DisneyPlus - Award-Winning Songwriter Diane Warren donates her song Free from The One and Only Ivan

By Mulder, 25 november 2020

The award-winning songwriter Diane Warren is passionate about her music. No songwriter stands behind their music more than Diane, but she has a passion that is equal to her love of songwriting and that is animals. She has lent her original song, “Free” from this year’s Disney film, The One and Only Ivan for the production of a PSA to raise money for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund fundraiser on Giving Tuesday which is December 1st.

Diane Warren will also be matching contributions to the campaign. In addition to this charity, Diane practices what she preaches by being a Vegan for most of her life as well as building an Animal Rescue Ranch in Malibu which she goes to every week to see her rescued goats, turkeys, pigs, donkey, horses and cows (including Simon Cowell and Hugh Heffer).

Diane Warren will match funds raised for campaign up to $20,000

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is collaborating with multi award-winning songwriter and animal rights activist Diane Warren for its upcoming Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign. GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement, held annually the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, falling this year on December 1.

Warren, who has won a Grammy, an Emmy, a Golden Globe, three Billboard Music Awards, and received 11 Oscar® nominations, has lent her song “Free” to a PSA Video about the Fossey Fund’s critical conservation work. In addition, Warren is matching funds raised during the Giving Tuesday campaign, up to a total of $20,000.

Free was performed by Charlie Puth for Disney’s 2020 film, The One and Only Ivan. The movie stars Angelina Jolie and is based on the popular children’s book by Katherine Applegate. It tells the story of Ivan, a real gorilla held captive in a shopping mall before a public outcry led to his relocation to Zoo Atlanta, where the Fossey Fund is headquartered. Fossey Fund CEO and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Tara Stoinski studied Ivan early in her career.

“We are thrilled to work with Diane Warren to help spread awareness about the plight facing gorillas,” says Stoinski. “There are just over 1,000 mountain gorillas left, and we are working to bring them and their close cousins, the critically endangered Grauer’s gorillas, back from the brink of extinction.”

“The Fossey Fund is doing amazing work to protect these important species,” says Warren. “Mountain gorillas are one of the world’s few conservation success stories, and I am honored to be part of the Fossey Fund’s work to protect the gorillas and their habitat and to help the people who share their forest home.”

Established in 1967 by famed primatologist Dian Fossey, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund works to protect and study wild gorillas and their habitats and empower people who share the gorilla’s forest home. With a team of more than 200 staff working in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Fossey Fund is the world’s longest running and largest organization dedicated entirely to gorilla conservation. At the time Fossey began her groundbreaking work, it was predicted that mountain gorillas would be extinct by the year 2000. Instead, they are recognized as one of the world’s few conservation success stories, and recently were moved from ‘critically endangered’ to ‘endangered,’ one step further from extinction.

The Fossey Fund’s people-centered approach to conservation is focused on four pillars:
- Daily protection of individual gorillas and their families
- Conducting critical science needed to develop conservation strategies
- Training future leaders to address the conservation challenges of the future;
- Helping communities living near gorillas through livelihood, food security and education initiatives.

Synopsis The One and Only Ivan :
Ivan is a 200 kg gorilla who lives with his friends, the elephant Stella and the dog Bob, in a shopping mall in an American suburb. He leads a peaceful life and has only vague memories of the jungle where he was captured. The arrival of a very young elephant, little Ruby, who has just been torn away from her family and the wilderness, will deeply shake him up and challenge his beliefs. His sadness leads Ivan to question his own existence, his origins and his destiny.

The One and Only Ivan
Directed by Thea Sharrock
Produced by Angelina Jolie, Allison Shearmur, Brigham Taylor
Screenplay by Mike White
Based on The One and Only Ivan by K. A. Applegate
Starring Sam Rockwell, Angelina Jolie, Danny DeVito, Helen Mirren, Brooklynn Prince, Ramón Rodríguez, Ariana Greenblatt, Chaka Khan, Ron Funches, Phillipa Soo, Mike White, Bryan Cranston
Music by Craig Armstrong
Cinematography : Florian Ballhaus
Edited by Barney Pilling
Production company : Walt Disney Pictures, Jolie Pas Productions
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date : August 21, 2020 (United States), September 11, 2020 (France)
Running time : 95 minutes

Photos : Copyright The Walt Disney Company

(Source : press release)