White lions – Born wild – Against all odds

Special mention
Regia: 
Joe Kennedy
Produzione: 
by Joe Kennedy – Produced by: Table Mountain Films, Obsessively Creative, Terra Mater Factual Studios in co-production with Thirteen WNET – Austria 2012 –Running time: 52 min. Featured area: Kruger National Park, South Africa

This is the story of two remarkable – and extremely rare – wild white lion cubs on their journey to adulthood. Both are female, sisters born as white as snow in May 2009 in South Africa’s Kruger Park. Growing up in this vast, wild wilderness they must not only overcome the same survival challenges that all lion cubs face, they must also overcome the threats their high visibility brings. In the African bush anything unusual stands out strongly and is often eliminated by eagle-eye predators. Will our cubs survive? The odds are stacked against them – 80% of the newborn lion cubs don’t make it to adulthood. We follow the cub’s progress as they embark the pathway to adulthood, learning to hunt, learning to avoid danger, learning to live in their white coats.


 

Joe Kennedy is Creative Director of Table Mountain Films, based in Cape Town and London. He has 25 years experience producing, directing and writing for all the major international broadcasters including the BBC, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, PBS, ITV and Channel 4. Beginning at the BBC Natural History Unit, Joe went on to make a successful career as an independent filmmaker, working across several genres including natural history, science, history, adventure and social documentaries. His natural history production credits include White Lions – Born Wild in competition at Sondrio Festival 2012.