Team Spotlight: Interview with Michael Alfuso
We sat down with AWHC's videographer, Michael Alfuso, to get to know the person behind the content.
What do you do for AWHC?
I am AWHC’s videographer and part of our field representative team. I help capture and create most of the video content shared by the campaign.
When and how did you know you wanted to be a videographer/photographer?
During my junior year of high school, I watched a mountain biking film called “Roam” by The Collective. It absolutely blew my mind and changed my life. I instantly knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. Then I was a freelance videographer and photographer in the skateboard industry for about six years. After that, I produced health and wellness videos for a startup company in Silicon Valley, CA. And now here I am!
What inspired you to join the fight for wild horse protection?
From the time I was 10 months old, my family and I would road trip every summer through the Western states, exploring and camping on BLM land. We like to joke that I grew up in a tent. This love for wild open spaces expanded to include wildlife, and eventually horses in 2017 when I was invited to document the Cedar Mountain roundup in Utah. After that, I couldn’t un-care. To me, wild horses are a microcosm of the natural world, taken for granted and exploited, but still persisting.
How has your life evolved and changed since you started working with AWHC?
Since working with AWHC, my life has evolved and expanded in the best ways possible. The beginning of our partnership marked my transition as a filmmaker from simply doing “good work” to doing “work for good”. It gave me a voice and a platform through which to give back and inspire people to think more deeply about the natural world.
What's your favorite part of the job and what’s the most rewarding part of the job?
My favorite part of the job is the coffee and the smell of sagebrush at sunrise in the desert.
The most rewarding part of the job is successfully supporting litigation and creating further support through my content.
What AWHC work are you most proud of? What work in general are you most proud of? And why?
I’m especially proud of the campaign’s Virginia Range documentary, which highlights the wild horse fertility control darting program in the Reno, NV area. In general, I’m proud of the library of content we’ve created together over the past three years. It takes a solid team to make these projects happen, and working alongside this team gives me hope.
What are your top goals for 2021?
Produce a series of educational short documentaries that help the public understand the economical, social, and environmental complexities involved in fighting to protect wild horses. Also, I would love to help facilitate a partnership with AWHC and National Geographic or the BBC. My absolute dream project would be a five-part Netflix docu-series following advocates, scientists, ecologists, and artists as they study and live among various wild horse herds across the United States.
More in the short term, we are producing success stories highlighting our volunteer and rescue efforts! My next project is a short documentary about how wild burros (donkeys) affect water sources and shape the ecosystem in the Mojave Desert, so stay tuned!