WCFF 2014

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SERIES 15: CERRADO - BEYOND THE MIST

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19

7:00-9:00 p.m.

The film CERRADO, Beyond the Mist introduces the viewer to one of the least known and beautiful ecosystems in the world, located in the centre of Brazil. The film is an impressionistic dance of color and light, unraveling like a creation myth through the primal elements of Water, Fire, Lightning and Rain, all the while celebrating the amazing and strange animals that occupy its landscape. The film introduces a new genre of documentary filmmaking, trusting the powerful beauty and mystery of the place to dictate the mood through a unique artistic vision with pulsating and evocative original music. Emas National Park is home to some of the worlds most amazing animals such as the Giant Armadillo, the Giant Anteater and the Maned Wolf, and to some breathtaking phenomena which occur here, like bioluminescent termite mounds and massive webs with thousands of community spiders. CERRADO, Beyond the Mist is an overwhelming explosion of life, color and mystery reenacting a primordial worship of nature as an eternal work of ART.

CERRADO, Beyond the Mist

Christian Spencer, Marc Egger & Gibby Zobel, Producers 25 minutes County: Brazil * World Premier

Q & A with Daniel Azarian

TICKETS

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Still Time To Get In Line!

Monday, October 13

Helen Mills Theater 137-139 West 26th Street New York, NY 10001 (between 6th & 7th Avenue)

Series 1 8:30-10:30

Gold Harbour, South Georgia Speechless Series Richard Sidey, Producer Country: New Zealand * New York Premier 3 minutes

  White Gold Arne Glimcher, Producer Simon Trevor, Director African Environmental Film Foundation 38 minutes Narrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton Country: Kenya * Award Winner of Best Investigative Journalism Category

  The Desert Islands Madalena Boto and Alexandre Vaz, Producers 32 minutes Country: Republic of Cape Verde * World Premier

  Cote d’lvoire Elephant Rescue IFAW – International Fund for Animal Welfare Michael Booth and Brant Backlund, Producers 17 minutes Country: Republic of Cote d’lvoire *World Premier

  * Q & A with Michael Booth, Brant Backlund from IFAW and Allan Thorton from the Environmental Investigation Agency

  To purchase tickets for Series 1:http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/765968

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SERIES 5: MAPPING THE BLUE

October 16, 8:45 - 10:45pm

At first glance, Kevin Iro seems a somewhat unlikely ocean champion.

Raised in Auckland, Iro had a successful career in rugby, playing for clubs in England, Australia and New Zealand. But off the rugby field, Iro developed a strong passion for the ocean. Now, he is the brainchild behind Cook Islands Marine Park, the largest marine protected area in the Pacific. Through the use of an open source GIS mapping system Kevin's team is raising the bar for marine conservation efforts across the globe. 

Read  more...

Mapping The Blue Alison Barrat, Producer Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation 28 minutes Country: Cook Islands * World Premier

Q & A with Dr. Kate Moran

Q & A with Alison Barrat, Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation Q & A with Nan Hauser, President & Director of the Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation Director of the Cook Islands Whale & Wildlife Centre

TICKETS

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SERIES 1: WHITE GOLD

October 13, 8:30 pm - 10:30 pm

Helen Mills Theater 137-139 West 26th Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues)

White Gold is a frontline exposé of the modern day ivory trade - its effect on African countries and wider regional stability, its potential to fund terrorism and its global reach. Produced by professionals from the conservation, filmmaking and security fields, the film illustrates the awe-inspiring complexity, beauty and emotional intelligence of the elephant, Africa's most majestic and iconic wild animal. It documents how, as the demand for ivory escalates, the stakes rise for elephants, people and peace. And it questions, is this luxury commodity really so desirable, considering the ugly truth of its origins?

Simon Trevor: Director

Arne Glimcher, Bonnie Hlinomaz: Producers

Ian Saunders, Tanya Saunders: Co-Producers

Narrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton

African Environmental Film Foundation Production

38 minutes

Country: Kenya, U.S.

Followed by a Q&A with expert elephant conservationists.  

TICKETS

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Sylvia Earle’s ‘Mission Blue’

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See Mission Blue at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival NYC! With Q&A featuring Dr. Kate Moran!

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/759163

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WILDLIFE CONSERVATION FILM FESTIVAL

NYC, October 13-19th

Get in line today!

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SERIES 16: THE IMPERILED AMERICAN WOLF

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19 3:00-5:00 p.m.

Wolves were rescued from the brink of extinction over 35 years ago when they gained federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Today the American wolf is again in grave danger. This film explains the reasons wolves cannot be successfully managed by state wildlife agencies and makes a bold call for federal re-listing of these important apex predators as endangered species.

The Imperiled American Wolf Predator Defense Fund Brooks Fahy, Producer 10 minutes

Q & A with Georgina Duckworth

from Australian Wildlife Conservancy

  TICKETS

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SERIES 17: PARADISE ISLAND, BACK FROM THE BRINK

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19 6:00-8:00 p.m.

  Producer Yasmin White got to know these cute inhabitants of Mauritius while making this short film. Learn how the restoration of a one small island in the Indian Ocean has helped save an entire wildlife population from the brink of extinction. The film features the Pink Pigeon, one of the rarest birds on the planet.

Paradise Island, back from the brink Yasmin White, Producer 14 minutes Country: Mauritius * World Premier

    TICKETS

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SERIES 15: PENGUINS- THE STORY OF BIRDS THAT WANTED TO BE FISH

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19

7:00-9:00 p.m.

Ever since birds first appeared on earth, their remarkable diversification allowed them to conquer all the different habitats on the planet’s surface. Their wings gave them the ability to fly and to reach places no other kind of animal could reach. Only the sea deterred them. Until the arrival of penguins. Determined to conquer the oceans, penguins took millions of years to realize their objective. They managed to adapt in ways that had never been seen before amongst birds. They acquired the ability to live in water for months at a time, to dive to depths of as much as 300 meters, and to withstand the rigors of the coldest regions in the southern hemisphere. But on their long journey to do so, they paid a very high price. Diversification produced different species, all capable of tolerating seemingly impossible temperatures; penguins became masters of environmental adaptation, sufferers-in-silence and noisy members of large colonies. No other family of birds has as extraordinary a tale as do penguins the birds who wanted to be fish.

  Penguins: The Story of the Birds That Wanted to be Fish Oscar Portillo, Producer Explora Films Country: Spain 52 minutes * New York Premier

Q & A with Daniel Azarian

TICKETS

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SERIES 3: GOR: THE POACHED PRIDE

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Tuesday, October 14

6:30 pm -8:00 p.m.

Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site, is one of the largest wildlife parks in the world. Along with elephants, tigers, swamp deer and many others, it is home to two-thirds of the world's population of the Great One-Horned Rhinoceros. The fame of the rhinoceros in Assam is immense and has been adopted by the Government of Assam as the state symbol. The crew of Gor brings you an in-depth analysis of the rampant issue of poaching and the merciless wrath that the rhinoceroses in Assam face. Kaziranga has been hailed as a conservation success story but even as the praise continues, their state pride continues to be poached -- a poached pride.

TRAILER

Gor: The Poached Pride

Sultanali Barodawala, Producer 24 minutes Country: India * World Premier

TICKETS

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SERIES 4: HOPE

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Tuesday, October 14

8:30-10:30 p.m.

Sir David Attenborough narrates a journey through the Volcanoes National Park, 47 years after Dian Fossey pioneered a new path for mountain gorilla conservation.  Today, a dedicated team of trackers and anti-poaching patrols follow the great apes 365 days a year, risking their lives in Rwanda's difficult and sometimes dangerous terrain. Only ruins of Fossey's original Karisoke Research Centre remain -- but her legacy lives on.

This short film touches on the impacts of human-human conflicts in the Rwanda/Congo area and how these conflicts affect the trackers and the gorillas as well as the interaction between the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and local human communities. The program stresses the need to support both the human and gorilla communities and how they can help each other survive. 

 #gorillahope

Hope Produced by Craghoppers Featuring Sir David Attenborough 15 minutes Country: Rwanda * World Premier

* Q & A with Dr. Tara Stoinski, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International * Q & A with Felix Ndagijimana, Director at Karisoke Research Center/The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund

TICKETS

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SERIES 15: BROWN BLUFF, ANTARCTICA

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19

7:00-9:00 p.m.

Trailer

Series 18 opens with the final screening from Richard Sidley's Speechless series, bringing the viewer face to face with a colony of penguins in a majestic corner of Antarctica.

Brown Bluff, Antarctica Speechless Series Richard Sidey, Producer Country: New Zealand * New York Premier 3 minutes

Q & A with Daniel Azarian

TICKETS

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SERIES 15: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF LOLITA THE PERFORMING ORCA

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19

7:00-9:00 p.m.

Trailer

In 1970, a four year old killer whale named Tokitae was brutally taken from her mother in the waters of the Puget Sound and brought to the Miami Seaquarium, where she was placed in a 35 foot wide tank and renamed "Lolita." Sh has lived there ever since. Forty-three years later in the summer of 2013, world-renowned orca biologist Dr. Ingrid N. Visser, founder of the Orca Research Trust visits Lolita for the first time. This short film, produced on behalf of the Washington-based Orca Network, documents Dr. Visser's visit as well as her thoughts and scientific observations concerning Lolita's current living conditions. 

A Day in the life of Lolita the Performing Orca Daniel Azarian, Producer 8 minutes * World Premier

Q & A with Daniel Azarian

TICKETS

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SERIES 17: BROWN WOOD OWL- JUVENILE’S JOURNEY

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19 6:00-8:00 p.m.

TICKETS

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SERIES 17: BROWN WOOD OWL- JUVENILE'S JOURNEY

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19 6:00-8:00 p.m.

This is a story about two juvenile owls discovered accidentally in a crevice of a tree -- their behaviour, hardships and obstacles are chronicled here over the course of three weeks. Shot in Kegalle, Sri Lanka (2014).

Thivanka R. Perera, is currently studying Motion Pictures & Television online at the Academy of Art, San Francisco.

  Brown Wood Owl- Juvenile’s Journey Dr. Mahendra Perera & Thivanka Perera, Producers 5 minutes Country: Sri Lanka * World Premier

Q & A with Dr. Mahendra Perera and Thivanka Perera

TICKETS

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SERIES 17: THE STORY OF TSOE

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19 6:00-8:00 p.m.

An undercover investigative documentary film following the smuggling trade of precious Shahtoosh (Tibetan Antelope wool) from its starting point hidden in the high steppes of Tibet - home to the last major herds of Tibetan Antelope - to the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, where it is woven, to its end use consumers - the wealthy elite of Hong Kong, Milan, London, New York and other major cities of the world.

The Story of Tsoe Sam Wangal, Producer & Director Wild Nomads Productions 12 minutes Country: Tibet * World Premier

    TICKETS

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SERIES 17: RIVER TERNS OF BHADRA

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NYC

Sunday, October 19 6:00-8:00 p.m.

The Bhadra tiger reserve is one of India's treasured tiger reserves. The reserve, rich in flora and fauna is flanked by the backwaters of Bhadra dam to the north. This brilliant landscape is home to many extraordinary stories. In summers, the backwaters of Bhadra witness a magical phenomenon. Thousands of River terns throng the backwaters in search of a nesting place. The phenomenon is rare and unique and the birds choose the same island each year to nest. The film brings the story of their lives up-close. With hidden camera traps, underwater cameras and high speed cameras, the film captures some special sequences. 5 months in the making, the film showcases unique behaviour of the birds which has been documented on high definition cameras for the first time. Watch the drama of life unfold on the Bhadra backwaters, see the brilliance of life and the fight for survival on "River Terns of Bhadra."

River Terns of Bhadra

Amohavarsha, Producer 23 minutes Country: India * World Premier

    TICKETS