Bonné de Bod standing in the Arctic Circle while Susan Scott films rare stratospheric cloud formations. Picture: Supplied
Just before the world became engulfed in a pandemic that would forever change the nature of human interactions, filmmakers Bonné de Bod and Susan Scott, of Stroop fame, completed filming for their new independent documentary, Kingdoms of Fire, Ice and Fairytales.
Presenter and filmmaker, Bonné de Bod. Picture: Supplied
Filmmaker and writer, Susan Scott. Picture: Supplied
The film launched on Showmax this week, and premiered at the Silwerskerm Film Festival on Friday. It was originally meant to be a series, but was adapted after Covid-19 and subsequent restrictions.
The timing could not have been better, with it serving to satisfy a host of bucket lists from wanderlusters locked down due to Covid-19.
Viewers would do well to immerse themselves and live vicariously through de Bod and Scott’s breathtaking footage of three unique landscapes – Yellowstone National Park in the US, Black Forest National Park in Germany, and the Arctic Circle’s Swedish Lapland.
Aurora borealis in the Arctic Circle. Picture: Supplied
The Citizen caught up with De Bod and Scott, to find out about the challenges of filming in treacherous terrain, being away from the Kruger Park, which is like their second home, and how we foster the love they have for the environment in South Africa.
The Kruger National Park is De Bod’s happy place. But she and Scott were taken with Yellowstone.
“It’s like being in Kruger watching big, iconic apex predators, and then you round the corner and a volcano is spewing lava and you sit and watch that! It’s really like a world I’ve never experienced,” De Bod said.
But somehow, she felt at home in Yellowstone.
“I felt like I had been here before, just because the whole area has that National Park feel to it. It’s epic on a grand scale, and you feel it entering the park… The visitors building feels like the park shops in Kruger… And like Kruger, there’s landscapes that change as you travel through the park and just the knowing, the sense that there are predators there, keeps that ball of excitement rumbling around in your tummy, knowing that around that corner you might see the wolves in Lamar Valley!”
For Scott, the sense of adventure juxtaposed with the realisation of “your frail humanity because there are animals here far stronger than you, the elements are far more dangerous than you can imagine”, was what really made her feel at home.
But Scott felt herself being surprisingly comfortable in the Arctic Circle, despite it being “almost like a desert with the ice and snow everywhere, and it is really uncomfortable.” The cold permeating her extremities was something she would repeat – “but in polar night, not any other time”.
Susan Scott filming in the Arctic Circle. Picture: Supplied
Yellowstone National Park has no place for humans. It is inhabited by bears, wolves, bison, and a host of potentially hostile and fascinating creatures.
A wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Picture: NPS for SDBFilms
De Bod is used to looking over her shoulder for predators, but not these species.
Luckily, there is bear spray, which Scott and De Bod had to be tutored in.
“They show you how to use it by saying that you have to wait until the bear is at a full speed run towards you. And of course, you mustn’t move from your spot. Then pull the nozzle of the bear spray can back and point it, not at the bear, but a few feet in front of you on the ground, where the bear’s feet will be in a few nanoseconds!
“The idea I guess is that the spray will hit the ground and then up into the bear’s face. Not something to be taken lightly, bear spray,” Scott cautioned.
A bear in Yellowstone National Park. Picture: VisionHawk for SDBFilms
One of De Bod’s less pleasant duties while filming was to keep an eye out for predators, while Scott filmed time-lapse shots.
But despite the snow, hot geysers and the thin layer of earth protecting them from plunging into the super volcano below, Scott said in terms of filming, the Black Forest was her biggest challenge.
“The challenge was in bringing the first to life. Filming shot after shot of a tree was not going to cut it for the story of the Black Forest, no matter how beautifully we filmed the landscapes or the leaves or the branches.”
An ant in the Black Forest. Picture: SDBFilms
Luckily, drone technology while collaborating with local photographers was used to pan the forest from a different angle, which Scott said did the trick.
An owl in the Black Forest National Park. Picture: SDBFilms
De Bod and the cold are not friends.
With poor circulation in her phalanges already, she struggled to keep warm. Despite layering in winter clothing bought in Lapland, the cold crept in.
“We got off the Arctic Express train which drops you off in the middle of nowhere, and created straight into a thick icy platform. Immediately I felt a strange sensation in my nose and realised it was my nose hairs freezing up!”
An arctic fox. Picture: SDBFilms
Both she and Scott are used to filming in the unforgiving heat of the Kruger Park. But Scott’s equipment was not always keen to play along.
She said that despite the best gloves and hand warmers, she was battling to get her fingers to work on the camera lens. And the extreme cold made it hard for her to focus properly.
They were fortunate enough to witness several nights of dancing lights of the aurora borealis, but said it was “incredibly hard” to film.
“The Arctic Circle isn’t for sissies, hey! It was minus 17 degrees the one night.”
The Arctic Circle moon over the boreal forest. Picture: Supplied
South Africa’s intricately balanced and diverse ecosystems are under constant threat, thanks to poaching and international wildlife crime syndicates.
De Bod said poaching of animals did not seem to be a problem in any parks they visited, a sad fact when one thinks of visits to the Kruger, where there is always a chance of coming across a dead rhino, a snared wild dog or an elephant missing half its trunk.
“It’s just not something that seems to even be thought about in Yellowstone, in particular with these iconic predators and massive bison which reminded me so of our rhinos.
“You can feel the oldness, the greatness in them.”
Bison roaming along the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park. Picture: Susan Scott
For Scott, this is a travesty of justice. She postulated a world where bison were poached like rhinos, and came to the conclusion that the US government would not stand for it.
“It’s been a decade of this war with our rhinos and the slaughter is endless.
“When you’re in Kruger, and you hear that helicopter going, you know it involves poaching… There’s not a whiff of it in Yellowstone or the Black Forest or in the Arctic.”
But they are thankful that those doing what they can do save what little rhino populations South Africa has left. “If it wasn’t for them, we would’ve lost our wild rhinos like so many other countries have.”
De Bod and Scott are not used to being home, but this year they had no choice. As lockdown hit, De Bod recalled how strange it felt to be living in her home for months on end.
She has become an avid bird watcher, and has found joy in watching nature thrive, even if it is in suburbia.
De Bod birdwatching in her garden during lockdown. Picture: Susan Scott
“We all know nature thrives wherever it is, but to see it so openly displayed in somewhere as random as my garden has been my lockdown lesson!”
The same goes for Scott, who makes time to lie in the grass every evening, even though her home is small and surrounded by noisy roads.
But the nature is still there, she said while describing swallows swooping to catch flying ants, weaver birds gathering food before the sun sets, and as the skies turn indigo, bats silently glide across the sky.
“It’s been really amazing to find nature wherever we are.”
If we are to continue being custodians of our planet, Scott warned that humans need serious vision readjustment.
“We need to step up to the plate in a big way and re-assume that command of the planet. Really focus on the long-term outlook – long term as in looking thousands of years ahead for life to continue on earth.”
Trailer KINGDOMS OF FIRE, ICE & FAIRY TALES from Scott & de Bod Films on Vimeo.
You can enjoy the full-length documentary by watching it on Showmax.
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