IMAX movie tells Ohio's environmental comeback story from burning river to top-ranked state parks

COLUMBUS, Ohio — When you think IMAX, chances are your mind goes to those immersive documentaries that take you inside volcanoes, deep under oceans, atop mountains or to distant planets. Or to those widescreen films that bathe you in backstage experiences with iconic rockstars or Hollywood special effects.

But, this year, the state of Ohio is using the technology to tell an environmental comeback story closer to home.

“Ohio: Wild at Heart” features the state’s top-ranked park system to highlight wildlife conservation efforts and the restorative power of outdoor recreation. Filmed over more than a year, the $2.5 million project — paid for with information and education funds — is drawing large crowds at science museums around the state and heads next year into classrooms.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz calls it “a love letter to the mission of protecting our natural resources and expanding opportunities to explore.”

Narrated by Ohio State football great Archie Griffin, the documentary depicts the state's landscapes at a sweeping scale — from the lighthouse-dotted shores of Lake Erie in the north to the towering limestone formations of the Hocking Hills in the hilly south.

The efforts take on outsized meaning given the historical context. It was the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catching on fire in 1969 that sparked the modern environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the fire six years ago, the river's fish were declared once again safe to eat.

Many more environmental success stories are featured in “Ohio: Wild at Heart.” They include a former Blackhawk pilot's efforts to successfully relocate rare trumpeter swans to Ohio marshlands, as well as wildlife biologists' program to repopulate once endangered bald eagles. Ohio’s governor, Republican Mike DeWine, and his wife Fran, show off family-friendly nature paths lined with pages from children's stories known as “ storybook trails.”

Nature's mental health benefits are also emphasized.

“People feel like you have to go far away to experience nature,” a naturalist on screen says. “We restore nature, nature restores us,” a volunteer says.

People feature in the film credit recreational activities as varied as hiking, kayaking, birding, ice fishing and dog-sledding with restoring their bodies, benefiting their mental health, combating loneliness and salvaging their self-esteem.