Jackson Wild Media Awards 2022

A young indigenous leader and his environmental team fight against farmers involved in the wholescale destruction of vast swathes of the Amazonian rainforest.
Alex Pritz's film focuses on the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous Surveillance Team as they set about challenging the way landowners are destroying environmentally rich areas for profit. It draws on intimate access to both the Indigenous community and the opposing farmers network, to track the enormous changes that have taken place in Amazon region over the last three years. The escalation of activity by the farmers forces Bitate and Neidinha, a young Indigenous leader and his mentor, to find new ways to protect the rainforest from a rapacious industry whose support reaches all the way to Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro.

This is the true story of a family of titans: around thirty sperm whales, fifteen females and eleven calves, who live off the coast of Mauritius, plus the large males returning from months of hunting in the southern seas. For the first time, this film will tell the story of a family of sperm whales. It allows you to live among a family of sperm whales, witness the first breastfeeding of the calves, understand the functioning of the clan, the different social functions of the females, the unsuspected importance of the males. And follow their extraordinary destinies, with their joys, their moments of tenderness, their dramas.

A visually stunning celebration of what makes Texas unique, its diverse landscapes and remarkable wildlife behavior that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

Chosen to open the 40th anniversary of the Nature series on PBS, this film is about a veteran wildlife cameraman who is bee obsessed. Seeking refuge from the pandemic in a small city garden, he is filming the wild bees that live there with mind-blowing results. From giant bumblebees to scissor bees the size of a mosquito, he has seen over 60 species of bee. But more importantly, he is developing a close relationship with an individual bee he follows through its entire life.

Filmed in 22 counties, it follows 80 unique species on how they pursue a mate, from the beginning of the courtship to how they overcome enormous obstacles in the race to win a partner.

This documentary showcases the remarkable adaptability of sperm whales. Inspired by 19th‑century whaler accounts, it reveals how whale pods developed escape strategies through social learning, effectively outsmarting hunters using coordinated behavior and communication.

Witness an arribada – a mass nesting of sea turtles on an Oaxacan beach – that ocean conservation group WILDCOAST protects, and see how a small group of dedicated people have a massive impact on an endangered species survival.

Using trap-motion cameras, wildlife photographer Carlton Ward charts the habitat of the elusive – and vanishing – Florida panther. Filmmaker Eric Bendick follows Ward and cohorts as they pursue the perfect photograph that they believe will change the tide of public indifference to government-sanctioned destruction of the Everglades' delicately balanced ecosystem and the panther's imminent extinction. Image-making has rarely felt this essential to our planet's survival.

As the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age, they left an astounding gift of connected rivers, lakes and wetlands across the heartland of North America. Today, these largely unknown water highways remain an oasis for sustaining wildlife. From the herds of bison that still roam the Great Plains to the vital honeybees that pollinate our crops and especially for the millions of magnificent birds that migrate along these "flyways."

A collection of biologists inventively save desert tortoises with a brilliant hack! (USA, 17 MIN)

Documentary about the secret islands of the Everglades, which are hugely significant for culture and biodiversity.

Host Joe Hanson travels to Central Oregon, where ecologists like Dr. Chris Jordan and Dr. Emily Fairfax explore how beavers—nature's master builders—help restore stream systems, bolster fish populations, buffer wildfires, and mitigate drought by engineering dams and wetlands

Amidst a catastrophic plastic waste crisis in her hometown of Nairobi, Nzambi Matee risks everything to pioneer revolutionary technology that transforms plastic waste into sustainable paving bricks.

Every year, millions of people travel the world to get their fix of the cute, the cuddly, and the charismatic. We take our families to zoos, ride on the back of elephants, visit dolphin shows at aquariums, and watch animals perform tricks at circuses.

In sym-bee-o-sis, scientists discover that the alliance between bees and plants depends on an unexpected third partner: microbes! But the chemicals we use in agriculture are putting this ancient partnership at risk.

In August 2021, the ambitious mission to reintroduce 12 cheetahs from South Africa and Malawi back into the Zambeze Delta ecosystem in Mozambique took place. It is estimated that fewer than 7,000 African cheetahs are living in the wild today, with the population having halved over the past four decades. We are proud to have partnered with the The Cabela Family Foundation, Ivan Carter Wildlife Conservation Alliance, ANAC, The Endangered Wildlife Trust, African Parks, The Zambeze Delta Conservation to have made this relocation possible.

The ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest are home to giant trees and many secrets, which science is just beginning to understand. But these forests are at risk of disappearing. In British Columbia on First Nation territory, a small band of forest defenders are risking life and liberty to protect some of the last remaining ancient forests.

Land managers have a unique opportunity to turn tens of millions of acres into healthy pollinator habitat. In particular, power companies with right-of-way corridors and buffer zones are uniquely positioned to create large pollinator highways. These untapped areas have the potential to become one of the largest pollinator projects in history. If power companies and other land managers choose to work together planting flowers and reducing chemical use across the landscape, we can bring back pollinators and-with them-a host of essential food and ecosystem resources. As electricity flows through the landscape, power companies can help pollinators flow through the ecosystem.

INTO THE ICE is a journey of discovery to the vast masses of ice and the secret of our future that the ice harbouring. Director Lars Ostenfeld accompanies three of the world's leading glaciologists on pioneering scientific expeditions to and INTO the Greenland ice sheet. Cool and hardworking Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, sensitive and politically engaged Jason Box, and daring and fearless Alun Hubbard are all working to collect new crucial data that can help us answer some key questions of our time: How fast is the ice melting? How quickly are sea levels rising? How much time do we have left to change the course of the Earth? As the scientists are caught in the dilemma of collecting new evidence to an inconvenient truth while people in power are not prepared to take action to prevent the earth from dying, the film brings us breathtaking images from a place that soon will be lost as we know it now. A documentary tale about science, nature and adventure.

The story biggest polar expedition in history - an urgent mission to uncover the secrets of the melting Arctic and what it means for the rest of the planet. Follow the intrepid team of the MOSAiC Expedition—hundreds of scientists from around the world who are taking on the greatest challenge of our time: Climate Change.

With Carbon in the news every day, you might think you know everything about her. But you'd be wrong. This spectacular and surprisingly unorthodox documentary reveals the paradoxical story of the element that builds all life, and yet may end it all. Narrated in first person by Sarah Snook (Succession), Carbon tells of her birth in the violent core of an exploding star and of turbulent sagas through the fabric of our evolving Earth. Accompanied by celebrated scientists, unique animations and a stunning orchestral score, Carbon reminds us of our humble participation in the most extraordinary story in the universe.

Alizé Carrère dives into the coral reefs surrounding Vanuatu, exploring how these vibrant ecosystems are threatened by invasive crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, warming seas, and overfishing. She meets local communities working to restore reef health—through coral gardening, composting invasive starfish biomass, and sustainable fishing—and showcases human ingenuity in adapting to environmental change.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg juxtaposes the absurdity of political inaction with the straightforward high-stakes of the climate emergency.

Posidonia seagrasses, which are an important habitat, an effective form of carbon capture, and a stabilizing factor for the shoreline, are diminishing worldwide. Boat moorings with dragging chains destroy seagrass meadows. This film documents a pilot program to restore the seagrasses in Botany Bay, Sydney, by replacing the moorings and enlisting the public to collect seagrass shoots for replanting.

Told from the perspective of activist Narubia Werreria, The Ghost Rainforest follows a group of five indigenous leaders and activists from the Amazon as they make a once-in-a-lifetime journey to a little-known temperate rainforest on the West Coast of Scotland. This visit is set amidst the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, capturing a moment in history when the world needed to listen to indigenous activists, the "guardians of the forests." This film focuses on the importance of indigenous wisdom to protect these habitats before it's too late.

Two out of five wild plants are threatened with extinction. Today people are finding remarkable ways to help them, and so make our world a little greener and a little wilder.

Using stunning underwater footage, Patrick explores the fascinating nature of the sperm whale, attempting to shine a light on its intelligence and complexity, as well as highlighting its current and past relationship with humankind.

When a wild tiger kills men who enter his territory he is declared a man-eater and locked up in a zoo. This galvanizes massive social uproar and activists take their cause to the streets, online, on to billboards and all the way to the Supreme Court.

The island of O'ahu is covered with coconut palms, but for fear of liability the vast majority of these sacred trees have been stripped of coconuts. The grassroots movement "Niu Now" is on a mission to restore the "niu," or coconut, as a fundamental food crop in Hawai'i and spread the Indigenous wisdom of "aloha 'aina:" loving land and serving people.

"Bring the Salmon Home" is a story about the Klamath River Tribal communities as they host a 300+ mile run from ocean to headwaters to cultivate support for the removal of the four lower Klamath River dams. The Klamath Salmon Run was started by local youth in 2003, a year after dams, diversions, and drought led to a traumatizing fish kill that littered the banks of the Klamath with dead salmon for miles. The event has become an important way for the many small communities along this remote river in far northern California to find solidarity in the struggle to protect their salmon and their way of life. With regulators poised to approve dam removal plans later this year, runners are now racing into a future of hope and optimism.

In the startling collapse of the once massive George River Caribou Herd - and a subsequent total hunting ban - Inuit in Labrador, Canada, were abruptly confronted with a new reality: life without a fundamental source of food, culture, and wellbeing. Through Inuit voices, HERD tells the story of the social, emotional, and cultural disruptions from cascading ecological change by putting an essential human face to the caribou declines.

Wild Potential profiles Gorongosa National Park ecologist Dominique Gonçalves and her Girls Clubs initiative, empowering local schoolgirls through conservation education and role models in Mozambique's iconic park

An international group of women test their limits in completing one of the last attempted expeditions to the North Pole.

Inside the core of the climate movement, concerned citizens in Germany put their bodies on the line to save an ancient forest from Europe's largest coal mine. They form an unlikely alliance with a frustrated community in rural England who are forced into action to protect their homes from a new mine.

A coexistence way of life is being adopted in the Bella Coola Valley, however, human-bear conflict is on the rise.

Dive into a world where a single life can last a thousand years, with David Attenborough. See things no eye has ever seen, and discover the dramatic, beautiful plant life of Earth.

Dynasties II follows four iconic animal families—led by puma, elephant, cheetah, and hyena—across dramatic landscapes from the Andes to African plains. Each protagonist faces life‑and‑death struggles to survive, secure their genetic legacy, and lead their dynasties through changing environments. A special episode featuring a Barbary macaque leader (Mac) rounds out the series.

Will Smith travels to the extreme ends of the earth from active volcanoes to deep ocean adventures.

While exploring the world beyond their den, Kaya and her brothers get lost. Baby pangolin Matengu and his mom look for a new home. Tabo finds a friend.

This is the story of the rise, fall and return of black rhino to the wilds of Gonarezhou. Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe has twice lost its black rhino population due to human intervention. In 2021, black rhino returned to the wilds of Gonarezhou. This is a story about hope, about the relationship between people and wilderness and about evaluating the worth of a wild landscape.

This short documentary chronicles the pioneering effort led by a Tanzanian park ranger—the first in his country—to organize and execute a black rhino translocation entirely without international assistance. It highlights local leadership in rhino restoration within Mkomazi National Park and the rise of Tanzania's own ranger expertise

'Reformed' is a moving and inspiring reformation story of a former poacher, Kapanda Chilekwa', turned ranger. This film goes from understanding Kapanda's background and what got him into poaching to further shed light on his reformation.

It's the hottest place on Earth, but Death Valley is remarkably full of life. Baratunde Thurston meets an ultra-marathoner who runs in the brutal heat of summer and an elder of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe.

Patrick goes in search of animals that have mastered the art of protection and discovers how their genius is inspiring new technologies to protect people in the future.

Acorn barnacles might look like jagged little rocks at low tide, but they have a surprisingly wild sex life. These crusty little animals — related to crabs and shrimp — have the longest penis of any animal relative to their body size. It's up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself!

Those precious silk garments in your closet were made by the caterpillars of a fuzzy white moth – thousands of them. Silkworms spin a cocoon with a single strand of silk up to 10 city blocks long. Humans have bred these insects into weaving machines that can no longer survive in the wild.

The ocean receives a whopping eight million tons of plastic every year. 79% of all plastic ends up in landfills or, directly in the environment and/or oceans.

In the summer of 1988 dry lightning sparked a fire in the parched and drought ridden landscape of Yellowstone National Park igniting a blaze that would scorch over 1.5 million perimeter acres. This is the story of a conflagration that raged unabated for months until a snow of intense severity extinguished the flames. That winter surviving Fauna, exhausted from fire and weakened by hunger, die in greater numbers than those claimed by the fire. This sparkling gem has played in over 150 film festivals world-wide and been awarded many accolades - Best Animation, Best Music and Original Composition, Best Narration and Voice-Over and multiple awards for Best Video Poetry. Thanking Mark Murphy of Secrets & Machines for the music, Peter Coyote for Narration, Betsy De Fries for the Poem, Song of Fire, and our very own Creative director, Jerry van de Beek of Little Fluffy Clouds for Animation and Design.

Brothers Saud and Nadeem were raised looking at a sky speckled with black kites, watching as relatives tossed meat up to these birds of prey. Muslim belief held that feeding the kites would expel troubles. Now, birds are falling from the polluted, opaque skies of New Delhi and the two brothers have made it their life's work to care for the injured black kites. Shaunak Sen's intricately layered portrait reveals an evolving city and a fraternal relationship bonded by purpose. The film's patient, roaming camera skillfully uses scale and perspective to draw attention to the interconnectedness of an ecosystem — one that humans are a part of, not apart from. The social unrest that begins to materialize in the streets is seen through the perspectives of the brothers and their family, as well as the insects and animals that share the urban landscape. There is both cruelty and tenderness in nature, and Sen elegantly captures how they coexist, while emphasizing the ways in which all living beings must evolve to survive.

Maurice and Katia Krafft dedicated their lives to exploring the world's volcanoes. Their legacy consists of groundbreaking footage of eruptions and their aftermath, composed in this visual stunning collage.

At 'Growing Underground', a small team of farmers dressed in lab coats, and working under the pink hues of UV lights have converted a disused air raid shelter into a farm that operates regardless of season, weather, or even soil.

Filmed in Colombia, South America, Johnny Holder's film, Sonora, floats through the perspectives of Juan Pablo Culasso, a sightless birder. The film takes an experimental and reflective approach to observe changing soundscapes in nature and what it's like for someone without sight to navigate these changes through sound, touch, and smell. The written thesis discusses the origins, inspiration, and production of the film.

In the estuary of Laguna, south of Brazil, there is a special group of Dolphins that are known to help the fisherman catch their favorite fish, the Mullet. They are called by these fishermen "The Good Dolphins" and they have been working together for the last 150 years.

From elephants to termites, an entire community of creatures in Africa call the waterhole their home.

Tropical rainforests are plant battlegrounds. New filming techniques allow us to enter the world of plants to see it from their perspective and on their timescale.

The city of Vienna is home to over 230 beavers, including one special family: the stars of this film! We follow them as they navigate the urban world in which they have made their home. From living in an unexpected "lodge," to swimming past humans and using empty boats as places to relax, you've never seen beavers like this before.

Westward Wings follows researcher, Maggie Hirschauer, as she strives to learn more about the monarch butterfly population in western Montana. Using her research as a case study, this film explores the topic of pollinator conservation across the western United States during a time of global decreases in insect populations.

In Miami, animals from around the globe thrive – peafowls, monkeys, crabs, and more create a vibrant urban wildlife scene. Discover their unexpected journey!

Water plants create beautiful, bizarre worlds. Flowers smother rivers and lakes. Plants fight and hunt. A river bubbles like champagne as plants create the atmosphere itself.

As the Kalahari Desert faces a worsening dry season, prides, packs and herds of all kinds must rely on the power of family to survive.

Scott Burnett is "Scatman"- an Australian ecologist on the trail of the secrets of poop. By identifying and analyzing animal scat for DNA and hormones, he discovers essential details of their behavior and how to protect them.

On a remote island in the Pacific, Will Smith descends into the heart of an active volcano to investigate sounds beyond human hearing. Will discovers that everything on our planet creates its own unique sound—even if we can't always hear it. With the help of technology, we can tune into the hidden sounds of our planet, from the pull of the moon on our mountains and cities to a silent rumble so deep and powerful, it can move the earth around it.

In Wisconsin, where extreme partisanship has become the norm, voters are finding their lives increasingly irrelevant to state lawmakers. Through the stories of four tireless women fighting to have their voices heard, Can You Hear Us Now? unravels the ways that years of one-party control reshaped democracy in a state at the center of American politics.

From the majestic peaks of the snow-capped Sierras to the parched valley of Payahuunadü, "the land of flowing water," Manzanar, Diverted: When WATER BECOMES DUST poetically weaves together memories of intergenerational women. Native Americans, Japanese-American WWII incarcerees and environmentalists form an unexpected alliance to defend their land and water from Los Angeles.

An old, battle scarred hippo bull was once a giant king amongst the largest concentration of hippos on this planet. Normally hidden under water or concealed in the cover of darkness, the hippo is an animal cloaked in mystery and largely misunderstood. For the first time ever, we get to know the true character of one of the planet's largest land mammals, as we reveal the life story of a charismatic hippo bull in Africa's Luangwa Valley, starting from the day he was born.

This short film explores the coexistence between Indigenous Sámi reindeer herders and apex predators such as bears, lynx, and wolverines in Northern Scandinavia. Through stunning cinematography and on-the-ground interviews, the piece addresses the complex relationship between cultural tradition, predator conservation, and modern landscape pressures. It highlights the Sámi people's deep-rooted connection to nature and the challenges of protecting both heritage and wild species in shared territories.

A celebration and exploration of the people and communities conserving and restoring Britain's natural habitats and the wildlife that inhabit them - because if we step back and let nature take over, wonderful things can happen.

Agent Jamie Manson for the ARK foundation was sent underwater to study the effects the ocean has on life. Little did he and his team know, danger lurks in the deepest part of the oceans depths.

David visits archaeological sites where fossils were found illustrating the origins of life on earth, in the ocean. For long, evolution worked very slow and species remained primitive, mostly single-cell, alter fractal. Only the invention of sexual reproduction kick-started genetic diversification.

Endgame is about grappling with the climate crisis from the inside out. From the vantage point of a country town in Australia, the project explores the connections between big and small things to look at how the crisis is re-shaping our relationship to ourselves, each other and the world.

"Colonies in Conflict" is a feature length documentary that examines the state of wild bees in a fast-developing Indian landscape. Human action is causing pollinator declines all over the world spelling disaster to nutritional security and biodiversity of our ecosystems. Filmmaker Rajani Mani gives a first-person account of how expanding cities are wiping out native bee populations, starting from her own neighbourhood.

Going Circular dares to imagine a future where humankind not only survives, but flourishes, by rethinking global paradigms and respecting the limits of our planetary resources. Meet four groundbreaking thinkers who navigate environmental, economic, and social crises of the modern age. They each discover that the solutions for creating a circular economy and planet have already been perfected in nature itself.
An Off the Fence production for Curiosity Studios in coproduction with ZDF Enterprises, ZDF and Arte. Executive Producers Robert-Jan van-Ogtrop, Thomas Anthony and Allison Bean. Produced by Ellen Windemuth and Sam Barton- Humphreys, Directed By Nigel Walk and Richard Dale.

After generations of absence, a silent shadow has returned to the forests of central Spain – one that the magpies are learning to fear again: the Iberian lynx.

Jehan wants to understand his own experience as a British Asian who loves the natural world but has felt the inequalities of society. He sets off and meets Reuben, Chantelle and Mya and finds he's not alone in his experience and there is hope for the future.

The Fukumitsu 'Ohana (family) of Hakipu'u are Native Hawaiin taro farmers. When a nearby corporation digs up their familial burial ground, they are drawn into a logistically and emotionally complex quest to preserve their ancestral land.

The Awakening of the Asian Elephant' is a short observational documentary about an elephant who falls sick and the local mahouts (elephant caretakers) who fight to save her life.

This nature documentary is a journey to a place that everyone knows, but has never seen like this: a vegetable garden and its many inhabitants. Countless species of insects, spiders and other tiny animals find a refuge here when the gardener abandons all pesticides.

RHINO MAN is an award-winning documentary about the courageous wildlife rangers who risk their lives every day to protect South Africa's iconic rhinos from violent poaching syndicates.

In a desperate attempt to host his own children's nature show, a fumbling filmmaker travels 3,000 miles asking North Americans how to save the endangered monarch butterfly, and ourselves, from extinction.

A stunning visual exploration of matter in various states of microbial transformation begs fundamental questions about our complicated relationships with other species.
Wrought begins with that universal moment of disappointment: despite all best efforts, our food has gone bad. But instead of turning away in disgust, Wrought zooms in, approaching the usually hidden world of decay with curiosity and stunning time lapse photography. Spoiling dinner leftovers bloom with successions of geometric bacterial colonies. Yeasts churn and froth in the torrential flood of juice leaking from a decaying melon. Cheese is slowly engulfed by carpets of furry, green mould. But, the film asks, would rot by any other name still reek?
In answering this question, Wrought unfolds a larger story about the ways we humans construct categories for the world around us that can be limiting. It explores (and challenges) terms like spoil, ferment, compost and rot as it coaxes audiences to decompose these categories and their associated binaries: self and other, human and non-human, and nature and culture. As the film title implies, we are all forged out of the relationships that transgress such binaries; we are all, indeed, wrought.

As endangered species are vanishing at alarming rates, can just one person really make a difference? If that one person is Dr. Purnima Devi Barman, then maybe the answer is yes. When a wildlife photographer travels to India to document the Greater Adjutant, the world's rarest stork — known to the locals as Hargila — he discovers Barman and her inspiring efforts to rally the local community of Assam, India, to save it.