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Silverback Wins at Grierson British Documentary Awards 2024

WE WON 🏆 We are thrilled to announce our award-winning feature documentary film Silverback won...

WE WON 🏆

We are thrilled to announce our award-winning feature documentary film Silverback won 'Best Natural History or Environmental Documentary' at last night's Grierson British Documentary Awards.

A huge congratulations to all the other winners, our fantastic Silverback team and partners Featuristic Group, BBC and France Télévisions.

To see the other winners visit Grierson Awards 2024

 

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otf Partners with Emerald Gate Charitable Trust On Alternative Healing 4 Part Series

With access to the latest research from Tier One research institutionsand Ivy League universities,...

With access to the latest research from Tier One research institutions and Ivy League universities, Phenomena will investigate the science behind energy healing and other complementary therapies to uncover their transformative power for health and wellbeing.

Off The Fence (OTF) has announced an exciting new partnership with the not for profit Emerald Gate Charitable Trust to produce a four part series exploring the treatment of health conditions through the ancient practice of energy healing. 

Titled Phenomena, the series will investigate the latest scientific research behind interventions such as Healing Touch, Reiki, and Acupuncture. Each episode will feature Ivy League scientists, doctors, and healers who are at the forefront of the energy healing movement, all dedicated to enhancing health outcomes for individuals. 

OTF has secured behind-the-scenes access to groundbreaking experiments and studies at prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia University. 

US-based Emerald Gate Charitable Trust is a research and development foundation focused on understanding the mechanisms of subtle energy and applying this understanding to benefit health and wellbeing. Phenomena is the foundation’s first investment in content production and visual storytelling. 

Jason Yotopoulos, Trustee of Emerald Gate Foundation, said: “In the Western world, the incidence of chronic pain and cancer are at an all-time high while the ability of healthcare systems to meet this growing crisis is at an all-time low. As a result, a huge range of alternative-healing practices have emerged, and these interventions deserve to be  given proper attention. Our purpose with Phenomena is to give viewers a better understanding of the mechanisms by which human consciousness interacts with various forms of  energy and biology to promote healing and well-being. When we embarked upon the project, our priority was to find a producer of integrity with whom we could build a relationship of absolute trust. OTF, with its strong track record in science and specialist factual, was the perfect candidate.”

Debbie Hinnigan, creative director of co-productions at OTF Studios, said: “As factual producers, our mission is to tell stories that help us better understand the world around us. That often involves creating partnerships with organisations with real purpose, such as Emerald Gate. Mainstream science is beginning to embrace energy medicine research, and we believe it’s time that viewers were given a rigorous, comprehensive, and balanced investigation into a subject that is not only fascinating but has the potential to change lives for the better.”

This approach to healthcare has the power to revolutionize the medical field, with certain therapies already integrated into the healthcare system. Phenomena will bring together
specialists from various scientific disciplines to explore the biological mechanisms at work during energy treatments. 

From elite healers being studied at Columbia University to hospital nurses delivering Healing Touch on Oncology wards, Phenomena will spotlight the results of paradigm-shifting experiments. This documentary will meld scientific rigour with powerful personal narratives, creating a compelling must-watch series that highlights the profound transformations energy healing can bring to all our lives. 

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ZDF Gives Green Light To Iceland From Above

Off the Fence/Sagafilm two-parter first foreign commission to air on Terra X and also add two new...

Off the Fence/Sagafilm two-parter first foreign commission to air on Terra X and also add two new titles to OTF, ZDF and ARTE’s Wild… collection.

Off The Fence (OTF) has announced that ZDF has commissioned Iceland From Above (working title), the latest travel and adventure documentary from OTF Studios and award-winning Icelandic production company Sagafilm. The documentary, which is currently in production, will air in the third quarter of 2025 on ARTE, before its official launch on ZDF’s Terra X strand.

OTF has also announced two new documentary series in its Wild… collection, again to be co-produced by OTF, its parent company ZDF Studios and ARTE. The two new documentaries — Wild Medics and Wild: Senses — follow Wild Talk (5 x 50 mins), which was unveiled in July. 

The documentary has been produced on location in Iceland for its prestigious Terra X strand, which produces around 50 premium history, nature, archaeology and science documentaries a year. The two-part documentary will showcase the Land of Fire and Ice as it has never been seen before — from high above its dramatic topography, which ranges from glittering glaciers, blue lagoons and steaming geysers to towering waterfalls, lunar landscapes and some of the world’s angriest and most active volcanoes. But Iceland is more than Volcanic amusement park: it is also home to a hardy and intrepid people, who choose to share a corner of the world with nature at her most unpredictable and extreme. 

Stefanie Fischer, OTF’s managing director, distribution, said: “Terra X is not only a byword for quality factual programming, but it’s also the showcase for Germany’s finest documentaries. As a non-domestic producer given the greenlight for a coveted Terra X slot, it is a major accomplishment and a real tribute to Sagafilms’ filmmaking excellence. Of course, we should also thank Iceland for its help in securing this milestone commission — if ever a country was created to be filmed from above, it’s the stunning, and stunningly varied, Land of Ice and Fire.” 


The two new Wild… titles will be produced by the same creative team behind Wild Talk, which explores the rapidly evolving science of animal communication. Wild Medics again listens to animals — in this case, to discover what they can teach us about the natural remedies and techniques they use to alleviate pain and suffering. At a time when antimicrobial resistance is seen as the single biggest threat to global health, the documentary asks whether the medical wisdom of animals could help humans to find new cures for infections like malaria, perhaps even cancer. Each episode focuses on a specific medical issue — wounds and parasites, getting high, fertility, aches and pains, energy boosters, and depression and anxiety — to create a complete casebook of natural pharmacology. 

Wild: Senses, meanwhile, takes viewers on a vivid sensory journey into the mysterious world of animal perception. Each of the five episodes focuses on one key sense of perception, drawing on next-generation technology, the latest research and immersive graphics to explain how creatures see, hear, touch, taste and feel the world around them. How can a bald eagle spot a rabbit from three miles away? How do elephants use their feet to communicate over vast distances? And why can’t dolphins smell, but can recognise friends and family through taste? These are just some of the intriguing questions that the series will set out to answer.  

Wild Medics and Wild: Senses are executive produced by Debbie Hinnigan and Andrew Zikking for OTF, Petra Boden for ARTE, and Nikolas Hülbusch and Ralf Rückauer for ZDF Studios. The series producer is BAFTA-winning filmmaker Ben Holder.

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otf Acquires Timely Rainforest Documentary 'We Are Guardians'

ZDF Studios’Off the Fence, the company behind Netflix’s BAFTA and Oscar-winning docMy...

ZDF Studios’ Off the Fence, the company behind Netflix’s BAFTA and Oscar-winning doc My Octopus Teacher, has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding North America and Latin America) to We Are Guardians. Executive produced by Appian Way Productions and produced by Highly Flammable, the documentary is the feature debut of directors Edivan Guajajara, co-founder of Mídia Indígena, the leading Indigenous-led investigative journalism collective in Brazil, and environmental filmmakers, Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman.

Winner of the Cinema for Peace Green Film Award, the Jackson Wild Impact Award, the Best Documentary Award at Raindance Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Mostra São Paulo International Film Festival, We Are Guardians tells an urgent story set in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, where Indigenous forest guardians stand at the frontlines of the fight to protect their ancestral lands from relentless invasions and deforestation. As more and more people illegally invade their lands each year, devastating centuries-old forests for resources and fast profits, these small groups of guardians risk everything to protect their forest and way of life.

Ahead of We Are Guardians’ release, the team from OTF will kick off sales at international content market MIPCOM this October in Cannes.

“We are so excited to partner with Off The Fence on this next phase of We Are Guardians. We look forward to amplifying the urgent message of this documentary and the crucial role indigenous peoples play in preserving our communities’ biodiversity. Their environmental stewardship is so important for our collective future,” notes Highly Flammable producer, Fisher Stevens.

“’We are Guardians' is a film about extraordinary people, who are passionately fighting for their home. A home which the entire world is reliant upon being protected. The team behind the film have created a beautiful, expertly crafted, intimate and profoundly powerful film and we expect a lot of interest at MIPCOM.” Says Loren Baxter, Head of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Off the Fence.


A veteran producer, Fisher Stevens came to We Are Guardians following work on the Oscar-winning conservation documentary, The Cove, and after having collaborated with Appian Way on several other documentaries, including And We Go Green and Before the Flood.

Executive producers of We Are Guardians include tribal members of the Guajajara people and Mídia Indígena founders Erisvan Bone Guajajara, Flay Guajajara, and co-director Edivan Guajajara, along with Leonardo DiCaprio, Phillip Watson, Jennifer Davisson, Academy Award winner Bruce Cohen, Christopher Gebhardt, Randy Gebhardt, Rob Grobman, Iz Web, Luiza Krapels, Marco Krapels. Co-executive producers are Brigit Grimm, Michael Grimm, Heather Conforto Beatty, and Scott Beatty. Production companies are Mídia Indígena, One Forest, Highly Flammable, Random Good, and Appian Way.

Alongside the film, the We Are Guardians team has created a robust impact campaign bringing tremendous support to the Indigenous forest guardians and kickstarting reforestation and agroforestry projects in Indigenous territories along the eastern edge of the Amazon–a region critical to the health of the entire Amazon. In addition, the impact work has focused on educating and campaigning for a deforestation-free supply chain around the world.

We Are Guardians was acquired earlier this year by Netflix throughout Latin America and the producers are currently in negotiations for a theatrical release across North America in Q1-2025.

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