09/07/2025
Mashatu Game Reserve has joined forces with a delegation from Bristol to support the conservation charity "Wildscreen" and its first ever festival in Botswana.
Held in Maun from June 12th-13th, the Wildscreen Festival Botswana provided a powerful platform to spotlight the country’s extraordinary natural heritage and the rising talent of its creative industry.
Mashatu, principal partner of Bristol Bears last season, is majority owned by the Lansdown Family. Long-standing philanthropists and conservationists, Steve and Maggie Lansdown have played a central role in the development of Mashatu as a leader in sustainable tourism and were delighted to support the Wildscreen event in Maun last month.
Building on the success of Wildscreen Festival Tanzania in 2024 and Wildscreen Festival Nairobi in 2023, the Wildscreen Festival was taken to Maun, Botswana in June in conjunction with BBC Studios Natural History Unit, Botswana Ignite and Mashatu Game Reserve. The event culminated in the African premiere of “Mashatu: Land of Leopards”, a landmark documentary filmed entirely at Mashatu over a three-year period.
The festival’s final session featured an address by Stephen Lansdown CBE, in which the Bristol Sport Group owner underlined the importance of investing in initiatives that deliver tangible, long-term value for both communities and the environment. “Maggie and I have been delighted to help bring this festival to Botswana. The work that Wildscreen does in connecting people with nature through storytelling is critical to promoting conservation and how meaningful partnerships and impactful films and imagery can spark change.”
“It’s been great to see “Mashatu: Land of Leopards” showcased here. A multi-year project which captures the rare and intimate leopard behaviour in our reserve’s breathtaking backdrop. For us, supporting this first Botswana edition of Wildscreen, is about being a catalyst for visibility, opportunity and global recognition of Botswana’s homegrown storytellers and the wild spaces that they represent. The festival is a statement that Botswana has a voice, a vision and a rightful seat at the global table when it comes to conservation storytelling.”
The film, which was directed by Julien Naar, with Wim and Mags Vorster of Wild Web Africa as cinematographers and field producers, and produced by ZED for France Télévisions, National Geographic & RTS – has been met with wide acclaim and proved a fitting finale to the two-day Wildscreen programme.
Wildscreen CEO Lucie Muir said: “Wildscreen Botswana would not have been possible without the generous support of Mashatu Game Reserve. Wildscreen and the talented community of natural world storytellers we support are so grateful to Steve and Maggie for having the long-term vision to nurture an equitable wildlife film industry both in Botswana and across the African continent. The ripples of what we all created together will be felt for years to come both in the storytellers who came and the stories they tell.
“By creating spaces where nature access is more democratised and diverse, more people will feel connected to the natural world and be empowered to help protect and restore it. Botswana was chosen as the location for this year’s event because though it has a relatively small production community, it punches well above its weight internationally, and is recognised not only for its breathtaking wildlife and landscapes but its quality of storytelling. It is also the potential long-term legacy of convening the industry in Botswana that is significant, with the Botswana Government, through Botswana Ignite, investing in education, training and infrastructure to build a flourishing creative economy operating at an international level, in a fair and equitable way.”
Mashatu forms part of a broader portfolio of Lansdown Family interests across Africa, Guernsey (where the Lansdowns reside), and the UK, including the Bristol Sport Group and a redevelopment project on Guernsey’s west coast. Across these regions, their focus remains the same: combining business and philanthropy as a force for good.
The Wildscreen Festival brought together both international and regional leaders in natural world storytelling, with representation from BBC Studios Natural History Unit, National Geographic, Earth Touch, Botswana Television, and the Natural History Film Unit Botswana.
