From Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg to the family cottage near Parry Sound in Ontario, filmmaker Frank Wolf and his inexperienced friend Taku Hokoyama tackle raging rapids and gruelling portages on a 3,100 km canoe trip through Canada's remote boreal forest in an effort to shed light on the issues now facing this vast wilderness.

This is not a typical nature documentary, however. Our amiable guides cope with bears, black flies and flat tires in order to educate and entertain us over the course of their 75-day adventure. The landscape is stunning and the guides couldn't be more entertaining.

"The challenge of making this film was almost as severe as the challenge of the journey it depicts. The makers showed great imagination to get around the limitations of a zero budget, livening up the narrative with interviews, jokes, sight gags, even dance! It gently raised important issues along the way, allowing these issues to arise quite naturally out of the journey itself."

-VIMFF Jury Statement for Grand Prize winner 'Borealis'

Latest News:Borealis is airing in Canada on CBC's 'documentary' channel through 2010-check your local listings.