Ann Prum '84

Ann Johnson Prum ’84 has been on quite a journey since graduating from Bowdoin. She is a wildlife cinematographer, independent filmmaker, and head of Coneflower Productions, and her work has taken her all over the world, from Antarctica to Africa. Her passion is natural history and science documentaries.

One current project is a film exploring the new science of hummingbirds—their color, movement, display, and other characteristics—she will start editing in February for the Nature series on PBS. This particular project has brought her to Ecuador, Chile, and Canada.

Ann and her husband, Rick, who is an ornithologist and evolutionary biologist at Yale University, live in Connecticut with their three boys, and last year the family spent six months living in Ecuador while Rick was on sabbatical and Ann was working on the hummingbird film. They lived in a village of 1,500 people and the children went to the local school, completely immersing the family in the culture and language.

“The most amazing part of my work is having a backstage pass to some of the most exciting science in the most beautiful places,” says Ann. “And the boys love to travel and experience new cultures.”

Coneflower Productions, which Ann founded in 1995, creates non-fiction programs that focus on science, wildlife, and art for PBS, National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, The Science Channel, TLC, and TBS.

Some of the many films Ann has created include Where the Sky Began: Land of Tallgrass Prairie, a one-hour program on the ecology and history of the tallgrass prairie for the Discovery Channel; Goree: The Door of No Return, a documentary on the West African slave trade, which aired on PBS; and America’s Ancient Forests: The Last Stand, a documentary about the Pacific Northwest forests and wildlife. That film won an award at the 1993 International Wildlife Film Festival and was re-edited for distribution with the PBS series America’s Wild.

Ann earned a degree in art history and environmental studies at Bowdoin, and her interest in wildlife filmmaking began when she was doing undergraduate research on a forest bird research project in Peru. Coincidentally, Ann also met Rick during her time in Peru.

“A Jacques Cousteau film crew came through the area and it inspired me to design a career that would combine my interests in biology, the environment, and media,” says Ann. “I completely rethought everything I wanted to do after that experience.”

Ann has always had a strong interest in natural history and says that she genuinely appreciated the opportunities Bowdoin provided to seek out ways to engage her interests, even though those pursuits did not fit neatly into any particular major. A significant highlight was her experience spending a summer on Kent Island working on a bird project with a professor from Pepperdine University.

Ann has remained involved with Bowdoin over the years; she is part of her 25th Reunion Planning Committee and she recently participated in the Alumni Service Travel Program in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“I cannot say enough good things about that experience,” says Ann. “It was so great. I went in thinking that three years after Katrina, we would be working on some of the last houses that need rebuilding. But it is still so devastated there, so complicated. We went to dinner with local parents and heard their perspectives, and we all really became ambassadors for the work that is happening there.”

Ann’s family connections to Bowdoin include her sister, Susan Johnson Currier, a member of the Class of 1982, and their father, Robert Johnson, a member of the Class of 1955.

“I always felt that I was on the fringe at Bowdoin, with my enthusiasm about pursuits in less developed fields,” says Ann. “And it was being on that edge that brought me to where I am today.”