Award-Winning Documentary on Bat Conservation Launches Screening Tour

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — ‘The Invisible Mammal,’ a feature documentary produced and directed by Bay Area filmmaker Kristin Tièche, will have its first Bay Area theatrical screening on Sept. 4, 2025, at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. The film world-premiered in May at the 2025 DocLands Documentary Film Festival to a sold-out crowd, taking home the Audience Choice Award.

Produced by Matthew Podolsky (‘Sea of Shadows’), the documentary follows a team of women bat biologists into underground habitats as they work to save a rapidly disappearing species, the little brown bat. The cast of scientists includes Dr. Winifred Frick, chief scientist of Bat Conservation International; Corky Quirk, founder of NorCal Bats; and Dr. Alice Chung-MacCoubrey of the National Park Service. At its center is Frick’s research on white-nose syndrome, a fungal pathogen that has caused catastrophic bat declines across North America over the past two decades.

“I think people don’t realize how amazing bats are because they may have never seen them in nature,” Tièche said. “Viewers might enter the theater with negative attitudes about bats, but once they see the film, they are transformed into bat advocates. The film’s message especially resonates with young people who are considering a career in science.”

The team initially set out to document bat-extinction prevention, but when the COVID-19 pandemic spread in 2020, the scope expanded to include the connection between bats and the virus, and how research on bats’ super-immunity could help prevent another pandemic. Partnering with Bat Conservation International, the filmmakers have built an impact campaign encouraging viewers to support conservation scientists, organize local bat viewings, and plant bat-friendly gardens. Additional screenings will take place around the Bay Area in September and October, especially during International Bat Week in late October.

Learn more: Visit theinvisiblemammal.com.