My name is Stefan Quinth and I am a wildlife/documentary filmmaker. I’ve actually never been anything else. Well, except for the time I worked as a freelance journalist from 8th grade through high school. I wrote for local newspapers and sometimes had as many as four or five articles a day. I loved to tell stories and found it quite fulfilling to write about things I felt were important. But then, all of a sudden, a new media opened up to me–television.

I was 17 when I made my first film and sold it to Swedish Television. I mailed the film on a Tuesday and the very next morning the telephone rang. A woman on the other end asked very politely if they could please buy my film. No television company has every purchased a film from us that quickly since then ­– it was definitely a record, possibly a world record – but it convinced me that film is a great way to tell stories.

Working with film, music, or any other art form is exciting and when your artwork, in my case a film, is premiered and the audience reacts with laughter or tears at the right moment, it makes it all worth the effort. Few people realize just how much work goes into producing a film. I was packing up my equipment after showing a film somewhere in southern Sweden when an older woman approached me and complimented me on the film. I always enjoy interacting with my audience. The woman stood there for a moment more, eyeing me quizzically, before she asked, “But do you have a real job?”

I suppose it’s a valid question–even though I have produced hundreds of films for television, numerous educational films about geography and cultures, and many other films for various organizations. Can you really have this much fun and still call it a work? When I visit schools or universities to show films and talk about wildlife, nature or cultures, students will approach me and say, “You must have the greatest job in the world!” I would have to agree. Being a wildlife/documentary filmmaker is probably the greatest job you could have.

In future blogs I’ll tell you stories about a wonderful world, a world worth fighting for.