Description

Lighthouse Cinemas will show Giants of Big Sur - California Condor Stories on December 10th at 4:00 pm. A Ventana Wildlife Society Documentary. Tickets - $25.00 per person. Livestream - $10.00 per person.
Go behind the scenes with Wilderness Documentarian Ross Thomas as he learns the amazing and inspiring stories of the critically endangered California condor. Ross meets the Ventana Wildlife Society experts who have been working with the local community to restore these majestic giants to the wild Big Sur coast since 1997. Ross’s epic journey begins with a once in a lifetime visit with Senior Wildlife Biologist Joe Burnett to a wild condor’s nest deep in the Big Sur wilderness. Ross witnesses the intimate interaction between a condor parent and its new chick in the crown of a giant redwood tree. Ross then travels with Joe to see the Condor’s Big Sur sanctuary, which was destroyed by the Dolan Fire in 2020. Joe shares rare archival footage of the 2008 Basin Complex fire that burned most of the Big Sur wilderness. We see Ventana Wildlife Society biologists climb a burned redwood tree to save baby condor, Phoenix. Later, we meet Iniko, who captured the world’s heart during the Dolan Fire. We learn the stories of the condors and their incredible resiliency in the face of huge adversity. Through experiencing the work of Ventana Wildlife Society, Ross comes to understand the greatest threat to condors is not wildfire but rather, lead ammunition. Ross meets Mike Stake, Non-Lead Ammunition Program Manager, who takes him to meet with a rancher in a key condor area to better understand these complex issues. The film concludes with a call to action of how we can all help these magnificent giants. For more information and tickets: https://www.ventanaws.org/events.html