NEWS: Announcing ‘The Flock’
Great Big Story’s latest short documentary (27min) takes viewers to an ecological reserve in Witless Bay, Newfoundland, home to 600,000 pairs of Atlantic Puffins, and the center of an ongoing issue that’s divided a community since 2018.
From Directors Beryl Shereshewsky and Philip Robibero comes a tale that walks the tightrope: on one side, the economic interests of land developers seeking to urbanize Witless Bay and on the other, wildlife conservationists hoping to prevent any such development for fear of disrupting the beloved puffin habitat, (which happens to be a major source of annual tourism).
Watch ‘The Flock’ out now on Great Big Story:
Director of Photography for ‘The Flock’ is Adam Wolffbrandt, Senior Producer Ingela Travers-Hayward and Executive Producer Sadie Bass. Editing by Allie Straim, Re-recording Mixer Justin Matley, Sound Editing from Ben Kruse and Drone Camera Operator is Wayne Maloney.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT:
When we began this project, the story was simple: A German expat settles in a small town and builds a community of volunteers to save stranded pufflings. The organization was aptly called Puffin Patrol, and the story was going to be just as light hearted. As we continued researching the story, we found that Witless Bay was in the midst of a controversial development plan that wedged the Puffin colony in between a bitterly divided town.
What started off as simple turned into a complicated and sprawling story, which needed to be told with nuance and respect. For us, this was an opportunity to push ourselves as documentarians.
Along with our Director of Photography, Adam Wolffbrandt, we shot the documentary over the course of a week in August of 2018. The production was a nonstop cycle of sleepless nights, patrolling with volunteers to early mornings to film the Puffin releases. To make matters worse, we missed the high season by a few days. Before we arrived Puffin Patrol was rescuing over 100 pufflings a night, but by the time we got there they were averaging less than one per day.
The human subjects also revealed their own set of headaches and opportunities. With clashing agendas, we found ourselves unsure of who to trust and who was on the right side of history. In four words: the production was unpredictable.
But this unpredictability inspired us to produce the documentary in similar fashion. We wanted to surprise the audience by playing with their expectations — to get a sense of the similar whiplash we experienced while shooting it. Ultimately, what we hope people take away from this film would be the ability to look at both sides of a complex argument and form their own conclusions about this story.
For press inquiries including interview requests, please contact Great Big Story PR
