“An Evening with Chris Palmer”
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CONFESSIONS OF A WILDLIFE FILMMAKER
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Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
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By Chris Palmer
Distinguished Film Producer in Residence
Director, Center for Environmental Filmmaking
American University School of Communication
palmer@american.edu; (202) 885-3408
www.environmentalfilm.org
www.ChrisPalmerOnline.com
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Tuesday, March 24, 2015
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Introduction—see separate notes.
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I’ve written a new book called Confessions of a Wildlife Filmmaker and here is my first
confession: I haven’t always lived up to my responsibilities as a filmmaker. I’ve been as guilty of
fabricating phony wildlife scenes as those I now criticize, and I’m ashamed of how long it took
me to realize that this practice was wrong. Today, the chase for ratings has driven broadcasters
into even worse practices, as I will show you.
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My new book is a memoir about my unusual childhood in England, my stern and demanding
father, my emigration to America, and my flaws as a Dad. It is also a look into the shallow world
of television, the foibles of environmental groups, the cruelty of SeaWorld, and the mistakes I
made while struggling to excel as a film producer, stand-up comic, and teacher—and how all of
those experiences shaped my views on wildlife filmmaking.
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Confessions of a Wildlife Filmmaker is also about how networks like Discovery, Animal
Planet, the History Channel, and National Geographic are failing in their responsibility to
produce and broadcast programs that are consistent with their founding visions. The industry is
undermined by sensationalism, fabrication, and animal abuse.
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I know many people at these networks and I can say that, typically, they are honorable and
ethical people who care about wild places and animals, but the business side of television seems
to coerce them into behavior that sometimes harms wildlife, spreads misinformation, and
coarsens our appreciation of nature.
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I believe the time has come for wildlife filmmaking to move in a more ethical direction. Let’s
start with the problem of viewer deception, which I discuss in Chapter 18 of the book.
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In the summer of 2013, the Discovery Channel launched its popular Shark Week with a twohour fake “documentary” titled Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives.
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The program featured “archival footage,” “scientific evidence,” and interviews with
“scientists” to convince viewers that a sixty-foot extinct shark that last survived on Earth over
two million years ago is still roaming the oceans and leaving a blood-soaked trail of havoc in its
wake. But the scientists were actors, the footage fake, the evidence fabricated, the photos
falsified, and the whole program from start to finish was a mockery of science.
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The program won huge ratings, but some people, including me, were outraged by Discovery’s
betrayal of its long-held and founding educational mission. Polling after the broadcast showed
that a whopping 73 percent of those watching believed that an enormous prehistoric shark roams
the oceans, even though this idea is false. LET’S WATCH A CLIP.
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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1c51na_shark-week-2013-megalodon-the-monster-sharklives-discovery-animals-nature-documentary_animals
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PLEASE GET IN PAIRS TO DISCUSS (FOLLOWED BY PLENARY SESSION)
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So with regard to audience deception, broadcasters should not present pseudoscience and
superstition without labeling it as such, and they should clearly identify footage of captive
animals and computer-enhanced images.
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Now let’s move from audience deception to harm to conservation, the focus of Chapter 19 in
Confessions of a Wildlife Filmmaker.
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Yukon Men is a popular Discovery Channel reality series about the citizens of a small town in
central Alaska. It portrays wolves as highly dangerous predators that besiege the town and
threaten the safety of all of the residents. Early on we see one of the show’s main characters
brutally killing a wolf with a semiautomatic assault rifle.
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In Yukon Men, all predators, including wolves, bears, and lynx, are demonized as vicious, and
deserving of painful deaths via leghold traps and other means.
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Wolves are intelligent, highly social animals, and caring parents. Yukon Men shows none of
that behavior. By characterizing wolves as menacing man-eaters, the series deals a significant
blow to wolf conservation efforts. Playing on a cultural fear that dates back to Little Red Riding
Hood and far beyond, Yukon Men sends a clear message that wolves are aggressive, violent, and
bloodthirsty—a species the world is better off without. LET’S WATCH A CLIP.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOhTrltNsyI OR https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=fmlz3Gv66fI
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PLEASE GET IN PAIRS TO DISCUSS (FOLLOWED BY PLENARY SESSION)
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Yukon Men is one of many so-called “factual” programs on television that mislead audiences
into thinking that it’s perfectly acceptable to trap, shoot, or poison predators like wolves and
bears. Other programs that carry an anti-conservation message include Mountain Men on the
History Channel, Swamp People also on the History Channel, and Wild West Alaska on Animal
Planet.
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Of course, not all wildlife shows neglect conservation. Films and TV shows that incorporate a
conservation message include Frozen Planet, Grizzly Man, Battle at Kruger, The End of the
Line, The Last Lions, Eye of the Leopard, The Cove, Whale Wars, Green, Kingdom of the Apes
with Jane Goodall, and Doeville.
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So far we’ve discussed audience deception followed by harm to conservation. Let’s now turn
to the problem of animal cruelty, which I discuss in Chapter 20 of Confessions of a Wildlife
Filmmaker.
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Animal harassment has been pervasive in wildlife films and filmmaking for decades. Most of
the cruelty happens out in the field with no witnesses beyond the team filming. The harassment
ranges from simply getting too close and disturbing animals to deliberately goading and harming.
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More and more networks are broadcasting nature shows about people who wrangle, mistreat,
and slaughter innocent animals such as alligators, catfish, wild hogs, and snakes. I assume many
viewers find killing these particular animals acceptable because they’re not cute and furry. The
previously mentioned shows Swamp People, Wild West Alaska, and Mountain Men—in addition
to programs like Call of the Wildman, Rattlesnake Republic, Hillbilly Handfishin’, Under Wild
Skies, and Shark Hunters—glorify unprovoked acts of violence against animals as well as lionize
the hunters who commit them.
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Let’s look at a few of these programs.
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Swamp People on the History Channel is about alligator hunters in Louisiana who go out daily
during the hunting season. The hunters set traps, baiting massive hooks with rotten chickens or
fish. People in Louisiana need to make a living, but does the History Channel need to make
entertainment out of the slaughter of alligators? LET’S WATCH A CLIP
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http://www.history.com/shows/swamp-people/videos/troy-kills-a-gator-by-himself
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Call of the Wildman on Animal Planet is a hit cable reality show that follows the exploits of
Ernie Brown, Jr., also known as Turtleman, a wildlife rescuer from Kentucky. In a seven-month
Mother Jones investigation, journalist James West found that the desire to get high ratings took
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precedence over the welfare of the animals and that animals were abused during filmmaking.
LET’S WATCH A CLIP
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY0a-nafqAE#t=142
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Rattlesnake Republic on Animal Planet follows four teams of rattlesnake hunters in Texas. In
its promotional material for the series, Animal Planet described the rattlesnake as “the continent’s
most dangerous predator,” even though rattlesnakes rarely bite humans unless provoked. In the
process of making the show, the producers deliberately antagonized and goaded these creatures
in an effort to construct a compelling storyline and get higher ratings. The series presents animal
cruelty, slaughter, and stigmatization as entertainment. LET’S WATCH A CLIP
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ74JTvw6w0
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Finally, Under Wild Skies was funded and produced by the National Rifle Association for
NBC and the Outdoor Channel. The show’s host, NRA strategist Tony Makris, was filmed
getting within 20 feet of an African bull elephant in Botswana before shooting it in the face.
Then he toasted his success with a glass of champagne next to the dead animal. Outrage
exploded across social media, but, tellingly, NBC and the Outdoor Channel only pulled the show
after Makris compared his critics with Hitler. African elephants are currently being poached at
record levels for their ivory. By airing these programs, NBC tacitly condones these crimes.
LET’S WATCH A CLIP
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSu839OsT5M
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PLEASE GET IN PAIRS TO DISCUSS (FOLLOWED BY PLENARY SESSION)
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The shows I’ve mentioned are suffused with cruelty to animals. They promote brutality as
entertainment, thereby preying on the worst parts of human nature. And they portray the
environment as if it is nothing but a resource to be harvested and hunted, or a terrifying other to
be controlled and persecuted.
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The key message in these wildlife shows is that animals are vicious, so humans are justified in
using any means to subdue them. It’s difficult to find a show on television that teaches us how to
live in harmony with animals. Instead, we invade their habitats and, when they defend
themselves, we brand them violent and kill them.
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Viewers must speak up and demand higher standards from the networks. They must contact
the men and women who run these networks and demand that they think about more than just
ratings.
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At the very minimum, networks should do no harm—a task they are failing at spectacularly—
but their real calling should be moral leadership in keeping with the noble values of their
founders. Instead, as I mentioned earlier, they have turned against their founding visions.
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Broadcasters like Discovery, Animal Planet, the History Channel, and National Geographic
were founded on the ideals of education, conservation, and wildlife protection. They should take
the moral high ground and become agents of positive change.
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Broadcasters should give more protection to whistle blowers, mandate ethics training for their
executives, place more emphasis on producing ethically made programs, allow scientists to have
approval of how their interviews are used on air, and reach out to wildlife filmmakers to find
ways to ensure that wildlife films can be produced without harming animals or deceiving the
public.
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I believe that films are one of the greatest tools ever conceived to sway public opinion—a tool
so powerful that, with its influence, we can actually change and improve the future for all life on
this planet. Films give us the opportunity to educate and inspire every single viewer to treat the
other inhabitants of this planet with more dignity and respect.
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Let’s seize this opportunity. Thank you.
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I’ll be signing books afterwards, in the hallway outside, for anyone interested.
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But before I sign books, let’s end by announcing the winners for the Eco-Comedy Video
Competition, which is co-sponsored by the Center for Environmental Filmmaking and The
Nature Conservancy. (See separate notes to continue.)
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EFF Speech on Confessions March 24, 2015