We talk to film director Dan Wayne and three-time world champion taxidermist Ken Walker, about Dan’s new documentary Big Fur.
Big Fur is not a typical documentary on taxidermy, it’s much bigger than that…Way BIGGER.
Big Fur.
“Big Fur” follows world champion taxidermist Ken Walker as he creates, teaches, competes, and judges taxidermy competitions. Walker, who specializes in re-creating extinct and endangered species out of other animals’ hides, has worked as a taxidermist at the Smithsonian and has been featured in National Geographic and in the book “Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy.”
Walker is also a professional Roy Orbison impersonator. “Pretty Woman” is one of his favorite songs and, these days, his “pretty woman” is seven feet tall and covered in coarse fur – his re-creation of a female Bigfoot.
Walker lives on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies where folks have regular Bigfoot encounters and still hunt and trap as a way of life. Is it possible that Bigfoot could exist in this remote and vast landscape? Walker’s argument is compelling; he can change minds in minutes.
Does Bigfoot exist? If she does, her habitat–which she shares with species like caribou, grizzly, and wolverine–is critically endangered.
The landscape is being decimated by resource extraction. Logging and oil & gas companies influence environmental policy to protect their own interests, while wilderness is depleted and wildlife conservation is threatened.
The hunting community is dedicated to preserving wilderness. Yet they despise liberal environmentalists and refer to them as “antis”.
These hunters and outdoorsmen make up a large and powerful demographic. Will they be able to work together with the environmentalists that have the same interests at heart? Ultimately, the documentary discovers that we must introduce the next generation to value conservation and wilderness, because only they can save it.
While “Big Fur” is primarily a biographical portrait, Walker’s story also functions as a lens that brings wilderness and wildlife conservation issues into sharp focus.
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