Blood Lions follows acclaimed environmental journalist and safari operator Ian Michler, and Rick Swazey, an American hunter, on their journey to uncover the realities about predator breeding and canned lion hunting. Lions bred for slaughter in South Africa is big business. Over 1000 captive-bred, hand-reared lions were killed in the country last year, fueling a multimillion-dollar international industry. Michler investigates the breeding farms where lions are hand-reared to be sold to the hunting industry, and to the lion bone trade in Asia. It is a story that blows the lid off all the conservation claims made by the breeders and hunters in attempting to justify what they do.

Directors: Bruce Young, Nick Chevallier

Country: South Africa

Year: 2015

Duration: 84min

Language: English

Subtitles: Spanish

 

Bruce Young

Blood Lions is Bruce’s directorial debut. Drawn by the plight of the lions and our relationship with wild animals, this is the perfect project for Bruce to bring his storytelling skills to the fore. Prior to this, Bruce spent 10 years working as an actor in South Africa and the USA, appearing in Lethal Weapon 2 opposite Mel Gibson. Bruce has written scripts for a broad range of film genres and styles including feature films, television dramas, sitcoms and natural history documentaries. Highlights include head-writing on MNet’s League of Glory, writing the script for the ROSCAR award-winning Kalahari Tails and being a member of the team that won a SAFTA writing award for the series Sokhulu & Partners.

Nick Chevallier

Based out of Cape Town, South Africa with a deep love for the natural world, Nick is a Director/Cameraman with some 30 years experience in filming socio-environmental documentaries around Africa. He focuses on stories relating to wildlife, research, conservation education and community-based projects throughout Africa, working with local and international TV production companies and a variety of charities/NGOs.