#336 (no ads): Human/Nature, Pt. 1 — Grizzly Man (Patreon)

The festival hit Fire of Love follows a pair of volcanologists who yearned to get up close and personal with nature at its most dangerous, eventually paying for their obsession with their lives, a tragic arc that naturally calls to mind Timothy Treadwell, whose doomed self-directed study of wild bears was immortalized in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man. The 2005 film is a fascinating artifact and one of the most perfect matings of documentarian and subject imaginable, revealing almost as much about Herzog as a filmmaker as it does Treadwell as a self-proclaimed protector of the grizzlies. This week we dig into some of the philosophical contradictions between subject and documentarian, as well as how the film toes the line between humor and condescension.

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Outro music: “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” by Elvis