ACCLAIMED
FILMMAKER PUT KENYAN WILDLIFE ON THE WORLD STAGE
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted September 1, 2017)
Alan Root,
the renowned wildlife filmmaker who died late last month on August 26 at his
home in Nanyuki, was a Briton by birth. But he spent more than 70 of his 80
years living and working here and all across Africa.
Diagnosed
with glioblastoma (a cancerous brain tumor) in April, he retained his
adventurous spirit up to the end. With his third wife Fran Michelson and their
two sons, Root went ‘on safari’ to Alaska despite the diagnosis.
But it was
shortly after his return that he passed on peacefully at his place on the edge
of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.
A man whose
films are said to have brought ‘the magic of Africa to millions” of television audiences
all around the world, Root made almost two dozen wildlife films. The majority
of them were shot in collaboration with his wife Joan in the 1960s, 70s and
80s. And many won them awards, including an Oscar, two Emmys, a Peabody, and
one from the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. The body of their films even
earned Alan an OBE from Queen Elizabeth, making him an officer of the Order of
the British Empire.
Among his
most acclaimed films are “Baobab: Portrait of a Tree”(1973), ‘The Year of the
Wildebeest “(1974), “Balloon Safari (1975) and “Mysterious Castles of Clay”
(1978) which was narrated by Orson Welles and scripted by Root himself.
His forte
was filming wildlife on their own terms in their natural habitat and without
human interference. In fact, he is credited for pioneering a unique film style
that made the animals the stars and the sets, their ecosystems. In that way, he
introduced a myriad of outsiders (many of whom were lured to this region as
tourists by his documentary films) to the habits of everything from termites,
leopards and hippos to wildebeests, crocodiles and baby flamingos.
Root is even
credited with introducing the American zoologist Dian Fossey to the renowned silver-back
gorillas of Rwanda which she subsequently studied in the wild for over 18 years.
Fossey died mysteriously and her killers were never found. But her life in the
bush was made into the movie, “Gorillas in the Mist” which Root helped to shoot.
Fossey was played by Sigourney Weaver.
His own
introduction to mountain gorillas could conceivably have put an end to his
filmmaking career since one chest-beating silver back claimed a chunk of his
calf. According to Root as per the autobiography he wrote and published in
2012, that huge primate came running out from the forest towards him “like a
Doberman on steroids.”
Root
survived, but the gorilla incident is just one of the many scarring run-ins
that he had over his illustrious career. There was the leopard that lunged and
bit him on his backside while he was filming in the Serengeti; the angry hippo
that bit off a “Coke bottle” sized hunk of his thigh while he was filming
underwater in Mzima Springs in Tsavo National Park, and there was even a puff
adder whose bite gave him an anaphylactic shock that nearly killed him. Again,
he survived but he lost his right index finger which meant he had to
reconfigure the ways that he flew his helicopter, steered his air balloon,
drove his Land Rover and even flew his Cessna airplane.
Root hadn’t
begun life as a rich boy. He was born in London, but his father moved the
family to Kenya to take up a job managing a corn beef plant. Root was just
nine, and his affinity for animals was already apparent as he kept a host of
creatures (including a load of snakes) in the family’s backyard in London. So
it was no surprise that he’d one day make movies about African wildlife or that
he and Joan transformed their home on the banks of Lake Naivasha into an animal
sanctuary for every wild orphan that they found in the course of their
filmmaking.
Root started
making films about animals soon after he arrived in Kenya in 1946. Born May 12,
1937, he began making movies with a simple 8 millimeter camera while in his
early teens. He dropping out of school at aged 16, having found his passion and
figuring out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
His first
professional film job was working with the German father and son team of
Bernard and Michael Grizmek on a project filming the Seregeti Reserve for the Frankfurt
Zoo. By a fluke accident, the son died after his plane collided with a vulture
and crashed. The father was devastated, and the project came to a halt until
Root took up the challenge and finished shooting the film.
‘Serengeti
Shall Not Die” earned Root an Academy Award (an Oscar) for Best Documentary
Film in 1969. That win set him on a path that led to his making movies produced
by BBC, National Geographic and Anglia for its TV series “Survival”.
But what
made the Roots’ movies so original was the storytelling skill of Alan. Every
film that they made featured a narrative which allowed audiences to learn about
hippos, leopards and wildebeests’ ecosystems and lifestyles.
In the words
of Sir David Attenborough, writing in 1979, “Alan Root understands animals
better than many zoologists do.”
In fact, any
number of film critics have claimed that Root’s cinematic work with wildlife
rivalled that of David Attenborough’s and Jacques Cousteau’s. He may be better
known outside of Kenya than within; but he has left a legacy and treasure trove
of movies which undoubtedly will endure the test of time. They will be that
much more precious in light of the terrible poaching that has been going on for
years and decimated the herds and flocks that he loved to film over the years.
At the
funeral of his first wife Joan, Root is said to have wept and lamented over
what he called the “heartbreaking holocaust” against African wildlife. He sadly
described the cause of wildlife conservation a “disastrous failure”.
When he and Joan
divorced in 1990, she had remained in their Lake Naivasha home. And it was
there that she was murdered, apparently by the very poachers that she had been
advocating against. Her fight had been to save the endangered marine life
inside the lake that was being poached mercilessly.
The American
journalist Mark Seed wrote about Joan’s murder in a Vanity Fair article and
then a book, both entitled “Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely
Death in Africa.” Unfortunately, her case was never solved, but the vital yet
behind-the-scenes story of her role in the Roots’ rising film career is
thankfully recorded in Seed’s thoughtful book.
Even more
fortunate is that Alan Root wrote his autobiography in 2012 entitled “Ivory,
Apes and Peacocks: Animals, Adventure and Discovery in the Wild Places of
Africa.”
But a lot of
Root’s life was revealed years before in an extended essay written in 1999 in
‘The New Yorker’ by George Plimpton entitled “The Man who was Eaten Alive.”
Root will be
remembered fondly not just for his remarkable wildlife films but for his
daredevil streak and adventurous spirit that allowed him to prove the purity of
his passion for nature and his desire to capture its beauty before it got lost.
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