What to Watch - Project Wild Thing

Wow! Two posts in one week?!? Yes - it's true and it must be for a good reason and this surely is.

A few weeks back I was chilling at home with some knitting and Netflix (sometimes I lead a very old lady-like life... and love it!) when I scrolled upon a documentary that I hadn't heard of before called Project Wild Thing. The brief description about a guy declaring himself the "Marketing Director for Nature" caught my attention so I settled in to check it out.

The filmmaker, David Bond, wanted to figure out how to get kids (and their parents!) to detach from the screens  and get outside in to nature. Fueled by the fact that his own children were turning in to "glassy-eyed zombies" he seeked out experts in a wide variety of fields searching for creative ways to make nature a bigger draw to children's attention than the screens.

I found this film to be extraordinary, quite funny and made me really think about my own screen addictions. I work at a desk Monday to Friday, own an iPhone and iPad and am plugged in to plenty of social media outlets, watching YouTube's funniest cats or Jimmy Fallon and can be found consistently scrolling through Instragram feeds. There has to be a better balance but it's certainly not as easy as a quick swipe of the screen to make changes in one's life... especially in the winter months of Calgary!

As it turns out the filmmaker/director, David Bond, and producer, Ashley Jones, are in Calgary this week for the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival!! They will be hosting the official Canadian premiere of Project Wild Thing on Saturday, November 22 at the River Park Church Auditorium at 3:25pm with a post-film panel discussion. If you can make it please do - this film really made me think and I truly believe it will change your thoughts on our screen addictions and what they are doing to us - especially the next generation. Otherwise, check it out the trailer below or watch it on Netflix. You will not be disappointed. 

PROJECT WILD THING - official trailer from Green Lions on Vimeo.

I cannot recommend this documentary enough! Whether you have children or not this is worth the watch. Everybody can learn something about themselves and the world of conveniences we now find ourselves in here in the Western world.

Tweet: "Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives." #Thomas Berry @theexpapproach