Birth of a Pride is joint winner at Natur-Vision film festival

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We are pleased to announce that Birth of a Pride has recently won another international film award, the NaturVision Film Festival German Wildlife Film Award.

The jury was equally taken with the story of two lone-mother lionesses, who give birth to the first cubs in an area of Botswana where big cats and their prey had been virtually wiped out by hunting and poaching. The filmmakers spent weeks and months lying in wait in the savanna grass to provide profound and moving insights into the family life of the lions. In a dramatically artistic way, they have integrated the unique night images from an infrared camera into their documentary.

More information can be found by clicking here.

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Soul of the Elephant has won at the INFF 2016

The Innsbruck Nature Film Festival is proud to announce that SOUL OF THE ELEPHANT has won an HONORABLE MENTION for Nature Documentaries at the INFF 2016!

This is what the Jury said about the film:
English:
A very personal and empathetic approach to the topic of ivory and elephants.
By traveling into the very heart of the Botswanan elephant territories, the filmmakers manage to also provide a journey into the soul of the elephants.
Sensitively told without sensational self-aggrandizement, this film brings us nearer to these grey giants than any film has ever done before. Thank you and Congratulations!

Deutsch:
Eine sehr persönliche und einfühlsame Herangehensweise an das Thema Elfenbein und Elefanten.
Den Jouberts gelingt mit ihrer Reise ins Herz der Elefantengebiete Botswanas eine Reise in die Seele der Elefanten.
Gefühlvoll erzählt, ohne reißerische Selbstdarstellung, kommt dieser Film den grauen Riesen näher wie kaum ein Film zuvor. Danke und herzliche Gratulation!

Soul of the Elephant wins the highest accolade - "Grand Prix" at the Matsalu Film Festival

"An artistically beautiful film about one of the world’s largest animals with a strong but subtle conservation message. It cleverly weaves historical with current filming for a personal expedition into the soul of the elephant."

14 years ago a humble and tentative endeavour, Matsalu Nature Film Festival has now become one of the renowned and respected festivals in the film world, winning more and more attention with every subsequent year. Once started under the parallel name „Green Gate“ with this identifiable and obvious flavour of local event, it has now absolutely different dimensionality, covering the whole world.

http://www.matsalufilm.ee/en/2628/

Soul of the Elephant nominated for numerous accolades

Wildlife Films recent production 'Soul of the Elephant' has recently been nominated for a number of accolades and awards:

Best Wildlife Film by the 2016 New York WILD Film Festival.
Wins best Cinematography: International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana
Golden Green award at the Deauville Green Awards (France)
Won 1st Place at the international Film Festival Godollo (Hungary in the category: Documentaries on nature protection and conservation
18 May: Officially selected for Best Feature documentary of 2016 – Beijing International Film Festival
21st July: Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Nature Programming Category.

Synopsis:
Despite living in the wild in Botswana for 30 years, filming, researching and exploring the world they have come to know so well, award-winning filmmakers and conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert say they are often still surprised by what they come across on their journeys. Such was the case when the couple were exploring the backwaters of the bush one day and stumbled upon the skulls of two large bull elephants with their ivory tusks intact. To the Jouberts, this is always cause for celebration because it means the giants died of natural causes and not, for example, from poaching, snares or bullets.

An elephant’s age can be determined by its molar teeth, and the Jouberts conclude from them that both animals died at around 70, but still had a few years left to live. So what caused these bulls to die in the same place and at the same time? The mystery so intrigues the filmmakers, they decide to spend the next two years traveling through what would have been their home range, reconstructing the lives these elephants would have led, reimagining their birth and childhood, how they would have interacted with each other, their great migrations for water with their families and the inevitable encounters with lions.

Conservation at a Crossroads

Hear from Dereck and Beverly Joubert, among other dedicated wildlife experts who are working to protect threatened species and their fragile ecosystems for future generations. Learn about some of the innovative new ways they are helping communities and wildlife coexist more peacefully.

Joubert's 'Illuminations' brings Africa to Park City

Beverly Joubert's photography exhibition "Illuminations of Africa's Wildlife: Its Beauty, Its Struggle to Survive" is not just a collection of stunning black and white color images of lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinoceros -- it is a call to action.

"What we are dealing with right now is a battle over these animals because we are losing them at an alarming rate," said Joubert's husband, Dereck, during a conference call with The Park Record from their home in Botswana, South Africa. "We lose five lions a day, a rhino every seven hours and elephants at a rate of five an hour. There is a massive decline, and we, at the risk of our lives, do whatever we can about that.

"We thought we need to do a fine-art exhibition about these animals, largely because when these animals disappear, we will lose a lot and we need to illuminate exactly what we will lose when that happens," he said.

The exhibit, which will open at the Kimball Art Center with a member reception on Wednesday, Jan. 20, focuses on the beauty of the animals.

"It is exciting to bring Africa to North America and to enlighten people of what we have," Beverly said. "I think, too often, that people don't realize we have an incredible variety of animals and unfolding stories. This is a way for us to discuss the important and difficult issues."

Dereck and Beverly featured in GoPro virtual reality

Rhinos Without Borders in particular received a lot of recognition and acknowledgement this month through a successful partnership between Great Plains Conservation and GoPro.

GoPro released a completely interactive and immersive Virtual Reality Rhino Relocation clip on the 15th March. This video received 1,63 million views in the first week of it’s release…which shocked even the publishers at GoPro it seems!

You do not need any special glasses to move around and explore this world – just open the link on your phone, iPad or computer and enjoy this incredible experience. Please click here to view.