National Geographic Executives Courteney Monroe & Carolyn Bernstein Double Down On Docs, Laud “Bespoke” Approach
deadline.comClouds of gloom have settled over much of the documentary field, brought on by multiple factors: a sluggish acquisition market, cutbacks in the executive ranks at Netflix and Showtime, uncertainty around Hulu’s future, CNN Films taking doc production in house, sharper scrutiny of budgets and content needs, and… well, the list goes on.
But there’s at least one bright spot it the nonfiction firmament – National Geographic Documentary Films. Coming off its latest Oscar nomination – for the feature Fire of Love – the unit of the Walt Disney Company is leaning into documentary production with half a dozen films set for release or in the works.
First up: Wild Life, a film Carolyn Bernstein, EVP of global scripted content and documentary films for NatGeo, calls “a big, beautiful love story.” The couple at the heart of it – Doug and Kris Tompkins — left the corporate world for life in remote Chile. “She was the CEO of Patagonia, he was the founder of The North Face and Esprit with his ex-wife Susie Tompkins,” Bernstein noted. “Kristine and Doug met each other in middle age and fell madly, madly in love.” Together, they acquired millions of acres of land in Chile and Argentina, with the express purpose of turning it into national parks, a project Kris continued even after her husband’s tragic death in 2015.
The film directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (NatGeo’s Free Solo) opened theatrically in New York and DC on Friday and expands to Los Angeles and other markets in the coming days and weeks.
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