When Wildlife Cries for Help, Who Answers?

Wings in Crisis pulls you into a hidden emergency unfolding along Southern California’s coastline, where pelicans, seabirds, and countless wild creatures are arriving injured, starving, poisoned, and entangled in the consequences of our human world.

But in the face of it all, some refuse to look away.

The Crisis is Manmade - But So is the Solution.

As the film unfolds, we go beyond the rescues themselves and deeper into the human choices wreaking havoc on wildlife and fragile ecosystems.

Along Southern California’s coast, pelicans are dying on beaches, ensnared in hooks and fishing line. Poison climbs the food chain. Toxic runoff seeps into the ocean after every rain.

In 2025 alone nearly 20,000 wild animals were rescued across Southern California, not numbers, but lives caught in the expanding collision between people, wildlife, and a world changing faster than they can survive.

Zoli's mission, does not stop at one coastline. His work also reaches Ukraine, where war is decimating wildlife and Ukrainian soldiers & civilians are learning to rescue pelicans and other animals caught in the crossfire. Following Zoli, the film expands into a deeper question: in a world defined by destruction, who still chooses to protect life?

Meet Our Hero Guardian: Who Refuses to Give Up

Zoli Téglás from Pelican Rescue, a punk-rock frontman turned wildlife EMT, is on the frontlines, racing against time to save broken birds and giving them a fighting chance.

This is an intimate and urgent story of one man standing in the gap —and inspiring others to stand there too. From Southern California to the frontlines of Ukraine, Zoli’s work asks a haunting question: when the world is breaking around us, what kind of people still stop to save an animal?

Why This Story Matters, Why Now!

Wings in Crisis reveals the stories of heroes, the people who refuse to look away, rescuers, veterinarians, volunteers, and soldiers, stepping forward to protect wildlife in the places most shaped by human impact.

From Southern California’s coast to Ukraine’s war-torn landscapes, the film asks what responsibility looks like when animals are suffering because of human choices. These rescues are not isolated acts of kindness. They are a call for awareness, empathy, and action, because what threatens them, ultimately threatens us all.

In Wings in Crisis, wildlife filmmaker Fairlie A. Arrow captures the frontlines of a hidden emergency along Southern California’s coast, and follows the story as it expands to Ukraine, where wildlife rescue continues in the shadow of war. Through rare access with Zoli Téglás, Ukrainian soldiers, NGO’s and leading wildlife experts, she transforms a rapidly unfolding crisis into a powerful, cinematic story of survival, conflict, compassion, and coexistence.

This Film Is a Call to Action

The deeper story is about us, the decisions we make, and the chance we have to make better ones. This isn’t just a film about rescue. It’s a film about responsibility, resilience, and how one man is growing a movement of people rising to protect what’s wild and fragile.

Wings in Crisis is the first episode currently in production as part of a cinematic short form docu-series called Guardians of the Wild.

Each film tells an urgent, yet hopeful story, spotlighting the people & communities protecting wildlife, public lands, and environmental rights. From Indigenous land defenders to environmental scientists, these stories reveal the courage and resilience driving change.

Together, they form a rallying cry, proof that when people stand up for our wild places, change is not only possible, it’s inevitable.