IN PRODUCTION – COMING FALL 2010

Eighteen years in the making, Koani and her Unusual Pack is a remarkable film that tells a captivating story of an inseparable foursome – a wolf, a dog, and a married couple – who ate, breathed, slept and worked together for 16 years facing dangers, sharing adventures, and forming bonds that would last a lifetime. Their goal was simple, yet it was no small task – to transform people’s attitudes about wolves.

The story is uniquely positioned as it spans a historic and contentious period prior to wolf reintroduction, on through reintroduction, and ultimately the first wolf hunt in decades.

Life changed dramatically when Bruce Weide and Pat Tucker met Koani. Both fresh out of grad school, he a writer and she a wolf biologist, they had dreams just like any young couple.

Fate threw them together.

Then a filmmaker, making a wildlife film based around a captive litter of wolves, asked them raise and socialize one of the pups so that he could shoot a scene of an “ambassador wolf” in a classroom. The pup was named Koani, meaning “play” in Blackfeet. After shooting was complete, the filmmaker unexpectedly walked away from Koani. In a strange twist of fate, Bruce and Pat faced mammoth decision; either euthanize Koani or build a life that revolved around a wolf.

A Life changing decision…

Their choice to continue life with Koani set forth a series of events that would change their lives forever. For Bruce and Pat, it meant abandoning their careers, forgetting about vacations, dumpster diving for meat, facing enraged ranchers, caring for a wolf… In other words…

Total commitment to a way of life they never saw coming… and could never have prepared for.

They set forth on a journey of courage, sacrifice, and commitment as Bruce and Pat, their dog Indy, and Koani traveled across the continent on a quest that led others to understand the true nature of the wolf. It was an odyssey that challenged their conventions and beliefs. And while they were successful beyond their wildest imagination – they would present 1,400 programs to 200,000 people – to this day they are haunted by the question, “Did we do the right thing?”

Koani and Her Unusual Pack weaves the story of Bruce and Pat’s life with Koani into the larger issue of humanity’s relationship with the wolf. Through 16 years of archival footage, supplemented by provocative interviews, and stunning wolf footage, the film explores the difficult and often contentious times as Bruce and Pat teamed with Koani and Indy in public appearances across the country to show people first hand what a wolf is really like.

The film will also explore a much more personal side to the story – Bruce and Pat and Indy’s relationship with Koani. Born in captivity, Koani was always a captive wolf. She never roamed wild nor could she be allowed to run free. For Bruce and Pat, despite every good intention to provide Koani with a wonderful domestic life, she would prove time and time again to be exactly what she is, a wolf – and wolves belong in the wild.

Join us for a captivating film that will challenge all conventions on how society views the wolf and perhaps more importantly, how we view ourselves in relationship to the natural world.