The Canadian author, artist and naturalist Bill Mason (1929-1988) was celebrated for his films exploring his country’s vast wilderness. Perhaps his best-known work is a trio of films about wolves – Death of a Legend (1971), Cry of the Wild (1972) and Wolf Pack (1974) – aimed at educating the public and dispelling negative myths about the animals. For Wolf Pack, the shortest of the trilogy, Mason chronicled the lives of wolves facing the dramatic changes of the seasons over the course of a year, elucidating the central role of social hierarchies and cycles in their lives. With profound respect and admiration for the wolves permeating each sequence, Mason finds brutality and beauty in the pack’s perpetual struggle for survival, creating an iconic entry in the crowded field of nature documentaries.
A masterwork of nature filmmaking that helped transform how wolves were seen
Director: Bill Mason
Website: National Film Board of Canada
videoEcology and environmental sciences
From helicopter flybys to trail cameras, there’s no one way to count a wolf
8 minutes
videoAnimals and humans
The divisive debate over hunting Norway’s endangered wolves
29 minutes
videoThe environment
Dick Proenneke’s 30-year mission of solitary self-sufficiency in Alaska
10 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Breathtaking views and solitude: scenes from a Montana forest fire lookout post
16 minutes
videoAnimals and humans
A gentle stroll through an owl sanctuary might just restore your faith in humanity
28 minutes
videoRituals and celebrations
How a village’s first totem pole ceremony in a century sparked a spiritual awakening
16 minutes
videoSubcultures
Come ice-fishing in the deep Canadian winter with an all-Indigenous, all-female crew
5 minutes
videoLove and friendship
After 30 years of solitude, Peter forms an unlikely friendship with a fellow loner
10 minutes
videoNature and landscape
Preventing the all-consuming sound pollution of modern life starts with listening to nature
10 minutes