Sean is a co-founder of the Wild Lens Collective who aided in shaping the vision of a collaborative art community. Sean also was the motivating force behind the Wild Lens Collective’s years-long effort to document the plight of the world’s most endangered marine mammal, the vaquita. He spent many months living in the small community of San Felipe, Mexico, the epicenter of the vaquita’s extinction crisis, where he established close relationships with a number of key individuals and families. This extensive network of connections, combined with his keen storytelling sense, allowed Sean to craft the award-winning short documentary Souls of the Vermilion Sea.
Souls of the Vermilion Sea provided the inspiration for the feature film Sea of Shadows, which Sean co-directed alongside fellow Wild Lens filmmaker Matthew Podolsky, acclaimed director Richard Ladkani, and Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio. Sea of Shadows premiered at Sundance 2019, where it won the coveted Audience Award in the International Documentary category, and was picked up for distribution by National Geographic.
Sean has also directed a number of the short films for the Wild Lens Collective including The Maasai Giraffe, The Forgotten Migration, The Marine Mammal Center series, Aikhag, and Searching for the Vaquita.
In addition to being a core member of the Wild Lens Collective, Sean actively works as a biologist with a wide variety of wildlife species including the Hawaiian monk seals, Stellar sea lions, Northern elephant seals Pacific fishers, black bears, the elusive Ivory-billed woodpecker and most recently Northern fur seals.
