Daniel Huertas
on Sustainable Filmmaking
Scary and Exciting.
This is how Daniel Huertas sees the future.
Scary because it is the momentum when change must happen.
Exciting because we can be the creators of the change. Change will happen anyway, so at least we have the opportunity to make it “user-friendly”.
Daniel is a Producer/ Director who has worked in Natural History documentary making for over 15 years, both for the BBC or Discovery Inc, and for a suite of conservation content for Netflix/WWF’s Emmy Award winning 'Our Planet' project. He is focused on producing ‘mission-driven’ content, as part of SILVERBACK FILMS.
He had the opportunity to work with his (and our) main #inspirators, Sir David Attenborough! In his view, A Life On Our Planet book is “a witness statement by one of our heroes about the changes he has seen to the natural world in just his lifetime and evidence of our ability to restore the balance in nature”.
Daniel produced and directed the first episode of the series 'The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet', hosted by Sir Attenborough and HRH Prince William. Most recently, he has created the short videos narrated by Sir David Attenborough for COP25, COP26 Davos, and Biodiversity COP15 in Montreal.
Making TV/Film focused mainly on Natural History and global stories is quite a challenge. It involves travelling, but also organizing international filming in a sustainable way. They try to utilize more crew and filming equipment from location countries, rather than always having a full production crew and kit from their own base.
Still, Daniel is grateful for the world travel that makes his soul sing.
Pay attention to the wonderful words he uses when describing the places that are still glued to his heart: “Bogota - the vibrant city surrounded my forested peaks, in Colombia; Papua New Guinea - such a unique, isolated and wonderful world; seeing elephants on the savannahs of Kenya, epitomized wild Africa to me; the remote forests of Guyana and Suriname - where I felt most distant from civilization.”
That's why he dares companies and individuals to just start the journey to sustainability:
“Don’t delay. Don’t judge yourselves harshly, but look at things realistically.”
Just take that first step. Stay away from conservation tokenism, don’t do small or symbolic actions that are not actually based on care. Be nature positive in all your actions and this will eventually get an equal footing in the conservation narratives.
Thank you, Daniel, for being a Sustainable Filmmaker!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Daniel Huertas
Company / Institution: Silverback Films and Studio Silverback
Title: Producer / Director
Website: www.silverbackfilms.tv
LinkedIn profile: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2268178/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Country of origin: Spain
Country you currently live in: UK
Your personal definition of Sustainability: Sustainability means trying to live life in balance with the planet. Anything we do should be able to be done forever, or it needs to change so that its impacts are not detrimental to people or the planet.
Main business challenge you face: Making TV/Film focused mainly on Natural History and global stories that involve travelling the world. The main challenge for all of us in Natural History documentary filmmaking is organizing international filming in a sustainable way, across a documentary or series. To address this, we follow the UK TV industry standard, ‘Albert’, policy and practices. But that needs to be the bare minimum for every production company.
We also now try to utilize more crew and filming equipment from location countries, rather than always travelling with a full production crew and kit from our base in the UK. The main thing, during each production, is to keep looking at what our impacts might be, and trying to see where we can evolve and improve our sustainability. It needs to be a constant process.
Main driver that keeps you going: Fear.
I’m scared about the repercussions of not acting fast enough to address the dual crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss. I worry about the world my children’s children will live in. This drives me to do something to help change that future, in whatever small way I can.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: Openness.
The trait you most value in others: Thoughtfulness.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: Growing orchids; basketball (playing and watching); playing cards - and generally hanging - out with my kids; walking in woodlands; Panoramic views; eating breakfast outside in spring while listening to birds calling; watching films and documentaries.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the sustainability path: Quite a few. As with many people in the UK, Sir David Attenborough helped inspire my passion for the natural world. As for sustainability #inspirators specifically, my wife Dr Amanda Webber who lectures in Science communication is a constant #inspirator.
Also, the two heads of Studio Silverback, Colin Butfield and Jonnie Hughes, who have an unrelenting passion to use filmmaking in ways that help inspire change towards a sustainable future. They ‘showed me the light’ as it were, and helped open my eyes about the wave of sustainable actions we are seeing across the world, and our ability to reach a sustainable future.
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the sustainability journey: The main thing is to start the journey to sustainability. Don’t delay. Don’t judge yourselves harshly, just look at things realistically. Where are your impacts, and how can we reduce them?
The largest, positive - and often very overlooked – action that a company can take is to make sure its company pension is as ethical as possible. This will have a huge impact on your carbon and nature footprint. Addressing plastic forks in the canteen is nice but has a tiny impact in comparison to pensions.
Another thing is that, if you have a workplace canteen, then make it vegetarian or vegan. Or if you are getting in business lunches for lots of people, do the same, vegetarian or vegan. If you don’t have meat options, I’ve found people don’t miss them. I’m not a vegetarian - I just trying to eat a lot less meat than I used to - but I don’t miss meat when it’s not an option.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you:
Can’t think of any clichés right now. But I do hate greenwashing: companies claiming to be doing sustainable actions when they are not really that.
Or conservation tokenism, where companies, do small or symbolic actions which seem to be acting sustainably, but they don’t really care or want to commit to real action. The thing is, in the current climate, companies/individuals-in-power that act in these ways will not just be called out by environmental organizations, they’ll also be held accountable by their employees and customers.
Times really are changing!
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: It’s not too late. We can all help change happen by using our votes, our voices, our money, and thinking about our own actions in everyday life.
Books that had a major impact on you: I’ve always had reading difficulties, so have not read very widely, sadly. However, Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake is a wonderful and eye-opening book which helps reveal the interconnectedness of the natural world, through one of its least loved organisms, Fungi.
Sir David Attenborough's book, A Life On Our Planet, is a witness statement by one of my heroes about the changes he has seen to the natural world in just his lifetime and shows evidence of our ability to restore the balance in nature (I am a little biased, as I played a small part in the making of the film which that book came from David Attenborough: A life on our Planet).
Must-reads for any Sustainability professional:
UN’s Sustainability Goals
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again:
Don’t Look Up;
The Hunt (BBC Natural History Series – still now, very hard to surpass in quality), Our Planet series (Stunning Netflix, with great use of Conservation narrative, blended seamlessly within the very best quality natural history footage. Again, hard to surpass).
From a personal perspective, I love watching: The Departed, Chef’s Table, anything with Anthony Bourdain, The Fast and Furious franchise (except Tokyo Drift!), The Defiant Ones. There are loads more….
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts etc. you visit frequently:
BBC (for news)
The Guardian website (for environmental stories).
I subscribe to a mail list of Eco-Business, Resurgence, Responsible Investor, as well as others.
As for Podcasts, I listened to Economics Explained, Euromoney Podcasts (because of the finance films I made), as well as Natural Wanders – The Plodcast, Grounded with Louis Theroux, and I’ve listened to all 200+ episodes of Hip Hop Saved my Life with Romesh Ranganathan, twice.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: I love some of everything. But go-to’s tend to be: Film scores (I’m a sucker for music by Hans Zimmer); some Hip Hop; Deep House (check out collections by independent record label Anjunadeep); Anthemic House; also, 70’s disco and some Opera.
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: I’ve been fortunate to travel for work to many places, but top ranking impressions come from:
The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia
Bogota the vibrant city surrounded by forested peaks, in Colombia
Papua New Guinea, which felt like such a unique, isolated and wonderful world
Costa Rica – I really hope to take my family there
Seeing elephants on the savannahs of Kenya, epitomized wild Africa to me
The remote forests of Guyana and Suriname, in S. Am, was where I felt most distant from civilization.
Closer to home, I’ve had my breath taken away with sights and people in the valleys of central Wales, Sienna in Italy and parts of Southern Spain.
Global Sustainability Voices you recommend us to follow: The World Economic Forum socials are good, The Stockholm Resilience Centre is worth following also.
Then there are many rising youth voices in all regions of the world, who post regularly about sustainability issues, and are easy to look for on various social channels.
On TikTok, Earthtopia is a fantastic (and the largest) eco-community, which is aimed at young people looking to find ways to help tackle the climate and nature crisis.
Trends in Sustainability we should keep an eye on: We’re moving away from looking at just the Climate Crisis. Instead, being nature positive in all our actions is starting to get an equal footing in conservation narratives. This is especially true in Business, where companies, certainly in the UK, will need to address how they impact nature. This in turn will help tackle the climate crisis, because they are two sides of the same coin.
Best places for business networking (online or offline): I use LinkedIn for a lot of my info, and networking information. Thankfully, people I’ve connected with share lots of great info.
Events we should attend: Anything that appeals to you, which is close to your home so you don’t have to fly (if possible).
Some countries have ‘Climate weeks’ and other conventions, conferences, and meetings to do with sustainability. Look them up. If you want to attend or participate in international meetings or events, most now provide online access, enabling you to be part of talks and workshops.
Reuters host regular webinars and events that you can attend and watch online, full of great sustainability content, especially for business.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030:
We are currently at a very exciting time. Scary and exciting.
Scary because this is the decade where change must be taken. However, it’s exciting, because we can be the people who are part of that change; and change is happening. We are currently experiencing a global shift in which people, governments and businesses realize the negative future we are heading towards, and are beginning to take action. Solutions which help to tackle the nature and climate crisis (as well as the social crisis) are being developed at ever greater speed. And the power of nature to help is also being recognized.
Governments are finally starting to realize that unless our natural world is healthy, we will never achieve international Net Zero Targets. What’s more, they are realizing that tackling the nature crisis will both help return the environmental stability we rely on, and it will speed up our race to tackle climate change.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: We need to address the action that is needed, more urgently.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Courage in your convictions, knowledge of the science, and lateral thinking to use multidisciplinary approaches.
Quote that inspires you:
“I’m tired of hearing excuses.
This is the most well-educated and the most well-paid industry, and I’ll be disappointed if we cannot change ourselves”.
(Hiro Mizuno, former Exec, MD and CIO of Japan’s National Pension Fund, the largest pension fund in the world).
It's a quote about the global finance sector, from the sustainable finance film, Our Planet: Too Big to Fail. Hiro, is indeed a hero!
Your own quote that will inspire us:
