Rwanda Podium -

DAVID MCGOWAN, FILMMAKER TEACHES WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONISTS IN RWANDA AND UGANDA TO MAKE DOCUMENTARIES

Oscar-nominated Chicago filmmaker teaches wildlife conservationists in Rwanda and Uganda to make documentaries. He decided to create a classroom in Africa, where he shares his knowledge and insight with wildlife conservationists in Rwanda and Uganda. The images they’ve captured are wonderful; the gaze of a gorilla, a hidden herd of hippos. But the people behind the cameras are not professionals. By Joe Donlon, Edie Kasten.

Economics

By MANZI

On Sunday 4 January 2026

This article was viewed 8 times

“These are the people on the front lines of wildlife management,” said filmmaker David McGowan. “They’ll see things other people won’t see because they’re there all the time, and it’s only fair—they want to have a voice in the discussion too.”

As much as a voice, McGowen wanted them to have “the eyes,” the camera gear to tell their stories. So in 2022 he decided to go to Rwanda, bringing them the equipment they needed and teach them himself.

“It worked like a charm. The people who took the class were rangers, trackers and guides. They got it right away,” he said.

The idea began in 2007 when McGowan was in Uganda. A veterinarian he was working with told him a story: a silverback gorilla he was watching died, which wasn’t unusual. What happened after that was.

“The body was surrounded by juveniles and females in an unmistakable mourning rite,” McGowan recalled. “He had never seen that. He went to his colleagues, and they had never seen that. He went back to the literature – nothing. He said, ’If I had a camera and knew how to use it, that would have been international news and a boon to science.’”

It took several years, but McGowan bought everything budding filmmakers would need; most of it with his own money.

He headed to Africa, where he taught a month-long course to rangers and guides, the people who drive the wildlife tourism industry but had never documented what they see every day in their backyard.

“I feel like this is working,” he said. “This is exactly what we want to do. We want them to have the tools and the skills to offer their voices about what are the solutions to keeping wildlife wild.”

McGowan’s students have already produced several short documentaries they share online, about everything from wildlife conservation to human, animal and environmental health. And their teacher is never far away; every Monday, McGowan gets on a Zoom call to encourage his students and answer any questions they have.

One of the film projects his students in Rwanda asked to do focused o how locals were learning to create handmade paper from banana plants, a full-circle moment because McGowan was nominated for an Academy Award in 1992 for his documentary on an Indiana couple who create handmade paper.

“I don’t know what to make of it, it’s like serendipity,” McGowan said.

Life, indeed, has a way of opening doors, many of them unexpected, like an opportunity to learn, fulfill dreams, protect and document a way of life for generations to come.

“I’m training people to feel like I do,” said McGowan. “They’re as passionate about conservation as I am. I know I have allies on other continents. I know there’s a cohort who will continue to do what I did with my career.”