W.S. MERWIN
US Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin has won almost every major poetry prize that exists, including two Pulitzers. His legacy is based not only upon his writings, however, but also the singular form of environmental activism and land stewardship he embodies.
Now in his 88th year, Merwin has dedicated over three decades to preserving and regenerating native plants and palms on a 19-acre site on the north shore of Maui, Hawaii. Called the Merwin Conservancy, the preserve holds the most comprehensive private collection of palms in the world, with over 800 species. These tangible actions for the environment go hand-in-hand with his poetry, offering important insights for an era marked by environmental degradation, human disconnect with natural processes, and rapid climate change.
Merwin is a vibrant, humorous and challenging subject, and has not been involved in a feature documentary before. EVEN THOUGH THE WHOLE WORLD IS BURNING will appeal to several dedicated niche markets – poetry aficionados, environmentalists, Buddhists, those with a connection to Hawaii – but also to wider audiences who will experience Merwin as a “wise man” brimming with insight, humor, inspiring daily practice, and a refreshing sense of the relevance of poetry in our lives today.
STEFAN SCHAEFER | director, producer
Stefan’s films have premiered and won awards at festivals such as Berlin, SxSW and Hawai’i Int’l, among many others, and have been successfully released theatrically, via cable outfits such as HBO and the Sundance Channel, on iTunes and DVD.
In the past six years he has written, directed and/or produced eight feature films, among them MY
LAST DAY WITHOUT YOU, Michael Imperioli’s debut THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, Olaf Johannesson’s THE AMAZING TRUTH AtiOUT QUEEN RAQUELA, and ARRANGED. On the documentary front, Stefan directed the award-winning CONTESTED STREETS, which explores the history and culture of New York City streets from pre-automobile Times to the present. The film screened at many environmental film festivals and aired as part of “The Green” programming block on the Sundance Channel. Stefan has numerous projects in active development and production, among them:
A TV pilot/series with the Weinstein Company
A TV pilot/series with Sony Pictures Television, with showrunner Ed Decter attached
A sci‐fi feature with Mandeville Films
A third TV film written for European network ZDF, which will shoot on Maui and Molokai in September.
Stefan graduated from Wesleyan University, and studied as a Fulbright Scholar in Europe. An active member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), he’s repped by LA-based Industry Entertainment. He and his family live in Ha’iku, HI.
WILLIAMS COLE | producer
Williams Cole has produced, written about, and researched documentary film for over 15 years. Most recently, Williams produced 99% -THE OCCUPY WALL STREET COLLABORATIVE FILM that premiered in competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and is distributed by Participant Media. Previously, Williams produced the feature documentary GUN FIGHT with Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple.
GUN FIGHT investigated the heated debates around guns in America and premiered on HBO in 2011. That same year he also was on the ground in Lagos, Nigeria conducting over 60 interviews and managing an international crew to produce a feature documentary about Nigerian legend Fela Kuti for Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, a film currently in post-production. Earlier in his career, he produced GIULIANI TIME, an award-winning feature documentary that premiered in the Landmark Theater chain around the country in 2005 and critically challenged the emergence of the “New” New York under then Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Other projects include producing documentaries for Cicala Filmworks, CBS News Productions, TrueTV and A&E/The History Channel.
During the last two years Williams also produced over 45 short documentary portraits of established and emerging authors for Open Road Integrated Media. These online video profiles include writers and thinkers such Michael Chabon, Leon Uris, Walker Percy, Jimmy Breslin, Ishmael Reed and Alison
Lurie among many others.
Prior to his life producing documentaries, Williams was a Fulbright Scholar in 1995/96 where he earned a Master’s Degree in Media & Communications at the London School of Economics. He wrote a thesis on the changing role of sociopolitical documentaries in the British broadcasting system. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in Literature/Writing and Political Science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and two children.
ANDREW RICE | cinematographer, editor
Andy is a Maui-based filmmaker. He collaborated with Stefan on his feature MY LAST DAY WITHOUT YOU, and a short entitled THE ROUNDUP, produced by Oahu-based Island Film Group.
SARAH CAVANAUGH & ROBERT BECKER | executive producers
KAREN BOURIS | co-producer
Karen is the former Executive Director of the Merwin Conservancy.
NICCO MELE | co-producer
Nicco is an author, entrepreneur and professor – http://www.nicco.org/
EDWARD MORRIS & SUSANNAH SAYLER | associate producers
Edward and Susannah are the founders of The Canary Project – http://canary-project.org