Christopher J. Gervais is an award winning producer. His animated film Dream won a 2017 Golden Lion for film and a Silver Lion for music at the 64th Annual International Festival of Creativity. He is environmental and marine scientist and has decades of experience in field work and research with multiple academic institutions and natural history museums. A former science and social studies teacher, later an administrator, he became the youngest principal of a public school in the state of Florida. While a graduate student, Christopher conducted fieldwork and research to study the Pleistocene Mega fauna and their fossils that were deposited over 10,000 years ago. His study of these extinct species informs his concerns for preserving biodiversity and was a significant factor in the founding of the WCFF. Christopher was one of the first scientists to conduct underwater vertebrate paleontology research. He is a professional, advanced scuba diver with NAUI, PADI, SSI and NASDS with over 2,500 logged dives. Christopher founded the WCFF in 2010 using his life savings to get the organization off the ground and has maintained the operations since then. He is a philanthropic supporter of conservation organizations across the globe. Christopher is President of the International Exploration Society, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, member of the Ocean Geographic Society, friend of American Philosophical Society.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST
Tell me about some of those inspiring figures that you've met along the way who have devoted their whole lives to it and still find optimism.
CHRISTOPHER J. GERVAIS
I've been fortunate over the last 13 years to meet some of the world's leading conservationists. Dr. Sylvia Earl, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, his Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, who came to the film festival in 2014, where we showed some films from his foundation. And there have been a number of others, award-winning filmmakers, and a number of celebrities that have come to the film festival, Academy Award Winner James Cromwell. We've had other celebrities, from Paul Giamatti to Alec Baldwin to Sigourney Weaver, all of whom may have a passion for, if not saving wildlife, then for the environment. And I have found them very humble, very easy to speak to, and I'm immensely grateful that they took the time to come to WCFF from their busy schedule. And we hope to build more relationships.
So, we continue to grow, we continue to evolve. These global partnerships are helpful. And there have been a number of challenges. The biggest challenge right now that I have is I have the biggest fight of my life. In September of 2021, I was diagnosed with stage three liver cancer. And unfortunately, it's progressed now to where it's stage four and, you know, it's something that I have to fight with every day. Today I have a lot of energy. I feel good. Some days I do not get out of bed, and unfortunately, the cancer that I have is contracted by maybe 1% of the population. It's a cancer delivered by bile ducts. So there's not a lot of research on it. There's not a lot of studies on it. My physicians have been very candid with me. They cannot cure this. So I don't know how much time I have, whether it's five months, five years, or 50 more years. What they're doing right now is holding it at bay and keeping me alive.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST
When I first heard of your film festival, I thought it’s such an important thing to have a film festival devoted to wildlife conservation, so I was surprised. I couldn't believe that a festival like this didn't exist before you founded it in 2010?
GERVAIS
There are hundreds of environmental film festivals, and that's not us. We are really the only pure Wildlife Conservation Film Festival. And we've elected to have these events in large urban areas simply because of the disconnect with nature. Whether we've had it in Beijing or San Paulo, or places in Europe, we find that the people living in these large urban areas are just not aware of the wildlife and the biodiversity around them.
Most people in New York City have never been to the Catskills or the Adirondacks, which is just a short drive from Manhattan. And there you can see wildlife year round, all four seasons. And that's one of the purposes of the festival. Our mission is very straightforward and simple: to inform, engage, and inspire wildlife conservation through the power of film and media.
And we continue to build our global partnerships worldwide. We'll be returning to Monterey, Mexico, probably in late May or June for our third annual event there. We'll be in Rome and Naples, Italy in late September. And we're in negotiation with the United Arab Emirates about doing a film festival there in the Middle East for very late 2023 or early 2024. And through these partnerships, we get the word out, and that is our message.
It gives me a purpose in what I do. I do not call it a job. I do not even call it a career. I call it life's mission. It's because of the hundreds of films that could be made annually, whether they're short or features from independent filmmakers that would certainly make an impact on saving a species and or an ecosystem. And when I am gone, there will be others that will run this in my place. I hope that's not for another 50 years, but we'll see. There are certain things I can and cannot control, but hopefully, it will keep me alive for a long time, and we can do quite a bit more.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST
You produced the award-winning film called Dream. Considering your experience and identity as a documentary producer, why did you choose animation as the form to present this short film?
GERVAIS
The history of the film Dream is I was contacted by an advertising agency a number of years ago that had a client who was an animation company that wanted to do a short animation on wildlife. So we met and we discussed how long this would be, and what the content would be. And they said, "Choose several species that are impacted right now." And we chose the baby harp seal because Canada in their great wisdom decided to start hunting baby seals again in eastern Canada. A rhino was chosen because, at that time, rhino poaching was the highest level it had ever been in history. I think more than 2,000 rhinos were killed that year just in South Africa alone, not even counting other countries. We chose to the humpback whale because some imbecile within the United States government decided that there were enough humpback whales now that we could start resuming whale hunting in this country. And the pelican was chosen because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which had devastating consequences. And we still have those consequences today. The oil is still there. It's just under the sand. It's not like all the oil has been cleaned up. We were very fortunate that that animation was presented at Cannes that year and it won two awards, a Golden Lion and a Silver Lion Award.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk and Cecilia Nie with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this episode was Cecilia Nie.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
