Poaching Film Set for Global Release

The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) will invest $25 million over the next four years to support efforts by African governments and local communities to protect wildlife and wild lands on the continent.

Sides of a Horn, an award-winning film that has sparked conversation about Africa’s poaching crisis, will be released worldwide on June 25, 2019. Movie lovers across the world will now have an opportunity to watch the short dramatic movie which this year won, among others, the audience choice award at the Sedona International Film Festival and the jury prize at the Manchester International Film Festival.

The short film, written and directed by Toby Wosskow, from executive producer Sir Richard Branson, was an international co-production between US companies Broad River Productions, Whirlow Park Pictures, and Frame 48, alongside South Africa’s The Televisionaries and YKMD Productions.

"The poaching crisis is a complex issue and the conversation around it must go beyond simple right and wrong. By painting an unbiased portrait of this modern war and exposing both sides of the struggle, it is my hope that Sides of a Horn will be a catalyst that inspires a greater discussion that can lead to positive change,” said Toby Wosskow, who is also a council member at the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF).

The movie was filmed in South African townships and is predominantly in Zulu with English subtitles. With a 17-minute run-time, it explores the illegal rhino horn trade, specifically looking at how community and family dynamics are disrupted when two brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the poaching crisis.

AWF will debut the film at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare on June 27, 2019 to an audience comprising students, government officials, as well as local and international press. In Nairobi, it will be aired on July 3, 2019 at AWF headquarters in collaboration with the Africa Biodiversity Collaboration Group which brings together seven international conservation organizations working in Africa and beyond.

“Sides of a Horn is enlightening. It explores the real issues behind illegal wildlife trade and makes it abundantly clear that we need to put that much more effort towards protecting this iconic species, and ensure that local communities can fully benefit from their wildlife and wild lands,” said AWF CEO Kaddu Sebunya.

AWF has invested heavily in rhino conservation across the continent. Some of the projects that AWF has supported include rhino sanctuaries in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. In March last year, the last remaining northern white rhino in the world died, leaving the sub-species facing extinction. Other sub-species are more numerous but are also threatened. By the latest count, only 5,050 black rhinos exist in the wild today, down from a population of 65,000 in 1964. These numbers continue to decline every year.