summer there.
In Song of the Sea, the girl, Saoirse, similarly dwells in wild nature. In this clip from the film, she finds her mother’s white sealskin coat. She wears the coat and goes to the sea, where she meets a group of seals and becomes a selkie (from Scottish/Irish mythology).
Like Grizzly Man, this clip shows us a human
interacting and becoming one with the wilderness. It is as though the
boundaries of human and nature/animals are blurred. As ecologist Marnie Gaede
says in Grizzly Man at 20.32, “he wanted to become like the
bear… I think perhaps he wanted to mutate into a wild animal as he says in his
last letter. He says, ‘I have to mutually mutate into a wild animal to handle
the life I live out here.’ And I think there’s a religious sense in that, in
the sense of connecting so deeply that you’re no longer human.”
As these two films show, the act of connecting with nature can be
a wonderful experience – the viewer gets a strong sense that Treadwell loves
his life with the bears. Similarly, this scene in which Saoirse becomes a
selkie is awe-inspiring.
At the same
time, we need to reserve a fearful respect of nature. As goes without saying,
wild animals can be dangerous and not always appear in the form of cute seals.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the two films is that the seals don’t
pose an immediate danger to Saoirse, whereas the bears in Grizzly Man have
a natural urge to kill Treadwell (or at least I cannot imagine that the seals,
with their cute character designs, are threatening).
Should Treadwell, then, have been less extreme? Should he have
tried to bond with, say, squirrels instead of bears?
Whichever way we choose to bond with nature, I believe the key is
to retain a notion of difference between animals and humans. No matter how much
we idealize nature or attribute it with human characteristics—no matter how
much we believe we can become and act like wild animals—we are not the same.
The idealized world of Song of the Sea communicates an
impossibility. We, as humans, cannot turn into seals. The fantasy of doing so
can only ever live in our imaginations. When Treadwell wished to become like a
bear, he perhaps forced a fairytale narrative onto the grim realities of
nature.
Yet I also believe that this notion of difference between animals
and humans should not be exaggerated. Both animals and humans cohabitate the
planet together. We are alike in many ways—we eat, we poop, we are born, we
die. We experience pain and suffering, love and happiness.
The tricky part is finding the balance between respecting our
differences while recognizing our similarities. As we go about making films of
tomorrow, we need to carefully contemplate how we wish to construct our
relationship with nature. If not, we risk attributing human characteristics to
the natural world.