Category: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Title:
Life in Iffurrien
Synopsis
A Natural History documentary, narrated by the famous Ursine broadcaster & naturalist Darroth Abbenturret*, that gives the viewers a through-the-year look at some of the glorious wildlife which exists within the little-visited (and thus, even by Ursine standards, “unspoilt”) forest of
Iffurrien. This is a large expanse of woodland — some patches with all ‘broadleaf trees, some patches with all conifers, but mostly mixed — with smaller areas of various other ecosystems such as lakes or meadows or rocky slopes (and some quite spectacular ‘Karst’ limestone scenery) scattered through this, and is located at the eastern side of this country’s ‘Mainland’ section.
(See this map: Iffurrien is the area, in purple, marked with a silver letter ‘J’ and with an arrow labelled ‘33’ also pointing into it.)
The main species featured include ‘Great Deer’
(whose most commonly name in RL, where they’ve actually now been extinct for several millennia, is ‘Irish Elk’
; small herds have been preserved in Iffurrien, & in a few other areas around Bears Armed, through the efforts of the TrueBears** ); the magnificent ‘StarFlower Tree’
(no close RL counterpart), which also grows in only a few other places; the Flying Marten
(an agile member of the Weasel family which, unlike any of its RL relatives, can spread flaps of skin out between its limbs to glide from tree to tree or to drop onto prey below; this does have a wider range, but is much shyer in more populous areas); Iffurrien’s endemic White Squirrel; two species of Shrike-Rollers
(colourful birds, distantly related to the Kingfishers but of a type that has no exact counterpart in RL, whose range doesn’t extend much further into Bear Armed); Lake Sturgeon
(species endemic to Iffurrien]; Cave Shrew
(a small & primarily insectivorous mammal, ‘placental’ but of a relatively ‘primitive’ type, not closely related to the “true” Shrews; the ‘karst’ section of Iffurrien might be the only place within Bears Armed it currently lives); Woods Bison; and the ‘Creeping Yew’, which is a coniferous shrub also endemic to Iffurrien.
Production Details
Studio: Bears Armed Broadcasting Corporation (Natural History Unit)
Date of release: 2018
Language used: English
(although a version in Ursine also exists)
Running Time: 4 hours, with 3 intermissions; The BABC also will be broadcasting a longer version as a television series, with eight episodes @ one hour each, starting in approximately a year’s time.
Producer/Director, Writer/Narrator: Darroth Abbenturret
Assistant Producer (Iffurrien): Haerren.
Assistant Producer (Admin.): Jharri White.
Head of Cinematography: Sarra LightChild.
Edited for cinematic release by: Darroth Abbenturret, Sarra, LightChild, and Alan Smithers.
Soundtrack composed/arranged/conducted by: Arri Carpenter.
Footnotes
* Yes, this 'Darroth Abbenturret'
is basically the Ursine counterpart of RL's Sir David Attenborough. :bear:
** The ‘TrueBears’ are a people who basically compare to this nation’s standard Ursines much as Tolkien’s ‘Elves’ compare to humans. The entire forest of Iffurrien is one of the areas specifically under their direct protection.
*************************************************************************
Category: Best New IDU Film
Title:
Urrth’hro True, Night-Hunter: The Case of the Silver BereWolf
Genre: Adventure/Mystery/Horror
Synopsis
Urrth’hro True [sup](1)[/sup] is ‘the Night-Hunter’, latest in a hereditary line of champions who protect Bearkind against the forces of Chaos and Evil [sup](2)(3)[/sup]. He is visited in his office by an attractive young she-bear named Marryana Baskingvale, from a family of prominent land-owners whose home lies close
(“Too close!”) to the country’s eastern border and thus to the area called ‘the Hazardous Wastes’ [sup](4)[/sup] beyond that. Legend tells that one of their ancestors killed a horrific ‘BereWolf’ — a Bear cursed by Chaos, who must transform into a monstrous & ravenous wolf-like [but considerably larger!] form on the three nights closest to each month’s New Moon — in the area where the family now lives, and that in fact this deed was why they were granted those estates in the first place. Now, after
yonkhs [sup](5)[/sup], however, it seems that either the original BereWolf has somehow risen from the dead or the curse that it bore has found a new victim: First, large numbers of both wild animals and domestic livestock started being found torn to shreds and partly devoured; then, some of those people who dared peer out into the night started reporting sightings of a huge and silvery-glowing lupine form in the distance… and now people themselves have started to disappear, in the latest case [before Marryanna left to seek aid) from a cottage that was smashed open. Will Urrth’hro go to her people’s aid?
Of course he will. Pausing only to acquire some extra weaponry and gadgets from his inventor friend ‘R’, and to consult with scholar Professor WhiteBear (who can’t tell him much at such short notice, but promises to do more research into this situation’s background and send the results onwards), he and Marryanna catch the weekly passenger-boat upstream.
Main Cast
Urrth’hro True: Urrthron SunBlessed.
Ferrmah, his secretary: Arraena Silverbear.
Doctor WhiteBear: Jharrge WhiteBear *
‘R’: Goodbear Mercer.
Marryana Baskingvale: Karra o Jherran
Mayor Arrthraim o Wildooods:
Sherriff Sarrue o WildWoods: Marra Longwater
Hrrogh’hurr Baskingvale: Danno o Jherran
Jarrkh Baskingvale: Korrvhan Redsmith
Grrufh: Hrrock o Surra
Barrbogh: Harrnock BigBear
Professor Arrunh o Westfells: Wirran Greybear
Armas the Hunter: Berrin o GreenWoods
The Sorcerer: Laurrimt Grey
Torrwin Rangh’harr: Garraeon Rangh’harr
Members of the ‘The Big Bears’ Warrior Society: [as it says]
Production Details
Studio: 21st Century Bear
Date: 2018
Language used: English
Running Time: 1 hour & 45 minutes
Producer: Irrsyan TalkingMountain
Director: Jharrge Whitebear *
Head of Cinematography: Hrogh’hurr Korrbear
Special Effects: ‘Artistic Light and Magic’
Soundtrack composed/arranged/conducted by: Arri Carpenter.
Footnotes
(1) ‘True’ really is a genuine Ursine surname. There are two lineages that still use it in modern times, one of them in the ‘Silver-of-Night’ clan and the other in the ‘Sun Clan’. This film, like most earlier stories about its hero, is vague about whether it hero actually belongs to one or the other of them: The actor who portrays him is from the Sun Clan, but is of mixed parentage with fur of a shade that wouldn’t be out of place among the ‘Silver-of-Night’ either.
(2) He originally starred in a series of pulp novels, decades ago, mainly confronting fairly mundane criminals who had imported new ideas or equipment from the lands of the Humans — with an occasional ‘mad scientist’, or runaway creation of theirs, thrown into the mix — with hardly any “genuinely” supernatural elements present at all: In fact Urrth’hro himself, appearing mysteriously & suddenly out of the night with his un-nerving laugh and his ability “to cloud the mind of bears”, was arguably the closest thing that the series had to a supernatural being…
“Who knows what evil lurks in the livers of bears? The Night-Hunter knows!”
This film, however, draws more strongly on a radio series that the BABC created much more recently: Urrth’hro has been changed from a mysterious figure whose background and home nobody knows into this “hereditary champion” whose day job is as a ‘private nose’
[i.e. ‘private eye’], almost all of his cases involve the supernatural, his former supporting cast aren’t mentioned, and he’s been given a new introduction**:
“These are the Woods.
“These are the Wild Woods.
“These are the deep, dark, secret-haunted Woods that lie out beyond the boundaries of civilisation…
“Yes, even beyond the boundaries of Ursine civilisation.
“No Humans
live in these woods, nor many Bears
neither…
“And yet through these shadowy woods, sometimes a lone Bear must go: A Bear who is not himself consumed by the shadows, who is neither tarnished nor afraid; a Bear who knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows.****
“I am that Bear.
“I am Urrth’hrro True, The Night-Hunter.”
(3) To the Bears, ‘Chaos’ and ‘Evil’ are generally recognised as two separate supernatural forces that are both inimical to normal life but that —fortunately — are even more hostile to each other than they are to everything else.
(4) That area was blighted (and “cursed”) during the ‘Wizards’ War’ in which these lands’ previous Human civilisation self-destructed, nearly two thousand years ago, and still gives birth to monsters… most recently,
mainly to “woozles” and “heffalumps”, with the occasional wyvern or less easily definable flyer (colloquially, nowadays, a “jabberwocky”) as well.
(5) In RL, “yonks” is just a colloquial term for “a quite long, but undefined, period of time”: In the Ursine language (and, from that, in the Urso-English dialect as well), however, a “yonkh” is specifically eight-squared [i.e. sixty-four, in base-10 numbers], and as mainstream Ursine culture uses base-8 numbers this word can thus be used in the sorts of situations where we might refer to “centuries”.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* Yes, the director had a minor role for himself, as a fictional character, written into the script: His doing so is considered one of his “trademarks” by now, although he wasn't the first Ursine director to do this.
(** You might recognize parts of this speech: It includes a bit adapted from the works of Raymond Chandler, and then one that was “borrowed” from Oliver Cromwell!)
*************************************************************************
Category: Best Classic IDU Film
Title:
Artos of Nutwood
Genre: Biopic/Epic (Religious)
Synopsis
This film isn’t just a magnificent epic, it’s a biopic of
Artos Ursios who, in a major religion that takes its name of
‘Ursionity’ [sup](1)[/sup]
from him, is essentially the closest that the Bears get to having a
‘Jesus Christ’ figure of their own.
Artos lived and was killed and rose from the dead in a distant island called ‘Bruttain’ [sup](2)[/sup], a long time ago: The precise dates can’t be pinned down now, because the people who brought this religion to Bears Armed had moved across several different Earths during their migrations before they reached this land and it’s strongly suspected that at least one of their journeys between worlds had also involved a significant time-shift…
Artos was a son of The Great Bear
(God, the Creator), fathered miraculously — in a dream — on Mother Marra who was a retired priestess (and, as later revealed an avatar) of Mother Nature although she was supposedly too old to conceive. He was raised by Marra and by her husband, the stone-carver Jarroth, whom she had married after retiring but before the conception. At first they had to live in exile in the land of Emeraldisle [sup](3)[/sup], for fear of a King named Harrod
(the ruler of most of southern Bruttain, but from a tribe of fairly recent invaders called the Bulgae [sup](4)[/sup] whose belief in The Great Bear was new & mostly weak…) whom it was known had received a prophecy about the birth of a new “King of the Bears”: They were warned by the ‘Three Wise Birds’, Eagle and Owl and Raven, who were then miraculously enlarged so that they themselves could carry Artos and his parents [sup](5)[/sup] to this safer location. Later, however, the family slipped back into Bruttain and set up home in the village of Nutwood — which was in a western province that lay outside of Harrod’s realm — where Marra became owner of the local tavern, the 'Hope and Glory'. Artos worked a few miracles during his childhood, at least twice to confound a local chieftain’s troublemaking son Hreggo Blackcloak who was a couple of years older than him; He confounded priests of The Great Bear at the holy city of Sarum [sup](6)[/sup] Sarum (including Abbramerroch, who was later the Chief Priest there) with his knowledge and understanding of the holy books when he was taken on a visit there — although that place
did lie within Harrod’s kingdom — for his twelfth birthday.
And then, at the age of twenty-four, Artos set out on a preaching mission — preaching not only to Bears but to
all peoples [sup](7)[/sup], gathering followers [sup](8)[/sup] and working miracles [sup](9)[/sup], as he went — that ended at Sarum on the festival of
‘Sermharn’ [sup](10)[/sup]. Harrod sent troops to seize him, guided by Hreggo Blackcloak who was now a priest at the great temple, and when the Chief Priest Abbramerroch to prosecute Artios for heresy —
“or for ‘capital blasphemy, or something else that that justifies execution” as Harrod put it — he persuaded his ‘Romaine’ [sup](11)[/sup] overlords that this “young upstart” had to dealt with decisively before he managed to start a rebellion.
Artos was put to death by Romaine soldiers on a hillside at Sarum, just outside the Temple
(which was actually a desecration of the site whose seriousness neither Harrod nor the Romaines recognised in time…), by impalement and under a placard on which had jokingly been inscribed the letters ‘ANRU’ which stood for — in the Romaines’ ‘Lapin’ language —
“Artos Nutwoodensis, Rex Ursinae” [i.re. “Artos of Nutwood, King of the Bears”]. Both Abbramerroch and Hreggo, who had offended the Romaine governor, were also impaled there — although on longer & sharper, and thus more quickly lethal, stakes — alongside him. His remains were then shovelled into a quickly-dug hole on the plain below, in an area that was often used for burials, with a heavy but unmarked stone slab placed on top when the grave was filled in again so that it would be harder for his followers to exhume him… but He rose from the dead fully-healed, at the following Spring Solstice, and continued his preaching for a while before ascending bodily into ‘The Great Forest’
[i.e. Heaven] aboard a golden chariot. And so, the city of Sarum came to be known widely as ‘Holy Sarrum’ which is
‘Urru-Sarum’ [sup](12)[/sup] in the Ursine tongue…
Footnotes on Synopsis
(1) Ursionity is [arguably] the second most important religion in the ‘Mainland’ section of Bears Armed, after ‘One Plus Seven’, and it is actually quite common for people to belong to both of them at the same time. I already had a lot of the details about this religion and its origins worked out, and bits of this have already appeared in my earlier RP in the game’s forums.
(I hope that any of you who are Christians will accept this is honestly meant to be a [fictional, in OOC terms] alternative reality’s parallel revelation
rather than just as a parody…)
(2) ‘Bruttain’ is that world’s version of Britain, of course, and I borrowed some background from the medieval author Geoffrey of Monmouth’s famous ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ — as well as from the Bible, and from folklore — during its development.
(3) ‘Emeraldisle’ = Ireland (used here in place of the biblical Egypt).
(4) Approximately counterparts to RL ‘ancient’ Britain’s
‘Belgae’ tribe.
(5) This scene was filmed using models and ‘stop-motion’ effects, in a similar style to the work of RL’s Ray Harryhausen.
(6) i.e. @Old Sarum’ as we know it today, a hill-top site several miles from the centre of modern Salisbury [in Wiltshire, England].
(7) He had nine main disciples, one for each of the ‘Eight Instructions’
(their religion’s equivalent of the ‘Ten Commandments’) "and one more for the new message", as is commonly said.
(8) The peoples among whom he travelled were Bears, ‘Brocks’
(i.e. anthropomorphic Badgers), ‘Katts’
(i.e. anthropomorphic Cats; they had been the dominant people in those islands before the Bears arrived, and at that date still controlled wide areas in [RL] Wales and the northern parts: one of them became not just Artos’s only non-Ursine disciple but his only female
disciple too, this being the dancer ‘Marra Mograkatta’…), Ravens, and maybe even others…
(9) Miracles such as restoring not only a full & healthy coat of fur but also health itself to the tax-collector Bassarross, who had been almost bald & almost dead due to a disease — which, fortunately, is
not present in Bears Armed — called ‘Terminal Mange’…
(10) ‘Sermharn’ is essentially the Celtic ‘Samhain’, a festival held in early winter to commemorate the dead (a weakened form of which survives today, of course, as ‘Halloween’).
(11) The ‘Romaine Empire’ doesn’t take its name from the ‘Romaine’ variety of
Lettuce, in this setting it gave its name
to that crop because the Romaine people — who were actually anthropomorphic Rabbits, making up for their individual physical weakness [compare to, for example, Bears] with numbers and cunning — planted it wherever their rule extended.
(12) I had already decided that “Urru” was an Ursine word for ‘Holy’, quite a while before developing Ursionity’s history this far, so that new name was a fortuitous coincidence. Still, the religion’s followers — not just in exile from their religion’s land of origin, but now on a different version of Earth entirely — sometimes use the toast
“Next year in Urru-Sarum!” (as the dispersed Jews, in RL history [at least before the creation of modern Israel], sometimes toasted “Next year in Jerusalem”…)
Main Cast
Artos (as a child): Jamms Redmile
Artos (aged 12): Artorrios Flowerdale
Artos (as an adult): Urrthtron Flowerdale
(older brother of Artorrios)
Mother Marra: Marra Redmile
(actual mother of Jamms Redmile)
Jarroth the Stone-carver: Jharrge Steward
King Harrod: Mahrron o GreenWoods
The Witch of Yavin: Arrissa Albaene
First Guard-Captain: Barrchock BigBear
Raven: Rhaak Hrahrn Arckh
(a talking Raven; also doubled by a model, for which she provided the voice)
Eagle: Grahark Arch’hrakh Yrrakh
(a talking Raven, providing the voice for a model)
Owl: Kharrch Brakkr Hrakkah
(a talking Raven, providing the voice for a model)
Jorrath of Tarrchehron, a merchant: Ferrad Redmile
(brother to Marra)
Hreggo Blackcloak (as a child): Errrogroth Marhgon
Hreggo Blackcloak (as a teenager/as an adult): Derrroth Marhgon
(father of Errogroth)
Abbramerroch, a priest (later the Chief Priest): Urrth’hro o Jherran
Jamms, son of Jorroth [disciple]: Peddar Redmile
(nephew of Marra and Ferrad)
Peddar, also called Sermharn, a fisherbear [disciple]: Erron RiverBear
Amdrrawn, brother of Peddar, another fisherbear [disciple]: Wirremh o SwanWater
Tarrms, a tinker [disciple]: Borrin o Jherran
Bearrabachurr, a bandit leader: Barrchock BigBear
(in his second role)
Marra Moggrakatta, a Katt, a dancer/acrobat [disciple]: Marra Faithbearer
(a human actress in a full-body costume... which didn't keep her from doing a verrry impressive dance routine to celebrate the character's liberation, by Artios himself, from Bearrabachurr & his gang)
Yorrn, a schoolteacher [disciple]: Yorrnarran Smith
Marrauth, a retired soldier [disciple]: Tarromon o Herrchaum
March’hrren, a message-runner [disciple]: Truthteller Westerhills
Pallos, a herbalist [disciple]: Jirroth o Jherran
Jamms, son of Jorrn, a freelance scribe [disciple]: Jorrn Jorrnson
The she-bear beset by demons: Glory
(a veteran actress from the days of the silent movies & very earliest talkies, making a comeback!)
Bassarross, the tax-collector: Urrsen Wells
(the film’s Director)
An innkeeper at Sarum: Hrogh’hurr Grey
Barmaids/waitresses at the inn: Mirra, Morra, and Murra, o Southwoods
(triplets!)
Second Guard-Captain: Bearren o Barrdenn
Third Guard-Captain: Tarrgo o WestWoods
Erranaon, a priest (and later Chief Priest): Borrin o Surra
Bonnius Byrrate, the Romaine governor: Mark Silvers
(a human actor in a mask [with false ears attached] & heavy make-up)
First Centurion: Berric Regnion
(ditto)
Second Centurion: Martin Uphill
(ditto)
Gravediggers: Bell and Bin
(two Brocks, i.e. anthropomorphic Badgers, who were a famous comedy double-act; some critics call their scenes [at both the burial and the rising of Artos] a ridiculous addition into what should be a serious story, but others say that they bring a necessary re-lightening of the mood after the intensity of the impalement scene…)
Barrnabhory, a lame beggar: Artorrios o Herrchaum
Production Details
Studio: Woods-GoldBear-Wylder
Date of original release: 1959
Language used: English
Running Time: three hours, with two evenly spaced intermission
Producer: Jamms Wylder
Director: Urrsen Wells
(who also provided narration for some scenes, and even filled the role of Bassarross…)
Screenplay
(adapted from ‘The Holy Beeble’, which is the main scriptures of Ursionity…) by: Arrolfh o GreenWoods, Lyrra Frakham’sden, and Overpriest Ursiosoffurr Stone.
Head of Cinematography: Marrchon o RedRose
Head of Special Effects: Arri Hrrayhouses
Head of Costuming: Erraya Highwood
Soundtrack composed by: Arrnon Goldencorn
Soundtrack arranged by: Arrnon Goldencorn and Tiggard Amburr
Soundtrack conducted by: Tiggard Amburr
Soundtrack performed by: the WGW Studio Orchestra
Extra Notes
I
have seen the classic version of ‘Ben Hur’ — the one starring Charlton Heston — and that’s the general style that I envisage for
this film in terms of camerawork [& the ‘widescreen’ nature of this], soundtrack, effort put into costume & set design, and so on.
I haven’t seen the RL film ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, but suspect that there might also be some slight similarities.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
There are the obvious biblical references, there are the details that I explained in the sections above… and there are some
other references, too: How many of
those can you identify?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
An album of the soundtrack, performed by the WGW Studio Orchestra, topped the ‘best-selling album’ chart across Bears Armed continuously for almost five years starting very shortly after the film’s original release.
![[Image: photos.medleyphoto.7346633.jpg]](https://www.wsbradio.com/rw/Pub/p6/WSOCTV/2015/05/29/Images/photos.medleyphoto.7346633.jpg)
![[Image: mk-asante.jpg]](https://cdn.idolnetworth.com/images/20/mk-asante.jpg)
![[Image: 1458226542-man-with-down-syndrome.jpg]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/netdoctor.cdnds.net/16/11/1458226542-man-with-down-syndrome.jpg)
