WHY STORIES MATTER MORE THAN EVER
Written just before his fatal trip to South Africa, this is Fox’s personal statement, accompanying his application for an MA in Wildlife Film-Making at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol.
“Our planet is headed for disaster. We need to learn to work with nature, rather than against it… And I’m going to tell you how,” finishes David Attenborough, looking into camera with a half-smile and a glint in his eye. They’re the words we have been waiting to hear for years. Finally, after years of environmental destruction and inaction reaching a crisis point, we are going to talk about solutions.
As people become increasingly aware of the damage being caused to our planet, nature documentaries are changing. Just a few years back, when producer Chadden Hunter gave a talk at our university about the making of Planet Earth II, similar questions to mine were put to him three times by a lecture theatre full of biologists. Why communicate only the inspiring beauty of the untouched parts of the natural world, when we know much of it is crumbling under the pressure of human activity? His answer, I had felt, was understandable but disappointing: a series that wasn’t negative or depressing could reach a greater number of people.
But watching more recent blue-chip productions, like Chadden’s South America episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet, I can see how rapidly the narrative is changing to bring light to environmental problems. When figures such as Attenborough warn that “the collapse of civilisations is on the horizon… we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years”, suddenly the story of the struggle for life is about us, too.
Society is on the brink of a momentous change. To some, collapse seems inevitable; to others, ambitious systemic change is not only necessary, but also offers an opportunity for hope. In a world awakening to the crisis we are in, now widely recognised by governments and civil society as an emergency that requires urgent action, we need to tell new stories to guide us through the coming changes. Stories are the means by which we understand, rationalise and moralise change; tell the right ones now, and we can grasp this window of opportunity to reach a brighter future.
We humans may be the problem, but we are also the solution. We are the only species that can turn this around. And so, I believe our stories of wildlife need new heroes: the dedicated people fighting passionately to protect the nature we have left, and to restore the wildness that’s been lost. As a child, the BBC’s documentaries awed me into love of wildlife; now, I believe our task is to inspire others to restore balance to the living world.
To move hearts and minds, inspiring action to save Earth’s creatures and the ecosystems we all depend on, we must tell the greatest stories of all time. For that, we need the king of storytelling media: film.
The speed and enormity of the anthropogenic annihilation I’ve witnessed since my childhood has convinced me we need to find new ways of engaging people with the nature we still have left, in order to protect it. I believe the wildlife communicator of the future is multi-skilled: someone who can design a research project, lead a field team, apprehend a poacher, train volunteers, fix a termite-ridden field base, take inspiring photographs, treat a venomous snakebite, write a popular science article, inspire schoolkids and publish scientific papers. But most importantly, make films that galvanize people into concrete action. That’s the reason I’m applying for this course. I want to create films that convey solid science accessibly, and in doing so help alter the outcomes of our world’s most pressing ecological challenges.
My first career began in the film industry at the age of eight, as a child actor. Working under high pressure on high- and low-budget feature films in the UK and abroad taught me versatility and professionalism early on. I won two awards at the age of 14, but although I loved acting, I knew that my vocation lay in science.
After my first volunteer experience monitoring South African wildlife aged 18, I was hooked. Studying Zoology at Manchester University, I became especially fascinated by animal behaviour, cognition, ecology, and conservation. Over the four years of the course (which included a year in the field in Costa Rica), I signed up to every field course, volunteer programme and wildlife monitoring project I could join, gaining research, husbandry and monitoring experience with African megafauna, spinner dolphins, and Asian mammals. I kept trying to figure out solutions to some of the massive problems I was witnessing in the field. By the time my graduation was announced, with a first-class degree and two awards for my academic performance, I was already on an expedition in Mexico with Operation Wallacea. I’ve since furthered my experience in wildlife rehabilitation and veterinary nursing, working with big cats, bears, monkeys, wolves and wolfdogs in animal sanctuaries in Thailand, Colorado and Bolivia. All in all, over the last seven years, I’ve been lucky enough to work with and study wildlife in a dozen countries – yet my training is far from complete.
My understanding of the challenges ahead began to deepen during my placement year on a biological research station in Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica, where I trained volunteers and interns to carry out turtle conservation monitoring – but saw that our efforts weren’t enough. While each of us might have protected a couple of thousand turtle hatchlings from the vultures, countless more were lost to the plastic debris that washed up endlessly on the coast, to nest-poachers, and to the coastal erosion caused by climate change strengthening the El Niño.
When we search for the root causes of conservation problems, the vast majority lead back to human activity. But the same, I have come to realize, applies to their solutions. To save wildlife, we must first communicate effectively to people, be it in raising awareness, providing alternative livelihoods, education, inspiration, or galvanising mass action. Media-for-conservation efforts, such as Blue Planet II’s coverage of plastic pollution and marine scientists’ work, have been instrumental in inciting real, measurable change. We need those stories now more than ever.
I began honing my communication skills in Costa Rica, where I designed and carried out a photographic study of colour polymorphism in vipers. Soon I was working more on science communication than on research, presenting to and training volunteers, editing and curating a portfolio of wildlife and landscape images. It led to my first photojournalistic publication: a front-page and centre-fold colour feature on turtle and jaguar conservation in Biological Sciences Review. This was followed by another publication in the same magazine this year, this time on the impact of climate change on wildlife in Mexico.
With new ways of communicating in mind, in June 2017 I founded the Wildlife Workers’ Network. Starting as a small Facebook group of colleagues, the organization now known as the Wildwork links together wildlife professionals from more than 130 countries. Over 13,000 members form a hive-mind which shares news, information, knowledge and advice, while connecting dozens of environmental projects around the globe. Using engaging outreach tools such as social media, photography, blogging, and videos, it aims to tell the stories of both professional and non-professional wildlife protectors and environmental guardians.
As part of this initiative, I began exploring portraiture – first of animals, and then of the Wildworkers who strove to protect them. My shot of a Royal Flycatcher caught in Operation Wallacea mist nets in Mexico won a photography competition initiated by OneSpecies, the conservation clothing brand behind the Co-extinction documentary. Of my images of monkeys rescued from the illegal wildlife trade in Bolivia, one was shortlisted for an animal portraiture award, and another was featured in the rescue centre’s official calendar. In Thailand, I re-investigated the case of the notorious Tiger Temple, and filmed material for an independent documentary series (still in progress) on Southeast Asian animal sanctuaries and their link to the illegal wildlife trade.
Realising the need to expand my communications portfolio, I next undertook a digital marketing course, which led to five months managing digital channels for a dive center in Indonesia. During this time, I completed my Rescue, Nitrox and Divemaster certifications, and to date have logged over 100 dives in five countries, as well as progressing considerably in freediving. Not least, I gained experience as a wildlife guide in the notoriously challenging currents of Komodo National Park, where I shared my knowledge of the biology of sea turtles and manta rays with guests. Fascinated by the complexities and technicalities of underwater imaging, I hope one day to achieve the skills to capture visually the complex cognition of underwater minds, such as those of cephalopods and cetaceans.
I had no idea how useful my new skills in social media management would become until I returned home. I became involved in campaigning work for the environmental activist group Rising Up, which was in urgent need of a social media co-ordinator. Two hectic weeks later, Extinction Rebellion’s social media following had quadrupled, and I was at the heart of what had quickly become a global mass movement. I went on to form, coordinate and train a growing team of content creators and social media managers, helping communicate the scientific and social rationale behind the Rebellion. I also started decentralised campaigns: #HumansofXR tells the stories and motivations of ordinary people joining the Rebellion. In #PaintTheStreets, activists use art, design and performance to communicate scientific truths and the need for action. This work is teaching me how to inspire and motivate radical collective change to protect the natural world and change human society. It’s what the Rebellion’s strategy teams and tacticians call “the codes for social change” – and regardless of XR’s success or failure, I’ll be sure to remember them in my future career, and to apply them to the Wildwork.
Now, as an antidote to my work in the Rebellion, I’ve turned my camera from non-violent law-breakers to militarised environmental law-enforcers. As I write this I am packing my bags to leave for Protrack anti-poaching training in South Africa, and launching a crowd-funding campaign to back an independent film project for the Wildwork. I’m collaborating with another film-maker to tell the story of the rangers putting their lives on the line to protect rhino and elephant from brutal killings, commissioned by wildlife trafficking syndicates. We’re hoping to focus especially on the empowered African women joining the first all-female anti-poaching units. By the time you read this, with any luck I will be on 16–day patrols with rangers – so I hope you’ll forgive any slow replies to e-mails.
As a biologist and science communicator, I have gained a broad range of skills that have made me adaptable to many environments. I’ve become confident, versatile and useful as a researcher, field guide, leader and storyteller. But so far, I have only filmed videos independently with second-hand gear and no budget, often working alone and building my own camera rigs. Without learning to use proper equipment, knowing how to find funding, a strong network of contacts, skilled collaborators I can rely on, and experience of long detailed edits, I am hitting a wall. I still lack the flair and professional ability I will need to be a confident creator of the king of content: film.
The threats to the natural world are increasing, but the solutions are just within our reach. Teach me to master film-making on your course, and I will use those skills to create something different, moving and powerful: a Wildwork documentary series that explores the relationships between our species and the rest of nature, setting out a bold plan to highlight what’s going right – and fix what’s going wrong.
I hope I have conveyed to you my passion for the subject you teach and the values we share, as well as my suitability for the MA. I look forward to hearing from you. I wish UWE all the best in next year’s course should you choose another candidate.
Kind regards,
Raphaël Coleman
RAPHAËL P. J. COLEMAN BSc. (Hons) Zoology
