Traverse City Record-Eagle

2010 Traverse City Film Festival

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  • "Cane Toads: The Conquest" Special to the Record-Eagle

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  • Clark Bunting

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July 29, 2010

'Cane Toads' producer is area resident

Clark Bunting is part-time TC resident, GM of Discovery

BY JODEE TAYLOR jtaylor@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — The cane toads invading Australia have a local connection.

Clark Bunting, a part-time resident of Silver Lake, is the executive producer of the 3-D documentary screening tonight and Friday at the Traverse City Film Festival.

He's also president and general manager of the Discovery Channel and president of the Science Channel.

"I love Traverse City," he said. "It has a great airport, friendly people, a big-city vibe with a small-town feel."

He's "always loved up north," he said, beginning with family trips to the Homestead. He's a Rochester High School and Michigan State University graduate who now lives on Campbell Island — "it's more of a moat" — in Silver Lake in an ecofriendly house he plans to keep in the family for generations.

He hopes to spend six months here and six months living near the Discovery Channel's headquarters close to Washington, D.C.

But back to those toads.

"It's a cautionary tale," Bunting said of the movie. The cane toads were introduced to Australia in 1935 in an attempt to thwart the greyback cane beetle. Now they're ... unstoppable.

"It's about what happens when you bring in a species that doesn't belong here," he said, mentioning zebra mussels and Asian carp along the away.

But the message the movie carries comes with a dose of humor and quirkiness, he said.

Sometimes documentaries carry a "Thou Shalt Not" message that turns people off, he said, but "irony is a way to pull people in."

He stumbled into the Discovery Channel job by answering an ad for the Cable Education Network 25 years ago. He was one of the original employees and is credited with, among other things, introducing "Shark Week." He said he does a "gawky happy dance" when a show gets 2 million viewers. Among the surprises of his career have been the popularity of "Deadliest Catch" and "The Crocodile Hunter."

For budding filmmakers, he said it's "less about the experience and more about the attitude."

"You have to have a thirst to learn," he said.

The Discovery Channel has an internship program through MSU, he said, and of the seven interns they've hired, six have gone on to full-time jobs.

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