GOOD TALK WITH KATE BROOKS

Kate Brooks is an international photojournalist and filmmaker who has chronicled conflict and human rights for the past two decades. Her photographs have been extensively published in TIME, Newsweek, Smithsonian and The New Yorker and exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. In 2010, Brooks' love for filmmaking was sparked while working as a cinematographer on the documentary The Boxing Girls of Kabul. Her introspective collection of essays and photographs, In the Light of Darkness: A Photographer’s Journey After 9/11, was selected as one of the best photography books of 2011. In 2012-13, Kate was a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. There she researched the global wildlife trafficking crisis before embarking on directing her first film THE LAST ANIMALS. The documentary premiered at Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day 2017 and was awarded a Disruptor Award, alongside those who sacrificed their lives protecting Garamba National Park. The film has been widely recognized for its ability to disrupt the status quo on policy and change hearts and minds, later winning the Terra Mater Factual Studios Impact Award in consideration with Blue Planet II. Brooks' drive and passion for conservation comes from the fundamental belief that time is running out and that we are at a critical moment in natural history. From her perspective “despite of all the human destruction on the planet, there is still a natural order and it is necessary for us to do everything we can to protect that while we can.” Kate also founded The Last Animals Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that was established in California to raise awareness about wildlife trafficking and to support conservation efforts with a particular focus on rangers, their families and local communities in ecosystems plagued by conflict and insecurity.