A funny thing happened in roughly the 11th hour of preparation for the second annual NatureTrack Film Festival, which takes place March 22-24 in Los Olivos. Netflix called.
Although planning was well underway for the festival, and a total of 61 films had been programmed for the weekend-long event, organizers had to stop the presses and “rewrite the lead” when approached by Netflix about hosting the U.S. premiere of a high-profile series called Our Planet, made by the same folks who created BBC’s acclaimed Planet Earth, and with narration by David Attenborough. Area audiences will see part one of the eight-part series before its Netflix premiere on April 5, with bonus footage not slated for small-screen airing.
KC Thompson, who runs the festival along with codirector Holly Cline and founder/director Sue Eisaguirre, explained how the Netflix collaboration came to be: “We were told by their marketing rep in New York that Netflix was doing a late search for a nature or outdoor film festival to premiere their new original series. Apparently the NatureTrack Film Festival came up in their search. The marketing firm reached out to us, and we jumped on the opportunity. We’d be crazy not to, right?”
