Well, Les Stroud (Survivorman) recently released this on DVD finally instead of just VHS and so of course, it is now available to download via torrent.
I found it really inspiring and recommend it to every member of this forum. They took some cool footage, some that’s quite artistic even. Despite this they pull no punches when talking about their (almost) year living primitive in the Canadian wilderness.
Spoilers ?!
They spent over a year making all the tools and equipment they would need with primitive skills before they left. The main thing that takes away from the authenticity is that they had their ‘natural foods’ of beaver, moose, berries, maple syrup etc, air-dropped in every few months. They did fish I think, but I’m not sure how successful it was or how much food they hunted or gathered. And even with all this they seemed to struggle under the work load of shelter, fire, cooking, staying alive although the Giardia parasite from their water source would not have helped, this bug has seriously hospitalised some people over here. There is also a part that reminds you of the appalling high mortality rates of pregnant women suffered pre modern medicine, and other parts that remind you of the importance of friends and family and that most people can’t just run away and escape this. I wonder how they would have managed if they needed to take care of children and/or obtain their own food. It seems this reinforces the opinion around here that you really need a small tribe of people if your going to successfully live truly primitively. The nude canoeing scenes made me lol, and they really did fit my image of what Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers looked like thousands of years ago.
Anyway, buy it! (or download it if your unemployed/studying like me).