Emergent Productions: Promoting Conservation Through Digital Storytelling

Emergent Productions is a Florida-based non-profit organization founded by filmmaker Sonny DePasquale, using digital storytelling to promote conservation and highlight the individuals and organizations working to protect the environment. The company is named after the highest layer of the rainforest, ‘the emergent layer,’ symbolizing the conservation heroes watching over us.

Sonny DePasquale captures footage for Emergent Productions' latest film, 'Bridging Fragments.'Sonny DePasquale, with permission

Founder and President, Sonny DePasquale

Sonny DePasquale is a director, editor, and producer based in Orlando, Florida. He has dedicated much of his career to improving the world we live in, promoting both conservation and human rights. After completing a degree in Film and Mass Media at the University of Central Florida in 2010, DePasquale began his work creating content for companies like the Human Rights Campaign, a U.S. LGBTQ+ advocacy group, and 4ocean, a company dedicated to ocean conservation. Inspired by this work, DePasquale completed a Graduate Certificate in Communications for Conservation at Colorado State University in 2020. He now works as a senior content producer for Monterey Bay Aquarium’s global ocean initiatives and Seafood Watch program.

About Emergent Productions

Alongside his work at Monterey Bay Aquarium, DePasquale works in his free time to create conservation films through Emergent Productions. He founded Emergent Productions in 2020, hoping to increase environmental awareness through film and celebrate those working to solve conservation issues. He cares deeply about the environment and hopes that Emergent Productions’ films will inspire others to protect the world we live in. “I’ve been developing content and visual storytelling professionally for over 10 years,” he told The MY HERO Project. “Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to tell stories of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, shed light on conservation issues like ocean plastic, and illustrate the importance of sustainable fisheries.”

So far Emergent Productions has produced four films and has featured several organizations including The Sloth Conservation Foundation, The Bee Conservancy, the Florida Oceanographic Society, the Pollinator Conservation Association, and The Battery Conservancy. Their first film, Protecting the Monarch Butterfly (2020), tells of the conservation heroes working to both protect and restore the monarch butterfly’s natural habitat in the Niagara River Corridor. The film was an official selection at the 2021 Films for the Forest Film Festival, 2022 Wild & Scenic Film Festival, 2022 UI Fish & Wildlife Film Festival, and 2022 Fort Myers Film Festival. Watch the film below.

2024 MY HERO Film Festival Winner  

DePasquale’s most recent film at Emergent Productions, Bridging Fragments, is a short documentary that details the work of one of the world’s leading experts on sloth ecology and biology, Dr. Rebecca Cliffe, and her non-profit organization, The Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo). The film is the first place winner in the Portrait of an Organization category at the MY HERO 20^th Annual International Film Festival.

With sloths being such a widely beloved creature, DePasquale hopes that Bridging Fragments will ignite people’s passion for conservation. Said DePasquale:

I was drawn to making Bridging Fragments because I believed it would be a compelling story and grab viewers’ attention, even those who do not have an inherent passion for conservation. Sloths are a wonderful mascot for rainforests because people seem to have an affinity and love for them, which makes them a great flagship species. If people care enough to protect sloths, then they will, in turn, be protecting the rainforest for other creatures they may not be familiar with or share the same love for.

Sonny DePasquale, with permissionA sloth wearing a SloCo backpack climbs through the trees of Costa Rica.

Read more about Bridging Fragments here.

You can watch Bridging Fragments here.

About the MY HERO International Film Festival:

The My Hero Film Festival is an annual event dedicated to showcasing films that celebrate the power of the human spirit. The festival provides a platform for filmmakers to share inspirational stories of everyday heroes. Thanks to generous sponsors, prizes are awarded to elementary, middle school, high school, college and professionals in a variety of categories including documentary, narrative, music video, animation, experimental, and more.

The festival aims to inspire audiences to recognize the heroism in their own lives and encourage positive actions in their communities. Learn more.

Join us in celebrating 20 years of The MY HERO International Film Festival on November 16, 6pm @ the Ann and Jerry Moss Theater at New Roads School in Santa Monica, California. Find out more HERE.

Conclusion

In just four years, Emergent Productions has created a bank of projects that shed light on important conservation issues, as well as the heroes working quietly across the globe to find sustainable solutions to these issues. Sonny DePasquale has dedicated his career to sharing these stories and using media to inspire others to share in his passion for conservation.

 As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Emergent Productions rely on fundraising and donations to create conservation films like Bridging Fragments. Founder Sonny DePasquale told MY HERO:

This wouldn’t have been possible without the generous donations from our supporters. […] We are extremely grateful to the people who see value in the conservation storytelling and the work that we do.

Donations can be made at emergentproductions.org/donate. 

Learn more about Emergent Productions and watch their other films here.