The Sag Harbor Cinema will turn its attention to the fraught and fascinating relationship between human beings and the natural world with screenings this weekend of two films by Werner Herzog, “Grizzly Man” (2005) and “Ghost Elephants” (2025).
“Grizzly Man” chronicles the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, an amateur naturalist and bear enthusiast who spent 13 summers living among grizzly bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Assembled from Treadwell’s actual video footage, Mr. Herzog’s documentary illuminates the calling that drove the devoted conservationist with a passion for adventure.
While Treadwell believed he had bridged the gap between human and beast, one of the bears he loved and protected turned on him. The footage he shot serves as a window into our understanding of nature and its grim realities.
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote, “It is the rare documentary like ‘Grizzly Man,’ which has beauty and passion often lacking in any type of film, that makes you want to grab its maker and head off to the nearest bar to discuss man’s domination of nature and how Disney’s cute critters reflect our profound alienation from the natural order.”
The screening will be preceded by a presentation from Jason Boulanger, head of research at White Buffalo Inc., a nonprofit management and research conservation organization dedicated to the protection of native species and ecosystems. He will discuss the realities of human-wildlife conflict, including the deer population of the East End, exploring how interactions between people and animals are in constant revision.
“There is no harmony between man and nature in Werner Herzog’s films,” said Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, the cinema’s artistic director. “His fascinating and very unromantic view of such coexistence finds one of its most devastating portraits in ‘Grizzly Man.’ I am thrilled that Dr. Boulanger will offer his insight on the subject, prior to the screening of the film. I am also very happy that this presentation will coincide with our run of ‘Ghost Elephants,’ Herzog’s brand-new film, which addresses similar themes through the search for a mythical creature in the heart of Africa.”
For over a decade, Steve Boyes, a conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has been in search of a mysterious, elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, deep within its forests.
According to the Venice International Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere last August, “Boyes sets out with master trackers from Namibia, but there is a deep underlying question: would it not be better to keep these gigantic elephants rather as a dream, as ghosts, as the White Whale, than finding them in reality?”
In a review of “Ghost Elephants” on rogerebert.com, Peter Sobczynski said of Mr. Herzog, “At an age when most filmmakers have either retired to the Lifetime Achievement Award circuit or are doing projects little more than rehashes of material and themes they covered more effectively earlier in their careers, he is still doing bold, ambitious, and daring work.”
“Grizzly Man” will be shown on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. “Ghost Elephants” will have multiple screenings, starting Friday at 4:30. Screening dates and times of "Ghost Elephants" can be found on the cinema's website. The programs are part of Science on Screen, an initiative of Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Mass., with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
This article has been changed from its print version to provide more up-to-date information about screenings of "Ghost Elephants," which was not available when the paper went to the printer.
