Humanitarian
Wai wah! trailer(60 seconds)
“You don’t need to go around the world to be on an exciting journey. “ Michael’s new documentary about travelling to remote aboriginal communities in British Columbia and delivering libraries is an exciting journey that anyone can enjoy if they learn how to look, and how to help.
Introduction to Write to Read, an aboriginal literacy project
Write to Read is a project that delivers books, computers and libraries to remote aboriginal communities around the province of British Columbia, Canada.
The Royal Family comes to Ditidaht
Princess Sophie and Prince Edward of the British Royal family arrive via helicopter to open a Write to Read library at the remote aboriginal village of Ditidaht on Vancouver Island.
Buddah Academy
TRAS The Tibetan Refugee Aid Society has a school in Nepal for hundreds of children.
Adventures
British Columbia, Canada
Cariboo Jetboat Adventures
The mighty Fraser River that winds south throughout British Columbia boasts one of the heaviest water flows in the world, especially in early summer when snow melt is in full flow. The only way to explore the river is via a powerful jetboat. Cariboo Jetboat Adventures is an aboriginal tourism company that leads guests down the river, bringing the history (aboriginal, Chinse and Gold Rush) alive and showing the wildlife, including eagles and one of the largest herds of California Bighorn Sheep in the world.
After the Gold Rush documentary trailer (Cariboo)
The Cariboo region of British Columbia is a region of ranches and lodges, cowboys and Indians, fishing lakes and horses to ride. This short introduction to the old Gold Rush trail takes a peak at many of the rustic tourist accommodations available.
Flying U Ranch, the Cariboo
It’s one of the oldest and largest cowboy ranches in the Cariboo, going back to the days when a railroad ran right by and dropped off tourists at its front door and Hollywood made movies on the site. Today the Flying U remains as rustic as always, a little village with cabins, saloon, theatre, dining hall and over 100 horses from which to choose and ride.
A Cariboo ghost story at Hat Creek Ranch, Cariboo
An animator/actor explains how ghosts come out of the woodwork at the old Gold Rush ranch house at Hat Creek in the Cariboo.
Searching for the Sacred Spires, Cariboo
The only way to explore the “Grand Canyon of the north” along the mighty Fraser River in the Cariboo is by jetboat or helicopter. Lucky guests at 5-star Echo Valley Ranch enjoy a rare chopper tour to the canyon to find the amazing Sacred Spires, a region of sand blasted “hoodoo sculptures” created by thousands of years or wind and rain.
Snacking on soapberries in Bridge River, Cariboo
At aboriginal Xwisten Tours in Bridge River, the lucky visitor gets to snack on smoked salmon along with a dessert of tasty soapberries.
Bridge River, guides explain the ancient traditions of fishing and harvesting
Fish Rock in Bridge River is where aboriginal people have been fishing for salmon for thousands of years. A guide explains the strict rules and traditions of fishing for salmon, and harvesting of wild animals.
Bridge River, the Cariboo
Michael explains how a pit house functioned for aboriginal people in times past.
Ridge River pit house, Cariboo
A guide at Bridge River explains how pit houses functioned for aboriginal people in the old days.
A horse whisperer at a Guest Ranch, Cariboo explains therapy
Wrangler Sherry May explains that “horses are a mirror of your soul” and that working with a horse will teach you to “live in the present moment.”
A horse whisperer at a guest ranch in the Cariboo gives a demonstration of healing therapy.
Wrangler Sherry May explains how even a blind person can learn to gain power by working with a horse.
Blue ecology, or the “spirit of water, explained in the Cariboo
Forester and aboriginal writer Michael Blackstock, working at Echo Valley Ranch in the Cariboo, explains that water has a spirit like a living being.
A water being appears at Echo Valley Ranch in the Cariboo
Aboriginal artist Michael Blackstock explains how he created sculptures to match the spirit of water on the ranch.
The spirit bear appears in the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia
Estimates vary from 50 to 2,000, but there is no doubt the Kermode Bear, also known as the “spirit bear,” is the rarest creature on the entire planet. Finding one is almost impossible. They only live in a small portion of the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia. The First Nations of the region regard the bear not only as a spiritual creature, but as a harbinger of the future.
How the spirit bear portends climate change
Spirit bear guide Marven Robinsen explains that the emergence of the spirit bear may be a harbinger of global warming.
South Pacific
(Marquesa Islands, South Pacific)
On the far west side of the island of Ua Pao in the very remote Marquesa Island group in the South Pacific stands one of the most stunning mountain peaks in the entire world, a single basalt peak over 1,000 feet tall. Its peak often lost in the clouds, this unknown mountain peak towering high in the sky like a jagged broken tooth has never been climbed, and never will be.
The world’s most remote post office, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Following in a 300-year old tradition, visitors to the Galapagos can drop off a letter – and pick them up for delivery themselves – in the world’s most isolated post office.
The world’s most amazing fish shop, Galapagos
Few shops in the world offer animals as sales assistants, but in the Galapagos Islands you will find seals and pelicans lined up in a seaside shop ready to help the fishmongers with their work.
Caribbean
Trenchtown, Jamaica
Lovers of reggae should make a pilgrimage to the Culture Yard in the Trenchtown ghetto when in Kingston Jamaica, where reggae superstar Bob Marley was brought up and mentored by local musicians, absorbing the sounds and culture that eventually became one of the world’s most popular dance rhythms. See his room, his first car, his guitar and his home, then listen to the throbbing sounds of the Yard as local musicians jam.
St. Maarten, the Caribbean
Fence Surfing? Michael gets a little silly at the airport in St. Maarten, a small island in the Caribbean, where the airport just happens to be the top tourist draw. Don’t try this at home!
Asia
Trekking to Upper Dolpo, Nepal
A trailer for the upcoming documentary Journey to Dolpo, a 700-mile trek across the Himalayas to “find and rescue abandoned children living in the world’s highest inhabited villages” in order to save and preserve the last vestiges of pure Tibetan culture left on the planet. Coming soon.
Watching the sunrise across the Himalayas***
Michael experiences dawn arising across the peaks of the Himalayas from a viewing post atop a hill in Pokhara in eastern Nepal.
Setu, Nepal
Michael assists with the probation of women from the federal prison in Kathmandu, Nepal by creating a cosmetology program that assists women learn new trades.
Around Taiwan by bike and train
The little island of Taiwan, located off the coast of China, leads the world in the manufacture and sale of bicycles. Why, you can circumnavigate the entire island by bile, just by using their train and subway and bike path system. Michael takes a quick spin and cracks a few jokes as he attempts to pedal around Taiwan.
Giant Bikes, Taiwan
The PR Director of Giant Bikes, the world’s largest manufacturer of bikes, how their “free rental” system has dramatically increased the sale of bikes in that country and created a huge number of new cyclists.