I was at the Sundance Film Festival early this year but didn't get a chance to see Grizzly Man. I went to Alaska last month and we did get very close to the bears with our guide. I saw the movie the day after I returned home and had I seen it before I went, I probably would have been much more concerned about my distance from the bears (at one point we were only ten paces away). There is no question that Treadwell was mentally disturbed, but having been up close and personal with the bears myself, I have to say there is something mesmerizing about being in their presence. Especially true when you are looking through the lens and "shooting". You forget these are huge dangerous animals and there is a sense of wonderment and if I dare say it, "kinship" with these majestic animals. We had no protection of any kind with us during the week I spent in Alaska and our guide was a young college Biology graduate with a few years experience in the "wild". As it turned out,we were about 40 miles from the location where Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed on the Katmai peninsula.