Project Grizzly
Directed by Peter Lynch
Canada, 1996, 72 minutes.
In his youth, Troy Hurtubise had an intense encounter with a grizzly bear. Intense, in this case, means that a grizzly bear charged him, knocked him down, and then sauntered away.
Later in life, he embarked on a mission to build a bear-proof suit for the purpose of studying bruins up close. Project Grizzly documents this noble, if nutty, effort. Hurtubise constructed his suit at home, at considerable personal expense. He also tested it on himself, doing things like letting a log swinging on ropes smash into him. This isn’t Jackass, though—Hurtubise, to this day, is a sincere man who just really, really wants to study grizzlies with help from his bear-proof suit. For his efforts, he won an Ig Noble Prize. This is a story of extreme obsession; thankfully, it was caught on film.
Never say that the National Film Board of Canada gave us nothing interesting; they did fund a documentary about a man who attempted to make a bear-proof suit.
