Nature and wildlife are in trouble. Every day more habitat is destroyed and more species become extinct. The trend has been accelerating faster than most scientists had predicted.
As nature and wildlife filmmakers, we probably see it more than anyone else.
Fields where I use to watch pheasant and deer walk through have been turned into housing developments.
As a filmmaker, you have the ability to bring out emotions in people through your work. The film “Blackfish” showed people the plight of captive Orca’s which resulted in lower attendance and lost revenue for Sea World. Recently they agreed to stop breeding Orca’s so these may be the last killer whales that will have to endure the suffering of captivity.
This all came about because a mother took her son to Sea World and didn’t like what she saw.
I hear so many people say we can’t save everything. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
We need to start thinking about nature as a machine. If you take away a part or two, nothing really bad seems to happen. Take away a few more and maybe the machine doesn’t work as well as it used to.
Eventually you will take away one part too many and the whole machine just stops. Nature is a lot like that. We may not really care that some species go extinct because on the surface, everything seems to be business as usual.
However, if the wrong plant or animal goes extinct, it could bring our time on this earth to an abrupt end.
The machine is breaking down but no one really seems to care. I’m not sure if it’s because it hasn’t been brought to their attention or if they really just don’t care.
Recently I watched a documentary on bees. I hadn’t realized before watching the film how harmful monoculture has become. The film showed how millions of bees are trucked in from the east coast to pollinate almond trees. The reason they have to be trucked in is because there are so many miles of almond trees that when the trees have stopped blooming, there isn’t anything else around that the bees can feed on, so they have died. Now bees from across the country travel from state to state to pollinate crops. Without them, no fruit, vegetables or nuts.
Your films have the ability to reach a wide audience and educate them in an entertaining way about what is happening in nature.
It only takes that one person to see your film and decide to make a difference and the world will be changed for the better. Think about it.
And as always, shoot the ordinary and make it extraordinary!
Kevin,
You raise an important point. I’m not a filmmaker, but I have a smart phone and I have a voice, and I worry about the machinery, too. So many delicate parts that we can not see. Thanks for a thoughtful post.
Jane,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! I really appreciate it.
I had a dog that had liver cancer. We didn’t know anything was wrong until it was too late. She kept it hidden. We only had a month with her once we figured out what was going on.
I worry that we’ve set the dominos in motion and we haven’t really figured out that we may have done so much damage that we can’t reverse course. I hope I’m wrong but people really don’t seem to care that we may already be past the tipping point because it’s not changing anything in their lives that they can easily see.