Film Info75 minutes
Scholars & Gentlemen, Panthera, Earth Touch, andBeyond, Durban Film Office, National Film & Video Foundation, Peace Parks Foundation Available for Ticketed events ONLY Synopsis: SAFTA-award-winning film about a man aiming to halt the alarming decline in southern Africa’s leopard populations due to a widespread skin trade. Traditionally only Zulu royals have been allowed to wear leopard skins, however the Shembe Church, a four million strong religious group, has adopted the skins into their ceremonial outfit. The demand for leopard skins is now unsustainable, law enforcement is helpless to police this trade and so Panthera’s Tristan Dickerson travels from the heart of the African bush to the centre of Shembe and Zulu culture and beyond to China, seeking a solution benefitting all parties. Action Items
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Filmmaker Q&A
What inspired this story?
I visited a Shembe gathering years ago. I was appalled by the number of leopard skins being worn by dancers. At the same time, I was both intrigued and moved by the beautiful sense of meaning within the ritual. I think the film was inspired by tension between those two contrasting experiences of the same event.
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
Our biggest challenge was coming up with a solution that worked for both the conservation bodies and the Shembe Church. Building an open line of communication between ourselves and the Church was a difficult process.
How do you approach storytelling?
We realize people aren’t going to watch something just because it’s an important or critical issue. They need to be entertained. And to do that we needed to have character development and narrative arcs, but within the restraints of a real life story, the pace and direction of which we couldn’t dictate. We learnt that sometimes you need to push in a certain direction as a story teller and other times you simply have to wait for the story to evolve of it’s own accord.
What impact do you hope this film will have?
Our goal has been to protect leopards, primarily from people not knowing or understanding the threats they face, and to use entertainment as a way of doing that.
I visited a Shembe gathering years ago. I was appalled by the number of leopard skins being worn by dancers. At the same time, I was both intrigued and moved by the beautiful sense of meaning within the ritual. I think the film was inspired by tension between those two contrasting experiences of the same event.
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
Our biggest challenge was coming up with a solution that worked for both the conservation bodies and the Shembe Church. Building an open line of communication between ourselves and the Church was a difficult process.
How do you approach storytelling?
We realize people aren’t going to watch something just because it’s an important or critical issue. They need to be entertained. And to do that we needed to have character development and narrative arcs, but within the restraints of a real life story, the pace and direction of which we couldn’t dictate. We learnt that sometimes you need to push in a certain direction as a story teller and other times you simply have to wait for the story to evolve of it’s own accord.
What impact do you hope this film will have?
Our goal has been to protect leopards, primarily from people not knowing or understanding the threats they face, and to use entertainment as a way of doing that.
