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Malaika Vaz was interviewed by Robin McGahey, guest writer Malaika Vaz is a National Geographic Explorer, wildlife presenter, and filmmaker and most recently one of the recipients for the Nat Geo COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists. Unlike the majority of us, Malaika spent her lockdown on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, exploring the challenges facing migrant workers during this time in her new film Refugees at Home, that has been streaming on local TV channels in India, and was published online by The Quint. I got the chance to sit down with her to hear about her story, experience in the field during the lockdown, and her outlook coming out of it.
Q: The film is called Refugees at Home. What inspired you to focus on migrant workers in Goa? There are large populations of migrant workers in Goa, due to the various industries in the state. I knew they would be some of the hardest hit, but I never quite expected to hear or see what I did. I was born and raised in Goa, so this film offered me an opportunity to not only dive into learning about the impact that COVID is having on different communities but also understanding more about a place I call home. Q: What did you find working with migrant workers? What did they say? There is this huge tussle because migrant workers are coming from remote parts of India and coming into these big cities in the hopes of gaining work opportunities. They live paycheck to paycheck, but when the lockdown began, they suddenly had no work for months. It’s incredibly unsettling as you’ve gotta remember that these people are by no means beggars or dependent on the state. They work hard during the year and live a life of dignity, all so that they can put three meals on the table a day for their families. Right now though, due to the shut economy, they can no longer provide for themselves.  Snapshot from the film Q: What have been some of the hardest things you’ve seen while filming? Interviewing migrants who were a part of India’s COVID-19 spurred mass exodus and hearing their stories was possibly the most heartbreaking part. With the shut down of industry due to the virus, many migrants who often work in the informal sector could no longer depend on their daily earnings. And with no reserves of savings to fall back on, their only way out was heading back to their families in the villages and towns they call home. But due to the lockdowns out here which were some of the strictest in the world, all transportation including buses and trains were shut - prompting thousands to attempt a long, dangerous and often life-threatening journey of hundreds of thousands and kilometers. Many died of exhaustion, train/road accidents, suicide, and incidents of police brutality. That really hit my core.  Q: Was there a story that particularly stood out to you? While filming this documentary, I met a man originally from Madhya Pradesh who came to Goa for work two weeks before the government lockdown due to COVID-19. After he lost his job, he couldn’t feed himself, and wanted to be with his family - so he decided to walk the 1500 km back home because there was no bus or train running for another two months. Unfortunately, the police stopped him on his way and he was forced to stay in Goa. His story speaks to me of the larger story of inequality within my country, which is further exacerbated in the grip of a pandemic. Q: You focus a large part of the film on the women that you encountered. Can you talk a little bit about what drove your narrative towards them in the end? Originally, the people I interviewed through the shoot just happened to be men. This is possibly because men are often the ones that are more visible in society. One day though, I was interviewing this construction worker and his wife came out and offered me a cup of chai and we began talking. It was at that moment that I realized I was missing an important part of the larger narrative - the impact of this pandemic on migrant women. So, that’s when I steered more of the film in that direction. During times of crisis, women in vulnerable communities are impacted the most. They are already ostracized within their communities, forced to take on this huge burden of fending for their family and looking after their kids, as well as earning enough to support their families. There have been spikes in domestic violence and many women don’t always have access to basic nutrition, as in many poorer households in India - women eat last. And when there’s not enough food for everyone - they don’t eat at all. Through my film, I wanted to highlight the fact that financial independence and empowerment is so important for women all through the year, and in the midst of a crisis - this need is only made clearly evident. For example, towards the end of the documentary, you meet an incredibly resilient woman named Rupali. The second time I went to speak with her, to check on her and her family, she was in the process of packing up her entire house overnight. Her family was evicted from their home of over a decade, almost overnight as they couldn’t afford to pay their rent given the collapse of our economy and the loss of jobs. Q: Who is the target audience for this film? The primary audience for this film is local audiences within India. Through this grant, Nat Geo encouraged the democratization of journalism by allowing and encouraging grantees to get our content out on local media ecosystems. Refugees at Home has been broadcast on a local television network and online on one of India’s largest online media networks - The Quint. This is a film of the people, for the people, so I really wanted to ensure that it went back to them and was accessible. Q: What impact do you hope to have with this film? While making this documentary, I collaborated with a team of public policy researchers from a network known as the Stranded Workers Action Network in India - that are working to understand what interventions are required to protect migrant communities. Together we worked on a list of key recommendations to the state and industry that were added to the end of the film in graphic form, focusing on rural employment guarantee schemes, universalized ration distribution, and wage compensation amongst others. I really wanted my audience to be able to immerse themselves in the lives and struggles of the migrant worker community - but also understand what the steps are to actually tangibly lookout for these communities in the midst of the lockdown and in the months that follow. These are painful times, and historic times - and to me as a presenter and filmmaker, it’s important to document this struggle so that we’re collectively inspired to act faster and with more precision to safeguard the rights of vulnerable migrant workers right now in the midst of these cataclysmic times and so that we’re more prepared when the next crisis hits us. Q: What was your team like? It was really funny because the team I usually work with isn’t in Goa as the borders shut down. So, I worked with a local wedding filmmaker for this project - it was great and now he’s interested in documentary filmmaking after this film! My friend Taira was the editor of the film. Despite being from the same place, Taira and I only met last year at Jackson Wild, and so when we started shooting I called her up and she came on board, bringing her editing expertise and passion to this film! Thank you to Jackson Wild for that! Q: What are your biggest takeaways from your time on this film? My films for television usually focus on stories of biodiversity loss and conservation issues. What I’ve realized is that whether it is environmental change or a pandemic, when it comes to the biggest challenges humanity faces today - it is always our most vulnerable communities that are the most impacted and underserved. There is a larger systemic social bias towards migrant and marginalized workers that we as a nation need to face. Since the shutdown, there’s been an increase in police brutality, and a general dismissal of migrant needs - not to mention all of the health risks that they are exposed to given the close quarters they share with hundreds of other people. Across the world, we are witnessing a wave of critical conversations on equality and inclusion with communities standing up for historically marginalized people - and while that might be BPOC communities in the US, I think for my country - focusing on the needs and rights of our migrant community is crucial right now during this pandemic - and after. Q: After having created this film, how do you think about your work as a wildlife filmmaker? Do you plan on continuing down this path? As a filmmaker, I honestly believe stories are stories. And what’s most important to me is to work on every single film with all my passion and with the intent of amplifying the voice of communities on the ground to create a positive impact. But I have to say that after making Refugees at Home, I’m definitely ready to experiment with a diversity of stories - whether it is filming stories of wildlife in jungles or investigating marine trafficking or going on the frontlines of a pandemic - I’m excited for what’s next.  Here’s the link to watch Malaika’s documentary and read her article on India’s COVID-19 spurred migrant crisis. Check it out!
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By Guest Writer Robin McGahey  Jahawi Bertolli is a Wildlife Photographer/Cameraman, Freediver, Music Producer, Co-Founder of East African Ocean Explorers Club, and 2019 National Geographic Explorer from Kenya. In honor of World Oceans Day, we talked with Jahawi to hear about his love of the water, experience as a diver, and his upcoming film, Behari Yetu. Q: First things first, how did you get into underwater filmmaking? It’s been a bit of a roundabout. I started with dance music, was signed with a label and was DJing and having fun in London. When I moved back to Kenya, I went from working on dance music to writing music for documentaries. Eventually, I got kind of fed up with sitting in a studio in Nairobi and decided I wanted to get out in the beautiful locations. The thing is though that wildlife filmmaking in Kenya is quite an elite club and I had no real camera experience. There are very few job opportunities and it’s difficult to get contracts. I still kept making dance-oriented music and one day we had been shooting a music video for a song that a friend and I had collaborated on and we needed an underwater shot so I jumped in the pool with a group and got the shots. I have always been very comfortable underwater holding my breath and my cousin, who was directing the shoot, joked that I should go and become an underwater cameraman and the seed was planted. I did a bit of research, found a course in Thailand, finished the project I was working on, and left. What was supposed to be a few months away ended up in 2 years living on an island in Thailand, training, becoming a Divemaster, free diving, and working on anything I could.  Q: Did you grow up around the ocean? I grew up in Nairobi, but we had a house on the south coast of Kenya, in a wild part of the coast called Waa, that we would go to often. As a child, I would spend all day outside. I loved exploring and just being in the ocean, I’ve always felt very comfortable with it. Q: Are there any specific moments of your underwater filmmaking career that specifically stand out? Getting to the Galápagos was a big one. It was just such an incredible place with the most amazing biodiversity. I never thought I would get there so early on in my career. What’s been the most fun though is exploring more of Kenya’s coastline. A lot of the work that I did was in Thailand or the Galapagos, and then most of my dive training was in and around South East Asia. I’ve come to appreciate Kenya’s coastline more. Especially after being able to go around the world and see what’s out there. There are truly some special places here, especially the ones that no one knows about. Q: Have you recently had close encounters with some of the large marine animals? We set out to make a film on humpback whales last year, but we had one of the worst seasons on record, with such low turnout. I managed to get a couple of close up shots of them, but, as the focus of our film changed and we moved to the Lamu Archipelago, we began to encounter Whale Sharks much more often, and very close up. They were young, only about 3-4 meters, and at that size, they are curious and can spend a long time circling you and checking you out. I’m also very lucky to be able to spend some time with a particular pod of dolphins, which is always so uplifting.  Q: What is your process for underwater filmmaking in Kenya? Are there big hoops you have to jump through in terms of regulations? Permits for underwater filmmaking are not as big of an issue for Kenya. Within Marine parks, you have to get permits from the Kenya Wildlife Service alongside your usual filming permits, but otherwise, it’s pretty straight forward. Outside of the marine parks though, you’re pretty free. We focus a lot on educational films for coastal communities and have worked with the Lamu county government before, and through the East African Explorers Club [his and his partner’s company] we are trying to figure out a joint project to set up locally managed marine protected areas. There’s definite interest in Lamu, as a county it wants to create an ocean use plan, similar to their land-use plan in terms of zoning and conservation. We’re very excited to be working with them on that. Bahari Yetu is Jahawi’s current project that he is completing alongside his partner and wife El, as part of his Nat Geo Explorer’s Grant. Q: What is Bahari Yetu? It means “Our Ocean” in Swahili. The story is how the ocean has changed through the eyes of old Swahili fishermen. Q: What inspired you to make this story in the first place? So last year we set out to do a Humpback Whale film, but as I mentioned before, they didn’t show up. During that process, we began interviewing fishermen to find interesting stories about the whales, how long they have been coming, what they had encounters with them, etc… By interviewing these fishermen a lot more came up in terms of issues they are facing, fish stocks declining, the way people are fishing, and we realized these are the guys that have been out on this ocean every day for their entire lives and have first hand seen the change. What people now see as the baseline for a healthy ocean really isn’t, and without these elders, this information could be lost. So by reporting these stories, we realized we could make a film that not only talks about these issues they’re facing, but also reaching into the old Swahili heritage, and hoping to get people to remember that they were custodians of the ocean and we have to be a lot more responsible with how we utilize it. Bahari Yetu became a conduit of these old fishermen’s stories, now coming to life in a film. Q: Why didn’t the Humpback Whales come last year? It’s hard to say, but we guess that it was due to the huge climactic event called the Indian Ocean Dipole, which is similar to El Niño. This meant that our side of the Indian Ocean was a lot warmer than it should have been and that drew a lot of moisture across East Africa. We think because of this temperature imbalance that the whales didn’t have to come up so far to find warm enough water to calve. Aside from the whales, the dipole made everything really strange for us. We had pretty consistent and heavy rain and in November, which is usually a great time for filming, the seas were rough and there was low visibility in the water. We had a few little windows to film in December and January, but it’s been a tough six months. Q: What were some of the other challenges you faced coming into this film? The heavy rains pretty much threw everything out of whack. The seas became rough, more so than expected, and because of the freshwater run-off into the ocean, it turned the water a sort of pea green, rather than its usual blue. Then there were jellyfish blooms, making it difficult to shoot. Worst of all, one of the reefs we’d been filming for years that had been looking really healthy, began to bleach due to the extended period of warm water. It was all hard to see. Q: Who are the audiences that you are targeting? Our main target audience is the coastal communities here in Kenya. We’ve found that the deepest connections between the audience and our subjects are to be formed here, because this is their home and their areas to protect. So we decided to take it a step further and have it all narrated in Swahili. Before COVID, we were hoping to take this film into the communities along the coast and do community screenings. It’s a message from the elder fishermen to the younger generation. Because a large base doesn't have TVs, we were going to set up a mobile cinema in the archipelago and take it to all of the local fishing villages, show the film and some other educational films and have a discussion about the issues. We’re hoping to take it to schools around Kenya as well. It’s still the plan we just have to get over COVID before we do anything, and when we do, we need to make sure we’re doing it correctly. Q: What advice do you have for the future explorers, filmmakers, or the kids seeing this film? We often get really caught up in the idea that we’re not in the right spot and want to go somewhere else, but the truth is that the best stories are the ones you care the most about. Oftentimes those are the ones right in front of you. It’s been really great that after traveling around the world, I get to focus on one spot, spend a lot of time there, and hopefully find something new. Half the time I go out I don’t even press record on my camera, sometimes I leave it behind all together and just take out a GoPro. Technology has improved so much that you have these tiny cameras that can capture great footage at a fraction of the cost of a proper underwater rig. Focus on telling a good story through your shots rather than the camera. There are several clips in the film shot on a GoPro, and it was from just us going out to see what was happening.  Q: In your opinion, what’s the biggest threat facing our oceans?
The biggest threat to our oceans is us and our actions. Climate change, overfishing, pollution, it’s just one thing after another and unfortunately, the people most affected by these aren’t the ones doing it, and if they are it is usually out of desperation. The thing is, by looking at it as a whole, it can seem daunting and out of our hands but change can be made on a local scale. Through education and empowerment communities can survive better with the threats coming from climate change, manage fisheries, and pollution. So our message is that we really need to protect the reefs and mangroves and also understand the intangible benefits they give us. We need to realize that there is real value to our ocean and coastal areas, but there has to be local buy-in and real benefits to these communities. The ocean can seem like such a foreign place, especially to those who don’t swim, but it is such a beautiful place and by trying to portray its beauty and fragility through film we’re hoping to get people to fall in love with it, and if they do the better the chance we have of conserving it.
We reached out to our World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story? Directors Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone: The inspiration for the story was the culmination of 30 years of observation of elephants interacting with smaller animals - always tangential and never the subject of a film, but storing them away. The trigger was working with elephants in Amboseli in the terrible drought of 2009/10 when we witnessed how sentient and empathetic elephants could be in times of crisis - it made us determined to tell a matriarch’s story but against the background of the extraordinary web of life that depends on the presence of elephants for its existence. What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on biodiversity? MD & VS: We find the web of interconnectivity in the natural world fascinating and inspiring - it has driven every film we have ever made. That we rely on it for our survival as humans, just stimulates our natural desire to share it by telling stories - whether it be how the relationship between fig wasp and fig tree shoulders so much of the tropical natural world, or how there is a vast web of wildlife that depends on the presence of elephants for its existence. We all rely on the interconnectivity of the natural world which is what gives it its resilience - we ignore or forget that at our peril.
What impact do you hope this film will have? MD & VS: We want the film to inspire a global audience to fall in love with elephants, to reflect on how like us they are, be amazed at their status as keystone species and then be emotionally moved to want to protect them. We know this is happening as the film has raised a huge amount of money that is being channelled into elephant conservation in Tsavo and habitat restoration outside the national park. We have been 3 years in developing an innovative and ambitious Outreach and Education plan starting in Kenya, donating the rights for a prime-time national broadcast and translating the film into Maa and Kiswahili. It will be launched as a 'National Moment' under the banner ‘Our Country, Our Elephants, Our Heritage’ with the First Lady of Kenya as guest of honour at the Kenyan premiere. We have created 28 learn-to-read books for the Kenyan Government, based on characters from the film so that children can learn to read through stories from the wild and grow up loving and caring for animals - whether it be an elephant, a bullfrog tadpole, a killifish or a dung beetle. The tiny TEQ O&E team has also produced 5 read-along books, 3 school plays, teaching guides, activity packs… plus a mobile cinema to take the film to remote rural communities that are at the forefront of human-wildlife conflict.
We reached out to our World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story? Director and Producer Mariah Wilson: In 2015, I completed a short documentary about rhino poaching (KAZIRANGA) and decided I wanted to take on directing a feature about poaching. But I wanted to find an aspect of the global poaching crisis that wasn’t being told by other filmmakers. I had seen a lot of good media coverage about the elephant poaching crisis in the eastern and southern regions of Africa – but that was mostly talking about savanna elephants. Those are the large and very iconic elephants that are in the open plains and grasslands across the continent. As I began to dig in further, I realized there was much less attention being paid to the plight of the forest elephants in Central Africa. Forest elephants are a very important sub-species; they help shape the forest ecosystem and are vital to its health and existence. But they seemed to be getting mostly ignored in news and documentary coverage at that time, and their population was - and still is - being hit really hard by poaching. We have lost approximately 60% of the African forest elephant population in the last ten years. Current estimates have their population at just 40,000 – down from over 200,000 at the turn of the century. These numbers are staggering. At the current rates of slaughter, they won’t be with us very much longer. I had already read about Sidonie Asseme, the female eco-guard in Cameroon, in a WWF newsletter. I realized she was working in the same area where these threatened forest elephants lived. Then I began reading about other bold conservation efforts in the area, like LAGA’s Wildlife Law Enforcement model and Arthur Sniegon’s sniffer dog team. I realized I wanted to tell the story of what was happening in this overlooked and under-resourced region of Africa. 
Photo by Zeb Smith
What impact do you hope this film will have? MW: My hope is that this documentary will shed light on the severity of the situation in central Africa, and how damaging the ivory trade is for all species -- humans included. I want audiences to leave Silent Forests with a realistic look at what its like to be on the frontlines of conservation in this region day to day… including the dangers, the rewards, the frustrations – and how good efforts are riddled with challenges from dishonest and inept government entities. One unique thing about this film is that three of the four main characters are from either Cameroon or Congo. So this isn't just a story about figures from the international conservationist community going to save Africa's wildlife. This is about African activists, scientists, and eco-guards and who care deeply about what is happening in their own backyards. The very nature of their work can oftentimes put them at odds with their fellow countrymen, and the risks they assume to protect the animals of the Congo Basin are significant. A way in which I hope SILENT FORESTS will help to transform discourse around the subject of poaching is through telling the story of someone who used to be involved in the ivory trade. I think that the viewpoint of a person who has been on the poaching side will bring nuance to an issue that is normally seen as very black-and-white. Former poacher Jean Paul’s story will hopefully allow viewers to see that those at the bottom level of this criminal trade are not just terrible people who have a bloodlust for slaughtering elephants, but that they are driven to commit an extreme and awful act by grinding and endemic poverty. The regret expressed by Jean Paul represents an often-unheard perspective, and his anti-poaching “support” group highlights one unique solution to the problem of poaching – rehabilitating former poachers by offering them alternate forms of income, and getting them involved on the anti-poaching side with financial incentives. The eventual goal of this project is to invoke a sense of urgency about the plight of the forest elephant, and to show the root causes that keep poaching as problematic as it currently is in Africa -- poverty and corruption. My desire is for SILENT FORESTS to educate the public about this overlooked elephant subspecies, and engage audiences to support groups dedicated to ending the forest elephant poaching epidemic before it’s too late. 
Photo courtesy of Silent Forests, Pralesni elephant in river
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. MW: It was incredibly hard to film the forest elephants at all! It may sound strange, since they are large animals, but the forest is so dense that they are able to hide very well amongst the trees. They are only really visible in the clearings, where they go to drink water. But our first two shoots were in Southeast Cameroon, where the forest elephant population has been exceptionally hard hit. In general, the estimates are that the entire population of forest elephants has dropped over 60% in the last decade - but in Southeast Cameroon it might be closer to 75% gone. We saw signs of elephants on those first two shoots… their tracks, their dung… but we did not actually see a single forest elephant in Cameroon. The ones that were still there were increasingly wary about coming out into the clearings. It was really distressing – both from a conservation perspective, and a production perspective – I was starting to get nervous that we would never get footage of a forest elephant! Finally, on our third shoot in Congo-Brazzaville, we went out with an elephant biologist who studies the elephants at particular clearings. There, we finally were able to capture footage of them (at nighttime with an infrared camera). It was worth the wait – I think the scenes we got are some of the most magical and powerful in the whole film. But I would say that the difficulties we had filming the elephants in Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville speak to the effect that poaching has had on their population across Central Africa. 
Photo courtesy of Silent Forests, Sidoni in the fog
What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on biodiversity? My second documentary film called VOLUNTEER, and was about my eco-volunteering experiences in Uganda and Fiji in 2009. It was through those eco-volunteer trips that I began to learn about the uptick in endangered species trafficking around the world. Motivated to do something, my focus in documentaries turned towards wildlife conservation, and our global poaching epidemic. In 2015 I formed House Tiger Productions to consolidate my work on projects that highlight anti-poaching activism -- particularly in areas that don’t receive as much news coverage. I wanted to raise audience awareness about lesser-known vulnerable species – like northeast India’s one-horned rhino, featured in my short doc KAZIRANGA and Central Africa’s forest elephant, featured in SILENT FORESTS (2019) and EEYA. I want to continue fostering and supporting bold, unique storytelling via documentaries -- especially stories within the conservation, animal rescue, and wildlife realms. That area is a specialty niche I have carved out for myself over the last decade, and I feel more passionate about it today than ever before. We are witnessing wildfires wiping out millions of animals, oceans being emptied of marine life, endangered species falling victim to poaching and trafficking… I think species loss from human exploitation is one of the most pressing issues of our time. I want to contribute to moving this conversation forward before it’s too late.
Written by Robin McGahey and Alicia Bynum, edited by Abbey Greene
April 22nd, 2020 marks the 50th Annual Earth Day. Now, more than ever, we look to our filmmakers, conservationists, advocates, and supporters for what to do next. As Toni Morrison said, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” So, let us support the artists, the creatives, the communicators, and more and celebrate Earth Day together!
We have compiled a list of events for you to attend (virtually, of course) and ways to get involved in Earth Day:
All of these Earth Day events and activities have grown from the momentum that Earth Day has gathered over the years. Did you ever wonder how it got started? In 1969, peace activist John McConnell proposed an idea that one whole day be dedicated towards honoring the Earth and World Peace. On April 22nd, 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin officiated America’s first official Earth Day celebration. 
Photo Credit: Fort Collins Museum of Discovery
Manhattan's Fifth Avenue was closed to motor vehicle traffic for the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Bettmann—Getty Images via Time.com
50 Years Later... Modern-day environmental activists like Greata Thunberg are stepping up to address climate change issues that our world continues to face in 2020. Ms. Thunberg’s legacy all started with a single school strike and has since spread to several country’s school systems adopting her “Fridays for Futures.” Thunberg has spoken at climate rallies and attended many noteworthy eco-conferences like the United Nations COP24. In 2019, TIME magazine named her Person of the Year. 
Photo Credit: Thunberg with Jane Goodall/ Photograph: Benedikt von Loebell/World Economic Forum
It is easy to see with the naked eye that Ms. Thunberg’s actions have led to substantial influence in today’s society. However, this eco-rockstar also walks the talk. Great Thunberg lives a low-carbon life, refuses to fly by plane, and is a known vegan. She is an inspiration and proves that anyone can do their part from wherever they are, right now, right this very moment. Peace Activists, Environmentalists, and Politicians united together 50 years ago to create this one day out of the year that brings nations together to celebrate the one and only planet that all call home. The message that stands out as clear now as it did then is this - "(The) key is local participation."
The Year is 2020...
What a time to be alive. The novel coronavirus has struck our society, pulling us closer together and teaching us new ways to adapt together. As we practice social distancing as a nation, we feel in unison the tension that grows with the unknown. And with that tension, we see so many new ideas being cultivated and humane leaders emerging from our communities. The struggles we face as a nation with coronavirus and our climate are parallel. The ways that many of our small businesses and individuals are adapting throughout this pandemic are native to some and unheard of to others. 
Photo Credit: Jamie Dove
This small business owner in Northeast Tennessee delivered his farm’s first batch of “no contact deliveries” on April 17th, 2020 to locals around the community. Jamie Dove stepped up as the first restaurant owner in the region to voluntarily close down due to COVID-19. With little time to adjust frugal needs with business costs, River Creek Farm is out delivering fresh garden veggies to the locals of the Northeast Tennessee regions. Per the farm’s standards, they sell “clean, responsibly grown, local produce as priority” eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers, chemical herbicides, chemical pesticides, and GMOs. Present Day: April 22nd- 24th
“... As we work to flatten the curve of this pandemic, we must strive toward the longer term goal of building a society rooted in sustainability and justice.” - Earth Day Live
Earth Day Live and more are joining together with activist brands like Ben & Jerry’s (featured in our Oceans, Whales, & Ice Cream) to launch a livestream event available to millions of people. Celebrities, musicians, and citizens alike will join hands in pledging to save the world. Happy 50th Earth Day, see you there!
We reached out to our World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story? Executive Producer John Bredar: Joel Sartore inspired this story. His spectacular work and tireless commitment to opening our eyes to the beauty and value of biodiversity, makes this irresistible. We’d follow him anywhere. Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share? Executive Producer Laurie Donnelly: One of the many poignant moments included the filming of a rare Northern White Rhinoceros named Nabire -- one of only five of this subspecies remaining in the world -- Joel and the crew filmed her just a week before she died. What impact do you hope this film will have? Director Chun-Wei Yi: We want to show folks that the place we call home is also the home to LOTS of other creatures. And they’re beautiful. Joel Sartore’s photographs of them really get us to stop and fall in love with something we never knew even existed. Joel often says that 'you can’t save what you don’t love,’ so this is his way of getting animals in front of people, showing us what we stand to lose, and hopefully saving the planet and us, one photograph and one species at a time. And personally, I’d be really happy if people came away with a new favorite animal. Mine was the world’s second smallest chameleon, the Madagascan dwarf chameleon (Brookesia minima). Joel photographed it in his hand to give a sense of scale and even fully grown, it barely fit on Joel’s thumbnail. 
A critically endangered Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) at Zealandia, in Wellington, New Zealand
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. Director Chun-Wei Yi: Just keeping up with Joel was one of the biggest challenges! I mean, the guy came up with a 25-year long project to photograph 15,000 species. Joel’s on another level when it comes to big goals, so trying to stay one step ahead of him in order to film his process meant the crew and I got very little sleep during some intense shooting days while juggling time zones. Besides Joel, keeping up with the other animals in our midst presented challenges. The great thing about his photographs is that all creatures — big and small — are the same size in a photograph. In real life, some are as big as a car (rhino), while others can easily fit on your fingertip (chameleon), so having a wide variety of camera equipment to capture each animal’s essence and beauty was crucial but a lot to manage. We also developed a high tolerance for poop and pee. Not Joel’s thankfully, but of the animals with whom we worked. Now Joel uses a lightweight, nylon photography tent for smaller animals and we modified a bunch of them to give our cameras more access into the box. These tents are white. Feces from most animals are not white. Now nature calls and calls often, so the novelty of wiping, un-smearing, and cleaning without cleaning supplies (for animal safety) quickly wears off and eats up precious time. I’m a good hand washer. 
Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli)
What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on biodiversity? Director Chun-Wei Yi: Biodiversity is not typical water cooler talk and it’s definitely not something that trends on social media. Yet understanding and prioritizing biodiversity is critical as we spread into the remaining corners of our planet. The good thing is, people love animals and the Photo Ark is an amazing look at our planet’s biodiversity. Picture after picture shows us the variety and beauty of creatures out there, so you can really capture and hold people’s attention. So while they're looking at a South China tiger, Decken’s sifaka, or the naked mole rat, we can eventually lead folks to a conversation about biodiversity. First, you share a little bit about this animal — where it is from, what it eats, and it's amazing adaptations — and pretty quickly, we’re talking about its role in their ecosystem and how its survival is tied to ours and all life on Earth. As more and more people live in denser cities and lead more digital lives, we get removed from and can forget about the wider world out there. Yet our dependence upon it doesn’t change, so Joel’s photographs and this film serves as a reminder of what’s out there and why we need to protect it. 
Nabire, a Northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) was one of the last five northern white rhinos left on Earth. She died on Monday, July 27, 2015, just one week after this photo was taken at the Dvur Kralove Zoo.
We reached out to our World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share? Director, Co-Producer and Writer Alex Burr: Perhaps the biggest take-away from the process of making this film was just how much people are intertwined with this place, for better or worse. Indigenous people harvested their food off the land while using fire to shape the landscape for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. These new settlers eventually converted much of this place to cropland, disrupting the natural systems beyond recognition. And now, anywhere where this is room for optimism for the future of the grasslands as a wild place, people are there. Whether it is ranching families adjusting their practices to make life better for sage grouse, biologists reintroducing extirpated swift foxes, or volunteer groups removing modifying barbed wire fences to allow pronghorn antelope safe passage, human intervention is of particular importance to the success of grassland conservation. People have been at the centre of this place’s ills, sure. But people will also be at the centre of fixing them. 
© Terra Mater Factual Studios and River Road Films Ltd, Darren West
What impact do you hope this film will have? AB: The North American grasslands are the most endangered, least protected ecosystem on the continent and yet, are often overlooked as a wild place worth saving. Most people think of the prairies as fly-over places - nothing but farmland and wheat-fields. But beyond the continent’s cropland, there is still enough wildness left in the prairies to inspire awe, and some optimism. Our hope is that by showcasing the efforts of people working to save the wild prairie, and highlighting some incredible and unexpected wildlife stories, we may in our own way, help to protect what’s left of this amazing place. 
© Terra Mater Factual Studios and River Road Films Ltd, Jon Groves
What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on biodiversity? AB: I believe that the best way to appreciate something as a whole is by gaining an understanding of its individual components. The film aims to shine a light on the biodiversity that exists at every scale on the North American grasslands - from pollinator moths to grizzly bears and everything in between. It is an ecosystem that has been irrevocably altered, with huge losses in biodiversity. From the removal of bison to the loss of grizzly bears and wolves to ongoing declines in species across the board, this is a system where the importance of each component is urgent and in clear view (without any trees or mountains obscuring the view!).
Lately, movie marathons are all we want to indulge in (besides another fridge raid of course). So, to aid in your movie search, we’ve put together our Jackson Wild social distancing binge watching list! It’s a combination of films from our 2019 Jackson Wild Media Awards and 2020 WWD Finalists and Winners. We hope you all enjoy and stay safe during this time!
(Please note: the research was done in the United States, so streaming services apply.) Watch now for free (in alphabetical order):
Others that can be rented or found through Streaming Services:
CuriosityStream:
Disney +:
Amazon Prime:
Apple TV+:
We reached out to our World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story? Director, Producer, and Cameraman Asgeir Helgestad: The average temperature has increased +5.6 degrees C at the Arctic islands of Svalbard. For an ecosystem formed around the ice, this is nothing less than a crisis. You get reminded of it every day, and get sad. For me there is nothing more important than documenting and telling the world about what we lose every day. Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share? AH: I think one of the most rewarding and surprising experiences with this work was to be able to film the vibrant and diverse life under the ice. A green field of algae forms in the tempered zone under the ice, where tiny crustaceans transform protein and sugar into fat, which actually feeds the whole ecosystem. When filming this beautiful, hidden landscape, I realized that when the ice melts away, the whole ecosystem is also melting away. Ice is so much more than a platform for seals and polar bears to rest, give birth and hunt. Having said that, what has touched my heart the most was the wonderful character of this clever, caring, playful empathic polar bear mother, Frost, that I have known since 2013. It does not matter if polar bears can be dangerous for us. We are actually the dangerous ones! 
Photo courtesy of Queen without Land
What impact do you hope this film will have? AH: I hope that it can help bring more attention and focus to the fact that we are not the only species on earth, and every day we lose something vulnerable on this planet due to climate change. “A beautiful and sad film at the same time” is what people tell me. I think many of us feel the same way. And I hope our awareness can grow and motivate us to take the steps needed to save our home. I also hope that we can stop using this crisis as an excuse to exploit even more nature in the name of climate. Our planet cannot survive the insistence on this ideology of continuous economic growth. It’s time to be clever and make the right choices. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. The fact that I follow a polar bear for many years is of course a challenge in itself. I still follow this wonderful bear, and I wish I could have more time to be out there instead of sitting in an office using my time to raise money for my projects. Svalbard is a cold, rough and expensive place to work, but in the end this film depends on having time to observe. And I don’t push the limits to get the closeups of claws and jaws. This film is primarily about understanding this place and how to communicate in an engaging way what happens when the ice is melting under her paws. 
Photo courtesy of Queen without Land
What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on biodiversity? AH: Frustration. We destroy the Arctic with climate change. Then we use climate as an excuse to cut down the rainforest to produce “green” palm oil, while we pump up more fossil oil than ever. We lose the Arctic, the rainforest and the coral reefs… What is left then? And it seems like we don’t even want to change. Everyone who is in government talks about growth, while this planet actually needs the opposite. Right now I also work with another project on biodiversity, and I cross my fingers that I will be able to realize it. Making films about why we should not destroy this diverse and wonderful planet is the only meaningful thing I can do. 
Photo courtesy of Queen without Land
Written by: Sarika Khanwilkar, PhD researcher with Columbia University and The Fulbright Program, and Founder of Wild Tiger, a nonprofit committed to conserving India’s Bengal Tigers and their habitat. She was a Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellow in 2019. Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is a new docu-series on Netflix. The outlandish characters, mainly Joseph Maldonoda-Passage (better known as Joe Exotic), Kevin ‘Doc’ Antle, and Carole Baskin (of Big Cat Rescue), make it a noteworthy conversation piece and have inspired meme-makers everywhere. I have been doing research on wild tigers in India and America’s captive tigers for years. Here are the ten most important things I want you to know about Tiger King. (Please note: Spoiler alert! Stop reading if you want to avoid spoilers and finish watching The Tiger King on Netflix.)  1. Tiger King missed an opportunity to make impactful media and misrepresented the work of a legitimate conservation organization. The filmmakers started the Tiger King project with the intention of making something like Blackfish, which ignited public outcry over the confinement of whales as entertainers in places like SeaWorld. The ‘Blackfish Effect’ led to decreased SeaWorld attendance and stock prices, and they subsequently stopped orca breeding and theatrical shows. Tiger King ended up being a sensationalized narrative that pitted narcissistic tiger breeders and owners against seemingly hypocritical animal rights advocates. The series failed to communicate the conservation issues related to the uncontrolled breeding and ownership of tigers in the United States (US). We rarely hear about wild tigers throughout any of the seven episodes. Tiger King also fails to get the perspectives from people in countries like India or Russia where wild tigers are found. Does anyone, anywhere, think Americans breeding and owning tigers helps save wild tigers? Although Tiger King has started a national conversation about captive tigers in the US, there is a moral obligation to share a more informed story on this subject. Tiger King’s portrayal of Carole Baskin and Big Cat Rescue leads viewers to question the legitimacy of her organization’s work. Tiger King has committed an injustice to efforts to stop illegitimate breeding and ownership of tigers in the US by misrepresenting Big Cat Rescue, and leaving out critical information about operations run by Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle and how wild tigers are impacted by America’s captive tiger trade. 2. Tigers bred by Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle have no value to conservation and their commercial operations undermine efforts to conserve wild tigers. There are an estimated 5,000 -10,000 captive tigers in the US, which is more tigers than the estimated 3,200 that are left in the wild. In the US, tigers in zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) are valuable to conservation because their breeding is well-managed. These tigers are bred to maximize genetic diversity and adhere to a Species Survival Plan, which carefully records the genetic history of individual tigers. These tigers are a last resort for conservation in case we lose our wild tigers and need to start a reintroduction program. Unfortunately, less than 300 of the tigers held in captivity in the US are found in AZA-accredited zoos. 3. The majority of captive tigers in the US are owned by private households, and breeders like Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle, who provide a seemingly endless supply of cubs to these owners. Tigers bred in non-AZA accredited zoos are generic tigers, meaning they aren’t of any particular tiger subspecies. For example, a generic tiger might be a mix of a Bengal tiger (Tigris panthera panthera) and a Sumatran tiger (Tigris panthera sumatrae), which has no value to species conservation. Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle claim to help save wild tigers by breeding generic tigers. They make this misleading claim in an attempt to conceal the fact that they are running purely commercial operations. In misrepresenting that their work benefits wild tigers, Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle displace money away from legitimate tiger conservation efforts.  4. It is legal for Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle to commercially own and breed tigers. Inadequate policy has allowed tiger breeders and owners to exploit tigers for commercial and personal purposes. There is no federal law that prohibits the private ownership of tigers. Laws at state and local levels vary widely and there is no cohesive strategy towards managing the US captive tiger population. Currently, four states have no laws pertaining to breeding and owning tigers, and ten other states have permit procedures which somewhat regulate tiger breeding and ownership. Until 2016, a generic tiger, like those bred by Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle, could be sold between states without federal oversight. Although a permitting procedure is now in place for all tigers traded across state lines, fraudulent paperwork is widespread. It’s fairly easy to breed and sell tigers for profit in the US as ‘Doc’ Antle continues to do. The Big Cat Public Safety Act is a federal law that would ban tiger breeding, pet tiger ownership, and public cub handling. There is a high chance that the bill, which has bipartisan support, will be voted on by the US Congress this year. Passing the Big Cat Public Safety Act would address the crisis of tigers in America and you can help make it a law by telling your government representatives that it matters.  Pictured: Joe Exotic 5. Joe Exotic illegally trafficked and killed tigers. Even before Joe Exotic attempted to hire two people to kill Carole Baskin, he was under federal investigation for wildlife trafficking. Joe Exotic sold tiger cubs for cash all over the country and made these transactions appear as donations on falsified paperwork, which exempted the activity from certain oversight. In addition to illegal tiger trade, Joe Exotic shot and killed five tigers who had gotten too old to be useful as entertainment attractions. In 2020, Joe Exotic was sentenced to federal prison for 22 years for two murder-for-hire plots and 17 wildlife trafficking charges. 6. ‘Doc’ Antle continues to profit from deception and to breed tiger cubs. ‘Doc’ Antle has no interest in legitimate wildlife conservation efforts and, as Tiger King points out, he is a doctor in mystical science. Calling himself a doctor and claiming his tigers are valuable for tiger conservation deceives people who want to support organizations that genuinely work to conserve tigers in the wild. ‘Doc’ Antle has a long history of animal welfare violations.  Pictured: Carole Baskin 7. Big Cat Rescue and Carole Baskin do positive work that helps conserve tigers in the wild. Big Cat Rescue is a non-exploitative sanctuary (all legitimate sanctuaries are accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries) which was formed as a band-aid for America’s captive tiger crisis. Their mission is to go out of business. Big Cat Rescue does not breed tigers. Instead, the tigers at Big Cat Rescue were transferred to the facility from private owners who can no longer take care of their pets. These pet tigers were likely purchased as cubs. When they are fully grown it can cost in excess of $10,000 per year to feed and care for them. Big Cat Rescue and Carole Baskin are leaders in supporting legislation that would end the unnecessary breeding and ownership of tigers in the US. 8. We don’t know where privately-owned tigers in the US go when they become unwanted or die. Not all unwanted pet tigers are lucky enough to snag a spot at a sanctuary like Big Cat Rescue. For commercial exhibitors like Joe Exotic and ‘Doc’ Antle, a tiger cub is only profitable between the ages of 8 and 12 weeks, when cubs are permitted to interact with the public. After 12 weeks, they become an expense. This is one of the reasons Joe Exotic shot five of his tigers. Tigers that are no longer wanted by breeders or owners are illegally killed, and many US states lack laws specific to the disposal of dead tigers. We have no knowledge of what happens to disposed tigers. Tiger skin and bones are valued at $20,000 and $7,000 on the illegal wildlife market, respectively. Seizures of illegally traded tigers and tiger parts around the world have increased since 2002 and America’s endless supply of legal captive tigers could potentially supply parts to this burgeoning illegal market. For example, in 2018, Arongkron Malasukum was sentenced to prison for selling and sending tiger skulls purchased in the US to Thailand. From 2015 to 2016, he exported 68 packages of tiger and lion skulls, claws, and other parts (valued over $150,000) from the US. Overall, law enforcement data to catch the leakage of legal tigers into the illegal trade is limited. The uncertainty surrounding this leakage requires us to take a precautionary approach to tiger breeding and ownership in the US.  9. Tigers are held in captivity and farmed around the world to the detriment of wild tigers. Intensive tiger breeding operations, known as tiger farms, began in China in the 1990’s. Currently, China, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam operate tiger farms, even though there is substantial scientific evidence that this poses a risk to wild tiger populations. These tiger farms have supplied the illegal demand for tiger parts. The argument for meeting the demand for tiger parts with captive tigers is that this captive supply displaces poaching pressure from wild tigers. However, consumers of tiger derivatives, like tiger bone wine and medicinal products, prefer parts sourced from wild tigers and are willing to pay a premium price for wild-sourced products. Therefore, farming tigers undermines all efforts to conserve wild tigers by stimulating demand and poaching. America’s political negotiations that attempt to persuade other countries to regulate their tiger farms in order to reduce illegal tiger trafficking are hampered by America’s own captive tiger problem. America has the opportunity to be a global leader in phasing out captive tigers which have no benefit to wild tiger conservation, but has not done so. 10. Wild tigers have an uncertain future. Tigers have undergone massive population declines and currently occupy only 7% of their former range. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that the global tiger population is 3,159, and this population is concentrated in India. Globally, the population trend of tigers is debated. Causes of the tiger’s historical and persistent decline – which include habitat loss and fragmentation, overhunting of prey, and poaching – continues today. Addressing threats to the tiger’s survival involves reducing the demand for tiger parts to ease poaching pressure, securing habitat, mitigating human-wildlife conflict, and engaging with and empowering communities who live side by side with wild tigers.  Bonus: You can do things today to stop illegitimate tiger breeding and ownership in America. First, contact your politicians and tell them you support the Big Cat Public Safety Act. Second, if you want to see a captive tiger in the US, only visit zoos or sanctuaries accredited by the AZA or Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. Third, spread the word and tell your friends not to visit places where cub petting is allowed in the US or abroad. Leave a comment on your friend’s Instagram picture with the drugged tiger or cub to inform them about this issue. We can all do our part to end the tiger crisis in America and improve the future for wild tigers.
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