“Research in the Roy Lab here at the University of Oregon’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution has recently become the subject of a documentary film!

British filmmaker/nature photographer Jacky Poon joined the Roy lab this past winter at Reserva Los Cedros, high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, to document their research and investigate threats to this hotspot of biodiversity. Jacky, a BA (Hons) Marine and Natural History Photography graduate from University College Falmouth, in the United Kingdom, became the first ever to catch on film a newly discovered method of pollination used by Ecuadorian Dracula orchids, one of the subjects of the Roy Lab’s work in Ecuador.

He will travel to the University of Oregon to be present for the world premier of his film, The Cloud Forest Project.

The University of Oregon screening of the film will be on Tuesday October 16 at 7:30 pm in 100 Willamette Hall.

The film illustrates the work of the Roy lab on the mushroom-mimicking Dracula orchids and forest fungi in Ecuador. Even more importantly, it showcases the biodversity of the Los Cedros Reserve and the threats it is facing from illegal logging, settlement, and mining. The film is just over an hour long and will be filled with spectacular footage ranging from birds to monkeys to orchids to interviews with villagers who have been threatened by mining operators.

Two different trailers for the film are available here:
Short: http://youtu.be/FDTOztmTWsw [1]
Long: http://youtu.be/KkYVb_J6jAs [2]

The screening is sponsored by: The Eugene Natural HIstory Society, Environmental Studies, The Biology Department, The Institute of Ecology and Evolution, and University College Falmouth.
Other screens are scheduled at the University of Maryland (Oct. 25th), and the Radical Mycology Convergence (Oct. 20th), with more to follow.”