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"Caught in the Headlights": A new documentary by C.
Wolf Drimal, Margot Higgins and Doug Hawes-Davis
53 minutes. Released in 2006
There are no exact figures of how many animals are killed or seriously
injured by automobiles each year, but the new documentary, Caught
in the Headlights, estimates it to be nearly a million in the
United States alone. This includes livestock, fowl and house pets,
and as roads continue to widen for the country's expanding fleet
of trucks, sedans, mini-vans and SUV's, those numbers will climb
and climb…unless, of course, the animals are eventually
driven to extinction.
Produced and directed by C. Wolf Drimal, Margot Higgins and Doug
Hawes-Davis, the film takes a look at a handful of people who've
been directly involved in vehicle-wildlife conflicts in Montana.
They include employees of the Department of Transportation who
clear the roads and shoulders of animal carcasses; a single-dad
commuter who spends his driving time nervously anticipating a
collision with deer; and an artist who creates sculpture out of
road kill. Their stories range from cars being totaled by deer
to herds of protective moose charging moving passenger and freight
trains.
One woman runs a makeshift rehab for birds that had been wounded
by cars while feeding on bodies on the roadside. Her menagerie
of handicapped owls and eagles helps to illustrate the broadening
problem of animals that congregate around the dead, inadvertently
becoming targets themselves. At the same time, the filmmakers
capture the warm and inviting spirit of someone lovingly devoted
to these majestic creatures.
The same can be said for a visiting ecologist from the Netherlands,
attempting to map out safer alternatives for deer to cross the
increasingly busy highways. His statistics of lower speed limits
resulting in lower fatalities, however, will undoubtedly fall
on the deaf ears of people who've got their foot to the floor.
In keeping with the handful of pictures that I've seen released
by High Plains Films, "Caught in the Headlights" deliberately
avoids the histrionics and flashy editing and photographic techniques
that have come to adorn documentaries on hot button topics. In
one respect, this enables the filmmakers to quietly and sincerely
probe a subject that's downplayed or dismissed by the media.
But there's a vast section of the population-especially in rural
areas where the situation is severe in both body count and automobile
damage-who believe that animals can be an intrusion and a nuisance.
It's difficult enough for any independently produced documentary
to be seen at all; but to actually reach a desired audience in
its hearts and minds is tougher still. "Caught in the Headlights"
is sober, lucid and intelligent…and with any luck, it may
save a few innocent and beautiful lives.
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