SYNOPSYS
Over the past four years, a group of nature filmmakers has been exploring the world’s seas looking for whales. Join the team on a marvelous ocean adventure and witness exhilarating Orcas on the hunt, tender moments with Humpbacks mother, and calves, and dive into a dreamlike encounter with a Blue whale.
Director Bio
Wildlife filmmaker Manolo Mendieta aims to highlight themes of conservation and natural history behavior through pristine aesthetics and compelling narratives. With more than a decade into his professional career and having filmed from Antarctica to the Arctic, Manolo specializes in marine-based productions.
Some of his most notable credits as a cameraman include BBC's Bafta award-winning series Big Blue Live, Wild West: ‘America’s great frontier’, and National Geographic’s: Mexico Untamed. As a producer and director - his conservationist short documentary, 'Cabo Pulmo' effectively supported an environmental movement to conserve the Cabo Pulmo, National Park while earning multiple awards and recognitions.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Whalelands is my love letter to the Natural History Filmmaking artform and nature itself, four years in the making this movie carries my hopes and dreams of creating a more inclusive world for both ourselves and the fascinating marine mammals inhabiting our beautiful blue planet.
With a core message of interconnectedness, this film is a timely and hopeful statement of the needed perspectives that could aid our current transition into a more nurturing and conscious approach to the natural world.
It also marks my debut as a producer and director on a long-form nature documentary picturing the most relevant breakthroughs in my quest to mastering the craft of Wildlife filmmaking, all in service of environmental conservation.
