creativity

Interview with Finn Middleton, young Shropshire filmmaker, on his new film at the 2025 Good Natured Film Festival

As we at Conservation Optimism are gearing up for the 2025 Good Natured Conservation Optimism Film Festival, we're excited to spotlight one of our youngest featured filmmakers, Finn Middleton, and his entry for this year's festival: "The Onny's Story: A Fight for the Future." Read on for a short interview about Finn's journey, his sources of inspiration, and reasons for hope as a young person using his creative voice for nature. 

2025-10-20T14:42:47+00:00October 20th, 2025|

The Matchbox Mountain: Can Portugal Save Its Burning Lungs?

Night had begun to fall when we found the small dirt track. We’d already traveled for over two days to get here. The Serra da Estrela, Portugal, is a place like no other. On surface level you see deep forests, steep gorges and sunsets that remind you of the African plains. But as you look a little closer you begin to see a lie: Invasive eucalyptus. Where Eucalyptus stops, seas of maritime pine – thin, tall, closely packed – flood to the plains below, another alien from post-war industrialisation. What is initially a beautiful sight is in fact a matchbox mountain, just waiting for a spark.

2023-08-31T09:44:47+00:00August 31st, 2023|

AN EXCITING NOVEL THAT INSPIRES CLIMATE ACTION

"I wanted more people to know how magnificent and important corals are, and to care enough to do something about them"; this thought resulted in an exciting storytelling project - I'm with Lorac! Read to know more about the journey behind the first novel of this project where Neus, a marine researcher and writer, attempts to spread awareness about corals and climate change using characters and settings inspired by her experiences working in remote islands of Burma.

2022-05-03T15:09:21+00:00May 3rd, 2022|
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