Archive for March, 2008
I’ll start with the bad news. Over the full moon, which fell on the Easter weekend, our beehives were raided. Eleven hives were destroyed and the honey stolen to sell to local brewers who use it to make alcohol – changaa as it is known here. Even worse than our indignation at being robbed, is the fact that honey thieves never leave any honey for the bees that worked so hard to make it. Without that vital honey-filled comb, they won’t be able to reproduce. After the raid, we saw a swarm of bees huddled together in a big mob, clinging to an acacia tree branch, robbed of their home. I felt so sorry for them…in fact, I am furious!
Two of our beehives, burnt out and destroyed (above and below)
Wasted honeycomb which could have sustained a new generation of bees The better news is that, with the river full again, the hippos are happy. One turned up opposite the house, scouting out the reed beds where we often see hippos spending the heat of the day. The following day, a mother hippo appeared in the same place with a small baby…I can’t believe this is the same mother and baby hippo that were living here before – the baby looks smaller, so I think this is a new one. Hippos are one of the only mammals (apart from whales) that give birth underwater. Imagine being a baby hippo and having to swim to the surface before being able to take your very first breath! It’s so lovely having the hippos right here by the house.
Hippo scouting out the reed beds opposite our house
Mother and baby hippo Yesterday, the river was rising and falling every few hours, changing the landscape completely as huge grey storm clouds gathered overhead, preparing for our nightly downpour. (Today is another story again, but that will have to wait for my next post…) There must have been rain to the west of us because the Mtito River started flowing, having been dry for over a month. From the house, we watched as it broke its way into the much larger Athi, crocodiles, herons, egrets and hammerkops congregating at its mouth.
The smaller, seasonal Mtito River starts flowing into the Athi (on the right hand side of the above picture)
A Crocodile and a Grey Heron wait for prey at the mouth of the Mtito River
Oh so elegant: a Grey Heron stands next to a Great White Egret near the Mtito River mouth Unbelievably, the Bauhinia (bauhinia taitensis) are flowering again already, only six weeks or so since they were last out in bloom…In fact, the dry season has been relatively short as the last rainy season ended so late. Unlike last time, when the Bauhinia started flowering in dribs and drabs, with the sudden heavy and sustained rain, the flowers have come out en masse this time, like snow across the landscape. Do you know the feeling when something is so beautiful, it hurts to look at it? This is how I feel when I look at these blossoming Bauhinia bushes, with their pungent yet delicate scent like roses. Each flower-laden bough looks like a ready-made wedding bouquet. Even as they start drying out – ever so soon, for the blossom is short-lived, turning pinkish and shedding its petals like confetti after just 24 hours – they retain an aching beauty.
Our driveway, adorned with Bauhinia taitensis bushes in full bloom
Turning pink, as they start to dry out… Other flowers are blossoming too, including the pink grewia lilacina and clumps of small yellow flowers which I think are triumfetta flavescens. The yellow-flowered creeper on our lawn (which shall remain nameless for the simple reason that I don’t know what it’s called) has produced a wonderful looking fruit that resembles a melon. In our balcony flowerbeds, the most incredible white lilies have self-seeded (pictures below) – they’re similar but not the same as the white lilies I photographed during the last rainy season. They took us completely by surprise – all of a sudden they were there on our balcony in all their glory, and the next day, they were withered and gone…but what a flush of beauty while they lasted!
AEFF has become a member of the Kenya Film and Television Professionals Association, which represents all aspects of the film industry here in Kenya. The Association allows film professionals in this country to speak with one voice and thereby leverage more influence when proposing measures and legislation which could boost the local film industry while also helping to attract international film companies to Kenya. The power of film cannot be overstated, not only to educate but to put places “on the map”, thereby attracting tourism revenue and highlighting issues of importance like conservation. The recent reinvigoration of this Association is a good sign of the film industry in this country banding together to drive positive change. The Association also provides an excellent networking facility for the film industry, and as AEFF expands, we may well recruit our future film makers from amongst the membership. We also hope to be able to help the Association through contributing to discussions and ideas, and sharing our experience with others. The Association website is currently being revamped, but in the meantime, they have an active Yahoo eGroup called KFTPA2006.
Simon Trevor went back to the coast in the middle of March to film the ongoing story of Kuruwitu – the marine protected area originally set up by a group of local land owners and the local fishermen. Following on from his earlier report (which you can read in my previous post on this blog), he now has the following news for us: “One set back was immediately explained to us. The Kuruwitu boat, which we had intended to use to film a patrol, had been turned over and as a result the engine was no longer functioning. Oh well. Every time we look below the surface of the sea new events are happening as the underwater environment ‘comes back to life’. This time Lesley Hannah [freelance Kenyan camerawoman working wih AEFF on marine cinematography] filmed baby Trigger Fish. The Trigger Fish is one of a number of creatures that kill and eat sea urchins. The sea urchins kill the coral so when the fish are over exploited the sea urchins proliferate and down comes the whole balanced ecosystem. She filmed the dreaded Crown of Thorns starfish, a sinister looking creature covered in poisonous spines which is one of the main predators on coral. Also filmed were the sellers of sea shells in Malindi [town 100km north of Mombasa], where there are usually hordes of tourists eager for a bargain. These traders buy many different marine animals from fishermen who have no idea the effect this has on their livelihoods. (There were masses of cowries, clams, helmet shells, conch shells, shark heads and the remains of many other creatures.) If you take the Helmet Shells for example. These beautiful brilliant red creatures, sometimes larger than a tennis ball, eat sea urchins. So when they are removed the urchins multiply, the coral dies, there is nowhere for certain species of fish to lay their eggs, the young fish who use the coral to hide from predators have nowhere to hide and before long there are no new fish to take the place of those caught by fishermen. So the man who sells the shell to the trader for short term gain is destroying his own life. The tourist, who should perhaps know better, but probably doesn’t either, needs to be educated as well. There’s so much we can teach people through our programs if we capture the information on film. There was much excitement when I arrived as Lesley had just finished filming a spear fisherman diving outside the reef. It took some courage to go into the rough surging water and follow him down as he free dived with his homemade spear gun to a depth of fifteen metres. Spear gun fishing is illegal in Kenya but many local people practice it. The man Lesley filmed has been doing it for 25 years and is an ardent supporter of Kuruwitu. Some people will not appreciate that we filmed this but we believe that it should be shown so that everyone can form their own opinion as to what is right and what is wrong. He fires his gun many times before he makes a strike. Then when he has three fish, with a total weight of around a kilo, he calls it a day. That is what he eats for that day, with a little left to sell. He has to live off this kind of fishing until such time as alternative ways of supporting himself are found. That is precisely what Kuruwitu will provide once their plans for tourism ventures mature and when the fish stocks inside the protected area spread out into the fishing areas. Up to now this kind of spear gun fishing has not made much of a dent on the fish stocks but more and more people are becoming fishermen – of sorts – and so now the environmental balance is under threat from this kind of fishing too. Another good reason for the formation of marine reserves such as Kuruwitu. We rounded up with hiring a plane and filming the coast from the air. This revealed graphically how much development has taken place along the coast and how much forest has been cut down to build hotels and residences. Yesterday we went to Mida creek [near Watamu, north of Mombasa] with the idea of filming fishermen at work. However, as we set out on foot towards the creek, carrying cameras and all our equipment, the heavens opened and we had to beat a hasty retreat back to the camera car, where we consoled ourselves with a hot cup tea from our thermos. With the skies clearing, we headed back and boarded a rickety dugout canoe. Dugout canoes are notorious for their lack of stability and it didn’t take me long to wonder how I was going to handle a movie camera from such an unstable platform. At the same moment - to my horror - I saw water rising rather fast in the bottom of the canoe. Our canoe-man cheerfully said he would start bailing soon but I insisted we return immediately because by then the water level was only an inch or two from the camera bags. So that was the end of that episode. We plan to start again with a larger and more stable boat with no leaks.”
Filming on AEFF’s Inspiration Series of films is well underway. As explained in the previous post, this is a series which highlights individuals and small organizations who are making a living out of doing something positive for conservation and their environment - in the films, these individuals are presented as role models, setting a good example which others can emulate when they see the films. In this way, shared experiences can be passed across the continent, bringing benefits to people, wildlife and the environment on a wide scale. The power of the moving image for imparting information that is inspiring, memorable and useful cannot be underestimated, which is what makes AEFF’s films such potent educational tools in the conservation field. Simon Trevor, at the head of AEFF’s film production team, sent in this report at the beginning of March, updating us on two of the Inspiration film projects he is spearheading, both of which are being filmed on Kenya’s coast north of Mombasa, and feature important marine issues: “Watamu Turtle Watch: This film, about the work of the Kenyan NGO Watamu Turtle Watch, is now about 80% complete. It follows the activities of WTW’s Field Manager Kahindi who is an exceptional man. His meticulous approach to his work to rescue turtles that have been caught in fishermen’s nets comes across as we see him going about his daily activities. WTW have now rescued over three thousand six hundred turtles in the last seven years. Villagers take the unfortunate turtles back to their homes and alert Kahindi who duly comes along, collects the turtle and returns them to the sea. The villagers are paid for keeping the turtles alive. The alternative would be that in most cases the turtles would be killed and eaten. Kahindi also documents all turtle movements and knows almost to the day when a turtle is likely to return to Kenyan shores to lay her eggs. This is done at night and one has to be very careful not to disturb the turtle. We are now hoping to film this during March. Freelance camerawoman, Lesley Hannah, filmed two outstanding sequences recently for AEFF. The first one featured 100 baby Green Turtles hatching during the afternoon. The second sequence shows a Hawkesbill turtle feeding on sponges, while a small black fish frantically rams itself at the turtle’s head. We think this was to try and distract the turtle away from its eggs. Kuruwitu: Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Forty years ago, this area on the coastal reef just north of Vipingo, near Mombasa, used to be one of the most extraordinary coral gardens on the entire Kenya coast. However, due to the ravages of the aquarium trade, the tropical fish and the corals themselves were virtually destroyed. The number of sea urchins covering the entire area bears testimony to the fact that the fish that eat them had been fished out, the helmet shells and the starfish, which also eat them, had been sold to tourists. The sea urchins undermine the corals by feeding on algae causing them to collapse and die. In 2002 a group of local people, wealthy homeowners and local fishermen joined forces to declare the area a ‘No Fishing Zone’. Although at the time they had no legal status, they persevered and today the area has been legalised as a Community Marine Reserve. They have just received a grant of 17 million shillings ($250,000) from a donor organisation to allow them to diversify their activities and earn a living from the area without resorting to fishing. We have been filming here for almost two years now, with all the underwater sequences being shot by Lesley Hannah. One hundred thousand years ago, the sea was much higher than it is today and in a patch of coastal forest nearby there are caves, which would have contained fish and other marine creatures of that period. Today, just offshore in the existing reef there are more caves and we filmed a fishermen swimming deep into them to catch small fish with primitive nets made from mosquito nets. He was able to hold his breath for three minutes and Lesley was able to follow him by using diving equipment. With breakers crashing overhead and the current swirling back and forth, this was no mean feat on her part. We wonder if the same scenario was carried out by primitive man all those years ago? We also filmed the work of Dr Tim MacClannahan who has been monitoring the marine environment here for ten years. We filmed him lifting out a chunk of concrete into which he had inserted a thermometer a year ago. Since then it has given him around one thousand readings – as I was filming him and he was saying it would take a chisel to open it, the concrete suddenly parted and there was the thermometer, still intact and working away. We were able to film a starfish devouring an urchin by straddling it and crushing it. We wonder how many tourists realise they are upsetting the whole ecological balance, and even the livelihoods of people in the long run, when they buy dried starfish to take home. We also filmed the demise of a number of turtles caught in illegal nets set by fishermen from Tanzania. These people had come up the coast, stolen five hundred metres of nest, set them and left them for two nights. The Kuruwitu Conservation people saw this activity and went to collect Kenya Wildlife Service rangers who were able to arrest the culprits. We hope to finish this film during the next six months and to narrate it in several languages, including Giriama, the local language of this section of the coast.” — We are seeking funding for the production of DVD copies of these two films in several African languages, for free distribution to conservation organizations and educational institutions continent-wide. When you consider that most local fishermen (let alone people living further inland) have never seen below the surface of the sea, it is clear these two films will have a tremendous educational impact, showing how it is not just ecosystems on land which are jeopardized by mismanagement, but ecosystems underwater too. Equally, marine environments also have the potential to earn revenue for local communities, if managed correctly. Because high quality replication facilities do not yet exist in East Africa (we tried to produce a recent batch of DVDs in Nairobi, only to have to recall them all due to malfunction), AEFF uses a DVD replication service in London. The total cost per DVD is $7.50, which includes the replication cost, the printing of the cover and the shipping to Africa from UK. On average, we produce 1,000 DVD copies of each of our films, for free distribution to all our distribution outlets, at a total cost of $7,500 per film. For the two films mentioned above, therefore, we are seeking a total of $15,000 to produce 1,000 copies each, in various languages, print the covers, ship them to Africa and distribute them. Please help us if you can by making a donation - large or small, it all adds up and makes a positive difference. Thank you.
AEFF’s major new project, currently underway, is a series of half-hour films, under the heading “Inspiration”. Each film focuses on a particular individual (or small organization) who is doing something positive for conservation and the environment, with a view to improving their community’s quality of life, and preserving biodiversity. These people/organizations are presented as role models, and will illustrate that even a single person or a small local project can have an impact and make a real difference. As a whole, the series will cover a broad range of environmental and conservation issues, and show ways of dealing with them, from the rural village level to government level. For example, the people featured may range from a rural villager who is planting trees or looking after the coral reefs in his area, to the Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service who is operating at a policy level. In addition, AEFF is in the process of re-narrating some existing films into new languages. These are “Tiva: A River of Sand” and “The Rains Came”. The former tells the story of one of the longest droughts ever in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park, where no rain fell for four years, apparently devastating the landscape. The film shows how the wild animals were able to survive, against incredible odds. “The Rains Came” illustrates the miraculous way in which nature bounced back when the rains did eventually fall, and Tsavo was transformed almost overnight for a desert into a lush green and productive habitat. Finally, a new film edited entirely from existing AEFF library material, is entitled “Cats and Dogs”: a fascinating insight into the lives of predators in the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania, specifically Lions and Wild Dogs. Read about AEFF’s completed films
AEFF’s 12 completed films to date The African Environmental Film Foundation produces broadcast quality educational films about conservation issues in African languages. Our films are available free of charge to conservation organizations who wish to use them as educational tools. For the past 10 years, our films have proved extremely useful to conservation organizations which are initiating new projects by “winning hearts and minds”: the films can pave the way for the implementation of new conservation projects by informing local communities and policy makers alike, and showing them the importance of conservation, from an ecological and an economic perspective - showcasing working examples of successful alternative livelihood methods whereby people have improved their standard of living while protecting their wildlife and natural environment. The films also assist ongoing conservation projects by spreading awareness and garnering community support for conservation projects. The films can also show how conservation projects in one area can have much wider, positive repercussions not just in that particular area, but much further afield. You can read testimonials from organizations that use our films here. If you represent a conservation organization (or indeed an educational institution) in Africa, please email us to request a set of our films. We currently have 12 one-hour films available, and several more currently in production, covering a variety of conservation issues. All the films are narrated in both English and Kiswahili, and several are also available in Maa and Kikamba. (The DVDs are multi-language, so you can select whichever language is most suitable for your audience as you show them). Films currently available are:
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me personally.
Hippos are strange, unpredictable creatures. It was 8.15 last Thursday morning, and just as we were finishing breakfast, already sweating in the wake of another stiflingly hot day, a hippo emerged from the river. In the bright, scorching sunlight it walked up out of the water (at a time when most hippos were finding what shade they could in the cover of the reeds, or in secluded pools left in the shallow stream, which was all that was left of our river…). The lumbering beast made its steady way up the steep sandbank, and plodded away into the thick bush. It occurred to me that the hippo probably had a very good reason for its unusual morning meander, but I was none the wiser – perhaps the thick bush provided more respite from the heat than the dwindling river? Or perhaps the hippo had an inkling of what was coming?
Hippo leaving the river as the sun bakes the river… That afternoon, the first splashes of rain cascaded down from an angry sky, hard and stinging, bringing instant relief and releasing us from the clinging, claustrophobic heat. The shower was short and sharp, and did not last long, but while they fell, the raindrops were fat and full of promise… What joy! The rains have broken!
A Yellow-billed Stork continues fishing as the first raindrops fall on the river… In the evening we watched the sky for hours, bewitched by the huge electric storms raging all around us, massive fronts of lighting illuminating the entire firmament like a giant fireworks display, on and on into the night. I felt awe-struck, and privileged, and very, very small before that gigantic stage. There is nothing quite like Nature for putting you in your place, for confirming that – in the big picture – you’re really not all that significant… Fast forward to 3.15am and I am awoken from a deep sleep by a fantastic roar. For a moment I am disorientated, and don’t know what’s happening. And then, in the haze of my early morning mind, it dawns on me: the river is flooding. I stumble out of bed, the moon is large and luminous, and I can see the huge river tumbling and crashing below our balcony. The roar was from this wall of water, plunging its way coastwards in one massive flash flood, whipping yesterday’s placid shallow stream into a frenzied deluge.
From this… …to this, in the blink of a sleepy eye
There’s something quite awe-inspiring about a big river in full flood. Even though you know you are safely above its danger zone, you still have to fight your animal instinct of fear which makes you want to run from it, such is the power of that water and the thundering sound it makes as it crashes beneath you, red and muddy from its cascade through upcountry farming areas where poor land management has left the earth bare and vulnerable to erosion with every bout of rain.
It has rained ever since then (with the obligatory accompaniment of an insect invasion, including a very pretty moth that landed on our bathroom mirror, above), the stormy clouds obliterating all view of the full moon rising at the weekend. A foray into beautiful Tsavo West National Park rewarded us with muddy elephants, a herd of giraffe, a couple of elegant Lesser Kudu and more than a few buffalo…
A lovely Lesser Kudu doe, a wonderfully muddy bull Elephant, and a herd of haughty-looking Giraffe were just a few of the animals we saw in Tsavo West… Yesterday, it was cloudy and rainy all day, the crocodiles starved of any sunlight and barely any warmth…then today we awoke to a totally different morning: back to the scorching heat and the crocodiles returning in droves to bask on the sandbanks, while the Goliath Heron, too hot even to finish washing, just sat down in the river and stayed there (and who could blame it?) I had to take a cold shower at midday, just to fortify myself for the onslaught of the afternoon heat.
The crocodiles were happy to see the sun again, but it was too hot for the Goliath Heron who, half way through its wash, just sat down in the river and stayed there! Tonight, as might be expected, the thunder and lightning are raging again, huge storm clouds fomented in the heat of the day, now towering overhead…and the rain continues, and the bugs multiply, and the flowers prepare to launch into their reproductive cycles once again…the tiny pretty blue commelina flowers are already blooming everywhere you look (including on our nascent lawn) and the sanseviera we transplanted into our garden (both on the balcony and outside) are sending up a proliferation of shoots, the new spikes breaking the surface of the earth like spiky aliens, and reaching up towards the light…
Delicate blue Commelina flowers colonizing our new lawn
Sanseviera (above and below) sending up new spikes
Today AEFF signed an agreement with Kenyan television channel, K24, to broadcast our films in both English and Swahili. K24 is a 24-hour news and features channel. The channel falls under the parent company Regional Reach, also founders of the first independent radio station in Kenya, Kameme FM, whose aim is to “educate, inform and entertain while pursuing a spirit of creativity and the highest level of professionalism” - the same goal as espoused by K24. Although the agreement with this television company is a new step forward for us, our relationship with K24’s parent company goes back several years. Regional Reach used to show AEFF’s films on public screens strategically placed in meeting places in market towns around the country. However, as more and more of the urban population came to own their own televisions (including wind-up TV sets), Regional Reach made the executive decision to close down their market towns initiative and launch a terrestrial TV channel. While K24, whose buy-line is “All Kenyan All of the Time”, is a relatively new channel, its proprietors are old hands in the media business, and already K24 is making waves across the country. For us, to be working alongside such a proactive company, is very exciting in terms of what it means for our audience numbers and the impact our films can have across a broader spectrum of people. The agreement with K24 in no way prevents us from distributing our films through our other outlets, and we are working hard to expand our distribution network on many different levels, and in many different countries.
Look at this feast! Today our trusty beehives delivered this bounty, despite there being rather a shortage of bees around this year…obviously enough to make enough honey to go round for us and the guys that work for us. The hives we use are traditional Wakamba beehives: hollowed out logs hung in the trees with wire. They’re not the most efficient type of beehive in the world: we’re planning to buy some more modern, more efficient hives soon. In the meantime, it’s important when harvesting the honey not to take all the combs out of each hive, otherwise there’s nothing left for the bees…I squeezed the incredibly sweet honey out of the combs by hand, which was a sticky experience but well worth it…there’s nothing quite like a slice of homemade bread, fresh out the oven and still warm, with honey from one’s very own beehives…
On the culinary front, I’ve recently started making kefir – for anyone who doesn’t know what this is, it’s a drink/food very like natural yoghurt but apparently with even more health benefits. You start with some ‘grains’ - an ugly-looking lump consisting of bacteria and yeast (which I got from a friend – her grandmother kept the same culture going for 60 years by carefully looking after those all-important grains), put them in milk overnight, and by morning you have a thin yoghurt-like mixture with myriad health benefits. (Even Ian has been persuaded of this, and has a daily glass into which he mixes a little honey.) After making a jugful, you have to carefully sieve the kefir to extract the grain, then place the ugly, magical lump in some water (or milk) to keep it alive and ready to make the next batch. Ian thinks it’s like “The Good Life” all over again [a 1970s English comedy series where a Do-It-Yourself couple tried to live off the land in their tiny English town house, overlooked with amused disdain by their upper-crust neighbours.]….just wait until we have own elephant- and baboon-proof, super-fortified veggie patch!
My goodness it has been HOT – you sweat just getting out of the bed in the morning! The river has been very low, and a huge new mud flat has opened up on Hippo Bend, with interesting sand formations being created by the wind where the mud meets the sand. There were lots of ‘track stories’ on the beach when we were down there the other evening…telling of the passing elephants, and the baboons who were running just ahead of us on the beach, and of storks walking in perfect parallel, and even of the cheetah who’s been back here drinking again….or is this a hyena footprint? They are so difficult to tell apart, and we’ve been hearing a lot of hyena noise around the house recently, loud whooping and the distinctive chuckling noise they make which leads people to say that hyenas laugh… Elephant footprint patterns in the mud Baboon footprint in the sand (the thumb makes it distinctive) Cheetah footprint (notice the claws - unlike other cats, cheetahs cannot retract their claws) The searing heat has been pulling great tall rain clouds and it looks like the rainy season is about to start any day now, with huge wild skies and towering clouds and the smell of moisture on the hot, hot air. Because the last rainy season ended so late here in Tsavo, it seems strange to be contemplating rain again already, but it certainly does seem to be on its way. The wind in the evenings, as the sun slips below the horizon and the temperature drops, has been unbelievably fierce…in fact, it’s been blowing so hard, we think something has snapped in our wind turbine which is looking decidedly sluggish despite the raging winds…
Click to enlarge… These two young impala rams, which have just about taken up permanent residence on our Little Serengeti, have got the right idea – resting up in the shade on the beach during the heat of the day.
Impalas on the beach… The baobab trees have only just dropped all their leaves, which had turned such a bright yellow colour that the trees looked like they were in blossom. They are now bare-boughed again. If the thunder and lighting outside my window beyond the Yatta have anything to say about it though, it seems the trees will be coming out in leaf before too long again…
A yellow-leafed Baobab Tree at the end of February - you would be forgiven it was in flower!
The Baobabs are bare-boughed now, but if the gathering storm clouds have anything to say about it, it won’t be long before they’re coming out in leaf again… Jean-Genie [plural – our genet cats - we initially thought there was just one, but it now turns out there are at least two or three] have become tamer and tamer, and now come right up to our chairs when we’re on the balcony eating dinner. Soon they’ll be tame enough to photograph but I don’t want to frighten them away at this early, delicate stage by using the flash. What the genets leave behind, the ants tidy up – how about this for cooperative labour?
Ants carrying away the chicken scraps after the genet cats have had their fill. More Pictures from March 2008:
I thought it would be helpful to tell you a little bit about where my husband, Ian Saunders, and I live, as our home will feature in many stories recounted in this blog:
‘Kulafumbi’ is our family home in Kenya, East Africa, situated on the confluence of the Athi and Mtito Rivers. The property borders the Tsavo National Park - with no fences between us and the Park, the wildlife comes and goes of its own free will and treats our land as its own. Ian and I were married here on 22nd September 2007 (after having talked about it for no less than 7 years!)
We work from here too, in office space which is donated to the Film Foundation by my father, Simon Trevor, who owns the property. It’s a very special place, and many of the tales recounted in this blog will be about our lives here “in the middle of nowhere”, and the animals and birds that are our neighbours… Read more about Kulafumbi - the house and land - and see some photos of our unconventional house… |
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