The Trilogy
The Breach
When fishing guide/filmmaker Mark Titus learns why wild salmon populations plummeted in his native Pacific Northwest, he embarks on a journey to discover where the fish have gone and what might bring them back. Along the way, Titus unravels a trail of human hubris, historical amnesia and potential tragedy looming in Alaska – all conspiring to end the most sustainable wild food left on the planet.
Battle lines are drawn and the fight for resource control begins as the story unfolds through the voices of the people who know the salmon best. Fishermen, tribal leaders, scientists, artists, authors and chefs – all with a shared knowledge and passion for wild salmon as cultural treasure, mystery from the sea and vital food source.
Featuring artist Ray Troll, authors David James Duncan (The River Why), David R. Montgomery (King of Fish), Canadian activist Alexandra Morton, and first head of the US EPA, Bill Ruckelshaus.
The Wild
By suddenly dismantling safeguards the EPA had enacted to protect the salmon, water and people of Bristol Bay - the current political regime in the United States has unilaterally revived a mining corporation’s relentless pursuit to build North America’s largest open-pit copper mine - directly in the headwaters of the most prodigious wild sockeye salmon run in the world.
The Wild is a race against time. The proposed Pebble Mine is spurred by a sympathetic Trump administration working to have it permitted by 2020. At stake is the survival of a keystone species that feeds 137 different creatures - including us - in a wild place that is the last of its kind on Earth. Bristol Bay feeds the entire world with its salmon, starting with the Indigenous People for whom wild salmon have been their Everything for over 5,000 years.
Filmmaker, Mark Titus worked in the Alaska salmon industry for 25 years and now focuses his lens and his passion for wild salmon on the conflict in Bristol Bay. This battle for Alaska’s soul mirrors Titus’ struggle to reclaim his own – and becomes a harbinger to a larger, global question: How do we reconcile human separation from the natural world that sustains us – and if we can change course - how do we save the wild that remains?
Vibrant characters from Bristol Bay set the stage and impactful, world-renowned Ambassadors light it as all ponder what it means to potentially lose North America’s last great wild migration. In The Wild’s impassioned call for hope through action, wild salmon continue to show us how to give of ourselves for that which is far greater than ourselves.