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OTF Unveils Environment/Conservation-Focused Slate Of Premium Documentary. String of new partnerships announced for five-title launch package
Off The Fence (OTF) has announced a slate of premium factual content focusing on climate change, biodiversity, and the future of our planet, to be produced in partnership with some of the most respected names in natural-history programming.
Headlining the slate are two ambitious projects in collaboration with EarthxTV, the production arm of the non-profit environmental forum that seeks sustainable solutions to the most urgent environmental challenges. The first, The Future From Above (4 x 60 mins), is a co-production between OTF Studios, Sky, EarthxTV, Korean TV Channel, ENA(KT Skylife TV) and Borderless Lab, with funding from Korean Communications Agency, KCA.
The series focuses on how the world could look in 2050 — the defining year for our planet’s future — if we embrace the revolutionary technology and thinking needed to transform every aspect of our lives, from how we communicate, harness energy and travel to how we live, eat and recycle our waste.
The second OTF/EarthxTV co-production is Ocean Mysteries (8 x 30 mins), featuring Tom ‘The Blowfish’ Hird, whose recent television projects include Fishing Impossible for the BBC. In his new series the marine biologist, scuba diver and wildlife expert combines stunts and pop-science demos with stunning natural history footage and engaging analogies to unravel the mysteries behind a colourful cast of ocean creatures. Oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, contain 90% of the planet’s living biomass, produce more oxygen than all the world’s forests, and absorb around 30% of global carbon dioxide though 95% of our oceans remain unexplored.
Wild Hope (8 x 30 mins), produced by the award winning, science-focused impact studio HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Part2 Pictures in a co-production with Wild Elements, offers more optimism by profiling everyday people, conservationists and scientists who are restoring and protecting our planet. Set across the world’s most beautifully exotic—and surprisingly familiar—places, each episode will inspire audiences with stories of intrepid changemakers and surprising allies who are tackling the threats to our wild creatures and habitats.
Another upbeat vision of the future is provided by The Endangered Generation (working title), which comes to OTF via a new producer relationship with Australia’s Sweetshop & Green. The new feature documentary, narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern (Jurassic Park), challenges the myth that our world is fundamentally driven by selfishness and competition. Instead, scientists, artists and First Nation leaders explore the deep connections that bind us all to life, our world — and one another.
Loren Baxter, OTF’s head of acquisitions, said: “When OTF started out, our focus on natural history and the environment was considered a bit eccentric — and certainly a bit niche. Now, nearly 20 years later, the world has caught up with us and demand for the genre is fast outstripping supply. Meanwhile, we’ve spent those 20 years forging partnerships with world’s best producers of natural-history content, which means we’re in a uniquely strong position to meet that demand with balanced, accurate and informative programming and about the climate emergency and what we can do to mitigate it. These are powerful films that tackle the greatest threat to human survival, but in a way that encourages action rather than fear and despair. We’re very proud to bring them to the world.”