The Invisible Mammal
San Francisco, California | Film Feature
Documentary, Science
Why are bats blamed for starting a pandemic, when they are actually pivotal in preventing future ones? That is, only if humans protect them. We need your help to finish this hopeful science-driven documentary, with inspiring women lead characters, that will have you see bats in a whole new light.
The Invisible Mammal
San Francisco, California | Film Feature
Documentary, Science
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $46,017 for production phase 2. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
320 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
Why are bats blamed for starting a pandemic, when they are actually pivotal in preventing future ones? That is, only if humans protect them. We need your help to finish this hopeful science-driven documentary, with inspiring women lead characters, that will have you see bats in a whole new light.
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
All around us, roosting in trees or crevices, or silently migrating through our neighborhoods, bats go unseen. And now, at a time when bats have been blamed for causing a global pandemic, a new documentary about bat conservation will dispel myths about how pandemics are caused and spread, while also illustrating how bats’ super-immunity may hold a key to our own survival, but only if we can save them from a disease threatening their very existence.
The Invisible Mammal is a feature-length documentary film about bats, infectious disease, and women in science. In this intensely cinematic film, bats are rendered poetically visible: spectacularly streaming out of caves or bridges, or cradled in a gloved hand, wings extended. Wonder is the overriding emotion. Adventure is a key mood, along with mind-expanding discovery in the company of some of the most prominent human faces in bat conservation.
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the sixth mass extinction, a team of women biologists set out to save a North American bat species from a deadly fungal disease called White-nose Syndrome (WNS). As the disease reaches the far corners of the continent, a global pandemic attributed to a bat species in China interrupts their project, their jobs, and their commitment to protect bat species, no matter the odds.
This film highlights the need for solutions to our global extinction crisis. One million species around the globe are now at risk of extinction, including several species of North America’s bats, due to WNS. If we lose our bats, humans will also suffer, as bats save U.S. agriculture billions of dollars a year. This film offers up a pioneering solution called Operation Fat Bat, a project that, if successful, could rebuild healthy bat populations across North America.
A bat lover since her days at film school, Director Kristin Tieche knew she had to tell this story. She started following the story of bats in 2009 after reading an article by science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert about how White-nose Syndrome threatened bats’ survival in North America.
Since 2006, WNS has decimated bat populations across the continent, killing approximately 7 million bats. Originally discovered in upstate New York, the fungal disease has spread across 37 states in the U.S., and 7 provinces in Canada, from New York to California, from Manitoba to Texas.
Based on the festival success of her award-winning short film (The Invisible Mammal: The Bat Rescuer), Kristin decided to expand the project to cover the full scope of the crisis surrounding WNS. Meanwhile, COVID-19 introduced a new storyline, as a species of bat in China was targeted as the cause of the pandemic. The film intends to shine a bright light on pioneering conservation solutions, while helping humanity understand how infectious disease is caused and spread, and how we can better fit into the shared ecosystem, with bats leading us all to greater enlightenment.
Kristin teamed up with producer Matthew Podolsky of the Wild Lens Collective (Sea of Shadows) and producer Holly Mosher (Vanishing of the Bees) to bring this project to fruition. At once a nature film, a science film, and a character-driven adventure film, The Invisible Mammal will immerse you in the world of bats and forever change the way you feel about these amazing little creatures.
The Invisible Mammal is fiscally sponsored by the Wild Lens Collective, a 501(c)3 organization.
Bats are elusive creatures to many. Even scientists confront so many mysteries about this group of mammals. This film intends to make the invisible visible. The Invisible Mammal gives voice to scientists as engaging characters embarking on a critically urgent fight to solve the WNS threat to bats in the time of coronavirus.
Audiences will learn about the importance of bats in our shared ecosystem, and why it's imperative that we protect them, including bats’ enormous economic value as a natural pest control. Without bats, American farms will suffer even more devastating financial losses. Bats also eat large amounts of disease-bearing insects such as mosquitoes, playing an important role in human health.
We get that living on Planet Earth in 2022 can be anxiety inducing at times. Watching an environmental documentary sometimes adds to the stress of everyday choices we need to make. That’s why we wanted to tell a solutions-oriented story, with inspiring women role models front and center. Furthermore, we think you’ll walk away with a love and appreciation for bats that you never knew was in you. The Invisible Mammal will be a cinematic experience that transforms hearts and minds.
What the world needs now is a film about a misunderstood underdog, who actually possesses super-abilities such as flight, echolocation and superimmunity. A film that could change the way we understand, value and relate to nature. While directly addressing the value of protecting wildlife habitats in order to prevent future pandemics, and highlighting bats’ multibillion dollar importance for agriculture, The Invisible Mammal is a story of resilience, solutions and hope.
That’s why we need your help! We have come so far with production on a shoestring budget, and only have a few scenes left to film, and we need financial support to get there. We’d love for you to come along with us on the rest of this journey.
Not only do we have some great pledge levels for any budget, but we’ll be giving back to you throughout this Seed&Spark campaign by holding some fun events where you can meet cast and crew, or just learn about bats. So stay tuned to this campaign page for some exciting updates and announcements. We can’t wait to meet you and thank you for your support, from the bottom of our hearts!
We are at the tail end of principal photography, but still have some filming to do this summer in California, Michigan, New York and Texas. Then, we’ll continue editing in the fall, with the hopes of bringing this transformational film to you in late 2023 or early 2024. We estimate that we need $45,000 to get us through the end of 2023, and we hope this Seed&Spark campaign will bring new attention from outside investors that will help us bring The Invisible Mammal to its world premiere date. If we surpass our goal during this campaign, additional funds will go toward continuing post-production (editing, music composition, graphic design, sound design and color correction).
Meeting our Seed&Spark goal will be a challenge unto itself! Please help us succeed by making a pledge today and inviting your friends to join us on our journey too. Become a bat superhero, and help bring this solutions-oriented, transformative film to fruition.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Travel expenses
Costs $3,000
We need to film in four locations in 2022 and need to pay for flights, car rental, food & lodging.
Assistant Editor
Costs $5,000
We need to hire an assistant editor to organize and prep all footage to start editing Fall 2022.
No Updates Yet
This campaign hasn't posted any updates yet. Message them to ask for an update!
About This Team
Kristin Tieche (Director) is an award-winning filmmaker. She has edited films and series that aired on National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel, Science Channel, PBS, and more. Her independent short films include Forms of Identification (2011), The Spinster (2013) and Velo Visionaries (2015-2017). Credits as producer and editor include Sundance Audience Award winner Fuel (2008), Power Paths (2009), and Love Thy Nature (2014). Kristin holds a Master of Arts in Television, Radio and Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she received awards in screenwriting and sound design from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Matthew Podolsky (Producer) is co-founder of the Wild Lens Collective, a non-profit that provides support for conservation storytellers. He produced and directed the Emmy-nominated feature documentary Bluebird Man and co-directed the feature documentary Sea of Shadows, a 2019 Sundance Audience Award winner.
Holly Mosher (Executive Producer) specializes in mission-driven films and has raised over $500,000 for high impact documentaries Vanishing of the Bees (Netflix, 2009), Free For All (FreeSpeechTV, 2008) and Pay 2 Play (FreeSpeechTV, 2014). Her award-winning PBS World documentary, Bonsai People (2011), about Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus, was a finalist for 2013 Social Impact Media Awards with U.S. theatrical screenings hosted by Whole Foods Market. Holly graduated with honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Hannah Mulvany (Social Media Director) is a wildlife biologist and communications specialist. She works with filmmakers, podcasts, conservation organisations and environmentally friendly businesses to create digital storytelling that inspires people to take action. In her spare time, Hannah loves anything that involves being outdoors and is usually in the process of learning a new extreme sport, or planning her next adventure.
Emily Stanford (Social Media Producer) is a bat researcher, conservationist and wildlife filmmaker. She received the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship in 2018 to independently study bat conservation across nine countries, when she made her documentary short film, The Truth About Bats. In her free time, she enjoys camping, swimming, and learning the guitar. She graduated with a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Oberlin College.
OTHER CREW
Heidi Zimmerman (Editor) cut her first documentary, 40 Years of Silence, under the mentorship of Academy Award-winning film editor, Pietro Scalia. She has gone on to work on a wide range of feature projects including Alive and Kicking, nominated for a Grand Jury Award at 2016 SXSW, Fish & Men, Audience Choice Award winner, 2019 New Hampshire Film Festival; and Dammed to Extinction, Audience Choice Award and Best Feature Award winner, 2019 Eugene Film Festival. She holds a BFA in film/TV production from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Skip Hobbie (Director of Photography) is an award-winning wildlife cinematographer based in Austin, TX, whose work has been featured in films and television shows by Animal Planet, BBC, PBS, Smithsonian, and the Emmy Award-winning National Geographic series Untamed Americas and directed the recent PBS Nature documentary Big Bend: The Wild Frontier of Texas.
Aaron Peterson (Cinematographer/Michigan) is an award-winning photographer and director known for his work in the outdoor and adventure cinema fields. Peterson’s trendsetting storytelling has helped redefine the outdoor image of the American Midwest. His films Cold Rolled (2014); The Michigan Ice Film (2016) and 24 Leeches (2020) have been featured at more than 50 film festivals worldwide. In 2016 Peterson founded the Fresh Coast Film Festival in his hometown of Marquette, Michigan.
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
All around us, roosting in trees or crevices, or silently migrating through our neighborhoods, bats go unseen. And now, at a time when bats have been blamed for causing a global pandemic, a new documentary about bat conservation will dispel myths about how pandemics are caused and spread, while also illustrating how bats’ super-immunity may hold a key to our own survival, but only if we can save them from a disease threatening their very existence.
The Invisible Mammal is a feature-length documentary film about bats, infectious disease, and women in science. In this intensely cinematic film, bats are rendered poetically visible: spectacularly streaming out of caves or bridges, or cradled in a gloved hand, wings extended. Wonder is the overriding emotion. Adventure is a key mood, along with mind-expanding discovery in the company of some of the most prominent human faces in bat conservation.
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the sixth mass extinction, a team of women biologists set out to save a North American bat species from a deadly fungal disease called White-nose Syndrome (WNS). As the disease reaches the far corners of the continent, a global pandemic attributed to a bat species in China interrupts their project, their jobs, and their commitment to protect bat species, no matter the odds.
This film highlights the need for solutions to our global extinction crisis. One million species around the globe are now at risk of extinction, including several species of North America’s bats, due to WNS. If we lose our bats, humans will also suffer, as bats save U.S. agriculture billions of dollars a year. This film offers up a pioneering solution called Operation Fat Bat, a project that, if successful, could rebuild healthy bat populations across North America.
A bat lover since her days at film school, Director Kristin Tieche knew she had to tell this story. She started following the story of bats in 2009 after reading an article by science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert about how White-nose Syndrome threatened bats’ survival in North America.
Since 2006, WNS has decimated bat populations across the continent, killing approximately 7 million bats. Originally discovered in upstate New York, the fungal disease has spread across 37 states in the U.S., and 7 provinces in Canada, from New York to California, from Manitoba to Texas.
Based on the festival success of her award-winning short film (The Invisible Mammal: The Bat Rescuer), Kristin decided to expand the project to cover the full scope of the crisis surrounding WNS. Meanwhile, COVID-19 introduced a new storyline, as a species of bat in China was targeted as the cause of the pandemic. The film intends to shine a bright light on pioneering conservation solutions, while helping humanity understand how infectious disease is caused and spread, and how we can better fit into the shared ecosystem, with bats leading us all to greater enlightenment.
Kristin teamed up with producer Matthew Podolsky of the Wild Lens Collective (Sea of Shadows) and producer Holly Mosher (Vanishing of the Bees) to bring this project to fruition. At once a nature film, a science film, and a character-driven adventure film, The Invisible Mammal will immerse you in the world of bats and forever change the way you feel about these amazing little creatures.
The Invisible Mammal is fiscally sponsored by the Wild Lens Collective, a 501(c)3 organization.
Bats are elusive creatures to many. Even scientists confront so many mysteries about this group of mammals. This film intends to make the invisible visible. The Invisible Mammal gives voice to scientists as engaging characters embarking on a critically urgent fight to solve the WNS threat to bats in the time of coronavirus.
Audiences will learn about the importance of bats in our shared ecosystem, and why it's imperative that we protect them, including bats’ enormous economic value as a natural pest control. Without bats, American farms will suffer even more devastating financial losses. Bats also eat large amounts of disease-bearing insects such as mosquitoes, playing an important role in human health.
We get that living on Planet Earth in 2022 can be anxiety inducing at times. Watching an environmental documentary sometimes adds to the stress of everyday choices we need to make. That’s why we wanted to tell a solutions-oriented story, with inspiring women role models front and center. Furthermore, we think you’ll walk away with a love and appreciation for bats that you never knew was in you. The Invisible Mammal will be a cinematic experience that transforms hearts and minds.
What the world needs now is a film about a misunderstood underdog, who actually possesses super-abilities such as flight, echolocation and superimmunity. A film that could change the way we understand, value and relate to nature. While directly addressing the value of protecting wildlife habitats in order to prevent future pandemics, and highlighting bats’ multibillion dollar importance for agriculture, The Invisible Mammal is a story of resilience, solutions and hope.
That’s why we need your help! We have come so far with production on a shoestring budget, and only have a few scenes left to film, and we need financial support to get there. We’d love for you to come along with us on the rest of this journey.
Not only do we have some great pledge levels for any budget, but we’ll be giving back to you throughout this Seed&Spark campaign by holding some fun events where you can meet cast and crew, or just learn about bats. So stay tuned to this campaign page for some exciting updates and announcements. We can’t wait to meet you and thank you for your support, from the bottom of our hearts!
We are at the tail end of principal photography, but still have some filming to do this summer in California, Michigan, New York and Texas. Then, we’ll continue editing in the fall, with the hopes of bringing this transformational film to you in late 2023 or early 2024. We estimate that we need $45,000 to get us through the end of 2023, and we hope this Seed&Spark campaign will bring new attention from outside investors that will help us bring The Invisible Mammal to its world premiere date. If we surpass our goal during this campaign, additional funds will go toward continuing post-production (editing, music composition, graphic design, sound design and color correction).
Meeting our Seed&Spark goal will be a challenge unto itself! Please help us succeed by making a pledge today and inviting your friends to join us on our journey too. Become a bat superhero, and help bring this solutions-oriented, transformative film to fruition.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Travel expenses
Costs $3,000
We need to film in four locations in 2022 and need to pay for flights, car rental, food & lodging.
Assistant Editor
Costs $5,000
We need to hire an assistant editor to organize and prep all footage to start editing Fall 2022.
No Updates Yet
This campaign hasn't posted any updates yet. Message them to ask for an update!
About This Team
Kristin Tieche (Director) is an award-winning filmmaker. She has edited films and series that aired on National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel, Science Channel, PBS, and more. Her independent short films include Forms of Identification (2011), The Spinster (2013) and Velo Visionaries (2015-2017). Credits as producer and editor include Sundance Audience Award winner Fuel (2008), Power Paths (2009), and Love Thy Nature (2014). Kristin holds a Master of Arts in Television, Radio and Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she received awards in screenwriting and sound design from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Matthew Podolsky (Producer) is co-founder of the Wild Lens Collective, a non-profit that provides support for conservation storytellers. He produced and directed the Emmy-nominated feature documentary Bluebird Man and co-directed the feature documentary Sea of Shadows, a 2019 Sundance Audience Award winner.
Holly Mosher (Executive Producer) specializes in mission-driven films and has raised over $500,000 for high impact documentaries Vanishing of the Bees (Netflix, 2009), Free For All (FreeSpeechTV, 2008) and Pay 2 Play (FreeSpeechTV, 2014). Her award-winning PBS World documentary, Bonsai People (2011), about Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus, was a finalist for 2013 Social Impact Media Awards with U.S. theatrical screenings hosted by Whole Foods Market. Holly graduated with honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Hannah Mulvany (Social Media Director) is a wildlife biologist and communications specialist. She works with filmmakers, podcasts, conservation organisations and environmentally friendly businesses to create digital storytelling that inspires people to take action. In her spare time, Hannah loves anything that involves being outdoors and is usually in the process of learning a new extreme sport, or planning her next adventure.
Emily Stanford (Social Media Producer) is a bat researcher, conservationist and wildlife filmmaker. She received the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship in 2018 to independently study bat conservation across nine countries, when she made her documentary short film, The Truth About Bats. In her free time, she enjoys camping, swimming, and learning the guitar. She graduated with a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Oberlin College.
OTHER CREW
Heidi Zimmerman (Editor) cut her first documentary, 40 Years of Silence, under the mentorship of Academy Award-winning film editor, Pietro Scalia. She has gone on to work on a wide range of feature projects including Alive and Kicking, nominated for a Grand Jury Award at 2016 SXSW, Fish & Men, Audience Choice Award winner, 2019 New Hampshire Film Festival; and Dammed to Extinction, Audience Choice Award and Best Feature Award winner, 2019 Eugene Film Festival. She holds a BFA in film/TV production from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Skip Hobbie (Director of Photography) is an award-winning wildlife cinematographer based in Austin, TX, whose work has been featured in films and television shows by Animal Planet, BBC, PBS, Smithsonian, and the Emmy Award-winning National Geographic series Untamed Americas and directed the recent PBS Nature documentary Big Bend: The Wild Frontier of Texas.
Aaron Peterson (Cinematographer/Michigan) is an award-winning photographer and director known for his work in the outdoor and adventure cinema fields. Peterson’s trendsetting storytelling has helped redefine the outdoor image of the American Midwest. His films Cold Rolled (2014); The Michigan Ice Film (2016) and 24 Leeches (2020) have been featured at more than 50 film festivals worldwide. In 2016 Peterson founded the Fresh Coast Film Festival in his hometown of Marquette, Michigan.