Beavers In Paradise

Director: Matt Brierley

Beavers In Paradise is a heart-warming film documenting the UK’s most urban beaver reintroduction. The Ealing Beaver Project - masterminded to spark positive restorative action, rewild London and address social justice - is a progressive, boundary-pushing project.   In 2023 volunteers and conservationists, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, released a family of once-native beavers into Paradise Fields, Ealing, London. This vibrant film charts the project from conception, through beaver relocation, to present day habitat transformation, thanks to the beavers. It is a story of hope during a planetary crisis.   Beavers in Paradise showcases solutions and positive impacts urban beavers bring to biodiversity and climate change. They sculpt ecosystems: the impetus for reintroducing beavers to Ealing was to create habitat for water voles, Britain’s fastest declining mammal. Beavers are a vital sustainable flood defence tool in climate change Britain. Their dams stabilise water levels and protect against flash floods. The UK is committed to reintroducing beavers. By celebrating Ealing’s flagship beavers, this film prepares the UK for new beneficial future neighbours.   Beavers In Paradise shows positive interrelationships between humans and nature. Beavers thrive in suburbia but are emblematic of wilderness, lending them an amazing superpower; to rewild hearts and minds. In Ealing a diverse community has been galvanised into positive action.   Beavers In Paradise is a film of authentic underrepresented voices. Our lead character is Dr Sean McCormack, TV presenter and vet, who is Irish and openly gay. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan explains rewilding is an issue of social justice in a city with restricted greenspace. To inspire the next generation of environmental stewards and storytellers, the film gives two female ecologists onscreen prominence.  Produced by Matt Brierley, specialist in telling nature’s most pressing stories. Commissioned by NGO Citizen Zoo. Supported by the Mayor of London, Beaver Trust and Ealing Wildlife Group. Funded by Consano Earth.