Black Mambas
Three young South African women must navigate the crumbling ruins of a colonial past when they become rangers in the Greater Kruger Park, South Africa.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Lena Karbe
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I strongly feel that there are not enough films about the post-colonial perspective on conservation. With Black Mambas I wanted to tell a story of animal protection through the impact it has on humans: the rangers and the poachers, who, ironically, come from the same side of the fence. The documentary poses a sensitive theme: the conflict between the need to conserve nature and the need for survival of the local population, for which nature represents a source of resources.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
In times, when there are a lot of films about empowerment, it gets easy to abuse. Black Mambas will surprise you and bring you to redefine the terms "exploitation" and "empowerment". What do we mean when we talk of exploitation and what is the nature of empowerment?
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Black Mambas is primarily a reflection on value: the value of people and of animals in the eyes of society. Commercial poaching devalues animals’ lives. Perversely, so does the wildlife economy that instrumentalizes animals for profit, making them a motor of conservation. Meanwhile, people are also instrumentalized for the sake of animal protection. The (oftentimes - emotional) value people in the Global North place on animals is often not comparable with the attitude of local people. The personal stories of our protagonists intertwine with this universal theme: Black Mambas rangers come from the communities neighboring the park, so they are the faces of the social conflicts and the political context I’m describing. Most of the Black Mambas have not seen the animals in the wild before starting their job. This is hard to imagine, given the fact that they live so close to the park. This exemplifies the alienation from conservation.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Black Mambas rangers come from the same communities that the bushmeat poachers come from. At the beginning of my work on the film and after the first research and interviews I believed that the conflict inside the communities will be the main conflict of the film. After the research trip, however, it became apparent that the main conflict will be the dynamics between the rangers and the power structures in the park itself.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Before the film was finished I encountered a lot of negative feedback from potential partners, complaining that our undermining of the heroic image of the rangers and questioning the value of their work would make the film a hard sell. There were different ways to tell the story of Black Mambas. The path we ultimately chose was very ambivalent, but to us, it was the only true and authentic way to tell this story. Ultimately, when the film was completed it received very positive feedback.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Particularly with the negative feedback in the beginning it was clear to us personally what the authentic way to tell this story would be.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We hope that the visibility on the platform will further help the film to continue finding its way to its audience.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Journalists, film festival directors and distributors.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I would love the audience to reconsider how we view natural parks, we should start developing a more critical and nuanced view of them. In the case of Kruger Park - the nature conservation problem is huge for local people. Due to economic hardships, the Park is the only source of food or employment, but the capacities for employment are very small. Post-colonialism (with the conservation still being considered a “white man’s thing” and with the Kruger Park history) and extreme corruption in these areas make nature conservation not a cause for the local people because they don’t profit from it. Local people must profit from conservation in order to value it.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Why do we choose to support certain conservation initiatives in the Global South and when we support them - are we actually asking the right questions?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
The director is working on a project about an independent crisis hotline in Russia that has to navigate the totalitarian regime in order to provide mental health support to Russian citizens.
Interview: February 2023
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Black Mambas
Three young South African women must navigate the crumbling ruins of a colonial past when they become rangers in the Greater Kruger Park, South Africa.
Length: 1:21:18
Director: Lena Karbe
Producer: Lena Karbe and Jan Vasak (French coproducer)
Writer: Lena Karbe and Tristan Coloma
About the writer, director and producer:
Born and raised in St Petersburg, Russia, LENA KARBE is a Germany-based filmmaker. During her studies at the University of Television and Film in Munich, she founded her own production company Karbe Film GmbH with a focus on documentaries for international audiences and produced several feature films before turning to writing and directing. The mission of Karbe Film’s documentaries is to foster new perspectives and amplify voices and opinions outside the status quo.
TRISTAN COLOMA is a documentalist and investigative journalist based in Paris, France. The documentary series Chinese Dream that he co-directed with Lena Karbe was shown at more than 30 festivals worldwide and was published on ARTE in the Spring of 2020.
Facebook: Black Mambas Documentary
Instagram: @blackmambasdocumentary
Hashtags used: #blackmambasdocumentary
Other: IMDb
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
Luxembourg City Film Festival - March 12th
Zagreb Dox - End of March tba