Our Film Makers
Over the past decade, a burgeoning class of East African Wildlife Filmmakers has emerged. Pridelands Wildlife Film Fest celebrates some of these remarkable early to mid-career wildlife filmmakers.
Alex Gray
Main Director
Eve Longsteen
Main Writer
Esteban Riccasso
Main Producer
Joseph K. Wolfe
Main Director
Umberto Pagoda
Main Writer
Talian Neki
Main Producer
Anthony Ochieng Onyango
Anthony is a Wildlife Ecologist, Conservation Photographer and Emerging Filmmaker. He is the founder of TonyWild, a platform promoting conservation through awareness creation on wildlife conservation through photography, film and science.
Anthony is currently working on a short film titled Forest Guardian supported by Nature Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF). He has also produced short films for Earth Optimism Nairobi and Kenya Wildlife Service supported by Canon.
He has also worked with Chimpanzee Trust-Uganda, Just Digit, Earth Optimism Nairobi-Tropical Biology Association of Africa, and Action for Cheetahs Kenya, Grevy Zebra Trust, The Pangolin Project, and Adventure for Rhinos and currently supports the Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRAA).
He is a Jackson Wild Media Fellow, Emerging Filmmaker Scholar, WWF Education for Nature Grantee and a WWF Africa Youth Award Nominee 2018, Top 100 Youth in Conservation 2021 and NAAEE 30UNDER30. His images have been featured in Climate Tracker, Global landscape Forum. He is a bronze winner of the Safal Eye in the wild 2019 and a finalist in the Earth Photo 2021, British High Commission Nairobi Climate Changemakers photography competition. Global Landscape Forum –Kyoto and Accra, Heart of Kenya - a Nikon Kenya Competition, and Picfair Celebrating Africa: City life category.
Erica Rugabandana
Erica fell in love with conservation filmmaking while pursuing her undergraduate in Wildlife Management. On graduation, she ran a Filmmaking department in a natural resource organisation for close to a decade.
In 2019, the VII Foundation and Saint Thomas Production Women’s Film Festival in Perpignan-France revolutionalised her perspective of audio-visual conservation storytelling.
Erica’s worked with Plimsol Productions to produce wildlife documentaries in Tanzania. When she’s not in the wide-open spaces with wildlife she edits Mkulima Mbunifu; an organic agricultural magazine published in Tanzania. She is constantly driven to educate, advocate and document sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation.
Felixie Kipng’etich
Felixie is a short documentary filmmaker, nature photographer and conservationist. When he’s not travelling across East Africa, he is at home in Nakuru, Kenya, with his dog, Gus.
He is eager to understand the needs of the people of Africa and her environment and play his role in resolving some of those needs through community outreach, wildlife management and environmental education through visual storytelling.
Faith Musembi
Faith Musembi is a storyteller with a deep affection for motion pictures, the natural world and her continent of Africa. She is drawn to telling narratives that showcase the beauty of Africa’s natural resources while highlighting the complex, but pertinent issues regarding their sustainable conservation.
As a Shooting Producer/Director, Faith has crafted films in Kenya including Underwater Treasures and Salt Water Survivors for the award-winning Giving Nature A Voice series. Faith has also worked as a live TV Broadcast Director for Wild Earth in the Maasai Mara and at Djuma Private Game Reserve in the Greater Kruger National Park.
Living in the wild affirmed her commitment and passion for telling stories about the natural world in Africa, and including local communities as experts in their narratives. Faith can currently be found in one of Kenya’s wilderness areas working out sequences for an upcoming exciting natural history series.
