Sustainability Series: THE VELVET QUEEN with Kristeena Blaser

Watch Trailer Director: Marie Amiguet, Vincent Munier

Award-winning wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and writer Sylvain Tesson join together to comb the frigid highlands of Tibet on a quest to track down and document the region’s elusive big cat – the snow leopard. The two Frenchmen learn hard lessons of patience and perseverance while enduring the harsh environs in the hopes of revealing the beauty and magnificence of this rarely-seen phantom of the mysterious mountains. It is a journey that compels them to reflect upon not only their own individual humanity, but also the larger role that humans play in the grand scheme of life on Earth. For anyone who has read Peter Matthiessen’s National Book Award-winning account of his similar attempt at making contact with Nepal’s snow leopard in the 1970’s, The Velvet Queen promises a visually satisfying experience equivalent to Matthiessen’s literary one.

About the Speaker

Kristeena Blaser graduated from Ohio University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with a focus on environmental, sustainability and climate change politics. She received her Master of Science in Environmental Studies from Ohio University in 2017. While attending graduate school, she worked as a graduate assistant for the Office of Sustainability at Ohio University. She also worked as a GSI technician, landscape and maintenance worker, and a research assistant for an anerobic digestion project. While also working at the on-campus recycling center and compost facility when time permitted. Since graduation, she has worked as the Sustainability Coordinator for Aramark at Kent State University within their Dining Services department, as the Sustainability Coordinator at Oklahoma State University, and since March of 2023 has served as the Director of Sustainability for the Columbus Zoo Family of Parks.

Check out the rest of our line-up of Sustainability Films

The series is made possible thanks to the support of: University Libraries, Honors Tutorial College, Office of Sustainability, and The Voinovich School’s Environmental Studies Program.