Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Opre
Tom, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in the Midwest with an award-winning journalist for a father. He made films in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I used to sneak in his office and throw up reels of 16mm film. His films were outdoor adventure oriented. After getting a comm degree in mass media and journalism I set off to Florida to work in film. After stints working in feature films and producing the premiere TV special for Discovery channel’s
Shark Week I found my niche in the commercial film industry producing and directing national TV spots for Fortune 500 companies. Soon I angled into adventure recreational products and motorsports. Being in the outdoors, working all over the world was my specialty.
After a seven year run producing, directing and hosting with the highest rated field sport TV program airing on NBC Sports in a prime time slot I moved on to more socially conscious efforts.
In 2017 I started my first feature length documentary Killing the Shepherd which depicted the efforts of a remote community in Zambia, led by a woman chief, who worked to break the bonds of poverty by waging a war on wildlife poaching. The project was selected by over forty film festivals worldwide, winning many awards including social justice, indigenous and human rights.
This effort helped me understand the power of film which led to the founding of the nonprofit Shepherds of Wildlife Society. The Orgs mission is to reconnect our urbanized society with nature ensuring rural indigenous communities realize their most basic human rights through the hard work of conservation.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course who didn’t have issues with Covid? Our efforts to complete Killing the Shepherd which was in production from 2017 through 2020 were stymied by restrictions on international travel. But I was able to get the Zambian government to approve special visas to finish the film once international flights resumed.
But probably the largest hurdle we constantly work to clear is funding. Besides being the face of the Shepherds of Wildlife Society, I’m producing multiple new films, writing a book about the making of each film, and fundraising. We have a small dedicated team and work hard to realize financial efficiencies which allow us to have a major impact with decision makers and influencers like film screenings with politicians all over the world.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work is all about people. Because of the power of film, I’ve come to realize that my work inspires people all over the world.
Human rights are such an elemental part of our culture.. We live in a world that’s also inhabited by many other creatures, the
great wildlife of the world. As a species we don’t have a good track record of taking care of the other neighbors on the planet. Wildlife habitat is shrinking at an increasing pace as we have over 8 billion humans on this planet. I’ve really come to understand that if people don’t see a value to something they just don’t take care of it. That’s what’s great about modern conservation. Since the late 1800s, here in the United States, we have practiced a form of conservation which is created immense value for both wildlife and wildlife habitat. It truly is the best management scheme humans have ever devised.
And knowing that my films can have such a profound effect on people is a rather humbling experience During the production of Killing the Shepherd I happen to show some of the video to the founder of African children’s schools, a charity out of California, that helps build schools in the African bush.. The video documented an open air classroom with dirt floors. The children were wearing rags and they had no school supplies. The teacher didn’t even get a salary. The next day we are on the phone with the African Safari operator and the funds required to build three new schools, teachers residence, latrines, school supplies, uniforms, and just about everything else for a school in the African bush was wired to Zambia.
The first order for uniforms was about 80. Last year I saw a grant request for 600! These kids are learning English as their primary language which is obviously the language of international commerce. These kids will also be the leaders of their communities, the leaders of their countries, and maybe leaders of the world and the next ten, twenty and fifty years.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
If anyone is interested in being a part of the shepherds of wildlife Society, they can go to shepherdsofwildlife.org and sign up for our newsletter. You Automatically become a member of the society. On another note, the society is a unique organization. At its core it is made up of wildlife photographers and outdoor filmmakers. It’s the only conservation organization like it in existence. We are the outdoors, we see man’s impact on the world, and it isn’t pretty. If we don’t figure out how to be better neighbors with the rest of the creatures on the world, what we all love, much of it will go the way of the dodo bird.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Shepherdsofwildlife.org
- Instagram: Shepherdsofwildlife
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shepherdsofwildlife?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: Wildshepherds
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@shepherdsofwildlifesociety876?si=E_OROvwD4N8iPKza
