Ranger of the North
Join us to reach our stretch goal of $12,500! The deadline is August 22!
“In all my works I take the part of trees as against all their enemies.” — J.R.R Tolkien
About this Project
Story | Budget Items | About the Team | Updates
Project by Green Hero Films
Durham, North Carolina | Film Short | Documentary
Team
Bradley Bethel: Director, Producer, Writer
Peter Christian: Writer, Protagonist
Ned Phillips: Cinematographer, Editor, Producer
Stuart Muller: Producer
Nick Wallhausser: Sound Design, Drone
Photography, Associate Producer
James Phillips: Composer
As a documentary that explores the environmental themes of The Lord of the Rings, “Ranger of the North” will uniquely appeal to a broad, diverse audience, inspiring viewers to (re)connect with nature and take responsibility for our planet’s health.
Synopsis
Inspired by his favorite novel, The Lord of the Rings, Peter Christian moved to Alaska and became a ranger with the National Park Service in 1994. He has been patrolling and protecting the vast, northern wilderness for thirty years now and has witnessed dramatic changes in that time. As he approaches retirement, he must face the reality that the wilderness and wildlife he swore to protect are suffering from a rapidly warming climate. Embarking on a deeply personal journey into the far north of Alaska, Peter looks back to the novel that inspired him and searches for the path to hope.
Impact
J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings and its film adaptations by Peter Jackson have become cultural touchstones, attracting and bringing together millions of fans from diverse backgrounds. More than an entertaining fantasy, The Lord of the Rings depicts a complex moral universe in which good and evil often manifest as conflicting attitudes and behaviors toward the natural world. Peter Christian is one of countless readers who have been inspired by Tolkien’s love of nature, and Peter’s story as a National Park ranger is inspiring in its own right. In “Ranger of the North,” viewers see the Alaskan wilderness through Peter’s eyes and, with him, search for hope in the face of a degraded and suffering environment. Like The Lord of the Rings before it, “Ranger of the North” will awaken viewers to the beauty and fragility of nature and offer a fresh perspective on finding hope in troubled times.
Director’s Statement
As a high school English teacher, I tell my students on the first day of class that great literature has the power to change your life. “Ranger of the North” is my effort to show them I mean it.
This film, in other words, is my effort to show viewers what it’s like to absorb a novel — in this case, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings — to such an extent that it shapes the way you think and the way you see the world.
In making “Ranger of the North,” I specifically set out to explore the implications of Tolkien’s understanding that good and evil manifest as conflicting ways to treat nature. Throughout The Lord of the Rings, the heroes display a profound reverence for the natural world, whereas the villains consistently exploit and degrade the land. So what would it look like, in our world, to take Tolkien’s love of nature seriously?
Peter Christian shows us. The Lord of the Rings shaped his environmental awareness as a kid and eventually inspired him to become a ranger with the National Park Service. His thirty-year career has been an ongoing effort to live out the values he learned from Tolkien.
“Ranger of the North” invites viewers to see the world through Peter’s eyes and peer into his mind to understand how his thinking has been shaped by reading — and re-reading — Tolkien. Through our collaboration with Peter, we have distilled his Tolkien-inspired environmental ethos into a documentary meditation on wilderness and humanity’s responsibility to care for it under threat.
That threat goes by many names. Whatever we call it — whether climate change, industrialization, human greed, or something else — it can feel overwhelming for many of us. Even Peter questions how he can go on in the face of despair. Of course, he eventually finds a way, through Tolkien’s writing.
Ultimately, our film is about more than Tolkien’s love of nature — it’s about hope. And hope is running short these days. Neither Tolkien nor Peter can give it to you, but “Ranger of the North” might help you discover how to find hope on your own. That’s just what a great film, and great literature, can do.
Incentives
$25 Welcome to the Fellowship
Anyone who contributes $25+ will receive a Special Thanks credit in the film. You are now part of the fellowship, and we appreciate your joining!
$50 Mushrooms from Farmer Maggot
In addition to a Special Thanks credit, anyone who contributes $50+ will receive an online screening of the film before it is released on any digital platforms. Like the mushrooms from Farmer Maggot and his wife, we hope the film will surprise and delight you!
$100 Gifts of Galadriel (75 available)
In addition to a Special Thanks credit and online screening, anyone who contributes $100+ will receive an 11x17 official “Ranger of the North” poster and a personal thank you note from the director. May our film be a light to you in dark places!
$250 The Council of Elrond (30 available)
In addition to all the rewards described above, you will be invited to an exclusive online Q&A session with the filmmakers (via Zoom) to hear firsthand all about the making of the film and the forming of the filmmakers’ fellowship. You have earned your place at the Council, and we welcome your questions!
$1000 Captains of the West (10 available)
In addition to all the rewards described above, you will join the Producer’s Circle, a small team that collaborates with the filmmakers on outreach and promotion and is invited to select festival screenings and social events. Let us celebrate our filmmaking victories and plan our future campaigns together! (You also have the option to make this contribution a tax-deductible donation. Contact us directly before contributing.)
Budget Items
Total Goal: $7,500
Sound Mix & Music Score - $2,500
Every film no matter how big requires a meticulous process at the end: the sound mix. We are working with sound designer Nick Wallhausser to mix in sound effects, score, nature ambience and more. We want the film to be an immersive expereince, and sound is essential for this.
Color Edits - $2,000
No film is complete without a beautiful color grade. In the field, we record in a Sony log format that essentially compresses the colors and highs/lows towards the middle. It looks quite grey and bland out of the camera. This allows for a lot of flexibility in the field to not sure over or under exposed. However this means, when we finish editing, it needs be color corrected! We are working with award-winning colorist Alan Maynard on this process. Our aim is to make the film as beautiful as we can.
Distribution & Outreach - $3,000
If a tree falls in a forest with no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course, the answer is yes… But, with films in particular, it sure is a lot more meaningful if people hear/see them. We will be submitting to festivals for this fall and planning a distribution run across festivals and ultimately ending up on a streaming platform, public television, or with a distribution partner to get the film out in the world. We are also organizing educational screenings across the country.
Ranger of the North | Creative Team
We are a team of Emmy award winning filmmakers based in Durham. We are all independent producers and filmmakers, and most of us have worked together for over a decade on numerous projects!
-
Bradley Bethel is a high school English teacher and filmmaker with an equal passion for literature and film. He studied writing in college, went on to earn a graduate degree in education, and has nearly twenty years of teaching experience. While attending a film festival in 2014, Bradley was inspired to start making his own films despite no formal training. The first documentary short he produced, “Radioactive Veteran” (2016), premiered at DOCUTAH International Documentary Film Festival and later played on PBS North Carolina. He also produced “The Maestro” (2018), which premiered at RiverRun International Film Festival, and the same year be produced “Robeson Rises” (2018), which received a competitive grant from The Fledgling Fund and was sponsored by Working Films on screening tours across the South. From 2019 to 2023, Bradley was the director of Carrboro Film Fest, and he continues to serve on the festival’s selection committee. He is originally from Toledo, Ohio, but now lives in central North Carolina.
-
Ned Phillips (Director of Photography ) is a filmmaker based in Durham, North Carolina. He graduated with honors from Goucher College and went on to earn a certificate in Documentary Arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Since then, he has shot and edited multiple films, including work that has screened at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, DOC NYC, Riverrun International Film Festival and Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, among others. He currently works as an editor and cinematographer with Emmy and Peabody award winning production company Markay Media, while also working as an independent producer with PBS NC. In 2017, Ned founded Green Hero Films, and he is currently in post-production on his first feature documentary, The Last Partera, which has been supported by The Southern Documentary Fund, New Orleans Film Society, Big Sky Pitch Competition and Points North 1to1 at the Camden International Film Festival.
