News | Benjamin Drummond + Sara Joy Steele

New films at upcoming festivals

March 1, 2022

Both of our recent projects for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will be screening at upcoming festivals. First up, How to Count a Wolf, our short film on wolf recovery in Washington, is a finalist in the World Wildlife Day Film Showcase. The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Jackson Wild have selected the short list of films as part of UN World Wildlife Day on March 3, 2022.

The 30th annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital will screen virtually March 17-27. The Predator-Prey Project is included in the Conservation Shorts II block, along with another Methow-grown project, Finding Gulo. We’ll be joining a Q&A with a few of the other filmmakers.

How to Count a Wolf will then return to the east coast for the New York Wild Film Festival, April 1-9, 2022. This festival will be in-person, with our film screening on Saturday afternoon, April 9, at the Explorers Club.

Covid in the County

November 3, 2021

As the Delta variant of Covid-19 overwhelms our local healthcare system, fellow filmmaker and frequent collaborator Tim Matsui is at work on a series of short profiles for Okanogan County Public Health. His latest installment is a ride-along with a busy Lifeline ambulance crew as they respond to acute Covid-19 cases in addition to their usual mix of calls. Benj has been assisting Tim with graphics and audio post-production for the series.

Wolves at the Fresh Coast Film Festival

October 14, 2021

How to Count a Wolf, our short film on wolf recovery in Washington, will wrap up it’s 2021 tour season at the Fresh Coast Film Festival, October 14-17, 2021. Held each fall in Marquette, Michigan, the festival always features an exceptional schedule of outdoor and conservation programming. Wolves are a hot topic in the Upper Midwest these days so we were thrilled to see it included.

Wolves at Mountainfilm

May 13, 2021

We’re excited to share that How to Count a Wolf, our short film on the science of wolf recovery in Washington State, will screen at Mountainfilm 2021! This year’s festival will include 100 short films and 20 features and take place from May 28-31 in Telluride, Colorado and then as an online program available world-wide from May 31-June 6. If you haven’t tried a virtual festival this past year, this is one of our favorites and worth checking out.

The Predator-Prey Project

March 25, 2021

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WDFW ungulate research scientist Melia DeVivo warned us, “wildlife doesn’t respect working hours or weekends.” She receives a phone notification every time a deer stops moving or a trap triggers, day or night. But none of us could have imagined all the challenges that come with a global pandemic when we first started exploring how to tell this story over a year ago.

Besides Covid-19, our main shooting window was also unseasonably warm. Deer are particularly unmotivated to enter a trap for a snack when there’s plenty of natural forage to be found. So during our week working with the ungulate team in northeast Washington, we didn’t catch a deer until the last two hours we had on the ground. They normally process three or more a day. Luckily, we live in the Okanogan study area and could move quickly when a cougar entered a trap just down the road. We also figured out how to do long-lens, socially-distanced interviews. This was simply one of those projects where, even though we knew the mix of scenes and characters we needed, getting them in-hand proved a steeper climb than anticipated.

bioGraphic and Only One

March 22, 2021

Two of our films were recently picked up by fantastic online publications dedicated to biodiversity and conservation action. Today Blue Carbon, our film on mud and climate mitigation, is now part of the Green Seas journey on Only One. The site chronicles the power of the ocean as a climate solution, particularly mangroves and other coastal ecosystems.

In February, bioGraphic syndicated How to Count a Wolf. A publication of the California Academy of Sciences, the site contains a tremendous archive of conservation and solutions stories from around the globe. We’re honored to see our film included!

Wolves at DCEFF

March 18, 2021

How to Count a Wolf is kicking off its tour season with virtual screenings at DCEFF March 18-28, 2011. The film is playing in the Conservation I shorts block alongside three other films that highlight at-risk wildlife populations in North America. We also sat down with the other filmmakers for a short Zoom Q&A that runs at the end of that block.

How to Count a Wolf

November 19, 2020

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The wolves were supposed to be a short scene in a different film. Over the last year we’ve been working with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on a story about predator-prey research here in the Methow Valley and northeast Washington. Part of that large study involves wolves, but after one day in the field with the wolf biologists, it was clear there was a second film we had to make first.

After a 75-year absence, wolves are now rapidly recolonizing Washington. WDFW is tasked with managing this recovering population using a variety of high-tech tools, perseverance and hard work. Each year they publish an annual report that updates policymakers and the public on how the wolf population is doing. To compliment that report – and clear up some misconceptions about their work – they asked us to make a film that explains how they know what they know about wolves in Washington.