DR. ALAN RABINOWITZ
“The tiger is in desperate shape — the worst shape of any of the great cats.
It’s the biggest cat in the world. It’s probably one of the most iconic species on the planet, [but] it’s left roaming approximately 5 to 7 percent of its historic habitat.” ----Dr. Alan Rabinowitz PhD
Tiger Tiger follows Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, one of the most celebrated big cat conservation biologists of our time, as he travels through this one tiger habitat he has never before seen. Diagnosed with leukemia, Alan knew this search for the wild tigers of the Sundarbans might be the last expedition in his long career.
Panthera, the world's premier organization dedicated to big cat conservation, was co-founded by Alan after his lengthy tenure at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Described by TIME magazine as “The Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation,” Alan, working through Panthera, has mobilized governments and people around the globe to save the world’s big cats.
Just some of Alan’s conservation achievements are the conceptualization and implementation of Panthera’s Jaguar Corridor Initiative, an unprecedented effort to connect and protect jaguars from Mexico to Argentina, and the establishment of the world's first jaguar sanctuary in Belize. Alan’s work for tigers includes his work with the government of Myanmar to create the world’s largest tiger reserve, the spectacular Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve, in northern Myanmar.
While Alan has since lost his battle to leukemia, the fight for tigers continues.
Tiger Tiger, A conservation adventure film from George Butler (Pumping Iron, The Endurance), follows legendary big cat biologist, the late Alan Rabinowitz, as he tracks the wildest and least-known tiger population REMAINING on Earth—and one of the imperiled species’ last hopes for survival. His journey takes him deep into the Sundarbans, a mysterious expanse of mangrove forest shared between India and Bangladesh.
About
White Mountain Films ventured into one of the most dangerous places on earth to capture the story of the most remarkable population of tigers remaining — the Bengal Tiger of the Sundarbans. Equipped with master camerawork in 4K, the team filmed the basis for two distinct films, a 40 min. IMAX, and an 80 min. feature on which the IMAX is based. Both the IMAX adventure and the feature documentary celebrate the Tiger as a majestic icon of the animal kingdom, and passionately advocate for its conservation.
With only an estimated 5,500 tigers in the wild, scattered among often fragile patches of habitat across Asia, the species’ extinction in our lifetime is a real possibility. However, saving the tiger is no lost cause. The tiger’s adaptability to a range of habitats and its high breeding rate, together with radical changes in conservation strategies over the last decade, give hope to the species’ survival. The goal of the tiger films is not only to raise awareness of the tiger’s plight, but to move, advocate, and work for their survival.
Tiger tiger imax - Narrated by AcadEMY AWARD WINNER MICHELLE YEOH
[upcoming release]
Tiger Tiger is an IMAX® conservation adventure film, in the tradition of White Mountain Films’s highly-praised Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure and Roving Mars. The story follows conservation legend Alan Rabinowitz as he tracks the wildest and least-known remaining tiger population on Earth through the Sundarbans, an immense belt of mangrove forest around the Bay of Bengal. Traveling through this remote and dangerous landscape, Alan explores the relationship between the people who live on the margins of the Sundarbans forest, and the fearsome but gravely threatened predator.
Tiger Tiger offers an immersive adventure—glimpses of the rarely seen tiger on the majestic scale it deserves, and the wild, haunting beauty of the little-visited Sundarbans—and above all, a plea to fight for the tiger’s survival.
The IMAX’s creative team includes veteran cinematographers Reed Smoot and Tom Hurwitz, composer Mark Killian, and editors Chris Iversen and David Lieberman.
Tiger tiger -90 Minute feature DOCUMENTARY
Legendary big cat biologist Alan Rabinowitz takes the audience through the dangerous, but beautiful terrain of the Sundarbans and the urgent challenges facing tiger conservation. His journey is made more poignant by the fact that he has been diagnosed with leukemia, and as he fights for the tiger, he must also confront the shadow of his own extinction. In the words of the New York Times, the documentary is “a haunting film that explores the perilous interface between tigers and people in the Sundarbans.”
The fully completed 90 min. feature documentary version of Tiger Tiger has already garnered awards and acclaim at top festivals such as the DC Environmental Film Festival, Full Frame, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and Doc NYC.
Shot by two-time Emmy award winning cinematographer, Tom Hurwitz, and scored by Mark Killian.
Edited by Mona Davis and Jean Tsien
SCREENINGS
SELECTED PRESS
NEW YORK TIMES - Tiger Tiger at DOC NYC (READ HERE)
WASHINGTON POST - Tiger Tiger Preview (READ HERE)
WASHINGTON POST - Environmental Film Festival Shows Strong Agenda (READ HERE)
SB INDEPENDENT - Tiger Tiger at SBIFF: An Interview With George Butler (READ HERE)
OUTSIDE MAGAZINE - 500 Pounds of Man-eating Stealth (READ HERE)
FORBES - Tom Kaplan, Billionaire King of Cats (READ HERE)
TIMES OF INDIA - Filmmaker Who Launched Arnold Schwarzenegger Zooms in on Sundarbans (READ HERE)
MEET THE TEAM
PRODUCER/DIRECTOr - George Butler
George Butler is known as an award–winning pioneer of the theatrical documentary. Believing that well-crafted documentaries can hold their own against dramatic features, Butler created many classic films. Titles include Pumping Iron, introducing moviegoers to the then anonymous Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Endurance film trilogy, retelling Sir Ernest Shackleton’s saga of Antarctic survival, and Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, about his friend John Kerry’s leadership in the peace movement. Butler also produced acclaimed IMAX® features, such as Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure and Roving Mars.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Julian Robertson
Julian Robertson, founder of Tiger Management Corporation, was one of the most successful and well-known hedge fund managers of our time. A supporter of Panthera, Robertson was a leading philanthropist who has donated $1.1 billion to charitable causes including medical research, education and environmental protection.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - frank marshall
Frank Marshall is one of the premier film producers in the entertainment industry. His body of work has come to define a generation for moviegoers, producing such timeless hits as Jurassic World, Bourne, Back to the Future, and the Indiana Jones franchises. Grossing more than $1.5 billion worldwide, the 2015 blockbuster Jurassic World is the fourth biggest box office hit of all time. In addition to a prolific producing career, Marshall has garnered wide acclaim as a film director, having brought to the screen such memorable movies as Arachnophobia and Alive.
WRITER & PRODUCER - Caroline Alexander
A widely published and acclaimed writer, Alexander’s books include the New York Times best sellers, The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition, and The Bounty. Alexander has written extensively about tigers in such publications as The New Yorker, Outside, and National Geographic Magazine, where she was a contributing writer for many years. She has penned the narratives for Butler’s award-winning films The Endurance and the IMAX® Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure, and his conservation film The Lord God Bird.
PRODUCER - Keero Birla
Keero S. Birla has spent more than 15 years producing projects from award-winning IMAX films to factual television series and independent cinema. As Head of Production at Primesco International, Birla forged a name in the IMAX industry for delivering acclaimed family entertainment, collaborating with the National Wildlife Federation, Discovery Channel and dozens of international IMAX science centers and museums. He has led crews through the jungles of India and across the Mongolian desert to produce the big-screen blockbusters Kingdom of the Tiger, and Dinosaurs Alive 3D. Birla produced the IMAX film, Flight Without Wings for the Dubai IMAX Theatre as well as the recent The Space Race for National Geographic & Disney+.
THE TIGER
“Without the tiger, we would have no forest.”
----Sundarbans villagers
An estimated 250 tigers inhabit the combined Sundarbans of India and Bangladesh, protected by its uniquely difficult and dangerous landscape. In turn, the tiger as an apex predator is vital to the health of the Sundarbans, playing a key role in balancing the variety of life within the ecosystem. To local people, the tiger is the revered and feared guardian of the forest.
“Sundarbans,” Bangla for “forest of beautiful trees,” is a UNESCO world heritage site, a unique ecosystem harbouring an estimated 425 interconnected species of wildlife. Situated in the Ganges Delta, this world’s largest single mangrove ecosystem is nursery to the vast majority of the Bengal coast’s marine life, and buffers the coastline against cyclones and rising sea tides.
Tiger Tiger proudly presents the world’s first 4K aerial footage of these remote forests. We invite you to experience the beauty of this challenging landscape as never before seen.
GUARDIAN OF THE SUNDARBANS
Through an array of remarkable adaptations, life in the Sundarbans thrives in this constantly changing world of salt and fresh water, ebb and flow of powerful tides, and shifting sandbars. Humans are no exception. A rural, poor population of more than 4 million people live on reclaimed islands in the area’s web of tidal rivers, creeks, and channels. To the southeast lies the tiger reserve, the improbable domain of the royal Bengal tiger.
Here in the Sundarbans, the tiger is not only the feared lord of the jungle, but also of the water, for the Sundarbans tiger has adapted into a powerful swimmer and aquatic hunter. On land and in water, the Sundarbans tigers have a reputation for being man-eating. Our film explores the relationship between the people who live on the margins of the forest and the fearsome, but threatened predator.
Learn More
“Tigerland” New Yorker
“The Last of the Wild and Man-Eating Tigers” Outside
“A Cry for the Tiger” National Geographic
By Tiger Tiger writer Caroline Alexander