The Producers

Toby Schmutzler – Director

Toby Schmutzler is a writer-director based between Munich and Cape Town. His first feature film Robin – Watch for Wishes accomplished several festival selections and awards (www.watchforwishes.com) and is distributed worldwide by Electric Entertainment. Toby produced the documentary Biking Borders (www.biking-borders.de) which can be seen on Netflix. His most recent film is Nawi – Dear Future Me, a critically acclaimed and widely awarded drama about child marriage in Northern Kenya (www.nawi.film). Together with his brother, Toby heads the Social Impact Film production company FilmCrew Media (www.filmcrew.media)

Brando Yelavich — Cinematographer

Brando Yelavich is a self-taught indie filmmaker, speaker and adventurer. Wildboy is his first feature length documentary and a big portion of his personal life. Having gained a reputation as an ADHD ambassador, Brando hopes to create awareness through his films on the topic.

Lydia Wrensch – Producer

Lydia is a film producer based in Munich, Germany. Lydia's passion for intercultural productions that address socially relevant topics led her to find the perfect fit with FilmCrew, a company dedicated to using the emotional power of film to foster social impact through its cinematic productions. Following successful social impact campaigns for the films Robin: Watch for Wishes and Biking Borders, Lydia produced the acclaimed and awarded German-Kenyan drama NAWI – Dear Future Me.

Making The Film

Making of

What makes Wildboy so special is the timespan: the production of this documentary took over ten years (on four continents), it’s why you see the protagonist Brando grow up throughout the film. Shooting in various rough environments, with different crews, everything from self-filmed GoPro to glossy RED and drone footage has been used and merged into one homogenous huge adventure by finding a dramaturgy that serves the individual expeditions as well as the overall messages and takeaways from each journey.

Director's Statement

We all have a little “Wildboy” inside. That voice that challenges your relationship to what is “normal” and questions if you should be the person you currently are. When Brando explores the most remote, untamed corners of the world it is a physically almost impossible challenge on the one hand – but maybe even more impressive is the reflection on mental health, identity and purpose that unfolds along the way. Imagine Into the Wild as a documentary. Wildboy animates you to explore, to connect to your inner child and hopefully motivates you to have fun outdoors.

— Toby Schmutzler, Director, Wildboy