Alan Root is one of the great wildlife pioneers. He has been mauled by a leopard, a silverback gorilla and a hippo, and almost lost his life to a deadly puff-adder. Root’s unmatched experience of East African wildlife and his appetite for risk have made him a world-class naturalist and film-maker. In Ivory, Apes & Peacocks, Alan tells the story of his life’s work, from his arrival in Kenya as a young boy (furious at having to leave behind Britain’s birds) to the making of his game-changing films. Instead of sticking to the Big Five animals, he looked up close at whole ecosystems – baobab trees, termite mounds, natural springs – and involved firsts such as tracking the wildebeest migration from a balloon, then flying it over Kilimanjaro, filming inside a hornbill’s nest and diving with hippos and crocodiles. Along the way we meet Sally the pet hippo and Emily the house-proud chimp, watch as Dian Fossey catches sight of her first mountain gorilla and have sundowners with George and Joy Adamson. And here, too, is Joan Root, Alan’s wife and collaborator for over 30 years, who was brutally murdered in retaliation for her environmental campaigning. With Alan we look at Africa’s wonders through the eyes of a visionary and bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view.

This event is in association with Encounters and Wildscreen.