Acclaimed film makers announced as Just a Drop ambassadors

LONDON, England – Just a Drop, the water development charity, which strives to provide clean water in areas of need, has announced that acclaimed wildlife film makers, the BBC’s Patrick Morris and SilverBack Films’ Huw Cordey, have been appointed Just a Drop Ambassadors.

The new Just a Drop Ambassadors have a passion for wildlife and are leading lights in the production and direction of nature documentaries. The pair have worked on some of the biggest and most ambitious natural history landmark projects shown around the world, including the BBC series ‘Life’, ‘The Hunt’, ‘South Pacific’, ‘Galapagos’, ‘Wild Africa’ & ‘Planet Earth’, many of which have been presented and narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Their films have received some of the highest accolades in the industry. Patrick has twice won Best of Festival at Jackson Hole Wildlife film festival for his films ‘People of the Sea’ and ‘Galapagos: Born of Fire’, and Huw’s major landmark series The Hunt recently won two BAFTAs at the 2016 Craft Awards. Patrick has also recently co-directed the most ambitious 3D wildlife film ever, Enchanted Kingdom, which won ‘Best 3D Documentary’ at the Wildscreen Festival. These awards are the Oscars of the natural history and wildlife film industry!

Just a Drop’s Founder Fiona Jeffery said: “We are so thrilled that Patrick and Huw have agreed to act as Just a Drop Ambassadors, they are seriously high profile in wildlife filming and understand completely the challenges faced in too many parts of the world where clean water is unavailable. Patrick and Huw have agreed to give their time to help spread the word of the life-saving projects Just a Drop is involved in and we will arrange fund raising screenings of some of their work. The guys will also be supporting ‘Behind the Lens’ style events for school children inspiring the next generation.”

Patrick Morris said: “We have ventured into every habitat on earth, sometimes in incredibly challenging environments and in many of the adventures water has been an important component, it is the essence of life for all species – for humans, the animal kingdom and plant life and protecting and supporting water developments in deprived parts of the world is very relevant to us. It is incredible that about 71% of the earth’s surface is water-covered but yet still there are too many people without access to clean, safe water. We are committed to supporting ‘Just a Drop’ whenever we can.”

Huw Cordey said: “In the UK we take clean drinking water totally for granted. This isn’t something you can do when you make wildlife films in remote parts of the world where drinking the local water is like playing Russian roulette. Clearly, it’s a serious issue for a film crew since water-born infections and diseases could easily end an expensive shoot. But while, for us, this would be a costly inconvenience, for the local people the absence of reliable, clean, drinking water is potentially life threatening. Sadly, even in 2016, there are many, many communities that still couldn’t begin to take clean water for granted.

“This was brought home to me early on in my career during a shoot in India. A local man we were working with told me a baby in his village was very sick with dysentery and dehydration. I gave him clean bottled water and packets of electrolyte salts to give to the family. Unfortunately, he didn’t give them to the family fearing that if the baby died after taking the rehydration salts we would get the blame. Sadly, the baby died anyway. But, if the family had had access to clean drinking water the situation may not have even arisen in the first place.”