News
Wildlife Without Borders Film Premieres at U.S. Capitol
Arlington, VA, June 22, 2009 – A new film by VideoTakes, Inc., Wildlife Without Borders: Connecting People and Nature in the Americas, premieres June 22 at the Capitol Visitor Center at a Congressional staff briefing hosted by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation.
VideoTakes’ President Sandy Cannon-Brown traveled to Costa Rica with Sarah Gannon-Nagle of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Without Borders Program for Latin America and the Caribbean to see conservation in action. Catherine Zimmerman, director of photography, and Rick Patterson, audio recordist, accompanied the producers.
The Wildlife Without Borders program provides a means to protect wildlife through education, training and partnership. The film features case studies that prove the effectiveness of the program.
VideoTakes produced the film for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in partnership with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Representatives of three other major conservation organizations (The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Conservation International) participated in the film.
The production team shot most of their footage on the Osa Peninsula in Corcovado National Park, the largest remaining tract of tropical rainforest on the Pacific Coast of Central America. Conservation efforts focus on saving endangered species, such as the jaguar, and declining habitats, including coastal mangroves.
The crew slept in a bare bunkroom at the ranger station in the park where there was limited electricity, no hot water and an abundance of critters. “Despite the challenges of our accommodations, we had an amazing adventure discovering an environment in balance and wonderful people working to keep it that way,” Cannon-Brown said.
Gannon-Nagle conducted all interviews in Spanish. Brad Allgood, a graduate film student at American University, used his Spanish to help with editing. Matt Nagy, VideoTakes’ Project Director, created the graphics for the program, edited the final piece, and authored the DVD.
You can see the complete film on the Wildlife Without Borders website.