National Geographic Young Explorers grantee Max Lowe will talk about his role in the Imax documentary "National Parks Adventure" during a presentation Tuesday, March 22, at the Tennessee Aquarium.
While enjoying downtime on an island off the coast of Panama, Lowe responded to emailed questions from Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Casey Phillips about his love of the wild, his introduction to adventuring and what the national parks mean to him.
Q: Where are you right now? What are you working on?
A: I am currently down in Panama in a little cluster of Islands on the Caribbean coast called Bocas Del Toro. Getting some downtime in, doing some surfing, shooting for fun and working on a few writing projects I had been putting off.
Q: You're as close to a professional adventure as I'm likely to speak with (or send questions to). What would you consider your first adventure? How old were you? Where did you go? What did you do there?
A: I was adventuring from day one on my parents' backs, as my mom and dad grew up outside and so naturally just kept on adventuring when they had kids. My first big adventure, though, that really sits in my memory and is one of those that has inspired my curiosity to chase the wild corners of the world was climbing the Grand Teton in Teton National Park when I was 12 with my father, Alex.
Q: How did you become involved in working on "National Parks Adventure?"
A: I got an email in the summer of 2014 asking if I was interested in being part of an Imax film, and at first I thought it was an Internet scam, because it was just such a far right-field idea that anyone would want me to take part in such a huge project. Greg MacGillivray, the director of the film, though, had seen my stepdad, Conrad Anker, in climbing films and had at first reached out to him about being a part of the film. Then, when they discovered that I was an adventure photographer, the father/son mentorship story was the direction they wanted to take.
Q: Do you think people properly value the national parks, or do people take them for granted?
A: I think it goes both ways. Some people who are lucky enough to spend a lot of time in the national parks hold great value in them and then work hard to protect them, and then there are millions of people every year who travel to the parks on vacation and have special memories then attached to those places. There are certainly a lot of people, though, that haven't been exposed to the amazing value in the parks and don't have the opportunity to explore the value in the outdoors. I hope that this film reaches them and helps get them into their local parks, the big national parks across the country as well as just getting into the outdoors.
Q: Growing up in such an adventuresome family, you spent a good bit of time in national parks, right? Which ones were your favorites?
A: We definitely spent a lot of time in parks throughout my childhood, including several summers living in Teton National Park when my father Alex was a climbing guide there, so that place holds a special place in my heart, for sure. I now live in a little town called Bozeman in Montana that is about an hour's drive from Yellowstone, so my constant exposure to that landscape has really endeared it to me. But it's hard to choose, from all the amazing parks in Utah, to Olympic National Park in Washington state, to the amazing mountains of Glacier. I have a lot of favorites.
Q: Before working on the documentary, did you have a favorite national parks moment?
A: I think some of my fondest memories in the parks are definitely my younger years spent ratting around the mountains, lakes and rivers of Teton National Park when we lived there. Our summers from when I was about 10 to 14 were spent there living in a cabin, and I was just constantly outside. I have really fond memories there with my whole family.
Q: What is your proudest moment from the film, the aspect of your involvement that makes you hold your back just a little straighter?
A: I wouldn't say I have a proudest moment from the film, per se, as most of the adventures we shot during production are ones we would do on a regular basis for fun, but I am really proud of how our story came together to portray the diversity in landscape and experiences we were able to weave together. Greg did an amazing job directing the huge crew through these amazing landscapes, all the while making it seem like it was just us going about our usual wanderings. Movie magic at its finest.
Q: Which moment from the experience of working on this film best exemplifies the national parks, in your mind?
A: I think our time shooting on Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore best exemplifies the parks, in the sense that it's this place that very few people ever go to in the middle of winter, but there was so much to be seen and discovered. I think that that is the nature of the outdoors - and within the national parks - that if you just rally to go get out, you'll usually always be pleasantly surprised with what you find, even if it's on frozen Lake Superior in minus-30-degree weather.
Q: How did working on this documentary affect you? What impact did it have on you personally?
A: I think working on this documentary gave me a good change in perspective about how a film can capture a story and translate that to a huge audience. Most of the film work that I am doing is small-form, short documentary that is usually limited to film-festival release and online, which is a relatively small niche. It has been so cool, sharing our adventure stories with people who have no tie within the world in which we exist. It's really cool.
Q: How do you think - or hope - the film will impact those who see it?
A: I really hope that the film inspires people to visit all the parks, but more so just to get outside and find the value in nature, because it's one of the most valuable things we have as Americans, these amazing, protected, wild places.
Q: What is it like seeing these images displayed on such a huge screen? Does it come anywhere close to the experience of actually being on-site, doing what you did?
A: I would say that seeing this film in Imax is about as close as you can get to the adventures we were embarking on in the movie without actually being there yourself. It's really some of the most amazing imagery ever captured of the wild places across our country.
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.