'Night of the Grizzlies' TV documentary wins PBS award

Gus Chambers, a television producer at The University of Montana's Broadcast Media Center and MontanaPBS, recently received a Programming Excellence Award from American Public Television for his documentary "Glacier Park's Night of the Grizzlies."

The film, co-produced with writer Paul Zalis, chronicles the harrowing night in 1967 when two young people were killed in grizzly bear attacks while camping with friends in the Park's backcountry. The film juxtaposes the stories of the two women with the status of the grizzly as an iconic representation of untamed wilderness.

The documentary was the highest-rated local program in the history of MontanaPBS when it premiered in May 2010. It was shown by nearly two-thirds of all public television stations.

Chambers also produces the popular MontanaPBS series "Backroads of Montana" and currently is working on a new documentary that follows six young Montana high school students through a year of 4-H activities.

For more information on "Glacier Park's Night of the Grizzlies," visit online at www.montanapbs.org/GlacierParksNightoftheGrizzlies.