New short film captures the beauty of Acadia in fall colors

Celebrating Acadia National Park’s upcoming centennial, the multimedia project “More Than Just Parks” launched a short film this week that captures the beauty of Acadia at the peak of fall foliage season. The 4-minute video, available online at Vimeo.com, is the culmination of weeks spent filming some of the most iconic and beautiful places in the park and is dedicated to George B. Dorr, known as the father of Acadia National Park.

More Than Just Parks is a project started by brothers and filmmakers Will Pattiz and Jim Pattiz, founders of Georgia-based Sea Raven Media. Their mission is to raise awareness and conservation of natural wonders and the great outdoors, and their goal is to create a short film for each of the 59 US national parks, showcasing the things that make each one more than just a park.

So far, in addition to Acadia National Park, they have visited and created films for Olympic National Park in Washington, Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina, Joshua Tree National Park and Redwood National Park, both in California.

The scenes they selected for the Acadia film include iconic places —  such as Jordan Pond, Otter Cliff, Sand Beach and the Bubbles — as well as some lesser-known spots in the park — tranquil beaver flowages and frog ponds, a fisherman motoring past an island, a road winding through hills ablaze with fall color. In many of the scenes, the filmmakers used time lapse devices to amplify movement in the landscape, speeding up the flow of water and the shift of sunlight, stars and clouds.

Having spent a great deal of time in Acadia National Park, I can tell you that the project covered much of the park in a truly spectacular way. These talented filmmakers must have driven all over Mount Desert Island and hiked many of the park’s trails to find the landscapes and wildlife featured in this film. The end result is a video that reminds me how lucky I am to live near this natural gem. And I guess that’s the point.

Well done, More than Just Parks. And thank you for traveling up to Maine to make Acadia National Park the fifth park in your 59-part(park?) series.

Aislinn Sarnacki

About Aislinn Sarnacki

Aislinn is a Bangor Daily News reporter for the Outdoors pages, focusing on outdoor recreation and Maine wildlife. Visit her main blog at actoutwithaislinn.bangordailynews.com.