Why Lionesses Are The Heart Of National Geographic’s ‘LION,’ According To Filmmaker Faith Musembi

Faith Musembi. (National Geographic/Rachael Kinley)

National Geographic for Disney/Rachael Kinley

National Geographic’s newest four-part documentary follows 1 lion cub’s travel to becoming king—but beneath Kio’s emergence is simply a communicative astir the women who make survival, activity and bequest possible.

For generations, stories astir lions person centered connected the antheral lions. We cognize the imagery: the magnificent mane, the commanding roar, the territorial battles and the powerful antheral astatine the halfway of the pride. Even wrong The Lion King universe, the communicative has mostly centered connected the antheral lion's travel and his eventual emergence to leadership.

National Geographic’s caller four-part documentary LION offers a strikingly different perspective. From The Lion King head Jon Favreau and BBC Studios executive shaper Mike Gunton, the bid follows Kio, a lion cub filmed complete 4 years arsenic he grows from a susceptible young cub into a powerful leader. Along the way, he faces loss, exile, fierce rivals and the challenges of uncovering his spot wrong the pride.

But while Kio’s travel is astatine the halfway of LION, 1 of the astir compelling stories happening astir him belongs to the lionesses. As the centerpiece and grounding unit of the series, the lionesses do the following: hunt, nurture, protect, make difficult decisions, and activity collectively. And successful galore ways, they create the conditions that let the adjacent procreation to survive.

That position instantly caught my attention—and it feels peculiarly resonant amid ongoing conversations astir invisible labor, organization leadership, and generational caregiving among women, peculiarly Black women.

To research that connection, I said pinch Faith Musembi, a Kenyan shaper and head and 1 of the filmmakers down LION. Musembi’s activity includes Queens, Incredible Animal Journeys and Chasing the Rains. She is besides the laminitis of the Nuru Film Institute, a Maasai Mara-based training hub dedicated to cultivating the adjacent procreation of African wildlife storytellers. I asked Musembi really she perceived the lionesses while filming connected the crushed and what she discovered astir their power that mightiness astonishment viewers.

“I cognize you're not expected to person favorites, but the lionesses were my favorite,” Musembi said. “It's difficult to beryllium successful the section and not autumn successful emotion pinch them.”

Although LION is yet Kio’s story, Musembi believes his mother, Summer, could person easy carried the full four-part bid herself.

“She is easy the astir singular lioness we've ever filmed,” she said. Summer’s effect connected the pridefulness is enormous. According to Musembi, she is responsible for much than half of the lions viewers spot passim LION. Her power is not measured simply by beingness spot aliases dominance, but by the lives she helps sustain.

That becomes peculiarly evident arsenic Kio grows older. By the 3rd episode, Kio and his brothers person begun to look for illustration adults. Their manes are coming in, and from a distance, they look tin of taking attraction of themselves. But they are still young—and they still request their mother.

Summer recognizes what her boy needs and makes a consequential decision. She leaves her group truthful Kio tin beryllium astir older males and person a amended chance of uncovering his spot among them. And she doesn’t simply nonstop him connected his way; she hunts for them. Seven young antheral lions require food, and 1 lioness takes connected the work of providing it. “You look astatine the large boys, and you deliberation they could look aft themselves, but they couldn't,” Musembi explained. “They needed mom to do it.”

For Musembi, that determination represents a different benignant of strength—one that isn’t ever instantly visible. “She needs to make this determination and time off her group, and it's rather a—it's a immense sacrifice,” she said. “And arsenic women, we do that each the time. If you person children aliases group you're looking after, you hide what you request because you want to look aft everyone else.”

That study is 1 of the astir powerful ideas moving done LION: the favoritism betwixt beingness spot and affectional strength. Wildlife documentaries often springiness america a very circumstantial image of power. Strength is visible. It is loud. It shows up successful a conflict aliases a show of dominance.

But Summer’s spot looks different. “I deliberation that takes an soul spot that a batch of women tin link to,” Musembi said. “That’s a spot to locomotion distant from what you know.”

Summer chooses to time off down what is familiar—her sisters, her daughters and the pridefulness she knows—to springiness her boy a amended chance astatine survival.

“We can't opportunity we cognize precisely what's going connected successful Summer's mind, but we spot the determination she makes,” Musembi said. “To attraction each your power connected your offspring and go, everything I'm going to do is going to beryllium for this guy, and I'm going to locomotion distant from my sisters, my daughters, and everyone other conscionable to make judge that this small feline has a fighting chance astatine life.”

“That’s a spot that transcends the physicality of stuff,” she added.

When Women Move successful Formation

Her erstwhile activity besides informs Musembi’s position connected the lionesses connected QUEENS, different National Geographic and Disney+ bid focused connected female-led animal societies.

“That's conscionable thing that gets my bosom beating,” she said. “I'm focusing connected the female story, the female gaze, and that's thing I brought pinch maine connected LION and pinch the lionesses successful particular.” One of the things that struck her astir about the lionesses was really they run collectively.

“They do everything together,” Musembi said. “They'll beryllium chilling, sleeping, and past abruptly each of them will get up together.” Sometimes, that intends preparing to hunt. Musembi compared the infinitesimal to Beyoncé’s “Formation.” “Every clip it happens, I committedness you, I perceive Beyoncé's ‘Formation’ successful my head,” she said. “Because it's for illustration they'll guidelines up because they've seen a buffalo, and it's like, okay, ladies, let's now get successful formation.”

The image is funny, but the meaning down it is serious. The lionesses dispersed out, coordinate their movements, and go wholly focused connected the task successful beforehand of them.

For Musembi, that corporate behaviour besides reminded her of the women who person supported her passim her ain life. “That conscionable ever makes maine deliberation of moreover the women successful my life that clasp maine up,” she said. “I've been blessed to person women that are conscionable really coagulated successful my life to punctual maine what I'm astir and what my goals are about.”

That relationship became particularly individual erstwhile she thought astir her mother. Musembi grew up successful Kenya successful a family that did not person overmuch financially. She remembers her mother stepping her and her older sister to school—and, erstwhile the roads became peculiarly muddy, carrying them. “She would transportation america connected her back,” Musembi recalled. “She would make my older sister hold and past return her connected her back, transverse a peculiarly muddy spot, and past spell back, get my sister connected her back.”

Watching the lionesses make sacrifices for their young brought those memories rushing back. “Working and seeing these female lionesses, these lionesses do what they do, I deliberation astir things for illustration that,” she said. “Those are the connecting points.”

The relationship is not simply astir motherhood. It is astir recognizing the women whose labour tin go truthful regular to everyone astir them that it disappears from view.

Rethinking What Strength Looks Like

That thought besides challenged really we deliberation astir spot successful the animal kingdom. When Musembi visited the Maasai Mara, 1 of the first things she noticed while watching lions was really overmuch visible activity seemed to autumn to the females. The lionesses hunted, moved together, and cared for the pride, while the antheral lions commanded overmuch of the ocular attention. “A lot's made of the large males,” she said. “And erstwhile you're retired successful the field, you do inquire that. Like, wherever are the large males?”

She explained that the lionesses are the ones who “run the show.” “They hunt. They do everything,” Musembi said.

That reality makes LION particularly absorbing because the bid doesn't show spot only done evident displays of beingness dominance. The antheral lions’ lives are often defined by confrontation. They conflict to declare territory and prides, and their beingness spot is basal to their survival. But the lionesses show different shape of power. “The antheral lions, they ever person to show and fight,” Musembi said. “Their beingness is based connected fighting because they person to conflict to declare territory, to declare pride. So everything is simply a fight.”

For the lionesses, spot tin mean thing quieter, for illustration choosing to time off thing down that’s familiar, and making a endurance determination rooted successful sacrifice pinch nary fear.

That favoritism feels particularly meaningful erstwhile reasoning astir the generations of women who person carried families and communities guardant done forms of labour that aren't ever recognized arsenic activity because activity doesn't ever look for illustration being astatine the halfway of the room.

Reclaiming the Wildlife Story

Musembi’s profession reflects different benignant of transformation: changing who gets to show Africa’s wildlife stories. She initially envisioned herself becoming a Hollywood director. She spent clip successful Los Angeles and loved the city, but yet realized that pursuing that way would require years of navigating the manufacture earlier she could nutrient aliases nonstop the projects she envisioned.

So she returned to Kenya.

What she calls a “happy accident” yet changed her profession trajectory. At the time, an world wildlife accumulation institution was specifically looking for Kenyan filmmakers. Musembi had ever loved wildlife and filmmaking, but she had ne'er considered really people the 2 could intersect.

The occupation explanation mentioned that the successful campaigner would beryllium surviving successful the wild. “That was each I had to see,” she said. “I was like, yep, motion maine up. I request to beryllium distant from the city.”

That first opportunity became a turning point. “For the first time, it was a fulfillment dissimilar thing other I'd ever felt successful my work,” she said. “I could move myself out, and conscionable the activity I was doing, the fulfillment was pouring maine backmost in. I wasn't emotion burnt out. I was emotion alive.”

She realized she had recovered the activity she was meant to do. But entering the wildlife filmmaking manufacture arsenic a Kenyan filmmaker besides exposed her to a larger problem.

“It's really uncommon for an African to activity connected wildlife films,” Musembi explained. “It's benignant of crazy because each this wildlife is filmed successful African countries, truthful you wonder, why don't Africans activity successful these productions?”

The answer, she said, is mostly rooted successful the industry's history, which began successful the United Kingdom. That intends galore of the opportunities and master networks stay concentrated there.

For Musembi, advancing her profession yet meant moving to England to entree the broader ecosystem of wildlife filmmaking. Now she wants to make that travel easier for the filmmakers coming aft her.

Following LION, Musembi is moving toward establishing a wildlife movie training schoolhouse successful Kenya. “I consciousness I'm successful a unsocial position,” she said. “I cognize the group that are making this content. I cognize what's needed. So now I'm conscionable going to return each of that and package it into a training.”

Her extremity is to create a pipeline of African talent tin of contributing to world productions while besides creating stories from wrong their ain communities.

“I deliberation we create the champion things if different minds are moving connected stuff,” she said. “So that's my expansive dream.”

Making the Land Part of the Story

That committedness to practice besides shaped Musembi’s attack to filming LION successful the Maasai Mara.

The filmmakers relied heavy connected section guides and experts to way the lions, whose movements could ne'er beryllium predicted from 1 time to the next.

For Musembi, those relationships weren't simply logistical. They became portion of the storytelling.

Because she speaks section languages, she could link pinch group who interact pinch the scenery and wildlife regularly—to perceive their stories, observations, myths, and interpretations of animal behavior.

“I return that, and I weave it into immoderate of the storytelling,” she said. She was besides intentional astir making judge the Indigenous Maasai organization was represented successful the series.

Musembi herself is from the Kamba tribe, while the Maasai Mara is location to the Maasai people. That favoritism mattered to her. “I'm considered an outsider,” she explained. “So I besides felt a individual work to make judge that the Maasai consciousness represented because we're successful their land.”

She continued, “What I consciousness I bring is to make judge that the area successful which I'm filming, the group from that land, the existent Indigenous people, consciousness genuinely represented successful the storytelling.”

The Strength of Feeling

Perhaps the astir unexpected instruction Musembi has taken from her years of wildlife filmmaking is that she doesn't want to suffer her affectional relationship to the work. “I've learned that I'm conscionable ne'er gonna beryllium a documentarian that tin conscionable beryllium unfeeling,” she said.

There was a clip erstwhile she believed being a bully filmmaker meant being capable to detach from what was happening successful beforehand of her; she doesn't anymore. “I've ever thought possibly I'll get to that constituent wherever I tin beryllium successful the difficult moments and beryllium capable conscionable to powerfulness done and conscionable do the thing,” she said. “But I'm not that. I mean, my heart's connected my sleeve.”

Sometimes that intends crying while filming difficult scenes. “And I utilized to deliberation that's a weakness because you want to beryllium hard,” she said.

But she has travel to understand that empathy isn't thing she needs to overcome.“I've learned to clasp that portion of me,” she said. “It is who I am. It's not changing. And I've realized I don't want it to change.”

That whitethorn yet beryllium 1 of the astir meaningful ideas LION offers. The bid is ostensibly astir a young antheral lion's travel toward becoming king. But look much closely, and the communicative becomes thing other entirely: a meditation connected the people—and peculiarly the women—whose invisible activity makes activity possible.

LION is now streaming connected Disney+ and Hulu.