My Time with Wolves

A journey into the wild

For centuries, wolves have walked quietly through the mountains and forests of Europe. Often unseen, often misunderstood, their presence has shaped landscapes, cultures and stories long before our modern world took form.

Yet for many people today, the wolf remains a distant symbol: an animal caught somewhere between myth, fear and fascination.

My Time with Wolves was born from a simple but difficult question:
What does it truly mean to encounter the wild?

Over the course of four years, this documentary follows naturalist and wildlife photographer Gianluca Damiani as he searches for wolves across the Italian landscape. From remote mountain ridges and silent valleys to unexpected encounters near villages and coastlines, the film traces a patient and uncertain journey into the life of one of Europe’s most elusive predators.

But this is not a film about chasing wildlife images.
It is a film about time.
 

Learning the rhythm of the wild

To observe wolves is to accept a different rhythm of life. One defined not by deadlines or schedules, but by seasons, weather, silence and patience.

Days begin before dawn, often in freezing temperatures. Long hours are spent watching distant slopes, listening for movements that may never come. Tracks in the snow might disappear overnight. Wind can erase every trace of presence. Weeks of effort can pass without a single glimpse of the animals.

This uncertainty is not a failure of the process, it is the process itself.

For Gianluca, searching for wolves has never been simply about photographing them. It is about learning how to move through their world without disturbing it. About stepping back, waiting, and accepting that the encounter cannot be forced.

Sometimes the most meaningful moments happen not when the animals appear, but when they do not.

In those moments of absence, something else becomes visible: the landscape itself, the fragile balance of ecosystems, and the quiet signs of life that most people pass by without noticing.
 

A fragile coexistence

The story of wolves in Italy is also a story of coexistence.

Only a few decades ago, wolves had almost disappeared from the country due to persecution and habitat loss. Today their population has slowly returned, expanding across mountains, hills and even areas close to cities.

This return brings hope for conservation, but it also raises complex questions.

Shepherds who live and work in these landscapes must adapt to the presence of predators. Communities that once believed wolves had vanished must now learn to live alongside them again. Fear, misunderstanding and responsibility intertwine in ways that cannot be reduced to simple answers.

Throughout the film, encounters with people living in these territories reveal the many sides of this reality. A shepherd protecting his flock. Researchers studying wolf behaviour. Volunteers working to rescue injured wildlife. Each perspective adds another layer to the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Rather than taking sides, the film simply observes.

Because the truth of coexistence is rarely simple.
 

Rare glimpses of the pack

While the human story unfolds, the film also offers rare moments inside the secret life of wolves.

Seen from a respectful distance, the camera witnesses fragments of behaviour that are seldom observed: family bonds within the pack, territorial interactions, young wolves growing and learning their place in the landscape.

These moments do not arrive easily. They emerge slowly, after countless hours of waiting.

And when they do, they remind us of something essential: the wolf is not just a symbol or a headline in a debate. It is a living animal, part of a complex ecosystem that existed long before our presence reshaped the land.

To watch wolves move through their environment is to realize how little we truly control.
 

The challenge of making an independent wildlife film

Producing a wildlife documentary is often imagined as an adventure filled with extraordinary encounters. In reality, it is also a test of endurance.

My Time with Wolves was created as a self-funded independent film, developed over several years of fieldwork, travel and long periods of uncertainty.

Filming wildlife requires patience, but it also demands resilience. Weather conditions change without warning. Equipment must be carried across difficult terrain. Opportunities appear and disappear in seconds.

At the same time, the film had to be built piece by piece: shooting, editing, recording sound, composing music and shaping the story without the infrastructure of a large production.

Like the search for wolves themselves, the making of the film became an act of persistence.

There were moments of doubt along the way, moments when it seemed easier to stop than to continue. But every journey into the wild teaches the same lesson: the most meaningful encounters often come after the longest waits.
 

A journey that changes the observer

As the film progresses, something subtle begins to shift.

What starts as a search for wolves gradually becomes something deeper: a reflection on how spending time in the presence of wild animals can transform our way of seeing the world.

The wild does not ask for admiration.
It asks for attention.

To observe it closely is to recognize both its beauty and its fragility. It reminds us that our lives are intertwined with landscapes and species that cannot simply be controlled or managed.

In this sense, the wolves are not only the subject of the film, they are its teachers.

They reveal how much can be learned from stepping back.
 

Why this story matters

At a time when discussions about wildlife often become polarized, My Time with Wolves seeks to create space for something different: a slower, more attentive form of storytelling.

Instead of offering easy conclusions, the film invites viewers to experience the uncertainty, wonder and complexity of living alongside the wild.

Because the question at the heart of the story is not only about wolves.

It is about us.

About the choices we make as a society.
About the landscapes we shape and the species we allow to survive within them.

And about whether we are still capable of listening to the quiet presence of the natural world.