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The Playback

Episode 2: A new style of nature documentary

Take an immersive look behind the scenes of nonficton storytelling.

Samuel Vladimirsky

April 20th, 2023
Episode 2: A new style of nature documentary

Welcome to the second episode of The Pitch! This episode features Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden’s film, Nuisance Bear. They have a different take on nature documentaries by setting it in the point of the polar bear.


When I first watched Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden’s awards season darling, Nuisance Bear, I knew that David Attenborough would have a field day. In a striking directorial debut, the cinematographer couple turned the nature documentary on its head by removing the hallmarks of the form--an omnipotent narrator, a view of planet Earth from the International Space Station, an excruciating runtime. Where another filmmaker might have stopped rolling once the polar bear left the natural landscape to peruse a local garbage dump, Weisman and Osio Vanden found a story that is singular and full of heart.

Credits:

Featuring: Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden

Series Producer: Sam Vladimirsky

Editors: Sam Vladimirsky

Animator: Tricia Cenit

Executive Producer: Sky Dylan-Robbins

Footage: Courtesy of The New Yorker


Sam Vladimirsky is a director, editor & designer (read: tinker, tailor, soldier, spy) whose hunger for a good story has taken him through the underground tunnels beneath the Met, inside the homes of New Yorker cartoonists, and onto remote farms, developing cities, gun ranges, catacombs, and costume shops. A New Jersey native, he is an advocate for the tiny but mighty team, and collaborative storytelling that is fearless and uncompromising. His work has appeared on PBS, Vogue, the British Journal of Photography & more.

He is currently the Creative Marketing Director at the Academy Award®-winning Breakwater Studios, and directing/editing short docs for PBS's State of the Arts. In his previous incarnations, Sam directed, produced, and edited documentary shorts for The Billboard Creative, co-taught archaeology at the Dalton School, worked in MoMA’s photography department, and served on the education team at the Met. He graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in History and French and earned an M.A. in Art History from University College London.

A partial list of things you can talk to Sam about includes: old school VFX, sour Coca Cola gummies, research rabbit holes, cats (not the musical) & the 1993 cinematic masterpiece Mrs. Doubtfire.


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