TITLE: The Guardians
DIRECTOR: Ben Crosbie & Tessa Moran
YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 2018
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: USA
DURATION: 70 min.
An indigenous community in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve must confront internal divisions and illegal
loggers in order to recover the ancient forest they nearly destroyed. Like the millions of monarchs that also call this forest
home, their survival depends on it.
Ben Crosbie and Tessa Moran have been producing nonprofit videos and award-winning independent films together for nearly 10 years through their Washington, DC-based production company Eidolon Films. Their independent film work has been supported by ITVS, the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities and the Bay Area Video Coalition’s National Mediamaker Fellowship. Their previous film Fate of a Salesman aired on the PBS WORLD series America Reframed, was nominated for the 36th annual News & Documentary Emmys, won a Capital Emmy, the audience award at the Annapolis Film Festival and the Juror’s Choice Award at the Black Maria Film Festival. Their first feature film, Keeping the Kibbutz, also aired on WORLD following a successful festival and community screening tour around the US and Europe. Crosbie and Moran also serve as adjunct faculty with Georgetown University’s Film & Media Studies summer program in Florence, Italy.