Grace Shafir, producer, director

Grace Shafir is an award winning filmmaker who celebrates life by telling stories that reveal the mysteries of nature, people, and places. In Heart of the Everglades, audiences enter the hidden world of wading birds, mammals, insects, and reptiles to witness their cycle of life. Even with development encroaching on all sides, nature has found a way.

The Everglades is a place of great beauty with magnificent wading birds and gators who ignore humans. You can stay on the boardwalks or slog into the bromeliad and orchid covered cypress domes to experience your own National Geographic special.

Thanks to Everglades National Park Superintendent Dan Kimball for endorsing the project and allowing access behind the scenes. Thanks also to Audubon for allowing Grace to accompany them as they monitored nesting and migrating sites. Special thanks to Senator Bob Graham, Nathaniel Reed, Mary Barley, and Colley Billie who are true giants in saving the Everglades.

Personal quote: nature is my first love, and Heart of the Everglades allowed me to share beautiful images with universal rhythms. The Everglades’ beauty will seduce you. We will protect what we love.

 

Charlie Kelley, composer

Charlie Kelley is a four-time Grammy artist-producer nominee who was also nominated for an Emmy for his music. Charlie created the original music for Heart of the Everglades. He and Grace also worked together on Surviving Colon Cancer. Charlie lives and works in Nashville with artists such as Nan Kelley, Laura Bell Bundy, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Hal Ketchum, and Lynn-Marie Rink. Charlie is a virtuoso guitar and banjo artist and is equally adept at technology.

 

Senator Bob Graham, narrator

Bob Graham grew up on a cattle ranch on an island in the middle of the Everglades. As Governor, he established the most extensive environmental protection program in Florida history, focused on preserving endangered lands. He authored the “Restoring the Everglades: An American Legacy Act,’ which authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. As Florida’s three-term Senator, he was able to persuade the federal government to join the effort to restore the Everglades. His most recent venture was to create the Florida Conservation Coalition, which unites Florida’s environmental groups by one vision to advocate for environmental issues in Florida. The goal is to Save the Everglades so that it will be there for our next generation.