@Nadav Harel - I watched it last night. Thoughts:
I enjoyed the cinematography but I did feel the musical score distracted from the artistic experience of the film. As for the content, I applaud you for taking what I believe was a mostly unbiased approach to this film. You let the cameras roll without an agenda. Period.
Any negative comments that I have about the content of the film stem from my own biases and passions about the problems game face in Africa - namely poaching, corruption and human encroachment. I wish you had spent more time addressing these issues.
For example, your average viewer believes that sub-Saharan Africa is one giant savanah or rainforest. They have no concept that Africa today has very little wilderness left. Outside of a few mega-cities, most of the continent south of the Sahara is rural land that is quite densely populated with people. In Kenya, slums press into the Masai Mara, while in Zambia you’ll see people literally infused in the bush around all the major parks. Same in Tanzania - as you show.
The film mentions human conflict with wildlife. It may have helped your viewer to know that in Tanzania, there were 10 million people in 1960 while today, there are nearly 60 million people. In Africa as a whole, the population has exploded from 285 million in 1960 to over 1.3 billion this year. Simple stats like this put the magnitude of pressure placed on wildlife in context for a person watching who doesn’t understand how and why these animals are competing with people on increasingly marginal land.
Another point that you touched on was the local attitudes toward wildlife. When the children were asked what they thought of lions, they all said, “Bad!” Your viewer may not know WHY they say that. Maybe 2 minutes of footage with a man who lost a head of cattle (and therefore all of his worldly wealth) to a lion would show them. Now, his kids don’t eat. People in the west don’t understand the poverty that exists in these countries. They can’t grasp that when a cow gets killed, the men in the town get together and poison not just the lion that killed his cow, but every last one in the pride. And any person with a heart for the locals can’t blame them. Africa’s not a theme park, and her people deserve to live as much as we do and I would argue more than a lion. And without addressing what African’s need, the animals will all be dead.
Poaching also is discussed, but the magnitude of the bushmeat trade across the continent wasn’t. And your film was about lions - so this matters. If a lion doesn’t have wildlife to hunt, they starve. And a starving lion will go for an easy target like livestock. When he does, the locals will bring out the poison.
As for corruption, whether African governments turn a blind eye toward poaching or actively participate in it (both are true), the failure of those in power to protect thier resources and the corruption of these regimes can’t be underestimated. Which means that the resources dedicated to protecting wildlife - and wild lands - for now must come from someplace else.
Overall, although I wish you had gone deeper, liked the movie. I do take issue with your comment at the end of the film that trophy hunting exasperates the problem of wildlife decline. The dramatic rise in game animals in South Africa and Namibia prove otherwise, as well as the success we have had in the United States of bringing back many of our wild animals from near-extinction just 100 years ago. Heck, look at Mozambique! The wildlife was all but gone after the civil war and today it is thriving. Why? Hunters who provide a vehicle for the wildlife to pay thier own way.
Aside from all of that, welcome! I hope that you will become a regular visitor and contributor to this forum.
