“A new hero is rising. Resilient. Fierce. And female.” That’s Angela Bassett, narrating the groundbreaking seven-part Nat Geo wildlife doc, Queens, which she also executive produced. It’s the first documentary to put female animal leadership front and center, and, in a world where nearly 70 percent of the genre’s directors are men, have a production team that is almost all women.
We spoke with the queens behind Queens (before that, we joined them on safari to get a look at actual filming locations, an adventure you can read about here).
Executive producer Vanessa Berlowitz says of the team she recruited and worked alongside: “We had young mums, single mums, often women who would have left their career because it just went over a cliff when they wanted to have kids.”
(Credit: National Geographic for Disney/Oscar Dewhurst)
That group wanted to take a fresh look at animal behavior in Africa, the Americas, and beyond. “We purposely turned our heads away from the big fights and the hunts and the things that natural history usually focuses on,” says executive producer Chloe Sarosh, “and purposely turned to look at the nuanced behavior of the females and their leadership.” Spoiler alert: There are still showdowns, betrayals, banishments, and even a murder.
A personal favorite episode for Sarosh focuses on a young a Bonobo, Zoe, who goes out into the world on her own to find friends and a new tribe. Other stories range from a tiny queen orchid bee in Central America laying her very first egg to an orca whale grandmother leading a hunt. The doc was made over four years in 12 countries, with 1,756 days in the field (roughly 300 days per episode).
The seventh and final installment focuses on women who sustain conservation efforts including a group of female rangers from the Maasai, one of the indigenous tribes in Kenya. “They’ve got very strict gender roles. So the fact that these women are rangers, they’re working in what’s typically regarded as a masculine discipline or field is incredible,” says producer/director Faith Musembi.
Check out the video for fascinating insight from more of the doc’s makers, including directors of photography Sophie Darlington and Justine Evans; composer Morgan Kibby; and wildlife cinematographer Erin Ranney (who shows off her amazing tattoo sleeve depicting the animals she filmed in Alaska!). You’ll also hear from photographer Jen Guyton, who shot the National Geographic Magazine March cover story on spotted hyenas, which is tied into the doc.
Queens, Series Premiere, Monday, March 4, Nat Geo
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
