Eyes of the Orangutan Premiere Screening Coming to the Royal Geographical Society in January!
From the studio that brought you ‘Ivory Game’ and ‘Sea of Shadows’ comes a new and powerful documentary, ‘Eyes of the Orangutan’. A captivating exploration of one of the most troubling facets of modern wildlife tourism, and an uplifting celebration of one of our closest living relatives: the orangutan.
For the first time ever you can watch this incredible documentary in London’s most charming and iconic venues, the Royal Geographical Society ... A one day only event: 19th of January 2023
Every year, millions of people travel the world to get their fix of the cute, the cuddly, and the charismatic. We take our families to zoos, ride on the back of elephants, visit dolphin shows at aquariums, and watch animals perform tricks at circuses.
Wildlife Tourism is a global, multi-billion dollar industry. But these profits don’t come without costs. In front of our eyes, and behind closed doors, lie stories of abuse and cruelty.
Aaron Gekoski is an internationally acclaimed photojournalist who has spent more than a decade documenting human-animal conflict. Over recent years he’s turned his lens on the Wildlife Tourism industry; a mission that’s taken him to dozens of countries.
But it was a trip to Vietnam that changed everything. At an amusement park in Ho Chi Minh, he spent time with a large male orangutan. Kept in a 4x5m enclosure, the orangutan had little more than two boulders for stimulation, no trees to climb, no place to escape the glare of visitors.
Orangutans are star attractions at Wildlife Tourism attractions. Sharing 97% of our DNA, they are sentient and intelligent animals. When kept in captivity, at places that cannot cater to their complex physical and emotional needs, they often suffer from stress and depression. The scene stayed with Gekoski: If we can do this to one of our closest living relatives, what hope is there for any other animal?
After Vietnam, Gekoski brings is his colleagues and friends – director Chris Scarffe, cinematographer Will Foster-Grundy and editor Damian Antochewicz – and a four-year investigation into the orangutan tourism industry begins.
In Thailand, they see orangutans forced into grotesque boxing shows, and others kept in dirty cages at the top of a shopping mall. And in Indonesia, they document orangutans on display at lavish breakfast buffets, and crowded by groups of tourists at National Parks.
Shocking revelations from poachers reveal how the orangutans ended up at these attractions. Stolen from their natural habitats – their mothers killed in the process – they are then smuggled across international borders. Once at their final destination, they are then trained to perform using cruel techniques or locked in cages for the rest of their lives.
On their journey, the team witnesses untold pain and suffering. Thankfully, there are groups working to mitigate this crisis. At Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, they meet local heroes who rescue and rehabilitate rescued orangutans, ready for release back into the wild.
The ABC is pleased to announce the eleven selected projects for the Your Planet Short Docs initiative.
The ABC has partnered with Doc Society and State and Territory funding agencies – Screenwest, VicScreen, Screen Tasmania, Screen Queensland and Screen Territory – to offer early career filmmakers an opportunity to create a short documentary focussing on climate and environmental solutions.
The result is that these next generation film makers have delivered a diverse and thought-provoking catalogue of documentaries that shine a light on people and communities designing and acting for a positive future.
From wildlife defenders to waste warriors, from valleys to reefs and powerful stories from First Nations filmmakers. These stories will transport the audience across Australia and showcase solutions to some of the challenges facing our environment.
Richard Huddleston, Acting Head of Factual and Culture said: “I am delighted to be partnering with the Doc Society, our screen agencies and Sydney Film Festival for this ambitious initiative. Helping such a passionate group craft their stories on this important issue is exciting for everyone involved and demonstrates the ABC’s ongoing commitment to supporting Australia’s emerging documentary filmmakers.”
As part of the initiative, the filmmakers were provided with production funding and are being guided through a mentorship program with the ABC Factual and Culture team and Doc Society to support their creative journey while making the films.
Hollie Fifer, Director of Australian Programs, Doc Society said: “We are proud to be a partner for this initiative that is creating a wave of solution driven climate and environmental documentaries from across Australia. Over the course of the program, each film team will have access to ABC’s and Doc Society’s mentors and support to elevate and realise their creative ambitions that will move us all closer to a climate just and biodiverse future.”
The Sydney Film Festival has agreed to review the eleven films with the intention of programming the slate of documentaries for the 2023 Sydney Film Festival.
The films will form part of the ABC’s significant climate and environment content for 2023 which will also include a new season of War on Waste, Ningaloo Nyinggulu, The Platypus Guardian and Dolphins: Is Our Love Too Deep.
The fourth Ireland Wildlife Film Festival, which seeks to bring stories of conservation to the general public, will run online for ten days from the 10th until the 20th of December 2022!
Part of the Pack, directed by Isabelle Groc ahd Mike McKinlay.
The Wild Gardener, directed by John Murray and Jamie Fitzpatrick starring Colin Stafford-Johnson.
The Witness is a Whale, directed by Nick Dean and Cheryl Dean.
The nominees for Best Short Film this year are:
Hatchets & Hope - The Killarney Mountain Meitheal, directed by Aoibheann O'Sullivan.
Takeaway, directed by Lou Sumray.
Little Ox, directed by Raf Wathion and Patrick Vandebroeck.
The nominees for Best Student Short Film this year are:
My Neighbour is a Bear, directed by Mattia Cialoni.
Ghost Ponds, directed by Amanda Sosnowski.
The judges who will determine who wins this year's Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, and Best Student Short Film are Lauren Arthur, a wildlife biologist, TV presenter and World Wildlife Fund Voices Ambassador. Ken O'Sullivan, an Irish Documentary Filmmaker who has filmed underwater for 17 years, and has produced and directed multiple award winning documentaries. And Jason Peters, a researcher and producer/editor of Wildlife-film.com and Wildlife Film News!
Haunting Animation Warns World Leaders to Protect Wildlife – COP15: Are you Listening?
A thought-provoking animated film released today, set to a haunting version of a well-known children’s nursery rhyme, has been specially created to send a powerful message to world leaders attending the global biodiversity conference in Montreal in December, COP 15.
The lyrics, a variation on the song “The Animals Went In Two By Two,” convey a stark warning of the threats facing more than one million of the world’s species if urgent action isn’t taken to save them. The poignant words accompany moving scenes of the animals’ increasingly desperate search for help to save them from extinction.
The “Two by Two” animation joins the animals on their journey to the COP 15 biodiversity conference where their fate will be decided by delegates from all over the world. But are world leaders paying attention? The film marks a pivotal point in the “Are You Listening” campaign by conservation NGO International Animal Rescue. IAR is gathering signatures from across the globe on a letter to world leaders attending the conference, demanding urgent action to halt and reverse the biodiversity crisis before it is too late.
The animation is being launched on 23rd November to turn up the heat on delegates attending the conference which starts two weeks later on 7th December. The final words of the song, “Will you make the change?” directly challenge those in power to avert the looming environmental tragedy that has been brought about by human activity.
Says Alan Knight, IAR President: “The day of reckoning is fast approaching. Human activity has devastated the natural world to such an extent that, without urgent, meaningful action we stand to lose thousands, perhaps more than a million plant and animal species.
“We now know that the global decline in biodiversity is having as powerful and devastating an impact on our planet as climate change. Delays to this crucial meeting have cost two years of precious time when action could already have been taken to put the brakes on the biodiversity crisis. The clock keeps ticking. Are the COP 15 delegates listening? I sincerely hope so. The world’s wildlife can’t afford any further failures to act.”
The animation is the brainchild of creative marketing agency Amplitude. The team worked pro bono to develop the idea and deliver the finished product. They also secured the support of Grammy-nominated composer and orchestrator Amie Doherty and soulful singer and songwriter Billy Lockett.
Knight adds: “We’re incredibly grateful to the team at Amplitude, and to Amie and Billy, for creating the perfect vehicle to convey such an important message. We’re urging everyone to watch the animation, sign the letter on our website and share the film on social media so that world leaders are in no doubt of the urgent need for action to protect the planet’s precious wildlife before it’s too late.”
Why we should be farming microbes instead of animals, explained by George Monbiot.
Fermenting a revolution – I believe this is the most important environmental technology ever developed. It might be all that now stands between us and Earth systems collapse.
So what do we do now? After 27 summits and no effective action, it seems that the real purpose was to keep us talking. If governments were serious about preventing climate breakdown, there would have been no Cops 2-27. The major issues would have been resolved at Cop1, as the ozone depletion crisis was at a single summit in Montreal.
Nothing can now be achieved without mass protest, whose aim, like that of protest movements before us, is to reach the critical mass that triggers a social tipping point. But, as every protester knows, this is only part of the challenge. We also need to translate our demands into action, which requires political, economic, cultural and technological change. All are necessary, none are sufficient. Only together can they amount to the change we need to see.
Let’s focus for a moment on technology. Specifically, what might be the most important environmental technology ever developed: precision fermentation.
Precision fermentation is a refined form of brewing, a means of multiplying microbes to create specific products. It has been used for many years to produce drugs and food additives. But now, in several labs and a few factories, scientists are developing what could be a new generation of staple foods.
Also read: Microbes matter: Everything you need to know about fermentation
We could close down farms, and start producing food from microbes instead. Doing so will avoid animal suffering, and make space for rewilding nature. Here’s what our future could look like if we take food production to the next level. By Christian-Frederic Kaiser and Martin Reich
Nothing stirs the emotions like food. It connects us to our felt origin, culture and heritage, and is, simply, pure pleasure. If we consider where our crops, meat and fish come from, we are immediately enveloped in fuzzy, warm images of herds grazing on green grass, a lonely angler, or the calmness of the countryside. But something revolutionary might be brewing just around the corner, something that could fundamentally change the connection between farm and fork, opening the door to a future that decouples the familiar connection between soil, land and food – using the power of microbes.
Q&A with George Monbiot: ‘It is time we became food-numerate’
RePlanet’s wildly successful Reboot Food campaign has some ambitious core principles: end animal agriculture; use minimal land for food production; rewild everything else. Not surprisingly, these demands have raised questions. Our friend George Monbiot (author of Regenesis and other books on the environment) responds to some of the main issues in this Q&A.
Urban sprawl is a well-known cause of environmental destruction. You talk about ‘agricultural sprawl’ as a far more important issue. Why is the quantity of land we use such an important environmental concern?
George Monbiot: ‘Every hectare of land we use for extractive industries is a hectare that cannot be occupied by wild ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands, savannahs and natural grasslands. The great majority of the world’s species depend on wild ecosystems for their survival. Only if we can both prevent the destruction of wild ecosystems and restore many of those that have been destroyed can we stop the sixth great extinction and draw down some of the carbon we have already released into the atmosphere. Rewilding much of the Earth’s surface might be our best – perhaps our only – chance of getting through this century.’
RePlanet has launched a new campaign called #RebootFood
The manifesto outlines a radical plan to reduce the environmental impacts and improve the resilience of the global food system. Read it here: rebootfood.org
Triodos Bank Q&A with Chris Packham
Chris Packham has dedicated his life to educating and inspiring the public about wildlife conservation.
From presenting the BBC’s Autumnwatch to publishing more than 10 books and publicly campaigning for wildlife protection - Chris is a passionate environmentalist who has championed nature for more than forty years.
Bristol-based ethical Triodos Bank talked to Chris to discover what fuels his desire to protect the natural world, why he created the People’s Walk for Wildlife and his views on how the financial industry can tackle environmental challenges.
Can you tell us what ignites your passion for the natural world?
When I was a child I always had a deep affection of the natural world, I think it was the simple beauty of it and I loved the idea that individual organisms were so perfect.
As I have grown older I have found an enormous weight of guilt on my shoulders because I am part of a generation that has failed to act on protecting nature and now we’re struggling. We’ve known about the problems and developed solutions over such a long time. WWF has published a report this year saying 69% of the world’s wildlife has disappeared since 1970 - and I remember 1970 like it was yesterday. I was catching grass snakes, watching fox cubs, counting blackbirds in the pockets of greenery around my house.
I’ve turned that guilt into something positive. I’m 61 years old now and I’ve got to do as much as possible now quickly to make a difference and that’s what motivates me.
What did you learn from creating People’s Walk for Wildlife in 2018?
I put the People’s Walk for Wildlife on because I really wanted to bring all the environmental NGOs and affiliates together in one place to rub shoulders and get them to be more cohesive.
The message was quite clear – we all have commonality in our objectives and we are all passionate, we are all committed, but we’ve got to be more clever and more strategic. It also coincided with the launch of the People’s Manifesto for Wildlife, which we sent to every MP in the UK. The attack on nature is real and we’ve all seen it escalate since 2018 and we’ve all got to take action at this point. To the best of my knowledge we’ve not had a single response to the manifesto from our leaders and I can’t tell you that any of that good, informed advice was acted upon.
That’s one of the reasons we find ourselves planning another People’s Walk for Wildlife set to take place in Spring 2023.
Intro — I was very fortunate to meet David at the recent #Jackson Wild Summit and learn about his amazing community-based film and visual-based research project HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou.
The following is a summary provided by David of the “video-based qualitative analysis” process they used to co-produce both award-winning documentary films and academic research articles that address environmental, health, and social issues. – Maggie Burnette Stogner – AUCEF
The HERD Project
What if video interviews could be used not only for video production, but also as a form of data to be analyzed and gain a more in-depth understanding of the knowledge participants are sharing? This document provides an overview of a video-based qualitative analysis, which is a strategy that blends the strengths of documentary filmmaking and qualitative research in order to examine human experiences and their embedded visual contexts, while also producing a creative storytelling output that can be communicated to various audiences.
This approach was developed as part of a larger community-based film and research project called HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou. Led by Inuit from across Labrador, Canada, and as part of David Borish’s doctoral work, the goal of this initiative was to create impact-driven documentary films and qualitative research papers about Inuit knowledge and experiences with caribou population declines. Rather than working on the research first and then the documentary film, the HERD team worked on both processes simultaneously. In this way, the video content was not about the research — it was the research! The result was the co-production of both award-winning documentary films and peer-reviewed articles published in high-ranking journals about a range of social, environmental, and health topics, all based on the same video interviews!
What is a Video-Based Qualitative Analysis?
A video-based qualitative analysis allows you to work towards both creative and research outputs by repurposing the coding, searching, and filtering tools within two distinct video editing softwares: the Lumberjack Builder application and Final Cut Pro X.
Starting with Lumberjack Builder, you can connect interview transcripts directly to video interviews, and apply keywords and other metadata to specific sections of both the transcripts and video interviews. We repurposed this text-video-coding feature for creating qualitative codes for themes, characteristics, and other elements of interest within the data. With the ability to watch, listen, and read all at the same time, you can
review not only what participants are saying, but how and in what context they are saying it, which is especially important for place-based, cultural, and health-related knowledge.
All codes and metadata from Lumberjack Builder can be imported directly into Final Cut Pro X®, which can be used not only to edit the video content into a film, but also repurposed for qualitative analysis by leveraging a variety of search, filter, and categorizing tools within this software. Keywords and other metadata can be searched for, which can help identify
relationships and trends across the video interviews based on what people said.
Through these two programs, you can do an in-depth exploration of the oral and visual content shared in video interviews, which can support with the creation of research outputs. But this data isn’t just important for the qualitative analysis — there can be storytelling benefits too! For example, in the HERD project, this process contributed to our understandings of what themes were being discussed most across the interviews, and therefore what to focus on when developing the film’s narrative. In this way, it was possible to create a film that was data-driven, and directed (at least in
part) by the collective knowledge being described by the people in the film.
Outcomes and Benefits
Documentary Film — This technique supported the HERD team in producing short-length, broadcast-length, and full-length documentary films about the links between caribou and Inuit well-being, all in collaboration with community members. Our films have had wide-ranging reach and influence, including: broadcasted on CBC in Canada; screened at more than 15 international film festivals; and screened at various museums and geographic societies.
I’m a Celebrity. 17,000 complaints to UK RSPCA. Why?
The twenty-second series of I’m a Celebrity, of which I haven’t watched twenty-one, has finally ended, with the usual fanfare. It is a show which TV critics believe unites the country in a national conversation and arouses anger over the use of animals. But does anyone really care? – John Brookland
The twenty-second series of I’m a Celebrity, of which I haven’t watched twenty- one, has finally ended, with the usual fanfare. It is a show which TV critics believe unites the country in a national conversation and in some quarters arouses anger over the use of animals. But for the vast majority of viewers it is eagerly awaited and watched. So is it really worth complaining about every year.
This year the number of complaints to the UK RSPCA about the the use of animals increased. But as usual the producers brushed off any complaints because they know the viewers like it just the way it is and they can survive without those that don’t. It makes huge revenue for the ITV so there is no chance of them ever changing the format. People watch it because they like to see the contestants squirm and they like to squirm with them. .
If dogs or cats were used on the show.
The animals involved are mostly rats, fish, reptiles and insects which are viewed by many as not “proper animals.” They are not the kind that viewers can empathise with and it is also difficult for people to grasp the notion that such lowly creatures may feel pain or distress, particularly when many cultures eat them anyway.
To most people they are just pests, creepie crawlies, bugs and slimy dangerous reptiles, which we stamp on, spray toxic chemicals on and randomly kill all the time. They are plentiful and not endangered and are mainly of nuisance value to us, so it is difficult to convince anyone to care. Now if dogs or cats were used on the show it would be a different matter. We have, and unfortunately always will have, this rather speciesist and hypocritical attitude to the status of animals and their welfare.
The RSPCA says:
"Every year, we are faced with serious concerns about the use of animals, including snakes, insects and other live creatures during the filming of the show. Since ‘I’m a Celebrity’ was first aired, animals have been dropped, thrown, handled roughly, crushed, chased, overcrowded, scared by contestants and prevented from escaping from stressful experiences."
The RSPCA has had 22-years to do something about the show without success which is probably proof that it is an impossible task. This is because they do not have the weight of public opinion supporting them. In reality clogging up their telephone lines and workforce is a fruitless task when their time could be better spent dealing urgent cruelty calls in the UK. They do have a campaign (also see below) at the moment whereby you can email ITV for all the good that will do. Far better perhaps to campaign and complain to the Australian RSPCA and State officials to stop them hosting the show, but of course they have their own version and seem little interested.
Stop the use of live creatures on ITV's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here
Returning for its 22nd season, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here is one of ITV's most anticipated reality shows. It's also one of the most worrying.
Every year, we are faced with serious concerns about the use of animals, including snakes, insects and other live creatures during the filming of the show.
Since 'I'm a Celebrity' was first aired, animals have been dropped, thrown, handled roughly, crushed, chased, overcrowded, scared by contestants and prevented from escaping from stressful experiences.
With this year's series returning to Australia, we're more concerned than ever about the use of live animals on the show and the example it sets for viewers.
The show's messaging and the potential to prompt people to try and copy the 'bushtucker trials' at home for entertainment is also worrying and we feel that deliberately portraying certain species as nasty or frightening or as objects that can be used purely for entertainment rather than sentient, living creatures sends out totally the wrong message.
Tom Hanner on Filming Darwin's Beetle Specimens – Wildscreen Director Q&As
National Film and Television School Graduate Tom Hanner delves into his sources of inspiration, his passion for the hidden world of beetles and what it was like handling antique specimens in the Natural History Museum.
"A journey into the weird, wonderful and truly astonishing lives of the small yet mighty creatures who keep the world turning – beetles. They have been successful for millions of years, yet today they’re in serious trouble; what does the future hold for these incredibly important animals, and for us if they disappear?" - The Caretakers
It's time to meet the 2022 Earthshot Prize Finalists
After a year scouring the globe we can now reveal our cohort of incredible 2022 Finalists.
Representing five different continents, this year’s fifteen finalists have blown us away with their ingenuity, passion and ambition to tackle the biggest environmental challenges our planet faces.
The five best solutions will be awarded a huge £1 million prize fund to scale their work, at the 2022 Earthshot Prize Awards in Boston this December.
Introducing the Finalists of The Earthshot Prize 2022. Over the coming weeks, this five-part series will tell the inspiring stories of fifteen incredible solutions to some of the greatest environmental challenges we face on Earth today.
The Finalists announced by The Earthshot Prize today are:
Protect and Restore Nature - Desert Agricultural Transformation | Hutan | Kheyti Greenhouse-in-a-box
Clean Our Air - The Ampd Enertainer | Mukuru Clean Stoves | ROAM
Revive Our Oceans – The Great Bubble Barrier | Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef | SeaForester
Build a Waste-Free World – The City of Amsterdam Circular Economy | Fleather | Notpla
The Earthshot Prize profiles their 2022 Finalists, whose innovative solutions to fight the climate crisis aim to repair our planet in this decade. Learn more about what inspires them and their work in this five-part series.
New Film ‘The Oil Machine’ Reveals The True Price of our Dependence on Oil and Whether Activists and Investors Can Spark its End By Jason Peters
1 November 2022
Cosmic Catand Sonja Henrici Creates are thrilled to announce that new documentary THE OIL MACHINE, directed by Emma Davie(Becoming Animal, I Am Breathing) and produced by Sonja Henrici(Merkel, Time Trial) will be released in UK cinemas from 4th November 2022, just ahead of this year’s COP 27 commencing on 6th November, in addition to an impact campaign which promotes urgent and critical discussion.
THE OIL MACHINE explores our economic, historical and emotional entanglement with oil by looking at the conflicting imperatives around North Sea oil. This invisible machine at the core of our economy and society is now up for question as activists and investors demand change. Is this the end of oil?
IPCC Climate Report signalled "Code Red" for humanity & urged no more drilling for fossil fuels: New Powerful Film ‘The Oil Machine’ Reveals The True Price Of Our Dependence On Oil - Released 4 Nov Days before COP27.
Director, Emma Davie said: “Over the next few months, the UK Govt aims to put out 100 new licenses for oil companies to bid for exploration rights in the North Sea. These companies are likely to be from all over the world. This is at a time when the IPCC Climate Report has signalled "Code Red" for humanity and urged no more drilling for fossil fuels. How does our democracy deal with this largely unknown world of oil at our doorstep at a time when climate change is causing fires, floods and huge devastation to people all over the world? Now more than ever it is vital we understand what is happening in the North Sea. We need to be informed about processes such as the licensing rounds which hitherto have been invisible to most of the public and to understand the link between finance and oil.
This film is made to stimulate debate across the country at such a significant time. Screenings and public debates will be hosted by different sectors of the community ranging from MP's to activists, scientists to lawyers, teachers to investment bankers. Every sector of our country is affected by this and we aim to mobilise a huge public discourse in all areas of society.”
THE OIL MACHINE reveals the hidden infrastructure of oil from the offshore rigs and the buried pipelines to its flow through the stock markets of London. As the North Sea industry struggles to meet the need to cut carbon emissions, oil workers see their livelihoods under threat, and investors seek to protect their assets. Meanwhile a younger generation of climate activists are catalysed by the signs of impending chaos, and the very real threat of global sea level rises. THE OIL MACHINE explores the complexities of transitioning away from oil and gas as a society – are we getting ever more embedded in it?
We have five to ten years to control our oil addiction, and yet the licensing of new oil fields continues in direct contradiction with the Paris Climate Agreement. This documentary looks at how the drama of global climate action is playing out in the fight over North Sea oil.
By highlighting the complexities of how oil runs through every aspect of our society - from high finance to cheap consumer goods – THE OIL MACHINE brings together a wide range of voices from oil company executives, economists, young activists, pension fund managers and considers how this machine can be tamed, dismantled, or repurposed.
The film features a fascinating array of voices, including:Holly Gillibrand (dubbed “Scotland’s Greta”), Kevin Anderson (Professor of Energy & Climate Change, Manchester University), Emeka Emembolu (Senior VP of BP North Sea), Jake Molloy (Regional Organiser, RMT Union), James Marriott (co-author of Crude Britannia), Mikaela Loach (Edinburgh medical student), Sir David King (former UK Govt. Chief Scientific Advisor), Deirdre Michie (CEO of Oil & Gas UK), Steve Waygood (Chief Responsible Investor at Aviva Investors), Tessa Khan(climate lawyer from Uplift), Ann Pettifor (economist & author), and others.
“I believe that what we do over the next five years will determine the future of humanity for the next millennium.” Sir David King, UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor 2000–2007, in THE OIL MACHINE
Tessa Khan (climate lawyer from Uplift) said: “The Oil Machine is an incredibly timely look at the role that the oil and gas industry has played in shaping the UK. When we are in the midst of a historic energy affordability crisis and climate crisis, it’s vital that we examine the ways that the industry has become entangled with our politics. The UK Government’s recent announcement of a new oil and gas licencing round—despite the fact that it will do nothing to bring down the cost of energy and will only further fuel the climate crisis—is just the latest example of the power that the industry wields. There has never been a more urgent need to shift away from oil, and yet we are witnessing an industry in resurgence. The next few years will be a vital test of whether or not we can stand up to the oil machine.”
CALL TO ACTION – WHAT HAPPENS AFTER ‘THE OIL MACHINE’?
The film is launching an impact campaign to engage discussion and create a call to action, starting with its signup page here:theoilmachine.org/after
We live in an oil machine and we are running out of time. The film shows how much we depend on oil and gas, and why that needs to change.
Through THE OIL MACHINE, the film plans to engage different facets of society in the discussion about how we transition away from an oil-based economy:
Sparking discussions after watching the film
Every screening of THE OIL MACHINE can kick off a discussion in your community on how the North Sea plays a role in determining our future.
No matter if you're an oil worker or a climate activist, an investor or an educator, a scientist or a politician – we’d love to hear from you if you can be part of the discussion at one of our screenings.
We also make it very easy for you to host your own event.
What’s been happening since filming?
THE OIL MACHINE
The issues raised in the film have become even more urgent with recent upheavals in energy security, the cost of living, and our climate. One year on from the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, we’re now going back to the film’s contributors to ask them how recent global events have shaped the ongoing debate about oil.
What needs to come after The Oil Machine?
We have to act now and make sweeping changes that move our societies away from dependence on fossil fuels. What will you do to help? What are your demands from those in power? We're asking the film’s contributors to share their ideas to get you started.
The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants by Karen Bakker
Imagine a world in which humans can talk to honeybees, or decode whale language. Using digital tools found on any smartphone, scientists are revealing the unsuspected, wondrous world of non-human sounds. Bioacoustics is spurring breakthroughs in interspecies communication, conservation, and environmental regeneration; a ray of hope in the fight to save Earth’s most endangered species.
The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using ground-breaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life.
At once meditative and scientific, The Sounds of Life shares fascinating and surprising stories of non-human sound, interweaving insights from technological innovation and traditional knowledge. We meet scientists using sound to protect and regenerate endangered species from the Great Barrier Reef to the Arctic and the Amazon. We discover the shocking impacts of noise pollution on both animals and plants. We learn how artificial intelligence can decode non-human sounds, and meet the researchers building dictionaries in ’East African Elephant’ and ‘Sperm Whalish’. At the frontiers of innovation, we explore digitally mediated dialogues with bats and honeybees.
The Sounds of Life offers hope for environmental conservation and affirms humanity’s relationship with nature in the digital age. After learning about the unsuspected wonders of nature’s sounds, we will never experience walks outdoors in the same way again.
‘Beautifully written, thoroughly researched, and packed with insight.
A wonderful invitation to expansive listening’
David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken:
Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction
The book is available atBookdepository.com with FREE delivery worldwide.
HOGWOOD: a Modern Horror Story from Viva! is NOW ON NETFLIX!!
You’re being lied to. Each day, you are bombarded with messages reassuring you that the UK has the highest welfare standards in the world. Through careful marketing and misleading labels, we are led to believe that farmed animals are well cared for and that eating meat is natural, normal and necessary. It’s time to uncover the truth. This is the film the meat industry doesn’t want you to see.
Narrated by Game of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn, HOGWOOD: a modern horror story has already sent ripples throughout the animal agriculture industry. It sparked a nationwide Day of Action where thousands of people came together to protest outside 150 Tesco stores. Over 70,000 people signed a petition urging Tesco to drop Hogwood. It became one of Viva!’s most far-reaching campaigns to date.
The film will be the culmination of months of investigative work by the Viva! team who worked tirelessly to expose the kind of unspeakable cruelty to animals many mistakenly think we have consigned to the history books.
It shows the concerted efforts to silence Viva! and exposes the negligence and inaction by government bodies and corporations alike. The film follows the Viva! Campaigns team as they enter some of Britain’s biggest factory farms for the very first time and sheds new light on the shocking things that lie beyond the public gaze. It explores why factory farming is supported and follows the brave fight to expose the truth and change the world.
Peter Egan, British Actor best known for his roles in the TV shows Ever Decreasing Circles and Downton Abbey, and the films Chariots of Fire, Bean, and Death at a Funeral.“I truly believe HOGWOOD can change the hearts and minds of all who watch it. This powerful documentary could put an end to the damaging animal industries which threaten our very existence. HOGWOOD must be shared far and wide.”
"Anyone who eats pigs (pork, jowl, shoulder, butt, belly, ribs, hock, side, loin, ham, sausages, bacon, chops, foot/trotter … all names for flesh from a cut-up dead pig) should make themselves watch this film.
In fact anyone who consumes animal products full stop should give enough of a fuck to actually see where the majority of meat/dairy comes from. Despicable places, hidden away from public view, places that torture animals with unimaginable cruelty just to produce cheap meat, eggs and dairy products. Anyone who buys these products should know that this horror story is entirely in their name. This knowledge should make you sad, angry, and sick to the stomach. The awareness should make you want to engage in helping to end such vile practices. Don’t make excuses for the perpetrators of these crimes. Don’t be complicit. Don’t look away.
I hear so often through my work that “people don’t like to be preached to”, that "people don’t want to get home from a hard days work to watch something depressing and finger-wagging”, that “vegans think that they are better than non-vegans and so this holier-than-thou approach creates a barrier to communication, putting them at odds to those they are preaching to rather than enabling the finding of common ground”.
Frankly I am sick of hearing these things. They are all excuses for not allowing the truth to be told. I truly believe that if everyone had seen all of the films, footage and real-life cruelty that I’ve seen, read the many books, scientific papers and articles that I’ve read … On the cruelty, on the vastly damaging impact of the animal agriculture industry on the planet, on the natural world, the climate emergency, including pollution (air, sea (dead zones), rivers/freshwater, eutrophication, micro-plastics, soil degradation etc), habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, extinctions and the genesis of viral pandemics, on antibiotic over-use creating resistance, and on general human health (listen to my friend Dr Josh Cullimore in the film!) … I truly believe that they would independently come to the same conclusions that I have. That they can’t be a contributing part to all of the atrocious wrongdoings born out of the animal agriculture industry. They just need to make the effort to look … then choose to accept and act.
“If we don’t act now, who will?” Jerome Flynn, who narrates the film
Please watch this film with an open mind and I would genuinely love to hear what you think. I’ll be very happy to point you towards other resources that might help you see. Just ask!" JP
Hundreds of historical wildlife films dating back to the 19th Century have been preserved in archive
Recordings of a boxing kangaroo, decoy gull heads and an experiment in high definition video are among nearly 300 natural history films digitised as part of the ‘Making Wildfilm History Archive Project’.
A grant from the Wellcome Trust to the University of Bristol’s Special Collections has enabled the comprehensive cataloguing of this remarkable archive, containing some the world's most pioneering wildlife films gathered together in this unique collection. Eric Ashby playing with fox Eric Ashby
The earliest example of animal behaviour on film is from 1895, ‘Das Boxende Kanguruh’ by Max Skladanowsky. The captive marsupial is recorded boxing against a human, capturing animal movement and behaviour in a way audiences had never seen before.
The archive charts the progress of wildlife filmmaking for over a hundred years, including the ‘golden era’ period between 1960-1985, which paved the way for today’s big budget, technologically advanced blue-chip productions. It contains unique records from the BBC Natural History Unit’s ground-breaking ‘Life on Earth’ series, broadcast in 1979 – ranging from production stills, scripts and travel itineraries, to oral history interviews with writer/presenter Sir David Attenborough, composer Edward Williams, and cameraman Martin Saunders, who recounts filming Attenborough’s famously close encounter with a mountain gorilla, and how they nearly lost this iconic footage to the Rwandan Army.
Source material from the WildFilmHistory project led by Bristol based organisation Wildscreen, which ran from 2008-2012, sits alongside production papers and stills collected by Jeffery Boswall (1931-2012), a Producer for the BBC Natural History Unit. Recordings from industry symposiums and festivals capture debates on issues of conservation and climate change, and the moral responsibilities of wildlife film-makers.
Other unique highlights include a 1965 film of an expedition by John Hurrell Crook to the High Simien in Ethiopia to observe Gelada Baboons, produced by the University of Bristol’s Psychology Department, in collaboration with the BBC’s Natural History Unit. An intriguing experiment with decoy gull heads is among a collection of films from renowned ethologist Niko Tinbergen (1907-1988). There’s also footage of an early experiment in High Definition filming made in 1987 at Morecambe Bay.
In addition, oral history interviews with 60 industry pioneers have been digitised from their video master tapes to the latest digital preservation standards.
We still have time to change the world. From Greta Thunberg, the world's leading climate activist, comes the essential handbook for making it happen.
You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope - but only if we listen to the science before it's too late.
In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts - geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and indigenous leaders - to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. Alongside them, she shares her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?
We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.
"With The Climate Book, a stunning and essential new work, Greta Thunberg takes her mission to the next level ... [It is] an incredible and moving resource. There are chapters on almost everything you might need to know about ... the book is a curated, portable library of knowledge, full of classics. Everyone will get something different from reading this book ... Itis an extraordinary body of work and I can't recommend it highly enough. You feel the passion as well as the intellectual heft of the authors, and that is what is so moving about it. It is time for all of us to rise up" -- Rowan Hooper — New Scientist
"This book is superb at explaining the urgency and importance of preventing climate change... its writers weave messages with skill and beauty... this is a campaigning book of course, but much more than that" -- Gaia Vince — Guardian
The book is available at Bookdepository.com with FREE Delivery Worldwide!
WWF's 2022 Living Planet Report: How much wildlife have we lost?
The Living Planet Report 2022 is a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet. This flagship WWF publication reveals an average decline of 69% in species populations since 1970. While conservation efforts are helping, urgent action is required if we are to reverse nature loss.
Biodiversity loss is not only an environmental issue, but economic, development, security, social, moral and ethical issue too. Industrialised countries are responsible for most environmental degradation but it is developing nations that are disproportionately impacted by biodiversity loss. We all have a role to play in building a nature-positive society that safeguards the planet for the good health of everyone.
The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole, OUT NOW!
The Lost Rainforests of Britain tells the captivating story of a unique habitat most people do not even know we had on this island, chronicling its history, loss, and efforts to protect the last few remaining patches. Published on the 27th of October 2022.
In 2020, writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole moved from London to Devon. As he explored the wooded valleys, rivers and tors of Dartmoor, Guy discovered a spectacular habitat that he had never encountered before: temperate rainforest. Entranced, he would spend the coming months investigating the history, ecology and distribution of rainforests across England, Wales and Scotland.
Britain, Guy discovered, was once a rainforest nation.
This is the story of a unique habitat that has been so ravaged, most people today don't realise it exists. Temperate rainforest may once have covered up to one-fifth of Britain and played host to a dazzling variety of luminous life-forms, inspiring Celtic druids, Welsh wizards, Romantic poets, and Arthur Conan Doyle's most loved creations. Though only fragments now remain, they form a rare and internationally important habitat, home to lush ferns and beardy lichens, pine martens and pied flycatchers. But why are even environmentalists unaware of their existence? And how have we managed to so comprehensively excise them from our cultural memory?
Taking the reader on an awe-inspiring journey through the Atlantic oakwoods and hazelwoods of the Western Highlands and the Lake District, down to the rainforests of Wales, Devon and Cornwall, The Lost Rainforests of Britain maps these under-recognised ecosystems in exquisite detail - but underlines that without immediate political and public support, we risk losing them from the landscape, and perhaps our collective memory, forever. A rich, elegaic and boundary-pushing feat of research and reportage, this is the extraordinary tale of one person's quest to find Britain's lost rainforests, and bring them back.
‘A treasure chest full of woodland jewels, rare, precious and beautiful’
– Chris Packham
‘A magnificent and crucial book that opens our eyes to untold wonders’
– George Monbiot
The book is available atBookdepository.com with FREE delivery worldwide.
Wildscreen Hybrid Festival 2022 Panda Awards Winners Announced! By Jason Peters
13th October 2022
My Garden of a Thousand Bees, leads the way at 2022 Wildscreen Panda Awards
Wildscreen’s Panda Awards 2022 took place on the 13th of October, with My Garden of a Thousand Bees sweeping the board with four wins.
The Bastard King and Path of the Panther follow with two wins each.
Wildscreen recognises innovation in sustainable filmmaking practices and provides a platform for international talent.
Wildscreen has announced the winners of their 2022 Panda Awards, which took place at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, showcasing the best in natural world storytelling craft from across the world.
My Garden of a Thousand Bees, a charming lockdown documentary, following wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn, received the most prestigious prize in the natural world film and television industry - the Plimsoll Golden Panda Award.
The feature film, which explores the secret lives of over sixty species of bees, swept the nominations, tying with The Green Planet for the number of categories back in July. This comes at a time when Karine Aigner won the Grand Title award at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year ceremony earlier this week, for an outstanding picture capturing male cactus bees enveloping a single female.
Terra Mater Studios and Bonne Pioche’s The Bastard King received a special jury award - the Panda in the Pocket, to recognise outstanding storytelling, alongside the category in which it was nominated - the Music Award. Shining a light on the threats to the elusive Florida Panther, Eric Bendick’s Path of the Panther, received awards for both categories it was nominated for, taking home the Save Our Seas Foundation Impact Award, and the Off the Fence Production Team Award.
The first ever winner of the Sustainability Award, Springwatch 2021, was recognised for the continued work and innovative measures to reduce their production’s carbon footprint. The jury awarded The Watches team this prize to help set the bar for blue chip productions. The Green Planet walked away with the coveted Terra Mater Studios Series Award.
Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen Festival said:
“As a key part of Wildscreen Festival for 40 years, the Panda Awards has continued to celebrate the best in natural world storytelling among the globe’s leading innovators and creators, as well as fresh talent entering the sector. This year’s inspiring selection of shorts, features and series uncovered some of nature’s most fascinating and enduring stories, bringing them to a worldwide audience. Congratulations to everyone who was recognised and we look forward to seeing the evolution of natural world storytelling over the next few years.”
On the night, special awards were given to recognise members of the industry for their positive impact on the natural storytelling community. Jeff Wilson, Series Producer at Silverback and the Chair of the Festival Advisory Board presented the Outstanding Achievement Award to Production Management Teams everywhere for being at the heart of production. Also, the Lifetime Achievement Award was posthumously presented to the late Miles Barton, a BAFTA award-winning Series Producer at BBC Natural History Unit Studios. Janet Han Vissering, Sr. Vice President, Program Development and Production at National Geographic, was awarded the Chris Parsons’ Outstanding Achievement Award 2022 by Bertie Gregory, Wildlife TV Presenter and Laura Marshall, CEO of Icon Films.
The Wildscreen Panda Awards ceremony 2022 was hosted by wildlife television presenters Lizzie Daly and Dan O’Neill. The ceremony concludes the 2022 Wildscreen Festival–the world’s biggest global gathering of natural world storytellers. Held in Bristol, the 40th anniversary edition convenes more than 1000 filmmakers, photographers, broadcasters and content creators, from over 40 countries, for an unrivaled programme of 130 events, featuring 180 industry thought-leaders. The headline sponsor of Wildscreen Festival 2022 is BBC Studios Natural History Unit and principal sponsors are National Geographic, Save Our Seas Foundation and Terra Mater Studios.
The full list of Wildscreen Panda Award winners is:
BEHAVIOUR AWARD
My Garden of a Thousand Bees Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
United Kingdom
My Garden of a Thousand Bees Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
Key Editor: Steve White
United Kingdom
Tiger 24 Warren Pereira
W Films, The Tiger Fund
United States
PHOTO STORY AWARD
Historical Rescue of Caimans in Pantanal Photographer: Fernando Jara Faciole
Brazil
EMERGING TALENT PHOTO STORY AWARD
The Lwiro Reserve Photographer: Guerchom Ndebo
Democratic Republic of Congo
CVP PRODUCER/DIRECTOR AWARD
My Garden of a Thousand Bees Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
United Kingdom
OFF THE FENCE PRODUCTION TEAM AWARD
Path of the Panther Grizzly Creek Films, Wildpath, Common Pictures
Production Team: Eric Bendick, Carlton Ward Jr., Tori Linder, Thomas Winston, Jeff Reed, Malia Byrtus, Danny Schmidt, Dawson Dunning, Rick Smith, Katie Bryden, Andrew Harrison Brown, Scott Sterling, Ashley Siana, Alex Freeze, Kevin Matley, Brian Eimer, Lauren Yoho, George McKenzie Jr.
United States
Welcome to Earth: The Silent Roar Nutopia
Key Credits for Sound: Sam Castleton, Tom Foster, Jay Price, Phil Bax, Sean Millar, Parker Brown
United Kingdom
AURUM SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
Springwatch 2021 BBC Studios Natural History Unit
United Kingdom
PANDA IN THE POCKET AWARD
The Bastard King Terra Mater Studios, Bonne Pioche, Shibumi Films
Austria, Germany, France
My Garden of a Thousand Bees Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
United Kingdom
Several of our brilliant members were involved in the production of this great film. The star being Martin Dohrn of Ammonite Films (website not working!) supported by Producer Gaby Bastyra, Sound Recordist Axel Drioli, Archive Footage from James Dunbar and Composer Fraser Purdie! Well done to all ... it really is a wonderful film!!!
Jaguaretê – Avá – Pantanal in Flames Director: Lawrence Wahba
Brazil
Wildlife filmmaker Lawrence Wahba brings the viewer inside the ecological disaster caused by the worst forest fires in the history of the Pantanal, a natural world heritage site in the film he 'wishes he shouldn't have to make'.
While Brazil faces the pandemic damages and government neglect to the environment, Wahba bring us to hell, showing the efforts of firefighters, veterinarians, researchers, villagers and volunteers to save animal lives and protect the biome.
Through jaguars, sacred animals to most Central and South America’s original people traditions, the film adopts an holistic vision to denounce the tragedy, investigate its causes and learn if it could be avoided.
FESTIVAL ADVISORY BOARD OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Production Management Teams everywhere.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The late Miles Barton, a BAFTA award-winning Series Producer at BBC Natural History Unit Studios.
CHRIS PARSONS’ OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2022
Janet Han Vissering, Sr. Vice President, Program Development and Production at National Geographic.
About Wildscreen
Wildscreen is a conservation charity with a global impact. We connect creatives within the wildlife film, television and photography industry with conservationists to raise awareness about the environmental crisis and inspire positive change.
Wildscreen envisions a world where natural world storytelling is inclusive, accessible and impactful and where nature is protected and thriving. Our mission is to connect people with nature through storytelling, and democratise the creation of and access to nature's stories.
About the Panda Awards
The globally acclaimed Panda Awards, the ‘Green Oscars’ of the international wildlife film and TV industry, have sat at the heart of the Wildscreen Festival since 1982. They celebrate the very best in the natural world storytelling craft, and remain the highest honour in the industry.
The awards consist of 15 craft and specialist categories and 17 awards including our coveted Golden Panda for best overall production.
Wildlife Photography Fieldcraft by Susan Young is now available!
Wildlife Photography Fieldcraft is an approachable step-by-step guide on how to find UK wildlife and use natural history understanding to aid successful photography.
Inspiring images and comprehensive detail make this book an essential tool for the amateur wildlife photographer or naturalist who wishes to document their finds.
Offers a simple systematic approach to achieving better photographs
Packed with insightful tips on how best to find wildlife to photograph
Illustrated with inspiring images and examples
Many photographers wish to capture stunning and memorable images of the natural world, yet the whole process can be a challenge. Not only does getting the perfect shot require a complex mixture of skill and luck, but there is little practical advice available on how to find wildlife to photograph. This unique book describes a straightforward system for how to successfully locate wildlife, the most difficult aspect of wildlife photography. The patience and persistence have to come from you, but equipped with the right fieldcraft there is far more chance of getting the results - and the special moments - you are looking for.
Individual chapters offer guidance on how to photograph birds, mammals, butterflies and dragonflies, as well as reptiles and some of our more elusive species. The particularities of various habitat types are discussed, and there are tips on equipment, technical specifications and how to make a good portable hide. While sharing some of her most successful and beautiful images, the author also gives useful examples of when things didn't quite work out - reflecting on how things could have been done differently to get a better outcome. With the help of this book you'll soon be taking the photographs you've always dreamed of, sometimes.
"The biggest challenge for nature photographers everywhere is finding great examples of wildlife to take pictures of. In this book, Susan Young helps you understand the subtleties of various habitats to improve your chances of finding the birds, mammals, insects and reptiles that live there. There’s also useful advice on equipment and a guide to building a hide."
– Graeme Green, BBC Wildlife
The book is available atBookdepository.com with FREE delivery worldwide.
Off the Fence premieres “The Letter” at the Vatican, on YouTube
BAFTA- and Oscar-winning prodco Off the Fence (My Octopus Teacher) is premiering its newest doc, The Letter: A Message for Our Earth, via a showing at the Vatican and on YouTube on Tuesday (October 4).
The doc is inspired by Pope Francis’ letter which calls for the people of the world to take “swift and unified global action” against global warming. It boasts access to the Pope, and also tells the stories of people around the world whose lives have been profoundly affected by climate change.
The doc premieres on YouTube on Tuesday, with a premiere event and screening occurring at the Vatican on the same day. Attendees at the screening include leading figures in the climate debate from around the world, ambassadors, and contributors to the film, including Arouna Kande, a climate refugee from Senegal; Chief Dada, an Indigenous leader from Brazil; U.S. conservationists Greg Asner and Robin Martin; and 13-year-old climate activist Ridhima Pandey.
Thousands of private screenings have also been planned to occur around the world in the coming months
The doc was produced in full collaboration with the Laudato Si’ Movement and the Vatican, and was written and directed by Nicolas Brown (H20: The Molecule That Made Us; Human Planet), produced by Ellen Windemuth, and executive produced by Off the Fence CEO Bo Stehmeier
“Putting today’s greatest challenges at the center of the story is at the core of what we as an organization try to do — to continuously inform, explain and evaluate — and in order to do this, we like to collaborate with as many voices as possible,” said Stehmeier in a news release
"The Letter is a powerful reminder of our responsibility as human beings, regardless of race, creed or color, to come together in solidarity for the greater good of one another and the preservation of our planet.”
The Letter tells the story about the Pope’s call to care for our planet. For info on translated versions and how to take action, visit TheLetterFilm.org
In 2015, Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si’ (The Letter); an encyclical letter about the environmental crisis to every single person in the world. A few years later, four voices that have gone unheard in global conversations have been invited to an unprecedented dialogue with the Pope. Hailing from Senegal, the Amazon, India, and Hawai’i, they bring perspective and solutions from the poor, the indigenous, the youth, and wildlife into a conversation with Pope Francis himself. This documentary follows their journey to Rome and the extraordinary experiences that took place there, and is packed with powerfully moving personal stories alongside the latest information about the planetary crisis and the toll it’s taking on nature and people.
Because, in the words of the Laudato Si’ Movement chair Lorna Gold, “once you know, you CANNOT look away.”
Learn more about the protagonists and how you can take action at TheLetterFilm.org
BBC Studios Natural History Unit hosts Festival African Hub in Kenya as part of Wildscreen Festival 2022
Wildscreen headline sponsors, BBC Studios Natural History Unit, hosts Festival African Hub in Kenya, bringing together the wildlife production community in Africa.
The NHU sponsored African Hub is one of three Festival Global Hubs to be introduced this year at key natural history filmmaking hotspots around the world, making the Festival accessible to locally-based wildlife filmmakers, conservationists and scientists. Delegates attending the Hub will be able to experience Wildscreen and its content in person, whilst also networking and sharing their experiences as storytellers and changemakers.
Based in Nairobi, the NHU Wildscreen Festival African Hub takes place on Friday 21st October from 11am-8pm East Africa Time and will be held at Emara Ole Sereni, a building that formerly housed the US Embassy, before its transformation into one of Nairobi’s best hotels offering views over Nairobi National Park.
Sessions shared at the NHU Wildscreen Festival African Hub will include insights on how during the global pandemic, production of wildlife filmmaking relied heavily on local talent to continue capturing stories around the globe, and a panel discussion on how the industry is addressing the urgent need for better and more sustainable inclusion.
New, must-read book from CIWF's Philip Lymbery: Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future
Taking its title from a chilling warning made by the United Nations that the world's soils could be lost within a lifetime, Sixty Harvests Left uncovers how the food industry is threatening the planet. Put simply, without soils there will be no food: game over. And time is running out.
From the United Kingdom to Italy, from Brazil to the Gambia to the USA, Philip Lymbery, the internationally acclaimed author of Farmageddon, goes behind the scenes of industrial farming and confronts 'Big Agriculture', where mega-farms, chemicals and animal cages are sweeping the countryside and jeopardising the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the nature that we treasure.
In his investigations, however, he also finds hope in the pioneers who are battling to bring landscapes back to life, who are rethinking farming methods, rediscovering traditional techniques and developing technologies to feed an ever-expanding global population.
Impassioned, balanced and persuasive, Sixty Harvests Left not only demonstrates why future harvests matter more than ever, but reveals how we can restore our planet for a nature-friendly future.
"The warnings are coming thick and fast now and Lymbery's are clear, concise and truly frightening - we are burning and poisoning the global larder. But we have solutions that we must implement now" -- Chris Packham
"The chilling title is the red flag; the contents, however, lay out all the remedies to save the planet and its species, including ours, and make for absorbing and sometimes terrifying reading. Minutely researched, and written for laymen as well as experts, Sixty Harvests Left deserves to be read world-wide and acted upon immediately. I cannot recommend it highly enough." -- Joanna Lumley
"In this beautifully written book, Philip Lymbery describes how intensive agriculture harms the environment and inflicts suffering on sentient animals. But after visiting and talking to those on the front line - scientists, farmers and food providers - he is able to show that there are sustainable alternatives. And that they are working. There is indeed hope for the future of our planet, and each one of us can play a part. I urge you to read Sixty Harvests Left." -- Dr Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
"We seriously can't recommend this book enough. It's a must read." JP
Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future's Celebrity Launch!
Joanna Lumley officially launched CIWF's Global CEO, Philip Lymbery’s third book, Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future, at Hatchards Bookshop in Piccadilly, London on the 17th August.
The event, attended by several of high-profile supporters and influential journalists, celebrated the powerful new book which follows the successful release ofFarmageddon and Dead Zone.
Sixty Harvests Left describes how, far from being ‘a necessary evil’, factory farming is threatening the very survival of our planet and that ending the industrialisation of the countryside is key to saving our children’s future.
CIWF Patron, Dame Joanna Lumley, who hosted the launch, said: “As long as I can remember I've seen everything linked together, that is people, and animals and places and time and how we eat and the seasons... and no part of it is more of less important than the other.
“I was overwhelmed when I read this book, because it addresses all the horrors that keep me awake at night… but in Philip’s book it shows that if we follow the simple, and sometimes complicated, and sometimes challenging rules, we can get out of this."
The book shines a light on the dark side of food production and highlights the reality of our global food system. It confronts ‘Big Ag’, whose mega-farms, chemicals and animal cages are sweeping across the countryside around the world, and jeopardising the very air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the nature we treasure.
As highlighted in The Guardian, new data collated for the book found that there are now more than 1,000 US-style mega-farms in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with some holding as many as a million animals. These large-scale intensive units prevent animals from expressing their natural behaviours.
But Sixty Harvest Left also offers solutions, detailing the pioneers who are battling to bring landscapes back to life, in a world where wildlife, hens, pigs and people thrive by protecting the very thing that our civilisation is built on: soil.
“Sixty Harvests Left is a book about urgency, but also hope,” said Philip at the launch event. “The solutions are just waiting for us to take them down and save ourselves.”
The book is available atBookdepository.com with FREE delivery worldwide.
WFFR is delighted to announce the winners of the WFFR 2022 Flamingo Awards.
The winners were announced during the Flamingo Award Ceremony on Saturday the 8th of October 2022 in Rotterdam.
WOLF won the Grand Prix!
The big winner this year was Wolf, a film entirely devoted to the return of this special predator back to the Netherlands after 150 years.
Filmmaker Cees van Kempen (pictured) was happy with the award and said "The appreciation of Wolf by the jury, but also by the public, is heartwarming. I hope the film will contribute to a better understanding of this beautiful animal. It is extremely good news for nature that they are back in our country!"
The Wild Gardener from Crossing The Line Productions won in two categories, with both the Awareness Award and the People & Nature Award heading to Ireland. Colin Stafford Johnson was there to collect.
In total, the jury awarded 10 Flamingos in different categories:
The wolf was almost completely eradicated in Europe over the last few centuries. In recent decades, not only did the wolf get legal protection, it made a remarkable comeback.
‘Wolf’ tells the story of how this magnificent animal found its way home from Poland, through Germany to one of the busiest countries of the continent, The Netherlands.
‘Wolf’ is a dramatic and authentic blue chip wildlife film. It showcases unique footage of the wolf in the wild, giving an intimate insight into the real life of this wonderful animal, its strong family bonds, its positive influence on biodiversity and how remarkably similar they are to ‘man’s best friend’.
On Friday 7 October, filmmaker Cees van Kempen was a guest at WFFR to explain, after the screening of his film WOLF, exactly how it works, filming wolves without them seeing you!!
Best Short Award:
Tiny World – Outback
Lucy Wells, Lucy Meadows & Steve Nicholls
UK
Riding on the back of her mother, a baby sugar glider gets her first glimpse of a gumtree forest in Australia’s outback. It’s burning hot and bone dry, yet the sun and heat mean the trees produce so much sugar, their sweet nectar and sap make easy meals for anyone with a sweet tooth.
Flocks of hundreds of colourful and noisy rainbow lorikeets descend on the neighbourhood and join the feast. But life on the desert continent is never easy…
This film lets us experience tiny wonders like you’ve never seen before. See the world from a new perspective, because the smaller the hero, the bigger the adventure!
Animal Behaviour Award:
The Elephant & The Termite
Victoria Stone & Mark Deeble
UK
Together, elephants and termites create waterholes. This is the remarkable story of the relationship between Africa’s largest and smallest and the unique biodiversity that they support.
It is the story of a seasonal African waterhole in southern Kenya – an extraordinary web of interdependency and the circle of life as never seen before. All from the perspective of a cast of animal characters that live at elephant toe-nail height.
It is the intriguing story of their struggle to survive and raise families before their world turns to dust.
Wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson returns home on a very personal project – to turn his old childhood garden into a haven for native wildlife.
After 30 years of filming the world’s most iconic creatures, Colin heads back to Ireland and a garden he spent his childhood summers spraying and mowing into a perfect lawn.
But now he wants to transform his old playground into a sanctuary for the native plants and animals now struggling to survive on these islands and inspire viewers to do the same.
A Bolivian park ranger and a young Hong Kongese journalist risk their lives to go undercover and investigate a new, deadly jaguar trade that’s sweeping South America.
Along the way, they grapple with questions of empathy, responsibility, and bridging a cultural gap to prevent the jaguar trade from spiraling out of control.
Shuttling between the breathtaking biodiversity of Madidi National Park in Bolivia and the tense China-Myanmar border, Tigre Gente juxtaposes the tranquility and splendor of the jungle against the small-minded, sadistic nature of Man, its Destroyer.
Children’s Award:
Wings over Water – 3D
Andrew Young, Charles S. Potter & Chris Dorsey
Canada/USA
As the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age, they left an astounding gift of connected rivers, lakes and wetlands across North America. Today, these largely unknown water highways remain an oasis for sustaining wildlife. From the herds of bison that still roam the Great Plains to the vital honeybees that pollinate our crops and especially for the millions of magnificent birds that migrate along these “flyways.”
Wings Over Water tells the story of the epic journeys of three amazing bird families – the Sandhill Crane, the Yellow Warbler and the Mallard Duck – with extraordinary footage of their fascinating behaviors.
Join us on a journey and see our country with fresh eyes! This film helps us discover Holland’s most hidden and unique nature. Meet surprising underwater inhabitants in their natural habitat and take a look at their daily lives. Get to know animals with character, in which many parallels can be discovered with our own world.
In this astonishing nature film we see protagonists who are normally hidden from us because they live under water. Together, we travel through rivers, ditches and streams.
‘Nederland Onder Water’ shows us animals that live in a breathtakingly beautiful world. Little inhabitants and great stories, all in a recognizable Dutch setting.
Independent Production Award:
Colonies in Conflict
Rajani Mani/Elephant Corridor Films
India
Human action is causing pollinator declines all over the world spelling disaster to nutritional security and the biodiversity of our ecosystems. Filmmaker Rajani Mani gives a first-person account of how expanding cities are wiping out native bee populations, starting from her own neighbourhood.
In trying to save bee colonies in her community from being decimated, Rajani inadvertently stumbles into the world of wild bees. She discovers that we have very less time to reverse the catastrophe we started, but every species stopped from extinction would help hedge our bets in an uncertain future.
Cinematography Award:
The Marvellous Wild World of the Vegetable Garden
Guilaine Bergeret, Rémi Rappe & Frank Nischk
Germany
The film shows the maternal instinct of an earwig, the battle between ichneumon wasps and caterpillars, the daily life in the court of the bumblebee queen and the love game of snails.
A world full of small wonders that could take place in every vegetable garden.
With unique macro and slow-motion shots, this is a nature film of a special kind: a beautiful cinematic appeal for more biodiversity on our own doorstep.
Congratulations to all the winners!!
Tigre Gente wins Flamingo Audience Award! Update 16 October 2022
The votes have been counted... The film Tigre Gente by filmmaker Elizabeth Unger is the winner of the Flamingo Audience Award 2022!
This Award is the prize for the best film, chosen by the public. This year, the public could vote both online and in the cinema.
Tigre Gente is a film that juxtaposes the tranquility and beauty of the jungle with the often capitalistic nature of man. A park ranger and a young journalist risk their lives to go undercover to investigate the jaguar trade that has been sweeping South America recently. This film can be seen online until October 31.
Top 5
1. Tigre Gente
2. Attenborough's Wonder of Song
3. The Elephant and the Termite
4. The Marvelous World of the Vegetable Garden
5. A White Dream
WFFR is online until October the 30th!
You can watch all films from the program online until Sunday the 30th of October. With a passe-partout you get access to all films.
BBC Studios Natural History Unit launches an all-new, must-listen BBC Earth Podcast
Producers of the world’s most iconic natural history programmes such as Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II are bringing their world-class storytelling to audiences’ ears with an awe-inspiring new podcast. Whether you are a nature lover, nature curious or haven’t yet realised nature is for you, the BBC Earth Podcast is accessible for all, sprinkling entertainment and humour into fascinating stories from around the natural world told by global speakers, experts, and campaigners.
"This podcast is meant to encourage everyone to gain a deeper love for the natural world, because when you love something, you’ll fight hard to protect and preserve it!”— Rutendo Shackleton, BBC Earth Podcast.
Commissioned by BBC Studios Digital Engagement, the BBC Earth Podcast will be available in weekly instalments from 27th September on YouTube and all other major podcast platforms.
Each episode is themed around a core topic – from real life superpowers to the importance of death and decay – which our nature-loving zoologist hosts Rutendo Shackleton and Sebastian Echeverri explore alongside special guests including nature Instagrammers, stars of film and television, and the world’s most respected scientists and naturalists.
Colombian born Sebastian and Zimbabwean born Rutendo are true world citizens, and their incredible chemistry enables them to break down complex and technical subjects into relatable, conversational, and sometimes humorous stories.
Eric Stonestreet, best known from his role in Modern Family features in Episode 1 exploring his inspiration and insight for animal voice acting roles and wildlife, and TikToker Mamadou Ndiaye, the ‘internet zoologist’ entertains in Episode 3 with his comic approach to the natural world.
Rutendo and Sebastian are here to make the natural world available to everyone. Sebastian said “Growing up, I did not see myself reflected in any of the people I saw in natural history media, and that made it really hard to envision myself working with nature as a career. But science and the natural world is for everyone, and that is a core message of the podcast” and Rutendo said “My hope is that this podcast encourages every listener to go out and appreciate the nature around them - wherever they are! And to feel included in the conservation conversation in whatever capacity they are able to do so. This podcast is meant to encourage everyone to gain a deeper love for the natural world, because when you love something, you’ll fight hard to protect and preserve it!”.
Lee Bacon, Head of NHU Digital said “Here at the BBC Natural History Unit, we knew that there were an abundance of amazing animal stories, passionate expert contributors and unbelievable unheard sounds that were just waiting be shared with the world in a new type of nature podcast, and we’re incredibly excited to be working with BBC Studios Digital Engagement to bring together a fantastically talented team and two brilliant new talents in Sebastian and Rutendo to launch The BBC Earth Podcast. It’s been a highlight of my job to get to listen to what they have been capturing and I can’t wait for everyone to hear what we have been making.”
Athena Witter, Vice President of Programming, BBC Studios Digital Engagement said “We're proud to launch a brand-new podcast featuring new talent in the natural history space, with our resident experts Rutendo Shackleton and Sebastian Echeverri taking the helm for this series. Each episode brings in leading voices across a range of topics tied to the natural world and the universe – from superpowers, to death, to activism and beyond – and presents an exciting new digital proposition for BBC Earth's audience.”
BBC Earth Podcast trailer (episode 0) launches 27th September. Episode 1 is available from 4th October with episodes dropping weekly until 27th December on YouTube, Spotify and other platforms where listeners get their podcasts. Find out more and subscribe at bbcearth.com/podcast to get the weekly episode.
The BBC Earth Podcast was commissioned by Chris Allen and Matt Butler for BBC Studios. It is a BBC Studios Natural History Unit production. The executive producer was Deborah Dudgeon.
Jackson Wild Announces Winners of 2022 Media Awards and Special Jury From Jackson Wild
29th September 2022
Jackson Wild has announced the winners of the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Awards and Special Jury. Considered the highest bar of achievement in natural history filmmaking, the Jackson Wild Media Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in nature, science, and conservation storytelling.
This year’s competition saw over 600 film entries from 26 different countries, competing for 24 content, craft, program and special jury awards, as well as the Grand Teton Award, recognizing the overall best film in competition.
“Personal, innovative, and purpose-driven global stories inspire a deep connection to the species and places that surround us. Equally important, they amplify the urgency of our need to restore and protect our planet while the opportunity still exists,” said Executive Director of Jackson Wild, Lisa Samford.
Winners were announced at the Grand Teton Awards Gala during the Jackson Wild Summit in Burgenland, Austria. For more information, visit www.jacksonwild.org.
The Territory
National Geographic Documentary Films, Protozoa Pictures, Passion Pictures, Real Lava, Documist and Associação Jupaú. In association with Time Studios, XTR Doc Society Climate Story Fund
CONTENT CATEGORIES
Animal Behavior Film
Awarded to the film that most effectively examines animal behavior in an innovative and illuminating way.
Awarded to the film that most effectively relates conservation issues and/or solutions and the individuals, groups or projects dedicated to the protection of a species, ecosystem, resource or any other aspect of the natural world.
National Geographic Documentary Films, Protozoa Pictures, Passion Pictures, Real Lava, Documist and Associação Jupaú. In association with Time Studios, XTR Doc Society Climate Story Fund
A Day’s Edge Productions and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios production
Changing Planet
Awarded to the film that most effectively illuminates the forces affecting both our planet in the face of catastrophic climate change and biodiversity collapse, including social and environmental issues, equity and justice, public policy, community conservation and sustainability.
Terra Carrère, PBS, Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), The Front
Human Planet
Awarded to the film that best encompasses the role of humanity as an interdependent part of nature, and how our relationship with nature is critical to our spiritual, social, cultural and personal identity as well as our health and prosperity.
For outstanding achievement in nature related filmmaking in the face of adversity or limitations. Prioritizing films that are non-commissioned and not currently in commercial distribution, judging will be based on ingenuity, imagination, passion, and overall quality of the work. There is no fee for entry but along with the film, entrants must submit an essay (500 words or less) detailing the experiences confronted during the creation of the film including but not limited to: budgetary restraints, traditional, political, or cultural barriers, physical, technological and regional limitations. etc.
Exposure
PowderKeg Studios and Blumhouse in association with The Redford Center and Fieldhouse Productions
Awarded to the limited series that most effectively advances a natural history theme. Individual episodes may be entered into other categories. Entrants submit two episodes that best represent the series.
The Green Planet
BBC Studios production for BBC, PBS, bilibili, ZDF, China Media Group CCTV9, France Télévisions & The Open University
For excellence in wildlife, conservation, science, social or cultural storytelling from less represented geographical and cultural perspectives. Prioritizing productions led by media makers in non-Western regions including but not limited to Asia, Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, Micronesia and Indigenous communities around the world.
Awarded to the host, presenter, onscreen investigative journalist or collection of expert onscreen commentators that best engage the viewer while communicating the knowledge, message, mission and spirit of a film related to our natural world. Judging will be based not only on excellence and clarity in communication but also on tenacity, originality and ability to engage with new audiences.
My Garden of a Thousand Bees
A production of Passion Planet, The WNET Group, and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films, featuring Martin Dohrn
Awarded to the most effective and compelling film under five minutes in runtime that best advances an understanding or appreciation of the natural world.
Deep Look: Barnacles Go To Unbelievable Lengths To Hook Up
Awarded to the feature-length film, 75 minutes or longer in runtime, factual or narrative, that best advances an understanding or appreciation of the natural world.
All That Breathes
A Kiterabbit Films and Rise Films production in collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
For outstanding wildlife, environmental or natural science focused film produced by a student currently enrolled or no more than two years out of an academic program.
Growing Underground
Kate Colley, University of the West of England
CRAFT CATEGORIES
Cinematography
Awarded for the cinematography that most enhances the nature related film of which it is a part.
Awarded for the writing that most enhances the natural history story of which it is a part through the union of imagery, storyline, dialog and narration.
The Elephant and the Termite– Writer: Mark Deeble
A Deeble, Stone & Oliff Production with the WNET Group, Terra Mater Factual Studios in association with NHK
Awarded for the writing that most enhances the natural history story of which it is a part through the union of imagery, storyline, dialog and narration.
Welcome to Earth: The Silent Roar– Sound Recordists: Phil Bax, Sean Millar, Parker Brown, Connor Birch, Ryan Brooks – Sound Editors: Jay Price, Tom Foster
– Sound Mixer: Sam Castleton
Protozoa Pictures, Westbrook Studios, and Nutopia for Disney+ and National Geographic
Jackson Wild recognizes innovative approaches to active impact campaigns that extend conservation beyond the screen to inspire measurable on-the-ground change through education, policy change and engagement and outreach.
Can You Hear Us? Campaign (I Am Greta, Humanity Has Not Yet Failed Us)
Exposure Labs, DocSociety, B-Reels Films and YEA! Impact
Innovation in Green Production – Sponsored by ORF Universum
For implementation of sustainable best practices to reduce the environmental impact through the entire lifecycle of a production.
Surviving Paradise - A Family Tale
Netflix, Wild Space Productions, Natural History Film Unit Botswana and Freeborne Media
This recognition honors content that best integrates the interactive potential of digital media and technology that engage awareness and understanding of the natural world, including but not limited to apps, games, social media content, podcasts, extended reality, mobile and web-based experiences.
The 20th Matsalu Nature Film Festival AKA Matsalu Loodusfilmide Festival was held in beautiful Lihula, Estonia from the 21st until the 25th of September, the Award Winners being announced on the evening of the 24th.
The Matsalu Nature Film Festival (MAFF) is an annual nature film event held in Estonia. It is named after the nearby Matsalu National Park, which is one of the largest bird sanctuaries in Europe.
MAFF is organized by the Matsalu Nature Film Festival non-profit organization in cooperation with the Lääneranna municipal government. The festival promotes nature-oriented and sustainable ways of life and respect for the nature-connected traditions of indigenous people. It showcases a variety of new international documentaries about wildlife, conservation and the environment that inspire, inform and ignite change.
Traditionally, the festival features various art and nature photography exhibitions, photo presentations and meetings of both professional and amateur photographers. The program also includes screenings, activities and workshops for schoolchildren, roundtable discussions on different nature-related topics and other cultural events.
MAFF takes place in the tiny town of Lihula in Western Estonia. A selection of films are then shown all over Estonia.
There are two film categories at MAFF:
NATURE - documentaries that depict the natural world in its diversity.
MAN AND NATURE - documentaries that depict the relationship and balance between nature and humanity.
This year I was invited to be on the final jury for the festival (specifically the "nature" category) and I was happy to accept, and attend. It was a fantastic experience and my fellow jury members were a great bunch: maff.ee/en/film-program/jury
Houbara, an Iranian film about the poaching and trafficking of bustards came out top with two awards, including the Grand Prix, with Estonian film The Great Swamp coming in second with two awards.
The winners of the fesitval are:
Grand Prix
Houbara
Directors: Fathollah Amiri, Nima Asgari
Cinematographer:
Nima Asgari
Editors:
Mostafa Gandomkar, Sogol Moradi
Composer:
Babak Mirzakhani
Producer:
Mohammad Ala
Production Company: Wildlife Pictures Institute
Country: Iran
Houbara or Bustard (Chlamydotis macqueni) is one of the favorite birds among hunters and falconers in the Persian Gulf countries. Unfortunately in the last decades, bustard’s hunting and catching alive have caused a drastic reduction in its population and as a result, it is now considered one of the most vulnerable and endangered species in Iran and all over the world.
Jury comment: Iranian men in uniforms, chasing poor bedouin poachers with guns. Trapped birds sold to rich people in neighbouring countries. Women being kept out of sight and mentioned only once - as the presumed head of the criminal network. Houbara is an incredibly thought-provoking film. We were on the edge of our seats rooting for environmental workers to be able to put a stop to the awful persecution of this beautiful species. Making a detective-action nature film is a difficult task. Houbara definitely achieved it. The film is quite a journey, exciting and full of jeopardy, and involves passionate people. There’s human suffering on both sides, as the poachers feel the need to trap the birds due to poverty, and the wildlife protection unit despair at the treatment of the birds, and their endangerment. Wealthier Middle-Eastern countries are taking advantage of their poorer neighbors by exploiting their natural resources pretty much like the rest of us are doing with our planet’s resources and using them to our amusement without any regard to the consequences. This is a message that needs to be amplified, and that is what we hope this award will do.
Waves beneath the Water
Director: Arthur de Bruin
Production Company:
Ispida Wildlife Productions
Country: Netherlands
The Netherlands and water, a country and an elemental force inextricably interwoven. The mills, pumping stations, polders and dykes are famous and magnets for tourists. The country is surrounded by water in a captivating landscape of ditches, canals, ponds, pools, lakes and rivers. As much as 16% of the country is fresh water and a third of the land lies below sea level. But... what do we actually know about the aquatic lives of the fresh water residents? In this blue chip film, we see protagonists that are hidden from us in our daily lives, because they live under water. The complexity, beauty and ingenuity of those below the water surface is fascinating. The diversity of species, sizes, behaviour, colours and shapes is enormous. This is a world that you think only exists on coral reefs, until you find a farm ditch and put your head underwater.
Jury comment: A wonderful mix of wildlife stories expertly woven into the journey of a single eel, on her age-old journey from sea to freshwater domain and back, through man-made obstacles, one after another. The director clearly had passion and vision for this film. His expert understandings in the stories told in this film are evident throughout. The cinematography would’ve been hard to capture in these underwater river habitats but the story flow is clean and told with fantastically clear underwater sequences, including a perfectly realised moment when the young eel bumps into a concrete wall. Along with the story of the struggles faced by the eel, there are strong, albeit very subtle, environmental messages expertly woven throughout the film. From people using water as a playground against a struggle for survival beneath the waves, to an image of fishing dropped in, a dog upsetting coots during playtime. Subtle but stark references. Those along with mentions of invasives. All tied together by excellent narration, which was funny in places, and a well put together soundtrack. Unobtrusive music, woven in with appropriate natural sounds, carrying the film along at the right pace. All in all a stunning film, from start to finish, born out of passion, and it showed!
Jury comment: It is not a beautiful film featuring charming wildlife stories - but it is one that inevitably needed to be made. It is not the easiest thing to make an investigative film in Iran anyway. The more important is the fact that such a film is made and that it has made it here to our audiences. The film does not provide us with conclusions, but leaves us with a heap of difficult, unanswered questions. What will happen to the houbaras that were confiscated from the smugglers? Will they manage to survive? What about the arrested poachers and their families? How could we possibly get the information about the range of devastation through to the rich people who buy these delicate birds in order to have them torn into pieces by (also imprisoned) falcons? When we buy petrol for our cars here, are we possibly also part of this miserable network of exploitation?
Bee Wild!
Director: Jan Haft
Cinematography:
Kay Ziesenhenne, Alexandra Sailer, Jonas Blaha, Jonathan Wirth, Steffen Sailer, Jan Haft
Production Company:
nautilusfilm GmbH for doclights GmbH/NDR Naturfilm
Country: Germany
They’re some of our most effective pollinators. Living in bright wooden huts, producing honey and wax. Busy, beneficial and closely tied to human needs. But how do bees live in the wild? And why did they disappear from our forests? This film portrays the wild life of the honey bee in our forests and it shows the important role of this creature in nature.
Jury comment: There were many films that had great cinematography in the competition this year and so this was a difficult call. Bee Wild! pipped the others to the post however, due to its great variety of shots, including wide, expansive shots, intimate nest cameras, all the way down to perfect, immersive macro. And other techniques. ... use of tracking, slow-mo, timelapse, aerials, thermal etc all working harmoniously together. All telling the story of where wild honey bees once were, and that maybe they will come back. If their challenges can be overcome.
The Great Swamp
Director/Cinematographer: Remek Meel
Production Company:
Vesilind
Country: Estonia
Vello moved to the farthest swamp island of Emajõe-Suursoo 30 years ago. He left his previous labor life and the city to live in harmony with the mother of nature. There is still such a nature in Emajõe-Suursoo that is vanishing from the rest of the world. The vast delta allows the species to live on its own, without much human intervention, even though man has been seeking refuge and food supplements in the swamp for thousands of years. Vello makes a living from beekeeping and hunting, his life flows in the rhythm of nature.
Jury comment: Great film that conveys the idea that we all belong to nature. The intimate and sensitive story also determined its visual style - no tricks or effects - that facilitated the core idea to shine through. Primeval nature and human nature in all their full beauty and toughness are effectively conveyed to the viewer.
The Elephant and the Termite
Directors:
Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone
Editors:
Victoria Stone and Sophia Evans
Production Company:
Deeble & Stone
Country: United Kingdom
Together, elephants and termites create waterholes. This is the remarkable story of the relationship between Africa’s largest and smallest and the unique biodiversity that they support. It is the story of a seasonal African waterhole in southern Kenya - an extraordinary web of interdependency and the circle of life as never seen before. All from the perspective of a cast of animal characters that live at elephant toe-nail height. It is the intriguing story of their struggle to survive and raise families before their world turns to dust.
Jury comment: This film is an hugely impressive one. It is beautifully shot, of course, with so many brilliant wildlife moments, like the “pinball dung beetle” and an exquisite moment when a chameleon drinks a dew drop, all expertly captured but what we found was the most standout thing about the film was how these wonderfully diverse wildlife sequences were perfectly knitted together as the bigger story of elephant and termite unfolded. The great cinematography and myriad of stories covered here wouldn’t’ve been nearly as well realised, as emotional, or funny even had the editor not had an in-depth knowledge of all the species, their stories and how they are so intimately connected to the bigger picture/place ... Essentially, the film feels natural, well-paced, immersive, the stories expertly and wonderfully cut together, creating a web of life that seems whole. Feels right.
Life of a Mutt
Director: Tanja Brzakovic
Editors:
Jelena Bosanac, Srdjan Mitrovic, Branka Pavovic, Irena Domazetovic, Mina Nenadovic
Production Company:
Talas Film
Country: Serbia
“Life of a mutt” tells true, intimate and authentic stories from the perspective of stray dogs. Combining documentary material with hand drawn animation and voice over, we are crossing between genres and forms o
f documentary, fiction and animation, giving our silent heroes a voice. The inspiration comes from ancient Indian, Russian, and British stories. Combining seven destinies/scenes in one life story- from birth to a birth again, we witness their dignifying fight for survival.
Jury comment: An emotional film that challenges the definition of nature and human-animal co-dependence. Combining candid documentary material with playful hand-drawn animation and voiceover, the film crosses between genres, resulting in a kaleidoscopic story that is neatly pieced together. The film gives stray dogs a voice that so closely resonates with our deepest existential questions. Lost between urban and rural abandoned spaces, where they are close to humans, but far enough not to annoy them, the dogs in this film act out a dignifying fight for survival and belonging.
The Door was Open
Director: Olivier Marin
Cinematography:
Malia Chaton
Editing:
Léonie Hébrard
Composer:
Simon K Blonde
Producer:
Léonie Hébrard
Production Company:
Les Amis de l'IFFCAM
Country: France
Places evolve endlessly. They are alternatively lairs, shelters, factories or homes. In this man-made environment, abandoned and left on its own, from now on one can hear birds whistling.
Jury comment: This film was immediately recognised as a standout film. It was a very interesting look at how wildlife can embrace man-made landscapes as their home, but they are not safe even there. So it is like a double loss, first being pushed out of their natural habitat to make room for an artificial landscape, and then when humans desert it, the wildlife comes back and adjusts to the change, but then humans interfere again, tearing it all down, so the cycle has to start over. We loved the mix of animation, showing the ghostly past, mixed with minimal but powerful snippets of narration, but the story largely carried forward by the images, telling their own story, helped in no small amount by subtle, appropriate music and natural sounds. We all strongly felt that this film deserved to be recognised as a wonderful, well done and refreshingly unique film.
Special Jury Prize (Man and Nature)
Neighborhood of Infinity
Director/Cinematography/Editing:
Mark Aitken
Production Company:
Tacit
Country: Spain
Birds colonise an urban neighbourhood. People rediscover vital animal instincts. Together they show how confinement might be the ultimate measure of freedom.
Jury comment: The best corona-time film. Featuring bird and human behavior. A meditative film that directs the attention of the viewer to minute details of our daily lives that can save one from isolation-induced insanity. Watching wildlife is like watching ourselves.
Special Mention (Nature)
Raccoons, Survival Warriors
Writer/Director:
Emma Baus
Cinematography:
David Wright, Edmond Carrere
Editing:
Rémi Dumas
Composer:
Arthur B. Gillette, Jennifer E. Hutt
Producer:
Sylvie Randonneix
Production Company:
Nord-Ouest Documentaires
Country: France
While all over the world many species are under threat, raccoons are experiencing unprecedented expansion. Behind their innocent and cute look, hides an outstanding survivor's temperament, capable of anything to feed and defend themselves. Omnivorous, curious, intelligent, and super-adaptable, raccoons turn out to be really good at overcoming every challenge they are confronted with. But how did these crafty critters manage to survivre in both the wild and urban environment? What make them so smart? And how did they flourish so quickly throughout the world? Over the course of a summer, this film follows a litter of young raccoons from birth to adulthood, on the wild island of Georgia, USA. Close-ups, subjective camera and underwater footage take us as close as possible to these pint-size creatures to reveal how they have become such amazingly adaptable animals.
Jury comment: We thought that this film was charming from the off. The “masked bandit” is a far more interesting and complex animal than might first be thought. With her intimate portrait of a raccoon family Emma Baus impressively manages to convey the world of this survivalist to a broad audience. The film puts you firmly on the side of the featured racoons, as they navigate the trials and tribulations of life, and other species, and could well do much for the pest-like reputation of these adorable-looking mammals, egg-farmers aside! Well, in North America anyway, where they are not an invasive species!
Special Mention (Man and Nature)
About the Forest
Director/Cinematographer/Editor:
Peter Magnusson
Composer:
Roll the Dice
Producer:
Ewa Cederstam
Production Company:
Helion Film AB
Country: Sweden
Sweden has transformed more than 90% of its primeval forests and wilderness into tree plantations, and now the felling of the last stands of unprotected old-growth forests continues. How can we use the forest without consuming it?
Jury comment: This is a film on a topic that is also very current here in Estonia, where the situation is the same as the one featured in the film "About the Forest". The faults of global industrial forestry and timber processing manifest themselves in a similar manner throughout the world. Suffering is left to the locals - forest ecosystems, animals that depend on them, humans included, not to mention seemingly less charismatic species such as mushrooms in the soil.
Tartu Nature House Special Prize
Superbirds - The Secret Life Of Tits
Directors:
Yann Sochaczewski, Marlen Hundertmark
Cinematographers:
Marlen Hundertmark, Yann Sochaczewski, Pavel Grekov, Boas Schwarz, Mirco Tribanek, Atte Henrikson & Max Kujala, Werner & Cissy Maritz, Mark Emery, Benoît Demarle
Editor:
Mirco Tribanek
Composer:
Oliver Heuss
Producer:
Yann Sochaczewski
Production Company:
Altay Film
Country: Germany
Tits are intelligent, adaptable and sometimes cheeky. They are among our best-known and most popular domestic birds. Whether in the garden, in the forest or in the city, they can be found everywhere, chirping their song from the trees. We seem to know them very well – and can’t imagine a world without tits. But what do we really know about these common birds? Much of their life remains hidden from us. Do they have everyday problems, neighborhood disputes and jealousy dramas? It's time we take a closer look at the lives of our feathered friends, because no two tits are alike!
Duty of Care - The Climate Trials
Director:
Nic Balthazar
Cinematographers:
Pascal Poissonier, Ben Steensels, Arne Focketyn, Ant Leake, Kevin Raichl, Ingeborg Janssen, Haider Ali, Kenneth Machiels
Editors:
Arne Focketeyn, Pascal Poissonier, Rob Cuypers
Producers:
Nic Balthazar & Sarah Tak
Production Company:
Wisteria
Country: Belgium
"Duty of Care - The Climate Trials" is the inside story of Roger Cox, the lawyer who initiated ground-breaking legal actions against the Dutch government and oil giant Shell. The result: two landmark rulings that sent shockwaves through political offices and corporate boardrooms around the world, and led to a wave of international climate cases. This is a character-driven journey through the highs and lows of his trials, featuring a cast of creative lawyers, activists, and ordinary citizens pursuing what they see as the legal showdown of the century. Their story is set against interviews with world-leading experts on the principles of justice that can be applied to the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced.
Kingdom of Fish Ep 1 - The River
Director:
Björn Tjärnberg
Cinematographers:
Martin Falklind, Johan Falklind, Anders Lamberg, Rita Strand, Atte Henriksson, Max Kujala, Björn Tjärnberg, Linn Marnfeldt, Rebecca Brander, Hans Berggren, Espen Rekdal, Rolf Nylinder, Tobias Dahlin
Editors:
Björn Tjärnberg, Afshin Tahmoury, Johan Falklind
Composers:
Jan Lekemark, Mazdak Khosravi
Producer:
Maria Ålander
Production Company:
ECOFILM AB & SVERIGES TELEVISION AB
Country: Sweden
Let’s travel through Sweden under water! Our journey starts in cold mountain creeks meandering through the breathtaking arctic landscape. The creeks gradually form large rivers as they flow toward the sea. Here we find the arctic char, trout, grayling and – king of the river – the salmon. All graceful species of salmonoid fish dependent on free-flowing rapids and clear, oxygenated water. But something has happened. Our Swedish rivers are no longer moving forward… Hydropower plants are everywhere, producing fossil-free energy. But what happens to our ecosystems when the river’s energy is captured and transferred to power cables?
Swedes love their lakes, and have hundreds of thousands to choose from for relaxation. But few people have visited below the surface. Here the voracious pike rules the ecosystem. The fastest predator of the north, it attacks at the speed of a cheetah. Lakes are merely places where water rests for while, during its endless cycle. Treating lakes as separate units has led to a disconnection. The threatened European eel, once ubiquitous in inland Sweden, can no longer reach its feeding grounds in the lakes. Nor can it escape the lakes and reach the Sargasso sea to spawn.
Sweden’s coastline is as long as the the globe is round. The Baltic and the North Sea once teemed with cod, haddock, herring, shellfish, flat fish, mackerel and eel. But today most of the seas have been fished out. The scarcity of predatory fish has destroyed marine ecosystems. The question asked in this film is how a rich and orderly country like Sweden can allow this to happen. But there’s hope. You’ll be surprised by the many odd inhabitants still down there. And did you know that 300-kilo bluefin tunas have made their comeback in Swedish seas?
Shepherds of the Earth
Director:
Iiris Härmä
Cinematograper:
Visa Koiso-Kanttila
Editor:
Matti Näränen
Composer:
Per Störby Jutbring
Producer:
Visa Koiso-Kanttila
Production Company:
Guerilla Films
Country: Finland
The story of the film takes place in Turkana, Kenya. This unique place is also known as the Cradle of Humankind where the discoveries of prehistorical human origins are made. The area is nowadays inhabited by the indigenous pastoral tribe called Daasanach. Our main character Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, Spanish ethnobiologist arrive to Turkana to study the relationship between humans and nature. He becomes friends with a tribe member Job Nasak, who guides him into the daily life of the village. Alvaro gets impressed by traditional fables and animal stories of the tribe and he is asked to collect them for the first ever Daasanach language story book. The stories paint a picture of vivid nature and a rich wildlife. But while exploring the national park Alvaro discovers dry and bare landscape with hardly any animals left. So starts a fascinating story from the Cradle of Humankind, a story of the nomadic people’s struggle to survive, of poaching, nature reserve rangers, tribal wars over scarce resources and prehistoric fossils. The two worlds of biologists and the tribe members collide revealing the values of wildlife and nature for both.
The Great Swamp
Director/Cinematographer:
Remek Meel
Editors:
Lauri Laasik, Mirjam Jegorov, Remek Meel, Riho Västrik
Composer:
Lauri Õunapuu
Producer:
Riho Västrik
Production Company:
Vesilind
Country: Estonia
Congratulations to all finalists and winners of the 20th Matsalu Nature Film Festival!!
This was my first time at MAFF and I can honestly say that it was one of the best festivals I've ever been to. Really well organised, incredibly friendly and in an extremely beautiful place! I can't recommend it enough. Enter your films next year and go if in any way possible ... You won't regret it!! :) JP
Thanks so much to the organisers, especially Heli Tetlov, Silvia Lotman and Mart Valner, my fellow jury members Roman Droux, Sven Zacek (Nature Category) and Marina-Evelina Cracana, Madis Reimund, Kadri Tüür (Man and Nature Category) and all the contributers, film, photo and otherwise ... All in all, a brilliant festival of nature!!
How to Speak Whale - A Voyage Into the Future of Animal Communication by Tom Mustill OUT NOW
By Jason Peters
15th September 2022
A thrilling investigation into the pioneering world of animal communication, where big data and artificial intelligence are changing our relationship with animals forever.
In 2015, wildlife filmmaker Tom Mustill was whale watching when a humpback breached onto his kayak and nearly killed him.
After a video clip of the event went viral, Tom found himself inundated with theories about what happened. He became obsessed with trying to find out what the whale had been thinking and sometimes wished he could just ask it. In the process of making a film about his experience, he discovered that might not be such a crazy idea.
This is a story about the pioneers in a new age of discovery, whose cutting-edge developments in natural science and technology are taking us to the brink of decoding animal communication - and whales, with their giant mammalian brains and sophisticated vocalisations, offer one of the most realistic opportunities for us to do so. Using 'underwater ears,' robotic fish, big data and machine intelligence, leading scientists and tech-entrepreneurs across the world are working to turn the fantasy of Dr Dolittle into a reality, upending much of what we know about these mysterious creatures. But what would it mean if we were to make contact? And with climate change threatening ever more species with extinction, would doing so alter our approach to the natural world?
Enormously original and hugely entertaining, How to Speak Whale is an unforgettable look at how close we truly are to communicating with another species - and how doing so might change our world beyond recognition.
"We all wish we could communicate with animals right? It might simply be with a companion animal, a domesticated animal or it might be with something wild, a whale even. Some of us will believe that we already communicate with animals in all sorts of ways but to have a proper conversation with an animal, find out what it thinks of the impact that humans are making on the planet, the natural world, well that is just a dream, surely? Tom’s book, How to Speak Whale, may have been prompted by a very close call with a breaching humpback whale, but the journey it set him off on is fascinating as he brilliantly navigates all of the current science on animal communication, showcasing whale song and what it could all mean … The prescient question might be whether or not we have the capacity to comprehend it. Tom’s enthusiasm for the subject along with his warm delivery makes for a very charming but also important book. I can't recommend it enough." Jason Peters
We can seriously recommend the Audio Book, beautifully recorded by Tom himself, with extra whale/wildlife sounds included … most excellent for a book on animal communication!!
‘Fascinating’ Greta Thunberg
‘Enthralling’ George Monbiot
‘Brilliant’ Philip Hoare
'Extraordinary’ Christiana Figueres
'Riveting' Sy Montgomery
Also read - Tom Mustill's Humpback Whales - A Detective Story – Wildlife film-maker Tom Mustill was almost killed by a Humpback Whale while kayaking in California. Now he turns detective to try to find the whale and discover what it was doing.
Chris Watson of Cabaret Voltaire Found a Second Career in Nature Recordings
Throughout the ages, musicians have looked to nature both for inspiration and for source material—whether it’s La Monte Young‘s fascination with the sound of wind blowing and the drone of crickets around his childhood home in 1940s Idaho; the field recordings of Brian Eno in the mid-‘70s; or the work of modern-day ambient producers like Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere).
The impulse to record the natural world is nothing new. In the late 19th-century, Ludwig Koch used his father’s wax cylinder recorder to capture the sound of a bird called the Common Sharma before creating the first library of natural history sound for the BBC. But as David Toop explains in his 2001 book Ocean of Sound (Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds), the relationship between the natural world and music dates much further back than even that. Watson agrees. “All our music from every culture around the world has evolved from people listening to and then playing with or mimicking the sounds of the natural world,” he says. “It’s most likely where our language comes from, [things like] people mimicking bird song in Northern India. So we have a deep connection and affinity to it. When we are outside, we find music in the sounds of nature, just listening to the reeds in the wind or the rhythms of birdsong.”
Watson’s interest in recording the natural world began on the outskirts of Sheffield in the North of England in his early teens. “When I was about 13, my parents bought me a portable, battery-operated, reel-to-reel tape recorder,” he says. “I started to explore with it, documenting sounds around the house, and became really interested in how you could use the microphone as an instrument—changing sounds by holding it in different places.”
In the garden of his parents’ home was a birdhouse. “I could see it from the kitchen window, and I remember watching the birds and imagining the sounds they were making. It was like watching a silent movie,” he says. “This little tape recorder had a microphone attached to it, and I suddenly realized that I could set it up to record these birds. Playing these recordings back was a real transformative moment. I was taken to a place where we can never be. I was listening to the sounds of another world—and that just really blew me away listening to the rhythm in the birdsong.”
As Watson got more and more familiar with his equipment, a whole new world of possibilities began to open up to him. “I discovered that you could use the tape recorder not only to document and archive things but as an instrument and a compositional tool,” he recalls. “I started exploring the musique concrète of people like Pierre Schaeffer and using techniques like cut and splice, getting a razor blade and edit block and sculpting sounds, slowing things down, speeding them up, playing them backward. The tactile connection to sound is what fascinated me.”
These explorations were the foundations for the early cut-and-paste electronic music of Cabaret Voltaire.
On Thursday the 8th of September, the Queen died "peacefully" at the age of 96, Buckingham Palace confirmed.
Sir David recalled the monarch's sense of humour on Friday, as he reflected on a friendship, and working relationship, that spanned many decades.
He recalled working on documentaries with the sovereign throughout their long careers - telling ITV News she was “incomparably professional” every time.
While it was easy enough for anyone to make a polite laugh “if there was something funny she laughed in a genuine way”, he recalled.
And when the Queen truly laughed “she wasn’t putting it on and that made it very easy,” Sir David added.
“She was an expert at getting people to relax.
“When you met her you were well-aware that you were in the presence of someone who was extremely important to our society and yet she made it seem that you were meeting another human being with exactly the same conditions that all human beings have.”
Together, the pair filmed The Queen’s Green Planet - a 2018 ITV film about the Queen’s dream of creating a lasting legacy of a network of national forest parks from each of the 53 Commonwealth nations, called the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy.
Wildscreen Festival unveils star-studded lineup to celebrate the best in natural world storytelling
Wildscreen Festival has announced the programme for their 2022 event, which will explore “The Future of Natural World Storytelling for a Better Planet” with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit as Headline Sponsor.
The star-studded lineup includes Imogen Heap, Pattie Gonia, Chief Dadá and Steve Backshall among many other agents of change, to provide an inclusive platform for the LGTBQIA+, indigenous and underrepresented communities.
Taking place from 10th - 14th October in Bristol UK, this year marks the Festival’s 40th birthday and first-ever hybrid online and real life event which is already drawing a global audience.
The selected speakers are joined by their passion for the natural world through storytelling, climate change action and environmental protection. Grammy award-winning, Imogen Heap, discusses her passion for the environment and how she has combined this with her music career. Pattie Gonia, an environmentalist US Drag Queen will share their mission to build an inclusive outdoor community and climate action. Well renowned wildlife TV presenter, Steve Backshall will talk about the importance of reaching young audiences with nature content.
Amazon forest defender, Chief Dadá, will provide a rare opportunity to hear directly from indigenious people fighting on the frontline for environmental justice and exclusive clips from his film with Pope Francis The Letter: A Message to our Earth.
The lineup includes Jack Harries, a social media influencer turned environmentalist and filmmaker, Bertie Gregory who will share his experiences of storytelling as well as his new NatGeo series.
Tom McDonald, Executive Vice President Global Factual/Unscripted Content for Disney’s National Geographic will be interviewed by TV presenter, Liz Bonin, to discuss how natural world storytelling can innovate.
Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen, said:
“Our 2022 event will explore the future of natural world storytelling to create a better planet and its power in connecting people with the environment. This year’s lineup features industry giants alongside musicians, indigenous leaders, underrepresented voices, social media influencers and TV presenters for a jam-packed event filled with unique insight, premiere film screenings and ample networking opportunities. With climate change and biodiversity loss an ever present and increasing threat, it’s critical that stories about nature not only reflect its beauty and brilliance, but amplify how essential it is for survival and the urgent solutions we all must implement to protect and restore our planet for the sakes of all our futures - humanity and the natural world. There are no excuses for not attending Wildscreen and we are delighted with the worldwide response so far.”
Across the world, Wildscreen Festival is considered the biggest event in the wildlife film and TV industry calendar, allowing delegates to join 2,000 storytellers from over 40 countries. This year, the programme will centre on four key elements: Craft, Industry, Global Voices, and Planetary Crisis. This year, delegates can travel to Bristol or join in online in a festival first as the organisers ramp up inclusivity and accessibility for all across the globe and to reduce the environmental impact of the event.
The 2022 event will also see a series of exclusive film premieres and screenings including:
Frozen Planet II, Episode 6 (Industry premiere)
Lynx (UK Premiere)
My Garden of a Thousand Bees
Jaguaretê (International Premiere)
Panteras (UK Premiere)
Mother of the Sea & Miwene (European Premiere)
I Am Capable & Exposure (World Premiere).
Tickets start from £81, with day passes now on general release. In a new move, each ticket sold will automatically have a carbon offsetting fee included in the price to reduce the environmental impact of the event.
Frozen Planet II - Filming locations, wildlife and behind the scenes secrets
Discover how and where Frozen Planet II was filmed and find out more about the fascinating wildlife and locations featured
In 2011, Frozen Planet gave BBC viewers an unprecedented insight into life in the Poles. Now, 11 years later, Frozen Planet II - presented by Sir David Attenborough – returns to the Arctic and Antarctic to observe the amazing species that thrive there.
But, going further than Series 1, it also explores life beyond the Poles – witnessing the wildlife dramas that play out in all the world’s coldest regions: our high mountains, frozen deserts, snowbound forests, and ice-cold oceans.
These are the last true wildernesses on earth; places so challenging for survival that only a heroic cast of animals can live here. From polar bears to penguins, Siberian tigers to snow monkeys, each species must overcome unique challenges to survive their extreme environments.
Filmed in ultra-high definition using the very latest camera technology, and featuring dramatic new behaviours, intimate stories, and sensational natural spectacles filmed for the very first time, this six-part series is a chance to experience the wonder of our planet’s frozen realms as they stand on the brink of major change.
As temperatures rise at an unprecedented rate our frozen planet is literally vanishing before our eyes. The series reveals the true impact on both wildlife and humans. We meet scientists who’ve dedicated their lives to understanding what these changes mean - not just for the animals and people who live there, but for the planet as a whole.
Frozen Planet II is made by BBC Studios’ world-renowned Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, the Open University, Migu Video, ZDF and France Televisions.
Episode 1 – Frozen Worlds
Episode 2 – Frozen Ocean
Episode 3 – Frozen Peaks
Episode 4 – Frozen South
Episode 5 – Frozen Lands
Episode 6 – Our Frozen Planet
Q&A With Mark Brownlow, Executive Producer
How did Frozen Planet II come about?
I was the Series Producer of Blue Planet II and the big question that followed was... what should we do next? We’d just done Planet Earth II, which covered life across the world's continents, as well as Seven Worlds, One Planet. We also did the big exploration of the underwater world, but what we felt was missing was a follow-up to the other big hit of its day, Frozen Planet. When we air this autumn it will be nearly eleven years since the original series first broadcast. So we felt that now was the time to re-examine, re-explore and celebrate life in our frozen regions.
The other thing is that I loved the original Frozen Planet series. As documentary makers we want to surprise the audience every episode and ring the changes. Whilst there’s a huge opportunity to apply new storytelling techniques and go with new filming technology to the Poles, I also felt that we could broaden out the series to really surprise the audience with the breadth and variety of all the different frozen worlds scattered across our globe. Remarkably, at any given time, a fifth of our planet is covered in snow or blanketed in ice. There is an opportunity to tell a much bigger of the frozen zone of the planet.
And particularly now, because this is the fastest changing region on Earth due to human-caused climate change. We felt that there was a universal film to be made that was contemporary, fresh and had real relevance, linked in to the audience’s greater consciousness around climate change. If we could do a series that celebrates first and foremost the wonder and magic of our frozen worlds, we could also surprise them with the variety and the heroic stories of survival across all of these different frozen areas at a time when they're changing rapidly.
What is the overarching narrative of Frozen Planet II?
I was an Assistant Producer and a director on the original Frozen Planet.
That series was very much about life in the polar regions and it was a seasonal story. Frozen Planet II is a broader remit. We are looking at anywhere that is significantly cold for multiple months of the year. This is what scientists call the cryosphere – any region of the planet where water is locked up as ice and snow.
The premise of this series is to showcase a variety of these beautiful, cold worlds, and show the challenges that animals face, or overcome, in order to live in what can seem to us quite remote and hostile worlds. In each episode there are also stories where the animals’ challenge is the fact that their world is melting away. In that sense we've done a more contemporary take than the original series.
The Frozen Planet II team completed 102 shoots across the series.
Of these, 31 shoots were directed remotely using local crews.
The series involved 2188 filming days in the field across three years.
Filming happened on every continent, across 18 different countries, all around Antarctica and in space.
The longest continuous time any team member spent on location was three months.
The longest journey to location took three weeks, and the longest quarantine period (due to COVID) was 42 days.
Technology
Drones
Drones allowed filming both of landscape and an aerial view of animal behaviour in remote places.
Light-weight drones enabled an aerial perspective on animal behaviour in situations where other aerial filming would have been disturbing to wildlife or logistically impossible;
GPS-programmed drones were used to fly specific routes multiple times to capture changes in the landscape over time, even years, and reveal seasonal changes on the sea ice;
High speed FPV (first-person view) ‘racer’ drones were deployed in order to fly down mountains alongside avalanches for the very first time in a TV documentary;
Thermal drones were used to follow pumas hunting at night and enable the ground team to get into position;
High-definition remote camera traps
New 4K remote camera traps were employed across multiple locations where animals were too secretive to be filmed from a hide, including the giant Siberian tiger, the secretive Amur leopard and the wild giant pandas roaming the snow-covered forest scent marking trees as they search for food and potential mates.
Long term time-lapse cameras
Ruggedised timelapse cameras were deployed to glaciers across the world so that the team could document changes in ice over the course of filming. Locations include Svalbard, Antarctica, Greenland, and the Quelccaya glacier in the Peruvian Andes.
Timelapse and lapsed time from high altitude and space
The Frozen Planet II team worked with space imaging experts and scientists to document changes happening all across our frozen planet from space. For instance they used repeated photography from satellites to timelapse moulins forming on the Greenland ice sheet, document glaciers flowing and retreating in Greenland and South Georgia and sea ice disappearing during summer in the Arctic.
Old photographs of glaciers were used to compare to what they look today. Revisiting locations to match-frame and then blending between images the series reveals profound changes in glaciers from South Georgia and the European Alps.
Rebreather diving technology and pole cameras
Rebreathers don’t produce bubbles and are less disturbing to wildlife. They were crucial across all underwater sequences. For instance this allowed camera teams to get more intimate footage of harp seal pups learning to swim and Weddell seals interacting underwater. They also allow divers to stay underwater for longer periods of time which was critical in locations severely restricted by extreme weather.
Where conditions were too dangerous to dive, specialist pole cameras were designed and deployed allowing the camera operators to remain safely on the surface, yet film below it. These were also used around unpredictable animals.
The Wildscreen Festival has revealed the lineup for its second Official Selection competition, which honors stories that highlight the beauty and urgency of protecting the natural world.
The competition was launched as part of the festival in 2020. It serves as a global launchpad for new voices, and seeks to promote an inclusive and global natural world storytelling community.
The 32 productions chosen for the Official Selection competition range from features to shorts to immersive productions originating from 16 countries. Additionally, 47% of directors identify as being from an underrepresented group in the industry, aligning with Wildscreen’s goal to amplify the voices of marginalized storytellers. Half of the countries of filming were located in the Global South, with 30% situated in South America.
The programming team was led for a second year by Lucy Mukerjee, a “programming disruptor” and social impact film curator who also programs for the Tribeca Film Festival.
“We’ve seen extraordinary films coming from independent storytellers in the natural history field, and we were impressed by the measures taken by production crews to reduce their environmental impact, from those who made the conscious decision to film in their own backyards, to those who left the location better than they found it,” Mukerjee said in a release.
Wildscreen introduced a Sustainability Merit as part of the competition to recognize impactful productions that reduced their environmental footprint and benefited the local community. Described by programmers as “a film about a community coming together to overcome an ecological disaster,” this year’s merit recipient was Jaguaretê – Avá – Pantanal in Flames.
The campaign surrounding Jaguaretê (pictured), from Brazilian filmmaker Lawrence Wahba, has already raised funds to build fire brigades and veterinary practices to protect the animals and habitats that are the subject of his film.
Wildscreen Launches International Storytelling Internship Scheme
By Wildscreen
17th August 2022
Bristol-based conservation charity, Wildscreen, is set to launch its latest
flagship initiative, the inaugural Wildscreen Storytelling Internship Scheme.
The scheme, which has the backing of WWF-UK, will provide paid internship opportunities for six UK- based and six internationally-based 18-25 year olds, wanting to pursue careers in natural world
storytelling and content creation within the TV and Conservation sectors.
From Autumn 2022, 12 internationally renowned wildlife TV production companies and Conservation NGOs will open their doors to aspiring storytellers and content creators, providing paid, practical experience across a variety of roles spanning camera operating to editing, from story development to scriptwriting. As well as being provided with the opportunity to gain valuable ‘hands-on’ professional skills and experience, the cohort will also benefit from one-to-one mentoring within the host organisations and one-year's membership to the Wildscreen Network, the world’s biggest professional community for the wildlife film and TV genre, to help launch their careers in the natural world storytelling industries.
The scheme aims to tackle systemic barriers to entry into the wildlife TV and Conservation sectors, which disproportionately impact groups which are already underrepresented including ethnically diverse individuals, in-country talent, LGBTQIA+ individuals, those living with disability, womxn, individuals who identify as neurodiverse, and individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds. The international internships will be predominantly located within the global south.
Lucie Muir, Wildscreen’s CEO said: “We are so grateful to the host production companies and NGOs for supporting this ambitious global storytelling internship scheme and to WWF-UK for being so supportive in the development of this latest and important Wildscreen initiative. Together, we hope to understand and address barriers to young people from underrepresented backgrounds seeking careers in natural world storytelling within the TV industry and conservation NGOs globally.
To grow and diversify audiences watching wildlife content and engaging with conservation organisations campaigns, it’s critical we address the lack of representation in those creating the content. We hope this scheme will demonstrate the huge benefits of democratising who tells nature’s stories”.
Planta Alta based in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Big Wave Productions, based in Brighton, UK, will be the first production companies to host interns as part of the scheme, with an additional 10 internships launching over the coming months. Applications to the internships with Planta Alta and Big Wave Production open on 17th of August via the Wildscreen website.
Wolfgang Bayer, 88, premier wildlife filmmaker dies
Wolfgang Johann Bayer, world-renowned wildlife filmmaker, adventurer extraordinaire and longtime Jackson Hole resident, died surrounded by family on the morning of July 22. He was 88.
The following was provided by his family.
Considered one of the world’s foremost wildlife cinematographers, Wolfgang has been filming, producing and directing wildlife films for over 45 years. Born in 1934 in Vöcklabruck, Austria, he grew up during the turbulent years of World War II, the oldest in a family of four sisters and a young brother. His father, a math teacher, and mother, a homemaker, gave young Wolfgang his first camera at an early age. This camera changed his perspective on life in Austria.
He started making underwater camera equipment from WW II artifacts and after completing his formal education in electrical engineering. He realized that his real ambition was nature and underwater photography. At age 18 he embarked on his first documentary expedition with his buddies to make an underwater film on the volcanic island of Stromboli in the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1959 Wolfgang immigrated to the United States and used his engineering degree to work for Chrysler Motors in Michigan. The dream of working with Disney in Hollywood lured him to Los Angeles, where he pursued a career in the motion picture industry. In 1964, using his own money, he produced a half-hour documentary about wildlife in Yellowstone National Park and sold it to a television station for $250. Following this “blockbuster,” he was hired as a cameraman for Bill Burrud Productions, a leading adventure film company. The timing was perfect with the advent of color television and a new public interest in nature programs. He filmed on safari in East Africa and returned with enough natural history footage to clench a deal for the new network series “Animal World,” which aired in prime-time. He never looked back.
Wolfgang quickly rose through the ranks to become president of the company only to realize that corporate studio life was not for him. Out in the field, on assignment, was what he loved best. It was when he hired a young woman, Candice, as his production coordinator and sound recordist that the couple finally left their jobs to start Wolfgang Bayer Productions.
They accepted an offer from Walt Disney Productions to shoot and direct a yearlong film project in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and then went on to make National Geographic’s “Animals Nobody Loved.” He was awarded an Emmy and Wolfgang and Candice were featured on “Good Morning America.” They set up headquarters in Jackson Hole in what is known as the Serengeti of the West for its abundance of wildlife. In 1975 Wolfgang and Candice were married.
In 1977 Wolfgang Bayer Production’s new assistant, Tristan, was born, and two years later their daughter, Malaika, arrived. The family film team was complete. With an increasing passion for documenting the bizarre and beautiful wildlife and its changing relationships with mankind, Wolfgang and crew crisscrossed the globe spending months at a time filming rare and exotic creatures.
In 1991 Wolfgang founded the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival to bring together fellow filmmakers, conservationists, scientists, experts and storytellers from around the world to compete, tell stories and party in the shadow of the Grand Teton.
The Lynx and Us by David Hetherington with images by Laurent Geslin
David Hetherington has spent over a decade following the fortunes of an expanding lynx population in mainland Europe. In this book he offers a fascinating insight into how lynx and people interact in this, the busiest of continents, his words perfectly complemented by Laurent Geslin’s spectacular collection of wild lynx images.
Unlike wolves and bears that weaved their way into our childhood consciousness, the lynx is largely unknown to us. What do these secretive ambush hunters look like? What do they eat? How do they live? And how do they get on with people? This fascinating book examines what it's like to live alongside an apex predator and looks at the implications for a possible reintroduction to mainland Britain.
Using examples from across Europe, ‘The Lynx and Us’ describes how this enigmatic predator is recovering lost ground and, crucially, what that means for the human population in this, the busiest of continents.
As wolves, bears and lynx return to landscapes across the Continent, it seems likely that Britain will be the last corner of Europe without any of its missing large predators. This book concludes therefore, with a question: What would it mean to live once more alongside Europe’s largest cat, the Eurasian lynx?
Panda Award Nominations 2022 Announced
By Wildscreen
11th August 2022
Wildscreen are thrilled to announce the nominees for the Wildscreen Panda Awards 2022 – the highest honour in the international natural world storytelling industry - for its 40th anniversary edition!
A standout production with 5 nominations is feature film My Garden of a Thousand Bees. The Passion Planetproduction follows acclaimed wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn, who, locked down by coronavirus, turns his lenses on the surprising and spectacular bees living in his own urban garden in Bristol, England.
Tied for nominations is BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s landmark series highlighting the dramatic lives of plants, The Green Planet. This series, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, uses pioneering new filmmaking technology and the very latest science to reveal the strange and wonderful world of plants like never before.
Terra Mater Studios leads the wayas the most nominated production company outside of the United Kingdom, with 7 category nominations. Their feature film Patrick and the Whaleis in the running for 3 awards. The film follows former lawyer Patrick Dykstraon his travels to Dominica, as he seeks to find a special sperm whale he once encountered, who reveals the hidden world of her species.
Since 1982
The globally acclaimed Panda Awards, the ‘Green Oscars’ of the international wildlife film and TV industry, have sat at the heart of the Wildscreen Festival since 1982.
The awards consist of 15 craft and specialist categories and 16 awards including our coveted Golden Panda for best overall production. In 2022, Wildscreen welcomed back the Behaviour, Impact and On-Screen Talent Awards as well as creating a standalone Sustainability Award to further our commitment to protecting our natural world as an industry.
The 2022 Panda Award nominees will be announced mid-August. Winner will be announced at the Panda Awards Ceremony on Thursday 13 October 2022.
Congratulations to the outstanding productions nominated for the 2022 Panda Awards and in the running to receive a coveted bronze Wildscreen Panda.
Out of the 700+ submissions from 38 countries, these final 25 shorts, features and series shone the brightest, featured the very best craft and surprised our jury with their achievements.
One of the following productions will go on to receive the gold-enveloped trophy, the Golden Panda at the Awards Ceremony on 13 October.
BBC Studios, PBS, bilibili, ZDF, China Media Group CCTV9, France Televisions & The Open University
Key Cinematography Credit(s): Tim Shepherd, Oliver Mueller, Todd Kewley, James Aldred, John Brown, Sam Lewis, Chris Field, Eric Huyton, Andrew Lawrence
United Kingdom
Editing Award
My Garden of a Thousand Bees
Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
Key Editor(s): Steve White
United Kingdom
Patrick and the Whale
Terra Mater Studios
Key Editor(s): Mark Fletcher
Austria
Penguin Town: Learning to Fly
Netflix, Red Rock Films, Red Rock Films International
Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
United Kingdom
Mark Fletcher, Walter Köhler and Wolfgang Knöpfler
For the film Patrick and the Whale
Terra Mater Studios
Austria
Elisabeth Oakham
For the episode The Green Planet: Human Worlds
BBC Studios, PBS, bilibili, ZDF, China Media Group CCTV9, France Televisions & The Open University
United Kingdom
Off The Fence Production Team Award
Patagonia – Life on the Edge of the World
Plimsoll Productions Team: Martha Holmes, James Smith, Linda Stephens, Kate Laurie, David Hayes, Rene Araneda, Kevin Zaouali, Rob Wootton, Nick Smith-Baker, Adrian Seymour, Linda Dale, Claire Beirne, Laura Jones, Zoe Strasman, Josie Taylor, Kayleigh Mann, Coli Whelan, Tessa Chan, Ceci Vargas, Sara Montoya, Tom Colvile, Ignacio Walker, Kendra Ivelic.
United Kingdom
Path of the Panther
Grizzly Creek Films, Wildpath, Common Pictures
Production Team: Eric Bendick, Carlton Ward Jr., Tori Linder, Thomas Winston, Jeff Reed, Malia Byrtus, Danny Schmidt, Dawson Dunning, Rick Smith, Katie Bryden, Andrew Harrison Brown, Scott Sterling, Ashley Siana, Alex Freeze, Kevin Matley, Brian Eimer, Lauren Yoho, George McKenzie Jr.
United States
Springwatch 2020
BBC Studios Natural History Unit ‘The Watches Production Team’ including; Rebecca Candy, Helen Wallbank, Lee Rich, Matthew Andrews, Ben Harris, Laura Howard, Laura Whitley, Rosemary Edwards, Joanna Brame, Mark Flowers
United Kingdom
Scripted Narrative Award
My Garden of a Thousand Bees
Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
Key Scriptwriter(s): David Allen, Martin Dohrn
United Kingdom
Penguin Town: Hot and Bothered
Netflix, Red Rock Films, Red Rock Films International
Key Scriptwriter(s): Andy Mitchell
South Africa
Pumas: Legends of the Ice Mountains- Episode 2: Rebirth
A TERRA MATER FACTUAL STUDIOS, WILDLIFE FILMS production
Key Scriptwriter(s): Dereck Joubert
Austria
Terra Mater Studios Series Award
Mediterranean: Life Under Siege
Boreales
France
Patagonia – Life on the Edge of the World
Plimsoll Productions
United Kingdom
Penguin Town
Netflix, Red Rock Films, Red Rock Films International
South Africa
Films at 59 Sound Award
My Garden of a Thousand Bees
Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
Key Sound Credit(s): Jonny Crew, Paul Ackerman, Hannah Gregory
United Kingdom
Patrick and the Whale
Terra Mater Studios
Key Credit(s) for Sound: Bernhard Zorzi, Michael Plöderl
Austria
Welcome to Earth: The Silent Roar
Nutopia
Key Credit(s) for Sound: Sam Castleton, Tom Foster, Jay Price, Phil Bax, Sean Millar, Parker Brown
United Kingdom
Aurum Sustainability Award
Springwatch 2021
BBC Studios Natural History Unit
United Kingdom
Surviving Paradise: A Family Tale
Netflix, Wild Space Productions, Natural History Film Unit Botswana and Freeborne Media
United Kingdom
SURVIVORS: Rediscovering the Short-Tailed Rain Crayfish
Bookend Trust / Bookend Enterprises Pty. Ltd
Australia
Wildscreen has assembled industry experts across all crafts, fields and countries to help select the very best productions of the past two years.
"This year’s diversity of subject matter and film makers brought 700 entries from 38 countries. Covid continued to bring us closer to our own backyards, inspiring intimate storytelling experiences and some brave experiments... Judging hundreds of films and discussing their merits is challenging and time consuming. But judges unanimously agreed that it was a wonderful experience." Ruth Berry
Wildscreen Festival 2022 will take place live in Bristol and online between 10—14 October 2022, with a variety of ticket pass options, including reduced rates for concessions, hybrid and virtual. Tickets can be purchased here.
Jackson Wild Announces Finalists for 2022 Media Awards and Special Jury Recognitions From Jackson Wild
8th August 2022
Jackson Wild has announced the films selected as finalists for the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Awards. Considered the highest bar of achievement in natural history filmmaking, the Jackson Wild Media Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in nature, science, and conservation storytelling.
This year’s competition saw over 600 film entries from 26 different countries, competing for 24 content, craft, program and special jury awards, as well as the Grand Teton Award, recognizing the overall best film in competition. Finalists were selected by more than 150 international judges with expertise in natural history filmmaking.
“This year’s judges have selected an outstanding slate of finalists, consisting of a multitude of perspectives and experiences from around the globe. Personal, innovative, and purpose-driven global stories inspire a deep connection to the species and places that surround us. Equally important, they amplify the urgency of our need to restore and protect our planet while the opportunity still exists,” said Executive Director of Jackson Wild, Lisa Samford.
First introduced in 2021, Jackson Wild's Special Jury Recognitions celebrate projects that push the frontiers of storytelling about nature, science, and conservation with categories that include impact campaigns, innovation in green production, and engaging platforms such as podcasts, games, and social media.
A distinguished panel of final jurors will determine the winners in the coming weeks. Winners will be announced and recognized at the Grand Teton Awards Gala during the Jackson Wild Summit at Vila Vita Pannonia in Burgenland, Austria on September 29th, 2022. For more information, visit www.jacksonwild.org.
Awarded to the film that most effectively relates conservation issues and/or solutions and the individuals, groups or projects dedicated to the protection of a species, ecosystem, resource or any other aspect of the natural world.
NaturVision Film Festival celebrates its 2022 winners
By Ralph Thoms
4th August 2022
Ludwigsburg: the award ceremony of this year’s NaturVision Film Festival saw 13 film awards presented in a total of 12 categories. The prizes went to Switzerland, Austria, England, South Africa, France and Italy.
There was hardly a dry eye in the house as the award ceremony host Dana Hoffmann stepped forward to make a very personal announcement. The documentary film debut of David Klammer's Barrikade – Bilder einer Waldbesetzung [Barricade – Pictures of a Forest Occupation], which ended up winning the NaturVision Rethink Film Award, had such a profound effect on her that she spontaneously donated a €1,000 endowment. The film subjectively yet powerfully tells the story of committed activists attempting to save Germany’s Dannenröder Forest.
The German Biodiversity Film Award is sponsored to the tune of €8,333 by HAHN+KOLB Werkzeuge GmbH, who have turned their company grounds into a biotope and are involved in all kinds of sustainability projects. Member of the management Siegmar Klein presented the award to Heiko De Groot for his filmStilles Land – Vom Verschwinden der Vögel[Silent Land – On the Disappearance of Birds]. The jury were especially impressed by the magical narrative style of the film, which highlights the complex web of biodiversity in the habitat of a north-German meadow.
Thanks to Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and Energy Sector, the German Conservation and Sustainability Film Award also carries an €8,333 prize. The winner of the award was Austrian director Kurt Langbein for his outstanding cinema film Der Bauer und der Bobo [The Farmer and the Townie]. Entertaining to the end, it skilfully uses the conflict between a mountain farmer and a city journalist to explore the contrasts between urban and rural, economy and ecology, tradition and progress – and reflect on the future of farming.
The third main prize of the festival – the German Wildlife Film Award – is sponsored by the city of Ludwigsburg and again worth €8,333. The award went to Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble for their original and artistically constructed film about the savannah, The Elephant and the Termite. Mayor Dr. Matthias Knecht emphasised in his speech how important it is to the city of Ludwigsburg that NaturVision continues to establish itself in Baden-Württemberg. Together with the economic region of Stuttgart and the state of Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg plans to provide further financial support for the film festival.
To give the many courageous and journalistically outstanding works submitted their own forum, the main jury decided on an additional category this year, called Story – investigative. Winner of this special award was Green Warriors: Cursed Uranium by Martin Boudot. The documentary about radioactive pollution arising from the mining and storage of uranium not only impressed the jury with its spectacular drone shots and authentic interviews – it even led to a lawsuit against the mining company.
Five films were nominated in the Newcomer category, each one engaging and unique, making it impossible for the jury to choose just one winner. As a result, the €1,000 prize, sponsored by dieUmweltDruckerei, was shared this year by two remarkable debut works: Circle of Moose by Josefin Kuschela, which humorously brings us the extraordinary relationship between the Alaskan moose and the people who help ensure its survival; and Sagebrush Gold, the graduation film of Marcus Widger, which cleverly explores the price to pay for an energy revolution based on electrical energy – ultimately leaving it up to the viewers to decide.
It is important to NaturVision that children and young people are given a voice in the competition. This year’s NaturVision Youth Jury Award – funded by Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and Energy Sector to the tune of €2,000 – went to a young online documentary series from broadcaster SWR. In Axel Wagner und die Klimakrise – Wasser in der Erderwärmung [Axel Wagner and the Climate Crisis – Water’s Role in Global Warming], the young jury, who handed over their award in person, felt that the presenter really got through to them individually with his direct and unreproaching manner.
The children’s jury practically took over the stage at the Central Filmtheater. They chose Pia und die wilde Natur: Abtauchen in die Seegraswiese [Pia in the Wild: Diving into the Seagrass Meadow] as their winner of the NaturVision Children’s Film Award, and Pia Amofa-Antwi herself was delighted to accept the trophy. The award carries an endowment of €2,000 from the Wiedeking Stiftung.
The NaturVision Camera Award for 2022 went to Swiss filmmaker Mario Theus forWILD – Jäger und Sammler [In the Wild – Hunters & Gatherers]. The jury were deeply impressed by its well-composed images, which create a separate narrative level.
The NaturVision Film Music Award, sponsored by the NaturVision Förderverein with €1,000 prize money, was awarded to Steffen Kaltschmidt for his music for Wildes Marokko – der Goldene Süden [Wild Morocco – The Golden South]. The judges praised his quite unique answer to the film’s dramatic narrative in the form of a regional music connection.
For the fifth time NaturVision joined forces with Audi Environmental Foundation to present the Short Film Award, this year with the theme “Grown to be Wild”. For Managing Director Dr. Rüdiger Recknagel, a key motivation for the foundation’s commitment is to inspire people’s interest in conservation, and films are a particularly effective way to reach them. The €5,000 prize money went to Mattia Cialoni for his moving and witty film My Neighbour is a Bear, based in the village of Villalago in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, whose inhabitants have an unusually friendly relationship with their wild friends, the bears.
The NaturVision Honorary Award has been given out six times in the festival’s twenty-year history – not least to celebrated wildlife filmmaker Heinz Sielmann. In 2022 the award went to Udo Zimmermann, filmmaker and former BR (Bavarian TV) editor. In her tribute speech, Annette Scheurich, producer and head of Marco Polo Film AG, praised his greatest achievements in the realm of nature and wildlife films as an editor, a sensitive mentor to filmmakers and a supporter of NaturVision.
Celebrate World Manta Day with Blue Planet cameraman, Doug Allan from Manta Trust
28 July 2022
Join multi award winning wildlife cameraman Doug Allan and the Manta Trust for an evening of Manta Ray conservation at The Royal Geographical Society, London.
The Manta Trust will hold their first in-person World Manta Day celebration in two years, “An Evening with Doug Allan,” this September 17th at the Royal Geographical Society, London.
With over 100 filming expeditions, 35 years of polar exploration, and many on-screen firsts for documentaries such as Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet, “World Manta Day: An Evening with Doug Allan” promises incredible stories of adventure and unique wildlife encounters. Since being introduced to the Maldivian manta ray population by Dr. Guy Stevens, Doug Allan has been a long- time supporter and patron of the Manta Trust and an enthusiastic champion of manta ray conservation.
With doors opening at 18:30, guests will have a chance to meet Doug before the event and buy a signed copy of his new book, Freeze Frame.
The event will run from 19:30 – 21:00 and will also feature talks and videos from CEO and co-founder of the Manta Trust, Dr Guy Stevens, and mobula ray geneticist and Manta Trust Trustee, Dr Emily Humble.
World Manta Day was launched by the Manta Trust in 2020 and is celebrated annually by dozens of organisations and thousands of divers and ocean lovers around the world. Manta rays, like many ocean species, are threatened by the fisheries, unsustainable development and tourism, and the changing climate, which impacts their food sources and habitats. The Manta Trust and its affiliate projects across the globe work to protect manta rays and marine ecosystems through scientific research, policy and legislation change and education and outreach events.
Tickets to the event are on sale now, costing £15, or £10 for children and students with all proceeds going to the Manta Trust’s global research, education, and conservation work.
The Manta Trust is a UK registered charity that coordinates global mobulid research and conservation efforts. Taking a unique approach to conservation, the Manta Trust team is comprised of a diverse group of scientists, educators, conservationists, and media experts, working in collaboration with projects across the globe to drive conservation as a collective.
Haywards Heath becomes the first town in Europe to endorse the call for a Plant Based Treaty in response to the climate emergency.
By The Plant Based Treaty
21st July 2022
Today Haywards Heath Town Council endorsed the Plant Based Treaty, becoming the first town in Europe to join the initiative to tackle emissions from animal farming and attributed deforestation, a key driver of the climate emergency. The proposed Treaty is backed by 17 municipal governments worldwide, including Boynton Beach in Florida and Rosario in Argentina.
Green Councillor Dr Richard Nicholson, who first presented the Plant Based Treaty to the Climate Change Committee, said, “The Climate Crisis is no longer a distant future threat but an existential crisis that is upon us in 2022. The South East of England has endured the highest ever summer temperatures in history and people’s properties have been destroyed by fire and flood. We cannot wait for governments – we must all act immediately – and moving to a plant-based diet is the most impactful thing any individual can do to help address the grave situation we face. I’d encourage all Town, District, County and Metro councils to sign the Plant Based Treaty immediately.”
Haywards Heath Town Council is launching an Education and Business Environmental Awards Scheme. The Plant Based Treaty and food waste reduction will be cornerstones of these initiatives. They will seek to engage local community, environmental groups, and Parish councils to help progress these ground-up activities.
The council has taken a science-based approach to the climate crisis using research from project drawdown to provide a solid scientific foundation. While the council is unable to build large solar farms or wind turbines, we can educate and encourage the local community to reduce food waste and move to plant-based diets to reduce CO2 emissions; activities which are as impactful as a large-scale move to green energy! Not only this, a move to a Plant Based foods helps increase global biodiversity, will improve the local community’s health and, importantly, reduce weekly food bills. Having already supported the 2022 Veganuary initiative, endorsing the Plant Based Treaty was the obvious next step in an ongoing journey for Haywards Heath Town Council.
Nicola Harris, communications director at Plant Based Treaty, said, “Haywards Heath’s decision to call for urgent global action on plant-based solutions to the climate crisis demonstrates true leadership. It will be welcomed by those experiencing the devastating impacts of climate change.
Record-breaking 40C+ temperatures this summer are a bleak reminder that cuts to emissions from fossil fuels and animal agriculture can’t come soon enough. Animal farming is directly responsible for a third of human-caused methane. Therefore we need local, national and international cooperation to reduce food-related emissions through a shift to plant-based diets, boosted by action on food waste.”
Climate campaigners are calling on other towns and cities to follow Haywards Heath’s lead and help create a national council-led movement calling for a shift towards healthier, more sustainable plant-based diets. A petition calling Glastonbury to endorse the Plant Based Treaty has attracted almost 5,000 signatures.
150 councillors from almost 60 towns and cities have individually signed the Plant Based Treaty from parties including Conservatives, Green Party, Labour, and Liberal Democrats.
20MPs signed Early Day Motion 434 , including the Green’s Caroline Lucas and Labour’s former Shadow Chancellor John McDonell. The motion welcomes the Plant Based Treaty and calls for the UK to be a “world leader in recognising the negative impact of industrial animal agriculture on climate change and commit to developing a global strategy to transition towards more sustainable plant-based food systems.”
The Plant Based Treaty has secured high-profile endorsements from celebrities, including Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney, who issued a written statement calling for politicians to support the Plant-Based Treaty. They said: “We believe in justice for animals, the environment and people. That’s why we support the Plant Based Treaty and urge individuals and governments to sign it.”
The Plant Based Treaty is modelled on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and inspired by treaties that have addressed the threats of ozone layer depletion and nuclear weapons. Since its launch in August 2021, the initiative has received support from 43,000 individual endorsers, 5 Nobel laureates, IPCC scientists, more than 800 NGOs and community groups and 700 businesses, including Ecotricity, Linda McCartney Foods, Oceanic Preservation Society, Environmental Alliance Project, VIVA!, BOSH!, Animal Rebellion, and chapters of Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Extinction Rebellion.
Grierson Trust reveals shortlist for 2022 British Documentary Awards
The Grierson Trust has revealed the shortlists in all categories for the 50th anniversary edition of the British Documentary Awards (a.k.a. the Griersons), ahead of the announcement of the final nominations on September 21.
Awarding a range of multiplatform non-fiction works covering categories that include current affairs, arts, music, sports, history, science, natural history & environment, constructed reality and more, this year’s awards also see the return of the best cinema documentary category for theatrical docs, which was suspended in 2021 due to the pandemic.
In a statement accompanying the announcement, Grierson Trust chair Lorraine Heggessey particularly spotlighted the shortlisted nominees for the best presenter category, which, alongside such familiar names as Joe Lycett, are first-time presenters like Paralympic gold medalist Ellie Simmonds (pictured) — who fronted the BBC doc Ellie Simmonds: A World Without Dwarfism? — and street dancer and choreographer Ashley Banjo, for ITV’s Ashley Banjo: Britain in Black & White.
“The 2022 presenter shortlist is our most diverse yet, demonstrating real change happening within the industry both in front of the camera and behind the scenes as we work towards greater inclusivity and better representation of all sections of society,” Heggessey said. “The Grierson Trust has long been committed to nurturing new talent and bringing fresh voices to factual programming.”
The shortlisted nominees for the 2022 British Documentary Awards are listed below, excluding the short film and student doc categories:
BEST NATURAL HISTORY OR ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY
Becoming Cousteau (National Geographic)
National Geographic Documentary Films, Story Syndicate, The Cousteau Society, Ace Content, Diamond Docs
The Grierson Hero of the Year Award, now in its second year, seeks to highlight talent behind the scenes whose continuous efforts power the art of documentary and factual TV.
We're searching for people to nominate their heroes from any part of the factual industry – from documentary film to TV, pre- to post-production, big studios to little indies, new starts to industry vets and everyone in-between.
The only criteria are:
They should have contributed behind–the-scenes to the factual and/or documentary industry – whether their impact is wide reaching or on a day-to-day level with their colleagues
The work they are nominated for should have largely taken place between June 2021 and May 2022 (the same eligibility period as the films submitted to the Griersons)
Many of us have collaborated with someone who always goes the extra mile to elevate a production, to support those they work with, or to progress the industry – all without expecting anything in return. If you know someone who fits the bill, now’s your chance to give them the recognition they deserve – and what’s more, nominations are completely free!
The BBC goes into the wild: the rise of natural history television and David Attenborough
From its earliest days, the BBC set out to chronicle the natural world, but this ambition reached new heights from the late 1970s. In part seven of our 13-part series on the history of the BBC, David Hendy explores how David Attenborough’s string of wildlife blockbusters enthralled television viewers and transformed our view of the natural world...
At ten past eight in the evening on Tuesday 16 January 1979, British viewers were invited to embark on the opening stage of what would turn out to be one of the most spectacular and ground breaking journeys in British television history. The 50-minute programme was advertised in Radio Times as the start of an ambitious attempt across 13 weekly episodes to explore “the incredible variety of living things, and fossils, which throw light on the ancestry of life”.
The series was called Life on Earth, its presenter David Attenborough. It decisively announced not only a new phase in natural history TV, but the beginning of a decades-long era in which the BBC and, in particular its own Natural History Unit, would become a dominant player in the global broadcasting marketplace.
In some respects, Life on Earth started rather unspectacularly. Since this was the story of evolution, the first episode was largely about single-cell organisms. The next featured sea snails and shrimps. In fact, the series would be more than halfway through before it served up that familiar medley of giant lizards, lions and zebras that viewers of natural history had come to expect.
Nevertheless, only two episodes in, the renowned critic Clive James was writing in the Observer of watching “enthralled… Slack-jawed with wonder and respect”. Nor was he alone. Such was the startling intimacy of those first images of translucent floating amoebas that millions of other viewers around the country were also glued to their sofas.
By the penultimate episode, which featured Attenborough in an extraordinary unscripted sequence sitting on a Rwandan mountain side being caressed by gorillas and whispering to camera about the “mutual understanding” between them, the Observer critic was reaching new heights of ecstasy. This, James wrote, was stunning proof that television could be an “instrument of revelation”.
Here too, he suggested, was perhaps the clearest example yet of the BBC’s “collective genius” for creating blockbusters. For James, Attenborough was undoubtedly crucial to the series’ success: he was the arch-communicator, deeply knowledgeable about science yet able to convey complex ideas through simple statements. Yet the sheer quality of the BBC’s film footage – “so magnificent that it would have been inconceivable even a decade ago” – struck him as equally important.
What viewers witnessed in the opening months of 1979 was the result not of one man’s efforts but of team intelligence: Life on Earth marked the inauguration of a long and distinguished lineage of epic wildlife series fronted by Attenborough for the BBC. It was also the culmination of more than half a century of broadcast professionals busily working out how to feature animals on air in a way that was both entertaining and scientifically sound.
When it came to natural history broadcasting, the Corporation had its own evolutionary story to tell.
The birth of a genre
Back in the 1920s, the BBC’s Savoy Hill studios had often been filled with pets and other readily available creatures. Two widely publicised programmes from 1924 featured the “Great Howl” from a rescue dog named George, in which young listeners to Children’s Hour were invited to report on their own pets’ reactions at home, and a live “Zoo Concert” from Regent’s Park in London, featuring jackasses, a hyena and a walrus.
Eight years later, when experimental television transmissions began, animals were being given top billing almost as frequently as the singers, dancers and musical hall artistes. Parrots, hornbills, toucans, a boa constrictor, a Capuchin monkey and even an alligator were among those hauled before the cameras to do a quick turn.
"A juggling act in which a “goldfish” in a bowl was balanced precariously on the top of a billiard cue actually involved the use of a cut-up carrot"
There was, as one eyewitness of these pioneering years recalled, a considerable degree of chaos behind the scenes. There was sometimes a touch of subterfuge, too. One favourite among viewers, a juggling act in which a “goldfish” in a bowl was balanced precariously on the top of a billiard cue, actually involved the use of a cut-up carrot.
When television returned after the war, two of the most familiar faces on British screens were those of Armand and Michaela Denis, who would be seen setting off on safari at regular intervals. Their approach was sentimental and anthropomorphic, with one BBC insider dismissing it as “husband and-wife-venturing-into-the-deepest-darkest-Africa stuff”.
Even Zoo Quest, launched in 1954 and featuring a young David Attenborough and a London Zoo curator bringing a variety of snakes, birds and lizards from the undergrowth of New Guinea or Madagascar back to the studio to accompany an informative talk, still had the faint air of a Victorian animal-capturing expedition about it.
Prince William Reveals This Year’s Earthshot Awards Ceremony Will Be In…
The Earthshot Prize is headed to Boston, USA this December ... "We are delighted to announce from the home of the Red Sox, Fenway Park, that The Earthshot Prize has selected Boston as its host city for this year’s awards ceremony."
Announced in a video voiced by Sir David Attenborough, Prince William and more, and featuring Red Sox All-Star Xander Bogaerts, this December, The Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony will be hosted in Boston. There, we’ll spotlight and celebrate this inspiring city for their work on addressing the impacts of climate change and building a resilient future.
The announcement comes on the anniversary of the moon landing - the realisation of President John F. Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ which acts as a constant source of inspiration to The Earthshot Prize given its belief in the power of human ingenuity. The John F. Kennedy Library will serve as host partner alongside Mayor Wu and The City of Boston.
The Earthshot Prize: Boston 2022 will celebrate this year’s fifteen inspiring Finalists from around the world, set to be announced later this year, and award five Winners of The Earthshot Prize; each of whom will go on to win £1million to help grow their solution.
EARTHSHOT FINALIST PRISTINE SEAS SECURES INCREDIBLE FUNDING FROM FOUNDING PARTNER
Pristine Seas, a Finalist of The Earthshot Prize to Revive our Oceans has secured
a five-year grant from our Founding Partner, Bezos Earth Fund.
With 70% of the Earth covered by ocean, it’s vital that we address the mounting pressures on our oceans caused by human impact.
Pristine Seas is a global conservation programme looking to avert catastrophe. This funding will support their exploration of the central and western Pacific Ocean - an area that is vastly unprotected. We can’t wait to hear the impact this makes.
VINISHA UMASHANKA SCOOPS AWARD AT GREENTECH
We’re so excited to see our inspiring 2021 Clean our Air Finalist, Vinisha Umashanka, win the Green Award at the 2022 Greentech Festival in June for her innovative approach to cleaning our air.
The Greentech Festival was conceived by former Formula 1 World Champion Nico Rosberg in 2019 to celebrate innovations that make the world better.
At just 14, Vinisha won the hearts and minds of the Prize in 2021 with her solar-powered ironing cart that offers a far cleaner alternative to the charcoal powered street irons that press clothes
for millions of Indians each day. Congratulations Vinisha!
THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE BECOMES INDEPENDENT CHARITY
After two hugely successful years as part of The Royal Foundation, The Earthshot Prize has formally become an independent charity. Prince William, who founded the Prize in 2020, will take on the role of President and we are delighted to welcome four new trustees to our growing Board.
The Big Plastic Count Results: How citizen science exposed a system incapable of tackling the plastic crisis
This report reveals the results of The Big Plastic Count. Almost a quarter of a million participants threw away 6.4 million pieces of packaging waste in just one week, yet only 12% is likely recycled. It provided overwhelming proof that the UK’s waste system cannot cope with the enormous amount of waste generated. Download here!
The results of The Big Plastic Count provide a truly unique snapshot of the scale of the country’s plastic crisis. Over one week in May, nearly a quarter of a million people counted their plastic waste to contribute to this first of its kind citizen science investigation.
The shocking results suggest that the UK’s homes produce 96.6 billion pieces of plastic packaging waste a year, with only 12% being recycled in the UK. The rest is exported to other countries to deal with (17%), buried in landfill (25%) or burnt in incinerators (45%).
The results send a clear and urgent message: recycling is not enough – we are producing far too much plastic packaging waste to deal with – so we must turn off the plastic tap. The only solution to plastic pollution is stopping our reliance on plastic.
The government must set legally binding targets to almost entirely eliminate single-use plastic, starting with a target of a 50% cut in single-use plastic by 2025. It must also ban plastic waste exports, set a moratorium on new incinerators and finally implement a Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles and new Extended Producer Responsibility requirements.
The biggest ever investigation into household plastic has revealed that UK households throw away almost 100 BILLION pieces of plastic a year & only 12% is recycled in the UK. Our government dumps the rest abroad, buries it in landfill or burns it. Greenpeace campaigner, Maya, uncovers the truth in this video. Watch now and share to expose.
Wildscreen and Save Our Seas Foundation Join Forces
Wildscreen is excited to announce Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) as a Principal Sponsor of the 2022 Wildscreen Festival. The 40th birthday edition of the festival will take place between 10-14 October 2022 and marks a new hybrid format for the world’s leading natural world storytelling event.
SOSF, which supports conservation projects on threatened marine life globally, is the first marine focused NGO to be a Principal Sponsor of the festival. SOSF will lead discussions about marine conservation by creating and producing headliner sessions from their global network of scientists and communicators. They will also present the Panda Awards new Impact category, created to recognise the production that best delivers tangible impacts for nature such as behaviour change and policy change.
Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen said, "Both Wildscreen and the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) are passionate advocates for conservation and the power of stories in communicating the need for conservation and climate action. Partnering with SOSF is a natural association and we are really looking forward to collaborating with them as part of this year's festival. So often the oceans and marine life are underrepresented in the natural world conversation, and this is a brilliant way to put these conversations centre stage."
SOSF will also partner with Wildscreen to create the Wildscreen Festival Roadshow – a community initiative that will see the very best films from the festival tour across the UK to engage the public with conservation issues and the most exciting independent natural world storytellers from around the world. SOSF will also be the driving force behind the festival’s international hub in Cape Town, South Africa, bringing together its wildlife storytelling community to connect with the live event in Bristol and support in-person networking.
Dr James Lea, CEO of SOSF said, “Stories reach us on an emotional level, and can inspire change in ways that facts and statistics seldom can. Wildscreen festival, with its roots in film and conservation, is an ideal partner for the Save Our Seas Foundation for engaging audiences with meaningful storytelling that can have an impact on conservation. For example, their new ‘Impact’ category in the Panda Awards is testament to this, and we are delighted to be supporting it.”
IMPACTWILD, the indie recently founded in Bristol by Cherique Pohl, a former director and producer at the BBC’s Natural History Unit (Bears About the House, Expedition Rhino: The Search for the Last Northern White, Our Changing Planet), is about to embark on its first TV documentary,Re:Think Chimps.
Pohl has been given exclusive access to the last four years of footage from the Ozouga Society, a German-run chimpanzee research organisation that has been working in Gabon, Central Africa, for more than 15 years.
Earlier this year, Ozouga’s research made international headlines when it identified that champs use insects to heal wounds. The region of study is home to one of the most unique family of chimps in the world, one that demonstrates its high level of shared DNA with humans (95-98.8%) through a range of clever, caring and highly comical behaviours – all of which will be captured in the film.
Working with the Ozouga Society, IMPACTWILD will initially create a half-hour film for Gabon Culture Television and French-speaking African channels – and then look to sell internationally. The aim is to encourage reappraisal of chimps – which are frequently used as a commodity or for food – leading to more protected populations in the wild. The film will involve an experienced Gabonese scriptwriter.
In addition to the half-hour film, IMPACTWILD will be creating short, shareable clips which also feature local researchers and will be made freely available in French-speaking Africa via WhatsApp and YouTube.
Cherique Pohl comments: “IMPACTWILD was established as a force for good, seeking to end the exploitation of wildlife and wild places through informing and inspiring critical audiences. Having grown up in Africa, I know only too well that local people do not always have access to the same information we do in the West about declining wildlife populations and disappearing habitats. So, the ambition with this project is to use the extraordinary footage from the Ozouga Society to not only create an engaging and entertaining film, but one that also encourages reappraisal and changes behaviour. Most wildlife filmmaking is undertaken sympathetically, and filmmakers work hard to raise issues, but we are dedicated to creating real impact with our work to ensure we effect meaningful change on the ground.”
Season of the Osprey: How It Happened! The Development, Production & Global Distribution of a Blue Chip Wildlife Special
This Season of the Osprey case study captures in unique detail the journey of a blue chip Nature documentary special from initial concept to successful distribution worldwide.
It is a roadmap for independent wildlife filmmakers – serving both as an inspirational tool and as a sobering reality check.
The players involved in the story include PBS’s NATURE series, Love Nature, Blue Ant International, Smithsonian Networks, ARTE and Sky Nature.
Festivals and markets like Jackson Hole play important roles. A crowd funding campaign and private backers contributed.
The Season of the Osprey case study is sponsored by Sunny Side of the Doc, Europe’s leading documentary conference and marketplace that is dedicated to providing year-round content to producers.
The backbone of our Osprey story is our detailed Timeline, which is organized into four chapters: Concept, Development, Production and Distribution.
The story begins on a Connecticut salt marsh – in 2012 – when director/cinematographer Jacob Steinberg was so inspired by the powerful personalities of a breeding osprey pair that he dedicated himself to telling their story.
Nine years later on October 27, 2021, Season of the Osprey, a Love Nature / WNET Nature / CosmoVision coproduction, premieres on PBS to more than a million viewers and wide acclaim. It is narrated by Paul Giamatti.
Blue Ant’s International version titled Osprey: Sea Raptor is narrated by Sean Bean, and soon racks up impressive sales worldwide.
The Timeline uses a mix of media and editorial formats, ranging from video and PPT pitches, trailers, original podcast interviews with key participants, and much, much more.
You can find more content on our Season of the Osprey platform, which we created as a model outreach effort for producers of independent films.
National Geographic Documentary Films and Picturehouse Release Trailer for Two-Time Sundance Award-Winner ‘THE TERRITORY’
From Director Alex Pritz and Oscar-Nominated Producers Darren Aronofsky and Sigrid Dyekjær, Documentary About Amazonian Indigenous Environmental Activism Will Release In Theaters Aug. 19
Today, June 22nd, National Geographic Documentary Films and Picturehouse released the official trailer and key art for THE TERRITORY, the award-winning feature documentary debut from director Alex Pritz. Produced by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, Oscar®-nominated and Emmy award-winning Sigrid Dyekjær (“The Cave”), Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida, Lizzie Gillett, and Pritz, executive produced by activist Txai Suruí, edited by Carlos Rojas Felice, with an original score by Katya Mihailova and sound design by Peter Albrechtsen and Rune Klausen, and sound editing by Tim Nielsen at Skywalker Ranch. The film is a co-production with the Indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau community.
THE TERRITORY provides an immersive look at the tireless fight of the Amazon’s Indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers. With awe-inspiring cinematography showcasing the titular landscape and richly textured sound design, the film takes audiences deep into the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau community and provides unprecedented access to the farmers and settlers illegally burning and clearing the protected Indigenous land.
Partially shot by the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, the film relies on vérité footage captured over three years as the community risks their lives to set up their own news media team in the hopes of exposing the truth.
The film will be released in theaters in select cities on Friday, Aug. 19, including New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Seattle and Austin, with a continued nationwide rollout to follow. THE TERRITORY premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and won the Special Jury Award for Documentary Craft as well as the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award, followed by many other awards, including the True/False True Life Fund Recipient 2022, CPH:DOX Special Jury Mention, the Movies That Matter Activist Documentary Award, the Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award for Best Documentary, the Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival Audience Award, the Provincetown International Film Festival John Schlesinger Documentary Award, the International Wildlife Film Festival Best Sustainable Planet Category Award and Best of Festival Award, the DocsBarcelona Amnesty International of Catalonia Award, and the MountainFilm Minds Moving Mountains Award.
Alongside the film’s theatrical release, a multiyear impact campaign will launch in support of Indigenous land defenders across the Amazon. The campaign will focus on amplifying the voices of Indigenous media creators, strengthening legal protections for Indigenous territories, and advancing international legislation and resourcing to combat illegal deforestation. The impact campaign is led by Documist, alongside Think-Film Impact Production and a broad network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners.
THE TERRITORY was made by Documist, Associação Jupaú do Povo Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, Real Lava, three-time Oscar-winning Passion Pictures and Protozoa Pictures, in association with TIME Studios and XTR with backing from Luminate and Doc Society.
National Geographic Documentary Films previously released the Academy Award, BAFTA and seven-time Emmy Award-winning film “Free Solo” and the Academy Award-nominated film “The Cave.” In 2021, they released “Becoming Cousteau,” “Fauci,” “The First Wave,” “The Rescue” and “Torn.” Other critically acclaimed films under the banner include Ron Howard’s “Rebuilding Paradise”; Sundance Audience Award winners “Science Fair” and “Sea of Shadows”; Emmy winners “LA 92” and “Jane,” both of which were included in the top 15 documentaries considered for an Academy Award in 2017; and Dupont Award winner “Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of Isis.”
Announcing the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellows
The Jackson Wild Media Lab is an immersive, cross-disciplinary science filmmaking workshop that brings scientists and media creators together to learn from leaders in the profession and work together to develop effective tools to communicate about science, nature and conservation with diverse audiences across the world’s evolving media platforms.
Jackson Wild, in collaboration with Day’s Edge Productions and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, is proud to announce the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellows. The selection committee was deeply impressed by the passion and talent of the over 350 applicants from across the globe, with 16 Fellows selected for this rigorous professional development cohort.
Preceding the Jackson Wild Summit, the 2022 Media Lab Fellows will engage in a hands-on storytelling intensive to hone their filmmaking skills alongside thought leaders in environmental science, conservational and nature filmmaking from Jackson Wild's Board, sponsors and other industry partners. The workshop will culminate in a showcase of their work during the 2022 Jackson Wild Summit.
The Jackson Wild Media Lab is a collaboration with Day’s Edge Productions and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, a proud sponsor of the Jackson Wild Summit.
Augusto Bila (he/him/his)
– Augusto Bila hails from Mozambique and works at Gorongosa National Park as a producer, cameraman, and editor. His passion for video and photography has long been in the works, as he grew up in a family of media and communication professionals. In high school, he learned filming and video editing techniques from his uncle’s company. While he studied economics in university, he used these skills and began to work with talented professionals in Maputo. In 2017, he joined the wonderful team at Gorongosa National Park, and since then he has been documenting the ongoing story of Gorongosa’s conservation, science and human development work.
Callie Broaddus (she/her/hers)
– Callie Broaddus is a Washington, DC-based photographer and conservationist. Callie is the founder and executive director of Reserva: The Youth Land Trust—an organization empowering youth to make a measurable difference for threatened species and habitats through conservation, education, and storytelling. Reserva’s current project is in northwestern Ecuador, where Callie is working with an international team of young people and their local partner to protect cloud forest in the face of increased gold mining exploration. In 2021, The Explorers Club named her one of “fifty people changing the world.”
Jordan Chapman (he/him/his)
– Jordan is a geoarchaeologist and geoscience PhD student at Baylor University. In hopes of making science more engaging and entertaining for Black and underrepresented communities, he and several others started the Black Science Coalition and Institute (B-SCI). Through B-SCI and his personal interests, Jordan has developed a passion for science communication and storytelling through media. He is currently a co-producer and co-host of the B-Scientists podcast. Jordan has also helped organize ComSciCon’s Combatting Covid with Black Communities, served as a panel moderator for BlackInX, and was a storyteller in Story Collider Atlanta’s Fish Out of Water.
Aayush Dudhiya (he/him/his)
– Aayush is a young and environmentally-committed documentary film-maker from India, currently based in Bristol, UK. Six years of experience making independent award-winning documentaries has allowed him to discover and uncover stories from the most remote villages and jungles of India. He is particularly interested in exploring stories of humans and their relationship with the natural world. His vision is to combine knowledge of the natural world and its stories with his love for cinematic and immersive mediums to create a sustainable narrative and visual bridge between humans, wildlife and nature.
Cale Green (he/him/his)
– Cale Green is a filmmaker and founder of Sockeye Red Services, a production company based in his home state of Alaska. His career started in 2014 as a videographer and many of his documentaries since have focused on helping tell indigenous stories in Alaska. Cale's past projects include whaling in Point Hope or subsistence hunting in ANWR and he is currently working on a historical documentary in the Aleutians. This winter, he’s embarking on a multi-continent backcountry ice skating project. Cale is inspired by beautiful places and the challenge of capturing them to share with others.
Jen Guyton (she/her/hers)
– Jen Guyton is a photographer and ecologist with a passion for telling stories at the junction of global environmental change and human culture. Jen is a National Geographic Explorer, 2019 Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow, and a Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). She has a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University. Her photos have been published in National Geographic Online, BBC Wildlife Magazine, biographic, and have been honored in Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Nature’s Best.
Kelso Harper (she/they)
– Kelso Harper is a freelance science journalist, photographer, and documentary producer from the Central Coast of California. Kelso started out as a chemist, but soon realized that only science storytelling could quench their curiosity. They have since worked with publications like Scientific American, Science Magazine, and Popular Mechanics, producing multimedia pieces on a range of subjects, from galaxy clusters to glacial floods. Kelso’s short documentary on weight stigma in healthcare was recently selected as a finalist for the NIHCM Digital Media Award. In her free time, you probably can’t find Kelso because she is out on some trail far from civilization.
Johnny Holder (he/him/his) – Johnny Holder is a bilingual Director, Producer, and Editor originally from Nashville, Tennessee now residing in the DC area. As an MFA graduate from Montana State University's Science and Natural History Filmmaking program, he has been making short documentaries for five years. After eight years in Army Special Operations with a camera always by his side, and a degree in Earth Science, Johnny was inspired to combine his experience with his passion for the visual arts in documentary storytelling form. His most recent film, SONORA, has won awards for its unique audio-visual presentation of a blind birder in Colombia.
Jane Macedo Yang (she/her/hers)
– Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Jane Macedo Yang is a Chinese-Cambodian/Mexican-American cinematographer and filmmaker focused on documentaries and branded content. As the daughter of a refugee and immigrants, she aims to highlight underrepresented stories and voices, especially those in the queer and BIPOC communities. Primarily focused on the blur of documentary and narrative, Jane explores this mix of vérité and stylized visuals in her work. She is currently based between Atlanta, Georgia and Brooklyn, New York.
Nanticha Ocharoenchai (she/her/hers)
– Nanticha Ocharoenchai (Lynn) is an environmental storyteller and climate activist from Thailand. Covering topics from wildlife conservation to indigenous rights, Nanticha uses writing and film to help people understand and care about nature and one another, whether it’s policymakers or kindergarteners. Her work has been featured in publications such as Mongabay and Climate Tracker, as well as NGOs like WWF and Greenpeace. An avid backpacker and trekker, she loves making new friends from various countries and species.
Maurice Oniang'o (he/him/his)
– Maurice Oniang'o is a versatile freelance Multimedia Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya. He has written and produced multimedia content for various media among them; National Geographic, Africa Uncensored, Al Jazeera’s AJ+, Euronews, 100Reporters, Transparency International, GIJN (Global Investigative Journalism Network), NTV, KTN among others. Maurice has a passion for Natural History and conservation and some of the documentaries/films he’s been involved in include; Saving Snakes Protecting People, Vanishing Vultures and the Ultimate Vipers show. His passion and hard work is exhibited by the various awards he has received. These include; Winner Development Reporting Award TV-2021 (Media Council of Kenya), Winner Spotlight Documentary Film Awards-2020, Winner Environmental Reporter of the year TV-2015 (Media Council of Kenya), Thomson Foundation Young Journalist of the Year-2014 (Foreign Press Association, London) among others. He is a National Geographic Explorer and a Journalism Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism-University of Oxford. Maurice has a keen interest in social justice, human rights, corruption, conservation, natural history and conservation.
Luyanda Shabalala (he/him/his) – Luyanda Shabalala is a 30 year old photographer, cinematographer and music producer from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, working as a freelancer on various different projects. He was born and raised in Pietermaritzburg and went to school at Maritzburg College. He is passionate about wildlife, his people and his continent and has been working in conservation filmmaking since 2018.
Carolina Sosa (she/her/hers)
– Carolina Sosa was born in Uruguay and holds a BA in Communications. She also lived in Argentina, Mexico, and Los Angeles, where she completed a master's degree in Documentary Filmmaking. She has been directing and producing documentaries for the last nine years in different countries. She is a Fulbright scholar, and her work has been screened in many film festivals and received awards. Her first feature documentary, "Trumphobia: what both sides fear", received an award from the Social Impact Awards and has been selected in festivals in Chicago, LA, Ohio, North Carolina, and Canada. In 2020, it was distributed by Kaleidoscope Film Distribution in the UK and Unified Pictures in the USA. She is also the CEO of Okurelo, an organization that translates audiovisual content for blind and deaf people in Latin America. She is currently the production manager of a documentary series of marine wildlife conservation in the Gulf of California for Arte Channel in Europe.
Nessim Stevenson (he/him/his)
– Nessim is a Lebanese-British filmmaker and photographer with experience working as a director, producer, camera operator and editor on a range of subjects including environmental conservation, education and global health. He specializes in breaking down complex topics into aesthetic, nuanced and human-centric stories, a skill which he has honed by producing content for NGOs, development organizations and ethical companies in over 35 countries across 6 continents. Nessim is fluent in English, French and Arabic. In his spare time, he loves to wood-work, free-dive, make pottery and spend as much time in the glorious outdoors as possible.
Rosa Vásquez Espinoza (she/her/hers)
– Rosa Vásquez Espinoza is a chemical biologist, educator, conservationist, and award-winning artist. Of Peruvian-Andean descent, Rosa grew up learning about traditional medicine from her grandmother in their backyard "natural pharmacy". During her Ph.D., Rosa created MicroAmazon, a project that explores the microscopic universe of the Amazon Rainforest searching for unique tiny organisms that could make our lives better. Currently, she investigates the Peruvian Boiling River extremophiles and Amazonian stingless bees in collaboration with local experts. Rosa also partners with educators to integrate hands-on exploration, conservation and micro-biotechnology into the classroom (i.e. Interconnected Yellowstone 2022 summer camp).
Daphne Wong (she/her/hers)
– Daphne is a wildlife photographer and filmmaker from Hong Kong. Her passion for image-making goes hand-in-hand with her deep interest in wildlife. After making her first documentary about the endangered Chinese White Dolphins in Hong Kong, she went on to film and direct numerous wildlife documentaries and programmes for local broadcasters and NGOs. She is committed to telling stories of the natural wonders and their conservation, and wishes to continue to use images to communicate science and raise awareness for biodiversity, especially regionally in Asia. Her work has been awarded in various wildlife photography competitions and film festivals.
George Monbiot: ‘On a vegan planet, Britain could feed 200 million people’
The author, Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner answers your questions on farming, fuel and plant-based food
If the UK switched to a plant-based diet – and used regenerative farming to produce food on the arable land we have (not using artificial fertilisers or pesticides) – how much could we be self-sufficient in food, percentage-wise? dad_climate
The calculations that partly address it have been done by the author and small-scale dairy farmer Simon Fairlie, updating the earlier work of the ecologist Kenneth Mellanby.
We currently use 17.5m hectares of farmland in the UK. Fairlie finds that while a diet containing a moderate amount (less than we currently consume) of meat, dairy and eggs would require the use of 11m hectares of land (4m of which would be arable), a vegan diet would demand a total of just 3m. Not only do humans need no pasture, but we use grains and pulses more efficiently when we eat them ourselves.
This would enable more than 14m hectares of the land now used for farming to be set aside for nature. Alternatively, on a vegan planet, Britain could feed 200 million people.
'Highly recommend this important talk (and the book)
If only every (any) politician would watch this, any food producer, farmer, consumer... in fact - if you eat food...
The corruption, stupidity and shortsightedness of our global food production is staggering and damaging the world beyond belief.
Change must come. Be the change.' Piers Warren
Regenesis
– Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot
The Sunday Times bestseller
*Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize*
From the bestselling author of Feral, a breathtaking first glimpse of a new future for food and for humanity
Farming is the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction - and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticise urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. We have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry.
Now the food system itself is beginning to falter. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, we can resolve the biggest of our dilemmas and feed the world without devouring the planet.
Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.
'This book calls for nothing less than a revolution in the future of food' Kate Raworth
'A book offering evidence-based hope is a rare thing in these days of climate and nature emergency - yet that's exactly what George Monbiot has written. Inspiring and compelling, Regenesis sets out a transformative vision of a new food future with the potential to both restore nature and feed the world. Monbiot's blueprint is both wildly ambitious and deeply practical, and might well be our last best hope of stopping the sixth great extinction'
Caroline Lucas
The book is available at Bookdepository.com with FREE delivery worldwide.
ITV acquires Plimsoll Productions - the world’s largest leading independent natural history TV producer
ITV plc today announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority interest of 79.5% in Plimsoll Productions, the largest independent producer of natural history programmes in the world and a growing premium factual producer, for a cash consideration of approximately £103.5 million, valuing Plimsoll at an Enterprise Value of £131 million. Founded in Bristol in 2013, the centre of excellence for natural history programming, the Bafta, Emmy and Academy award winning producer has produced hundreds of hours of content which is watched, and sold, in nearly 200 countries.
The producer is behind series including Tiny World and Giant World for Apple+; Hostile Planet and Supernatural Planet for Disney; Night on Earth and Animal for Netflix and the upcoming landmark series, A Year on Planet Earth for ITV, Tencent in China, Fox Nation in the US and Ard Group in Germany.
This acquisition is a further milestone in ITV’s strategy of expanding its international content business. It further diversifies ITV Studios production base and will enable ITV to take advantage of the strong demand for content across the ever-popular natural history and factual genres. Plimsoll Productions’ has a strong network with all of the global streamers and this acquisition will strengthen and deepen ITV Studios’ relationships with the streamers.
Under the leadership of founder Grant Mansfield, Plimsoll Productions has built a track record of delivering a strong operational and financial performance. The Plimsoll Productions team is highly specialised and multi award-winning in the production of blue-chip natural history and includes chief creative officer Dr Martha Holmes (formerly of the BBC’s Natural History unit - Blue Planet, Hostile Planet, Tiny World); creative director Tom Hugh-Jones (Tiny World, Planet Earth II); Karen Plumb as Head of Factual Entertainment; and Richard Klein, former Head of ITV Factual, and Head of Documentaries at the BBC. Prior to launching Plimsoll Productions, Mansfield has previously been head of production company Zodiak in the USA, Managing Director of RDF and the Commissioner of Factual for ITV.
Following the transaction Grant Mansfield, together with his senior management and creatives, will continue to manage the business and play a key role in programme development to maintain Plimsoll's strong creative pipeline. They will work alongside ITV Studios Managing Director Julian Bellamy, Director of Unscripted, UK, Angela Jain and their team.
Plimsoll Productions is also expanding across the premium unscripted space with growing documentary and factual entertainment departments producing for major network/platforms including BBC, ABC, Channel 4, CNN, History and Hulu. One of the UK’s fastest growing companies, this year Plimsoll Productions was listed on The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and International Track 200.
ITV Studios already has a relationship with Plimsoll Productions as the distributor for A Year On Planet Earth. This 6x60 series draws on the most spellbinding and dramatic stories from all corners of the globe and is narrated in the UK by Stephen Fry. The priority, at this stage, is to continue the momentum of the respective distribution businesses while teams get to know each other and assess how they best work together. Magnify Media (Plimsoll Productions’ distribution arm) will work alongside ITV Studios.
ITV will acquire 79.5% of Plimsoll’s share capital from private equity firm LDC, Grant Mansfield and other existing Plimsoll shareholders for a cash consideration of £103.5m. This includes £85.5m payable to the existing shareholders and the repayment of Plimsoll's financial net indebtedness at completion, expected to be approximately £17.6 million.
The outstanding 20.5% of share capital will be held by Grant Mansfield and other members of the management team and strategic investors of Plimsoll. There are Call and Put arrangements in place that will give ITV the option of acquiring the outstanding 20.5% of share capital. The consideration payable by ITV for the remainder of Plimsoll’s share capital is dependent on Plimsoll’s profit growth performance in the period to 31 December 2027, is capped at £79.5m and payable from 2028 onwards.
Plimsoll generated EBITDA of £10.0 million for the 12 months to 31 August 2021. Under ITV’s ownership, Plimsoll will report to a calendar year and under ITV’s episodic revenue recognition policy. On this basis Plimsoll is forecasted to deliver EBITDA of around £5.5m in H2 2022.
The transaction will be earnings accretive from day one and is expected to accelerate ITV Studios' growth internationally and its business with the global streaming platforms. The transaction will be financed through existing cash resources.
Grant Mansfield, CEO Plimsoll Productions said: “The significant opportunities in the international premium unscripted market make this the perfect time for Plimsoll to join ITV Studios. There is a quite special strategic and cultural fit that will enable us to achieve our, now shared, creative and commercial ambitions for Plimsoll. We’re excited to be part of ITV Studios’ expanding global force in content and delighted that, from today, this powerful new partnership is officially active.”
Carolyn McCall, CEO ITV added: "Growing ITV Studios with an exciting pipeline of premium programmes is core to our strategy as we further diversify the business by genre, by geography, by customer and grow ahead of the market. Through Plimsoll Productions, as a Studio, we can continue to capitalise on the growing demand for natural history and factual programming and I am really pleased to welcome Grant and the team."
Julian Bellamy, Managing Director ITV Studios added: “Grant and the team at Plimsoll bring years of unrivalled experience in the creation and production of outstanding and award-winning natural history and factual programmes. I’m delighted to welcome them to ITV Studios – their addition to the group strengthens our position in supplying the best shows across all genres to buyers around the world.”.
BBC Studios Natural History Unit announced as Headline Sponsor of Wildscreen Festival 2022
Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit Jonny Keeling joins Wildscreen Charity Board, as festival marks its 40th birthday with hybrid edition taking place live in Bristol, UK, and broadcast around the world via live-stream.
"Wildscreen is critical to the wildlife filmmaking industry and to the natural world which is why the NHU is supporting as Headline Sponsor this year. Never has it been more important to tell impactful stories that inspire a global audience to love the natural world."
— Jonny Keeling, Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit
Wildscreen, the not-for-profit behind the biggest festival of natural world storytelling globally, today unveils BBC Studios Natural History Unit as Headline Sponsor for the event, slated for 10-14 October 2022.
This milestone year for the Wildscreen Festival marks its 40th birthday and its first ever hybrid edition, with a packed in-person schedule taking place live in Bristol, UK, home to the biggest global hub of wildlife film production, and broadcast around the world via live-stream with bespoke content for its online audience.
The Festival’s focus for 2022 is “the future of natural world storytelling for a better planet” with four key elements underpinning the content - craft, industry, global voices, planetary crisis.
The support of the NHU as Headline Sponsors marks its commitment to supporting the future of the international wildlife film and TV industry, with a focus on driving an inclusive and sustainable global talent pipeline. The NHU will host the first ever Wildscreen Festival African hub, which will bring together the wildlife production community in Africa, broadcast live into the Bristol-hosted event, and offer bespoke in-person and hybrid networking events to support and showcase in-country talent. In Bristol, the NHU will open the doors to its new headquarters at Bridgewater House, to host a series of outreach events focussed on reaching out to local young people, highlighting the range of career paths into the wildlife film and TV production ecosystem.
Jonny Keeling, Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit, said: “Wildscreen is critical to the wildlife filmmaking industry and to the natural world which is why the NHU is supporting as Headline Sponsor this year. Never has it been more important to tell impactful stories that inspire a global audience to love the natural world. To do that we need to build a more sustainable and inclusive industry - Wildscreen Festival is an incredibly powerful platform to drive that change.”
Also announced today, Jonny Keeling, Head of BBC Studios NHU joins the Wildscreen charity board as trustee. The board, chaired by Laura Marshall, CEO of Icon Films, oversees the organisation's year-round charitable initiatives, as well as the biennial Wildscreen Festival.
Maria Norman, Head of Production, Steve Cole, Series Producer and Caroline Cox, Production Executive are also announced as members of the Wildscreen Festival Advisory Board 2022. The Board drives the creative vision and programming for the 2022 Festival and is this year chaired by Jeff Wilson, Director at Silverback Films. For a full list of the 2022 Festival Advisory Board see here.
Wildscreen Festival early bird passes are on sale now, with a variety of hybrid and virtual passes available allowing delegates to choose how and when they experience the festival. Tickets can be purchased here.
Inside David Attenborough’s Journey to the Center of the Climate Movement
For years, Sir David Attenborough inspired curiosity and awe for the natural world in ways that no other television presenter had done before. But recently, the tone of his films has changed, taking a more critical approach to the natural world and how it’s changing. After more than half a century in the spotlight, Attenborough has found himself at the center of the climate movement. Although, it took him a few years to get there.
Attenborough applied to work at BBC radio 70 years ago when he was 26. He was turned down. Instead, he was offered a job in television, where he made his debut as presenter of the documentary series “Zoo Quest” in 1954. Since then, Attenborough has presented almost 50 documentary series and more than 30 individual documentaries, bringing the natural wonders of animals and the environment to the screen.
Attenborough’s passion for storytelling has made him an inspiration to an entire generation of biologists, travelers, ecologists, conservationists, and other presenters like Chris Packham, Liz Bonnin, and Steve Bakshall. Even famed environmental activist Greta Thunberg has acknowledged Attenborough’s impact on her work.
But Attenborough’s early portrayals of the natural world came with their own flaws. In his first television show, “Zoo Quest,” released in 1954, he traveled around the world in search of exotic animals to capture them and bring them to the UK to be exhibited in the London Zoo.
Later, he says he began to question the show’s motive. “It was very unsatisfactory to make the animals look like freaks,” Attenborough said in an interview with Chris Packham. In “Zoo Quest” he can also be seen eating turtle eggs and jumping on animals, chasing them and pulling them by the tail to film them. But 50 years later he admitted his regret. “I am sorry about that sort of thing. But those were different days,” he said.
From naturalist to activist
Attenborough’s attitude towards animals has changed remarkably throughout his career. Towards the end of the 1970s, in one of the most famous “Life on Earth” scenes, he can be seen sharing a quiet moment with a group of mountain gorillas. By 1990, in “The Trials of Life,” the animals described by Attenborough had in many cases gone from being called “it” to “he” or “she.”
Since then, Attenborough’s documentaries have reflected the most recent research on the study of animal behavior. In his films, animals are more often than not portrayed as individuals with personalities, emotions, and complex social relationships. In fact, if it wasn’t for Attenborough’s documentaries, many viewers may have never imagined such abilities in mammals and birds, let alone fish, insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. Research from the University College Cork in Ireland shows that his films may even help connect “increasingly urbanized societies to the natural world.”
Unlike other documentaries about animals, which often focus on the violence and suffering inherent to wild populations, Attenborough’s documentaries broadcast many of the latest cognitive and ethical advancements in the study of animals for the first time. He presents animals as individuals with whom we share the world—and for whom we should worry.
His relationship with turtles is a prime example of this shift. In “Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild,” Attenborough dedicates a scene to recalling the worldwide decline of turtles, and in “Planet Earth II,” he makes a plea for people to respect baby turtles while they are crushed by cars in the city. Although, according to the BBC, “he didn’t start making programs with conservation in mind,” and has been criticized for showing theworld as untouched and pristine, despite the devastating impacts humans have on it.
But in recent years, he has taken an important turn in his career. Beginning in the 2000s, Attenborough started presenting work that could be labeled “environmental” rather than “nature” documentaries. Such is the case of “State of the Planet” (2000), “The Truth About Climate Change” (2006), “How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?” (2009) and, most recently, “Climate Change: The Facts” (2019), “Extinction: The Facts” (2020), and “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet” (2021).
Attenborough’s legacy
Attenborough did not just listen to his critics, who accused him of not including the human impact in the landscapes he showed. He made it his life’s work. In “Seven Worlds,” “One Planet” (2019), and “A Perfect Planet” (2021), Attenborough combines the visual style of nature documentaries with a renewed environmental message, demonstrating a clear concern for the loss of biodiversity, global warming, and deforestation.
In the acclaimed Netflix documentary, “A Life on Our Planet,” Attenborough addresses the human responsibility for the destruction of nature that he has witnessed in his long career. After the film was released, Attenborough sat down with broadcast journalist Anderson Cooper to tape an episode of 60 Minutes, where he calls his recent work a “witness statement.” He explains that “the crime,” referring to the climate crisis, “has [already] been committed.”
Attenborough has also become a beacon of hope, offering new perspectives for lifelong naturalists and guidelines for policymakers on how to fight the climate and biodiversity crises. Among his most widespread proposals are to curb population growth, switch to renewable energy, and protect the oceans. Recently, he has begun to highlight the role of global food systems in climate change.
In 2020, just before his 95th birthday, Attenborough announced that he changed his diet and drastically reduced his meat consumption in response to climate change. “We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters,” he says in “A Life on Our Planet,” noting that “half of the fertile land on Earth is now farmland, 70 percent of birds are domestic, majority chickens.”
The Earth can't wait any longer ... demand change now – International Animal Rescue
Biodiversity is crucial to the survival of our planet. It's the variety of life on Earth, in all its forms and interactions. It is the most complex feature of our planet and everything we see around us depends on biodiversity - but it also is fragile and in great danger.
May 22nd was International Day for Biological Diversity, and we're asking you to play your part! We want to bring the world together to send a powerful message to the leaders who are attending COP15 later this year, the UN conference focusing solely on biodiversity.
We can only do this with your help - submit a video to us today on what nature means to you and together, we can call for immediate action to save the biodiversity of Earth.
We Need Your Help Urgently – Represent your country!
2021 was one of the hottest years on record, with severe heatwaves and extreme temperatures in much of the world. Fuelled by the heat, catastrophic wildfires engulfed everything in their path. Human lives were lost and homes destroyed, while millions of wild animals and their habitats were wiped out.
Every day, all across the world, animals, plants and ecosystems are losing out to the disastrous impacts of human activity. We're constantly warned that the clock is ticking and time is running out to reverse the effects of climate change and biodiversity decline - and yet these issues seem repeatedly to drop down the list of global priorities.
We are urging immediate action now to save our planet's biodiversity; without it, there will be no water to drink, no food to eat. The world we know and love today simply won't exist.
Submit a video today on what nature means to you and help us send a powerful message to those attending COP15. We want to send a united message from every country in the world and to do that, we need your help.
We call on world leaders to put the planet first and focus on halting the decline in biodiversity for all our sakes - please join us in adding your voice.
Record a short video of yourself in nature and tell the world, why it’s important to you and why it must be protected. And finish by saying “COP15… Are You Listening?”
Jackson Wild Announces Partnership with American Society of Cinematographers and RED Digital Cinema
Jackson Wild has announced a new partnership with the American Society of Cinematographers and RED Digital Cinema to celebrate excellence in cinematography and to support emerging cinematographers in wildlife filmmaking.
Wildlife filmmaking continues to attract growing interest from streaming services, as the need to highlight threats to wildlife all around our planet from climate change and environmental degradation grows increasingly urgent.
“The ASC is excited to partner with Jackson Wild and RED to help wildlife cinematographers develop their technical and story-telling skills in this increasingly important area of filmmaking,” said Stephen Lighthill, President of the ASC.
The aim of the partnership is to provide ASC members with mentorship opportunities through Jackson Wild and RED, supporting emerging filmmakers from historically excluded groups around the world. Additionally, ASC will oversee the award for best cinematography at the annual Jackson Wild Media Awards, nature film’s equivalent to the Oscars®.
"It is a privilege for us to work with the cinematographers and filmmakers telling these incredibly important, compelling stories.” said Brian Henderson of RED, who also serves on the Board of the Wildlife Society of Filmmakers. “We are delighted to collaborate with Jackson Wild and ASC to support them. It’s an honor to work with these organizations and brilliant filmmakers.”
“There has never been a more urgent time for us to use the power of beautiful, well-told stories to inspire decisive action as our planet confronts biodiversity collapse and the climate change crisis,” added Lisa Samford, Executive Director of Jackson Wild who also serves on the Board of the Wildlife Society of Filmmakers.. “We are fully committed to elevating historically excluded storytellers and delighted that the ASC and RED share these goals. We’re thrilled at the new opportunities that will result.”
The finalists for the Jackson Wild Media Awards cinematography category will be announced in August, and the winner will be recognized at the annual Jackson Wild Summit, taking place September 26 - 30, 2022 in Neusiedler See - Seewinkel National Park, Burgenland, Austria.
Octopuses are very much in the spotlight at the moment as public interest in these amazing marine animals soars. The Netflix documentary, My Octopus Teacher, documents a heart-wrenching account of a year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with a wild common octopus in South Africa.
The name of the film is apt, with Craig learning more than he could have ever imagined from his octopus friend. Foster describes the effect of this mentorship-like relationship the octopus provided him, teaching him a lesson on the fragility of life and humanity's connection with nature. Such was the profound impact the documentary had on its viewers; at the 93rd Academy Awards, it won the award for Best Documentary Feature.
People the world over have become fascinated by these incredible animals who are intelligent, curious, and have a fascinating ability to change their appearance.
Unfortunately, octopuses are also in the media spotlight at the moment for the worst kind of reason. The Spanish company Nueva Pescanova has invested €65 million to build the world's first commercial octopus farm in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. Shockingly, over the last few years, demand for the consumption of octopuses has been rising dramatically in several Mediterranean countries in Europe, as well as in Asia, Mexico, Japan, and the United States. As a direct consequence of this increased consumer demand, food industries are keen to farm octopuses in captivity.
As the first demand of the Plant Based Treaty states, we should not be building new slaughterhouses or animal farms, but relinquishing animal agriculture facilities and not making the problem worse. Yet this octopus farm would lead to a million octopuses being killed for food each year (3,000 tonnes according to the company–the industry crudely refers to the octopuses killed by weight). The proposal would also put more pressure on the ocean, disrupt marine ecosystems, and kill other marine life who would have to be caught to feed the octopuses. Many, many millions of fish and other marine life would be affected and killed as a result of the farm. As the film Seaspiracy showed, our oceans are in crisis. Farming octopuses is as unsustainable as it is inhumane. Octopus farming also contravenes the EU Strategic Aquaculture Guidelines (SAG) because it will further deplete populations of fish communities living in the oceans.
There are currently no laws in place in Europe, the U.S., Mexico or Japan to protect octopuses from suffering or the particularly abhorrent killing methods. Pescanova has so far refused to explain how the octopuses will be killed. What we do know is that wild-caught octopuses are killed by methods such as clubbing their heads, cutting into their brains without anaesthetic, asphyxiation in a net, and chilling in ice. Scientists have also been studying three new slaughter methods including:
Chemical methods - an overdose of magnesium chloride, ethanal and clove oil.
Mechanical methods - destruction of the brain either by cutting between the eyes, or decapitation.
Electrical methods - electrocution of octopuses by passing an electric current through their body.
Experimental trials to farm octopuses have indicated that the mortality rate in an octopus farm would be around 20%. This means that 1 in 5, or 200,000 individuals of the million Pescanova plan to kill each year, would not even survive the ‘production’ cycle of the farm. To be clear we are in no way advocating for more humane conditions or killing methods for the octopuses. There is no humane way to hold anyone captive or kill anyone against their will.
This proposed octopus farm in the Canary Islands must be stopped. Outside Europe, plans are also being considered to develop octopus farms in the United States, Mexico and Japan. If the farm in the Canary Islands goes ahead, this will set a dangerous precedent across the world and could have dire implications with more octopus farms being constructed.
Animal Save Movement and Plant Based Treaty have launched a petition calling for the proposed slaughterhouse to be banned and instead, octopuses be recognized in Europe and around the world as sentient beings, something that has already been achieved in the United Kingdom. The petition so far has garnered over 35,000 signatures. You can add yours by clicking here. Together we can stop Pescanova and send a message to any other companies considering building an octopus farm to LEAVE OCTOPUSES ALONE!
Wilderland is the UK’s first touring wildlife film festival. Sharing with audiences the very best natural history films by world class filmmakers across the globe.
Selected from over a hundred entries, Wilderland is now back for its third year touring the 2022 Official Selection showcase.
These groundbreaking independent films will offer audiences unparalleled insight into some of the world’s most incredible stories from our natural world. A must-see for lovers of wildlife, film, travel, conservation and adventure.
Hosted by wildlife television presenter, filmmaker, and field biologist Dan O’Neill
For the first time in the organization’s thirty-year history, Jackson Wild will host its annual Summit outside of the United States this fall. The 2022 Jackson Wild Summit will take place September 26-30, 2022, in Neusiedler See - Seewinkel National Park, Burgenland, Austria.
The Jackson Wild Summit is an extraordinary gathering where collaboration and innovation thrive, ideas are launched, and strategic partnerships are forged. Cross-discipline conversations on the critical issues facing our planet pave the way for strategic partnerships that happen nowhere else, as participants work together to address critical conservation and environmental challenges. The Summit culminates in the announcement of the Jackson Wild Media Awards, nature film’s equivalent to the Oscars®, as well as Special Jury Recognitions, a peer-driven celebration of filmmakers, storytellers, and content creators.
“In collaboration with a growing consortium of regional international partners, Jackson Wild has created a global community to accelerate change and amplify the reach and impact of our industry, from the types of content we’re collectively presenting to who is doing the storytelling,” noted Bill Gardner, VP of Multiplatform Programming and Head of Development for PBS, and Chairperson of Jackson Wild’s International Board of Directors. “Through the engagement and commitment of our many partners, we’re already seeing a real measurable change in how we tell stories about and help conserve the wild spaces of our planet.”
Just southeast of Austria’s capital city Vienna, Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that boasts exceptional natural beauty. Burgenland’s unique landscape and extraordinary biodiversity make it the ideal setting for this year’s Summit as a place to inspire and strengthen our commitment to nature. The location also reflects Jackson Wild’s status as an international organization and a commitment to reaching a broader global audience. It is anticipated that the Summit will move to different international locations in alternating years.
“I am extremely pleased that the 2022 Jackson Wild Summit will be hosted by us in Seewinkel National Park. With its unique flora and fauna, our national park offers the perfect backdrop to put the spotlight on these important key issues of the future: the environment, species conservation, and sustainability. Burgenland is also setting many political goals in these areas - protecting the region as a unique natural area is just as much a part of our concerns as organic farming, climate neutrality, and the expansion of renewable energies. I hope that the region inspires, excites, and moves the participants of the Jackson Wild Summit to generate new ideas and I am convinced that here, in the heart of Europe, we can catalyze an impulse towards new, innovative concepts in environmental awareness,” said Hans-Peter Doskozil, Governor of Burgenland, Austria.
The Summit also sets the stage for the Jackson Wild Media Lab, a week-long immersive, cross-disciplinary science filmmaking workshop that brings scientists and media creators together to learn from leaders in the profession and work together to develop effective tools to communicate about science, nature, and conservation. This year, the Media Lab will take place the week before the Summit from September 20-30, 2022 in Austria.
Registration opens for the 2022 Summit in late May and discounted lodging can be booked until June 15, 2022.
Wildscreen are excited to launch Emerging Talent Month!
Throughout May, we have a series of webinars focused on supporting, engaging and celebrating Emerging Talent within the natural world filmmaking and storytelling industry.
Important Dates in May:
Tue 10th May- Making Making Natural History content engaging for younger audiences Webinar.
Thur 12th May- Emerging Talent Network Event at The Bristol Loaf, Beacon, Bristol.
Wed 18th May- Hyper-Local Storytelling: The Power of Local Webinar.
Thur 26th May- Industry Insight: Camera Operator Webinar
All our May webinars will be FREE to attend and open to everyone to join.
IWFF Announces the Award Winners of the 2022 International Wildlife Film Festival from IWFF
29 April 2022
Congratulations to the filmmakers who received awards!! The 75 selections of this year's festival are all worthy of awards and accolades.
The 45th International Wildlife Film Festival today announced the winners of the 2022 event. One winner was selected in each of 12 categories with additional jury awards for deserving films.
This years jury was made up of Roshan Patel, Resident filmmaker & Photographer at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institut, Erim Gómez, Assistant professor of wildlife biology at the University of Montana and Colleen Thurston, Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma's Gaylord College of Journalism and a current Sundance Indigenous Film Fellow.
“I don't know if the exhilaration in the air was from being at an actual film festival with special guests and Q&As again but the 2022 line-up seemed to sparkle with energy, resilience, curiosity, and creativity,” says IWFF Director Carrie Richer. “This year's winners span the globe and demonstrate exceptional filmmaking. Our awardees exemplify scrappy, bold work and that grit has been a value of IWFF's for 45 years now.”
Special awards screenings of select winning films will happen at The Roxy Theater on Saturday, April 30th. The majority of the selections and award winners from the 45th Annual IWFF are available to watch during the IWFF Virtual Festival which runs from May 1-7, online and available worldwide. Virtual tickets and festival information are available at wildlifefilms.org.
The Territory Director: Alex Pritz
Producers: Darren Aronofsky
& Romain Bessi
Brazil, Denmark, United States
93 mins
The film provides an immersive on-the-ground look at the tireless fight of the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by illegal settlers and an association of non-native farmers in the Brazilian Amazon. With awe-inspiring cinematography showcasing the titular landscape, and richly textured sound design, the film takes audiences deep into the Uru-eu-wau-wau community, and provides unprecedented access to the settlers illegitimately clearing land and a network of desperate farmers advocating for access to colonize the protected rainforest.
Fire of Love Director: Sarah Dosa
Producers: Shane Boris, Ina Fichman,
and Sara Dosa
Sandbox Films, Intuitive Pictures,
and Cottage M productions.
France, United States
93 mins
Best Series
Wildlife Warrior Series Director: Johann Vorster
Producer: Paula Kahumbu and Wildlife Direct
Kenya
28 mins
Best Student Film
Sonora Director: Johnny Holder
Producers: Johnny Holder, Pablo Camacho
United States
24 mins
Wrought Directors: Joel Penner, Anna Sigrithur
Canada
20 mins
Best Living With Wildlife Program
Returning Home Directors: Sean Stiller
Producers: Tim Joyce, Gilles Gagnier, Andrew Lovesey
Produced by Canadian Geographic magazine
Canada
72 mins
Best Animal Behavior Program
My Garden of a Thousand Bees Director: David Allen
Narrated and filmed by Martin Dohrn
Producer: Gaby Bastyra
A production of Passion Planet, the WNET Group, and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films.
United Kingdom
52 mins
Best Sustainable Planet Category
The Territory
Director: Alex Pritz
Producers: Darren Aronofsky
& Romain Bessi
Brazil, Denmark, US
Son of Monarchs Director: Alexis Gambis
Producers:
Maria Altamirano & Abraham Dayan
Mexico
98 mins
Jury Statement: Son of Monarchs is a timely story of a Mexican biologist, Mendel (Tenoch Huerta), who is living in New York but returns home to the state of Michoacan after his grandmother's passing. Mendel's journey parallels the life history and challenges of Monarchs. The jury recognizes this film for its creative use of Monarch as a metaphor, artistic style, and its depiction of Latinos scientists conducting innovative research while capturing the human experience.
Special Jury Award
Presented to Dr. Paula Kahumbu
Jury Statement:Wildlife Warriors is a refreshing and much-needed perspective in wildlife media. It shares stories of community based conservation and is created, authored and voiced from within the community. Dr. Paula Kahumbu is the guiding voice throughout, as the series host. As a leading wildlife conservationist, Dr. Kahumbu serves as a role model for Wildlife Warriors' audience of school aged children - and beyond. The jury recognizes her enormous contribution within the field of wildlife television with a Special Jury Award for Presenter or Host.
Special Jury Award
Presented to Dr. J. Drew Lanham
Jury Statement: In Deveaux Bank: Reflections of a Cultural Ornithologist, we met Dr. J. Drew Lanham. His unique perspective and dynamic storytelling offer a glimpse into the complex relationship between human history, land and wildlife conservation in this country in a truly impactful way. The jury believes Dr. Lanham's clear articulation of his unique and important perspective deserves to be recognized with a Special Jury Award.
Newyonder is a global streaming service, film studios and certified B Corp dedicated to leaving our planet wilder through storytelling optimism and change.
We're excited to announce that you can now sign up and get 40% off award-winning, feature-length Newyonder Originals ... at newyonder.earth.
Go beyond the story and subscribe for change®.
Watch Newyonder Originals in 4K UHD on compatible devices, at any time, and help drive real tangible change from your own sofa – with a % of the revenue going towards regenerative and sustainable impact projects.
Pay-Per-View Rental Packages:
1) 3.59 GBP (40% Off - Discounted from 5.99 GBP) – Rent & Stream 1 Newyonder Original, 1 time (completed film), on 1 device at a time, for up to 72 hours. By watching, 5% of proceeds are given to restoring the planet.
2) 5.99 GBP (40% Off - Discounted from 9.99 GBP) – Rent & Stream 2 Newyonder Originals as many times as you like, on up to 3 devices at a time, for 30 Days. By watching, 5% of proceeds are given to restoring the planet.
Get immersed in new and Newyonder Original Content around the world*
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Newyonder is a Certified #BCorp using "business as a force for good™"
Newyonder Originals are albert-certified (BAFTA), carbon-neutral sustainable productions
*T&C's Apply. Promotion Valid until 31st July 2022 .
Meet this year's recipients of world-leading prizes for grassroots wildlife conservation...
The 2022 Whitley Awards, on Wednesday 27 April at the Royal Geographical Society in London, celebrated six grassroots conservationists identified after a worldwide search for locally-led solutions to the global biodiversity and climate crises.
An uplifting event and WFN’s first in-person ceremony in three years, the evening was hosted by WFN Ambassadors Tom Heap and Kate Humble and the Whitley Awards were presented by WFN Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, in front of nearly 500 guests. The event was also live-streamed to over 1,000 people and counting around the world, which you can watch on catch-up here.
Please join us in congratulating our 2022 Whitley Award winners: inspirational individuals bringing people together to benefit wildlife, habitats and society.
The charity’s flagship prizes, Whitley Awards are won competitively following a worldwide search. Applications are assessed by an expert Judging Panel, and winners receive £40,000 in project funding over one year.
In addition, the Awards provide elevated profile, new connections and training – all tools that winners can use to better protect the natural world.
Winners also join our 200-strong community of Whitley Award alumni – a global network of peers with whom they can share expertise, resources and encouragement.
Watch a collection of short films about this year’s Whitley Award-winning projects, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
Solana is one of the most energy efficient and eco-friendly blockchains, making it the perfect home for Mammalz.
After weeks of deliberation between our core team and our DAO members, we have decided to build out the Mammalz ecosystem - including our impact-driven NFT collection The Naturalists - on the Solana blockchain.
Why did we choose Solana over Polygon or Ethereum?
Solana's energy consumption per transaction is similar to that of two Google searches. That's significantly less than the energy consumption of the Ethereum blockchain.
Culturally, The Naturalists has more synergy with new Solana projects and collectors than those on Polygon (the energy-efficient side chain of Ethereum). These cross-collaboration opportunities will give us the best chance at scaling our community and our impact.
As of April, there are more ecosystem grants and funding available to an organization like Mammalz by Solana and its ambassador organizations than most other blockchain ecosystems.
Solana has become one of the fastest-growing and most trusted blockchain ecosystems, attracting the attention of countless VCs, pop culture brands like Coachella, and impact collectives like the Impact NFT Alliance.
Now that we're on Solana, what comes next?
The DAO tools available to us through Squads - one of the most popular DAO solutions on Solana - will allow us to quickly and effectively formalize our DAO with an intuitive user interface.
Our technical partner for The Naturalists, Hang NFT, will be able to create a custom minting experience for us on Solana with zero delay to our project, little to no gas fees, and quick listings on popular NFT marketplaces.
If you do one thing this Earth Day, watch EATING OUR WAY TO EXTINCTION now FREE to View on Prime Video
22th April 2022
In the run up to Earth Day,Eating Our Way To Extinction, from members
Otto Brockway and Ludovic Brockway, can now streamed for FREE to watch with Prime Video.
Narrated by Kate Winslet, this entertaining and surprising documentary will challenge the way you look at the food industry. What is the true cost of food? Who pays the price? Featuring shocking undercover footage and poignant first-hand accounts from indigenous people, this one-of-a-kind documentary will permanently change your perception of food and its connection to the future of our planet.
If we don’t act now, scientists predict there could be NO EARTH DAY BY 2045.
If you do one thing today, watch Eating Our Way To Extinction on Prime Video to learn how our greed is making the planet extinct and most importantly, what we can do to change our path. #noearthday #eating2extinction
The Brock Initiative has less than 100 copies of PLANET CRUNCH The Life (or Death?) of Planet Earth by Richard Brock available now!
This 150-page paperback book is free to all those interested. It is part of an ambitious project that draws attention to the challenges we all face; especially involving biodiversity.
You can also watch the three accompanying x25-minute films on YouTube and Vimeo.
Planet Crunch – The Life (or Death?) of Planet Earth is a unique perspective on planet Earth at crunch-time. Based on how the media have lifted the natural world to the front-page headlines, the book is richly illustrated, packed with commentary on wildlife, natural resources, impacts of global politics, population, climate change and our future.
Richard Brock, filmmaker, author and publisher, has created a book for everyone. He describes it as political, challenging, cheeky, significant, educational and even rude! A publication that is both up-to-date and down-to-earth.
It’s for all those who are concerned about the future at this time of “Planet Crunch”.
So, with no current plans for another print, be sure to order your FREE copy ASAP!
Donations to charity will be welcomed. If you would like to contribute – say £10 – to Richard’s preferred charity local charity, the Avon Wildlife Trust, based close to where he lives, near Bristol, or to a charity of your choice, please do so. These days many charities need income to help continue projects around the world.
Disneynature’s ‘Polar Bear’ Continues Longstanding Commitment to Conservation of Wildlife
Disneynature’s Polar Bear, premiering exclusively on Disney+ today in celebration of Earth Day, tells the story of a polar bear experiencing motherhood for the first time. “The heart of the story is family—that bond between mothers and cubs,” says producer Roy Conli. “That relationship lasts between two-and-a-half and three years. In that time the mother will teach her cubs everything they need to know to survive.”
Director Alastair Fothergill has been filming polar bears for more than 20 years and knew he wanted to highlight the exquisite animals (and adorable cubs) in a Disneynature film. “When we first pitched the film, we weren’t expecting it to have an environmental component because we didn’t know at the time how much climate change would affect the Arctic,” Fothergill says. “Polar bears have been forced to adapt—we witnessed it and captured some of those behaviors. It’s extraordinary. And we hope this film connects people to the incredible story of these iconic animals and inspires action for their future.”
Today, an estimated 26,000 polar bears remain in the wild, and experts predict that if no action on climate change is taken, we could lose all but a few polar bear populations by the end of this century.
Through Disney Planet Possible, we are committed to creating change for the better—supporting a world where people, plants, and animals all have a thriving place to call home. In coordination with the film’s debut and The Walt Disney Company’s longstanding legacy of protecting wildlife and wild places, the Disney Conservation Fund is investing in solutions to support polar bear conservation with nonprofit organization, Polar Bears International (PBI). Disney’s grant will contribute to researching the potential of a promising aerial radar detection tool that will allow aircraft to identify hidden polar bear dens and protect mothers and cubs; help to reduce possible human-bear conflicts to keep both bears and people safe in the Arctic; and inspire actionable change throughout the world to combat climate change and aid the preservation of polar bears’ habitats.
“Working on behalf of the Arctic’s polar bear community is our priority, and we are beyond excited to continue pushing that important work forward with the support of Disney,” said Krista Wright, Executive Director, Polar Bears International. “There is always more work to do, and we are optimistic of the path ahead as we find new ways to help polar bears thrive today and tomorrow. We hope after viewing Polar Bear, people will be inspired to talk to their friends and family about the film, what they learned, and why polar bear conservation matters.”
To learn more about how to make actionable change, click here.
David Attenborough receives the United Nations most distinguished Environment Award
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today (21st of April) that Sir David Attenborough is the recipient of the Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration.
“If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us,” he said. “It’s now time for our species to stop simply growing, to establish a life on our planet in balance with nature, to start to thrive.”
When Sir David Attenborough was a boy, he spent much of his free time bounding through abandoned quarries in the English countryside, hammer in hand. His prey: fossilized ammonites, spiral-shaped mollusks that lived in the time of the dinosaurs.
To a young Attenborough, the fossils were like buried treasures and he was amazed to be the first to set eyes on them in tens of millions of years.
The natural world would keep him enthralled for the rest of his life.
Today, Attenborough, 95, is arguably the world’s best-known natural history broadcaster. During a career that began with the dawn of television, he has penned and presented some of the most influential documentaries on the state of the planet, including his decade-spanning, nine-part Life series.
With what the New York Times called his “voice-of-God-narration” and an insatiable curiosity, he has spent 70 years revealing the beauty of the natural world – and laying bare the threats it faces. Along the way, he has offered hundreds of millions of viewers a vision for a more sustainable future.
“If the world is, indeed, to be saved, then Attenborough will have had more to do with its salvation than anyone else who ever lived,” wrote environmentalist and author Simon Barnes.
The United Nations has recognized Attenborough’s outsized impact on the global environmental movement, presenting him with the UN Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is the UN’s highest environmental honour and celebrates those who have dedicated their lives to tackling crises like climate change, species loss and pollution.
“You have been an extraordinary inspiration for so many people,” said Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), as she presented Attenborough with the award.
“You spoke for the planet long before anyone else did and you continue to hold our feet to the fire.”.
Sir David Attenborough is awarded with the United Nations Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award by the UN Environment Programme Executive Director, Inger Andersen. In an exclusive interview, they discuss Sir David's life, the importance of restoring nature and how science can appeal to the hearts of people.
The Champions of the Earth award is the United Nation’s highest environmental honour. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment.
“Golden Eagles: Witnesses to a Changing West” Documentary Released
Film Tells the Story of the Challenges the Birds Face and the People Working to Save Them
Wild Excellence Films (WEF) released their documentary entitled “Golden Eagles: Witnesses to a Changing West,” an hour-long film shot in UHD 5K and 6K with RED cinema cameras. It will be broadcast on PBS stations in several states this spring, including New Mexico, California, Colorado, Wyoming, and Florida, and will have many more airings throughout the year.
The film tells the story of the stunning golden eagle, a raptor with a seven-foot wingspan and powerful talons that isn’t immune to the challenges of the rapidly changing American West. From climate change to sprawl, invasive species to disease, lead poisoning to energy development, the magnificent birds are under threat from many directions and are a species of serious conservation concern. “Golden Eagles: Witnesses to a Changing West” takes viewers into the field with leading researcher Dr. Charles Preston and his team in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming as they rappel down cliffs into eagle nests to place leg bands on the birds.
“Filming in this wild, underappreciated landscape was a challenge,” said producer and cinematographer David Rohm. “But our footage of golden eagles and the people who dedicate their time to save them makes a strong case for conservation. It’s an honor to be able to tell this story.”
Never-before-seen footage of charismatic eaglets is paired with compelling narration to further the conservation message. Gorgeous aerials of the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem; footage of grizzly bears, sage-grouse, and other animals; and dramatic landscapes show the diversity of this habitat. Narrated by renowned naturalist and author Kenn Kaufman, this beautiful documentary makes the viewer feel like they’re in the field with Dr. Preston for an intimate view of these birds and the science that can help save them.
Viewers will go behind the scenes at wildlife rehabilitation centers where eagles are treated for lead poisoning, and hear stories of Indigenous peoples’ connections to the golden eagle, told by a member of the Crow Nation, Dr. Shane Doyle.
“We were excited to be filming these magnificent birds and to be working with such a great, passionate team,” said cinematographer Melissa Rohm. “One of our focuses was filming the banding of golden eagle nestlings. We captured some unique, never-before-seen moments, and we’re looking forward to sharing the eagles’ story with a wide audience. Many people aren’t familiar with golden eagles, but we hope the film will inspire conservation of this magnificent species.”
Wild Excellence Films worked closely with Wyoming PBS; the Draper Natural History Museum; Kristin Combs of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates; Dr. Shayne Doyle of the Crow Nation; Teton Raptor Center; Jill King from Styling the New West; Susan Ahalt from Ironside Bird Rescue; and naturalist, artist, and author Kenn Kaufman. Funders for the film include the Nancy-Carroll Draper Charitable Foundation; Wyoming Cultural Trust; Wyoming Community Foundation; Community Foundation of Jackson Hole; Meg and Bert Raynes Wildlife Fund; Rocky Mountain Power Foundation; and Wyoming Humanities Council.
About Wild Excellence Films
Wild Excellence Films (WEF) specializes in telling compelling natural history stories that promote conservation and science, educating audiences while immersing them in the beauty of the natural world. Their films are factual yet personal, dramatic, and cinematic. They produce their films ethically, taking pride in putting the well-being of their subjects first. Their curiosity and love for animals, plants, and wild places knows no limits, and their films are testaments to that passion. From development to filming, editing to narration and script, Wild Excellence Films is a complete production company. They work with conservation organizations, state and national parks, and public television.
This year's competition has a prize fund of over £15,000 in cash. The Overall Winner will take home a total of £5,750.
Early bird discount
For a limited time, you can get entry credits for the adult competition at a special Early Bird discount. But this will only be available for a very short time.
Any credits purchased now can be used at any point up until the deadline for submissions.
Categories
This year's categories in the adult competition are:
Animal Behaviour
Animal Portraits (sponsored by MPB)
Botanical Britain (sponsored by Countryside Jobs Service)
Black & White
Coast & Marine
Habitat
Hidden Britain
Urban Wildlife
Wild Woods (sponsored by Wildlife Watching Supplies)
We also have the following awards:
British Seasons - submit 4 images together that showcase either the changing seasons, or take an in-depth look at one particular season.
Documentary Series - a sequence of up to 6 images that showcase any British Wildlife, habitat, or landscape conservation issue.
Wildlife in HD Video - submit a short film of up to 3 minutes in length, showcasing your cinematography skill.
The Hauraki Gulf – one of the most bio-diverse harbours in the entire world, but over-fishing and too much run off and sediment is strangling the mauri out of this unique harbour and threatening future generation’s enjoyment of it.
It is in collapse.
The council has released damning report after damning report for over twenty years. Seachange has been working away for over six years. Legasea, Revive our Gulf, Sustainable Coastlines, Greenpeace and others have all been banging away. With no result.
Finally the government has released their Revitalising the Gulf report. It is a much-needed step forward but people still need to know what the issues are, what possible solutions there are and how wide reaching will this new Ministry of Fisheries action really be.
It is widely recognised that this is a hugely complex problem with local government, central government, farmers, developers, recreational fisher people, the commercial fishing industry and twenty-four iwi, all with different agendas. But all their agendas will be rendered null and void if the gulf collapses.
There is no room for further green fatigue.
Now is the time for action.
Please come on board.
Member The Sound Room scored ths series and says "Fantastic and super topical 7 part documentary series we had pleasure of scoring recently - expertly sound designed and mixed by Mike Bloemendal. Directed by Simon Mark-Brown, Produced by Angela Hovey for Republic. Streaming NOW."
The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park was the first marine park established in New Zealand. It reaches from Te Arai to Waihi in the North Island, an area of more than 1.2 million hectares which includes more than 50 islands. It is a unique, bio-diverse and a much-loved body of water,but it is in a state of ecological collapse.
Seasick - Saving the Hauraki Gulf is a seven-part series initiated by the release of many bleak reports on the state of the gulf. The alarming decrease in crayfish, paua, scallops, fish stocks – most sealife. How has it come to this? Who are the culprits and what can be done?
Over 18 months we have interviewed more than 70 people – all with strong, well-informed points of view.
We investigate the history of fishing, commercial and recreational, fisheries management in general, the Quota Management System and look at marine reserves. Most agree with more marine protection but there is conflict over what that should look like.
It seems apparent that not enough has been done fast enough. Time is running out to save the Hauraki Gulf. There are stories of hope – we just hope they will be in time.
One World, Infinite Wonder: Netflix’s New Climate Change and Sustainability Collection
For Earth Month, Netflix released a new collection of nearly 200 films, specials, series, and sorts about the environment and climate change to bring attention to the state of our planet.
Don’t Look Up is the second most-watched English language film of all time. Don’t Look Up follows two astronomers trying to get humans to care about the massive comet that will destroy planet Earth, which is a metaphor for climate change.
Now, Netflix created an entire community for users to immerse themselves in topics of climate emergencies. The One World, Infinite Wonder, Netflix’s Earth Month collection, features 170 films, specials, series, and shorts that address environmental issues and climate change.
Dr. Emma Stewart, Netflix’s Chief Sustainability Office, wrote in a blog post, “This Earth Month, let us entertain you with stories about our planet and its heroes — with everything from cooking shows to dramas, stand-up comedy specials to family titles, to nature documentaries and climate fiction.”
The collection includes series, films, and specials like Our Planet, Animal, David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, and the new five-part series Our Great National Parks narrated by President Barack Obama.
The Covid crisis has taught us we can’t go back to how things were before.
So how can we fight back against the climate emergency? How can we reverse the destruction of nature? How can we heal the UK’s wellbeing crisis? How can we protect our communities from increased flooding? How can we bring wildlife back to our degraded rivers, lakes and ponds? Wetlands Can!
Yet we’ve lost so many, with 90% destroyed in England alone. Worldwide, wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests, and much of what remains is in poor quality. They need your help.
Wetlands occur where water meets land. They include marshes, rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, deltas, floodplains and wet woodlands.
Wetlands can
Store carbon – Wetlands such as peatlands and saltmarshes store more carbon, more quickly, than all the world’s forests combined.
Reduce flooding – Wetlands are like natural sponges. They store excess rainwater, slow the flow of water downriver and provide a buffer from the sea.
Improve wellbeing – Feeling part of nature is hugely beneficial to our wellbeing. Research shows that 65% of people find being near water has a positive impact on their mental health.
Restore biodiversity – Nature is in freefall. Wetlands help to clean our water and bring a whole range of wildlife back to our degraded rivers, lakes and ponds.
Join our movement
"We all stand to benefit from more wetlands in our lives and together we can make this happen."
Kate Humble, WWT President
Pledge your support ... Join WWT’s urgent pledge to create 100,000 hectares of healthy wetlands around the UK by adding your details here.
With your support, we will campaign for change and urge the UK government to prioritise and invest in more wetlands. Each name we collect will build momentum and help us solve today’s pressing climate, nature and wellbeing crises.
Our soils are going extinct ... We need to stop that happening.
Why Save Soil?
Save Soil is a global movement launched by Sadhguru, to address the soil crisis by bringing together people from around the world to stand up for Soil Health, and supporting leaders of all nations to institute national policies and actions toward increasing the organic content in cultivable Soil.
Save Soil is a Global Movement to initiate a conscious approach to soil and planet. The movement seeks to show governments of all nations that their citizens want a policy to revitalize soil and ecology.
To activate and demonstrate the support of over 3.5 billion citizens, Sadhguru will be riding as a lone motorcyclist, 30,000 kilometers across 26 nations.
The arduous journey will start in London and end in southern India, where the Cauvery Calling project, initiated by Sadhguru, has enabled 125,000 farmers to plant 62 million trees to revive soil and river Cauvery.
Activating citizen participation will ensure that ecological issues become election issues, so that governments create policies and set budgets for ecological solutions, leading to sustained implementation.
Yogi, mystic, visionary, and best-selling author Sadhguru explains how over 5,000 years of industrialized farming has leached nutrients from the world’s soil, and the ecological impact this has had on food production and raising crops. #DailyShow
Jackson Wild Media Awards Call for Entry Now Open
2022
7th April 2022
Nature film’s equivalent to the Oscars®, the Jackson Wild Media Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in nature, science, and conservation storytelling.
To make the competition more accessible and better reflect the diversity of filmmakers' experiences, the competition features new categories this year including "Breakthrough Film" recognizing achievement in nature-related filmmaking in the face of adversity or limitations, as well as "Global Voices" highlighting non-Western perspectives.
Any film completed since June 1, 2021, is eligible to enter.
Nominate Films and Individuals
for Special Jury Recognition
First introduced in 2021, Jackson Wild's Special Jury Recognitions are not a competition — but rather a recognition by a jury of peers — celebrating impactful individuals and innovative content pushing the frontiers of storytelling about nature, science and conservation.
It is free to submit nominations, with Special Jury Recognitions curated and showcased to define key conversations at the Summit.
This year's World Wildlife Day Showcase includes films spreading the message that the restoration of key species are pillars of humanity’s social and economic well-being, as well as key elements of the planet’s environmental health and biological diversity. The films are free to view and will be available until May 15.
For nearly 30 years the Festival International Nature Namur has been promoting amateur filmmakers and their films dedicated to nature. A contest restricted to non-professionals allows all filmmakers passionate by wildlife and flora to share their realizations with the still growing audience of the Festival.
The 28th edition of the Festival will be held from Friday 14, 2022 to Sunday 23, 2022 in the heart of Namur city. Its rich programming of animal documentary will offer a selection of amateur films highlighted at every show and during the gala evening devoted to this competition. The selected filmmakers will then enjoy their realizations in optimal conditions: comfortable movie theatres, large screens, the latest audio-visual technologies.
What are the requirements to take part?
This contest is restricted to amateur filmmakers. The submitted films may not last more than five minutes and must be dedicated to nature. You find all the requirements in our regulation.
How to enter these amateur films competition?
You can submit your films until July 31, 2022 and fill in the registration form on our website.
ASK FOR TIPS ABOUT YOUR AMATEUR FILM
Our coaching committee can send you on simple request his opinion about your film project or your completed film.
If you are an amateur filmmaker and appreciate shooting films about nature, you can ask our coaching committee for advice. The committee set up by PointCulture will preview, upon request, the amateur film projects, completed or not, sent to the Festival before Sunday, May 15, 2022 at the latest. During the following month the committee will send advice and tips to the filmmakers to improve their project.
Based on these tips the amateur filmmakers who wish it can send the Festival a new version of their film before the closing date of Sunday, July 31, 2022 at midnight.
Are you younger than 21? Are you passionate about nature? Then be invited to the 28th edition of the Festival from Friday 14th to Sunday 23th October 2022.
Exhibit your nature pictures among other photographers during the Festival!
A contest gives the young people the opportunity to show their nature photographs to the visitors of the Festival. Two winners will be given a Youth Grant. This includes the printing of the pictures, the setting up of the exhibition and its presentation as a scoop in the Nature Village. The making of this exhibit will be coached by well-known photographer Michel d’Oultremont. A rare chance to live and share one’s passion with a professional. Do not hesitate and sign in on our website before 15 May 2022.
Become a member of a movie jury and award a prize of the 2021 Festival!
This year the FINN is calling you, passionate of movie and nature, to become a member of our youth jury. A unique opportunity to view new films, to meet documentary professionals and to share your opinion with the other members. The jury will return its verdict during the gala evening of the prize-giving ceremony. Let your opinion be heard and take part in the jury members selection on our website before 15 May 2022.
DISCOVER OUR FOUR INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS AND APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2022 FESTIVAL
The competitions and the applications for the 28th edition are open on our website.
The International Nature Namur Festival organizes four major international competitions, films and photos, dedicated to nature and the wonder it arouses. The film competitions are divided into three categories: professional films, amateur films and ultra-short films (max. 1 minute). The Namur International Photo Nature Competition invites amateur and professional photographers to provoke emotions with their most beautiful images.
The Festival is also launching applications to photographers to exhibit at the Village Nature, including a Young Photographers Grant for young under the age of 21. Two other applications offer the opportunity for associations to occupy a stand at the Village Nature and for students to be a member of the 2022 youth jury.
UK charity, Wildscreen, has launched the UK’s first ever industry-wide research to benchmark the UK’s Natural History Film and TV genre. Wildscreen are calling for all Production Companies and Freelancers who power the sector across the UK, to contribute and add their voices to the study.
The anonymous surveys will run until May 3rd. The outcomes will be revealed in the first ever Wildscreen Industry Insight Report (WIIR) this Autumn. The findings will also be used to inform content and themes for the upcoming Wildscreen Festival taking place live in Bristol and streamed online from 10-14 October 2022.
The first installation of the Wildscreen Industry Insight series will provide the largest and most complete review of the natural history industry film and TV industry within the UK with the benchmark report providing; key information on sector-specific revenues; a breakdown of funding sources and commissions globally for natural history programming; an overview of the natural history film and TV workforce in the UK, including freelancers, emerging talent and collaboration with in-country talent; a baseline for workforce diversity across the sector; an insight into impact of the pandemic on the industry; identification of the key challenges facing the sector over the next five years; an insight into how freelancers within the industry can be supported.
Lucie Muir, Wildscreen’s CEO said: “For many, the idea of travelling the world documenting wildlife is a dream job but for those working in it, there are some unique, genre-specific opportunities and challenges. This study will not only help us understand the contribution wildlife film and TV makes to the creative economy here in the UK, but most importantly, for the first time ever, we will know more about the people behind the camera. It’s a unique opportunity for the industry’s workforce to have their voices heard and for the industry to come together and build a more inclusive, supportive and equitable natural world storytelling genre here in the UK.”
The research is being conducted in partnership with the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).
New Head of Department Wanted – Science and Natural History at the National Film & Television School
By NFTS
30th March 2022
Full Time Head of Science and Natural History position available at NFTS
For half a century, the National Film and Television School (NFTS) has developed some of Britain and the world’s top creative talent. It is widely acknowledged to be the top school of its kind in the UK and one of the best internationally.
We are now recruiting for a Head of Science & Natural History. This is a unique opportunity for someone who is excited about imparting their knowledge to, and inspiring the next generation of Science & Natural History film and television-makers.
Our two-year MA course, Directing and Producing Science & Natural History, is the only course of its kind in the UK and aims to give students the skills they need to direct science and wildlife productions.
Working closely with the Director, Director of Curriculum and Registrar, the Head of Science & Natural History is responsible for devising and revising the curriculum, including projects, exercises and workshops, in conjunction with fellow tutors. The ideal applicant will be an experienced Director or Producer with solid knowledge and practical experience of industry customs and practices, strong editorial skills and, importantly, understand the enormous value and contribution made by other departments (Editing, Sound and Music etc) to Science & Natural History projects.
Applicants need to be excellent communicators possessing strong interpersonal skills and a passion for student learning. Some previous experience of teaching and learning is preferred.
Variety’s Top UK Film School 2020 and recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema BAFTA, the NFTS is one of the world's leading film, games and television schools and celebrated its landmark 50th anniversary in 2021. NFTS alumni have gone on to win 13 Oscars and 152 BAFTAs with graduates including; double Oscar winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (1917) creator of global Netflix hit Sex Education Laurie Nunn and BAFTA winning director, Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here). The NFTS is a registered charity (313429).
For further information about this role and details of how to apply, please visit www.nfts.co.uk/jobs
Please note that we are unable to sponsor candidates for these roles, so we are only able to accept applications from candidates who are able to demonstrate their right to live and work in the UK. If you do not have the right to work in the UK, we will not be able to progress your application.
At the NFTS, people are at the heart of what we do. We’re an inclusive employer and are committed to equality of opportunity, and building a culturally diverse workforce. We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and to increasing our representation of staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. We strongly encourage applications from all backgrounds.
Wildscreen Festival 2022 Unveils Official Selection Programmers
By Wildscreen
29th March 2022
Wildscreen, the not-for-profit behind the biggest festival of natural world storytelling, has today unveiled its team of six international Programmers to curate its Official Selection competition as part of the Festival’s 40th Anniversary edition.
The 2022 Programme Chair is Lucy Jane Mukerjee, a queer British-Indian programming disruptor and social impact film curator based in New York. Since 2018, she has been a Senior Programmer at the Tribeca Festiva and co-founder of the Programmers of Colour Collective.
Lucy is joined by:
Alice Aedy, a UK-based documentary photographer, filmmaker and campaigner, whose work focuses on forced migration, environmental issues and women's stories. She is also the co-founder of earthrise studio.
Founder of Raconteur Productions, Chioma Onyenwe, joins the team from Nigeria, drawing on her interdisciplinary training as a filmmaker to create art across different mediums that lie in the intersection of culture, history and identity.
Elizabeth Swanson Andi is a visual storyteller, environmental advocate and member of the indigenous Napu Kichwa community of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Academy Award-winning director James Reed joins the team from the wildlife film capital of the world, Bristol. He won the coveted Golden Panda Award at Wildscreen Festival in 2020 for My Octopus Teacher shortly before recognition at the Oscars.
Los Angeles-based programmer Milo Talwani is a curator who oversees the selection process at Sundance Film Festival. They are a technical coordinator for Tribeca Immersive and curate XR exhibition events.
This truly international programming team, spanning across 4 continents, will honour a series of feature-length, short films and immersive or extended reality productions told by a diverse range of natural world storytellers.
Wildscreen introduced the Official Selection in 2020 to discover and honour original and authentic stories that speak to different audiences with urgency about the natural world. The programme was also established to open up the Festival to a wider range of storytellers, embracing independents, first-time filmmakers and stories told through immersive formats.
This year, the competition aims to highlight the voices of filmmakers from underrepresented groups in the environmental film industry, particularly stories told by filmmakers based in the Global South or who identify as indigenous, who are most impacted by climate change and biodiversity loss.
The programmers will select 35 productions from a diverse range of filmmakers who will each receive a laurel, certificate and unique sustainably-sourced trophy. Also up for grabs are a Programmer Prize and Audience Award which will grant a unique laurel and £2,000 and £1,000 cash prizes respectively. One production which demonstrates innovative sustainable practices behind the scenes will be recognised with a Sustainable Merit.
Submissions are open until 14 April 2022 and can be made here.
Selected productions will be screened as part of the first ever hybrid Wildscreen Festival from 10-14 October and will be available to stream online for 3 months via the online Festival platform.
A variety of hybrid and virtual passes have just been released, allowing delegates to choose how and when they experience the festival. Tickets can be purchased here.
What really happens to our plastic? Join The Big Plastic Count 2022 ... Greenpeace wants to know what your style is!?
Are you a multi-tasker? One of the sporty ones? A perfectionist? Or will you let chaos reign? Watch the video and decide for yourself.
In partnership with non-profit Everyday Plastic, Greenpeace has launched The Big Plastic Count - the UK’s biggest ever investigation into household plastic!
For one week in May, we need you to join thousands of others across the UK to count your pots, packets, wrappers, the lot. Together we'll uncover the truth about how much plastic we throw away and what happens to it, and prove bold action is needed to solve the plastic problem.
It’s simple enough to do – and if you sign up today we’ll send you a free counting pack that gives you everything you need to take part. And as the video says – it doesn’t matter how you count, it’s the counting that counts!
We all know that too much plastic packaging is being produced – the UK produces more plastic waste per person than almost any other country in the world(only the US is worse!) [1]. And if things carry on as they are, the amount of plastic produced around the world is set to double in the next 20 years.
Recycling alone isn’t going to solve the plastic problem – we’re producing too much in the first place and our recycling systems can’t cope.
But at the moment, there’s nowhere near enough evidence to show how much plastic leaves UK households, or where it really ends up when we throw it away.
We need more evidence so we can convince the government, big brands and supermarkets to get on with making the bigger changes we need….and that’s why we need you.
The bigger The Big Plastic Count is, the more new evidence we’ll build to reveal the true scale of the plastic problem, and the more power we’ll have to push for change.
Most of us have no idea how much plastic we actually use, or where our plastic goes after we throw it in the bin or the recycling. But thanks to Everyday Plastic’s unique methodology, by taking part in The Big Plastic Count you’ll have the chance to learn more about your own plastic footprint.
So sign up to take part now – discover more about the plastic problem and join thousands of others across the UK in doing something about it!
Thank you, Sea produced by Tom Mustill for Surfers Against Sewage wins at the Charity Film Awards
Last month (22nd March), Thank you, Sea won the £500,000 - £5million Turnover Film Category at the Charity Film Awards. The film was produced by member Tom Mustill using 100% recycled film!
Surfers Against Sewage say "Watch our love letter to the sea. Made from stories and footage you sent in, it recognises and celebrates everything the sea means to us. From moments of awe and wonder to times of reflection and comfort. The sea, the big blue, the ocean. It's a part of us and we need to protect it."
Have You Seen The Lingerie Protest On UnchainedTV Yet?
A group of bold women walk the streets in lingerie to raise awareness of animal cruelty in a brand new short documentary broadcast on UnchainedTV, the all-vegan streaming TV network.
The Lingerie Protest features Australian Dita Von Teese model and activist Stefania Ferrario, who wanted to draw attention to the cruelty animals face.
In the documentary she said: “Unfortunately animals in animal agriculture have no bodily autonomy so for us to use our bodies to spread awareness was incredibly powerful.”
Fueled by the lack of news coverage about the devastation of animal agriculture, Ferrario teamed up with fellow activist and vegan influencer Tash Peterson.
Don’t miss out on DCEFF30 ... 17-27 March ... All VIRTUAL!!
DCEFF30 kicks off TODAY, 17th March! Still haven’t gotten your tickets? Visit the virtual Festival page to browse the 100+ free and low-priced streaming options and get in on the action before it’s too late!
This year, we wanted to deepen our commitment to the amazing network of environmental storytellers in our community and around the world. Thanks to our amazing partners, we are able to do just that by offering exclusive screenings and discussions on issues that matter here in DC and across the globe for FREE.
This year’s Festival is all-virtual, which means you can watch every feature, short, and eye-opening event - like our new free Forum series, and our exclusive interview with the 2022 DCEFF Environmental Champion Dr. Jane Goodall - on your phone, computer, tablet, smart TV, or any other streaming device!
The 2022 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital is here! Wherever you’re planning on joining from, it’s time to start getting into the Festival spirit! Begin planning your Festival experience now by visiting dceff.org/dceff-30-passes
HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY from Wildlife-film.com DCEFF!!
Newyonder, a New Streaming Service Launches with Two Original Feature Films
By Jason Peters
14th March 2022
Nineteen months in the making, the certified B Corp streaming service Newyonder launched earlier this month!
On launch day (2nd Feb), Newyonder Originals were made live to be steamed on all compatible devices. And to celebrate the occasion, they launched with a bang - with a London Euston digital billboard takeover:
Newyonder is a new global streaming service, film studios and certified B Corp dedicated to leaving our planet wilder through storytelling optimism and change.
Go beyond the story and subscribe for change®.
Watch Newyonder Originals in 4K UHD on compatible devices, at any time, and help drive real tangible change from your own sofa – with a percentage of the revenue going towards regenerative and sustainable impact projects.
Now that the streaming service is live, two great films are already live and available to stream.
‘Wild Isles’ and ‘Three Moons of Biyangdo’ and readily available to watch for the first time.
So, you are invited to watch the films and support this newly launched streaming service that makes a difference.
Our planet is full of life. From vast oceans to wide-open skies, the diversity of life here seems infinite. But one of those here on earth has been changing the balance for all of its residents.
Yet this is a story of hope.
Meet the people and communities who are making a difference and showing us the way to a brighter, wilder future. Restoring our natural world and restoring our faith in humankind across Britain's Wild Isles.
Follow the story of a disappearing, centuries-old tradition that encapsulates the delicate balance, and deep connections, between humanity and the natural world.
Kyung-Mi, Geum-Mi and Jeong-Mi Moon are three sisters, now in their sixties, Haenyeo "sea women", taking only what they need from the sea one breath at a time.
The Founder and CEO of Newyonder® is Jon Cleave. He's a producer and distributor of Original programming in cinematic film & television.
As a media and entertainment company, global streaming service and Certified B Corp®, Newyonder is dedicated to leaving our planet wilder and more biodiverse, through storytelling, optimism and change, because it’s through stories that people make sense of the world. So, the greater we understand it, the more likely we are to preserve it.
Subscribe. Stream. Save (the planet).
FILMS THAT HELP RESTORE THE PLANET.
Head to Newyonder® to go beyond the story and subscribe for change®. Stream Newyonder Originals on compatible devices, at any time, and help restore the planet from your own sofa – with at least 5% of the revenue going towards regenerative and sustainable impact projects.
Positive Impact:
The more people who watch Newyonder films, the larger their community grows – and the better off we leave our planet – by donating to nature-based solutions e.g. Seagrass Restoration, brought to life by ‘Newyonder Allies’ (fulfilment partners).
The films are also albert-certified (BAFTA) carbon-neutral productions.
Study finds more 'losers' than 'winners' among plants in the age of humans
A new analysis spanning more than 86,000 plant species from John Kress, botany curator emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and Gary Krupnick, head of the museum's plant conservation unit, finds that on this human-dominated planet, many more species of plants are poised to "lose" rather than "win." The study was published today, March 10, in the journal Plants, People, Planet.
From changing Earth's climate to destroying, degrading and altering ecosystems on a massive, human choices now largely dictate the environmental conditions across much of the globe and, as a result, which species of plants and animals can survive and persist and which will go extinct. Species lucky enough to be directly or indirectly aided by human activities are likely to survive and can be thought of as "winners," while those that are pushed to ecological irrelevance or extinction by those same activities are the ultimate "losers" in evolutionary terms.
Kress encountered this concept of evolutionary winners and losers in the age of humans (known to some researchers as the Anthropocene), in the writings of John McNeill and wanted to see if it might be possible to tally the plant species that were winning and losing now and in the future.
"I actually started this project from a place of optimism," Kress said. "I had just planted all these trees around my house in Vermont and thought to myself that maybe there are actually more winners than losers, and we are just focused on everything that's disappearing."
In the summer of 2019, Kress brought Krupnick into the fold to help compile and analyze the mountains of data required to put every plant species for which there was enough information into the categories of winners and losers. The researchers split the winners and losers into species that are and are not useful to humans.
In addition to these four categories, Kress and Krupnick created four others: Species that appeared likely to win or lose in the future were deemed tentative winners or potential losers, and species that do not seem to be winning or losing at present were considered currently neutral. A fourth and final category included 571 species that have already gone extinct.
Whilst the above is very likely true the Brock Initiative looks at both the positives and negatives it their Wildlife Winners & Losers Film Series ...
If you didn't read the above article, the conclusion (spoiler!) was this:
"It still looks green outside my window, and that can create the illusion that plants are doing well," Kress said. "But this study suggests we're on course for a big loss of plant diversity, and we better wake up."
On his Wildlife Winners & Losers film series, Richard Brock says, “Some years ago when I was in the renowned BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol I was getting more and more angry that some programmes were basically “lying”. I even said that to David Attenborough, perhaps not a great career move. But there was a definite reluctance to show much at all about what was really happening to the planet. In fact, any “gloom and doom” was rejected by the commissioners – in their apparent wisdom. Indeed, the series Blue Planet (One) was shown in full on BBC1 but the truth, in the last episode, was hidden away on BBC2. In the USA, where that last episode “Deep Trouble” was not shown at all, a potential donor to charity said he’d seen the series, as shown, with no problems visible in the oceans. Now, years later, David tells it as it really is – plastics and all. What a difference the truth makes.
Richard explains, “My series “Wildlife Winners and Losers” looks carefully with well-documented evidence at these changes – past, present and particularly the future.
Using previously unseen footage from the recent past we bring the story right up to date and try to look forward as to the winners and the losers we might expect – and why. As far as I know, no one has done this so deliberately around the world with so many species and places. And you can help too…
With films across over eighty subjects, we find many examples of winners, or, at least those trying not to be losers!”
My Wildlife Winners and Losers series shows that films can be made – with basic footage filmed on any device – to help get the word out about conservation.
“There is still time to save the planet. My Wildlife Winners and Losers series is my contribution.
Now it’s your turn. Watch these free films. Choose from these 80+ films of different lengths to inspire you to take action.
They’re free to watch and share with as many people as possible. Use the Series to give you ammunition to help save the planet.”
So, it's true, we had better "wake up" ... It's URGENT now ... Are you going to help!?
The last film in the series is Crisis in Corfu Seals included? – One of the world's rarest seals, the monk seal, needs peace and quiet and somewhere safe to rear its pups. In the Mediterranean there are few sanctuaries left, where this is possible. On the beautiful Greek island of Corfu, wild places still exist, but changes threaten from a development company in New York. Can this paradise and its endangered seals survive in a classic conservation challenge, as Covid-19 wrecks the tourist trade in the Med?
Donations to charity will be welcomed. If you would like to contribute – say £10 – to Richard’s preferred charity local charity, the Avon Wildlife Trust, based close to where he lives, near Bristol, or to a charity of your choice, please do so. These days many charities need income to help continue projects around the world.
Filmmaking story tellers of the natural world are invited to take advantage of this unique opportunity to pitch their planned project to a board of commissioners, producers and distributors at the PITCHINGSESSION of the International Wildlife Film Festival GREEN SCREEN 2022.
The Pitching Session itself is open to the public and follows international rules:
The presentation of your project may take up to seven minutes. After that the attending experts and decision makers are invited to evaluate the project and, if applicable, to express their interest.
This year GREEN SCREEN is again planned as an in-person-event in Eckernförde.
Due to possible Covid restrictions and climate-relevant constraints of long-distance travel, there will be an additional possibility of virtual presentation of pitches and online participation of experts as well.
To participate, the following must be submitted
An Exposé, describing the project should be described, including approximate shooting time, locations and the people involved. (not more than two pages)
A short CV
An approximate budget idea
If available, a trailer or other footage or visuals
REGISTRATION POSSIBLE UNTIL MAY 31st 2022!
If you are interested, please contact Pitching directors Annette Scheurich and Anne Olzmann via pitching@greenscreen-festival.de.
The sooner we know who plans to pitch, the better, even if not all documents are ready.
A pre-selection panel will select 8 to 10 participants for the pitching session from the submitted projects by 1st August 2022. Two of the pitches will be reserved for French participants in the context of this year’s focus on France.
Some of the projects that have been presented in recent years are now in production! Participation is in any case an enriching experience!
As the promotion of emerging talent in naturefilm has always been a concern of GREEN SCREEN, submissions by newcomers and ambitious young filmmakers are encouraged. Please feel free to spread the word!
See you at GREEN SCREEN in Eckernförde September 7th - 11th 2022!
Launch of the online platform "Filmmakers-for-Ukraine"
This is a place of help for filmmakers and their families and minorities in and from Ukraine.
Crew United is bringing people together to help people in Ukraine.
In the days after Russia's President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, the team at thefilm network Crew United decided to turn their attention to doing what they normally do for thefilm industry as a whole, specifically for the people of Ukraine, and that is bring people together and provide them with verifiedinformation.Theonlineplatform"Filmmakers-for-Ukraine"isan information site where Ukrainianfilmmakers and their families canfind help fast.
"Our actual mission is to connect people to make films together, but right now it is
just more important to bring people together to help people," Crew United's CEO
Oliver Zenglein explains, drawing on the resources from his extensive network for
assistance.
In collaboration with professional associations, institutions and numerous colleagues
from the film industry, Crew United has worked day and night since the first attacks
to create an online platform with the declared goal of informing people in a simple
and up-to-the-minute way about offers of aid coming from all European countries.
The support is specifically oriented towards Ukrainian filmmakers and their families,
and towards disadvantaged groups and minorities in Ukraine, such as BIPoC,
LGBTQIA+, Roma, people with disabilities, children, and sick and elderly people.
The platform provides people in Ukraine seeking help and people who wish to offer
support with information on the issues of transport, shelter, work, medical
assistance, food, clothing, etc. as well as contacts to psychological and legal aid.
Specializing on information from the film industry, "Filmmakers-for-Ukraine"
contains offers of assistance, fundraising campaigns, petitions and appeals from the
film industry. There is also an information page curated by film journalists containing
sources of important documentary and feature films about Ukraine. A blog reports,
for instance, on key cultural activities for helping Ukraine, and publishes urgent calls
for help from people in need. Furthermore, the job and accommodation market on
Crew United is to be expanded to enable jobs and housing opportunities for
Ukrainian filmmakers to be advertised.
"With "Filmmakers-for-Ukraine" we are focusing on the work, the offerings and the
network of initiators in our industry, because we have great contacts there," says
Oliver Zenglein. Crew United has been active in the film industries in Poland and
France for a year now, and it is preparing launches in Lithuania, Romania, Greece,
Italy and Spain. The platform already provides information about assistance and
activities in Poland, Lithuania, Romania and other European countries, and far more
information is constantly being added.
Call for help and support
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World Wildlife Day Film Showcase Announces Winners for 2022
Jackson Wild™ has announced the 2022 winners for the World Wildlife Day Film Showcase, which features films that align with this year’s World Wildlife Day Theme: Recovering Key Species for Ecosystem Restoration. The showcase was organized by Jackson Wild, The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“As we live in a world that has become increasingly isolated over the past two years, powerful stories can connect us with each other, as well as ignite the spirit of sustainability and conservation in new audiences,” said Lisa Samford, Executive Director of Jackson Wild. “Our hope is that these stories demonstrate that despite the immense challenges we face, there are ongoing efforts and successful models to look to, as communities work to build a sustainable, conservation-driven future.”
“In 2022, we must finally dispel the false dichotomy that there is a ‘zero-sum game’ of wildlife versus livelihoods; or protecting ecosystems versus the economy, “ said Midori Paxton, Head of Biodiversity and Ecosystems, UNDP. “This year's World Wildlife Day theme, and this showcase of powerful films, is an opportunity to reinforce the message that we must invest in the protection and restoration of ecosystems as part of effective solutions to respond to closely linked crises of poverty, global health, biodiversity loss, and the changing climate."
“At its best, film has the ability to provoke our emotions and move us to action,” says CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero, “In these captivating films, each of our winners has shown they can do that in the service of conservation. I congratulate them and urge them to keep working to meet our shared goals of ecosystem restoration.”
Finalist films are available to screen for free until May 15th in the hopes of continuing to spread the message that species restoration is essential to human’s social and economic well-being, in addition to the planet’s environmental health.
Stories of Hope (Long Form) Sponsored by: Terra Mater Factual Studios
Endangered The Natural History Unit BBC Studios and A Very Good Production for discovery+
Stories of Hope (Short Form) Sponsored by: Terra Mater Factual Studios
Mexico City and its Sacred Salamanders bioGraphic, Katie Garrett
Species in Crisis (Long Form) Sponsored by: Discovery
Sea of Shadows Terra Mater Factual Studios in association with Appian Way, Malaika Pictures, The Wild Lens Collective for National Geographic Documentary Films
Species in Crisis (Short Form) Sponsored by: Discovery
Last Wild Places: Majete National Geographic Society Impact Media Lab
People & Threatened Species (Long Form) Sponsored by: Sandiego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
The Witness is a Whale A co-production of Spindrift Images, Terra Mater Factual Studios and Mark Fletcher Productions
People & Threatened Species (Short Form) Sponsored by: Sandiego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Wild Innovators: Beyond the Boma Wild Elements Studios
Micro Movie Sponsored by: Burgenland
The Turtleman Jigar Ganatra, African School Of Storytelling
We are pleased to announce the selections for the 2022 International Wildlife Film Festival.
Each film has a page on our website where screening details, dates, times, and festival sponsors can be found. We are making plans that include screenings at the Roxy, the Roxy Garden, University of Montana's UC Theater, The Wilma, The Rialto Theater in Bozeman, and a week of virtual screenings that will reach far and wide (May 1-7). The program will be finalized and tickets will go on sale in early April.
Seventy-four films make up the 2022 line-up including 45 shorts and 29 features. Massive applause to everyone who submitted their work for consideration. Once again, we had record breaking submissions numbers and it was a difficult task for our preliminary jury to get down to this list of 74!
Wildlife Warriors is an exceptional series about Kenyan wildlife, made by Kenyans! The Stormborn series narrated by Ewan McGregor features the animals of the North. Between these two some of the most popular animals grab starring roles in our 45th festival including elephants, bats, rhinos, otters, wolves, and seal pups.
David Attenborough is the best of the best and this Spring there will be a David'sDouble Feature as well as screenings of The Year Earth Changed narrated by the GOAT of the genre, himself as it tracks nature's profound capacity for resilience during the 2020 'lock down.'
Some of this year's feature films reveal searing realities in key regions of the world right now like Return Sasyk to the Sea which is about Soviet irrigation experiments in Southern Ukraine. The 2021Sundance selection, Son of Monarchs gracefully combines science with social identity and will sweep you into the monarch butterfly forests of Michoacán amidst reflections of the main character's hybrid identity. The Territory delves into the complexities of land and resources in the Brazilian Amazon and the Uru-eu-wau-wau people.
There are nine short films especially curated to reflect the natural world through a variety of dynamic animation techniques - one of those is this brilliant Beaver short.
The festival will include two cinematic tributes to two icons that passed this year, Dr. Richard Leakey and Dr. EO Wilson.
Our explosive opening film is Sara Dosa's Fire of Love - a favorite of the 2022 Sundance line-up. Miranda July narrates this trove of archival footage documenting Katia and Maurice Krafft's love, obsession, and research within the field of volcanology.
And finally, never fear Missoula - we have bears! We look forward to being on the Grizz campus to dig into the challenge of living with bears through My Neighbour is a Bear and Valley of the Bears.
IWFF audiences are unmatched and we are thrilled to welcome guest filmmakers, the 2022 LABS Fellows, and a trio of esteemed final judges to meet our IWFF community. Join us for Q&As, field trips, parties, and a 30 year old Wildwalk parade to kick it all off!
Huge congrats to all the filmmaker teams who have contributed their work to make the 45th International Wildlife Film Festival a very special one! We can't wait to see your faces. - Team IWFF
Curlew Action is a serious charity dedicated to reversing the decline of the breeding curlew by advocating conservation efforts, developing and sharing resources for fieldworkers, and promoting wider natural history education.
Birds feature heavily in Richard Brock's "Planet Crunch" book too ... It's all biodiversity.
Feathers
What a breakthrough!
In the "biodiversity" section of his book, PLANET CRUNCH – The Life (or Death?) of Planet Earth, Richard says this:
"An amazing invention! The feather; derived from the reptilian scale,
and must always be meticulously maintained. Their lives depend on
it – to fly across continents, to display, to mate and generally survive. And man has helped that happen, as white storks increase and share the same habitats, and even houses, on which they nest. We’ll follow them through this book as they lead each chapter towards a happy ending.
Another great traveller, the osprey,
can hover and hunt with a steady
stare at fish below. Then plunge for catch of the day. No problem. And... perhaps next to a puffin, whose wings will carry it over the waves and then effectively “fly” under the water to grab its prey in that brilliant beak.
Penguins use their flippers in a similar way, but they’re not much use on land. They can’t fly. We need aeroplanes and submarines. In many ways birds are better and they now rule the skies on those amazing feathers."
Donations to charity will be welcomed. If you would like to contribute – say £10 – to Richard’s preferred charity local charity, the Avon Wildlife Trust, based close to where he lives, near Bristol, or to a charity of your choice, please do so. These days many charities need income to help continue projects around the world.
Recommended Book: Wild Fell: Fighting for nature on a Lake District hill farm by Lee Schofield
In 2015, England's last and loneliest golden eagle died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District. It was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife, but the fight to restore the landscape had already begun.
Lee Schofield, ecologist and site manager for RSPB Haweswater is leading efforts to breathe life back into two hill farms and their thirty square kilometres of sprawling upland habitat. The farms sit at the edge of the region's largest reservoir, beneath which lie the remains of a submerged village. The area's history has been a turbulent one for both its people and its wildlife, leaving its habitats in tatters.
In the search for inspiration, Lee sought out England's rarest mountain flower and travelled from the wild fells of Norway to the pristine meadows of the Alps. Informed, too, by the local land, its history and the people who have shaped it, Lee and his team have remeandered a straightened river and are repairing damaged wetlands, meadows and woods. Each year, the landscape is becoming richer, wilder and better able to withstand the shocks of a changing climate.
But in the contested landscape of the Lake District, change is not always welcomed, and success relies on finding a balance between rewilding and respecting cherished farming traditions. This is not only a story of nature in recovery, it is also the story of Lee's personal connection to place, and the highs and lows of working for nature amid fierce opposition.
Wild Fell is a call to recognise that the solutions for a richer world lie at our feet; by focusing on flowers, we can rebuild landscapes fit for eagles again.
A landscape of flowers is a landscape of hope.
Published in hardback on the 24th of February 2022 by Doubleday, available at Bookdepository.com with FREE delivery worldwide.
As governments meet at the UN to discuss the fate of the world’s oceans, a shocking new report exposes a rapidly growing and largely unregulated squid fishing industry that’s out of control.
“We’re Cooked,” a three-part series from NYT Opinion
“We’re Cooked” is an Opinion Video series about our broken food system and the three chances you get to help fix it — and save the planet — every day. The global food system is a wonder of technological and logistical brilliance. It feeds more people than ever, supplying a greater variety of food more cheaply and faster than ever.
The global food system is a wonder of technological and logistical brilliance. It feeds more people than ever, supplying a greater variety of food more cheaply and faster than ever.
It is also causing irreparable harm to the planet.
The system — a vast web of industries and processes that stretches from seed to pasture to packaging to supermarket to trash dump — produces at least a third of all human-caused greenhouse gases.
Yet somehow these impacts aren’t in the forefront of the conversation about global warming. Indeed, they often aren’t in the conversation at all.
In the Opinion Video above, we explore why. Our focus is American agriculture, an industry that, while feeding the United States, is also damaging the environment — contaminating the air and water, exhausting the soil, destroying wildlife habitats and spurring climate change.
But despite these harms, the sector has largely been spared environmental regulation. This exception reflects, in part, the special place that farmers occupy in the American imagination. But the industry, particularly the big corporations that are increasingly dominating the sector, are also aided by one of the most effective lobbies on the planet.
This is the first in a series of three Opinion Videos that we are publishing this month. each providing an angle on the food system and, we hope, changing the way you look at food and making you think twice about what you put on your plate. The second video will examine how a few powerful companies dominate the chicken industry, trapping farmers in exploitative relationships and condemning the animals to short, wretched lives. The third video will propose a dietary modification that may gross you out — but also might help curb climate change.
For now, pull up a chair at the lobbyists’ lunch table. Juicy, expensive steak is on the menu. If you’re a taxpayer in the United States, try your best to enjoy it. After all, considering agriculture’s enormous public subsidies and the harm the industry is doing to your land, air and water, it’s you who will ultimately be picking up the tab.
The titans of the U.S. chicken industry want you to view their sector as a great American success story. In just a few decades, they will tell you, the industry has evolved from a fragmented, homespun business to a well-oiled engine of efficiency that produces wholesome, nutritious products at increasingly affordable prices.
Chicken, they will point out, is now the most popular meat in the country.
But as the Opinion Video above reveals, these gains have come at extraordinary cost to the chickens themselves — and to the farmers who are contracted to raise them by the huge chicken corporations that now dominate the sector.
In the video, activists from the nonprofit group Mercy for Animals take us behind the industry’s closed doors, to a place that the chicken barons wish you never saw: the inside of an industrial chicken farm. The footage, supplied by Mercy for Animals, shows you how the system inflicts unimaginable cruelty on the animals, which are bred to grow really big, really fast, exposing many to injury, heart attacks, disease and death. More than 90 percent of chickens raised for food in the United States are grown by farmers working under contract with large poultry producers. We also introduce you to a chicken farmer who describes the strict terms under which he and others are contracted to produce poultry for the big companies that control the industry.
Yet there is hope in sight, for the chickens, at least. Popeyes, Subway, Burger King and around 200 other food companies have signed onto the Better Chicken Commitment, obliging their suppliers to adhere to a raised set of standards for chicken welfare. Perdue Foods, one of the largest poultry companies in the United States, began an animal welfare initiative four years ago — which includes improved living conditions for chickens — and has continued to lead the way in producing affordable chicken more humanely. Although these changes are a work in progress, their efforts show it’s possible for large-scale producers to incorporate more humane standards, and other producers should take note.
This is the second in a series of three videos we are releasing this month that explore some of the harms of the global food system and the urgent need to address them. The first, published last week, examined how the powerful American agriculture lobby has fended off environmental regulation, despite the harm done by the sector.
We hope that each video, in a different way, challenges you to weigh your dietary choices, with ethics, politics and the environment in mind.
What Insects Can Learn From Lobsters About Rebranding
Mealworm soup. Chile-lime cricket tacos. Charred avocado tartare with ant larvae.
In the West, edible insects have long been the domain of food adventurers, with few other takers — even as billions of people elsewhere on the planet count insects as a part of their traditional diets.
But as we explore in the Opinion Video above, a growing tribe of environmentalists, academics and entrepreneurs are arguing that edible insects must enjoy a wider acceptance to help create a more sustainable global food system and save the planet.
It’s a matter of numbers. The world’s population is booming. So, too, is agricultural production to meet the growing demand for food. Yet agriculture, particularly the production of meat, is a big driver of environmental harm.
Scientists have warned that unless we make major adjustments to the kinds of food we eat and how we produce it, we have no chance of meeting our climate goals. A change in dietary patterns, especially reduced demand for meat, would help relieve pressure on the environment and mitigate global warming.
That’s where insects come in. Though the research is still nascent, the early evidence suggests that some edible insects offer a more environmentally sustainable alternative to some conventional livestock. Insects also offer tremendous potential as pet food and a feed source for conventional livestock.
This video is the third in a series of short films we published this month examining problems with the food system. The first one explored the environmental harm of agriculture and the powerful lobby in the United States that has fought to maintain the status quo. The second exposed some ugly truths about the modern poultry industry.
Now it’s time for bugs. Whether you regard them as agents of filth or sources of nutrition, integrating more of them into your diet, this video argues, is among a suite of dietary changes that we urgently need to consider to deal with food insecurity, biodiversity loss and climate change.
Wildscreen Photography Competition Now Open For Entries
Wildscreen, creators of the world’s largest natural world storytelling Festival, has opened its call for entries for the prestigious Photo Story Panda Award, celebrating exceptional storytelling in wildlife photography.
Since 1982, the Panda Awards have celebrated the human endeavour, commitment and unique skill that it takes to tell nature’s stories. This year not only marks the 40th birthday of the Wildscreen Festival, but also their first ever hybrid festival. After the success of the virtual festival in 2020, Wildscreen’s festival this year seeks to make wildlife storytelling evermore accessible, celebrating films, photography and creators across the globe.
“Despite unprecedented challenges over the past two years, our community of global storytellers have demonstrated the most inspired ingenuity and adaptability to continue revealing and sharing nature’s stories with global audiences. Nature has provided comfort and joy in uncertain times, with many forging new and deeper connections with it. We can’t wait to share those stories and celebrate the creatives behind them, as Wildscreen marks its 40th Birthday, this October. ” said Lucie Muir, Wildscreen CEO.
First introduced in 2018, the Photo Story Panda Award has recognised the craft of photography, cementing still imagery as a valued medium within the Wildscreen Festival. The wildlife industry, now more than ever, plays a crucial role in shining a light on the world’s most remote, inhospitable and threatened environments.
In 2020, our Photostory Winner Brent Stirton shone a light on the illegal pangolin trade; “I’m a journalist with a camera, so my first mission is to get the story. It’s my responsibility not to react to what I’m seeing but to get the pictures that can expand that story to a larger audience”, (Brent Stirton, 2020).
Emerging Talent Photo Story Award
We are excited to celebrate the new voices in wildlife photography with our Emerging Talent Photo Story Award. This category allows hidden and up and coming talent under 30 years of age to be showcased and celebrated by an established jury of industry professionals. Past jurors have included Deputy Director of Photography at National Geographic Magazine, Kathy Moran, TV presenter and photographer Chris Packham, as well as other globally recognized and award winning photographers. This year’s jury is set to be announced in spring 2022. Emerging talent award entrants receive a 20% discount on their submission.
Enter your Photo Story
Photographers are asked to submit a photo story consisting of 6 images relating to the natural world which have a clear and powerful narrative integrated through the series. The competition is open to both professional and amateur photographers worldwide (entrants must be over 18 years of age).
Through our early bird period, entrants will receive a discounted submission fee of just Ł30 up until Thursday 24 February 2022. Our final submission date is the 14th of April 2022.
Wildlife in Our Backyard, the First Film by the Florida Wildlife Federation, Premieres on Save the Florida Panther Day
The documentary captures the essence of Florida wildlife in six minutes: from needs for wildlife connectivity and land conservation in a story of coexistence.
Last year the Florida Wildlife Federation, in partnership with the fStop Foundation, set up cameras in neighborhoods throughout Florida that have been recording wildlife footage for the past 12 months. With a combination of video and still photography captured by these backyard cameras, as well as footage recorded by drones and provided by state agencies, the Federation produced its first original film, "Wildlife in Our Backyard."
The documentary was created as part of the "Share the Landscape" project, a Florida Wildlife Federation initiative to help educate the public about potential solutions to the conflict between development and conservation, spearheaded by Meredith Budd, Regional Policy Director.
"Since 1936, the Florida Wildlife Federation has been a leader in advocating for policies that protect Florida wildlife and habitats, and advance coexistence, but it's the first time in 85 years that we have launched a project like this," said Budd. "It's important for us to inform younger generations as well as our long-time supporters about the realities facing wildlife in our ever-changing state," she added.
Land development in Florida erodes and fragments wildlife habitats and disrupts migration corridors. This leads to population collapse and genetic isolation. With this initiative, the Federation intends to raise public awareness, educate Florida residents on the benefits of coexistence, as well as provide guidance on land development, land sharing, and land uses.
Vehicle collisions are the leading cause of reported deaths for the Florida panther. "Wildlife in Our Backyard" shows how roads bisecting panther habitats pose a significant risk to the endangered species and how humans can help these panthers thrive among growing development.
"In terms of rare species, Florida is the hot spot within the eastern United States, and that diversity makes our state unique," said Preston Robertson, President and CEO of the Florida Wildlife Federation. "We are suffering the highest rate of habitat loss because we have the highest rate of human population growth within the region. Failing to recognize the importance of coexistence compromises wildlife's future, and I would argue our future as well."
"Wildlife in Our Backyard" has been selected for viewing at multiple film festivals across the US and Canada. It is part of the Official Selection of Nature Without Borders International Film Festival 2021, Wildlife Conservation Film Festival 2021, Dunedin International Film Festival 2022, Central Florida CineFest 2021, Oregon Documentary Film Festival Winter 2022, Toronto Documentary Feature & Short Film Festival 2021, Colorado Environmental Film Festival 2022, Florida Environmental Film Festival 2021, and Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts Festival 2022. The film also received an Honorable Mention at the American Golden Picture International Film Festival 2021, won the "Best Sustainable Cities Film Award" at the Sustainable Stories Film Fest 2021, as well as the "Exceptional Merit Award" at the Nature Without Borders Film Festival 2021.
The short film is just one of many by "Share the Landscape." Starting at the beginning of February, a social media campaign will kickstart the project, culminating with the online premiere of "Wildlife in Our Backyard" on Save the Florida Panther Day, the 19th of March, 2022, at 11 am. Follow #sharethelandscape on Instagram at @FlWildFed and join the premiere on YouTube:
"This Is Our BBC" by Kerris Bright, Chief Customer Officer
BBC Three returned to TV screens last night (1st Feb) with a promise to be more representative of all young people than ever before, telling their unfiltered, unapologetic and extraordinary stories from right across the UK.
It was great to see a brand-new group of queens in RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World, as part of the channel launch, and there’s much more to come including live sport and brilliant new comedy from the makers of People Just Do Nothing.
This week audiences can also revel in the excitement of the Winter Olympics on the BBC; while bingeable drama The Responder continues and the critically-acclaimed – and must watch - The Green Planet concludes
These are just some of my own highlights and they are a great reminder of the BBC’s remit to inform, educate and entertain. We are all striving to provide something for everyone on the BBC and as a celebration of everything the BBC shares with audiences, we’ve launched a new film called This is Our BBC. The film is part of a strategy we started developing last year to demonstrate how central the BBC is to UK culture, and that it truly belongs to each and every one of us. It will appear on social media from today, and on Sunday it will appear on TV for the first time after The Green Planet.
Everyone has their own version of the BBC based on what they enjoy the most. This might be R1Xtra or the Archers, Match of The Day, Top Gear, or EastEnders. The BBC is unique to each of us but shared by us all. It’s the essence of a true public service broadcaster.
This is Our BBC features a cast of famous faces from Idris Elba, to Sir David Attenborough, Jodi Comer, Dizzee Rascal and newsreaders through the ages. It also captures some amazing and memorable moments we have shared - Freddie Mercury at Live Aid, Adele at Glastonbury and the Proms. I’m sure you will spot something you love – moments, faces, programmes – those things we smile and laugh along to; share with friends and family and remember fondly, or sometimes shed a tear to. The fact it comes to screens now is quite timely, given much has been said and written about the future of the BBC in recent weeks. In many ways, that goes to the very heart of what the BBC has been, is and will be in the future. We are at the very heart of UK life. Everyone will have a view on what the BBC does well or their favourite moments and, of course, what we could do better.
It is essential there is debate on the role of the national broadcaster - after all it belongs to all of us. We play a role in people’s lives like no other media organisation and we want to be something that people not only value but get value from. Ninety per cent of all UK adults use the BBC’s services every week, and that rises to almost 100 per cent over a month.
This is Our BBC reveals that the BBC is a reflection of who we are, across all our nations. We are here to represent communities, bring people together, witness moments in history and celebrate sporting success. It shows us there should always be something for everyone on the BBC and I think that’s something we should all reflect on and be proud of in our 100th year.
Finalists Announced for the 2022 World Wildlife Day Film Showcase
Judges and organizers of the 2022 World Wildlife Day Film Showcase have unveiled the finalists of this year’s contest, highlighting outstanding films in 5 categories, selected from a total of over 300 entries from 34 countries.
In keeping with this year’s World Wildlife Day theme “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration,” the Showcase includes films that raise awareness to the world’s most vulnerable species and the power of long-term innovative conservation efforts.
The winners will be announced on 3rd March, during the global virtual World Wildlife Day celebration. The films will then be made available for free, educational online streaming throughout the world.
The 2022 Showcase is the sixth film competition jointly organized as part of the annual World Wildlife Day celebrations by Jackson Wild, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The films below have been selected as finalists in five categories:
Species in Crisis (Long Form and Short Form) Sponsored by: Discovery
The Web of Life (Long Form and Short Form) Sponsored by: HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
Stories of Hope (Long Form and Short Form) Sponsored by: Terra Mater Factual Studios
People & Threatened Species (Long Form and Short Form) Sponsored by: Sandiego Zoo
Wildlife Alliance
Micro Movie Sponsored by: Burgenland
CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero: "Films can powerfully communicate the awesome beauty of wildlife, the challenges to its survival, and the inspiring actions being taken to ensure its future” said CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero. “The many remarkable contributions to the World Wildlife Day Film Showcase demonstrate how much talent and enthusiasm exists around the world. These films will deserve large audiences for many years to come."
“Throughout human history, stories have connected each of us with one another and the world we share in personal and powerful ways,” said Lisa Samford, Executive Director of Jackson Wild. “This is more crucial now than ever before. Media has the power to accelerate tangible ways we can work together as we restore and protect our planet during these critically important times.”
“This year's World Wildlife Day highlights the need to invest in the protection and restoration of ecosystems as part of broader efforts to respond to closely linked crises of poverty, inequality, biodiversity loss, and the changing climate. In this context, the World Wildlife Day Film Showcase plays a critical role in raising awareness and promoting the importance of conservation within the broader 2030 Agenda", stated Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.
Jackson Wild’s international board members include African Wildlife Foundation, Arte France, BBC Studios, Blue Ant Media|Love Nature, Boréales, Conservation International, Discovery, Doclights, GBH, Gorongosa Restoration Project, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare, National Geographic Partners, National Geographic Society, Nature/WNET, Netflix, NEWF - Nature, Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers, Off the Fence Productions, ORF/Universum, PBS, Saint Thomas Productions, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Seeker, Smithsonian Channel, Sony Electronics, SVT (Swedish Television) The Nature Conservancy, Terra Mater Factual Studios, Wanda Films and World Wildlife Fund US.
Species in Crisis (Long Form) Sponsored by: Discovery
Malaysia’s Last Tigers
Nuvista Media
Peng Yu Sai
Untamed Planet
Sea of Shadows
Terra Mater Factual Studios in association with Appian Way, Malaika Pictures, The Wild Lens Collective for National Geographic Documentary Films
Species in Crisis (Short Form) Sponsored by: Discovery
Ferret Town
Caldera Productions
Kaliru
Jeswin Kingsly and Santhosh Krishnan, Felis Creations
Last Wild Places: Majete
National Geographic Society Impact Media Lab
Pango
The Edit Room Pty Ltd
The Web of Life (Long Form) Sponsored by: HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
Now or Never
Matt Senior, National Film and Television School
The Otter, A Legend Returns
Hilco Jansma Productions, EO (Evangelische Omroep), In cooperation with Ispida Wildlife Productions
Wings Over Water
Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, Dorsey Pictures, Archipelago Films, SK Films
The Web of Life (Short Form) Sponsored by: HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
How to Count a Wolf
bioGraphic, Benjamin Drummond, Sara Joy Steele
Living on the Edge
Antonia Salter
Marine Ecosystem Diaries - Shellfish Reefs: Filters of the Sea
The Marine Diaries
The Common Ground
Conor Ferris, National Film and Television School
Stories of Hope (Long Form) Sponsored by: Terra Mater Factual Studios
Endangered
The Natural History Unit BBC Studios and A Very Good Production for discovery+
Glorious Bustards
ALTAYFILM, MDR, ARTE, BR, RBB
Last Wild Places: Iberá
National Geographic Society Impact Media Lab
Nature’s Fear Factor
A NOVA Production by HHMI Tangled Bank Studios for WGBH Boston
Stories of Hope (Short Form) Sponsored by: Terra Mater Factual Studios
La Voz Del Mar: Hope for Hawksbill Turtles
Wild Earth Allies, ProCosta, Emic Films
Mexico City and its Sacred Salamanders
bioGraphic, Katie Garrett
The Pangolin Man
Ellie Stones
Wild Innovators: Trees for Tamarins
Wild Elements Studios
People & Threatened Species (Long Form) Sponsored by: Sandiego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Lost - Birds of the Countryside
A FIlm by Heiko De Groot, federvieh produced by Doclights GmbH in association with NDR, ARTE, Terra Mater Factual Studios
She Walks with Apes
Grand Passage Media Inc.
The Witness is a Whale
A co-production of Spindrift Images, Terra Mater Factual Studios and Mark Fletcher Productions
People & Threatened Species (Short Form) Sponsored by: Sandiego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Can the Blueback Survive?
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission in partnership with North 40 Productions
Last Wild Places: American Prairie Reserve
National Geographic Society Impact Media Lab
ReWild: What Ocean Time Machine Experiments Predict About Oysters
Seeker
Wild Innovators: Beyond the Boma
Wild Elements Studios
Micro Movie Sponsored by: Burgenland
Illuminating the Dark Fleet
Ryan Ffrench, Global Fishing Watch
Ordina the Lynx
Miguel Anton
The Last Wolf of Africa
Too Wild Productions
The Turtleman
Jigar Ganatra, African School Of Storytelling
Wake Up & Smell the Flowers
Yaz Ellis
World Wildlife Day 2022 Film Showcase Honorable Mention:
Cao-vit Gibbons' Ark
Guangxi TV Station, Colorful Nature Films, Blibili
Conservation Heroes
Episode 1
Jumara Films, Kenya Films / Grupo INSUD
Gáax'w Ka Haaw: Herring Eggs & Branches
Lee House, Ellie Schmidt
Galapagos: Secrets of the Ocean Giants
Know Your Onions
In Too Deep
Deep Sea Conservation Coalition / Noctiluca
JuJurana's Kingdom
National Geographic Society, Moon Peak Films
On The Brink - Lion Tailed Macaque
The Gaia People, HCL, The Habitats Trust
Mabingwa
Mays Entertainment, Sidekick Foundation
SURVIVORS: Rediscovering the Short-Tailed Rain Crayfish
Bookend Trust/Bookend Enterprises (Australia)
The Beast of Our Time
Save The Yellowstone Grizzly, Never Give Up Films
The Snow Leopard Calling
Sonam Choekyi Lama, Snow Leopard Journeys
When the Swallows Fly Away
Sébastien Pins, Alchimie Productions
The 30th Anniversary of Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital Dates are March 17-27, 2022
These are this years' winning films:
Shared Earth Foundation Award for Advocacy
Established for the 2014 Festival, this award recognizes a film that inspires advocacy in response to a compelling environmental challenge. The award includes a $10,000 cash prize.
Winner: TIGRE GENTE
A Bolivian park ranger and a young Hong Kongese journalist risk their lives to investigate a new, deadly jaguar trade that’s sweeping South America. Along the way, they grapple with questions of empathy, responsibility, and bridging a cultural gap to prevent the jaguar trade from spiraling out of control.
Directed by Elizabeth Unger
(USA, 2021, 86 min.)
Established by the Warner/Kaempfer family for the 2015 Festival in memory of author William W. Warner, this award recognizes a film that reflects a spirit of reverence for the natural world. The award includes a $10,000 cash prize.
Winner: BEANS
Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and delinquent adolescence; forced to grow up fast to become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Indigenous uprising known as The Oka Crisis, which tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.
Directed by Tracey Deer
(USA, 2020, 92 min.)
Founded in 2013 by Julia and Richard Moe in memory of their son, Eric, to honor his strong interest in film and commitment to sustainability, this award recognizes a short film that best captures efforts to balance the needs of humans and nature. The award includes a $5,000 cash prize.
Winner: BREAKING TRAIL
Emily Ford sets out with Diggins, a borrowed Alaskan Husky sled dog, to become the first woman and person of color to thru-hike the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail in winter. As the 69-day journey through subzero temperatures tests her physical and mental endurance, Emily and her canine protector develop an unbreakable bond as they embrace the unexpected kindness of strangers and discover they’ve become figureheads in the movement to make the outdoors more accessible for everyone.
Directed by Jesse Roesler
(USA, 2021, 30 min.)
Flo Stone & Roger D. Stone Award for Outstanding Artistry in Filmmaking
With generous support from the Farvue Foundation and Wallace Genetic Foundation, we are pleased to present this award for the first time as part of our 30th Anniversary Festival! With this Award, we honor DCEFF Founder Flo Stone, as well as both Flo and Roger’s enthusiasm and passion for originality and innovation in filmmaking, while also providing the resources necessary to advance the careers of emerging filmmakers who push the boundaries of what film can accomplish.
Winner: Sara Dosa (Director, FIRE OF LOVE)
Katia and Maurice Krafft loved two things — each other and volcanoes. For two decades, the daring French volcanologist couple roamed the planet, chasing eruptions, documenting their discoveries. Ultimately, they lost their lives in a 1991 volcanic explosion, leaving a legacy that forever enriched our knowledge of the natural world. Director Sara Dosa and the filmmaking team fashion a lyrical celebration of the intrepid scientists’ spirit of adventure, drawing from the Kraffts’ spectacular archive. Fire of Love tells a story of primordial creation & destruction, following two bold explorers as they venture into the unknown, all for the sake of love.
Directed by Sara Dosa
(USA, 2022, 93 min.)
As Jackson Wild enters its 31st year, the organization announces the election of new officers in the Executive Committee as well as its slate of 2022 Board of Directors and Advisory Council members.
PBS Vice President, Multiplatform Programming & Head of Development Bill Gardner has taken the helm as Chairperson of the Jackson Wild Board of Directors. Gardner manages the content strategy, development and production for PBS in the genres of Science, History, Arts, Culture and Natural History. Additionally, he oversees a wide range of independent projects and his work has received recognition that includes three Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, a Dupont-Columbia Award, an Imagen Award, an NAACP Image Award, and several Jackson Wild and Wildscreen Awards.
John Bredar, VP of National Programming at GBH will continue in the role as Treasurer. Joining Gardner and Bredar on Jackson Wild’s Executive Committee are:
Hélčne Ganuchaud, Arte France
Jörn Röver, Doclights
Janet Han Vissering, National Geographic Partners
Kaitlin Yarnall, National Geographic Society
Sara Edelson, Netflix
Paul A. Baribault, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Pamela Aguilar, Smithsonian Channel (CBS Viacom & MTV Entertainment) Jared Lipworth, Tangled Bank Studios/HHMI
Walter Koehler, Terra Mater Factual Studios
Ellen Windemuth, Chairperson Emeritus, Waterbear Network
Jackson Wild’s International Board of Directors is comprised of some of the most respected companies in nature, conservation and science media and also includes: African Wildlife Foundation, BBC Studios Natural History Unit, Blue Ant Media/Love Nature, Boréales, Conservation International, Discovery, Gorongosa Restoration Project, Humane Society
International, International Fund For Animal Welfare, Nature/WNET, NEWF - Nature Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers, Off the Fence Productions, ORF/Universum, St. Thomas Productions, Seeker, Sony Electronics, SVT (Swedish Television), The Nature Conservancy, Wanda Films, and World Wildlife Fund US.
“As the media industry is in such a time of transition, it’s an exciting time to be part of a similar transformation with Jackson Wild. We’ve been focused on growing our Festival and Summit into a global presence and a voice to change how the industry works, from the types of content we’re collectively presenting to who is doing the storytelling. Through the engagement and commitment that members of the Board and our event attendees show, we’re already seeing a real measurable change in how we tell stories about and help conserve the wild spaces of our planet,” noted Chairperson Bill Gardner.
Over the last several years Jackson Wild has accelerated equity and inclusion in conservation, science and nature media through systemic changes to advance storytellers representative of all communities. Jackson Wild’s Advisory Council seeks to deepen these initiatives by broadening perspectives that contribute to our place in the industry. The Advisory Council provides support and guidance to the organization with the intent of making recommendations to the Board of Directors. Advisory Council Members include:
Akanksha Sood Singh, Indie filmmaker and founder of Women of the Wild, India
Daniel Lin, lead of Storytelling efforts at Nia Tero Foundation for the Pasifika Region,
Francene J. Blythe-Lewis, Executive Director at Vision Maker Media,
Gunjan Menon, National Geographic Explorer and conservation filmmaker, India,
Mac Cardona, Founder of cWave Labs,
Natalie Cash, Executive Producer, Wildlife Conservation Society,
Neil Losin, Co-founder of Day's Edge Productions,
Pragna Parsotam-Kok, Executive Director of Nature, Wildlife & Environmental Filmmakers, South Africa
Reyhaneh (Rey) Maktoufi, Co-producer, host, and illustrator of PBS|NOVA's digital series Sciencing Out,
Roshan Patel, Media producer, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and
Sally Snow, Executive Director for the Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute, Philippines.
About Jackson Wild
For 30 years, the Jackson Wild Summit has grown a reputation for hosting extraordinary convenings of storytellers, scientists, conservationists, innovators and media stakeholders. The annual Jackson Wild Summit convening fosters an environment where collaboration and innovation thrive, ideas are launched, and strategic partnerships are forged as participants work together to address critical conservation and environmental challenges facing our planet.
Jackson Wild’s international board members include African Wildlife Foundation, Arte France, BBC Studios, Blue Ant Media|Love Nature, Boréales, Conservation International, Discovery, Doclights, GBH, Gorongosa Restoration Project, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare, National Geographic Partners, National Geographic Society, Nature/WNET, Netflix, NEWF - Nature, Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers, Off the Fence Productions, ORF/Universum, PBS, Saint Thomas Productions, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Seeker, Smithsonian Channel, Sony Electronics, SVT (Swedish Television) The Nature Conservancy, Terra Mater Factual Studios, Wanda Films and World Wildlife Fund US.
As much as the conversation around where and how we experience nature is shifting thanks to changemakers like Kwesia, creator of City Girl in Nature, there’s still a pervasive idea that certain places and experiences “count” in the outdoors, where others don’t.
Her video series explores her contemporaries’ relationships with the outdoors, takes us urban foraging and wildflower ID’ing, and shares Kwesia’s passion and knowledge for nature wherever it can be found.
Kwesia grew up in Deptford, an inner-city area of South-East London. She shared with me that along with many of her friends, neighbors, and peers, she experienced a great deal of the challenges that came with living in an area, and with people, that have often been neglected, excluded, and marginalized. Struggling to make sense of the senseless violence and trauma she’d faced, she found herself homeless, moving from sofa to sofa, and having a hard time with her mental health and wellbeing.
It was then that she received an opportunity to be a part of the British Exploring Society’s expedition to the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. This life-changing experience was a catalyst for Kwesia to want to share the joy she’s found in the outdoors with her community.
In this series Robert Hofmeyr is in Botswana working with Pangolin Photo Safaris and filming wildlife from their boats on the Chobe riverfront and vehicles in the Chobe National Park.
BBC Studios Natural History Unit names joint development chiefs
UK-based BBC Studios Natural History Unit has appointed Jess Colman and Laura Harris as joint heads of development.
They will replace the current head of development, Gavin Boyland, who will be moving into a series producer position within the unit to lead an as-yet unannounced “ambitious landmark series.”
Reporting into the new head of Natural History Unit, Jonny Keeling, Colman and Harris will be tasked with generating and securing business across all platforms as well as seeking out and developing new on and off-screen talent.
Colman has been promoted into the role from her current position as development executive for the Natural History Unit, having previously led UK and SVOD projects, including BBC’s upcoming Asia, the environmental series, Our Changing Planet, Chris Packham’s Animal Einsteins and The Year Earth Changed for Apple TV+.
She previously served as head of development for Bristol-based indie, True to Nature and daytime development executive for BBC Studios. She has produced and series produced a range of factual programmes, including Coast, Big Blue UK, Gordon Ramsay’s F-Word, and Channel 4’s environmental campaign, Jamie’s Fish Fight.
Harris, meanwhile, will be returning to the Natural History Unit after two years as head of development at Netflix-backed indie Freeborne Media and Seadog TV, and has commissioned shows such as Great National Parks and Oceans for Netflix and My Family and the Galapagos for Channel 4.
Whilst previously at the Natural History Unit, she developed Endangered for Discovery Channel, the unit’s first non-BBC Commission.
Wildlife TV host Steve Backshall slammed for saying snakes are deadlier than sharks
TV’s Steve Backshall has been branded a scaremonger for saying snakes are deadlier than sharks.
The adventurer, 48, listed a killer animals top ten with sharks — ten human victims a year — in last spot.
Snakes (138,000) were second after mosquitoes (725,000).
A snake catcher in Australia fumed on Facebook: “Just more of the same really plus fearmongering for these other species as well. Anything for ratings hey Steve.”
Another user said: “You host kids’ wildlife shows, be more responsible.”
Steve, hosting Shark on Sky Nature, said: “This post is pure and simple reporting actual statistics.
“Shark attacks command much media attention but the statistics demand a little context.”
The Brock Initiative's Richard Brock has been talking about the demonisation of wildlife and choice of language in tv shows for years ...
Most recently in his "Fang TV" blog post
If you were scanning the listings in TV Guide, as I do every week, you’d find a channel called National Geographic Wild. Yes, that National Geographic, famous worldwide, and very proudly pushing that fact. But what about wildlife conservation, so relevant these days? From Nat. Geo. you might expect a sympathy and support for the environment and threatened species of wildlife. But you won’t get it. That’s judging by the titles of their shows.
Earlier in feature pages here on Wildlife-film.com
OVERKILL? Wildlife on TV (May 2013)
Steve Backshall recently presented a series called Deadly Sixty – on a Mission, at 6pm on Sunday on BBC1, probably with many children watching. He travels the world showing various species that may qualify for his notorious list. The question is, yes it may be good for ratings, appeals to children, but in the end, does it do the animals themselves any good? I doubt it. .
Nat Geo must take the ‘con’ out of conservation. (September 2013)
The Wildlife Oscar for a Disservice to it’s Subjects (WODS) goes to National Geographic.
As I have continued to protest, as National Geographic have continued to brutalise their subjects, and to degrade themselves from a respected international organisation to one that is now recognised as sensational, exploitative and downright misleading.
Future generations who are unfortunate and misled enough to see Nat Geo productions can only be badly affected in their attitude to the natural world. That is the National Geographic Disservice, from a country, the U.S., in which violence and aggression is endemic – as recent shootings show.
The subject of "Fang TV" is covered in Richard's book too ...
In "The Media" section of his book, PLANET CRUNCH – The Life (or Death?) of Planet Earth, Richard says this "Ever since Jaws bit the cinema, sharks have been destroyed – not only their reputation, but by humans, hooking them on fishing lines, like this harmless blue shark killed in Majorca with predictably inflammatory headlines. Blame National Geographic
for this, apparently a conservation outfit,
but consistently using misleading vicious, exaggerated adjectives that are only
there, apparently, to get ratings. Sad. And
really bad for sharks. Typical: Monster Croc Wrangler which was relentless animal torture on Nat Geo Wild (18/10/20). Please stop it."
Donations to charity will be welcomed. If you would like to contribute – say £10 – to Richard’s preferred charity local charity, the Avon Wildlife Trust, based close to where he lives, near Bristol, or to a charity of your choice, please do so. These days many charities need income to help continue projects around the world.
How are wild otters from Southeast Asia ending up in Japanese pet cafes? 101 East investigates.
Pet cafes are popular tourist destinations in Japan where visitors pay to play with otters and other exotic creatures.
Cute and charming, otters have also become popular household pets in Japan.
Cramped inside small city apartments with not much water to splash around in, they’re often living a life of misery in captivity.
Animal rights campaigners are concerned that many otters are being caught in the wild, bred irresponsibly, sold online and smuggled illegally by criminal syndicates from Southeast Asia.
101 East investigates Indonesia’s live wildlife markets and the pet cafes of Tokyo to expose the dark otter trade.
Raise the Red Flag was conceived by Aaron and set up through Born Free who say they "want to end the suffering of wild animals in captivity but they need your help!"
They ask you to look out for wild animals in captivity. Whether in your home country or travelling internationally, flag your concerns, and speak out. You can help stop suffering and report animal abuse with their Raise the Red Flag campaign. The online platform highlights animal welfare problems, shares information with other travellers and provides guidance on how YOU can take action.
Wildscreen Festival 40th Birthday Year Call for Entries
Enter your work into the world’s largest wildlife film & photo festival!
Wildscreen, creators of the world’s largest natural world storytelling Festival, today opens its call for entries for the world-renowned Panda Awards and innovative Official Selection competitions. Not only will 2022 see the first ever hybrid edition of the Festival but it also marks the 40th birthday of the Wildscreen Festival.
Wildscreen Festival is now accepting submissions to their Panda Awards & Official Selection via FilmFreeway!
Wildscreen is an award-winning not-for-profit conservation organisation. Our goal is to convene the world’s best filmmakers and photographers with the most committed conservationists to create compelling stories about the natural world and so inspire the wider public to experience it, feel part of it and protect it. Wildscreen Festival is our world-leading international festival, celebrating and advancing natural world storytelling which takes place biennially and is supported by year-round outreach events, partnerships and activities. Discover the incredible success and details about the first ever virtual edition of the festival in 2020 or watch our highlight reel below.
“Despite unprecedented challenges over the past two years, our community of global storytellers have demonstrated the most inspired ingenuity and adaptability to continue revealing and sharing nature’s stories with global audiences. Nature has provided comfort and joy in uncertain times, with many forging new and deeper connections with it. We can’t wait to share those stories and celebrate the creatives behind them, as Wildscreen marks its 40th Birthday, this October. ” said Lucie Muir, Wildscreen CEO.
The 2020 Wildscreen Festival was record-breaking with the online event proudly welcoming over 1,900 industry delegates from 42 countries and a public audience of over 80,000.
Wildscreen expects the momentum to grow in 2022 as the Festival and its film competitions continue to empower new storytellers and work towards democratising the industry.
Wildscreen Panda Awards
The wildlife storytelling industry takes global audiences to the world’s most remote, inhospitable and threatened environments, shining a spotlight on species and habitats that most will not have the opportunity to experience first-hand. This form of documentary has never been more important or needed, with biodiversity being threatened to the point of no return. Since 1982, the Panda Awards have celebrated the human endeavour, commitment and unique skill that it takes to tell nature’s stories.
In 2022, the Wildscreen Panda Awards will not only celebrate the very best craft, but also the most sustainable and impactful content. The production categories in the competition are: Cinematography, Editing, Emerging Talent (film and photo), Music, On-Screen Talent, Photo Story, Producer/ Director, Production Team, Scripted Narrative, Series and Sound. There will also be the following special awards: Behaviour, Impact and Sustainability. The Sustainability Award has this year been established as its own category to showcase those adopting innovative sustainability practises at every stage of the production lifecycle.
All films nominated across the fifteen categories will be eligible for the Golden Panda Award, with previous winners including My Octopus Teacher (2020) and The Ivory Game (2016).
Wildscreen Festival Official Selection
Wildscreen is committed to democratising the creation of and access to nature’s stories. Following the incredible success of the inaugural Wildscreen Official Selection Programme in 2020, which received film, 360 and VR submissions across 5 continents, the competition returns this year to showcase powerful original stories, platform authentic, indigenous and underrepresented voices and inspire positive action. Following COP26, stories exploring the interconnectivity between climate change and biodiversity are being sought, along with those that document the impact and influence of the pandemic on nature and humans' relationships with it.
The Official Selection is open to anyone with a story about nature. Entrants will be able to submit long or short form content, including emerging technologies or platforms. A team of programmers will curate a programme featuring original and creative stories about the natural world which will be showcased as part of the Wildscreen Festival in October. The programme acts as a global launchpad to discover new voices, recognise creative innovation and establish equal opportunities for storytellers across the globe. Cash prizes of £3,000 are available.
The 2022 edition of the Festival takes place from the 10-14 October 2022 in Bristol and via a globally-accessible virtual platform. To enter the Wildscreen Panda Awards or Official Selection,visit the Wildscreen website to read the full terms and submit via FilmFreeway. The deadline to enter is 14 April but submissions prior to 24 February will receive a reduced-price Early Bird entry fee.
Save the Date
The 40th birthday edition of the Wildscreen Festival will take place between the 10-14 October 2022 and will mark a new hybrid format for the world’s leading natural world storytelling event. Read more.
13 January 2022 - Submissions Open for Panda Awards & Official Selection
24 February 2022 - Early Bird Deadline
14 April 2022 - Regular Deadline
May 2022 - Late Deadline (late fee occurs)
August 2022 - Panda Awards Nominees & Official Selection announced
October 2022 - Panda Awards Winners Announced at Ceremony
BWPA is opening for 2022 (& a goodbye from Maggie)
BWPA will be opening for 2022!
We are pleased to say that BWPA will be returning for the 2022 competition. Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to seeing all your images from the last couple of years.
We are still finalising the details, but the 2022 British Wildlife Photography Awards is looking to open in April 2022 and will once again celebrate the best of the UK's nature photography.
New management at BWPA
Not only is the competition coming back, but there is a now a change of management at the competition.
Having established BWPA in 2009 and grown the contest into a much-loved celebration of UK wildlife, Maggie Gowan is now stepping down as Director and handing over the management of the competition to Will Nicholls.
A note from Maggie
Just over ten years ago, I was pulling together one of the most exciting ideas I've ever had. From my career as a museum curator in natural sciences, managing collections and organising public exhibitions, I had been lucky enough to work with some of Britain's leading photographers.
I had seen how the power of photography could influence the way people thought and felt about things. At the same time, I was conscious of a growing environmental awareness and understanding in British photography that was about more than just chocolate-box pictures of animals and landscapes. When I decided to start a photography competition to explore this, I could hardly have imagined that a decade on it would grow into one of Britain's best-known and most popular photographic competitions: the British Wildlife Photography Awards.
Our aim is to stimulate innovative photography, and give wider coverage to the remarkable images that communicate the beauty, diversity and environmental needs of Britain's natural heritage. In this, we are surely succeeding. The imagery has been broad-ranging and of outstanding quality. Every year we enable millions of people around the world to be inspired by innovative photography capturing the essence, beauty and diversity of British wildlife. For me, it is a truly fantastic insight and privilege to work with thousands of great photographers and videographers of all ages. From senior professionals with vast experience, to youngsters with their first mobile phone, the awards are open to all and are deliberately kept accessible. I always hope that some people looking at our winning photographs might feel that these are photos they could learn to take, and thus are inspired to become better photographers.
I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to the success of the awards so far. So many entrants, sponsors, judges and supporters have collectively made these awards a popular and vibrant annual event for so long. And they still do: I know from the many messages of support and encouragement we received during the pandemic that there is still a huge affection and enthusiasm for the British Wildlife Photography Awards. I am confident that this ongoing support will carry the competition on to even greater achievements.
After ten wonderful years I have decided it is time for me to step back from BWPA. I am thrilled to pass the baton over to previous BWPA winner, Will Nicholls, whose career has embodied many of the ideals of the competition. I am confident that Will is the person to take the awards forward into further success. I am looking forward to seeing what is next for BWPA, and I wish Will and everyone involved in the competition the very best for a second exciting decade.- Maggie Gowan.
Looking ahead
I am thrilled to be taking on the British Wildlife Photography Awards. I have a lot to thank this competition for, as it played a huge part in launching my career as a stills photographer back in 2009.
Maggie has created something really special, and I will ensure that the high standard expected of BWPA is maintained as we reopen for the 2022 competition.- Will Nicholls
We look forward to seeing your entries soon! Best wishes for the New Year from everyone at BWPA.
Chris Packham continues his tireless efforts to address crimes against wildlife. He says:
"Fox hunting must be stopped. Please steel yourselves and watch these clips, please pass them on, and please join me in working to end this vile savagery wrought upon our wildlife."
‘Trail hunting’ has continued to be used as a smokescreen by hunts across the UK to coverup their barbaric activities and continue to illegally hunt wild foxes.
Since fox hunting became illegal in 2004 there has been endless evidence that hunts have no desire to abide by the law. With thousands of foxes still being murdered, the use of terrier men, hounds clearly not following a scent and causing harm (and death) to domestic animals, and the shocking exposé of senior huntsman Mark Hankinson declaring on a webinar that trail hunting is in fact a ‘smokescreen’.
This year the National Trust made the historic decision to ban so-called ‘trail hunts’ from their land and Keep The Ban is now pushing to ensure all other landowners follow suit.
Because of his activism, Chris continues to be targetted by trolls and other forms of abuse, online and otherwise.
He says: "Trolling destroys homes, careers, reputations and lives. Cowards that generate hate, hiding behind anonymous accounts is something that MUST end."
Trolling destroys homes , careers , reputations and lives . Cowards that generate hate , hiding behind anonymous accounts is something that MUST end . pic.twitter.com/uF8d3hjItR
Wildlife-film.com fully support Chris and we appreciate all that he does as an activist trying to help the natural world.
Enter the inaugural Pridelands Wildlife Film Fest ... the first of its kind event in East, Central, North and West Africa ... Extended Deadline 27th of January!
PWFF is three days of non-stop celebration of Africa’s beauty and powerful natural world.
The three-day event will host the world’s best natural history filmmakers in the heart of various wild and raw Kenyan locations to produce, celebrate and explore opportunities for collaboration with some of East Africa’s rising stars.
PWFF’s objective is to showcase stories that promote awareness, knowledge and an understanding of science, wildlife, and the humans that impact our world every day. The festival champions local wildlife filmmakers and inspires a new generation to challenge conventional expectations about how we conserve wildlife and habitat.
Filmmakers can expect lively Q&A’s after every screening, engaging daytime programming including panels, show cases, and networking opportunities with top-notch filmmakers, fresh media makers, conservationists and scientists working on the protection and preservation of African wildlife and wild spaces. PWFF’s collaborative spirit offers opportunities for many national and international conservation partners to be involved in post-film screening discussions and field trips around magical Kenya.
Discovery Channel Makes A Feature Film On Indian Wildlife Photographer, Yashas Narayan
Yashas Narayan is one of the youngest wildlife photographers to grab the attention of international channels like Discovery by his fine talent.
Yashas Narayan, one of the most reputed wildlife photographers of India. It would be prudent to say that he is one of the best big cat trackers that India has seen. Proudly known for his astonishing and mesmerising portfolio of India's tigers, leopards, and black panthers, he is now the first Indian wildlife photographer to get a feature film made by the Discovery networks.
Born and brought up in the city of Mysore, Yashas has spent a big part of his childhood in the forests around Mysore province. During his initial grooming years, he had developed a keen sense of animal behaviour and developed his instincts around the same. He soon cultivated a keen passion for wildlife photography.
Well, one might wonder how his passion for wildlife photography landed him on the Discovery feature film. Then the answer is his exemplary photography skills coupled with the astounding tracking skills of big cats. Discovery is one of the biggest and most popular channels that has made feature films on very few people worldwide, who they feel deserves a wider audience. Now, an Indian wildlife photographer has joined the list.
Explore the power of wildlife photography with Samsung and Discovery. Join photographer Yashas Narayan as he gets closer to the world's biggest cat in this short documentary, filmed #withGalaxy S21 Ultra 5G.
Samsung and Discovery bring you closer to the world's biggest cat and its fight for survival. Join filmmaker Vikram Singh and photographer Yashas Narayan as they take pro-grade footage of endangered wild tigers using the #GalaxyS21 Ultra 5G.
Post COP26, Richard Brock's PLANET CRUNCH – The Life (or Death?) of Planet Earth more relevant than ever!
So, COP26 happened in Glasgow last month ... it didn't deliver what many of us had hoped for and so we think PLANET CRUNCH The Life (or Death?) of Planet Earth by Richard Brock is more relevant than ever ...
The book – a personal view – so far…Funded by a family legacy, now 3000 have been printed and distributed, free,
with COP26 very much in mind .. Update from Richard:
The book, and the three special films (on YouTube and Vimeo) are based on media coverage over the last three years,
where the subjects have moved from small items to big headlines, such as COP26 in November. Part
of my research included The Times, probably the most respected and
well researched newspaper in the
country. But, in my personal opinion,
totally lacking in one crucial way.
Entitled “The Heat is on”, this “Earth” supplement of 31 (yes 31) pages
hardly mentions the biggest cause of most of the problems and issues. And those
include one of Boris Johnson’s natty slogans: “coal, cars, cash and trees”. He was hoping for solutions to
global warming at that really big conference COP26.
But not many people seemed to draw attention to the reason for the difficulties we all face. Actually it’s us, the number of human beings, and our
consumption of the planet. In The Times
supplement of 31 pages, there are more than twice (over 60) separate sections without a single specific reference to the growth of
human numbers. Boris has at least six children, MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, my MP, has six too, not exactly good
examples, high-end
consumers of the
future. And on
television, the
farming Owens
family totals 11.
Since 2006 world
population has
grown 20% or by
more than 1 billion
people, needing more coal in
China; causing more rainforests to be felled in Brazil;
for cattle to be reared for more meat; or crops
as animal feed; to more and more humans, who
create more and more traffic in the sky
and on the roads.
As Greta Thunberg put it in her direct
way at COP26
Donations to charity will be welcomed. If you would like to contribute – say £10 – to Richard’s preferred charity local charity, the Avon Wildlife Trust, based close to where he lives, near Bristol, or to a charity of your choice, please do so. These days many charities need income to help continue projects around the world.
Uniquely ... Altogether ... Now ... The Life (or death?) of Planet Earth - Planet Crunch covers Nature and Us, Population, The Media, Tourism, Money, Waste and Plastic, Climate Change, Conservation, Energy, Water, Food, Biodiversity, Shopping, Farming, Forests and Fishing.
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