Fast Food Eats First Place

Fast Food: A Predator's World took top honors in the children's program category at the twenty-seventh Annual International Wildlife Film Festival (IWFF). The Idaho Department of Fish and Game, along with Wide Eye Productions, produced the 10-minute video to educate school children about predator-prey relationships. The fast-paced show uses wildlife footage interspersed with vignettes featuring kids to illustrate wildlife concepts. Most people tend to sympathize with prey animals. Fast Food tries to get school children to also view the relationship from the predator's angle. It asks questions such as "Did you know that a predator may hunt nine or ten times before it catches any prey? Can you imagine if you ordered a pizza and nine times in a row the box was empty?" That's what it's like for predators. "We wanted to create a video that explained a complicated wildlife concept in a manner that both educated and entertained school children. So we included kids in the video and strived to keep the script humorous and fast-paced but still instructive," said Kevin Frailey, Idaho Fish and Game Conservation Education Supervisor. The International Wildlife Film Festival takes place May 1-8 in Missoula, Montana. The week includes film making workshops and screenings of the festival's winners in each category. IWFF judges look for excellence in these broad categories: biological accuracy, technical achievement, aesthetic presentation and educational value. Eighty films were selected as preliminary finalists before awarding the winners in each category. Fast Food: A Predator's World was also the basis for a call-in children's show called Dialogue for Kids on Idaho Public Television. You can view the call-in program and a corresponding web page of lesson plans on Idaho Public Television's website at: http://idptv.state.id.us/dialogue4kids/season4/prey. For more information on the videotape Fast Food: A Predator's World call 208-287-2889.