Documentary chronicles year of chaos through lens of monarch butterfly migration

Plans for our fifth Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival were in full swing in early 2020.

Fundraising and sponsorships had been secured. Venues reserved, speakers and flights booked. Proposals for VIP dinners, teacher training seminars, gardening workshops, and cooking demos had been developed and under review–all in an effort to celebrate wildlife pollinators and the ecosystems that sustain them, and us.

And then…COVID-19 smacked us in the gut at the same time the murders of George Floyd and others reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and a historic 2020 presidential race began to heat up.

Plans for our fifth anniversary Festival celebration were quashed. What to do?

Take the Festival online and document it by making a movie.

Watch the trailer. Register here to see the entire film here. It’s FREE.

2020: A Metamorphosis, chronicles the challenging  journey endured by each of us this year as the country reckons with longstanding social injustice, a novel pandemic, and an upcoming presidential election.

The rebooting of our Festival, and the resilience and tenacity of the monarch butterfly migration, serve as a lens through which to view these complex issues.

San Antonio filmmakers and musicians Angela Guerra Walley & Mark Lee Walley of Walley Films worked closely with our Festival team to assemble the 27-minute documentary.

It includes interviews with 16 different subjects and footage from various locations in San Antonio.

San Antonio filmmakers Angela and Mark Walley are the creative force behind 2020: A Metamorphosis.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and epidemiologist Cherise Rohr-Allegrini join Festival guests Nature’s Best Hope author Doug Tallamy and Bat Man of Mexico Rodrigo Medellín and others to make the case that change is the only constant.

San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson narrates the film.

The documentary will premiere this Thursday, October 29, at 6:30 PM. It’s FREE. Register here to get the link.

Related posts:

• Bat Man of Mexico to dispel lies about COVID-19 and bats
• Black Birders Week cofounder Danielle Belleny to explore birds as pollinators
• Doug Tallamy proposes crowdsourcing a homegrown national park: Who’s in?
• Paddling Lessons: documentary reveals the secret life of a river
• A monarch at my Abuela’s Day of the Dead altar 
• Register for FREE workshops, webinars and more for our October Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival
• Can’t get outside? Track the 2020 monarch butterfly migration from your desk
• Monarch butterflies heading our way
• Lost a loved one to COVID-19, social injustice or other causes? We’ll tag a butterfly in their name
• Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival to remember those lost in 2019

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