Jacquie Pohl is the Founder and Director of WILD EARTH OCEANIA, Australia’s first Film Festival ever purely focused on Wildlife.

With a relentless pursuit of passion and adventure and a lifetime dedicated to Wildlife Conservation and academic excellence as well as a tenacious spirit that knows no bounds, Jacquie is laser focused on restoring Australia’s Wildlife through this Australian first initiative.

She had her roots in Africa in the first farm ever inhabited by white people, living amongst the North Sotho tribe and surrounded by wild animals. Jacquie’s family came to Australia to find freedom away from racial oppression. Her Grandmother was the daughter of the British High Commissioner, leading Jacquie experienced vivid juxtapositions early in life. Her Great Uncle Victor Pohl’s childhood was spent on fascinated contemplation of the Wild creatures around him, going on to be a famous author whose wildlife stories made up the Year 12 curriculum. His book The Dawn and The Horizon personally accepted by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II on their Royal Tour to South Africa.

Jacquie was exposed to Film from a very young age. She bore witness to the set and filming of BREAKER MORANT, the second film ever made by the South Australian Film Corporation after STORM BOY. This had special meaning to the unfolding of her own history, the Boer War occurring on her family farm in the Limpopo Province in South Africa bordering Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

Her love of the outdoors drove her to engage in high performance, adventure, and ocean sports over decades. She is a qualified scuba diver including night and deep diving, a kayak instructor and is a self-confessed adrenaline junkie. Completing three degrees in Outdoor Education, Music and the arts Arts, as well as a Bachelor of Applied Science in Occupational Therapy before she was twenty-three, Jacquie then lived in the UK, the USA and Australia specialising in neuroscience as a clinician and academic over the next 15 years.

Jacquie is most at ease when facing tough conditions and being tested. Difficult Wildlife rescues and being out for days and nights have produced a learning for which she is ever grateful. She lived on the land in an Eco home and personally nurtured and nourished twenty-five species over five years, immersing herself in biodiversity, eco-systems, disease profiling, Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. Her journey rescuing and learning from wildlife started when she a very young child.

Her wealth of experience in Round-Square Education and long-standing passion for youth gives her a strong edge in Internationalism, Wildlife Film, Democracy, Environmentalism, Leadership, and Service.

She has worked as a National Film Director with an extensive background in documentary film making and community film projects.

Jacquie has worked in Human Rights on an International scale and embraces growth mindset in practise and teaching. She is leading young girls and women to achieve gender equality in Wildlife film and Conservation.

With tenacity, high performance, self-reflection and resilience as core values, Jacquie is also a practising artist and musician. Jacquie is a horizontal thinker that believes firmly in equality and valuing people for who they really are.

A strong advocate for One-health, she facilitates and promotes individual, community, and societal well-being through film, taking a biopsychosocial perspective with the fundamental belief that everyone on this planet deserves to thrive.

Wild Earth Oceania (WEO) is her vision and a clear, efficacious, self-determinant response to the Black Summer Fires in Australia of 2019 / 2020 and Covid-19, both of which clearly demonstrate that we are pushing the planet too hard.

WEO are fast-tracking innovative solutions to the planetary crisis we find ourselves in through bringing awareness to and tangible support / relief for the great benefit for the defenceless and vulnerable wildlife who rely on us to protect them.