Dr. Bronner’s Announces Partnership in Support of New Film Coextinction, about the Plight of Endangered Orcas
Top-Selling Natural Brand of Soap will Help Promote Groundbreaking Film through Public Education Efforts in 2022
March 16, 2022
VISTA, CA – Dr. Bronner’s, the family-owned maker of the top-selling natural brand of soaps in North America, is proud to announce its role as presenting partner of the new documentary film, Coextinction. A profound award-winning documentary on the extinction crisis, Coextinction debuted at film festivals in 2021, and will be distributed by Blue Ant Media and officially released globally in 2022. Dr. Bronner’s has helped fund the impact production of the film and will partner with the filmmakers to promote educational events, screenings, and advocacy work to inspire viewers to take bold action for climate and social justice. In support of this partnership, Dr. Bronner’s has created a limited edition “Protect The Orcas” 4oz soap label, to further raise awareness about the film and its call-to-action. The company will announce other promotions connected to its support of the film later in 2022.
“Coextinction is strongly aligned with Dr. Bronner’s guiding Cosmic Principle ‘Treat the Earth Like Home,’ and speaks to multiple issues that we are concerned about as a company,” says Michael Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s. “Coextinctionis breathtaking and provides a necessary and urgent call-to-action! There is still time for us to protect this threatened ecosystem and show that we have the will to not only protect the orcas, but also to save ourselves. We are proud to leverage our reach and brand recognition to engage the public on the issues raised in this remarkable film,” Bronner continued.
Filmed throughout the coastal watersheds of the Pacific Northwest, including the Salish Sea and along the Broughton Archipelago which are traditional territories of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw, ‘Namgis, Tsleil-Waututh and other Nations, Coextinction documents the plight of the Southern Resident Orcas, of which less than 75 are alive today. Through powerful storytelling and breathtaking cinematography, the filmmakers take the viewer on a journey to understand the causes of the orcas’ population decline. Their findings reveal how the orcas’ endangerment is fundamentally tied to the collapse of wild salmon populations and centuries of injustice against Indigenous peoples.
Reasons for the current plight of the Southern Resident Orcas include human-caused environmental destruction of their habitat, and disruption to orca migration routes and foodways by oil tankers and freight ships. This ocean traffic is expected to increase as the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion carrying tar sands from Alberta nears completion. As the film title conveys, this near extinction event does not exist in isolation, but impacts a vast ecosystem of ocean and land species. Increasing rates of disease and infection among wild salmon transmitted by open-net salmon farms, and the presence of dams impacting the wild salmon runs together deplete this key food chain, such that many other animal species also share the same fate as the orcas. In calling upon its audience to take immediate action to divert this extinction event, Coextinction frames a clear solution wherein Indigenous sovereignty, land rights and allyship are at the center of an intersectional environmental and economic approach to end open-net salmon farming, remove obsolete dams, and stop fossil fuel pipelines.
“Our film, Coextinction, is not just about telling the orcas’ story, the film is about looking at the bigger picture and the interconnections of multiple crises. That’s what is going to save the orcas, and not just the orcas, but us as well,” said Gloria Pancrazi, Co-Founder and Director of Coextinction. “This partnership with Dr. Bronner’s is helping us bring this message and impact campaign to a much larger audience, which is instrumental to creating real systemic change.”
In Canada, Dr. Bronner’s support for the film will be promoted under the All-One International Initiative, namely the All-One Canada chapter. The initiative seeks to support mission aligned activism in the markets Dr. Bronner’s sells its products outside the U.S. The All-One International Initiative and Dr. Bronner’s support for Coextinction are both anchored by the company’s commitment to social justice, environmental stewardship, and animal advocacy.
Since 2013, Dr. Bronner’s has donated more than $3.5 million to support animal advocacy, specifically. The company contributed $40,000 USD (approximately $50,000 CAD) from its animal advocacy philanthropy budget this year to support the impact production of Coextinction. Ocean conservation efforts are an important part of that giving program, which also bestows donations to Sea Shepherd Global and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. This year, the company is also supporting Wild Orca, a nonprofit that works to reverse the declining trend in the population of Southern Resident Orcas and create a balanced ecosystem to serve as the foundation for their recovery. Furthermore, Dr. Bronner’s also supports myriad organizations that seek to dismantle industrialized chemical-intensive agriculture models and confined animal feeding operations. This work is interconnected with ocean conservation efforts, as animal waste and chemical runoff from these systems have devastating impacts on both freshwater and ocean ecosystems.
Dr. Bronner’s “Protect The Orcas” limited edition 4oz soaps will be freely provided at Coextinction activation events, to help spread this urgent message and the need to take bold action to save both the orcas and collective future of all Earth species.
A visually stunning experience, Coextinction has been critically acclaimed and recently nominated for prestigious documentary and environmental film awards, including a Canadian Screen Award for Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Documentary; and was awarded the “Rob Stewart Eco Warrior Award” at Vancouver International Film festival.
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About Coextinction
After a mother orca carries her dead calf for 17 days, two women filmmakers Gloria Pancrazi and Elena Jean spring into action, joining Indigenous leaders and scientists making a final attempt to save the last 73 Southern Resident Orcas from extinction. Moving beyond a traditional wildlife documentary, Coextinction takes audiences deep into the oceans and forests of the Pacific Northwest to witness the complex systems of interconnectedness linking together ecosystem collapse, centuries of injustice against Indigenous peoples, and the frontlines of the world’s most pressing environmental threats. No species goes extinct in isolation. Coextinction is distributed by Blue Ant Media. To learn more about Coextinction, and how to take action, please visit: https://coextinctionfilm.com
About Dr. Bronner’s
Founded in the U.S. in 1948, Dr. Bronner’s is the top-selling natural brand of soap in North America and a leading brand worldwide. The company is an independent, family-owned business based in California, committed to honoring the vision of founder Emanuel Bronner by making socially and environmentally responsible personal care and food products of the highest quality, and by dedicating profits to help make a better world. Dr. Bronner’s commitment to social justice, environmental sustainability, and progressive business practices is part of the company’s mission to put into practice the “All-One” philosophy printed on the company’s iconic soap labels. The company caps executive salaries at 5 times its lowest paid fully-vested position and donates all profits not needed for business development to causes and charities it believes in. Dr. Bronner’s generated nearly $170 million in revenue in 2021 and donated an estimated one third of profits to activist and charitable efforts. A bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap was sold, on average, every 1.7 seconds last year, and a bar of Dr. Bronner’s soap was sold every 2.8 seconds. For more information, please go to: https://info.drbronner.com