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Vanessa Schulz (born August 7, 1969) is a South African born documentary filmmaker, director, producer, writer, editor, photographer and political activist.

After beginning her career in commercial television, she became disenchanted with how the profit-driven corporate mentality skewed the messaging and presentation of documentary subject matter. In 1998, she established 21paradigm.com to concentrate on independent projects, including the award-winning Cull of the Wild and Cost of Freedom. Schulz studied at the Cape Town Film and Television School.[1]

Early life
Schulz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to German immigrant parents. Schulz’s father had defected from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Childhood family visits to the former East Germany during the 1970s, where some of her relatives still lived behind the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall, infused the young Schulz with a strong sense of social justice and activism. Equally instrumental is Schulz’s upbringing during apartheid-era South Africa. Schulz attended primary and secondary school in Rivonia and attended Inscape Study Centre, where she graduated at the top of her class, earning a Diploma in Graphic Design.

Schulz’s interests are varied, including yoga (she is actively teaching as an AYTT-certified instructor), Buddhism, white-water kayaking, and paragliding. Schulz qualified as a NAUI scuba diving instructor under the course direction of Jim Hicks, in Durban, South Africa in 1991. She worked as a dive instructor for Island Ventures on the Indian Ocean island of Grand Comore Island from 1991-1993. She further qualified as a deep diving instructor and instructor of underwater photography.

Building on a passion for photography that was instilled in her as early as age 7, Schulz moved into the world of moving images by attending Cape Town Film & Television School in Cape Town, South Africa in 1994.



Career
In 1995, Schulz emigrated to the United States, where she got her first job in television as a production staffer at a local affiliate in Ketchum, Idaho. Schulz worked as assistant producer for two years on Wolves at our Door, which won two Emmy awards for the Discovery Channel. Schulz’s television career soon expanded to include freelance stints as a camerawoman and producer for NBC, National Geographic and Fox Television. Schulz’s reel grew, but her progress was hampered by sexism in the industry; Schulz bristled at attempts by employers to pigeonhole her into administrative and desk jobs, when she was perfectly willing and able to perform the demanding tasks of a mobile camera operator.

At the turn of the decade (1999-2000), Vanessa experienced the shift of wildlife film making from what she saw as “conservation-oriented, to gross over-exploitation of it’s subject matter; an unapologetic industry utterly devoid of ethics in it’s industrial drive for power and profit.” What Schulz saw as rampant monopolization, sensationalism and excessive ‘artistic license,’ led directly to her decision in 1998 to incorporate 21st Paradigm, an independent, non-profit documentary film company. 21st Paradigm’s mission is to use media to further the respect for intrinsic value of all life – that is the right of other life forms to exist regardless of their instrumental value to humans.

The first 21st Paradigm production was the independent film Sabi Sabi: Adventure for the Soul. The production was filmed on the Sabi Sabi private game reserve in South Africa and explores human fascination with predatory behavior of carnivores, what Schulz describes as “a mirror of the beast within.” In 1999, upon seeing Schulz’s show-reel, Bertram van Munster, Executive Producer of Fox Television’s “Wild Things,” hired Schulz to work as the show’s field producer and camera operator.

In 2000, Schulz began volunteering her film-making skills to the animal welfare movement, the first of which was collaboration with the Animal Legal Defense Fund on a project examining otter trapping in Missouri. This led directly to Cull of the Wild: The Truth behind Trapping, in concert with the Animal Protection Institute. This was her introduction into political advocacy. Following Cull of the Wild was Cost of Freedom, which garnered a number of film festival awards, including a gold Remy award at the 37th Worldfest Houston International Film Festival and a special jury award at the 2003 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Wyoming “for a filmmaker with the courage to pursue a difficult and controversial topic.” This was a breakthrough for Schulz as it came from precisely the industry Schulz was trying to hold to an ethical standard.

Despite her film’s successes, Schulz was unable to raise funds for her next production about Captain Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Her short film – Sea Shepherd - was the precursor for several documentaries about Captain Watson, including “Whale Wars” on Animal Planet. Schulz returned to her native South Africa in 2004 where she worked as producer, writer, editor and camera operator for Aquavision Television Productions. Schulz’s goal was to secure funding to launch “Africa Burning” – a documentary about the annual scorching of two thirds of the African continent, its impact on African desertification global pollution and climate change. Funding opportunities for this, and other animal advocacy projects, have been limited.

Returning to the United States in 2007 to devote full time to 21st Paradigm, Schulz produced and directed “Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution,” a documentary about the 8th International Permaculture Convergence in Brazil. This was Schulz’s first venture from into social activism. In 2009, Schulz happened upon the “Hero Dog” video on YouTube, which inspired the feature-length documentary “Lost Dogs” an examination of the phenomenon of street dogs and what it reveals about global, industrialized culture (due for release in 2013).

Now active in the world of dog rescue, Schulz freelanced for Animal Balance to document the destruction of natural heritage on the Galapagos Islands by cats and dogs and the solution to the problem: Spay and neuter.

Film

 * Wolves at our Door – Assistant Producer (1998)
 * Adventure For the Soul – Director, Producer, Camera, Editor (1999)
 * Cull of the Wild – Director, Co-Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2002)
 * Cost of Freedom – Director, Producer, Camera, Editor (2003)
 * Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2008)
 * Lost Dogs – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2012)
 * Cost of Freedom – Director, Producer, Camera, Editor (2003)
 * Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2008)
 * Lost Dogs – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2012)
 * Lost Dogs – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2012)
 * Lost Dogs – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2012)

Television
National Geographic: Pursuit of the Giant Bluefin (assistant camera)

NBC: The Travel Channel with Peter Greenberg (camera operator)

Fox TV: Wild Things (Field producer, camera operator)

Films directed by Vanessa Schulz:
1990s

Adventure For the Soul – Director, Producer, Camera Editor (1999)

2000s

Cull of the Wild – Director, Co-Producer, Camera Editor (2002)

Cost of Freedom – Director, Producer (2003)

Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2008)

2010s

Lost Dogs – Director, Producer, Camera, Writer, Editor (2012) – in final production.

Categories:
American film directors

American film producers

Activists from Oregon

Emmy Award winners