Chris Palmer

Did you have a film background?

I knew nothing about filmmaking. I never went to film school, I have three degrees but they're all in engineering and economics, things like that. I had to learn about filmmaking as I went along by asking people questions. 'How do you do it? What does this mean? How do you make a film? What is a rough cut?' When I approached Ted Turner, I didn't approach him as a filmmaker, but rather as 'Here's an idea, a way of bringing about change in society.' And I'm not sure he even realized that I didn't know what I was talking about in terms of film and television, but he had faith in me as a person that I could make things happen.

What are a few things you teach your students to incorporate into your films to inspire people to act?

It's very important to think about how these films are going to make a difference because that's why we make documentary films. I teach my students to not think of a film as a film, but to think of a film as a campaign, as part of something bigger. Always the questions are, 'What is the purpose of the film? What are we trying to do with this film? What are we trying to change? Are we trying to stop the Japanese from hunting humpback whales? Are we trying to stop people dumping toxins in rivers? What are we doing?'

What's your eco-sin?

We've just put into our house a gas fire in the grate. It looks great, but it drives me crazy because there's a pilot light there that's on the whole damn time. It just burns constantly and makes me cringe with guilt, what a waste. I like to have the fire, we have guests around for social events, it's a lovely warm thing to have. But I hate that pilot light burning day in, day out

You started out in politics—how did you end up an environmental filmmaker?

In 1980, I lost my job because I was a political appointee, and joined a nonprofit group, the National Audubon Society, as one of their top lobbyists. I would testify on issues like solar energy and nuclear power and what I found was an increasing frustration that this didn’t really make a big enough difference. I began to think, what I could do that would be more effective. So I thought, 'Well, what about television?' I produced an idea for a television show and was able to sell it to Ted Turner, who's a wonderful guy. Over the next ten, fifteen years he gave me a lot of money to make documentaries. So I was still an environmentalist interested in shaping public policy, but instead of testifying directly in front of senators and congressmen, I was influencing the people who elected them. My career has gone on in that way, shaping people's behavior and public policy through films and video.

Do you find that the students enrolled in The Center for Environmental Filmmaking are already interested in the environment, or do they develop that interest once they are there?

Some of them are already dedicated environmentalists and others are only vaguely interested, but when they come and study and learn about it, they become passionate environmentalists.

What's the most recent green habit you have adopted?

There's one thing that I do which I think is good for the environment. I have three daughters and two of them are vegans and they've taught me a lot about that. I have basically cut out meat in my diet. From reading books and articles and by listening to my daughters who teach me a lot about it, I think it's a good thing environmentally.

In what way do you think that this generation can make an impact?

What this new generation can do is to come to the issue of communication with fresh eyes. Old fogies like me are out of it, so young people need to be in leadership positions because they understand new technologies and ways of communicating in the 21st century that people like me that grow up in the 20th century have no idea about. I learn as much from my students as they do from me. I probably learn more from them because they're full of initiatives and ideas for pulling together different platforms so they can mutually support each other.

What's one of the favorite films that you've made?

I'm very proud of our Imax film on bears—going up to Alaska and seeing these magnificent half-ton brown bears which are so powerful and dangerous and getting up close to them. Of course we all know the story of Timothy Treadwell who was killed and eaten by a brown bear, we know they're dangerous, just being out in the wild is dangerous, but to see these magnificent animals up close, makes you realize that humans have to give space for these animals just to be themselves. Films are one way to get across to the general population that these animals are precious.

What would you say are the three most pressing issues affecting the environment today?

One would be the spread of toxics, pesticides and herbicides that are suffusing through our society and environment in ways that we can hardly track. Every time I pick up a raspberry or a blackberry from Chili that I would love to eat, I wonder, 'Gosh, what is on this? I don’t even know what's on this in terms of dangerous chemicals.' Another issue is global warming that we're all familiar with thanks to Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. And I would say the third top issue is giving space to wildlife to exist. We are constantly, through shopping malls and housing, encroaching on these animals and taking the land from them so that bobcats and bears and other wildlife don't have anywhere to go.

Have you ever found yourself in an eco-conflict?

Filmmakers like me often find themselves in ethical conflicts, because when we're filming, we're making a film which is promoting conservation, but we then do something in filming which is contrary to conservation. We often have those conflicts. For example, if you're filming a coral reef underwater, then you step in it by accident, that's very bad. Another example is filming bears. You want to get close to them, you want to get dramatic shots, but when you do, you tend to habituate them, making them less afraid of people, and the next person that goes up to them might be a hunter or a poacher. So, there are all these conflicts. Another one is waste. You're out in the wild, you produce waste from filming and human waste and all the rest and that has to be dealt with in a responsible way. So there are many ethical dilemmas involved in wildlife filmmaking which people like me have to wrestle with and we try to adhere to ethical guidelines but it's sometimes tough.