Saving British Nature - can you help?

Aim

For 600 screenings of our "brilliant film". Our key audience is farmers. We want British land to be full of voles, mice, insects & birds!

James Dawson, Director:

When I was a teenager I worked on farms in the West Country. Back then (in the 1970s) - just writing that makes me feel old! - there were insects, birds and other wildlife in the fields. Now when I go into the countryside it’s eerily quiet.  

There’s a reason for this. Insects, birds and wildlife have been wiped out because of the loss of their habitat and the use of the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers in food production.

Some of the stats around biodiversity loss really shocked me. In England populations of spotted flycatcher, a once common bird, have fallen by -93 percent between 1967 and 2016, nightingale also by -93 percent, cuckoos by -77 percent. The list - sadly - goes on and on.

Britain’s once lovely green countryside is now virtually a lifeless green desert. And if the loss is not reversed we face what biologists are calling an "insect apocalypse" which threatens to destroy the foundations of our food system. With no pollinators for crop fertilisation or insects to break down waste we are heading for a crisis. It’s not a future I want to see.

As a documentary filmmaker I wondered if there was a way I could tell this story and help sound the alarm bell. I came across one man loudly and unapologetically trying to turn the tide on this devastation -  the infamous Derek Gow and his maverick rewilding project.

He's a man who often makes the headlines. Not only was Gow going to restore his land to be "an oasis for nature" but he was planning to restock it by breeding a host of nearly extinct species! This seemed a Herculean task, could he do it? Would it work? 

I started filming with Derek. Then, thinking it would be good to see what his farming neighbours made of his project, I met the other Derek, Derek Banbury. A larger-than-life dairy farmer committed to feeding the world, one of the first things he said to me with a grin was “nature just gets in the way”. He peers over his hedge in horror at what Gow is doing: “It’s not farming. It’s just a bloody mess”.  I really liked him.

Once I met Derek Banbury I realised filming both the Dereks could make a great story. They were engaging, articulate and funny.  They didn’t agree about much but their enmity wasn’t bitter - it was more like an Ealing comedy played out over a hedgerow - which I also liked very much. (I believe humour is a great way of getting an audience to think.) Seeing the funny side of people and situations has been what I've been doing all my career so it felt like fertile ground. 

Starting from polar opposite points of view, the two Derek’s become embroiled in a series of tussles and arguments about hedge cutting, beaver restoration, wild boar incursions and the release of newly bred white storks. But as the seasons rolled around Derek Banbury started to rethink a life-time of intensive farming. It was fascinating to watch and film.

I hope the film illustrates that conversations around farming, land use and rewilding can be divisive, but they can also really make people think again about how farming and nature can work together. 

I’ve got a team around me who care about this crucial issue and have had an opportunity - with the support of Robert Redford’s environmental film making trust - to make a film that we believe could help shift people’s thinking about biodiversity loss and what can be done about it. 

We’ve made a film that can make a difference - now we need your help to set up screenings! 600 of them!!

If we can get the film in front of farmers, our hope is to change hearts and minds when it comes to bringing nature back to farmland. Even just 10% of marginal unproductive land could make the world of difference for nature - pine martens, beavers, field mice, water voles, birds, insects.. So our mission is to enable 600 screenings across the UK!

We’re dreaming about getting the film in front of the people who can make the biggest difference to nature recovery: farmers and rural communities. We want to take the film to areas that don’t even necessarily have cinemas! Creating pop up events in local village halls and pubs.

Around screenings we’d like to encourage panel discussions. Might there be a Peter vs Peter in Lincolnshire? Or a Pamela vs Pamela in Cumbria? We hope the film can encourage connection and conversation around local issues. By collaborating with partners who are embedded in farming communities we believe we are well placed to reach the right people.

We also want to harness the power of social media to engage young farmers online. Creating digital first content that will spotlight good news stories as well as encouraging productive conversations around some of the issues farmers face today.

The debate around land use can be polarising but it can also be transformative! The film has the power to bring people together at screening events. Your support can make a world of difference in making that happen.

When it comes to screenings we feel cost and location shouldn’t be a barrier to farming communities and want to enable free access. Our ambition is to host 600 screenings across the UK in 2026. In village halls, community halls and pubs and local parishes. Spreading the word at livestock markets, agricultural events and through local media. With this funding we can start to bring this ambition to life!

This funding would allow us to start planning screenings for rural communities who have the power to bring nature back to UK land. Our ambition is to host screenings with panel discussions around the country where farming is prevalent,  in venues farmers already frequent and that can fit into their busy schedules. This first, vital bit of funding will allow us to:

• To create enough short clips and videos to effectively launch a social media campaign to reach young farmers; to generate a buzz around the film and get people talking. With time on our side we can create all sorts of videos for our Instagram, Facebook and X feeds. With enough funding we’d love to get up and running on YouTube - a huge hub for young farmers.
• Work with our partner organisations who are key to reaching a farming audience.
• Identify and secure venues and strategic launch events.
• Fundraise! The greater the funds the more screenings and stronger the impact. We're looking to bolster the campaign with foundation funding, philanthropic donations and corporate sponsorship.

Director: James Dawson 

James has spent 30 years making documentaries for the BBC and Channel Four about all sorts of things. From London’s super-rich building crazy mega-basement to Delboys (and girls) searching for hidden gems in down-at-heal auction houses around the country.  He’s won awards for ‘Secret Millionaire’ (Rose-d’Or) and a ‘Faking It’ which saw a naval officer become a Drag Queen (Broadcast Press Award). His first indie feature doc took four years to make and followed an obsessive pipe organ enthusiast rescuing valuable instruments from closing churches. It was called ‘Organ Stops: Saving the King of Instruments’ and is still on iPlayer after the BBC screened it on Christmas Eve (2022).

Producer: Serena Kennedy 

Serena has a wealth of experience in documentary making. She’s co-founder of award-winning production company The Slate Works.  She’s the winner of the inaugural Grierson (British Documentary) Hero Award in 2021, and has several BAFTA and RTS award-winning productions under her belt and feature documentaries that have premiered at Sundance and Sheffield film festivals.  

Executive Producer: Adam Wishart

Co-founder of The Slate Works with Serena, Adam has a background as a multi-award winning director. He’s won BAFTA, EMMY, Rose D’Or, Broadcast, Grierson, RTS and Bulldog Awards.  His credits include: ‘7/7: The London Bombings’ a recent primetime BBC series, ‘9/11: Inside The President’s War Room’; ‘23 Week Babies’ for the BBC.  His work has captured the news cycle and the Today programme. Questions were asked by the Leader of the Opposition at Prime Minister's Questions.

Impact Producer: Nicola Brown

Nicola specialises in environmental storytelling, documentaries, short-form production and creating impact. Her work includes the award-winning digital campaigns #OurBluePlanet and #OurFrozenPlanet that ran alongside BBC television series Blue Planet II and Frozen Planet II; Prince William's The Earthshot Prize; impact campaign #WildForAll in connection with Barack Obama's series Our Great National Parks on Netflix. 

Nicola is continually looking to find ways to tell natural history and conservation focused stories through the ever changing landscape of social media. Striving to reach new audiences beyond the conservation 'echo-chamber' and to encourage important conversations and real world change. 

(especially if you made it this far!)

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made