The Bloomberg Greendocs festival was next-level awesome. Not only was it an honor to have my short film, Shaped by Ice, selected as one of five finalists, but the four other finalist filmmakers have given me a renewed enthusiasm for continuing to focus on environmental work. I’m leaving the festival with what feels like friends for life.

From left to right: Finalists filmmakers Thomas Klaper (winner!), Ángel Linares, Carter Kirilenko, Dan McComb and Gideon Mendel.

We all liked each other so much that we proposed the idea of sharing the $25,000 prize (over drinks the night before). The jury quashed our idea when Gideon presented it to them, and after seeing all the films, I believe I know why. It’s because Thomas’s film about migrating toads in Switzerland, which took 4 years to make, truly deserved to be the winner. Its use of humor and absolutely stunning cinematography, as well as the fact that it focused on a subject so small as to be invisible, was moving. Go Thomas and team! What an honor to share the stage with these four.

I also made some potential fundraising contacts for my Afterdrop project, which was the genesis of Shaped by Ice. And I’m on the hunt for more stories, particularly about scientists who are continuing to do the important work they do in the face of increasingly difficult and openly hostile environment to the truth of their work.