Follow the bones and follow the story of a school teacher, a world-renowned palaeontologist, and a herd of dinosaurs—a discovery of a lifetime that was almost forgotten.
This is a story about what it takes to make a major scientific discovery.
“Most people think scientists are crazy because we never agree with each other, well that’s part of the process! It’s this argument and debate that allows us to move ahead.”
Philip J. Currie
The Film
Follow the Bones is 45 minute documentary film about a high school science teacher who stumbled upon a massive, life-changing fossil site while on a picnic on labour day weekend in 1971. It’s a story about collaboration between amateur rock hounds & fossil enthusiasts, and world-famous palaeontologists. It’s about what it takes—the sheer labour, the legwork, the lab work, the curiosity and imagination to make a major scientific discovery.
Over the course of 40 years the site has been shut down, declared illegal, and vandalized. If not for the intervention of a curious technician, the fossils were headed to the dump. An actual dump.
But in the end the fossils changed the teacher’s life, the course of palaeontology, and his hometown forever.
Follow filmmaker Tara Cooper as she joins world-famous palaeontologist Philip Currie on digs all over Alberta—from the Badlands in the south to the lush forests of the north. It’s a story that’ll inspire the amateur fossil hunter to dig out a rock hammer, lace-up the hiking boots, and head out prospecting!
The doc is shot and directed by Terry O'Neill and Tara Cooper. Illustrations by Kagan McLeod. Soundtrack by Ken Myhr. Special thanks to the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Grande Prairie Alberta.
Special thanks to the Ontario Arts Council for funding this project, it wouldn't have happened without them!
