Katie Stacey and Luke Massey, of Sunbittern Media, are working on a Crowdfunded documentary, called ‘The Last Song of the Nightingale,’ one of Britain's best loved birds, whose song has established itself firmly in British heritage. They need to raise funds to complete the work , and perhaps you can help.
Katie, a producer, and her partner Luke Massey, who is an award winning wildlife photographer, are passionate about birds. They genuinely believe this film can make a difference to changing people’s perspectives of birds, and their importance to humans. Theye have filmed together for numerous different projects and most recently you can see their work on the the BBC’s 'Natural World: Super Fast Falcon’, Netflix series '72 Cutest' and Channel 5’s 'Wild Britain'. They are both keen conservationists and have filmed as part of the team that produced Chris Packham’s online film 'Cyprus: Massacre on Migration'.
They have already begun filming ‘The Last Song of the Nightingale' and the first story they’ve shot, 'Singing With Nightingales', was shortlisted for the Arts & Humanities Research Councils Film Festival for the Inspiration Award. Why the nightingale? Well it is now one of the countries most endangered songbirds, in the UK the Nightingale has declined 90% since 1970 - it has felt the full extent of habitat destruction, pesticides, climate change & persecution. What they want to show in this documentary is how normal people can make a difference. It does seem that a lot of reasons for the Nightingale's decline has been due to scrub clearance etc. which public pressure could in future stop. Of course the Nightingale’s story is not a standalone case, and ‘The Last Song of the Nightingale’ will use the Nightingale as the poster species to explain how all our migratory birds are facing the very same issues. Using a unique storytelling blend of animation, natural history and documentary style filmmaking, 'The Last Song of the Nightingale' will explore the Nightingale’s story. As the eminent Biologist and inventor of the term “Biodiversity”, Thomas Lovejoy, said; “If you take care of birds, you take care of most of the environmental problems in the world.”
You can read more about the project and the team on their Crowdfunder page: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-last-song-of-the-nightingale
Katie and Luke are trying to raise £10,000 to complete the documentary. The Crowdfunder has lots of perks to go with donations, starting from £5+ so they aren’t asking for something for nothing.
Finally, they are also looking for any stories anyone might have about the Nightingale - they can be anything from legends, historical tales to Nightingales on your local patch! They have already shot some wonderful stories and have some fascinating ones yet to film.
Katie's email address is katie.stacey@gmail.com. Information about Sunbittern Media can be found at https://sunbitternmedia.com/