topic: Film

topic: Film

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Grassroots efforts and an Emmy-winning film help Indigenous fight in Brazil
- The 2022 documentary “The Territory” won an Emmy award this January, shining a light on the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous people and the invasions, conflicts and threats from land grabbers in their territory in the Brazilian Amazon from 2018 to 2021.
- After years of increasing invasions and deforestation in the protected area, experts say the situation has slowly improved in the past three years, and both Indigenous and government officials in the region “feel a little safer.”
- Grassroots surveillance efforts, increased visibility of the problems, and a more effective federal crackdown against invaders have helped tackle illegal land occupiers and allowed the Indigenous populations to take their land back.
- Despite the security improvements, however, the territory still struggles against invasions and deforestation within the region, experts say.

Uncovering the illegal jaguar trade in Bolivia with Emi Kondo | Mongabay Sessions
- In this episode of Mongabay Sessions, Romi Castagnino speaks with documentary director Emi Kondo about her wildlife documentary, “Jaguar Spirit: An Awakening Journey.”
- The documentary delves into the illegal trade of jaguars in Bolivia.
- Mongabay Sessions is a video series that features conservation players from around the world.

Indigenous women filmmakers form collective, using cameras to fight for rights
- In 2022, a group of Indigenous women created Rede Katahirine, a network composed of 60 filmmakers, producers and screenwriters who represent Indigenous women from nearly all of Brazil’s biomes.
- In placing Indigenous audiovisual arts in the hands of women, the network aims to use its cameras as tools to fight for the preservation of Indigenous territories and memory.
- Aside from funding new productions, Rede Katahirine organizes monthly meetings for screenings and conversations.

How independent journalism uncovered a massive crime against people and planet
- By the time it uncovered the massive 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, the independent media outlet Sarawak Report had built a solid reputation upon years of reporting about how corruption abets deforestation in Borneo.
- No longer able to enter Malaysia due to the political shakeup caused by the 1MDB exposé and her related reporting, the outlet’s founder, Clare Rewcastle Brown, speaks with Mongabay’s podcast about what inspires her reporting, including having been born in Malaysian Borneo.
- Podcast co-host Rachel Donald discusses with Rewcastle Brown — who was recently awarded the Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Anti-Corruption Excellence Award — how the global financial system became the repository for the billions in stolen funds, some of which ended up as luxury homes in the United States and even gifts to Hollywood celebrities, and the critical role of the press in holding people in power to account.

Bringing back the buffalo with director Ken Burns | Mongabay Sessions
- In this episode of Mongabay Sessions, Liz Kimbrough speaks with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns about his latest documentary, “The American Buffalo.”
- The film explores both the tragic near-extinction of the buffalo as well as the story of how conservation efforts brought the species back from the brink.
- Mongabay Sessions is a video series that features conservation players from around the world.

The coveted legacy of the ‘Man of the Hole’ and his cultivated Amazon forest
- Tanaru, also known as The Man of the Hole, was an Indigenous person who survived several massacres that decimated his relatives in the state of Rondônia, in the Brazilian Amazon, in the 1980s and 1990s.
- He was the last of his group and refused contact with non-Indigenous Brazilian society and with other Indigenous people for decades, and he died peacefully in 2022.
- Tanaru’s dramatic story was told in Corumbiara, a documentary by Vincent Carelli, who hoped to capture Tanaru’s footage to persuade the Brazilian state to recognize the land as an Indigenous territory.
- Now Indigenous people and advocates are fighting for the Tanaru Indigenous land to remain an Indigenous territory, but ranchers want to take possession of the plot to turn it into pastures and soy fields.

‘There’s hope’ for North Atlantic right whales: Q&A with filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza
- The documentary “Last of the Right Whales” seeks to bring the plight of these gentle giants to audiences that are largely unaware of how close to extinction the species is today.
- North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) were historically decimated by hunting, but the biggest threats to the species today are ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.
- There are an estimated 336 of the animals remaining, more than 80% of which have experienced entanglement in ropes tethered to fishing gear on the sea floor.
- Documentary director Nadine Pequeneza spoke with Mongabay about bringing these threats to public attention, the importance of engaging with and not vilifying fishers, and why she holds out hope for the whale’s future.

‘Thousands of trees’ burned and logged in Cambodia: Q&A with filmmaker Sean Gallagher
- In 2020, filmmaker Sean Gallagher released a short film titled “Cambodia Burning,” which looks at the burning and logging of Cambodia’s forests to make way for agricultural development.
- The Cambodian government has claimed that no large-scale deforestation is happening in the country’s protected areas, but Gallagher says he filmed illegal logging taking place directly inside the confines of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Cambodia lost an estimated 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) of forest between 2001 and 2019, accounting for 26.4% of the forest cover that existed in 2000, according to a new report.
- Activists working to protect Cambodia’s remaining forests have faced threats, intimidation and incarceration.

In rural Nigeria, the magic of cinema builds support for ape conservation
- Since 2006, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has worked with local groups to screen documentaries about apes in dozens of communities adjoining protected areas where Cross River gorillas are still found.
- The films aim to build knowledge about apes and support for conservation; conservationists say film screenings, which are still a novelty in rural areas, attract a broader audience than radio shows, town hall meetings or other outreach methods.
- Though they live close to ape habitats, for many people in these rural communities, films are as close as they will come to encountering the rare and cryptic animals that live nearby.

Podcast: ‘Stubborn optimism’ for elephants fuels Indigenous conservation effort
- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we take a look at an Indigenous-led elephant sanctuary in Kenya and the latest research informing conservation of forest elephants in Gabon.
- Our first guest is National Geographic photographer and documentary filmmaker Ami Vitale, whose new short film ‘Shaba’ tells the story of an orphaned elephant in Kenya and the Indigenous Samburu people who have rescued dozens of elephants at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary.
- We also speak with Duke University professor John Poulsen, who tells us about recent research into forest elephants’ role as ecosystem engineers, another study that tracked the movements of nearly 100 elephants in Gabon, and how the findings of these studies can inform conservation measures for the critically endangered species.

Brazil’s Uru-eu-wau-wau document COVID-19 victory with new video
- As of June 1, 2021, Brazil has confirmed more than 16.5 million COVID-19 cases and over 462,000 deaths, with devastation particularly severe among the Amazon’s Indigenous communities.
- But one Indigenous group has done an exceptional job protecting its people: The Uru-eu-wau-wau in Rondônia state sealed off their territory in March 2020 — no small feat considering that the federally demarcated territory suffers from an onslaught of invaders, including illegal miners, loggers and land grabbers.
- In a new video, shot entirely by Indigenous cinematographers and exclusive to Mongabay, the Uru-eu-wau-wau tell their own story of how they survived the pandemic for more than a year without a major case inside their territory.
- Their battle is ongoing as they continue resisting invasions of their reserve, where three highly vulnerable uncontacted Indigenous groups also live. The dismantling of Brazil’s rural health care infrastructure by the Bolsonaro administration has been particularly daunting to the Uru-eu-wau-wau during the pandemic.

New Attenborough film sounds alarm on planetary boundaries, but offers hope
- A newly released Netflix documentary, “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet,” features David Attenborough and Johan Rockström, one of the scientists who introduced the concept of planetary boundaries.
- Planetary boundaries are Earth system processes essential for the planet’s functioning but have an environmental limit to which they can tolerate changes.
- According to experts, if these limits are transgressed, the Earth can be pushed into a new, dangerous state.
- While the film suggests that the planet requires urgent repair, it also offers a clear path forward — and a message of hope.

Activists in Malaysia call on road planners to learn the lessons of history
- To its proponents, the 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) Pan Borneo Highway holds the promise of economic development for the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo.
- But activists in Sabah say that poor planning and an emphasis on extracting resources mean that the highway could harm communities and ecosystems in Sabah’s forests and along its coastlines.
- A new film captures the perspectives of people living closest to the highway’s proposed path and reveals the struggles that some have faced as the road closed in on their homes.
- Meanwhile, an environmental historian argues that Pan Borneo Highway planners are repeating the same mistakes British colonists made in focusing on extraction, rather than trying to find ways to benefit Sabah’s communities.

David Attenborough’s ‘witness statement’ for the planet (commentary)
- By the time Sir David Attenborough had reached his 50s, the human population had doubled in size from when he was born, multiplying our species’ impacts on the planet.
- Famed for documentary films that reveal the natural world in startling detail and beauty, he’s also received criticism for these depictions, which some see as hiding the true level of the global environment’s startling decay.
- In a new documentary, A Life on our Planet, Attenborough expresses the dire status of the planet and points to solutions.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Research behind award-winning documentary film reveals new species
- In one of the most biodiverse spots on earth–the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve in Yasuní National Park – species are still being discovered.
- A first-of-its-kind study was conducted in the area was captured in the film “Yasuní Man,” released in 2017, which can now be found on streaming services. The zone where they filmed is set aside for the Tagaeri and Taromenane, two Waorani clans living in voluntary isolation.
- The region in which the survey was carried out is largely unexplored, and is in a transition zone between bird faunas in northern Peru between the Marañon/Amazon river and the Pastaza/Napo drainages.
- While there are research stations in the northern part of the area, the southern edge of the park and the intangible zone are difficult to access.

New road cutting into Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peruvian Amazon sparks debate, fears and a film
- A new documentary film about a road project in the Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peru’s southeastern Amazon chronicles an Indigenous community’s debate about its future.
- With the road will likely come new opportunities and problems: the area is already beset by illegal logging and narco-trafficking.
- Some in the community fear the problems will worsen and their culture will erode further, others say it’s the only way for the community to survive.
- The Peruvian government has prioritized road building in this area, and just announced that this road will be connected to the Interoceanic Highway, which will perhaps magnify the problems inside Manu.

‘New’ footage released of the last Tasmanian tiger
- The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) recently released a “new” clip of Benjamin, the thylacine that was displayed for five years at Beaumaris Zoo in Tasmania.
- The species, better known as the Tasmanian tiger, was officially declared extinct in 1982 by the IUCN, although the Australian government now considers it to have gone extinct in 1936, following Benjamin’s death.
- Despite the species’ extinction status, people continue to report sightings of the thylacine in the Tasmanian wilderness, although none of these sightings have been confirmed.

‘Hummingbird’ spy creature films millions of monarchs taking flight
- An animatronic “hummingbird” equipped with a camera has been used to film a sea of monarch butterflies taking flight in their wintering grounds in Mexico.
- The “spy creature” technology is the latest by John Downer Productions, a pioneer in wildlife filming, and is featured in the PBS NATURE series “Spy in the Wild.”
- The series also makes use of other spy creatures to infiltrate groups of orangutans, meerkats, egrets, tortoises, sloths, cobras and hippos.

New film details wrenching impact of illegal rhino horn trade on families
- A new short film, titled Sides of a Horn, looks at the impacts of the illegal trade of rhino horn on a community in South Africa.
- The 17-minute film follows two brothers-in-law, one who is a wildlife ranger and another who contemplates poaching as a way to pay for his ailing wife’s medical care.
- A trip to South Africa in 2016 inspired British filmmaker Toby Wosskow to write and direct the short feature, which was publicly released June 25.

Virtual Reality 360-degree video: An “empathy-generating machine” for conservation outreach?
- New video technology that films in 360 degrees brings viewers into the middle of the action and is set to become a powerful outreach tool to build understanding and empathy for wildlife and wild places.
- Small off-the-shelf cameras rugged enough to film in the wild are relatively inexpensive, easy enough for field researchers and other filming novices to use, and sufficiently sophisticated to collect videos of resolutions higher than 5 megapixels.
- At a recent presentation at National Geographic, four VR-360 filmmakers strongly endorsed the technology as a tool to inspire and nurture empathy in viewers for a range of conservation issues.

Those kicks were fast as lightning: Kangaroo rats evade deadly snake strikes
- A research team has shown that desert kangaroo rats fend off predatory rattlesnakes through a combination of speedy reaction times, powerful near-vertical leaps, and mid-air, ninja-style kicks.
- Locating snakes through radio tracking and filming snake-kangaroo rat interactions with high-speed video cameras enabled the team to analyze strike and reaction speed, distance and angle the rats moved to avoid being bitten, and aspects of the impressive maneuverability displayed by most kangaroo rats in the recordings.
- About 81 percent of recorded snake strikes were accurate, yet the snake actually bit the kangaroo rat in just 47 percent of the strikes and latched on long enough in just 22 percent of strikes to actually kill and eat the kangaroo rat.
- The slowed-down videos demonstrate the importance of kangaroo rats’ physical features, including long tails and powerful legs, and mid-air maneuverability in escaping predation.

Indigenous-made film explores traditional textile making in the Ecuadorian Amazon
- Yanda Montahuano, a filmmaker from the Sápara indigenous people in Ecuador’s Amazon region, has just released a short documentary film to share how his culture makes clothes from a tree-based fabric.
- The Sápara people are fighting to keep oil drilling out of their territory.
- With the film, Manthanhuano hopes to preserve and return millenary cultural knowledge for the younger generations and demonstrate to the world that the Sápara indigenous people remain alive in the Amazon rainforest.

Short film celebrates community forest titles in DRC
- In 2018, the DRC government approved a plan for communities to gain legal control over their local forests.
- The Rainforest Foundation UK and its partners in the DRC have been working with 10 participating villages to help community members understand their legal rights to manage local forests.
- RFUK and its partners maintain that, in addition to the benefits the communities may derive, local management of forests could help halt deforestation, keeping billions of tons of carbon locked away in the fight to slow global climate change.

In India, indigenous youths are filming their own forests and communities
- In India’s northeast, the Greenhub project is empowering indigenous youths to use video as a tool to forward forest conservation and social change.
- Tallo Anthony, from the project’s first batch, has been one of the most successful participants, winning several awards.
- The project strives to empower people living in remote areas of India’s northeast region, who don’t have access to technology and can’t afford to but are interested in and committed to using video as a tool for conservation.
- Greenhub also encourages women to participate, with two out of 20 seats in every batch reserved for women, and more female candidates welcome.

Documenting the African elephant’s ‘last stand’: Q&A with filmmakers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
- “Walking Thunder,” a film by Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson, tracks elephants across Africa.
- The couple’s son, Lysander, guides viewers through his discovery, first of the elephants and peoples of Africa, and then of the threats they face.
- Christo calls the film a “prayer” for the species.

Orangutan culture in focus in ‘Person of the Forest’: Q&A with researchers Cheryl Knott and Robert Rodriguez Suro
- A recent documentary, “Person of the Forest,” investigates the cultures of orangutans.
- Orangutan numbers have dwindled as a result of habitat loss, hunting and the pet trade.
- Scientists argue that the existence of orangutan culture makes protecting them even more critical.
- The film is a finalist at the New York WILD Film Festival, which began on Feb. 22.

‘Adaptation Bangladesh: Sea Level Rise’ film shows how farmers are fighting climate change
- A recent documentary looks at how Bangladeshi farmers are adapting to rising sea levels.
- The film documents how Bangladeshi farmers are keeping their farms from flooding by building floating gardens made of water hyacinth and bamboo.
- The film won the Best Short Film at the New York WILD Film Festival, which begins on Feb. 22.
- Mongabay interviewed cultural anthropologist Alizé Carrère to learn more about why she chose to focus on Bangladesh and why this story is important.

‘Photo Ark’ a quest to document global biodiversity: Q&A with photographer Joel Sartore and director Chun-Wei Yi
- The film “RARE: Creatures of the Photo Ark” follows National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore as he travels the world snapping pictures of thousands of different animal species.
- In the last 12 years, Sartore has photographed nearly 8,000 species.
- “RARE: Creatures of the Photo Ark” was named Best Conservation Film at the New York WILD Film Festival.

Films celebrate big cats on World Wildlife Day
- Big cats is the theme of the global celebration of this year’s World Wildlife Day on March 3.
- A big cats film festival hosted by CITES and Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival at the UN headquarters in New York City will screen 16 films selected as finalists.
- Big cats are key apex predators that keep ecosystems healthy, and eight species are being celebrated for the event: the clouded leopard, jaguar, cheetah, leopard, lion, snow leopard, tiger and puma.

The plight of predators: Q&A with the director of ‘The Hunt: Living with Predators’
- “The Hunt” is a BBC series that showcases the lives of predators around the world.
- Several episodes have been nominated for prizes at the 2017 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival taking place this week in Jackson, Wyoming.
- Mongabay caught up with series director Rob Sullivan to discuss his work on “The Hunt” – in particular an episode that explores the relationship between predators and humans.

Wild Kratts episode up for film festival award teaches about rare white bear
- The film “Wild Kratts: Spirit Bear” is a finalist for Best Engaging Youth Film at the Jackson Hole Film Festival. The festival is considered to be the “Oscars of nature filmmaking” and received over 1,000 entries for 25 awards.
- Wild Kratts is a mixed live and animation youth conservation education cartoon series.
- The “Wild Kratts: Spirit Bear” episode highlights a special subspecies of the North American black bear that has white fur.

Stalking snow leopards: Q&A with the director of “Ghost of the Mountains”
- In spring 2014 a crew of filmmakers ventured to the remote mountains of Sanjiangyuan in China’s western province of Qinghai to film the notoriously elusive snow leopard in the wild.
- A new film, “Ghost of the Mountains,” documents that expedition.
- The film is a finalist for Best People and Nature Film in the 2017 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival taking place next week in Jackson, Wyoming.

Yasuni indigenous peoples’ fight for survival depicted in new documentary
- The film “Yasuni Man” is a finalist for Best Conservation Film at the Jackson Hole Film Festival. The festival is considered to be the “Oscars of nature filmmaking” and received over 1,000 entries for 25 awards.
- “Yasuni Man” tells the gripping story of a tribe in the Ecuadoran Amazon that lives in harmony with nature yet is constantly under threat from different intruders to the rainforest.
- Filmmaker and film festival finalist Ryan Patrick Killackey talks to Mongabay about motivation, inspiration, and saving the planet’s biodiverse places.

Audio: A rare earth mine in Madagascar triggers concerns for locals and lemurs
- Our first guest on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast is Eddie Carver, a Mongabay contributor based in Madagascar who recently wrote a report about a troubled company that is hoping to mine rare earth elements in a forest on the Ampasindava peninsula, a highly biodiverse region that is home to numerous endangered lemur species.
- Carver speaks about the risks of mining for rare earth elements, how the mine might impact wildlife like endangered lemur species found nowhere else on Earth, the complicated history of the company and its ownership of the mine, and how villagers in nearby communities have already been impacted by exploratory mining efforts.
- Our second guest is Jo Wood, an Environmental Water Project Officer in Victoria, Australia, who plays for us the calls of a number of indicator species whose presence helps her assess the success of her wetland rewetting work.

‘Tango in the Wind:’ New film captures courtship dance of critically endangered Hooded Grebe for first time ever
- The Hooded Grebe wasn’t discovered by scientists until 1974, due mainly to the fact that it lives in one of the most remote and inhospitable environments on Earth: the windswept plateaus of southern Patagonia, often referred to as “The end of the world.”
- During the breeding season, the birds set up their nesting colonies on just a few basaltic lakes on the arid Patagonian steppes in extreme southwest Argentina, so it’s safe to say that very few people on Earth have ever witnessed its incredible courtship display.
- But now, thanks to filmmakers Paula and Michael Webster, who captured the mating ritual of the Hooded Grebe on film for the first time, you can watch it from the comfort of your own home.

Short film takes you into the Amazon with researcher who discovered a new frog species
- Back in January, biologist Jennifer Serrano and a team of researchers published a paper officially describing a new species of poison dart frog found in the Peruvian Amazon, which was given the name Ameerega shihuemoy, to science.
- Finding Frogs, a short documentary by filmmaker Nick Werber, captures the sense of awe and discovery inherent in doing fieldwork like Jennifer Serrano’s.
- In this Q&A, Mongabay speaks with Werber about his motivation for making the documentary in the first place, the difficulties of shooting a film in a humid environment like a rainforest, and why it’s so important for scientific discoveries to be more widely shared via media like film.

Meet one of the filmmakers behind Planet Earth 2
- Planet Earth II, produced by the BBC, involved 40 different countries and more than 2,000 days of shooting.
- The six-part series showcased some of the rarest footage of wildlife from remote islands and deserts to high mountain ranges, forests, grasslands and bustling cities.
- Mongabay interviewed one of the filmmakers involved, Sandesh Kadur, to understand what it takes to film captivating sequences of animals in the wild and within cities.

‘A man schooled in the Amazon:’ Q&A with director of new feature film about the fight to save the rainforest
- Carter is the founder of Aliança da Terra (Land Alliance), a Brazilian non-profit organization that works directly with ranchers in the Amazon to reduce the environmental and social impact of their operations.
- Wortman, who previously won an Emmy for his documentary Nefertiti Resurrected, intends to cast “real life characters,” such as John Carter himself, alongside professional actors in order to tell the true story of “Those fighting to save [the Amazon] and those fighting to take it.”
- As much as it’s a Western and a love story, Wortman says the film is “a snapshot of what is going on in Brazil right now, which is the first wave that comes through. That’s why it’s called Frontier.”

Mongabay Newscast episode 4: Inside scoop on new Netflix documentary “The Ivory Game;” orangutan habitat under threat in Indonesia
- Crosta discusses how Chinese demand is driving the multi-billion dollar trade in ivory, as well as EAL’s project WildLeaks and the undercover investigations in mainland China and Hong Kong that have helped expose the illegal ivory being laundered through legal ivory markets.
- We also speak with Mongabay contributor and Borneo Futures founder Erik Meijaard, who recently wrote a piece entitled, “Company poised to destroy critical orangutan habitat in breach of Indonesia’s moratorium.”
- And of course we cover the top news on Mongabay.com for the past two weeks!

Using art and technology to save the Amazon
- At age 26, Lucy Dablin has contributed to the conservation of over 11,120 acres of rainforest.
- Dablin co-founded a production company and is using film to connect conservation to the greater public.
- She established a network to facilitate collaboration between conservation organizations.

Featured video: the Uncharted Amazon trailer

Silky anteater. Photo by: Tristan Thompson. The up-coming documentary, Uncharted Amazon, promises to highlight both the little-seen wildlife and the people of the Las Piedras River region in the Peruvian Amazon, one of the most remote wildernesses on the planet. And if it’s trailer is any indication, the independent documentary will be well-worth the filmmaker’s […]
Photo essay: filming in the remote Amazon
- You wake up at 4:30 AM, a little before the first rays of tropical sun begin to dance behind the treetops.
- You put on your wet clothes from the previous day, pack your bag, and pick up your tripod.
- The jungle is shrouded in a thick mist from the previous nights rain.
- As you walk, you recognize many of the strange calls that echo between the trees.

Challenging the ‘tragedy of the commons’: new documentary explores how humans and nature can coexist (VIDEO)

The documentary film, “48 Cantones: The Mayan Forest,” created by brothers Thomas & Julian Moll-Rocek, explores the Mayan Cosmovision and tells the story of the 48 Cantones in their own words. It serves as a reminder of humanity’s diverse cultural heritage, and offers hope that the world can find a balance with nature. We scrambled […]
Of jaguars and loggers: new film to showcase one of the least-known regions in the deep Amazon

For anyone who has visited the region, the incredible roar of the red howler monkey is a classic wake up call. Photo by: Declan Burley. In August, three young filmmakers will go on the expedition of a lifetime. Tristan Thompson, Declan Burley, and Chris Butler plan to spend six months filming in one of the […]
Featured video: indigenous tribe faces loggers, ranchers, and murder in bid to save their forests

Rainforest in Panama. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A new short film, entitled La Trocha, highlights the plight of the Wounaan people in Panama, who are fighting for legal rights to their forests even as loggers and ranchers carve it up. The conflict turned violent in 2012 when local chief, Aquilo Puchicama, was shot dead […]
The making of Amazon Gold: once more unto the breach

New film documents a shadow world: the illegal gold mines of the Peruvian Amazon. When Sarah duPont first visited the Peruvian Amazon rainforest in the summer of 1999, it was a different place than it is today. Oceans of green, tranquil forest, met the eye at every turn. At dawn, her brain struggled to comprehend […]
New project works to raise the profile of the world’s littlest bear

The world’s least-known bear also happens to be the smallest: sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), so called for the yellowish horseshoe mark on its chest, are found across Southeast Asia. But despite their telltale markings, super-long tongues, and endearing cuteness, sun bears remain little-studied and little-known compared to many of the region’s other large mammals. Now, […]
Making movies to save Uganda’s great apes

The 2013 Zoos and Aquariums: Committing to Conservation (ZACC) conference runs from July 8th—July 12th in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by the Blank Park Zoo. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with presenters. For more interviews, please see our ZACC feed. Ajani and his friends are caught trespassing in the […]
From slash-and-burn to Amazon heroes: new video series highlights agricultural transformation

Dan Childs filming in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo courtesy of Nick Werber. A new series of short films is celebrating the innovation of rural farmers in the Manu region of Peru. Home to jaguars, macaws, and tapirs, the Manu region is also one of the top contenders for the world’s most biodiverse place. It faces […]
Cute koalas have become ‘urban refugees’

The 3rd Annual New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WFCC.org) runs from January 30 – February 2, 2013. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with filmmakers and presenters. For more interviews, please see our WCFF feed. Through his new 90-second PSA, Save Lolita, filmmaker Daniel Azarian wanted to connect people […]
Telling the story of the father of sea turtle conservation

The 3rd Annual New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WFCC.org) runs from January 30 – February 2, 2013. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with filmmakers and presenters. For more interviews, please see our WCFF feed. Baby elephant who lost apart of her leg to a landmine. Image courtesy of […]
Featured video: Chasing Ice trailer
A new film, opening in the U.S. in November, follows the exploits of National Geographic photographer, James Balog, as he attempts to photograph the end of glaciers and great ice sheets, which are diminishing and, in some cases, collapsing under the heat of global climate change. Chasing Ice, which won a cinematography award at Sundance, […]
New species threatened by mining dubbed the ‘Avatar moth’

A new species of moth has been named after one of the world’s most popular movie blockbusters: Avatar. Discovered on New Zealand’s Denniston Plateau during a biodiversity survey by local NGO Forest & Bird this March, the new moth species is imperiled by plans for a coal mine on the plateau. The name—Avatar moth (Arctesthes […]
High-tech hell: new documentary brings Africa’s e-waste slum to life

Keyboard finds its way to Agbogbloshie. Photo by: David Fedele. Shirtless boys rapidly pull the computer apart, discarding bits and pieces, until they expose the wires, yank them out, and toss them into a fire. Acrid, toxic smoke blooms as the boys prod the wires and the fire strips the plastic around the wires, leaving […]
“Don’t be so silly” about climate change: Mohamed Nasheed on The Daily Show

Former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed speaking to reporters at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009. Photo by: Adam Welz. Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives, told the world on The Daily Show Monday night: “Just don’t be so silly” about climate change. Nasheed, who in February was forced to resign his presidency, […]
Featured Video: FEVER, the climate change challenge for indigenous people
Fever Trailer (English Subtitles) from LifeMosaic on Vimeo. Four short films have been produced highlighting the challenges of climate change for indigenous people in the tropics. Produced by LifeMosaic, the indigenous rights organization says the films are “designed to inform and empower indigenous communities across the tropics and to be a tool for grass-roots facilitators, […]
Featured video: scientists capture first footage of Shepherd’s beaked whale
Scientists have captured what is believed to be the world’s first footage of the cryptic Shepherd’s beaked whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi), one of a number of beaked whale species about which scientists know almost nothing. The footage was taken in Bass Strait, lying between Australia and Tasmania. There have only been a few confirmed sightings of […]
Wild orangutans to watch film about orangutans

Orphaned Bornean orangutan in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Born to be Wild 3D, an IMAX documentary in part about the plight of orphaned and injured Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), will soon be aired in the rainforest that inspired it. Producer Drew Fellman is setting […]
Madagascar – The Last Inheritor of Gondwana: Documentary Review

Madagascar split from the supercontinent of Gondwana about 150 million years ago. As a result, most of the living creatures in Madagascar are unique to the ecosystems in the island. Madagascar: The Last Inheritor of Gondwana is a documentary that does an excellent job of showing Madagascar’s magnificent biodiversity, but falls short in delivering Madagascar’s […]
Featured video: Arctic ice melt creates mass walrus ‘haul-outs’
The disintegration of the Arctic sea ice, which hit the second lowest record this year, is forcing a number of Arctic animals to change their behavior. The footage below is of thousands of walrus hauling out of the water onto shore land to rest. In years past, these walruses would’ve spent this time foraging in […]
Featured video: new documentary puts human face on logging in Papua New Guinea
A new documentary, filmed single-handily by filmmaker David Fedele, covers the impact of industrial logging on a community in Papua New Guinea. Entitled Bikpela Bagarap (or ‘Big Damage’ in English), the film shows with startling intimacy how massive corporations, greedy government, and consumption abroad have conspired to ruin lives in places like Vanimo, Papua New […]
Could blockbuster animated movies help save life on Earth?

Coquerel’s sifakas kissing. The Madagascar film series helped raise the profile of many of the island’s unique species, including lemurs. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Some scientists may scoff at the idea that animated anthropomorphized animals—from Bambi to Simba to Nemo—could have an important impact on conservation efforts to save real-world species, but a new […]
Big damage in Papua New Guinea: new film documents how industrial logging destroys lives

Douglas cutting tree in Papua New Guinea. Photo by: David Fedele. In one scene a young man, perhaps not long ago a boy, named Douglas stands shirtless and in shorts as he runs a chainsaw into a massive tropical tree. Prior to this we have already heard from an official how employees operating chainsaws must […]
Featured video: WWF’s Astonish Me
Highlighting new species recently discovered around the world, the short film Astonish Me, was created as apart of a happy 50th birthday celebration for conservation organization WWF. “Astonish Me shows that the natural world is every bit as magical and surprising as the fictional world you might see in a Hollywood film. We know about […]
Featured video: Trouble in Lemur Land
A new film, Trouble in Lemur Land, showcases the Critically Endangered silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus). With only 300-2,000 silky sifaka’s surviving in the wild, this large and distinct lemur is considered one of the top 25 most endangered primates in the world. Primatologist, Erik Patel told mongabay.com that the film took months of filming in […]
A lion’s story, an interview with the filmmakers of The Last Lions

Male lion in the Okavango Delta. © National Geographic Entertainment. Photo by: Beverly Joubert . The new theatrical film, The Last Lions does not open, as one would expect, with a shot of lions or even an African panorama. Instead the first shot is a view of our planet from space at night. Billions of […]
Kite-photography gives new perspective to whale migration

A new project sponsored by Nokia uses KAPing – kite aerial photography – to get an innovative look at whale behavior. The project will be taking place in Hawaii and will document the area’s annual humpback whale migration. KAPing uses kites to suspend cameras, providing a birds-eye view of a scene without need for a […]
Yasuni on film: could a documentary save the world’s most biodiverse ecosystem?

An interview with wildlife documentarian Ryan Killackey. How do you save one of the most biologically and culturally diverse places in the world if most people have never heard of it? If you want a big audience—you make a film. This is what wildlife-filmmaker Ryan Killackey is hoping to do with his new movie Yasuni […]

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