Melbourne, Australia – Looking Glass International, the distribution company specialising in factual programming, will be offering exclusive filming access with a new HD series Lionheart (6 x 60’) to buyers at this year’s MIPCOM 2014.

Filmed and produced by Tauana Films, Botswana in HD Lionheart is a docuventure series about the evolving and unique friendship between Val Gruener and Sirga, a young lioness who was born in captivity and abandoned as a cub. The series focuses on their extraordinary mutual dependency as they explore a 10,000-hectare game farm together through the changing Kalahari seasons.

Lionheart

This highly entertaining and action-packed series shows the first ever visuals and once in a lifetime film sequences of Sigra and Val Gruener hunting in the wild together, sharing a kill without aggression and a lion eating from a man’s hands after a kill. Lionheart tracks their unfolding story in the majestic Kalahari wilderness and gives an understanding of the brutal centuries-old conflict between lions and farmers in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana where diminishing wild herds and droughts have locked lions and cattle farmers in a deadly conflict, causing hundreds of lions to be shot or poisoned every year.

The lion cub, dehydrated and abandoned, was not supposed to live. The young man, barefoot, broke and far from home, was not supposed to realise his dream.

Chance brought them together to form an extraordinary bond, which transcends all known boundaries between man and lion, predator and prey.

Jurgen Joezfowicz, Director, Camerman and Editor at Tauana Films, commented, “Having exclusive access to record the incredible friendship and bond between a man and a lion has been an amazing journey of discovery for me, not only as a cameraman, but also as a person and has given me unprecedented insight into and appreciation of the mind and the heart of a lion. My only regret is that despite being so close and being fully accepted, I have to refrain from touching or interacting with her.”

Lionheart

Nha-Uyen Chau, Director Distribution and Co-Production at Looking Glass International (LGI) added, “To say that LGI is thrilled to be representing Lionheart is an understatement. The incredible access and trust that Jurgen was able to earn from the protagonists is a testament to his incredible talents as a filmmaker. What has transpired is a prodigious series about a never before seen relationship between man and lion. With the stunning back drop of the Kalahari and its seasonal changes, Lionheart won’t disappoint broadcasters looking for bluechip wildlife programming.”