Duane Hicks
“The Gentle Bear Man of Emo,” the feature-length documentary on Mike and Betty Scheibler and the Isaiah Wildlife sanctuary, will be released next Tuesday (Feb. 5) on DVD and through streaming video online.
Directed by acclaimed Colorado filmmaker Steve Greisen, it documents the Scheiblers and their day-to-day relationships with the wildlife that flock to their property north of Emo, to the point where up to 60 bears a day come out of the wild to be hand-fed.
Production company Exploration Films touts it as a movie which will “take you on an unpredictable journey and surprise encounter with the power of redemption” and “a heart-warming story of how wild animals taught one broken man to be human . . . again.”
Scheibler is ecstatic about the film’s release next week, adding many people have been asking him when it is coming out.
The footage was shot a few years ago at Isaiah Wildlife sanctuary, and since 2011 has been making the rounds at film festival and production award competitions.
It already has won two International Telly Awards, not to mention earning positive reviews from critics.
“People in Fort Frances have been waiting. They’ve been asing me every week, ‘When’s it going to coming out?’
“And I’ve had to tell them, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know,’” Scheibler chuckled, adding the film was supposed to debut on the Discovery Channel in early 2011.
But the project kept blossoming into a feature-length film as people’s interest in it grew.
Scheibler said he’s very happy with the way the finished documentary turned out.
“It’s very well done. It’s excellent,” he remarked.
The easiest way to find out how to get “The Gentle Bear Man of Emo” is to Google the film’s title, as the list of venues through which it will be available is always being updated, Scheibler explained.
This also is a good way to find a trailer of the film.
It currently is available for pre-order on Amazon.com, where it already has garnered five-star reviews.
It also can be ordered directly through www.explorationfilms.com, and will be available as a video on iTunes.
In the near future, Scheibler also will have about 100 DVDs to sell to people.
He added the film’s makers would love to hold a private screening of “The Gentle Bear Man of Emo” in Fort Frances sometime later this year.
As for the future, Scheibler predicts an explosion in the number of visits to the Isaiah Wildlife sanctuary and, by extension, Rainy River District.
“It’s going to bring tourists in here like crazy,” he predicted, adding he has contacted the Ministry of Tourism to let them know about the influx of international visitors, particularly from China.
“You only get one chance to make a first impression,” Scheibler stressed.
“If these people come here and there’s no mode of transportation to get [to the
sanctuary] or to get to other places they’d like to see, and they don’t have water . . . they’re going to go back with negative reports,” he reasoned.
“I’ve tried to work with
businesses and different mayors and restaurants and motels, and said, ‘This is about to happen. Are you ready for something like this?’” he added.
Scheibler said the Isaiah Wildlife sanctuary has attracted more than 6,000 visitors from all over the world, including France, Barbados, Israel, Egypt, South Korea, China, India, Kazakhstan, and St. Lucia.
He noted the sanctuary’s popularity then grows when these visitors take photos and videos, and show them to their friends and relatives.
Looking further ahead, Scheibler said he plans to work with a writing partner and put together one or more books about his life.
For more information on the making of “The Gentle Bear Man of Emo,” check out Greisen’s blog at www.explorationfilmsblog.com
For more on the Isaiah Wildlife sanctuary, visit isaiahwildlife.com
