Read a review of Deep Presence in the journal "Weavings"
“Deep Presence” is the most powerful application of digital technology to the celebration of wilderness that I have ever seen. Dan Kowalski and Kurt Hoelting do much more than depict or describe wild beauty. By juxtaposing music poetry, and video in such an original way they offer a visceral, immediate experience of Alaska’s sublime landscape.”
John Elder, is professor of English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and author of Reading the Mountains of Home and Imagining the Earth: Poetry and the Vision of Nature.
"Deep Presence is breathtaking! No, it is breath-giving! It gently nudges you into a way of being in the natural world. It shows you how to see this magic, this motion, this rising and falling and tumbling and misting everywhere. It invites you to look for it, listen for it in the smallest and the greatest of things all around you. I think Numinous Waters is one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen. It brought tears to my eyes. I thought: I could watch this if I were dying and I would not be afraid. This film is a magnificent achievement!"
Trebbe Johnson, author of The World Is A Waiting Lover: Desire & the Quest for the Beloved
"Deep Presence is utterly beautiful. An achingly beautiful love story, I would call it. Just stunning and humbling and powerful. A psalm to the Planet."
Judyth Asphar, Resurgence Association
"A rare and inspired artistic synthesis of wild nature and deep soul, and a wake-up call about what it means to be alive in and in love with a precious world."
Rick Jackson, Director, Center for Courage & Renewal
"Deep Presence reminds us what matters most. The power of Deep Presence is not only where it takes us, but the grace and relationship of the storytellers themselves. We see the humanity of two men, connected as fishermen and friends, weaving their lives, their families, and their sense of purpose of the world. This is beautiful and truly enlivening work."
Peter Forbes, author of The Great Remembering
"Deep Presence is moving and inspiring. It takes you through an outer landscape that is magnificent and powerful, and takes you to an inner landscape that is deep, peaceful, soulful and quiet. It leaves you energized and hopeful."
Charles Terry, Former Director of Philanthropy, Rockefeller Family Foundation
"My students in ecological economics spend much of their time working with analytical models -- even when our subject is the value of wild places and healthy ecosystems. Participating in Deep Presence was a powerful and inspiring reminder of nature's wonder, awe and mystery -- the source of the values economists dissect so dispassionately."
David J. Vail, Adams-Catlin Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College
"Deep Presence is a luscious, poignant and heartfelt creation. I will certainly use all of it piece by piece - and so nice that it is offered that way - in my environmental science class."
Christopher Uhl, Professor of Biology, Penn State University
