Cyril Christo (born 11 May 1960) is a writer,

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

, trust funder and animal rights activist residing in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label= Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name “S ...

. He is the son of Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, who are known as the artists

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...

Early life and education

Born in France, he has lived in the United States since 1964. Christo studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

and graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

in 1982.

Film work

Together with his wife Mary Wilkinson he has been engaged since 1996 in wildlife documentary projects and has published several photography books about

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

that call attention to endangered animals such as

elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

leopards The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus ''Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

giraffes The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, '' Giraffa camelopardali ...

, and

lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

as well as appeals for more stricter measures to enforce the protection of

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins a ...

and

polar bears The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear spec ...

. Their son Lysander (born 22 September 2005) has participated in their projects in East Africa from an early age. In 2007 they released a short documentary film titled "Lysander's Song" about the interactions between humans and elephants. Cyril Christo is the co-producer of ''

A Stitch for Time ''A Stitch for Time'' is a 1987 documentary film directed by Nigel Noble. The film documents the making of the National Peace Quilt. Background Following the footsteps of those from the American Civil War and both World Wars, quiltmakers durin ...

: The Boise Peace Quilt Project,'' which was nominated in 1998 for an

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

. The film documents activities of a group of quilt makers in

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ...

, who received international attention for promoting peace by sending a quilt in 1981 to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

as well as making the ''National Peace Quilt'' in 1986 for display in the United States Senate and later deposit at the Smithsonian Institution. The film ''Walking Thunder: Ode to the African Elephant'' about Lysander's encounter with elephants in East Africa was screened at the 2019

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos, Missouri, a city in Cole County, Missouri, United States * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art col ...

Environmental Film Festival.

Publications

* 1990: ''The dream of the Earth''. E. Mellen Press, Lewiston. * 1998: ''The whispering veils : Poems on Christo's art''. Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, New York. * 2004: ''Lost Africa: Eyes of Origin''. Photographs and text by Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson. Assouline, New York City. * 2004: ''Africa : la terre des origines'' (in French) * 2009: ''Walking Thunder: In the Footsteps of the African Elephant''. Merrell, London * 2013: ''In Predatory Light: Lions and Tigers and Polar Bears''. Merrell, London * Forthcoming: ''Lords of the Earth: The entwined destiny  of  wildlife  and humanity'', with a prologue by

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best kn ...

References

1960 births Living people American documentary filmmakers American people of Bulgarian descent American people of French descent Nature photographers People from Santa Fe, New Mexico {{US-photographer-stub Columbia College (New York) alumni American film producers