ALISON REID’S THE ART OF ADVENTURE TO WORLD PREMIERE AT VIFF
The Documentary Feature Follows Acclaimed Wildlife Artist Robert Bateman & Bristol Foster on their 1950s Global Expedition and their lives in Art and Activism
Vancouver, BC (September 2, 2025) – Grizzly Films and Game Theory Films announced today that THE ART OF ADVENTURE, the documentary feature from award-winning director and stunt woman Alison Reid will world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival this year. The film centers the adventures, life, art and activism of acclaimed wildlife painter Robert Bateman and biologist and naturalist Bristol Foster and will screen to audiences for the first time in Vancouver on October 5th at the Vancouver Playhouse and October 7th at the Granville Island Stage with Reid, Bateman and Foster in attendance.
In 1957, renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman and spirited biologist Bristol Foster set out on a global expedition in a rugged Land Rover they call “The Grizzly Torque”. Starting in the UK, their travels take them to the far corners of the earth. From the lush rainforests of the Congo to the vibrant landscapes of India, Bob paints the wonders they encounter, while Bristol films on his 16mm Bolex camera. Fifty-seven years later, the abandoned Grizzly Torque is rediscovered. As its hidden history emerges and a new owner restores it to its former glory, the tale of their environmental activism through art and science unfolds.
“I’m thrilled that The Art of Adventure will have its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival! VIFF feels like the perfect home for our film—on the West Coast where Robert Bateman and Bristol Foster live, are so deeply cherished, and have made such lasting contributions,” says Reid. “I can’t wait to finally share their remarkable journey with the world.”
Alison Reid is an award-winning filmmaker with a passion for adventure. She began her career as a stunt performer and stunt coordinator, accumulating over 350 film and television stunt credits and is known for being one of the first female stunt coordinators in North America. Her zeal for storytelling led her to found Free Spirit Films, under which she directed and produced the award-winning LGBTQ2+ comedy The Baby Formula (2008) and the critically acclaimed documentary The Woman Who Loves Giraffes (2018), the latter of which screened worldwide, winning multiple Best Film awards and receiving widespread acclaim. Her episodic directing credits include Beyond Black Beauty, Hudson & Rex, and Murdoch Mysteries, among others.
THE ART OF ADVENTURE is written, directed and produced by Alison Reid (The Woman Who Loves Giraffes), executive produced by Anne Innis Dagg and Mary Dagg, Cinematographer is Dale Hildebrand, the film is edited by Dave Kazala with Original Music by Tom Third. The film was shot on Salt Spring Island, Haida Gwaii and Victoria, BC as well as Toronto, Ontario and LaPeche, Quebec. The film features Robert Bateman, Bristol Foster, Writer and Anthropologist Wade Davis, Haida Leader and Activist Guujaaw, Television Host and Environmentalist David Suzuki, Environmentalist Tara Cullis, Environmental Activist Briony Penn and Writer and Art Curator Paul Gilbert.
THE ART OF ADVENTURE was made possible with the support of the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, Rogers Documentary Fund, Game Theory Films and Hollywood Suite.
SUBJECT BIOS:
Robert Bateman was born in Toronto, earned a degree in geography from the University of Toronto, then taught high school for 20 years, including two years in Nigeria. He travelled around the world in 1957-58, increasing his appreciation of cultural and natural heritage. Since leaving teaching in 1976 to paint full-time, he has travelled widely with his artist/conservationist wife, Birgit, to many remote natural areas. The family moved to Salt Spring Island in 1985.
Bateman has been a keen artist and naturalist from his early days. He has always painted wildlife and nature, beginning with a representational style, moving through impressionism and cubism to abstract expressionism. In his early thirties he moved back to realism as a more suitable way to express the particularity of the planet. It is this style that has made him one of the foremost artists depicting the world of nature.
In the ’70s and early ’80s, Bateman’s work began to receive critical acclaim and to attract an enormous following. His work is in many public and private collections, and several art museums, including the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, WY. Bateman has had many one-man museum shows throughout North America, including an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC in 1987. The retrospective show, The Art of Robert Bateman, toured Canada and the USA for two years.
Books about his life and art have had sales of over 1,000,000 copies. He has also been the subject of several films and television programs. His honours, awards and honorary doctorates are numerous and include Officer of the Order of Canada. It is in honour of Bateman’s contribution to art, teaching and conservation that two schools and a community centre have been named after him; as well, he has been awarded 14 honorary doctorates.
His art reflects his commitment to ecology and preservation. Since the early 1960’s, he has been an active member of naturalist and conservation organizations, now on a global scale. He has become a spokesman for many environmental and preservation issues and has used his artwork and limited edition prints in fund-raising efforts that have provided millions of dollars for these worthy causes. Robert Bateman is perceived by many to be one of the voices of reason and hope for healthy, rejuvenated and creative engagement with the natural world.
Bristol Foster is a naturalist, conservation biologist and documentary filmmaker with a PhD in Ecology. He has over forty years of experience as an ecologist and educator. Bristol’s illustrious career has included Head of Wildlife Ecology Graduate Studies program at the University of Nairobi (Kenya), Director of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Director of the Provincial Ecological Reserves program.Bristol graduated with a degree in biology from the University of Toronto and became enthralled by Arctic biology. He spent two summers studying the ecology of a rare lemming-like mammal for his master’s degree. Bristol then spent a year and a half traveling through Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia with wildlife artist Robert Bateman, before returning to Canada and completing his Ph.D.
His degree focused on the evolution of the native mammals of the Haidi Gwaii, an archipelago lying south of the panhandle of Alaska. Bristol then headed to Kenya for five years to lead a graduate student program in wildlife ecology, eventually writing, with a colleague, the definitive book on the giraffe. From Africa he returned to become Director of the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, B.C. After six years in this position, he became the Director of Ecological Reserves Program for the Province wherein over 100 areas have been set aside for research. He then became ecological consultant, spending much of his time trying to protect the last remnants of temperate rainforest on the British Columbia coast and making TV documentaries all over the world.