Filmmaker

John Brooks interest in filmmaking began in 1989 while stationed in Chicago, Illinois. He realized that Hollywood had not fairly represented people involved with wildlife conservation. Aside from documentary nature shows aired on television the original Earth Day celebration was the only mention of environmental efforts in the United States. Also, at that time, documentaries only interested people who had already been interested in the subject matter. Hey did not attract new viewers or champions. John knew that the conservation movement needed a new audience, if nature were to survive human activity. Educate through entertainment John believed was the key to saving the environment, and ourselves. “Tell people a story they can enjoy, and then sneak in wildlife issues through the backdoor.”

Music videos were fresh in the ‘80’s so John set out to create a “Miami Vice” type of drama centered around federal agents, the drug trade and parrot smuggling. John created the music video “The Birds of Paradise” which featured the music of jazz great Paquito D’Rivera. Filmed in Chicago, the Birds of Paradise took first place honors in a few festivals and was praised for its creativity. The screenplay Psittacine Caine was born, from the Birds of Paradise and John attempted to shoot the entire feature length story in Washington D.C., negotiating with Jason Robards, Sade, and Al Freeman, Jr. to play parts in the productions. The story was about to receive a boost on Entertainment Tonight but was preempted by the OJ Simpson’s white Bronco freeway drama. The project, unfortunately, ran out of financing shortly thereafter John continued his love of films by filming and editing videos for the U.S. government from 1995 through 2008 and attending film school in 2015, believing a good story could save a civilization.