The Documentary
- Angie Raab
- Aug 31, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
"Behind the lens" What started as a photo story grew legs before I knew what was happening. A short clip. Then something longer. Then, somewhere along the way, a documentary - raw and unscripted and very much alive.
This project was never really about filming. It became a journey - the kind that gets into you, that involves heartbreak and hope in roughly equal measure, and that leaves you with a permanent, bone-deep respect for the people who show up every day to protect what's left of the wild.
It started with a simple itch: to show people what they don't usually get to see. The long days that bleed into longer nights. The danger that hums under everything. The small wins that feel enormous when you're standing in the middle of them. The quiet, unheroic heroism of rangers doing their job without an audience.
We followed that thread across Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe and eventually into Mali, where we embedded with a combined military and anti-poaching force operating in terrain that does not forgive mistakes.
Gritty doesn't quite cover it. Every day felt unpredictable. Every moment felt real in a way that's hard to manufacture. Tense patrols under a sun that means business. Conversations by firelight where laughter somehow survived the exhaustion.
What came back with us wasn't just footage. It was a collection of people - their stories, their sacrifices, their stubborn refusal to stop believing that wildlife is worth the fight.
And underneath all of it, threading through every frame: hope. Quiet, persistent, surprisingly tough. Carried by people who haven't given up, in places that make giving up look like the sensible option.
A glimpse into the making of a documentary: (filmed by: bog photography, clare james photography, nigel kuhn photography, kimberly Wood, andreas maxones photography)
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