Champion filmmaker retraces her footsteps through the Roodepoort soil
“Never give up, never ever because you know your dream. It doesn’t always take the straightest path but you get there eventually”
Film and cinema has the potential to transport the viewer along a winding trail of thought and introspection. Every film has a piece of their creator within it, so who better to tell a story than someone who has hiked the road less travelled in search of adventure.
Renowned nature documentarian, Susan Scott, has traipsed the wide open plains and rocky ridges of our planet yet still chooses to call Roodepoort home. Matriculating at West Ridge High School after leaving Princess Primary via Mashaba Primary in Zimbabwe, Susan embraces her deep African roots through her love of wildlife displayed in high definition.
An unconventional path filled with serendipitous moments would take the future award winning filmmaker on an unrepeatable journey. Admittedly not an academic, what Susan initially lacked in book-smarts she made up for with her love of sports. After finishing matric, she focused her attention on earning a golf scholarship to the United States.
While working at a driving range, Susan was introduced to a golf coach from a famed Texan academic institution, Baylor University. “I am so grateful for that introduction because it changed the course of my life,” recounted Susan, who through the prestigious University’s sport and academic programme would be given the tools to realize her full potential and become who she was born to be.
Her childhood dream of being a wildlife veterinarian was becoming interwoven with a seed planted by her Standard 8 English teacher, Mrs Visser. “I remember being very struck with the idea that film could be analyzed and even used as a workpiece in English class. I thought that was so cool! At Baylor, I changed my degree from biology to a film communications degree which was one of the best things I ever did. I loved every minute of it!” said Susan.
She now has over 50 total credits in her expansive filmography with the crown jewel being ‘Stroop: Journey into the Rhino Horn War’. The multiple award winning and internationally acclaimed work of conservational art took Susan and her wildlife partner in crime, Bonné Du Bod, into the depths of poaching hell, including undercover work in Asia. “That was something I was super uncomfortable with. We could’ve been hurt by the wildlife traffickers, jailed by the police or deported by customs. I hate to think what would’ve happened if we had been caught,” she recollected.
That fearlessness and determination has been a hallmark of Susan’s work and she hopes young South Africans can realise they too have stories to tell. “There is this feeling that we are not good enough for the global arena and we need to break away from that somehow” she muses. “Never give up, never ever because you know your dream. It doesn’t always take the straightest path but you get there eventually,” she encouraged.
The latest offering from Susan and Bonné is Kingdoms of Fire, Ice and Fairytales, which aired on kykNET on 14 January and is an enchanting look at the world’s most mythical natural environments. With their status firmly secured as one of the country’s premiere documentarians, Susan sums it all up, saying, “There’s not much left on the list to be honest. Anything extra from here is just a bonus”.
