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It is an honor and complete pleasure to welcome animal story-teller, Teresa Carante, back to San Antonio's Animalis Fabula Film Festival, #AniFab24! Welcome home, Teresa, to your AniFab Family that is. Teresa Carante is a two time AniFab alum! Teresa has a resume most could only wish for, and she's just getting started. For AniFab 24, Teresa is presiding over a filmmaker focused workshop on Friday morning at 10AM November 29 in Theatre 7 at the AMC RiverCenter Mall as she will be explaining how she managed to work on so many animal related stories, by others as well as her own productions. Teresa has a massive wealth of knowledge she is keen to pass on to others who harbour the same dreams and ideas she holds dear. Teresa Carante is also AniFab 24 Head of Jury. Teresa will also be helping moderate Q & A's on a host of movies being presented at #AniFab24, on "International Friday", including Watson, the Anifab main Friday night feature about jailed Whale activisit Captain Paul Watson. Teresa spent the summer of 23 on board the John Paul Deloria filming with the Paul Watson Foundation.  Teresa Carante https://www.teresacarante.com Cinematographer, Documentary Filmmaker Teresa Carante is an award-winning documentary cinematographer with an unwavering love for wildlife and the natural world. With a decade of traversing the globe and capturing awe-inspiring moments, Teresa has learned how to adeptly capture breathtaking moments and transform them into compelling stories that resonate with audiences. From filming with Aboriginal elders and dingoes in the vast landscapes of Australia to sharing a home with a retired nurse and her five pet crocodiles in Melbourne, Teresa's experiences have been as diverse as the subjects she has captured. Venturing into the heart of Northern Vietnam, she went undercover to document the plight of endangered Asian pangolins and sailed the North Pacific aboard an anti-whaling ship, surrounded by passionate environmentalists. She is deeply committed to utilising her craft for ocean conservation and has served as a topside Director of Photography for prestigious organisations like Pristine Seas National Geographic Society and Neptune Pirates, The Paul Watson Foundation. In Jun 2023 she joined "Operation Paiakan" & "Operation Bloody Fjords" on board of Neptune's Pirates new ship, the John Paul Dejoria, navigating across the North Atlantic Ocean reaching Iceland first and the Faroe Islands last. The following month she was filming for Pristine Seas in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and was invited again as top-side DP and Field Producer this year for their most ambitious expedition in Papua New Guinea. In 2022 Teresa's short film "The Awakening of the Vietnamese Elephant" not only secured numerous awards but also received an Honorable Mention at the Jackson Wild Media Awards. Teresa was also selected as one of nine wildlife cinematographers globally and participated in the 2022 Jackson Wild Cinematography Lab in Austria, mentored by luminaries Paul Atkins, ASC, and Stephen Lighthill, ASC, an experience that expanded her creative horizons. Subsequently, she was accepted into the ASC Vision Mentorship Program 2023-2024, receiving invaluable guidance from Rodney Taylor, ASC. As a Vision Mentee, in November 2023 Teresa was invited to apply to the Fresh Perspectives in Cinematography Grants, an initiative offered by AbelCine in collaboration with ARRI and The ASC - made available only to Vision Mentees. To her great joy, she was selected and offered $40.000 in ARRI video equipment and support to shoot her latest underwater short film 'POLICE DIVE', which is now about to premiere at the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival in Washington DC. Teresa’s directorial debut, "Mother Crocodile," was a 52-minute documentary that came to life with the support of ABC development fundings and the Documentary Australia Foundation. Additionally, she has produced, directed, filmed, and edited "Through Their Eyes," a captivating mini-doc series exploring the profound bond between humans and animal species across Australia, first available on Qantas inflight entertainment and now on the DocPlay streaming platform. A born traveler, she has called 12 countries home, earning a Master's in Social Anthropology and mastering various languages along the way. Currently, Teresa is relocating to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she works as a freelance documentary cinematographer and is continuously seeking new stories to tell and worlds to explore.
#AniFab24 is honored to present Noam Oxman and his Sympawnies as our special live and in person guest. Noam will be available to meet, explore his work, and talk with people in the NGO Hall of Heroes at the AMC Theatres entrance to the Animalis Fabula Film Festival. Noam will have some of his work on display, his videos and music will also be streamed and looped throughout the AniFab experience during #AniFab24 in the RiverCenter Mall.   Noam Oxman Sympawnies https://www.sympawnies.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@Sympawnies Noam will be performing live before the award ceremony on Saturday evening. Noam is renowned for his unique approach to art, creating animal portraits using musical notation that forms exquisite musical compositions. His innovative fusion of art forms has gained widespread recognition, with features in major media outlets and international TV networks. Noam's work is studied worldwide, from elementary to high educational institutes, inspiring young artists to invent unique mediums to express their ideas. Noam is a passionate animal advocate, and he uses his art to promote his message of compassion for animals and nature.
 Co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, Captain Paul Watson has spent 40 years fighting to end the destruction of the ocean's wildlife and its habitat. Filmed over two years in Costa Rica, Tonga, and the US, Watson is a feature documentary about the life of eco-warrior Captain Paul Watson. Paul Watson has created his own foundation, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, as Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the board of Sea Shepherd Global removed him. He has also left the executive office of the Australian branch of SSCS. In July 2024, Watson was detained in Nuuk by the Danish police, citing an Interpol red notice from Japan. He was expected to stay in pre-trial detention until 2nd October 2024; Watson and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to have the decision set aside. On October 2, the Nuuk court ordered Paul Watson to remain in custody until October 23, pending the decision on his extradition by the Danish courts. Director: Lesley Chilcott Producers: Louise Runge, Lesley Chilcott, Wolfgang Knöpfler Cinematographer: Logan Schneider Editor: Greg Finton Executive producers: Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Elise Pearlstein, Walter Köhler, Dinah Czezik-Müller Composer: Christophe Beck  Lesley Chillcott Director https://www.lesleychilcott.com Award-winning filmmaker Lesley Chilcott refuses to be boxed in, continuously exploring a variety of topics that engage audiences by tackling myths and illuminating the truth. Best known for her work on films tackling social and environmental issues such as WATSON, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, CODEGIRL and WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, she's recently been taking fresh, unfiltered looks at a variety of new subjects that have fascinated our culture for decades including directing and producing HELTER SKELTER: AN AMERICAN MYTH and producing AMITYVILLE: AN ORIGIN STORY, both of which are currently streaming on MGM+. Her latest project, ARNOLD, is a 3-part docuseries examining the life and work of Arnold Schwarzenegger that debuts on Netflix in June 2023. She's currently directing WOLVES, which examines the plight of wolves in the west and examines their status as one of the most misunderstood animals on the planet and exec producing HOT STUFF, a look at the enduring influence of Disco. She is also exec producing MASTERMIND, the 4-part Hulu docuseries about Dr. Ann Burgess, the architect of the FBI's infamous "mindhunter" method. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Directors Guild of America, and The Producers Guild of America, Chilcott lives in Los Angeles when she's not traveling the world filming.
‘Watson’ Review: Environmentalism on the High Seas - originally published in the NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/movies/watson-review Lesley Chilcott’s documentary on Paul Watson includes snippets of his “eco-vigilante” group’s widely publicized skirmishes. Paul Watson is a different sort of environmentalist than is typical in documentaries. In “Watson,” the director Lesley Chilcott’s profile of the maritime activist, he makes the case for direct confrontation on the high seas. If that meant ramming a boat he believed was engaged in poaching, then by god, that boat was getting rammed. A founding member of Greenpeace who left the organization on contentious terms, Watson started the conservation group Sea Shepherd in 1977. A professed “eco-vigilante” group that makes a mission of protecting aquatic wildlife around the globe, Sea Shepherd seeks out illegal fishing and stops ships that engage in it before they can act. The group has had widely publicized skirmishes with, among others, Japanese whaling vessels and with fishermen in Guatemalan waters whom Sea Shepherd has contended were slicing the fins off sharks. (“They claimed that I rammed them and tried to kill them,” Watson says of the latter. “I mean, if my decision was to ram them and try to kill them, they would be dead.”) We see snippets of those confrontations in the movie, because Watson, crediting the media theorist Marshall McLuhan as an inspiration, has long had cameras aboard Sea Shepherd’s vessels. (He has also been a presence on Animal Planet, the channel that is distributing the film.) This choice has left Chilcott with a wealth of white-knuckle footage that helps to keep the documentary visually dynamic. Watson’s vigilantism hasn’t gone unchecked: At the end, the film notes that he is still subject to an Interpol “red notice” — essentially an international “wanted” poster — requested by the Japanese authorities. But even for those skeptical of Watson’s tactics, he is engaging when describing his environmental concerns, such as how short-term sales create an incentive for fish sellers to push certain species to extinction. The movie can be frustratingly deferential toward Watson, but it is never less than urgent.  In a small town in the early 2000s, Abdulrahman a young Emirati boy wants to keep pigeons. On his way home one day he finds a pigeon that won't fly. He must convince his traditional father and fight off jealous neighbors to keep it though. Through the bond he forms with Noor the pigeon, he learns the true meaning of love and loss.  Director Thabit AlMawaly From as early as he can remember, Thabit has always loved the art of visual storytelling. A graduate with a degree in Digital Production and Storytelling in 2011, he pursued a filmmaking career. Being situated in the UAE allowed Thabit to work on numerous international productions with Imagenation Abu Dhabi, an Oscar-winning production company, as a third AD. These real-life experiences allowed him to learn from internationally renowned filmmakers like Michael Bay and Pierre Morel. Almost as soon as he was able Thabit has experimented in creating and competing in various local competitions, winning at the Ibdaa Awards in 2009 and has since competed in various film festivals with a number of short films and documentaries. He has experimented with creating online content with great success, done various commercial work, and even brought an immersive theatrical production to life with “Eat Dubai” in 2015.
Director Statement I think stories that start with profound questions are the ones most worth telling. In this case, it was looking at why we choose to lock up the things we love. Rethinking our approach to the things we hold dear in our lives is pretty universal, and I wanted to tell a story that could be relatable across the board while still entertaining audiences. I hope that viewers will be left smiling while still giving some thought to the themes of this film.  The Animal Thing is a Texas Premiere and Director Adam Linzey will be in attendance with Dr. Clair Linzey The life of controversial Animal Rights pioneer and maverick theologian Andrew Linzey is explored by his filmmaker son: A life spent as a progressive voice in the Anglican Church, as a polarizing force at the University of Oxford, and as a tireless campaigner for animals. This is an intimate portrait of a father who rigidly followed his moral compass at great personal cost.  Director Adam Linzey http://www.theanimalthing.com https://www.adamandjesse.com Adam Linzey is an award-winning British writer, director and cinematographer. He grew up in Oxford, England. At age 8, Adam accompanied his father to a TV studio, peering through the camera lenses. He didn’t want to come home and some say he never did. Adam won the Royal Television Society award for best student film for his undergraduate thesis film. He has directed numerous short films, which have received excellent critical reviews and played in festivals worldwide, picking up prestigious awards and nominations.  THE ANIMAL THING feature documentary about animal activist Dr. Andrew Linzey is our closing night movie Saturday evening, after the award ceremony, and is a Texas Premier. Director Adam Linzey will be in attendance, as will Dr Clair Linzey, Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. Dr Clair Linzey is a Research Fellow in Animal Ethics at Wycliffe Hall in the University of Oxford. Clair Linzey is a writer and an academic who works in the area of animal ethics. She works with and is inspired by the subject of "The Animal Thing," her Dad. This is her first time producing a movie, but she wanted to help shine a light on his work for animals.  Also in attandance with The Animal Thing team, Susan Boggio. Susan and her husband Dan are proud and early supporters of the Animal Thing documentary as Executive Producers. They are also Honorary Fellows at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics where Susan often attends and supports the Centre's Summer School. Susan also has her own animal rescue in Houston, TX called Happy Faces Pet Ranch where she rescues, restores and rehomes animals in need. Susan and Dan are supporters of other beings in the world enduring suffering of all kinds--children and refugees among them. Susan has traveled with her human charity work to India and Africa and also visited the largest Syrian Refugee camp in the world, Zatari in Amman, Jordan. Susan has been Board Chair of UNICEF USA, SW Region and a founding member of the UNICEF International Council.
Director Statement This isn’t easy to write. As a filmmaker I find it a lot easier making films about subjects than I do writing about them. It’s even more challenging to write about something so very personal. But here goes… I didn’t start with the objective of making a feature documentary about my father. Instead, I was trying to make something that was real and authentic. I wanted to make something that shows the incredible toll being an advocate or activist can have on someone. While interviewing Joyce Tischler, a trailblazing animal rights lawyer, for the documentary she said, “Animal people are often broken people.” As soon as she said that, I realized she might as well be describing my dad. It’s so important to tell this story now while he’s still around. My father is 71 but with his poor health he looks like someone 10 years older. This is often the case for people who spend their entire lives fighting for something they deeply care about. Some people call this compassionate fatigue, others call it burnout, or so on. Whatever you call it, it’s certainly taken its toll on my father. I’m not exaggerating when I say he was at death's door at moments shooting this film, in December 2022 he had a triple heart bypass, without which the doctor said he had about 2 weeks to live. That combined with depression, high blood pressure, and diabetes it was truly now or never when it came to making this film. It's been a tough film to make, both as a journey learning about the challenges my father faced, but there's also been the challenge of getting him to open up. My father is not someone who does so easily. I’ve spent countless hours filming him, coaxing him in every manner possible, in order to talk about his life and, as you’ll see in the film, he pushed back at every stage. So why is this so important that I needed to spend two years making this? The simple answer is because he’s made a massive, and largely unheralded, impact on the issue of animal rights across the world. I grew up in the 80s and 90s when it was still pretty weird to be vegetarian. I was teased relentlessly in school. The world has changed dramatically in that time, people have opened up to the idea that animals are important and do have value. My father has been a major part of that cultural shift, he’s certainly not been alone, but he’s one of a handful of people that said, we need to think differently about animals. He’s a rare bird, there’s not many Christian theologians that are also progressive thinkers. I suppose to put a fine point on it, what I’m trying to say is this: Most people who know my father, Andrew Linzey, regard his life as a great success. But Dad sees his life rather differently, he sees it as a series of failures. Now looking back, I wanted to finally tell his story: To explore his ideas and hopefully prove that he’s not a failure. Thank you for reading, Adam  Julia, a stressed businesswoman, enters an unusual café for an urgent meeting. As strange events unfold, long-buried memories resurface, forcing her to confront a painful past and what she once lost.  Director Alejandro G. Iglesias In 2019, he moved to Doha, Qatar, joining Digitek as a creative video editor and 3D designer. During his time there, he worked on high-profile projects for renowned brands such as Cartier, Galeries Lafayette, Dolce & Gabbana, Red Bull, and Audemars Piguet. Since 2022, Alejandro works in Monaco, creating video content for 3Dconnexion (formerly Logitech), continuing to grow his career in multimedia production and post-production. Alejandro’s passion for audiovisual storytelling led him to direct in 2024 his first short film, "Ekko", exploring the transformative power of animals. https://www.instagram.com/ekkodreams
Director Statement With Ekko, my aim is to explore the power animals have in healing and reshaping our emotional world. The film reflects my deep belief that, through their mere presence, animals can inspire profound change, especially within the fast-paced and often disconnected nature of modern life.  A boy named Hwan is desperate to have a dog of his own, but gets more than he bargained for when he finds a talking, super-powered PotenDog named Kai. Now he has to keep it secret, while helping Kai and his friends stop the evil GoldFangs. PotenDogs animated series is 12 x 24 minute episodes. AniFab is screening episodes 101, 102, and 103. This is a special presentation of the original series which screened at AniFab 21 in Austin, Texas now with an English Language cast.  Director Dahl Lee Dahl Lee is the creator and the director of a big-hit animated series, 'TOBOT'. Recently, he created a new series called, 'PotenDogs'. PotenDogs is a unique combination of action, comedy and musical. Dahl Lee's RetroBot Animation Studios 2008 – Present
The Korean Smash Hit Animated Series is Coming To America! PotenDogs Is “Planet Of The Apes Meets Transformers” With Spectacular Original Music! Since its debut in Korea, PotenDogs has become the most downloaded cartoon on Korea’s EBS Video On Demand Service. PotenDogs is way more than a grown-up kids Paw Patrol! “This extremely popular Korean animated series from Seoul-based RetroBot Animation Studios might be my new favorite cartoon discovery this year.” Jeremy Dickson 12/19/23, Features Editor. Kidscreen  In this fun, family friendly film Sarah and her best friend Michael win an internship at a Bahamian marine sanctuary for the summer. Sarah has been dreaming of a glamorous marine biology career, hoping to work at a theme park, but during her summer in the Bahamas, Sarah forms a deep bond with Bimini, a rescued dolphin and discovers that her true passion lies in animal rescue and marine conservation.  Director Robin Rene Conly https://www.robinconly.com/portfolio/latestproject Robin Conly is a seasoned filmmaker whose work has been featured on major networks including HBO, Hallmark, Lifetime, Hulu, and Netflix. In her recent role as Producer at Shadowboxer Films, Robin produced a slate of 15 feature films. This slate included a series of National Park Romance films for the Hallmark Channel, allowing Robin to combine her love for storytelling with her passion for travel. Robin was very excited to begin 2024 by flying to the Bahamas to direct “Dolphin Summer.” Having previously directed three family films - "Adventures of Pepper & Paula," "My Dog the Champion" and "Angel Dog" (all with international distribution and streaming availability on various platforms) - this is a genre close to Robin’s heart and one she knows well. Movies were a big part of Robin’s childhood, and then later, as a parent, she enjoyed watching fun family films with her two children.
Kyleigh Nikkels, Producer / Actor (Sarah) will be in attendance for this Texas premiere. Prior to the screening of Dolphin Summer Kyleigh will be conducting a workshop with a focus on indie film production and working with living animals. Kyleigh's story of making Dolphin Summer will blow your mind. Great leasons learned. |
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