THERESA DEMAREST


TheresaDemarest-DirTheresa Demarest is a songwriter/producer /independent filmmaker for Joshua Records, LLC in Portland, Oregon. Her CDs/DVDs are sold and distributed nationally, and her live shows and award-winning music have garnered a great deal of regional press.

She mixes Folk, R&B, Rock, and touches of jazz to spin a tale, behind which she masterfully creates a distinctive mood and a presence. She brings this unique voice to her film work. Her first film, Herd of Two, chronicles her compelling journey to bond with a highly spirited Half-Arab Half-Saddlebred filly  named Tehya Takoda.

In her films, she utilizes her original music to heighten and musically illustrate her  message in order to effect positive change in the environment through education and music.

As producer/director of Keiko The Untold Story, Theresa brings to life her deep connection toTehya Takoda and Theresa Demarest Keiko’s story.  Several years ago, during her recovery from breast cancer, she found solace in Keiko’s own recovery from captivity in a Mexican theme park to his rehabilitation tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

Upon surviving cancer, and inspired by Keiko’s story of healing, she composed Keiko’s Dream, an instrumental piece that evokes the whale’s song through an eloquent guitar theme. Her piece evolved into Keiko’s Dream Tour, a ‘unique eco-rock road show’ that consisted of a series of concerts and environmental education presentations in schools and performance halls across Oregon in association with the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation.

Keiko’s Dream Tour, Theresa Demarest

This documentary film allows its viewers to pause and take a second look at Keiko’s strong will to survive and to explore his enormous embrace of his own freedom.

It is by pondering his behavior in such powerful footage that viewers can see things about Keiko that perhaps they never took the time to consider before, and to really look at what The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation and all those directly involved were doing. I am interested in translating to the audience the ways in which the effort to release a captive whale into the wild did succeed, as well as examine the questions left unexplored.

READ MORE about Theresa’s amazing story.