Louie Schwartzberg joins Disneynature with his
Naked Beauty: A love Story that Feeds the Earth
April 21, 2008-- California
Naked Beauty: A Love Story that Feeds the Earth -- In this film,
nature is ready for its close-up ... a very close-up, as exacting macro
photography takes us to the realm of flowers and their pollinators.
Acclaimed filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg introduces us to a bat, a
hummingbird, a butterfly and a bumblebee, demonstrating their intricate
interdependence and how life on earth depends on the success of these
determined, diminutive creatures.
Naked Beauty is produced by
Blacklight Films and Alix Tidmarsh. Worldwide release 2011
http://www.movieweb.com/news/46/28146.php
[bold emphasis & colours added] Louie Schwartzberg, as a director and cinematographer, has
created someof the most iconic and memorable film moments of
our time. His time-lapse, nature and aerial photography has
brought audiences images never captured before. He has
directed award-winning documentaries for National Geographic,
The Hallmark Channel, The Discovery Channel and PBS, and his
work has been featured in theatrical films ranging from
War of the Worlds and Crash to American Beauty and E.T. In
2004 he produced and directed the award-winning Walt Disney
Pictures release, America's Heart & Soul.
http://losangeles.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?type_news=latest&
newsid=156543
[bold emphasis & colours added]
Click on the link to see Louie's pictures posted on John Fry's website:
www.johnfry.com/pages/---------
(coming soon)
left to right
Alistair Fotheringil (director of
Earth, from the Planet Earth series) Matthew Eberhart (Crimson Wing),
Bob Iger (CEO and President of Walt Disney) Louie Schwartzberg, (Naked Beauty),
Jean-Francois Camilierri (exec VP of Disneynature) and Dick Cook
(president of Walt Disney Pictures)
In Louie's words (from email April 23, 2008):
Dear Friends,
I am so grateful for
all the good wishes from so many of you who helped and believed in the
vision to make Naked Beauty. Many of you called with questions
regarding yesterday's press announcement of Naked Beauty being included
in the new Disneynature theatrical label, so I have attached the news
clips, web links and images of the event. It is a gift to be able to
tell this important beautiful story.
With much appreciation,
Louie
Dated April 21, 2008 - Press conference - Louie Schwartzberg's comments
"When I was a kid growing up
in Brooklyn, watching Walt Disney and the time-lapse sequences in the
True Life Adventure Films definitely inspired me to shoot time-lapse of
nature. I have had a 35 and 65mm time lapse camera running non-stop 24
hours a day, seven days a week, filming flowers for over 30 years. I
did it because it fed my sense of wonder and it is still a surprise to
see the flowers dancing in my
dailies. But now, I realize there is a much more important reason to
tell this important story of the relationship between pollinators and
flowers,
a love story that feeds the earth.
We associate flowers with
beauty and their beauty has a serious purpose, survival, because they
use it to seduce pollinators and us, in order for them to reproduce.
This is an incredible love story … and it is one with very high stakes.
If the dance between flowering
plants and their pollinators should ever stop, three quarters of the
food we eat would disappear. Today, this dance is threatened.
We will travel around to world
to locations like Malaysia, Panama and Mexico to tell this story by
following four pollinators - bees, hummingbirds, bats and butterflies -
as they perform their intricate rituals with a mind-boggling array of
seductive flowers. This is a world of intrigue and drama, of sporadic
violence and mesmerizing beauty that continually plays out around us,
but that we seldom notice.
Their world is the bedrock of
our existence, it's where the food chain begins. Their love story is
our love story. By telling this story, I hope to help people fall in
love with the true beauty of the dance of the flowers and pollinators
that surround and sustain us."
the following excerpts & pieces from: http://www.o-meon.com/pages/news&features/n&f_2008/04-22_Disneynature.htm
[bold emphasis & colours added]
Early—well, at least by L.A. standards—on the morning of
April 21, a host of entertainment media representatives waited outside
the doors of the Walt Disney Studios' (WDS) Main Theatre, until
just 10 or 15 minutes before the appointed "special event"
time, before being allowed to enter the theatre. The back half of the
auditorium, located at the heart of the classic art deco lot, was roped
off. The full color digital "Walt Disney Studios" logo was
up on the screen with a podium to its left. Both the screen and the
podium were surrounded with lush but tasteful tropical foliage. Leafy
cucolorises
cast forest patterns on the walls and ceiling.
At precisely 11:00 a.m., the lights dimmed, the logo faded out, and
after a split second of blackness a new image took its place. It seemed
like the WDS logo in silhouette. But as it faded in, it was apparent
it was no longer a castle, but an icy snow-covered mountain swimming
in an arctic sea over which the logo for Disneynature appeared.
Moments later, Bob Iger and Dick Cook announced the inauguration of
a new Walt Disney Studio's film label: "Disneynature."
Building on the heritage of Walt Disney's True Life Adventures,
Cook said he looked forward to a slate of films that would range from
dramatic to comedic. Iger carefully used the term "event films"
and emphasized it as a company-wide "initiative," including
parks, publishing, merchandising, and more.
"At Disneynature, we will work with the world's greatest documentary
filmmakers to show audiences the beauty and drama of nature,"
said Jean-Francois Camilleri, French accent and all. Camilleri will
be heading up the new production unit from Walt Disney Studios Motion
Pictures (France). "In addition to providing compelling entertainment
that audiences of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy, we also hope to
raise awareness of the many ways that everyone and anyone can do their
part to help our planet."
Award-winning British producer/director Alastair Fothergill, whose
credits include the Emmy and Peabody award-winning Planet Earth
series (BBC and The Discovery Channel) and The Blue Planet,
will helm three of the new Disneynature projects: Earth, Chimpanzee,
and Big Cats.
Earth, which will be produced by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight
Media (a Berlin Atlantic Company) and co-directed by Mark Linfield,
will take moviegoers on an extraordinary tour of our home planet as
it's never been seen before. Renowned actor James Earl Jones will narrate
the film.
Additionally, Louis Schwartzberg—as an American, the only member
of the new production team Disney didn't have to fly in, since he lives
just blocks from the studio—addressed the assembled group. Schwartzberg
will make Naked Beauty: A Love Story That Feeds The Earth,
which will draw upon his 30 years of continuous time-lapse photography.