The Man Who Crossed the Line with Bears!

This astonishing documentary from 2005 follows a troubled man who spent 13 summers living among wild bears in Alaska. Convinced he alone could guard the creatures he loved, he defied authorities and broke safety codes, roaming isolated coastal areas inhabited by some of North America’s most dangerous carnivores.

The self-made crusader became consumed with his quixotic mission, stylizing himself as a lone guardian battling imagined threats from poachers, tourists and government rangers. As his grip on reality gradually slipped over his last several expeditions, his filmed footage captured exceptional intimacy with the animals along with disturbingly dark rants and warnings foretelling his inevitable demise.

This film presents an unflinching portrait of narcissism and dysfunction dangerously intertwining with noble intentions. Director Werner Herzog compiled archived film and interviews to reveal the disastrous conclusion towards which his enigmatic subject hurtled heedlessly for over a decade, desperately chasing a lost dream. This is a riveting psychological postmortem filled with awe, agony and timeless questions on the fine line between visionary and madness.