________________ CM . . . . Volume VII Number 10 . . . . January 19, 2001

Pocket Desert: Confessions of a Snake Killer.

Teresa Marshall & Craig Berggold (Directors & Writers). George Johnson (Producer).
Montreal, PQ: National Film Board of Canada, 1999.
24 min., 10 sec., VHS, $39.95.
Order Number: C9199 043.

Subject Headings:
Deserts-British Columbia.
Desert biology-British Columbia.
Endangered ecosystems-British Columbia.

Grades 5 and up / Ages 10 and up.

Review by Don Hamilton.

*** /4

The film's subtitle, Confessions of a Snake Killer, is a hook, a tease to get you interested. And it does use rattlesnakes as a theme to move the viewer into the pocket desert of British Columbia's Okanagan and Similikameen regions. The rattlesnakes are only part of the story of the area that has faced incredible changes with the coming of irrigation and intensive agriculture. The film is part biography, using early home movies of a young girl; it is also part history with clips of early development and rattlesnake hunts, and, as the narrator traces the changes in the desert, it becomes a personal discussion on environmental concerns and realities.

      The page of notes that accompany the tape provide further evidence of the emphasis the producers hoped this film would provide. What are the seasonal cycles of your bio-region? What is the natural history of your area? Describe the impact of human activity on wild lands/life in your region? And a little snake lore is provided along with a compact "Glossary of Terms" appropriate to this study.

      Pocket Desert is a film that will make you think. It will stay in your head as you think about the effect of man on the land.

Recommended.

Donald Hamilton is the Managing Editor of School Libraries in Canada, the official publication of the Canadian School Library Association.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - January 19, 2001.

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