 “Diving headfirst into the world of natural history filmmaking - especially completing a short film in five days - was a wild (no pun intended) and incredible whirlwind of an experience,” said Jane Macedo Yang, a cinematographer currently based out of NYC. She came into the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Lab with loads of experience under her belt, having worked on political ads, stories of refugees, and much more. But the Media Lab was her first foray into the natural history space, and what better way to learn than through an intense production process surrounded by peers of all diffferent backgrounds and experience levels. “Working with a group of fellows from all over the world was a reminder of how any type of filmmaking is such a team sport, and everyone’s different perspectives, from both seasoned filmmakers to first-time filmmakers and scientists and activists, added such rich and diverse layers to the storytelling process. The aspect of filming wildlife – in my group’s case, birds – was fascinating. Especially given our tight deadline, it gave me a deeper appreciation for wildlife and the patience that many natural history filmmakers must have.”  Photo by John Ricardel Jane, along with Media Lab Fellows Laura Pennafort, Luyanda Shabalala, and Jordan Chapman, created The Bird Ringer, a film about migratory birds in National Park Neusiedler See - Seewinkel. “Getting to know and learn from the fellows, as well as the program leaders from Days Edge Productions and Jackson Wild, was a reminder of the shared love of filmmaking and created lifelong friendships and connections,” said Jane about the emotional aspects of the program. Though the Media Lab was her first time working on a wildlife film, Jane’s interest in the natural world is not new. “I’ve always loved the outdoors and nature, and once dreamed of being a marine biologist. Watching BBC’s Planet Earth had a large impact on me as a teenager, and opened up the possibility of natural history filmmaking. My love for film came around the same time, but I didn’t think about putting the two together until I was in college, when I double majored in film and ecology & evolutionary biology,” she shared. “Unfortunately, I was told that ever being on a project like Planet Earth would be difficult unless you knew the right people. As a young queer woman of color, it felt like an impossible industry to enter in as I didn’t see others in the industry that looked like me, and it wasn’t until the Jackson Wild Media Lab where it felt like being a natural history filmmaker could become a reality. This is why highlighting underrepresented voices is so important to my work – both in front of and behind the camera. In both directly people-focused films and nature / science work, there are so many voices and stories that have not been heard, yet are so significant to the human experience and the world we live in.”  Photo by Jennifer Macedo Yang Jane’s prior work includes the documentary short Boyhood, a story about a family of Rohingya refugees, specifically focusing on 10-year-old boy Kamaruddin. She has also created short films for Stacey Abrams’ campaign for governor, along with advertising for voting rights organizations in Georgia. She wore a lot of hats in the film production process before ultimately realizing that visual storytelling behind the camera was where she found the most joy. “I’m able to be so present when filming, reacting to everything unfolding in front of me, being immersed in finding frames and working with light – especially in the spontaneity that documentary often brings, and being able to work with my hands to operate the camera and gear. One of the joys of filmmaking is building trust and camaraderie with the director, crew, and the participants (as you’re often the person physically closest to who is being filmed) too, and working together towards a singular goal of creating moving, authentic work. Cinematography and camera work felt like a natural fit to my love of films and imagery.”  Still from upcoming Art21 short Jane is currently working on Parastoo, the first documentary she started working on. “My sister and the director of the film, Jennifer Yang, and I moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2017. There, we met an Afghan refugee theater group called Parastoo Theater, made up of first-time actors. We filmed the group’s journey as they rehearsed and performed one of their first shows. In the group, we met two young actresses, Farzana and Fatima, both incredible beings and whose stories are the focus in the film. Parastoo is about their years-long journey as they grow up and their lives diverge when Fatima and her family get resettled to Australia,” Jane shared.  Still from Parastoo “Present-day, we’ve brought on an incredible team including producer Justine Armen, consulting producer Amin Kamrani, and production coordinator Anisha Wadhwani. The story of the film has changed direction several times including expanding from a short to a feature, and we continue to be in production as we raise funds. Especially since it was one of the first films I worked on, watching the older footage from 2017-2018 to the most recent footage of 2022, it’s been amazing to see the growth of the quality of the footage and how far the team and story has come.  Still from Made in the USA: the Struggle for the American Dream (upcoming feature) After joining the Jackson Wild community in last year’s Media Lab, Jane now uses the Collective to get more involved in the natural history space by connecting with others, learning about their work, and hearing about opportunities, including gigs, events, programs, and grants. Speaking of connecting, she’s putting out a call for collaborators: “I’m looking for collaborators on documentaries and am open to all themes – natural history, environmental issues, social issues, political commentary, interwoven narratives of all of the above! Although I’m based in NYC, I’m open to travel. I work as a DP, camera operator, and AC and am looking to connect to other filmmakers and chat. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!”  Photo by Arvin Temkar Learn more about Jane’s film Parastoo, visit her website to see more of her work.
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 “Growing up, I always felt a connection to nature. I was raised with a forest and stream surrounding my home, with wild animals around my house, and with a lot of space to explore. As a kid and teen, I loved to spend every summer at lakes and in the ocean. Yet only when I was a young adult and traveled to different places around the world and then lived by the sea for a while, I felt the need to do something to help conserve our natural waters. For me, the way to do that was with environmental communication through documentary films.” Sabine M. Probst is a documentary filmmaker, producer, and cinematographer. She was also a 2022 Jackson Wild Summit Fellow, participating in a comprehensive program for storytellers to accelerate their project in development through a series of skill-building workshops, networking events, pitching opportunities and mentorship. Sabine is based in Austria, and she understands the irony of growing up in a land-locked nation and ending up as an ocean conservationist and underwater cinematographer. “The best advice I could give my younger self is to not compare myself so much to the success and the work of others, not trying to fit into a mold, and not listen too much to what others think I should do. Not everyone has the same connections and opportunities in life and wants to take the same path,” Sabine shared. “I used to think that in order to be a credible ocean conservation filmmaker, I would have to have a degree in marine sciences and film and live by the ocean. Yet I come from a design background and live in a landlocked country. I learned the film basics in university, but I also taught myself a lot, took extra courses in film, conservation, communication, and biology, and learned by doing. My degrees in information and media design give me a different viewpoint on projects. Even though I don't live by the ocean, I get to work with marine biologists, conservationists and people that do live by the ocean and share their inspiring stories through film.”  Photo courtesy of Sabine Probst and Seen Blue In 2022, Sabine founded Seen Blue, a visual environmental communication organization working with environmental organizations, scientists, and activists to communicate their research, work, and efforts to protect nature effectively. Their newest film, Maydayterranean, presents both the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea, along with the challenges it faces: effects of tourism, lack of legal protection, pollution, overfishing, and more. “I was writing my master’s thesis about how to use documentary film as a tool for ocean conservation, and I wanted to create a piece that brings theory into practice. I got a small grant from my university to do the project, so I started researching places nearby. The closest sea to Austria is the Mediterranean Sea. What stood out to me during my research was that everyone I spoke to about wanting to film the underwater life in the Mediterranean Sea looked surprised. Even though all of these people spend every holiday in Italy, Croatia, or Greece, everyone thought of the underwater world as lifeless and beige. From then on, I knew that I wanted to show the tourists that spend their vacations at the Mediterranean Sea, and the locals that don't get to explore it, the beautiful world underneath the surface.” “I eventually reached out to an old schoolmate of mine who is a member of the Mediterranean Education and Research Association, who referred me to a marine biologist and educator working in Croatia and Austria. She opened my eyes to the incredible biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea, and made my fascination for the underwater world grow even more. She helped me build connections with other scientists, marine conservationists, and researchers. I filmed in five countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and in Austria, my home country, where I wanted to see what a landlocked country can do for ocean conservation."  Photo courtesy of Sabine Probst and Seen Blue Maydayterranean screened at a film festivals worldwide, was presented at schools, and has now made its way onto the Waterbear Network where it can be streamed for free online. As a former Fellow, Sabine uses the Jackson Wild Collective to stay involved with the community. “To me, the Jackson Wild Collective is a place to connect with like-minded people worldwide. Through it, I’ve found many valuable contacts, made new friends, and stayed up to date on new opportunities.”  Photo courtesy of Sabine Probst and Seen Blue Follow Sabine on Instagram to keep up with her work, and follow Seen Blue to get updates on their new projects. Watch Maydayterranean on Waterbear Network.
The Jackson Wild Collective is the virtual home for our global storytelling community to connect, collaborate and inspire change year-round. Join today. Filmmaker Q&A with Jerry van de Beek and Betsy de Fries, Directors of YELLOWSTONE 88 – Song of Fire1/19/2023  Q: What inspired this story? Little Fluffy Clouds studio is located in Northern California where we are now beset with ever increasing climate change related fires and worsening air quality from smoke every year. Fire season begins earlier and finishes later with every year that passes. Nonetheless California also shows us the spectacular beauty of nature. The giant old growth redwoods, abundant bird and wildlife and ever increasing populations of bears and wolves. We always wanted to include wolves in our animations and had an early idea to do a short animation about the redwoods. While researching these subjects we came upon the story of the devastating fires that engulfed Yellowstone Park for so many months of 1988. A kernel of an idea began to take shape, to tell the story of that fire and its aftermath purely from the perspective of the flora and fauna in the park. Yellowstone 88 – Song of Fire is the culmination of that early seed. The narrative poem, Song of Fire, by Betsy has its’ roots in a TED Talk given some while ago by the writer, journalist and eco-activist, George Monbiot, on the subject of rewilding. Rewilding is a newish word coined for a forward thinking concept, it means the mass restoration of ecosystems. We were inspired by the notion of Trophic Cascade which he explains here: “This is an ecological process, which starts at the top of the food chain and tumbles all the way down to the bottom, and the classic example is what happened at Yellowstone National Park when wolves were reintroduced in 1995.” ~ How Wolves Changed Rivers - George Monbiot Q: How did you approach storytelling in this film? Telling a true story in the form of a narrative poem is hard to do. Poetry is an intangible expression of emotion coupled with an idea but this poem had the added layer of needing to be grounded accurately in facts. How to combine that with the spiritual story we wanted to weave? And how to tell the story of fire – what to include, what to leave out - yet still give full reign to the creative flow in both rhythm and rhyme? And of course how to evoke tantalizing imagery to set the stage for animation? Designing animation Yellowstone 88 was a challenge but one we really enjoyed. Once you know what story you want to tell you have to come up with a visual narrative that supports that story. You have to set parameters like color palettes and style. As with any story you have characters coupled with an event. In Yellowstone 88 our characters are the animals and the environment. The two major events of this story are the fires and the snowstorm. The nature of this story is one of high contrast. Against the brightness of the fire and the whiteness of the snow the story of the animals plays out in almost silhouette. This gave us the idea to create a 2D animation and stack the characters and events in layers. Starting with the first character - the environment – and moving on to add the events of the fire and snow. Adding on top of that the second character - the animals. To fully showcase the vastness of the landscape we introduced slow camera moves and worked with many 2D planes to create a parallax effect and immerse the viewer inside the story. At this stage that we made the choice to create the animation in Cinemascope and fully imbue it with an epic feel much in the way you experience Yellowstone in real life. The final challenge was to bring all the pieces together. The Poem has its own rhythm and flow but so does the animation and the music. Each is very powerful in its own right so combining these elements without compromising one for the other was a very delicate dance indeed.  Q: Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program. We started Little Fluffy Clouds with the goal of earning enough money from paying projects to pay for our own creative short animations. In essence some 25 years later that’s still what we do. 2020 was a different kind of year. The entire world went into lockdown as the Covid-19 pandemic spread. With no prospect of work for a while we turned to what we do best - our own films. Once again we were our own clients with all the benefits and pitfalls that come with that. Only four people worked on this production with each their distinct talent and contribution: Jerry van de Beek, director, designer, animator, sound designer; Betsy de Fries, director and writer, Peter Coyote, spoken word actor and Mark Murphy, composer and sound designer. We operated from remote locations in in California and in Dublin. Like everyone else we had to rely on on-line links, zoom calls, emails and constant open communication to keep the production flowing and get it to the finishing line. It was challenging. There were stops and starts but we kept going and all of that makes us extra proud of our achievement. Q: What impact do you hope this film will have? As we were making Y88 it quickly became obvious to us that Climate Change/Chaos is overtaking our planet faster than our governments can adapt and react to but to strip away all hope only serves to immobilize. Perhaps the greatest take away from the 1988 park fires is how quickly an ecosystem can renew itself if nature is allowed to take it’s time and lead the way. We see this film as a way to get the climate change/chaos message across in a forceful yet beautiful way - a seduction as opposed to a hammer. The film is for everyone but reaching a younger audience is paramount. Their future is at stake here and they must come up to speed and advocate for themselves. Yellowstone 88 is now being shown in schools in France, Scotland and California as a means to jumpstart conversation and engagement around the issue. Q: Any facts about the film, the subject matter or the production crew that might surprise the audience? Relatively few animals died in the actual fires. Instinctively fauna understand and can gauge fire and usually can survive one. Some flee and some go underground. Most note the wind and smoke patterns and move away from the fire as quickly and as far as they can. Multiple fires converging pose a greater threat but the real danger to flora and fauna comes after a fire when the land is scorched bare and there is no food to be found. That same winter snow that doused the uncontained fires of Yellowstone was so severe that animals simply starved or died attempting to find food. It was a bitter loss of great proportion. At the time of the fire there were no wolves living in the park but their existence in Yellowstone predates the creation of the park and their presence and soul has always been felt, and so the spirit of the wolf speaks through this poem and guides us through the animation. Once reintroduced into the park their presence altered the shape of the ecosystem and returned it to a more original stature. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem the largest remaining nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone. In 1978, Yellowstone was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Q: What's next for you? We’d love to jump on the next film as soon as possible. Plenty of ideas abound but first we have to continue with paid productions for our clients. Our hope is to get some funding for our next film so that we can allocate more time to it without having to put it on hold for paying gigs. Follow Little Fluffy Clouds, the studio behind YELLOWSTONE 88 - Song of Fire, on Instagram and Facebook to see more of their work.
 Q: How do you approach storytelling? One of my aims as a filmmaker is to encourage audiences to engage with familiar topics from new perspectives. With that in mind, when I began the research for ‘Growing Underground’ I knew I wanted to use a less traditional approach to storytelling and make something with a more contemporary feel. As well as emphasising the otherworldliness of the farm through the film’s music and cinematography, I used narration to create an ‘Operator’ character who guides the audience - the ‘seeds’ - through the production line, all the way from planting to plating up in the surface. I hope that this approach helps to challenge preconceived notions of food production, demonstrate a possible future, and ultimately leave the viewer energised and excited about what could be. Q: Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program? Filming on a working farm (particularly one in an old air raid shelter!) certainly posed a number of challenges. By its nature an air raid shelter isn’t the most spacious of locations, and all useable space that did exist was dedicated to growing micro-greens… making it hard to set up a tripod, let alone get the perfect shot. The huge whirring fans - though they made for great visuals - also made it very difficult to record audio. Finally, access to the farm was through either a tight 33 metre staircase or a very small lift, meaning there were limits to the kit we could bring with us.  Q: What impact do you hope this film/program will have? At its heart, I wanted the film to foreground a vital but uncomfortable question - how are we going to produce enough food in the future? Re-using urban space for agriculture may be a part of the answer, but there needs to be a much wider re-evaluation of how we feed ourselves while also being kind to people and planet. In particular, I hope that the more contemporary storytelling in the film appeals to younger audiences who may not otherwise have engaged with ideas about food security, and that whoever watches it comes away with their own questions about the food they eat and where it comes from. Growing Underground won our Student category at the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Awards.
Follow Kate on Instagram to keep up with her work.  Photo courtesy of Kumu Niu Q: What inspired this story? This project began as part of a series of videos I pitched to the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) which we call “Tree Stories.” The series aims to spark interest in trees and forests by telling human-centered stories about how different trees profoundly affect people’s lives across the United States. We were initially pointed in the direction of “Niu Now” (the coconut-planting movement this film is about) by Heather McMillan from the one of NASF’s partners, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. I got on Zoom with Aunty Manulani Aluli Meyer and Indrajit Gunasekera (the main subjects of “Kumu Niu”) and I knew right away I was bearing witness to something really special, something I believed could change the world. I asked them if I could help spread their work and their message through a film and was overjoyed when they agreed! Q: Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program. There were moments when it was difficult to capture what we wanted only being a crew of only two. But by the same token there were many times when a larger crew would have made the intimacy of the experience impossible, and I think that would have detracted from what we were hoping to communicate about this work to an audience. So, yes, sometimes filmmaking is hard! And you always feel like you could use more resources. But I think it all happens as it should and I wouldn’t change anything if we could go back and do it again.  Photo courtesy of Kumu Niu Q: What did you learn from your experience making this film/program? I think for a lot of us who are conscious of and concerned about the health and safety of all forms of life on our planet, it can be really overwhelming to approach the question, “What can I do about it?” One (of the innumerable) lessons I learned from spending time with Aunty Manu and Indrajit is the value of going deep with your efforts, as opposed to wide. The amount of love and thought and care that has been put into the nurturing of every seedling you see in “Kumu Niu” has a profound effect on the plants themselves and on the people who work with them. These effects reverberate through everyone who interacts with those trees and those people over the course of their lifetimes. The joy of Niu Now is apparent in all the work that they do, and it begets itself as the movement grows. It has changed me for sure over the past couple years, and I hope to carry that spirit through all of my filmmaking and storytelling endeavors in years to come. I am beyond grateful for this. Q: How do you approach storytelling? Most of my documentary work has been focused around people. In this context I see myself as a tool. My goal is to use my technical skills to help communicate other people’s stories in a way that feels truthful to them, never to invent or push a story that I think will appeal to viewers. Ultimately, Truth is universal, and when people have a venue to speak their own truths in their own words, I think that is when viewers connect with someone else’s story the most. And hopefully they feel something and they learn something.  Photo courtesy of Kumu Niu Q: What impact do you hope this film/program will have? My first hope for “Kumu Niu” is that it amplifies the message of Niu Now and spreads the joy and the wisdom of aloha `āina, which is, as Aunty Manu describes it, “loving land and serving people.” In short, I hope it inspires people to take interest in the land on which they live and rely, and ignites them to foster a true relationship with it. My second hope for the film is that it returns energy back to the Niu Now movement, which has continued to flourish since our filming in early 2021. There is still much work to do to restore the niu to its proper place as a respected teacher and a sustainable, local source of food throughout much of the tropical world. Q: What's next? I continue to be in touch with Aunty Manu and Indrajit about their ongoing work. They have planted several more niu groves and new nurseries since I was there in April, 2021, and Indrajit has ambitions to return to his homeland in Southern Sri Lanka at some point to do more planting and work to protect the knowledge of the coconut in his own culture. and I personally hope the opportunity arises to film with them again, only if and when it will prove useful to their goals. In the meantime, my eyes are peeled for more truths to tell about how we can practice love and care for our planet and each other. Kumu Niu won the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Award for Human Planet - Short Form. Follow along with Quick Act Casual Productions and the National Association of State Foresters on Instagram.
Filmmaker Q&A with Alizé Carrère, Director/Producer of ADAPTATION: Coral Reefs of Vanuatu11/18/2022  Photo by Kyle Corea Q: What inspired this story? In 2015, I was looking for stories about how people and communities around the world were adapting to profound environmental change. I was working on a film series that would hopefully capture what ‘adaptation’ looked and felt like not as a concept, but as a real lived experience for the millions of people who have no other choice. Around that time I came across the NGO Rare and their Solution Search contest. Solution Search was a call for anyone around the world to submit adaptation projects that were being implemented on the ground, with the hope of sharing and scaling some of the projects. I reached out to Rare and asked if I might be able to access the contest database for the series I was working on, to get some ideas. I came across an entry from a group in Vanuatu (on the islands of Nguna and Pele) working on composting efforts for a predatory starfish that was decimating coral reefs. The project sounded fascinating, so I contacted the group that submitted. The more I learned the more interesting the story got. I didn’t have funding at the time, so we stayed in touch over email for 3 years until I was able to make it to Vanuatu with my filmmaker friend and colleague Kyle Corea in 2018. Once we got there we were amazed by all of the additional adaptation efforts that were going on, including coral gardening and other impressive efforts to keep the reef alive.  Photo by Alizé Carrère Q: Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. As any documentary filmmaker knows, the funding was a real challenge…! I ended up self-funding the trip to Vanuatu itself because I didn’t want to lose out on capturing the story, but then we had to sit on the footage for 2 years before I was able to find the money to actually make the short film/episode. It was thanks to Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) that we got a grant to finish it. I had met Cheryl Hirasa of PIC through The Redford Center when I was a grantee there in 2018, and Cheryl really helped us get the short film done. It was through PIC that we were then put in touch with PBS, who ultimately provided the remaining funding to finish the whole series.  Photo by Gavin Steele-McCutchen Q: What's next? Now that the series lives on PBS, we are talking with them about a season 2 of Adaptation. The next batch of episodes will look at what adaptation means not as a technical or mechanical solution to an environmental problem, but rather adaptation as something deeply social and political – because it is! Successful adaptation to the challenges of climate change will ultimately depend on how well equipped and supported a community is in ways beyond financial means. For example, what policies are supporting or hindering resilience and adaptability? Are those policies just, equitable and intergenerational? How are people advocating for their future? Who is bearing the greatest adaptation burden and what can be done to distribute that burden more equally? These are the types of questions I am currently working on in my PhD research on climate change adaptation and that are critical to invoke in film projects covering climate change as well. Keep up with Alizé and her work on Instagram.
Filmmaker Q&A with Yaz Ellis and Jack Mifflin, Directors and Cinematographers of Beavers About Town11/11/2022  Photo courtesy of Yaz Ellis and Jack Mifflin Q: What inspired this story? This story is a passion project for us. We had never seen a beaver before we moved to Austria and so we wanted to find out more about these hard-working animals and what secrets they might have, living in the city of Vienna. After months of trying to find the best filming location, we realised one day that there was a family of beavers right below our feet, living under the very steps we were standing on. Once we had discovered this family we followed them on their early morning, evening and night time adventures and created Beavers About Town. Q: Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program. We both worked on this film around our jobs, with only a minimal budget. This meant we had to get creative with the gear we had. We converted our Canon 5D MKIII into an infrared camera, after following a tutorial online. We had to tie down our GoPro with branches and stones to get the underwater footage of the beavers. We then had beavers stealing and moving our underwater GoPro, which meant unplanned dives in the Danube in order to retrieve our gear - the water was about 10 degrees celsius at the time! When we started creating the film we faced covid curfews at the hours beavers were most active, majorly restricting our filming. And in order to get to the beavers we had to travel for an hour on public transport. But as these beavers are active so early in the morning in the summer (before the trains are running), this meant a 13km bike ride through Vienna, at 3am with our gear on our backs. And then cycling back 13km at 8am, ready to start work for the day. Q: What is your favorite shot and why? When we filmed the beavers on their “summer picnic”. A beaver swims up to a tree in the water and reaches up with its hands to strip bark from the tree and eats it. The light was perfect that evening and the reflections were incredible. It was also the closest a beaver had physically come to us whilst filming, and was the beginning of the film becoming a reality for us.  Photo courtesy of Yaz Ellis and Jack Mifflin Q: Did the film team use any unusual techniques or unique imaging technology? We wanted to film the beavers living under the stairs without them even knowing we were there. As mentioned, we converted one of our cameras to see infrared light, which is not a visible light for beavers. We found a gap in the steps just big enough to fit our camera and an IR light in, which we placed inside while the beavers were out feeding. Then as they came back one by one we filmed them grooming, eating and falling asleep without them even knowing we were there. We also used the IR camera to film the beaver inside the boat. For this we had to tape the camera and lights to a branch that the beavers had stripped the bark from, and hold it as steady as we could while the beavers swam into the boat and cleaned themselves.  Photo courtesy of Yaz Ellis and Jack Mifflin Q: What impact do you hope this film/program will have?
We hope this film is an inspiration for how wildlife can thrive alongside us in our urban environments; and shows that the beaver is a living example that we can still bring animals back from the brink of extinction. And for the continued beaver controversy out there - we hope that it proves the beautiful, resourceful, loving and peaceful animals that beavers are.  Photo by Tembisa Jordaan. Tembisa Jordaan is a marine scientist and filmmaker, currently working as a manager for biodiversity, economy and stewardship at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. She believes that filmmakers and scientists often impose a perspective and bias into stories of their focus communities. Tembisa strives to do the opposite–to elevate the stories she finds in communities, to see the environment from the community’s perspective, and provide a platform for them to tell their own stories. This is exactly what she does in her first film: Ulwandle Lushile: Meeting the Tides.  Photo by Tembisa Jordaan. “Ulwandle Lushile” loosely translates from Zulu as “the sea is dry,” noting the best time for mussel harvest--which is what the film is about. But it’s not just about mussels. This film brings into perspective South Africa’s apartheid history and its impact on natural resources management--in this case, the mussels. This film, which won second place in the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest follows the Sokhulu women who rely on mussels as a significant source of food, relearning sustainable ways of harvesting the mussels that existed years before the apartheid regime. As apartheid came to an end in 1998, the Marine Living Resources Act allowed local communities to access places that apartheid had previously restricted. This brought a new wave of adjusting, relearning, and passing down the indigenous knowledge that past communities practiced to sustainably harvest and consume mussels at the shores of South Africa’s province, KwaZulu-Natal.  Photo by Tembisa Jordaan. What inspired this story? The story was right before me when I worked as the Resource Use Ecologist, implementing the mussel harvesting programme in KwaZulu-Natal. My main motivation was from seeing the gap in the science and the story. Coastal communities are often just told what to do without fully understanding how that will impact their livelihoods, so the aim of this story was to bring back the local voices and give the story about marine conservation a human component. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program? My biggest predicament while shooting was the issue of tides. There's a limited amount of time to harvest because of tide times, and the shooting time was not during spring low tides. The second thing has to be the issue of compensating characters for time spent on the project. I know that industry has such strong opinions about how that might influence the story, but I feel it is unethical to expect people to take time away from their work or other means of survival to shoot for many hours for free. The same way that we budget for the camera work and editing is the same way we ought to consider some form of remuneration for our characters, especially ones who take from nothing. What did you learn from your experience making this film/program? Storytelling is a powerful science communication tool and it really does come naturally for us Africans, because our whole history and lineage is told from one generation to another, through the stories told by our Elders. What impact do you hope this film/program will have? I hope it motivates South Africans to start doing something for our people and stop waiting on the government to do something. I would like for this film to infiltrate the academic space and influence black scientists to start looking at science from a people-centric perspective, and to do the needed work to show that Africans have always been one with nature. Conservation is in our blood. How do you approach storytelling? I create a conducive platform for local voices to be heard and to show the indigenous knowledge that is still intact. I also remove myself from the story, as a point of interest, and shine a light on the important stories that Africa and the world at large need to see. I just want to capture the beauty of our thought process and value systems where conservation is concerned. What’s next for you? For the film? More coastal stories, lots of cooking and hopefully a non-profit organization that focuses on finding sustainable livelihoods for communities, support and knowledge exchange. What is your take on the role of storytelling in promoting sustainable lifestyles and sustainable use of natural resources? With storytelling, especially in films, if you are able to nail down the key areas that you want to address in your story, it drives the human emotions about who it directly impacts. For example, if you want to communicate the impact of littering, you can tell a story of how their more often unintended actions impact the livelihoods of someone else. As naturally compassionate beings, seeing the visual impact of our actions can drive change now that we see the end results of our actions. Storytelling changes people’s perspective quicker and can do so in influencing sustainable living. About the Author: Irene Marra is an Operations Associate at Jackson Wild. She is currently pursuing a BA in International Business and Trade at the African Leadership University in Rwanda, with a passion for entrepreneurship, storytelling, and digital content creation
 Apic/Getty Images How often do you sit and think: “are we as humans unique? Do humans resemble another species?” Probably not very often. We might think we are unique until we meet our “cousin”: the chimpanzee! Humans and chimpanzees share about 99% of their DNA, the closest the two share with any other species. The next time you see a chimpanzee - don’t be shy, say hi! You have probably seen and heard a lot about chimpanzees today. It’s only natural as today is World Chimpanzee Day. This day celebrates chimpanzees, raises awareness on the challenges they face, and promotes their protection and conservation - thanks to Jane Goodall. July 14, 1960 is when Goodall began studying chimpanzees at Gombe National Park and has since become an inspiration to scientists and researchers focusing on chimpanzees. Over the years, there have been some amazing discoveries and learning about chimpanzees. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most interesting social resemblances between us and chimpanzees.  Anup Shah via Getty Images Empathy and Friendship Do you have a best friend that you relate to and care for? So do the chimps! Research shows that chimpanzees have the ability to empathize with others emotionally and can even form close bonds and friendships. Anthony Ochieng, a Jackson Wild award winner and founder of TonyWild, narrates a story of the chimpanzees’ human father in Uganda. “Papa,” as they call him, speaks of being bullied by other chimpanzees while one of them becomes very friendly and empathetic. Sophia, the empathetic chimpanzee, has a best friend called Megan - amazing, don't you think? Cognitive Abilities Imagine a chimpanzee beating a human at a memory test with sequences and numbers. Sounds unreal, right? But it's real! Ayumu, a chimpanzee at Japan’s Primate Research Institute, did it and so can other chimpanzees. These members of the big 5 apes can understand, connect, and memorize pieces of information almost the same way that humans can. Their abilities manifest in their social relations where they cooperate on tasks such as food gathering and coping with various cultures - yes they do have their own cultures! Coordinated War Chimpanzees are calm, peaceful creatures until they get angry - sound familiar? Similar to humans, due to their cognitive abilities and social communication skills, chimpanzees are able to plan and wage war on other members of the species. Studies have proposed that this is an adaptive strategy, for example, when one group attacks another group to obtain food and other resources. Male chimpanzees especially can get aggressive when triggered by members of rival communities.  Anup Shah via Getty Images These are just a few examples of how alike humans and chimpanzees are. It is also important to note that despite the acute resemblances between human and chimpanzees, we still remain distinct from each other. We can and should love and care for chimpanzees without necessarily humanizing them. One of the ways we can achieve this is through thoroughly educating ourselves about the species. The best way to learn more about chimpanzees is to go trekking in various parks - there, you will find practical knowledge and rich information that will help you understand our cousins better. One of the things you’d learn is that chimpanzees are endangered due to habitat loss, disease, and hunting. Park rangers and other experts can help you learn what you can do about it as a citizen, conservationist or storyteller.  Fiona Rodgers via Getty Images About the Author: Irene Marra is an Operations Associate at Jackson Wild. She is currently pursuing a BA in International Business and Trade at the African Leadership University in Rwanda, with a passion for entrepreneurship, storytelling, and digital content creation.  Ana Luisa Santos in the field during the production “Une vie de Renarde” for France Televisions (2017). ©Michael Sanderson “Living at altitude in the freezing mountains might not be ideal but at least the view will be stunning.” Wildlife filmmaker Ana Luisa Santos produced a film in 2017 about the lammergeier, also known as the bearded vulture. “It won my full respect,” she said about the species – her first pick if she could switch bodies with any animal on the planet. “This scavenging bird is able to fully close the cycle of life due to its incredible ability to eat and digest bones. Super beautiful, strong, unique, and sustainable.”  Lammergeier or Bearded vulture – the protagonist of the production Pyrenees Mountains for NHK (2017). ©AtelesFilms/NHK There’s no one path to becoming a wildlife filmmaker, but Ana Luisa’s journey is particularly unique: she started her career as an engineer. “To be trained and educated as an engineer gives me the possibility of understanding, analyzing, and telling a story from a different, more logical perspective,” she said about how her engineering background has influenced her storytelling. “I like building sequential blocks and simplifying the idea I want to transmit. The natural world is already a complex system. It is crucial for me to tell the story as simply as possible, ensuring a complete understanding of the message and information. The better that the viewer understands it, the more chances it raises awareness towards a better planet.” After settling in The Netherlands, Ana Luisa put her engineering career on hold to dedicate herself to filmmaking full-time. Spending considerable time in the field, her work covers all the stages of production from concept to delivery. Her mission is to tell stories about real animals with wild behavior. While she loves the thrill of seeing projects through to the finish line and changing minds across the globe, she faces her fair share of obstacles in the field.  Ana Luisa Santos in the cedar forests in Morocco during the NHK production – Atlas Mountain (2014). ©Michael Sanderson “Finding and filming animal behavior in the wild is getting increasingly challenging. Human actions and choices are having a huge impact on the natural world. For example, there is always plastic in nature, regardless of how remote it is,” Ana Luisa shared about her struggles in the field and the effect of humans on the wildlife she captures. “The ecosystems are being damaged by our decisions and actions. We are all responsible, and we must act now.” Ana Luisa uses the Jackson Wild Collective to stay connected to other filmmakers in the industry. “It opens the door for communication and inclusivity, making its content and resources available to all. A massive highlight is that it is free to sign up, giving a chance to academic individuals or industry professionals to be updated regarding new opportunities that might arise.” Hard work and personal sacrifice were crucial to getting Ana Luisa to where she is now. As one of the only female Portuguese wildlife filmmakers, she had to pave the way for herself. “At this point on my journey, I am certainly proud of being able to find a level of stability that working hard allowed me to have. I found a balance in my life that helps me keep my feet on the ground always with my eyes on the future.”  Ana Luisa Santos in the snowy dunes in The Netherlands while filming for the production “Hidden Nature of Holland” for NHK (2019). ©Michael Sanderson With almost a decade of experience in the industry, she provided some great advice for aspiring wildlife filmmakers: “It is a hard industry. Most likely, you will receive more negative than positive responses for that great idea you thought could change the world. It happens all the time. But keep this in mind: you don’t need to convince the entire world about what you can do. You just need the right person to believe in you and give you an opportunity. Keep fighting – the good things can happen!” Ana Luisa stays busy running her production company Ateles Films, as well as working on other projects. She’s currently working on a feature-length blue-chip wildlife film about an underrepresented species that lives in Western Africa, highlighting its behavior, beauty, and importance in what remains of its habitat. She is also developing an IMAX project which explores the local fauna and flora of the Netherlands. “It’s a great opportunity to develop new creative skills and learn new techniques that are very different from producing or directing for TV broadcast.” Keep up with Ana Luisa’s work at Ateles Films by following along on Facebook and Instagram, or visiting her website.  A male fox – one of the protagonists of the production “Une Vie de Renarde” for France Televisions (2018). ©Ana Luisa Santos The Jackson Wild Collective is the virtual home for our global storytelling community to connect, collaborate and inspire change year-round. Join today.
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