INHF-sponsored “Mysteries of the Driftless” documentary to be shown at Oneota Film Festival

By Kerri Sorrell on February 25, 2014 in Blog

Get in the film mindset before Sunday’s Academy Awards by heading over to the Oneota Film Festival in Decorah this weekend. The festival runs from Friday through Sunday and will showcase a variety of films, including the Mysteries of the Driftless documentary, funded in part by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.

Mysteries of the Driftless features a team of explorers and scientists as they search for answers about the Driftless Area of northeast Iowa and bordering areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Questions they seek to answer include:

• What strange forces spared one isolated region along the Upper Mississippi River from the repeated crushing and scouring effects of massive continental glaciers during the last 1.6 million years?
• What pre-Ice Age throwbacks survived here in this unique refuge that holds more Native American effigy mounds, petroglyph caves, strange geological features, and rare species than anywhere in the Midwest?

“To be able to draw attention to rare features and beautiful areas of the Iowa landscape through a documentary is tremendously valuable,” said Joe McGovern, INHF President. “It's great for our citizens to learn about these special places and to cherish and protect them. It's another way we can promote Aldo Leopold's land ethic.”

The Mysteries of the Driftless screening will take place on Saturday, March 1, 2014 at 12:30 p.m. with a Q&A with co-executive producers, Tim Jacobs and George Howe, following. See the complete festival schedule.

Find out more information on the documentary and the Driftless Area.