Newest Terra Mater Factual Studios Feature Documentary ‘Watson’ premieres at Tribeca Film Festival

New York City/Vienna: With ‘Watson‘, Terra Mater Factual Studios presents another documentary devoted to the protection of our planet. On Thursday night, April 25th the film celebrated its successful world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, which was co-founded by Robert De Niro.

Blending revealing contemporary interviews with Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, archive footage of Sea Shepherd’s dramatic encounters, and spectacular underwater nature footage, award-winning documentarian Lesley Chilcott paints a fascinating portrait of a man willing to put his own life and liberty at risk in a relentless quest to protect the oceans and the marine life within. Participant Media and Terra Mater Factual Studios present ‘Watson‘, an Invented-by-Girls Production.


(L-R) Lesley Chilcott, Walter Kohler, Paul Watson and Wolfgang Knopfler at the World Premiere
of ‘Watson’ at 2019 Tribeca Film Festival  in New York City

The life-story of an environmental pirate
As a teenager in the 1960s, Watson left an abusive home and shipped out as a deck hand on a merchant vessel. Upon his return he helped found Greenpeace, putting himself in harm’s way to protect marine mammals. But in 1977, when his bold interventions got him kicked off of Greenpeace’s board of directors, he launched Sea Shepherd with a ragtag crew and a single ship. Four decades later, the direct-action group has chapters around the world and an international fleet of 13 ships, the world’s largest private navy.

Captain Watson and his Sea Shepherd crews are active all around the world and have confronted illegal whaling vessels from Europe to the Southern Ocean, seal hunters in Canada, shark finners in Central America and much more.

Watson is a renowned speaker, accomplished author, master mariner and lifelong environmentalist, Watson has been awarded many honors for his dedication to the oceans and to the planet. Among many commendations for his work, the president of Ecuador bestowed Watson with the Amazon Peace Prize in 2007 and in 2012 he became only the second person after Captain Jacques Cousteau to be awarded the Jules Verne Award, an honor dedicated to environmentalists and adventurers. Furthermore, among many commendations for his work, he received the Genesis Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1998 from the Ark Trust Foundation and was named as one of the Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century by Time magazine.


Paul Watson
© Terra Mater Factual Studios/Participant Media/Lesley Chilcott