discuss “Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West.”
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Show Notes:
New film alert! In this episode, Adam Torres and Ashley Avis, Filmmaker and Founder at Winterstone Pictures & Founder of The Wild Beauty Foundation, explore Ashley’s film “Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West,” along with her upcoming book being released in collaboration with Woman Connect4Good and Mission Matters.
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About Ashley Avis
Ashley Avis a founder, director, and screenwriter at Winterstone Pictures, a boutique feature film and commercial production company in Marina del Rey, CA. With over 10 years of experience in the film industry, Ashley has directed spots for brands like Coca Cola, Red Bull, Mercedes-Benz, and Pfizer, as well as feature films and TV series. She is passionate about storytelling and creating compelling content that resonates with audiences worldwide.
her latest project is BLACK BEAUTY, a modern adaptation of Anna Sewell’s classic novel, which will debut on Disney+ on November 27th. Starring Kate Winslet, Mackenzie Foy, and Iain Glen, the film is a merger of my love for horses and filmmaking. She is also writing and showrunning the TV series BREYER HOLLOW for Imagine Entertainment, based on the iconic Breyer brand. In addition, She is launching a nonprofit called “The Wild Beauty Foundation”, which will be paired with their upcoming documentary WILD BEAUTY: Mustang Spirit of the West. Through these platforms, she hope to raise awareness and advocacy for the protection and freedom of wild horses in our country.
About Wild Beauty Foundation
The Wild Beauty Foundation is dedicated to protecting the horses of our time, by bringing unique awareness to the key issues both wild and domestic horses are facing today.
WBF seeks to illuminate the antiquated nature of devastating wild horse roundups, the existence of mass holding facilities, the reality of slaughter, and the heartbreaking seperation of bonded equine families.
Our platform is devoted to including advocates of all ages through strong, powerful, and elegant messaging. We feel strongly that the voices of tomorrow are essential to leaving a legacy for the horses of today.
Through our unique entertainment platform, WBF will launch educational programs for children, create film series, provide grants, conduct Ambassador Horse “meet and greets,” as well as perform “boots on the ground” rescues of horses in need. Every life matters.
Full Unedited Transcript
I’d like to welcome you to another episode of mission matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters. com and click on, be our guest to apply. Okay. So today my guest is Ashley Avis and she is a filmmaker. She’s a founder of winter stone pictures and also founder of the wild beauty foundation.
Ashley, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me and soon to say she’s author in the, or I should say she’s upcoming author of the book that we’re doing with Dr. Nancy O’Reilly and Women Connect for Good as well. So, so soon to be author in that book, I guess I say upcoming author. What do you think?
I love it. I’ve always wanted to, but my path has always been, I think, leading to, to this. I’m very excited and honored. Thank you. Amazing. Well, thank you for that, Ashley. And well, of course, we’re going to get into your into your documentary and then a little teaser into some of the other work that you’re doing, which I know we can’t go all the way into yet.
But to start this episode, we’ll start it the way that we start them all with what we like to call our Mission Matters Minute. So, Ashley, we at Mission Matters, We amplify stories for entrepreneurs, entertainers, executives, and experts. That’s our mission. Ashley, what mission matters to you? I feel like we’re all called towards something and my calling personally has always been something to do with the wild and that’s really unfolded over the years.
And my work as a narrative filmmaker, as a writer. And back in 2017, when I was brought aboard to write and direct a reimagining of Anna Seewald’s Black Beauty, as an equestrian in my youth, I was, I was, it was just the perfect project. And I started going into some of the themes of why Anna Seewald wrote that story.
And not, few people know that it was actually an animal welfare plea. She wanted to protect the horses of her time. And so that dovetailed into threading a theme in our black beauty about wild horses in the American West, which is really spiraled into a great deal of advocacy work on behalf of wild horses.
And now that is leading into our next project about wolves. So what matters to me personally, because I think if we all claimed our small corner of the world that we were passionate about and tried to make a difference there. The world would be a much better place. And I feel like my corner is helping to protect wild species and using storytelling to do that.
Wonderful. When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker? When did that come up for you? I always wanted to be a writer. I loved poetry growing up. And when I started reading my first screenplays, more seriously, that was in college for me. I was dabbling with theater and dabbling in the entertainment sector.
space, but, and I knew I wanted to write, I always thought I would be a children’s book author or go in, go into the more of the route of becoming a novelist. But in college, I remember reading a couple of really powerful screenplays and they felt like poetry and I began interning for different production companies and just kind of diving headfirst into, into this new industry.
But it really wasn’t until I saved up some money, moved to LA. Was living on a futon with, you know, in a house full of aspiring artists, just living that dream. I saved up some money and I produced my first spec pilot that I had written. And because I couldn’t afford to hire a director, I decided to try to take on that role myself.
I really opened up that, that window into that world and that love for what I do now. I love it. And I love these stories because I feel like sometimes people will look at where somebody’s at currently and they look at maybe some of their successes and we skip over what it took to get there. So taking you back to, I don’t know if I should label it this way, the futon days.
Talk a little bit more about that concept of just apprenticeship and that idea of, of learning and being like, and giving yourself space, because I feel like that’s a theme that we need to hear. I think that apprenticeship and that learning, you’re always learning. Producing partner is my husband, Ed.
And we talk about it all the time with every step, every next exciting project. You’re always learning something and hopefully you’re always learning somebody who’s better than you or more experienced than you and creative. And we’ve been lucky to work with some really wonderful people over the years.
And but I think, you know, when, whenever we have an intern, for example, I think if you want to be in the world of film, And I was just saying this to, to Jai before we got on so important to get on set and to immerse my partner and I, neither of us went to film school. I studied business because that’s where I got a scholarship and, and it was really following, it was following a path that I felt Pulled to in doing an internship for a company at the time.
That was called plum pictures and just starting to starting to immerse and try different things. And even our 1st, couple of indie films, we wore so many hats. We raised the 1st, a little bit of money ourselves. We went scouting in the desert by ourselves. Just wearing. I think as you progress in our, industry of entertainment come up in a scrappy way, and you’ve taken on perhaps more roles in those early days than you’ll take on later in life, really speak the language of your team, which I think is so important. You can empathize with what challenges they might be facing. So that that that and giving yourself space to to get to know what you really want to do.
I didn’t know that I wanted to direct until I did. Did it. And then that was everything. So I think really trusting your gut and that bell that rings true and following. Was there a certain level of, I don’t know if the word would be fear anticipation. Otherwise, like on that first time you raised money and you’re like, okay, I have, I have this responsibility, like.
Talk to me about that. Of course. That’s terrifying, but it’s also really exciting. I’m scared just hearing you say it, by the way, still, it’s true though, because if you’re a good person, hopefully the person that’s giving you money, you want to do well by them. And you want to, you know, the creative pursuit to be successful and not just.
for you, because a film, a film like a story, but especially a film set, it is a collective. It’s a collective of hopefully really brilliant people that all want to create something for the greater good, because the chapter I’m working on is about the power of storytelling. And I do feel like storytelling, there is a responsibility in the messages that you’re putting out into the world.
And how are people getting influenced by that? by your work. If you’re fortunate enough to have your stories, your stories told and what are you putting out there? But, but yeah, in those beginning stages, of course, and even as things get bigger, I’ll never forget when we were on the set of black beauty, which was acquired by Disney and was produced by a wonderful studio called Constantine and they really took a, they took a chance.
on me. I had done three indie films, but that was a big jump. And then it was an even bigger leap of faith. I’ve been editing most of my work for most of my career because as a scrappy filmmaker, I could just never afford to hire anybody. And so I started learning to edit myself about 16 or so years ago.
And I really wanted to edit black beauty and Constantine and particularly a producer named Jeremy Bolt. They gave me that shot. And but the stress of that, especially when we started getting when the Disney was interested in the movie, it was, it felt like a responsibility, but you’ve got to put yourself out of your comfort zone to keep growing.
Add, I always say when it comes to budget, when it comes to these things, adding zeros is not like a fictional amount of stuff. Stress, it does matter and it does add complication. It adds responsibility. And I like the idea that what you talked about in terms of editing, because not judging anybody’s process by the way, but I feel for my process, I liked getting, especially in the early days, I like getting my, getting dirty.
Like, so to speak in terms of editing and other things, that’s how I term it. By the way, not everybody else may not all the editors. I don’t need emails. I know, whatever, but I’m not insulting it. But I, but I remember like early days, even here, like I remember I used to do an interview right after I’d edit it.
We, I distributed, I do everything I’m talking like eight years ago when we first started this project called what was money matters back then. Now it’s mission matters. But. Now what, and in hindsight, that apprenticeship or that, like that time period became so pivotal into what I do now, because now I know what I don’t like.
I know processes. I know other things. I know what I’m being told by somebody else. And if it meshes or if it doesn’t, and I also have a feel. Whereas I feel like if you don’t go through that period, then you’re, I won’t say left at the will of others, but you don’t know what you don’t know. Right.
Absolutely. Absolutely. For sure. So let’s get into today’s topic a little bit further. Cause I, I tell you just for, I’ll set this up for everybody watching. So go check this out for sure. I saw it on Amazon. I think it might’ve been Amazon prime. I don’t remember if I bought it or if it was an Amazon prime, one of the two, but it’s definitely on Amazon.
So wild beauty Mustang spirit of the West. Definitely go check it out. I know you, you mentioned a little bit about how the. First project you work with and kind of that you had this theme, but what was the point when you knew that this was going to be a project, when it went from idea to, okay, we’re doing this, if there was a point, or if it was a buildup, like how did that take place?
It was a point. It was on top of a mountain in Nevada, as we were watching and documenting our first roundup. It was the 2019 roundup of the triple B horses. And I. Watching the injustice and the animal cruelty and what is going on in our world that we had no idea. I mean, I grew up with horses as a young person.
I didn’t know that this was happening as an equestrian. So standing on top of that mountain with our, our small crew, with my husband and my brother beside me, watching those horses get stampeded by two low flying helicopters, buzzing them eye level and watching, it was even down to a moment where. There was this tiny little colt, which for non equestrian folks, the baby male, baby horse, he was maybe a month old and this chopper chased this teeny tiny little guy by himself away from his herd and drove him into the trap site.
And there were several miles away and we had a huge wildlife lens, but you can just and footage of him is in the documentary. He was just tossing his head around as of crying for his family because horses are very bonded. I mean, I think that. There’s a term we use in the documentary coined by Eric Mulvar who’s a brilliant biologist and head of Western Watersheds Project, but he talks about human exceptionalism and the idea that we’re as a species, we’re enacting such cruelty against another species for greed, for land use.
That, that really was the moment watching, watching this teeny tiny little colt get driven by a monster. And not knowing if he was going to survive because a number of horses in that roundup is in most roundups got killed, broke their legs, broke their necks got trampled in the trailers and thankfully he did survive.
And we, we ended up flying to Reno where he was reunited with his mother and we adopted them. And so they. Yeah. So now they’re going to be working with a nonprofit that works with veterans and trauma. And so that, that was the moment experiencing that level of injustice and thinking if our black beauty can be successful, maybe we can keep going after that film comes out and do a feature length documentary.
And that’s what we did for five years. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I saw when I watched out, of course, the documentary, I saw these roundups happening. It was it was heartbreaking. Like I think about this idea of of what’s taking place and, and to bring, to bring that. to it, a wider audience of people that maybe aren’t equestrian oriented on a day to day basis.
Like my, on my end, I mean, my, my small bit of equestrian background is when I was in college. I mean, I remember doing an internship and for the Michigan equine partnership and we were advocating for horses throughout college well, when I was in college, I should say and, and towards the, the rights and the issues that were taking place and just practices.
I mean, it was the whole thing. Anything that had to do with the equine industry in Michigan kind of ran through there. And so I got to know some of the issues and otherwise, but even that being said, when I watch this to know to see or to know and to maybe read something or to hear about something versus a full feature length like documentary like this to be able to immerse in it, to be immersed in it and that storytelling side of things.
To me, it was powerful, was impactful, and I think it has the ability to to evoke change because that’s, that’s what has to happen. Like, this has to be in people’s, like, lives and in their living rooms in order to get their attention, in my opinion. Thank you. And I appreciate your use of the word immersive because that’s what we so badly wanted to do from the very beginning, from that first day on that mountain was to show both the harshness of what we’re doing to a highly intelligent, federally protected species, but also the beauty of the wild.
And that was the greater gift that we got being out there with them because this all started because I wanted to collect footage for Black Beauty. I wanted , which, you know, it’s set in the states. We shot the movie in South Africa. Yeah. And I really wanted to show the authenticity of real wild horses.
And so we ended up collecting that footage ourselves as, as scrappy, independent filmmakers. But the, but the idea of giving people a window into this world of what we have in our own backyards, this beauty, this wildness. And that’s what, why we called it wild beauty. ’cause it’s true. Mm-Hmm. So I, I hope that people can actually.
Get out there and experience that magic for themselves. And we can’t lose that. And that’s, that’s the greater fight with the documentary to try to expose it before it’s gone. Now, I don’t want to, of course, I don’t want to spoiler the whole document because I want people to go in and to watch it, of course, but maybe a good tie in to explaining some of the overall narrative of the story and also why it’s so important might be to tie that with the wild beauty foundation.
So I’m kind of curious on how the wild. Beauty foundation came about all of that evolved really in tandem with the documentary. After we started, after we collected that first footage in 2019 for black beauty. And then we went to South Africa, we came back COVID obviously I was editing black beauty initially in Germany, ended up coming back to the States.
I finished the movie on my dining room table because at the time we were, you know, we were all in. And while I was editing the movie and waiting for notes from the producers in the studio, I started with, along with Ed rescuing horses and started with one and that turned into 13. And then that now is over 50 horses that we’ve rescued to date, both wild horses and domestic horses.
Some caught in the slaughter pipeline, others through the Bureau of Land Management, but it really, sometimes you recognize whether it’s in business or In, in work that you feel called to do, we thought that there was kind of a gap in the space in this wild horse space where there weren’t really, there wasn’t a documentary that had broken through like Blackfisher, the cove that was missing.
And then I also, I love working with children. So that was a big part of what I wanted to do. And I felt like was missing. In the wild horse advocacy and organizational space. Why aren’t we trying to reach kids? And so we’ve launched things through the foundation, like a short story competition, where we’ve got equine loving celebrities who will read the stories of the winners and don’t need their time to do that, which is great.
And. We started a letter writing campaign called I Stand With Wild Horses, and we’ve gone into some schools and done talks with kids to try to get kids to raise their voices. And it’s amazing, because we’ve been to Washington, D. C. twice with the film, and we’re going back in late April with a very, very, very famous person who is going to help us.
And we’ll be able to talk about that more, I think, soon. But she saw the film and was moved. But it’s interesting when you talk to staff or a couple of the members of Congress who have been supportive of this issue, they’re really impacted by children. So that’s what I want to do more of is getting kids involved in this fight and through education.
Yeah. And there was a layer of depth in this, in the, in the documentary that I don’t often find when I’m looking at a let’s just say a human interest or in the story in general. And I, I didn’t expect kind of like the investigative side of things are going live kind of undercover feel when you’re going to the to the into the, the, the auctions.
And there was just, there was a bit of like angst. I’m sitting at home and like, obviously I’m, I’m feeling this and I’m like, Wow. Like this was on another level just to separate myself just slightly from the overall topic and importance for a moment, there was a level of entertainment here as well of just like that thriller feel almost when they were, when, who was it that was holding the camera or that, that had it undercover?
That’s who was your brother. I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to say who the wrong person was, but what was that like, like going into that environment? Because if I felt that angst or anxiousness or that fear, like at home, I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be there compounded by what was actually taking place.
That was the story really drew us in the direction that it wanted to go. And. It really changed along the way. When we first conceived this, we thought we’re going to do an indie planet earth with a celebrity voiceover. We never intended it. That’s what I was expecting to be upfront. That’s what I was expecting.
Like that’s where, which I’m not against that. I just mean, that’s what I was expecting. And I was surprised. And that’s what we were surprised to. I mean, when I sat down after we had been filming for quite some time and I sat down, To begin cutting the film in, it would’ve been late 2021. Mm-Hmm. , late 2021.
We hadn’t finished filming yet. We were still in process. I was flying to Sand Wash Basin at the time, which is in the film, and I started writing, I started editing while writing the film for somebody else. And then as I started going through some of the undercover footage or the, the, even our, just our behind the scenes.
And some of the conversations that evolved like at Anarchy with the Bureau of Land Management, and I have a background as a journalist as well. And for my college years, I worked as a journalist for for a little while, it took a journalistic turn. And then when we did go to Texas, and we did go undercover.
That was just, it was nerve wracking, of course, because you’re in an environment where you, you know, as much as you’re trying, you’re, you’re, it’s a, it’s a tight knit community and and we had heard a lot of stories about that particular place and we’ve rescued horses out of that particular place. And it was just, it was heartbreaking to see what was going on.
And. My husband, who’s my partner in all things, we do everything together, and he’s gone down this rabbit hole with me, with the horses. He wasn’t, he wasn’t able to go on that trip because he was producing a film. And so my father said, I’m, I’m getting on a plane with my dad. Ended up help. I mean, he was running audio.
He was Shout out to dad out there. Hey, come on. That’s that’s love and that support. I love to hear stories like that’s amazing Yeah, but for texas, it was just me my brother my younger brother and my dad and And that was it really I think that trip really crystallized The direction, the documentary ended up having to go.
It, it had to become personal. It had to become the journalistic element ended up being. Yeah. And so, and you’ve had, how has the film been received? Like when promoting a film, a book, any, any creative work, like, like, how’s it been received from your point? It’s been unbelievable to see the audience reactions, especially when we get to come out of a theater and you get to feel the audience.
Yes, it’s this combination between people are come out of the theater angry, but they’re also impassioned, angry that they didn’t know they’re because most people who are good. don’t like to see animal cruelty. And we strike a very careful balance. You’ve seen the film. We don’t show broken legs. We don’t, you have not a shock film.
Like, no, not in that sense supposed to be exactly. So a strong 12 to 14 year old can watch the film and that’s fine. That was the balance we wanted to really strike, but people come out of it wanting to make a difference and wanting to make the calls. And usually at the end of a screening, I, everybody’s busy, but you can take five minutes.
If this has angered you and send an email to your member of Congress, make a call, just spend a few minutes of your day to do something good for people. this corner of the world and, and that’s what’s been happening. And just critically with, with critics, we’ve gotten some, just, it’s, you’re always putting yourself on the line when you’re making a movie, but this is, this one was different because we didn’t make this to become critically acclaimed.
We made this to try to make change. And it’s been really, it’s been quite a beautiful process. And even though the film came out last year and we’re, our festival run is basically done at this point. But the mission is will continue long after the credits roll. And we’re going to keep going and continue to use it as a tool and, and as a tool, it’s, it’s also very exciting that now it’s in the hands of other people and other people can use it and show it and become an educational tool for people to understand what’s going on.
I can see that. And that’s why I also thought that when I like as an outsider looking in, I thought the foundation was so clever. Like to be able to, cause if you want, you know, you need infrastructure. If you want something to continue to go, and if you really want it to continue to go, and if this is going to be something like long term that others can also, cause that, you know, collaboration, that’s what makes things happen in my opinion, or at least in my experience, at least so this, this will allows others to get involved.
This allows this allows the mission to continue. So speaking of continuing, I mean, what’s, what’s next for, for wild beauty. Like what, what’s next on the docket? The, the biggest thing coming up is this late April. We’re, we’re returning to Washington, DC, and we’re going to be going to be doing a screening within the Capitol this time for members of Congress.
And we, we have somebody really, really special, two people, actually, that are coming with us to help promote the message and to try to get people to, to come into the room. And so we’re, what we’re really trying to influence at the moment is the passage of an important bill. Okay. It’s called the wild horse and borough protection act.
It’s HR three, six, five, six. If that passes, it was introduced by Congresswoman Dina Titus. If it passes, it would eliminate the use of helicopters in the wild horse roundups. That is not the ultimate solution for the issue, but it would be a major, major first step in ending the animal cruelty side of this.
And that needs to change immediately because every one of these roundups, I shouldn’t say every single one. Cause I haven’t been to every single one. But yeah. The amount of deaths that are reported coming out of these events, even when they don’t use helicopters, there’s a roundup that just occurred in Wyoming where they’re, they’re baiting the horses to come into a, basically an enclosure.
And a horse died after the Bureau of Land Management took custody of her from, from a head injury. It’s just when you get these reports and we’re very on top of all the roundups for so much death to happen that has to end. And so if this bill Was passed. It would set a precedent that something is changing in this issue.
That has really been so stale for so long. And I think everybody should be able to get behind animal cruelty. You’re also working on another film. And I know you can only say so much. I heard the word wolf wolves whatever you can say, give us give us that I won’t push you, but whatever you’re able to say, well, it’s, it’s really beautiful how This journey with the horses is, has connected us to people from Dr O’Reilly, who’s been such a wonderful human being and light in this issue and for horses and for good in general, but the documentary, I can’t wait to be able to actually tell you who we’re doing this with, but we’re doing a movie about wolves.
It’s based on a New York Times bestseller. And it’s with a major company and it goes into the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone, the stripping of wolves of their endangered species status, and all of these themes. And it’s not a documentary, it’s a narrative feature. And it has the power to really, really make a major splash and make change for another species that is being eradicated sometimes for similar reasons to the wild horses, battles land and special interests and money and greed.
Fighting against science and a quest to protect our wild world. So working on that. And then we’re, I’m also writing and directing a re imagining of City of Angels for Warner Brothers. So we’re working on that right now, too. So you’re not busy at all. It’s okay. Thank you for making some time for us.
You’re not busy. If people want to follow your work, how do, how do they do that? I’m on social media under Ashley Avis and then the Wild Beauty Foundation is on the major platforms as well. Amazing, and we’ll put links to that in the show notes for all the audience. And speaking of the audience if this is your first time with us at Mission Matters and you haven’t hit that subscribe button, I don’t know what more invitation you’re waiting for.
We bring you amazing content just like this and amazing guests just like Ashley. So feel free to hit that subscribe button. So you get notification of, of who’s up next and Ashley, I’m so thrilled and I’m excited. I already know I get to get you back on the show because we got a book we’re doing together.
That’ll be released later this year. Let’s say April, August. Don’t hold me to this, everybody watching, but don’t worry. I know we didn’t talk about that much today. That’s intentional. We’re bringing Ashley back on the show. When the book is out and live and we’ll dig into it then. And maybe she’ll be able to to drop some other names and things for us on the other projects she’s working at that point, who knows?
I’m not going to hold my breath, but actually, thank you so much for coming on. I really enjoyed our conversation. I did too. Thank you for the wonderful questions. I’ll see you next time.
