Prolific TV creator David E. Kelley is breaking ground on a new area of interest: wildlife.
Kelley has partnered with Norcross Productions to launch “Live Migrations,” a new series found on YouTube that spotlights the beauty within animal migrations, starting with sockeye salmon.
“The Great Sockeye Migration,” which streams on YouTube and the “Live Migrations” website starting Aug. 19, and is described as a “a live, multi-camera journey into the heart of the world’s greatest wild salmon run in Bristol Bay, Alaska.”
Following the sockeyes’ return from the Pacific Ocean to the rivers and streams where they were born, “The Great Sockeye Migration” will offer “extended, unhurried views and the natural sounds of the landscape,” inviting viewers to observe the migration.
“Live Migrations allows you to slow down and connect with nature and this extraordinary species,” Kelley said in a statement. “If people could only sit by a river and feel the salmon … watching a live migration is the next best thing.”
Kelley, who serves as an EP on the series, and Norcross are planning for additional installments of “Live Migrations,” which will follow animals including sandhill cranes, whales, wildebeest and monarch butterflies, all of which will aims to unfold at the pace of the animals themselves.
“Live Migrations grew out of a simple idea: What if television, a medium built to capture our attention, could also return it?” “Live Migrations” creator and Norcross Productions founder Tucker Malarkey said. “These animals are undertaking ancient, perilous journeys all around us. By slowing down and watching together, we begin to understand what is at stake — and why these migrations must endure.”
The production acknowledges it is filming on the ancestral and living lands and waters of the Alaska Native peoples of Bristol Bay.
“We are not the owners of these stories,” Malarkey said. “We are their temporary stewards. Our hope is to create a place where people can return—to watch the migrations happening now and feel connected to the living world in real time.”
