Treasure by the Long River: Adventure to Amber Beach

In 1996, Canadian adventurer/explorer Phil Manaigre assembled a kayaking team whose mission was to find the Cedar Lake (Manitoba) amber that was lost when Manitoba Hydro built a generating station and dam in 1964. Operating under the theory that the forces of strong winds, wave action, and moving ice would "spit back what the water had swallowed," Manaigre and his team were in fact successful in finding the large repository of fossil-recording amber, which he describes as "the best preserver of life forms that existed during the time of dinosaurs." Stumbling across the stash of orange resin very quickly (10 minutes into the tape, in fact), Manaigre fleshes out his adventure with photographing humanlike footprints (Bigfoot, perhaps?) and interviewing members of the Chemawawin Cree Nation, who had been displaced when the dam was created. The amber, Bigfoot prints, and Indian people comprise the "treasure" mentioned in this tape's title, but while the video is quite well done (nice music and cover, interesting interviews, etc.), I'm not exactly sure who the audience is for this. An optional purchase. (K. Glaser)