FFC AWARD 2008

Small budget big dreams!

That’s what I thought when I was a finalist nominee for the 2004 FFC Award.

As most filmmakers do, I’d dreamed with big budgets, commissioned movies and documentaries. But, being a finalist next to Alan Root and my acquaintance with Filmmakers for Conservation gave me a stronger commitment with GeoAmbiente.

The opportunity was already there in my weekly TUTV program! Even with a limited budget, the closeness to viewers that television provides and the possibility to address different issues is a great chance to make a difference.

Today, there are 6.7 billion people sharing the Planet, everyone demanding natural resources, water, food and land. All together, we have created problems risking the Earth’s ecological balance.

Puerto Rico has contributed to those problems and we want to be part of the solutions too. Earth is the only home we have, and the time to make a difference in its conservation is now, not “mañana”.

To mediate and facilitate encounters between scientists, environmental groups and government can make a difference now.  Backing up communities spread out their conservation efforts should be one of every filmmakers main objectives; public diffusion provokes changes thru awareness, education, and a call to action.

Winning the Filmmakers for Conservation Award 2008 is a great blessing and a big challenge!

First, this is recognition to the efforts of a team committed with excellence and enhancement of environmental programming. At the same time, is a personal challenge to attract a younger generation of Latin American filmmakers to the conservation field and build new relationships to develop projects; to encourage filmmakers to make a difference even with a small budget is one of my objectives.

This award has many names and many voices. TUTV, community groups, scientific collaborators, written media, my family and very specially, “GeoAmbiente’s Crew; on behalf of all of them, I gratefully accept this recognition.

Last, but most important, thanks to God for this special blessing and to all FFC members and judges who’d support my nomination.

May God bless you all!

María Falcón
Puerto Rico

At the Jackson Hole Film Festival in 2007 FFC proudly announced that Nick Lyon and Evie Wright of Cochroach Films. In 2006 the pair set up Films 4 Conservation and haven’t looked back. Here is their story:

“Our latest initiative is very exciting. At the Wildscreen Film Festival in 2006 we had discussions with Ian Redmond at the United Nations Environment Programme and Richard Brock who established The Brock Initiative about what resources were lacking for conservation. 

We agreed that what was needed was a film - focused web resource for conservation filmmakers, conservationists, and educators around the world. Films4Conservation was conceived as a repository for any film with a conservation message, be it a campaign piece, outreach education, documentary evidence or "voices from the field". 

Within a week of Wildscreen we had established Films4Conservation and the basic framework for the website.

The concept involves the use of Web 2.0 technology to diffuse the content of the site into multiple locations on the web. The result of this is that content can be viewed from numerous 'portals', and the benefits include simple access for contributors who are unable to write in html code, free hosting abilities, high traffic and unlimited bandwidth.

Links -

• www.films4.org

"These days it's simply not good enough to use the old response... "If people know about it they'll care for it and do something". Wrong. They'll just go on being conned that it's all perfect out there, with endless jungles, immaculate Masai Maras, and untouched oceans. What planet are they on about" - Richard Brock

Richard Brock worked in the BBC Natural History Unit for 35 years producing, among others, the highly successful Life on Earth and Living Planet series. Concerned by the lack of willingness to address the current state of the environment he left the BBC and started his own independent production company Living Planet Productions.

Living Planet Productions has made over 100 films on a wide range of environmental topics and as his archive of films and footage mounted up, Richard felt that there was something more that could be done with this resource than sitting in an archive film library.

He decided to set up the Brock Initiative, to use his archive of footage, and to ask others to do the same, to create new programs, not made for a general TV audience, but made for those who are really connected to the situation in hand: local communities, decision makers, even that one fisherman who uses dynamite fishing over that one coral reef.

The programmes that Richard and his Brock Initiative colleagues make are not for broadcast to western audiences demanding BIG productions – he often shows films to people who have never watched television. The effort comes in showing the right thing, to the right people, in the right way, and not about expensive effects, top quality cameras or cutting edge effects.

As Richard says “It’s about reaching those who have a direct impact; reaching those who can make the difference.”

A letter to FFC from Richard in 2007

“This is a belated thanks to FFC and those who have helped and supported me over the years -<br>from the BBC Natural History Unit onwards to The Brock Initiative. The FFC 2006 Award, presented at Wildscreen, was an unexpected honour that has brought renewed confidence to me for what I try to do for the planet along with others, the "Bright Green Sparks".

My Award predecessors Alan Root from Kenya and Hardy Jones in the USA mean that I am the first UK recipient to be similarly honoured. But the task is increasingly global and I offer this message to FFC and all those who might respond with their skills and commitment.

2007 is going to be a crucial year for Planet Earth. From almost every possible angle its survival is in the spotlight. That is good news born from the bad news. The media, now, from local newspapers to global TV, to individual mobile phones, to Hollywood is eventually telling us the truth. Undoubtedly the fascination and wonder created by David Attenborough and others, since Life on Earth (and before) up to Planet Earth has built up worldwide concern for the planet's future. From then to now, we have been witness, and created witness, to a remarkable place in space. As observers, and as deliverers, of that unique spot in the universe, can we help it more? With images as strong as that drowning, dying polar bear in Planet Earth being seen worldwide we are now in a political position of influence as never before, May I suggest in 2007, we all use our cooperative historical, visual and audio, personal powers to help a planet that has given us so much and to which we owe so much more? I am saying we, as filmmakers, communicators and broadcasters can be the ones that really can help.

Richard Brock 2007

For more about The Brock Initiative: http://www.brockinitiative.org/

Being the first year that the award was run the judges didn't really know what to expect. There were 35 entries from all corners of the globe tackling issues as diverse as tuna, timber, reefs and rainforest - most of an extremely high standard. The key feedback from the judges, "with such a well qualified and deserving pool of entrants our task of selecting the final four nominees became a true challenge. We had a dizzying array of entries - and a fascinating time discussing them".

Alan Root has had a long and distinguished career. In 1957 he was cameraman for Dr. Bernhard Grzimek's survey of the Serengeti to map the route of the wildebeest migration and filmed 'Serengeti Shall Not Die'.  The expedition came to a tragic end when Grzimek's son Michael was killed, crashing his plane while on his way to collect Alan, but the film won an Oscar, and was to become a benchmark in conservation film making.

Five decades later Alan is still actively involved in delivering powerful films, one of the latest being an expose of the mis-management of the Masai Mara Game Reserve. From the very outset he has, at his own expense, had his films translated into Kiswahili and distributed thousands of copies to local communities, schools and governments.

For twenty years he, and his then wife Joan, collaborated closely to make groundbreaking films that came to define the Blue Chip Special.  Largely ignoring the mega fauna around them, they concentrated on smaller subjects - most notably termites - and their ‘Castles of Clay' was nominated for another Oscar.

Tragically, in January 2006, Joan was assassinated at her farmhouse on the shores of Lake Naivasha in Kenya. She was a fearless filmmaker and conservationist and was involved in action to stop poaching and illegal fishing and trying to preserve the wildlife in and around the lake.

As Britain's Independent Newspaper reported in 2007, appropriately enough, a film, starring Julia Roberts is to be made of Joan Root's life. Fittingly, Alan Root is involved in the film project to be shot on location in Africa. He is also involved in a cinema film to be made about Dr. Grzimek's work on the Serengeti, which he sees as nicely closing the circle of his career.

He was recently awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to wildlife filming.

In 2005 Hardy Jones took home the second FFC Filmmaker of the Year Award. 

Hardy has been making films for thirty years but began his media career in radio at WNOE in New Orleans. He has also worked for United Press International, The Peruvian Times, and CBS News. 

In 1980 Hardy filmed the brutal slaughter of hundreds of dolphins at Iki Island in Japan. The footage, broadcast around the world led to a shutdown of the dolphin fishery at Iki. Up to two thousand dolphins per year were thus saved from a savage death. 

Hardy has returned to Japan on many occasions since, not only to oppose the killing of dolphins, but also to raise the alarm about the extreme levels of mercury and other contaminants in dolphin and whale meat and in fish being consumed by the Japanese people. He works in Japan both through the media and in local venues including schools.

Hardy’s film “If Dolphins Could Talk” contributed to the decision by American canning companies to refuse tuna caught in association with dolphins. When the programme was broadcast in the United States a ‘freecall’ number was inserted into commercial breaks. This led to thousands of telegrams being sent to the chairman of Starkist Tuna who then announced that his company would no longer accept tuna caught in a manner, which harmed dolphins. Other corporations followed. Tens of thousands of dolphins were spared death and maiming.

Since 1978 Hardy has made more than 70 films, all of them related to conservation issues with locations ranging from the Florida Everglades to French Polynesia; from the Sea of Cortez to the fjords of Norway. Subjects include coral reefs, coastal habitat destruction, overfishing, harmful fish techniques, and ocean pollution. 

To support and find out more about Hardy’s work go to: http://www.bluevoice.org/

Filmmakers for Conservation congratulates National Geographic Television as the winner of the FFC 10^th Anniversary Conservation Filmmaker of the Year Award.

Presented at the FFC Annual General Meeting at the Wildscreen Film Festival, this award recognized a filmmaker or company that has made a significant contribution to conservation efforts through the practice of their craft. 

In 1965 National Geographic started a television revolution by introducing "Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees."  The new genre was based on three principles:  a good story, remarkable images, and a compelling encounter with the natural world.  This was the guiding light behind 45 years of conservation film-making, with an impact on audiences, governments and NGOs who were all inspired to act.  NGT's recent film about the restoration of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique inspired that nation's president to protect the endangered Mount Gorongosa by including it within the park.  "Journey to Shark Eden," profiling National Geographic Fellow Enric Sala, helped to secure the protection of 200,000 square miles of oceans around the Northern Line Islands. And the three-part series on the National Geographic Society-sponsored "Megatransect" across Africa resulted in the creation of 13 national parks in Gabon.

For the FFC 10^th Anniversary Award the board was looking to reflect a filmmaker or organisation's body of work and overall contributions to the environment and conservation in the media and film industries. We felt that National Geographic Television deserved to be saluted for 45 years of inspiring people, showing governments and NGOs what needs to be saved and for getting into the field to cover tough stories.  

Congratulations to National Geographic Television in exemplifying the FFC ideal of "Using The Power Of Film And Media To Conserve Our Natural World".