From Youtube to TIFF: ‘Brave Wilderness’ Host Mark Vins Debuts First Feature Film ‘Reef to Ridge’

With almost 22 million subscribers on his Youtube channel, “Brave Wilderness” host Mark Vins is no stranger to making and sharing outdoor content with a global audience. Now, 14 years later, Vins has expanded from short form videos to debuting his first full-length documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Vins’ end goal as a content creator was always to make a feature film — the TIFF premiere “Reef to Ridge” — and he knew years of uploading was the way to get him there, he told the YouTube Creators panel audience at TIFF. Variety hosted the conversation in partnership with YouTube.

His commitment to weekly videos helped him garner an audience and get in the necessary reps to pull together a full-length production. In this case, “Reef” is an exploration of the natural beauty and dangers of Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands.

“YouTube creators have just something really different to offer, and I think that is what is capturing the attention of cinema and film festivals now,” Vins said. “We know how to stretch a dollar. We know how to do a lot with a little. I have a joke that is if you give a YouTube creator five bucks and a stick of bubble gum, we’ll make something pretty cool.” 

YouTubers also understand, per Vins, that content needs to consider where audiences are (usually in their living rooms, a locale he’s happy to reach). This was especially true for “Reef to Ridge.”

“Anytime we get to go on an adventure, that is the thought: ‘How do we bring this environment into the living room?’ How do we bring it to our audiences in a way that makes them feel like they’re here with us?” Vins said. 

With Vins’ foray into feature films, a scripted, narrative story is not off the table. Now, he said, the plan is to capitalize on authenticity. “Our major goal with this project was to show people the Galápagos like they’d never seen it before, which is the authentic take,” Vins said. “To strip it away and to make it real and visceral.”

Release plans for the film are expected in the coming weeks.