Five Questions for Filmmakers: Livestock Insurance Program

We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them questions about the experience of making their films.

Livestock Insurance Program - Finalist Trailer from Jackson Hole WILD on Vimeo.

​What inspired this story?

We want to tell the stories of the people who share the landscapes with snow leopard. This is the story of a Cashmere goat herder who works at very high altitudes in harsh conditions tending his goats.  In the past, because of the value of his goats if a snow leopard kills one a goat, there would be retaliatory killing of the cat. Now through a Livestock Insurance Program, he has options and no longer kill snow leopards.   

Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share?
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In the Village of Gya, they knew the film crew was coming. Both the women and the men working in the streets moving rocks and digging ditches until our vehicles arrived. They walked to a community hall to meet us. Bringing out their finest teacups, they served yak butter tea and gave thanks to each of us by draping a ceremonial scarf around our necks. They were so grateful that we would be sharing their story.

Photo courtesy of Livestock Insurance Program

What impact do you hope this film will have?

With knowledge you can create empathy and support. To bring the stories from both the communities and the people who are doing the conservation work, I hope this film garners more worldwide support for the Snow Leopard Trust and their partners.

Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
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• We were shooting at elevations from 11 thousand to 15 thousand feet while carrying equipment.  The first four days were hard because of altitude. Once acclimated, we hit the road to film the Cashmere goat herders and their flocks coming into the corrals in the evening. They would come down from the mountains to their camp. We knew we had only one chance. We positioned ourselves for the best angle where we could be close to the goats and sheep as they descended into the camp. Over the ridge we could see the sheep and herds.  Hundreds of animals started to come down the mountain toward their usual corrals but then they spotted the film crew hiding in the rocks. They stopped. The back up started and none of the goats and sheep would move. The herder saw this and began a more concerted effort to get the sheep down the hill.  The other herders joined in and finally, they goats to run past the camera and crew!
• Power supply was an ongoing challenge!  Keeping batteries charged, downloading footage was an ongoing problem.  At one point we had to have a second generator brought in from the nearest town about 8 hours away.  We were down to one small camera with power and always worried that if we spotted a snow leopard, we would have no camera to shoot with.

Photo courtesy of Livestock Insurance Program

What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on the big cat species?

I was hired to produce a video featuring the Snow Leopard Trust founder Helen Freeman in 2004. Initially, it was to showcase her work as the founder of the Snow Leopard Trust.  I was able to use donated footage from Mitchell Kelly and Hugh Miles and fell in love with snow leopards.  October of 2018, I got to witness my first snow leopard in the wild.  It was a thrill of a lifetime.