Claire Musser (Director), Kirstyn Kubicki (Executive Producer) | 2025 | 17 min.
2026 Official Selection
Bears in Hot Tubs is an intimate short film co-created with Maddie Bear and her kin. Set in suburban Los Angeles, it reveals black bears as sentient neighbors navigating a shared landscape. Through poetic imagery and quiet observation, the film reimagines coexistence as an invitation to co-thrive with care, empathy, and respect.
| March 6, 2026 | Coachella Valley | CA | Rancho Mirage Library & Observatory |
Claire Musser is a filmmaker, environmental photographer, and Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. Her Ph.D. research explores co-thriving between humans and wild carnivores through collaborative visual storytelling. Bears in Hot Tubs was co-created with Maddie Bear and other wild residents of Southern California, whose presence and participation shaped the film. Claire’s broader work includes field-based coexistence projects with wolves in the Western United States and a forthcoming book chapter, Beyond Coexistence: Co-Thriving with Wolves in the Anthropocene (Exeter University Press, 2026).
Kirstyn Kubicki is an Executive Producer and creative professional based in Los Angeles. She holds a Master of Arts in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and has worked across talent management and acquisitions in the entertainment industry. Kirstyn brings a unique blend of business acumen and creative vision to every project she takes on. Her latest work, Bears in Hot Tubs, explores the evolving relationship between black bears and human communities in Southern California. She’s drawn to stories that intersect culture, environment, and narrative, and is committed to amplifying voices and ideas that spark curiosity, compassion, and conversation.
