Doug Peacock – Talent/Producer

Most famous as a grizzly bear expert, Doug Peacock is a University of Michigan alum who served in the Vietnam War as a Green Beret combat medic.  He returned from the war psychologically scarred and found that solitary time in the wilderness proved therapeutic.  He has written about his war experience and post-war recovery in The Grizzly Years (1990) and Walking it Off (2005).  The latter work also explores his tumultuous friendship with the late author Edward Abbey, who used Peacock as the basis for the character George Hayduke in The Monkey Wrench Gang. 

Doug was the subject of a feature film about grizzlies and Vietnam, Peacock’s War, which premiered on PBS’s Nature, and won the grand prizes at the Telluride Mountain Film and the Snowbird film festivals. He has appeared in several documentaries Grizzly Country to The Beast of Our Time, for which he was also an Executive Producer. 

Peacock lives in Montana with his wife Andrea and is actively involved in conservation work, serving as chairman of the board of trustees for Round River Conservation Studies and founder of Save The Yellowstone Grizzly.

Maaike Middleton – Director/Producer

Maaike Middleton is a documentary filmmaker based in Montana. She has traveled the globe filming wildlife from pumas in Patagonia, the elusive Amur tiger in the Russian Far East and grizzlies in her backyard. Maaike is passionate about telling stories that make a difference and address issues that impact us all. 

She has produced and Directed, The Beast of our Time: Climate Change and Grizzly bears. The film has been screened on every continent except for Antarctica. It has won Best Environmental film, Short film and audience awards at several festivals. 

When she is not traveling for work she is watching films and helping with the section process for the Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam. She has worked on projects for National Geographic, Netflix, BBC, Silverback films, PBS and The Smithsonian.

Ethan A Confer – Director of Photography

Ethan Confer came from a long a line of photographers and filmmakers whose careers were made through composed images.  Inevitably, he followed the same path. Now having 15 + years of experience in both motion and stills, Ethan has done over 30 Feature Films in both Narrative and Doc. A countless amount commercials ranging from National Car Ads to Healthcare to Workout Ads. Images are his life. His work has been informed through formal education, a series of strange yet irreplaceable gigs and a wide variety of wonderful and thought provoking mentors to whom he’s forever indebted.