RICHARD TERRY

When Richard Terry answered a call to shoot a unique documentary series about a man who had been living with wild black and grizzly bears in Alaska for over 20 years, he knew that it would be a dangerous and life-changing assignment. However, he was not prepared for just how far he would have to go and how deeply affected he would be by the experience.

Two weeks after being chosen for the job, Richard was forced to come to terms with leaving his wife and two young sons for six months to live in a remote and wild part of the United States, in a hand-built wooden cabin, with Charlie Vandergaw, a 70-year-old retired school teacher and former wrestling coach.

Richard Terry understood that, once again, he literally had to work face-to-face with wild animals that he knew very little about. He had previously filmed "Wolfman" Shaun Ellis and his wolf pack for the National Geographic film A Man Among Wolves. For that assignment, Richard had to submit to the wolves, under Shaun's guidance. In doing so he was able to capture remarkably intimate scenes, such as the pack and Shaun sharing a feast of fresh dear carcass, which was shot hand-held from a distance of only inches.

The Animal Planet series, Stranger Among Bears, would end up being perhaps the toughest assignment Richard Terry — a BBC-trained cameraman from England — would ever accept. And the challenges of filmmaking would far outweigh the dramatic subject and location; Richard would have to make, and also appear in, the six-part series completely on his own.

A documentary crew is typically made up of five people: a director/producer, a production assistant, a cameraman, a sound recordist and a camera assistant — not including the film's presenter. Circumstances dictated that Richard would be flying out to Alaska alone, and that no one would join him there.

So in May 2008, Richard Terry flew to Alaska to film with a camera he had never used, to live with a man he had never met (or even talked to) and to be fast-tracked into moving stealthily and working comfortably around wild animals he had never even seen before.

The resulting series, Stranger Among Bears, is a moving and beautifully filmed tale of Charles Vandergaw, an extraordinary and charismatic man living out his exhilarating, controversial and potentially lethal existence in Alaska — a state known for its tolerance of peoples' sometimes obscure ways of life. However Charlie's notoriety was becoming far too much for the state's authorities to ignore.

The film stands testament to the filmmaker's ability to quickly adapt to the unknown and unexpected, and to tell the most astonishing story of one man's unusual and wondrous relationship with the bears.

It will be interesting to see how Richard Terry follows up this remarkable series. One thing is for sure: he won't be willingly putting himself between a mother bear and her young again.

Richard will be narrating the international version of Stranger Among Bears.