In a powerful collaboration between filmmakers, conservationists and rangers, a new film from Umdloti-based Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) has brought KZN’s rhino conservation story to a global audience.
NEWF’s short film, Wild Hope: Rhino Ops, shines a light on the courageous team at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park – Africa’s oldest proclaimed game reserve – and their extraordinary efforts to protect one of the continent’s most iconic species.
Produced in partnership with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, the film offers a raw and hopeful look at the people behind one of Africa’s largest rhino horn protection operation to date.
A story of hope
For NEWF co-founder and the film’s executive producer Noel Kok, this story represents far more than just a film. It’s a continuation of a legacy that began over a century ago. “Hluhluwe–Imfolozi was established after a colonial hunter was believed to have shot the last remaining southern white rhino in the 1800s,” he explains. “People were so outraged that they convinced the Natal governor to declare the area a reserve in the hope that some rhinos had survived. That was the beginning of Africa’s first proclaimed game reserve.”
Decades later, in the 1950s and 60s, the late Dr Ian Player and local ranger Magqubu Ntombela led Operation Rhino, a pioneering conservation effort that helped repopulate parks across Africa – including Kruger National Park – with rhinos from Hluhluwe–Imfolozi. “Every single southern white rhino alive today can trace its lineage back to that park,” says Noel. “It’s one of Africa’s greatest conservation success stories.”
Facing a new battle
But by 2008, rhino poaching had returned with devastating force. As poachers targeted softer, less-protected reserves, Hluhluwe–Imfolozi once again found itself on the frontline. “Ezemvelo’s Game Capture Unit made the heart-wrenching decision to dehorn their entire rhino population – an act of protection rather than defeat,” says Noel. “It’s was a painful decision, but key to the rhinos’ survival.”
The film’s central figure, Dumisani Zwane of Ezemvelo’s game capture field operations, leads the operation with determination – a man who, as a young boy, dreamed of working in game capture. His story, Noel explains, embodies the human heart of conservation. “Dumi represents the communities that live around these reserves. They are our last line of defence. When local people see someone like him leading such a massive operation, they realise – this is our heritage, our responsibility.”
Shifting the lens
That sense of ownership and pride lies at the core of NEWF’s mission. Since 2017, the organisation has grown into a powerful network of over 350 African conservationists and filmmakers across 35 countries. Through labs, workshops and mentorship, NEWF equips young storytellers – many of them women – to share science and conservation stories through an African lens.
“For so long, our continent’s conservation stories were told by outsiders,” Noel says. “We were cast as poachers, rangers, or the people who sing for tourists. But we are so much more than that – we’re scientists, filmmakers, divers and storytellers. We are redefining what it means to be protectors of nature.”
Stories of optimism
Wild Hope: Rhino Ops is part of the award-winning Wild Hope series, inspired by Cambridge professor Andrew Balmford’s book, which focuses on stories of optimism in conservation. “So often, conservation is portrayed through doom and gloom,” Noel says. “But hopelessness doesn’t inspire action. When people see stories of courage and collaboration, they believe that change is possible – and that’s where hope begins.”
That spirit of hope runs through all NEWF’s work – from its Storytelling Research and Dive Centre in Sodwana Bay, the training site for the largest ocean access programme for African scientists, conservationists and storytellers, to their upcoming feature film Indoni Yamanzi (Black Beauty of the Ocean), which tells the inspiring true story of the first black woman to dive in Sodwana Bay.
“It’s about representation, empowerment and reconnecting people with nature,” says Noel. “Every project we do – whether it’s about rhinos, oceans or communities – reminds us that conservation isn’t someone else’s story. It’s ours.”
Details: Wild Hope: Rhino Ops is streaming now on PBS Nature’s YouTube Channel and Wild Hope TV. www.newf.co.za; IG: @newfcommunity; FB: NEWFcommUNITY
Photographs: HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
