Hellbent

By Hannah Mulvany

I was lucky enough to be brought onto the Hellbent team last year to create content for their online storytelling and, after watching the film for the first time, I was so excited to be part of such an incredible project. Having worked together for months, it was great to sit down with the film’s Co-Directors, Justin Grubb and Annie Roth, to ask them all the questions I’d been wanting to ask them for ages, as well as those I thought our listeners would enjoy hearing the answers to.

Justin and Annie with one of the many awards the film has now won.

This, now multi-award winning, short film documents a mother and daughter team in Grant Township, Pennsylvania, as they take on a huge fracking corporation to protect their water source and, in the process, save the habitat of the highly endangered, incredibly sensitive and thoroughly weird-looking hellbender salamander. I instantly fell in love with Stacy and Judy - the film’s main characters, as their warmth and determination was contagious, and I was behind their community 100%. The film is empowering and hopeful, but the story is far from over. This is one of the very few ‘rights of nature’ cases that has been upheld in the US and, with many having been overturned since designation, Grant Township is far from being out of the woods.

The weird-looking hellbender salamander in question, also affectionately known as snot otter, devil dog, Allegheny alligator and ol’ lasagna sides.

The people behind the film are working hard to make sure this film is seen by as many people as possible, so that other communities can gain inspiration and encouragement to fight their own battles, and protect both human and nature’s rights.

Oh, and I won’t end this article without mentioning the beautiful animation created by the multi-talented Katie Garrett (also the film’s editor) stunning cinematography, and the magnificent original score, which features in the podcast episode and was composed by Micah Anderson. Having listened to me bang on about how great the film is, I’m sure you want to watch it, so here’s a link. You have to register for free and then you’ll get access to five of the films in the Jackson Wild World Wildlife Day Showcase (including ours). AND if you love it too, please vote for the film to win the Audience Award, as the more attention the film gets, the more people will know about it and will be inspired by its message.

Artwork by Jasmine Hortop

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