Welcome Aboard!
Hi there! Nice to meet you.
If you’ve come across our blog, the chances are you are interested in documentary film-making, wolf conservation, or supporting your local community in some shape or form. The good thing is, we will have you covered throughout our ongoing production of this project. What is Sacred Wolves? What are it’s origins? Originally, it started as a passion project by Executive Producer, Thomas Kolicko whom is a part time educator and full time filmmaker / founder of Traverse Image, a documentary production house in Colorado. With the support of some of the folks at Traverse, Tom spent several months shooting a wide range of content, from visiting of Wolf Conservatory in New York, traveling to New Mexico, and connecting with important figures in the wolf conservation community.
A few months later, Tom realized he and his team could not do the project just by themselves. Already specializing in teaching documentary, Tom looked at the course curriculum of the University of Colorado Denver’s rising film program. He realized there wasn’t a class for students to continue their passion for documentary filming and he realized that the only option was to make your own crew. The result of his creation was pitched to the Film and T.V. department, and a beta test of Advanced Documentary was formed. Applications were sent out, and the department chose 11 students that would become the first class, each for their specialized talents ranging from producing, to shooting, and to editing.
Enter Joana Gomez, a rising Junior in the program who pitched her complete vision for the project to Tom and three other full time documentary filmmakers, whom chose her anonymous pitch unanimously. Production went underway. Connections were made and the project went deep into pre-production. After testing, some shoot dates occurred. A thing called COVID-19 changed the world as we know it. Our shoots were canceled put on indefinite hold. The silver lining? We had the opportunity to take a step back and look at the scope. Re-adjust. Think about the future. And now, the beauty is being able to take this time to expand on what we originally had planned with the limitations of finishing a film by the semester.
The newfound scope of the project thanks to that additional time in pre-production. The ongoing passion of the filmmakers behind it, who have adapted to the new normal of working remotely. The fact that every single crew-member volunteered to see the film through no matter how long it takes - with the goals in mind to stay faithful to the subject matter, explore all sides of the arguments, and make the project the best it can be. From all of us at the Sacred Wolf team, we’re excited to have you onboard the rush of exploring an untold story that flies above borders and crosses generations.
What’s next, you may ask? You’ll have to subscribe so you can keep tabs on us and find out!
-Sebastien