Landmark Stories

05/05/2023

As the oldest child in a Mexican-American household, Jesus Solis grappled with translating complex scientific information about lead contamination to his family. This instilled a desire to make science accessible to all people. So, he uprooted his life for graduate school at the University of Arizona, working with Dr. Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta and Project Harvest, a citizen science project focused on local communities living near contaminated sites.

Watch the short documentary “A Dancing Scientist” here: https://tinyurl.com/3x2a33m3

University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences University of Arizona Department of Environmental Science

04/15/2023

This month our team traveled to Sonora, Mexico to tag along with doctoral student and researcher .marin as he works with wildlife at Cuenca Los Ojos. is a 121,000-acre protected area in the Sky Islands — a landscape of imposing mountains and lush canyons located along the United States-Mexico border where many important species, like the black bear and the jaguar, make their home. Check out some pictures of our visit!

03/24/2023

Hello from above! We took to the sky this week with LightHawk Pilot Chuck Schroll to film conservation efforts along the San Pedro River. Scroll to see cinematographer Gilbert Rataezyk, sound recordist Angel Marquez, and senior producer Mitch Riley work their magic out on the field!

03/17/2023

What a ride! We had a blast at the Wonder House presenting a sneak preview of our upcoming environmental justice documentary and discussing how filmmakers and scientists can work with communities to amplify and empower people’s voices.

If you missed it, you can still watch the whole conversation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5LBbt24pf8

Until next time!

03/11/2023

Hello Austin! We are so excited to be here The University of Arizona SXSW

03/09/2023

We are going to Austin this weekend!

Join our producer and team lead, Sandra Westdahl, postdoctoral researcher Denise Moreno Ramírez, and story animator Elena Lopez at the SXSW festival to present a sneak preview of our environmental justice documentary and discuss how filmmakers and scientists can work with communities to amplify and empower people’s voices.

Join us for the panel discussion and a sneak preview of the film at 4 pm on Sunday, March 12th at the UArizona Wonder House at 340 E 2nd St, Austin, TX.

Stop by and say hi. We would love to see you there!

02/21/2023

We’re saddened to hear of the loss of Tucson’s “King of Sting”, Justin Schmidt. Dr. Schmidt was a renowned University of Arizona Entomologist and was best known for creating the Schmidt sting pain index. Justin has made appearances in Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Guinness World Records, and has been featured along with Coyote Peterson in our documentary film Insecta.

Our hearts and minds are with his family and friends.

02/10/2023

Our team has been hard at work filming content for two of our major upcoming projects. We’re grateful to have the opportunity to team up with community members, biologists, and rangeland professionals to help disseminate stories of their scientific efforts. Check out some pictures of our team out on the field this week!

02/02/2023

Our sound recordist and drone cinematographer, Angel Marquez, testing out our new Aputure 600X Pro lights with cinematographer Gilbert Rataezyk.

09/15/2022

We are so excited to welcome our newest member, creative designer and communications specialist Elena Lopez to our team!

Elena is driven to use her creative skills to help tell stories of human advancement and develop innovative documentary films that will make a positive difference in people’s lives.

Growing up in Nogales, Mexico, she discovered her love for design when she acquired her first graphics tablet at age 15. Today, she has extensive experience working in broadcast, online, and social media platforms.

Before joining Landmark Stories, Elena served as a multimedia specialist at Arizona Public Media, the NPR/PBS affiliate in Tucson, where she helped solidify the brand, enhance marketing efforts, and develop advertising campaigns. She received a regional Edward R. Murrow award and earned an Emmy nomination for her work on “Pandemic Dreams”—a fully animated short documentary on Arizona Illustrated at Arizona Public Media.

05/06/2022

Do you want to learn more about us? Check out this The University of Arizona article by Rose Brandt.

https://uaatwork.arizona.edu/lqp/poop-doesnt-lie-landmark-stories-debuts-its-new-documentary

05/04/2022

We are excited to share our new short documentary “P**p Doesn’t Lie.” The film follows a team of researchers at the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and their work with a life-saving public health tool that helped prevent COVID-19 outbreaks and may help manage the pandemics of the future.

Watch the film here:

When COVID-19 cases first spread to North America, Ian Pepper had a big idea – what if he could use wastewater to track the spread of the virus in communitie...