“I’ve always been amazed at the lifelong dedication from some individuals to an environmental issue or the protection of a specific species in danger. I decided to celebrate this with a series dedicated to some of our environmental champions and was particularly excited when Jane Goodall agreed to tell her story in our first episode”.
Director, Scott Renyard
Biographies – Educational – Environment – General – Inspirational
The Series
The Firekeepers is a half-hour documentary series. Each episode features the life story of a person that has dedicated their life to an environmental cause. Each person appears as the sole interview of the episode.
Episode 1 – Jane Goodall
Ms. Goodall became interested in the jungles of Africa when she read the book Tarzan. This story inspired her to travel to Africa to work under anthropologist Louis Leakey. Leakey asked her to study chimpanzees which led to her lifelong passion to protect them and ultimately she went on to champion many environmental causes worldwide.
Episode 2 – Alexandra Morton
Ms. Morton shares her life story and how her interest in the environment as a child was turned into a lifelong passion when she saw Jane Goodall on the cover of the National Geographic magazine. Her journey started with an interest in studying dolphins, then killer whales, and ultimately wild pacific salmon.
Episode 3 – Mark Angelo
Mr. Angelo as a young man was an avid white water rafter. A trip on the Blackfoot River in Montana ended at the Milltown dam where mining waste had turned the river into a toxic soup. He decided to study rivers and ecosystems at the University of Montana. He then landed a job at the new British Columbia Institute of Technology in Canada. As an instructor, he continued to advocate for the protection of rivers and streams and formed BC River’s Day which led to him founding World River’s Day.
Episode 4 – Sara Ross
Ms. Ross discovered a passion for cycling as a young child. After studying under Jim Green at the University of British Columbia she realized that she was in search of community. She found her community with in the world of cycling and turned both passions into a grass roots movement in Vancouver.
Episode 5 – Pia Massie
Ms. Massie is the granddaughter of civil rights activist Molly Todd. Massie learned from both her grandmother and parents to stand up for issues that were important to the community. After living in other parts of the world, she found herself back in Vancouver. She subsequently learned that her parents once lived in the Vancouver area and she found her roots. Ironically, these roots drove her to help protect British Columbia’s old growth forests.
Episode 6 – Patricia Sims
As a journalist working for City TV, Patricia Sims ended up working with Robert Hunter a founder of Greenpeace and they specialized in environmental reporting. This led to a film career that explored stories about large brain mammals which eventually led to a focus on elephants. She realized that elephant populations were endangered around the world and founded World Elephant Day to honour the one of earth’s most iconic mammals.
Episode 7 – John Hardy
Mr. Hardy didn’t do well in school or in the cold winters in Toronto Ontario. So he moved to Bali, Indonesia. He started up a jewelry business that became a worldwide brand. But after watching the film, An Inconvenient Truth, he realized his business was contributing a lot to the worldwide climate crisis. So he decided to rededicate his life to educating children about the environment. He co-founded Green School with his wife which is expanding around the world.