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The Wildscreen Festival is the world’s leading international festival celebrating and advancing storytelling about the natural world. Held every two years, the Wildscreen Festival brings together the wildlife film, tv and photography community to transform the craft of natural world storytelling across platforms and across audiences.

The Wildscreen Festival 2018 will take place 15-19 October 2018 in Bristol, UK. Further information is available at www.wildscreen.org and delegate tickets are on sale now from Eventbrite.

Please note that the programme is being updated frequently as guest availability changes. Wildscreen reserves the right to make such updates to the programme and timings, and will endeavour to make those changes as quickly as possible.

Delegates holding a day or week pass do not need to register to attend specific events with the exception of the Panda Awards Ceremony (additional purchase required) and film screenings (no additional purchase required). Reservation details can be found in the description of each individual screening.

To help you manage your time at the Wildscreen Festival, you can sign up for a Sched account and login to save events to your personal calendar. Note that doing so does not guarantee entry to events as seating is on a first-come-first-served basis at the venue door. We advise that you arrive in plenty of time before a session starts.

The programme includes both industry events, which are included in the price of a delegate day or week pass, and public events that anyone is welcome to attend, subject to booking procedures.  
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Thursday, October 18 • 11:15 - 12:15
WTF Is Natural History?

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It may be a term well known within our industry, but does natural history actually mean anything to a modern audience? Or is it just part of an outdated attitude to filmmaking that needs to be left behind in the race to make compelling content for the SVOD era? Join the commissioners and producers at the cutting edge of wildlife content looking to shake up the genre as they discuss what they would want natural history programming to look like in 2019 and beyond. Is traditional natural history TV destined to end up in a museum?

Chair
avatar for Matt Cole

Matt Cole

Executive Producer / Creative Director, Keo Films
Matt is creative director at Keo West, the Bristol division of multi-award winning indie Keo Films.His previous roles include spells as executive producer, Showrunner and Director at ITV Granada, BBC Documentaries, Tigress Productions and Blink Films.Matt took over Keo West in 2014... Read More →

Speakers
avatar for Craig Hunter

Craig Hunter

Lead Commissioning Editor, Natural History and Specialist Factual, BBC
Craig Hunter has been part of the BBC’s Factual Commissioning team for more than 4 years and he is currently the Lead Commissioning Editor for Natural History and Specialist Factual. In this new role Craig works across the full range of Specialist Factual subjects specialising in... Read More →
avatar for Tom Porter

Tom Porter

Commissioning Editor - Specialist Factual, Channel 4
Tom has been a Commissioner at Channel 4 for six and a half years, working across Current Affairs and more recently Specialist Factual. He's currently in charge of Natural History and History. His Commissions include: Dogs: Their Secret Lives; Britain's Polar Bear Cub; The Passenger... Read More →
avatar for Kurt Tondorf

Kurt Tondorf

SVP Head of Development, Animal Planet
Kurt Tondorf is Senior Vice President, Head of Development for Animal Planet, heading the global development team out of Discovery Inc.’s New York office. Since joining Animal Planet in 2012 Tondorf has developed many series and specials for Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and... Read More →
avatar for Janet Han Vissering

Janet Han Vissering

Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Nat Geo WILD, National Geographic
As Senior Vice President of Development and Production for Nat Geo WILD, Janet Han Vissering is responsible for over 150 hours of programming commissioned each year for broadcast in 166 countries, 330 million homes and 34 languages worldwide. In her role, Vissering manages WILD’s... Read More →


Thursday October 18, 2018 11:15 - 12:15 BST
Watershed 1 Canon's Rd, Bristol BS1 5TX, UK
  Session