NRDC’s Award-Winning Film WILD THINGS to Premiere on Pivot
LOS ANGELES (May 8, 2015) – The award-winning documentary film, Wild Things, produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), will premiere on Participant Media’s television network, Pivot, as part of “Doc Watch:” Wednesdays on May 13 at 9 p.m. Eastern. The film exposes the often needless and brutal slaughter of wolves, bears, coyotes and other native carnivores by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program, largely on behalf of the ranching industry. It also features the innovative technologies and techniques some ranchers are using to protect these animals from harm.
Wild Things has played in festivals across the country and won top awards at the International Wildlife Film Festival and the Yosemite International Film Festival. Watch the Wild Things trailer and take action at www.wildthingsmovie.org.
Large native carnivores balance ecosystems and keep wilderness healthy. However, they are also seen as a threat to livestock, leading the Wildlife Services program to kill approximately 100,000 coyotes, wolves and other native carnivores annually. According to the “kill list” recently released by U.S.D.A.,
Wildlife Services killed a total 2.7 million animals of 319 species in 2014, including nearly 62,000 coyotes, more than 300 mountain lions and 580 black bears.
Wildlife Services uses inhumane methods to kill carnivores and those methods are often costly and ineffective. For instance, despite Wildlife Services spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shoot, trap and poison large carnivores, America’s coyote population continues to grow.
“Americans need to know about the brutal and unnecessary killing that is being done in their names and with their tax dollars,” said Andrew Wetzler, director of NRDC’s Land & Wildlife Program who appears in Wild Things. “We need to put pressure on Wildlife Services to change its ways.”
Wild Things showcases progressive ranchers in the U.S. and Canada who are learning to coexist peacefully with native carnivores. They are using modern technology such as radio collars for wolves, electric fencing and infrared cameras and rediscovering old methods of animal husbandry to create a better future for livestock, wildlife and wilderness.
Background
Wild Things is a production of NRDC. It was directed and produced by Molly O’Brien and Daniel Hinerfeld; co-produced by Lisa Whiteman; edited by Christopher Johnson; written by Daniel Hinerfeld; associate produced by Kashina Kessler; music composed by Derek Baird; visual effects by Jake Maymudes; narrated by Joshua Stamberg; cinematography by Stephen McCarthy, Jon Else and Bob Landis.
To find Pivot visit http://find.pivot.tv. Review copies of Wild Things are available from NRDC. Contact Gabriel Kauper at (310) 434-2307.
Wild Things is the third documentary produced by NRDC’s film unit to air on national TV. In 2009, NRDC’s movie Acid Test, narrated by Sigourney Weaver, premiered on Discovery Planet Green. Acid Test was the first documentary to introduce ocean acidification to a general audience. In 2011, NRDC’s film Stories from the Gulf, narrated by Robert Redford, premiered on Discovery Planet Green. Stories from the Gulf was made in conjunction with the oral history project, StoryCorps, and was the first nationally televised film to focus on the consequences of the BP oil disaster for Gulf residents. NRDC is currently in post-production on a 60-minute documentary about the impact of industrial and military ocean noise on whales and other marine life called Sonic Sea.