Joan Root
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joan Root (died on January 13, 2006, Lake Naivasha, Kenya) was a Kenyan-born (to British parents) conservationist, ecological activist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker. [1]
With her film-maker husband, Alan Root (b. May 19, 1937, London), she made a series of acclaimed wildlife films. The Roots divorced in 1981 and Alan Root settled in Nairobi after the divorce was finalized.
Contents |
[edit] Joan Root's life and death
Decades before wildlife films such as March of the Penguins, Joan and Alan Root pioneered filming animal migrations without interference from human actors. Their movies were narrated by such top stars as Orson Welles, David Niven, James Mason and Ian Holm. Their 1979 documentary Castles of Clay, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. The Roots introduced Dian Fossey to the gorillas she would later die trying to save, took Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis over Kenya in their balloon, and covered much of Africa in their famous single-engine Cessna, their amphibious car, and their balloon, at one time equipped with a raft for water landings.[2]
Following the Roots' divorce, she received the Lake Naivasha farm, along with their airplane and a cash settlement for the films they had made together.
In the last years of her life, like many other white or European landowners, she was subjected to harassment and threats. On one occasion someone threw a brick through her living-room window and stole her cell phone, but she escaped out the back door. The previous year she had been carjacked and had received threatening text messages on her cell phone, but she refused to leave. After a burglary in September 2005, four months before her murder, Joan Root had steel doors installed on each side of her bedroom, which already had bars on the windows. Still, she wouldn't leave ... even when an informant allegedly leaked news that a gang was going to "do" her (kill her) soon.[3]
There were many suspects -- disgruntled former employees, criminal gangs, organized crime rackets, poachers, those whose economic interests were threatened by her activism and even Task Force members -- in her January 13, 2006 murder, but it is considered extremely unlikely that her murder will ever be solved.[citation needed]
[edit] Last Will and Testament
Joan Root had directed in her last will and testament that her land be turned into an admission-free and unfettered wildlife preserve.
[edit] Filmography
- Mizma: Portrait of a Spring (1972)
- Baobab: Portrait of a Tree (1973)
- Balloon Safari Over Kilimanjaro (1975)
- Year of the Wildebeest (1976)
- Mysterious Castles of Clay (1978)
- Lights, Camera, Africa (1980)
