Hi everyone! I am a Canadian environmental documentary director and videographer. I have a Master's degree in Environmental Studies from York University in Toronto, Canada, and I also studied creative cinematography at Humber College Institute of Technology, and Television Broadcasting at Mohawk College of Applied Arts. Prior to embarking on a career of environmental productions, I was a videographer and on-air reporter/producer for Canadian channels CityTV and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.

Opening night for Sorry for the Inconvience. 2015

Over the decades I have directed, filmed and written over 50 environmental feature documentaries, television specials, and short videos with themes such as over-fishing, illegal logging, climate change, nuclear energy, deforestation and more. Many of these productions have won prestigious environmental & film awards (please see list below)

For the last 20 years, I have focused much of my environmental film work on the world's most important tropical rain forest: The Amazon. Working alongside international non-governmental movements (such as Greenpeace, International Rivers, Conservation International and more) and Indigenous communities, my work in the Amazon is intense, broad and highly regarded.

Damocracy wins SUSTAINABILITY award in Bilbao, Spain. Photo Sarah Creta

My film years in the Amazon attracted the attention of the U.S based group Amazon Watch and they invited me to be part of a special team led by AVATAR creator James Cameron to document the Oscar award-winning director's fight opposing the Belo Monte hydroelectric project in the Amazon.

Belo Monte: After the Flood
(2016)
52 min

Director: Todd Southgate Producers: Brent Milikan, Christian Poirier, Todd Southgate Narrator: Peter Coyote Camera: Todd Southgate Editor: Todd Southgate Writer: Todd Southgate, Brent Milikan & Christian Poirier

The film explores the history and consequences of one of the world's most controversial dam projects, built on the Xingu River in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.

Filmmaker Todd Southgate has traveled to the Amazon a dozen times over the course of seven years to document the conflicts surrounding the Belo Monte Hydroelectric project, and in early March he returned to the region as the dam's construction neared completion.

Sorry for the Inconvenience: The Dirty Little War over Chico's Bar
(2015) 79 min

Director: Todd Southgate Camera: Todd Southgate Editor: Todd Southgate Writer: Todd Southgate & Jeff Hoff

Is a feature length documentary that tells the tragic story of a charming old fisherman whose small rustic beach side bar became ground zero in a community's battle against powerful condominium developers and political interests.

The film also chronicles the history of urban development on the Brazilian island of Florianopolis; and how the island's growing fame ushered in an era of unsustainable development that is jeopardizing much of the tropical island's beauty, as well as generating many conflicts with traditional communities.

DAMOCRACY
(2013)
35 min

Director: Todd Southgate Producer: Doga (Birdlife) Camera: Todd Southgate Editor: Todd Southgate Writer: Todd Southgate, Caroline Muscat, Tolga Temuge

A documentary that debunks the myth of large-scale dams as clean energy and a solution to climate change. It records the priceless cultural and natural heritage the world would lose in the Amazon and Mesopotamia if two planned large-scale dams are built, Belo Monte dam in Brazil, and Ilisu dam in Turkey. DAMOCRACY is a story of resistance by the thousands of people who will be displaced, and a call to world to support their struggle.

A Questao Animal
(2012)
60 min

Director: Todd Southgate Producer: Todd Southgate & Maria Graca Dutra Camera: Todd Southgate Editor: Todd Southgate Writer: Todd Southgate

Is a one hour Brazilian documentary that explores at great length the relationship that we have with dogs and cats, and the endemic problem of strays in the streets of Brazil, as well as the health concerns which develop. The programme also discusses animal cruelty and the fight to educate more people about laws protecting animals on this continental sized nation. Looking for solutions, the video highlights one city, Florianopolis, that has developed an innovative programme to reduce the number of strays, educate the population and reduce zoonotic diseases in a humane and thoughtful way.

Changes in Climate, Changes in Lives
(2006)
60 min

Director: Todd Southgate Producer: Greenpeace Narrator: Todd Southgate (English version) Camera: Todd Southgate and others Editor: Todd Southgate Writer: Todd Southgate, Carlos Rittl, Caroline Donatti

For months, Greenpeace teams have traveled all over Brazil to document the impact of climate change on many regions. The result was a film with impressive images of drought, flood and destruction, as well as emotional testimonials from people in the South, Amazon and Northeast who suffered, suffer and could suffer even more from these climate changes. The documentary also brings the opinion of scientists on the causes of global warming and what the government and population can do to stop the impacts of climate change.

Soy, In the Name of Progre$$
(2005) 42 min

Director: Todd Southgate Producer: Greenpeace Camera: Todd Southgate Editor: Todd Southgate Writer: Todd Southgate & Andre Muggiatti

The expansion of soybeans in the Amazon has attracted farmers from other regions of Brazil, who move with the ambition of becoming rich quickly.

But everything has its price ... Local communities are threatened and expelled from their lands. And the forest is destroyed to give way to soy.

For Brazil, it is all in the name of "progress." But for those who lost their lands and saw the destruction that the soybean brought to the region of Santarém, the advance of the agricultural frontier in the Amazon means nothing but devastation and misery.

The Deni: Canoes, Compasses & Courage
(2002)
35 min

Director: Todd Southgate Producer: Greenpeace Camera: Todd Southgate Editor: Todd Southgate Writer: Todd Southgate, Nilo DAvila

A documentary that debunks the myth of large-scale dams as clean energy and a solution to climate change. It records the priceless cultural and natural heritage the world would lose in the Amazon and Mesopotamia if two planned large-scale dams are built, Belo Monte dam in Brazil, and Ilisu dam in Turkey. DAMOCRACY is a story of resistance by the thousands of people who will be displaced, and a call to world to support their struggle.

Arctic Meltdown, Rising Seas
(1999)
32 min

Director: Todd Southgate Producer: Greenpeace Camera: Todd Southgate Editor: Bart van Writer: Todd Southgate

According to the world's scientists, sea level rise is 'arguably one of the world's most important potential impacts of global climate change'.

This documentary explores two remote regions of the world, the Marshall Islands and the Arctic. It investigates the problems of climate change from the perspective of these two environmentally threatened cultures

Download the full-length documentary at www.firstscience.tv