A scene from The Survival of the Fattest, a documentary on succulents created and directed by the award winning filmmaker Neil Curry from Calitzdorp. From left are the plant explorers Buck Hemenway, George Hattingh and Frans Noltee.
Filmmaker Neil Curry.
Photo: Die Hoorn
“THOSE of us with a love of succulent plants have welcomed this beautiful telling of the story of their survival,” says Buck Hemenway, chairman of the Calitzdorp Succulent Society, about The Survival of the Fattest, a new documentary film by Neil Curry, a resident of Calitzdorp.
Curry has for the past 40 years been involved in the filming and production of documentary films, exclusively on wildlife, conservation and environmental issues.
He officially retired in 2003 after he co-produced the award winning film The Elephant, the Emperor and the Butterfly Tree – a film about the relationship between elephants and mopane trees – for BBC Two in the United Kingdom. The Elephant, the Emperor and the Butterfly Tree won seven Best of Festival awards at film festivals around the world, including the Gold Panda at Wildscreen.
The Survival of the Fattest was, according to Curry, simply intended as a celebration of succulent survival.
“It wasn’t funded or sponsored in any way and was made in collaboration with three friends, who are succulent enthusiasts and experts.”
The world premiere of this brand new 35 minute documentary about succulents took place at the recent Calitzdorp Succulent Festival.
The documentary follows three intrepid plant explorers, George Hattingh, Buck Hemenway and Frans Noltee, into the Karoo for a close look at many indigenous plants and to explore how and why these plants survive when other plants cannot.
Curry started filming the documentary in 2017 in Namaqualand after he had earlier spent a week there with friends after his wife had passed away.
“I planned to finish the film at that time, but because of the lack of rain there in 2017, there was no real flower season that year. So I finished shooting the film only in 2018, and then the Calitzdorp Succulent Society suggested we launch the film at their festival in Calitzdorp.”
Why did Curry make the film?
“I suppose filmmaking is in my blood by now. I love its processes and challenges, and I also love nature – which has given me thousands of hours of peace and joy, especially over the last forty years.
“But, nature is now in deep trouble all over the planet, mainly as a result of human activities. That includes Namaqualand and the Little Karoo, which are home to about half the succulent plant species on earth, and have the richest and most interesting diversity of these plants anywhere on the planet. Both areas are under threat from poaching, mining activities, overgrazing and agriculture, 4×4 trails, etcetera!”
Curry said he wanted to make a film that would call attention to some of the amazing strategies that succulents – mostly tiny plants – have come up with to survive in the harsh desert and semi-desert conditions where they occur.
“Hopefully it will encourage people to take a stand to protect them whenever their habitats and existence is threatened.”
• In 2013 Curry finished a 40-minute film called It’s Everybody’s Business at his own expense “and just for the fun” to promote the work of the newly-formed Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve. It also called attention to the importance of looking after the water-catchment areas of the Little Karoo.
“Little did I know then how critical that would become,” he says.
Curry received a Gouritz Biodiversity Award in 2010 in acknowledgement for his contribution to biodiversity conservation.
• The Survival of the Fattest is for sale for R100 at the Calitzdorp Tourism Office as well as the Calitzdorp Museum.