Kickstarter

Hi! My team and I are making a documentary about an extraordinary, 50 year battle being waged by two very different African families to save their kingdom’s endangered wildlife. 

In the small, sovereign, African kingdom of Swaziland, all of the native big game had gone locally extinct as early as 1960 from hunting, poaching, and habitat loss. This was when a young Ted Reilly - now known as the father of Swazi Conservationism - set about to create Swaziland’s first nature sanctuary and bring the animals back. His success eventually won him the support of the beloved late King Sobhuza II, the longest reigning monarch in the known-world, and together they worked to establish Swaziland’s first national park. Due to the support and passion of Swaziland’s current king, King Mswati III, and Ted’s son, Mick, Swaziland has continued to flourish as an international eco-tourist destination and a bastion of rhino safety. But, with the Chinese government recently backing a new "scientific study" of rhino horn (giving an implicit nod to otherwise illegal international procurement), it is now worth more than its weight in gold on the international black market, and the result is that surrounding South Africa is currently losing a rhino a day to international organized crime rings. The Rhino Wars have been brought back to Africa, and the fate of Swaziland’s (and the world’s) rhino population hangs in the balance. 

To help bring the plight of the rhino to the world’s attention we are also making a pair of  educational videos to be released on the web in over a dozen languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Arabic - languages spoken where the illegal markets for rhino horn are the strongest. Our first video can be seen here. 

We know rhinos aren’t the cutest animals in the world. (Well, we think they’re pretty cute...) But they are majestic, amazing animals that represent some of our planet’s last great megafauna and stand as a symbol of what our species is doing to every other. Rhinos have existed on this planet for millions of years and have always  been a part of the human experience, sparking our imagination and wonder. And now because some have decided that their horns are worth more than gold, we are about to wipe them out. 

We don’t want rhinos to disappear - and this is a solvable problem. Through education, legislation, and the development of a global voice we can bring them back from the brink of extinction. In terms of our projects, we’ve already finished filming in Africa and now we’re in the post production phase. Your contribution will make all the difference in just how polished our end result will be and every single cent donated will go straight towards post-production costs. Because everyone has so far worked for free (most especially John Mans, our Emmy-nominated, veteran nature and adventure cinematographer) or for drastically reduced rates, we’ve been able to capture something really remarkable and worthy of reaching as large an audience as possible, and now we just need that final push! Please help us to get the word out about our project and to help turn the tide for the world's rhinos! Thank you!

P.S. You can check out our team's other great projects @

 www.vimeo.com/25728965

www.johnmans.com

www.finalhourfilms.com

www.jimaikman.com

www.unreasonableinstitute.org/tv