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About the Film
A Light in the Darkness is a cinematic journey into what it means to confront darkness—both in the wild and within the human experience. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Ryan Killackey, this poignant feature documentary interweaves the stories of Earth's most resilient species that thrive in our planet’s darkest corners with Ryan's own intimate reckoning with mortality as he battles a terminal illness.
The Director
RYAN PATRICK KILLACKEY
(1978-2024)
Ryan spent his life exploring, documenting, and protecting what he loved most: nature. A Chicago native and graduate of the University of Montana, he started his career as a wildlife biologist, researching frogs in freshwater lakes, tracking and live-trapping wolverines, and working as a wilderness ranger at a bear observatory in Alaska.
His passion, especially for reptiles and amphibians, led him to the Ecuadorian Amazon in 2005, where he began to transition into photography and film. Over the years, he worked for National Geographic, PBS Nature, Giant Screen Films (3D/IMAX), and Yale E360.
In 2017, Ryan completed his award-winning feature documentary, Yasuni Man, about the threats facing the Ecuadorian rainforest and the Indigenous Waorani people who inhabit it.
While working as a camera operator for ABC News and Good Morning America, Ryan began production on his next film, A Light in the Darkness. But during filming in 2020, he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, and although he knew time was limited, he spent the last years of his life working on this project. It became his final film.