Yankee In Kamchatka

Recently shown on PBS's Adventure series, this excellent and unusual documentary chronicles nature writer Robert Perkins' seven-week sojourn in Kamchatka, a remote area of Siberia, where he went in order to canoe down the "river from Hell." Inspired by George Kennan's 19th-century account of Kamchatka, which he read as a kid, Perkins had always hoped to visit this fabled area, and in 1990 he got his chance. Teaming up with Vasily, a Russian photographer who didn't speak English and had never canoed before, Perkins and his team began their river trip by covering a bare two miles in seven hours: courtesy of logjams every few hundred yards. Not deterred, the crew combined canoeing with side trips into the local environs where they met wandering nomads herding reindeer; scaled the second largest snow-covered volcano in Kamchatka; and met a Russian architect who, despite threats from the authorities, was recreating a stately medieval church in his village. In short, they came, they saw, and it appears that they had a damn good time. Likely to appeal to nature enthusiasts as well as patrons interested in Soviet culture, Yankee in Kamchatka is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from: New Film Co., 7 Mystic St., Suite 22, Arlington, MA 02174.)