He tried to convince us that grizzlies were not the dangerous beasts they are portrayed as. But, in the end, Timothy Treadwell was proved wrong – a bear turned on him and killed him. His remains, along with those of his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were discovered near their campsite in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve. They had been mauled and devoured by a grizzly, the first known victims of a bear attack in the park. The bear suspected of the killings was later shot by park officials.
Director Werner Herzog's film uses Treadwell's own startling documentary footage to paint a nuanced portrait of this complex and compelling figure, his motives and his fragile relationship with his subjects. Discovery Docs, Discovery Channel's theatrical documentary unit, has partnered with Lions Gate Entertainment's new feature-length documentary unit to co-produce Grizzly Man.
Treadwell’s own footage of bears in their natural habitat is spectacular and intimate. Even more fascinating, though, are the times Treadwell turns the camera on himself, alternately testifying to his almost religious love for the grizzlies and revealing less attractive, all too human emotions, including vanity, rage, paranoia and loneliness.
"I found that beyond a wildlife film, in his material lay dormant a story of astonishing beauty and depth," Herzog says of Treadwell's footage during the film's narration. "I discovered a film of human ecstasies and darkest inner turmoil. As if there was a desire in him to leave the confinements of his humanness and bond with the bears. Treadwell reached out, seeking a primordial encounter. But in doing so he crossed an invisible borderline."
Grizzly Man premiered in the first-ever International Documentary Competition in the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
Founder of the organisation Grizzly People, Treadwell devoted his life to the preservation of bears. He co-authored a book with Jewel Palovak, Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska, and educated thousands of schoolchildren about bears. Treadwell also used his charisma and growing celebrity to spread the grizzly gospel, appearing on television shows where he downplayed the dangers of his encounters.
Not everyone believed in Treadwell's unorthodox research. Some locals said that by living among the grizzlies he was crossing a line that had been respected by native Alaskans for thousands of years. Wildlife experts expressed concerns that by taking away the bears' natural fear of humans — and portraying the animals as cuddly companions — he was doing them more harm than good. And while one of the ostensible reasons for his Alaska trips was to protect grizzlies from poachers, park officials contended that poaching was never a serious threat to the thousands of grizzlies living in the Kodiak archipelago.
To provide perspective on his subject, Herzog interviews Treadwell's friends, family and colleagues as well as environmentalists and other wildlife experts, whose opinions about Treadwell vary as widely as Alaska's extreme landscape.
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