Seeking the dispossessed
A B.C. linguist's race against time in the jungles of Borneo kicks off a four-part series
Toronto Star, October 30, 2008
RAJU MUDHAR

Ian Mackenzie's life mission is writing a dictionary that he calls an "epitaph for a dying people." The B.C. linguist's work with the Penan, one of the last nomadic peoples on the planet, is the subject of tonight's The Nature of Things. It kicks off a four-part documentary series called The Adventurers, which looks at the work of explorers digging into the secrets and cultures of lost peoples.

Written, directed and produced by Andrew Gregg, tonight's episode is particularly powerful as a portrait of the dwindling Penan people of Borneo. Deforestation is destroying their ancestral land, forcing many to give up their nomadic ways. The ancient traditions are dying out. Mackenzie is the lens through which their story is told, and his quest to codify the Penan language is also an effort to document the Penan way of life.

"I think the dictionary is as much a statement on the study of linguistics as it is a document on the end of a culture," says Gregg. "Unlike the Noam Chomsky school (of linguistics), where you sit in universities and work on linguistic theory, he (Mackenzie) believes what you need to do is be out there like anthropologists, year after year, learning and studying."

The result is a fascinating look at a people on the brink. Mackenzie's special connection with the Penan is at times heartbreaking.
"They interpret him as someone who's taking great care of their plight and their future," said Gregg. "I mean, they've got nothing else."

Subsequent episodes of the series, shot over the past two years, focus on the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt – a watering hole used by generations of ancient civilizations – and the French Polynesian Islands, where archaeologist Edmundo Edwards is peeling back nature to find ancient cities that have been grown over.

The final episode is called "The Lost People of the Baja." It features Canadian paleopathologist Elton Molto searching for genetic clues about the vanished Pericu people. Molto uses DNA, which leads to a surprising discovery. Gregg describes it as "basically an ancient CSI mystery."


JOHN DOYLE
Globe and Mail, October 30, 2008

The Nature of Things: The Last Nomads (CBC, 8 p.m.) is the first part of a terrific four-part series called The Adventurers. Made by Andrew Gregg, it's about scholars and scientists devoted to recording and exploring vanishing populations, lost cultures and hidden cities. The opening, tonight, is about linguist Ian Mackenzie, who has tracked the last true nomadic hunting and gathering people on Earth - the Penan of Borneo, whose way of life is quickly disappearing. Not only is their rain-forest home changing, but their unique language, which reveals their different perspective on the world, is on the point of evaporating. The program is gorgeously made, heartfelt and hushed.

Banff Mountain Film Festival
The Last Nomads best film

Banff Crag & Canyon, November 10 2008
By Hagen Hopkins

A film that tracks Canadian linguist Ian Mackenzie deep into the endangered Borneo rain forest searching for one of the world’s last hunter-gatherer cultures won the Grand Prize at the 2008 Banff Mountain Film Festival.

Produced and directed by Andrew Gregg, the film follows Mackenzie who has spent years completing a dictionary of the vanishing language of the Penan people. It was the scientist’s passion and single-minded devotion to this unique project that swung the Film Festival jury in its favor. It was one of many films this year that took audiences into little-seen cultures and environments.

”This is a beautifully and sensitively crafted film,” said jury member Brian Hall, “that delivers a strong message without being evangelical, weaving Mackenzie’s views with a look at a disappearing world on the edge of an insatiably encroaching world.”

Around 12,000 people attended the festival this year and feedback from the public and filmmakers was extremely positive.

“We’ve had a lot of great feedback from the public, film makers and exhibitors at the trade show,” said Festival Director, Shannon O’Donoghue. “A lot of film makers said their films have never looked or sounded so good - when you have that kind of feedback, you know you’re doing something right.

“We also had great community support and we really appreciate that. It’s a big international festival but it’s great to see friends, family and people from the local community getting involved,” O’Donoghue said.

Founded in 1976, the Banff Mountain Film Festival has become the biggest and best-known mountain film festival in the world. This year had 263 entries from 37 countries, of which 50 finalists made it to the screen. Accompanied by the Banff Mountain Book Festival, it is held annually at The Banff Centre. Following the festival, films are selected for the popular Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, which takes Banff films on a circuit around the globe.