For decades, the stories of African wildlife have often been told through voices that weren’t our own. Documentaries about our landscapes, species, and people were narrated from outside perspectives, scientifically accurate, yes, but often missing the voice of the land. That’s beginning to change. A new generation of African storytellers is stepping into the frame, giving voice to the wildlife that has lived alongside our ancestors for millennia.
If you haven’t yet watched Big Mind Little Mind, a short film by Cameroonian filmmaker Ashunganya N. N. Precious, you’re missing a beautiful experience. The film is a thoughtful, sensory dive into nature’s complexity, and for me, it stirred memories of the Field Navigation Lab facilitated by the Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) and led by Massimo Rebuzzi (Africa Bush Company) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Each frame in Big Mind Little Mind mirrors the interconnectedness of life, the birds nesting, the insects at our feet level, and the whispered presence of large animals. It’s a visual reminder that ecosystems are intricate networks, where every organism, no matter how small, plays a vital role. Watching it, I could see how the lessons from the lab on ethology (animal behaviour), ecology, and field awareness came alive on screen.
One of the film’s most powerful messages is simple yet profound: storytelling is a form of seeing. As African filmmakers, when we broaden our lens to include not just the large, charismatic megafauna, elephants, lions, rhinos, but also the overlooked and underappreciated species like ants and beetles, we begin to tell richer, more inclusive stories. These stories aren’t just about biodiversity; they’re about identity, memory, and understanding the full picture of life on this continent.
What was a reminder for me is the need to integrate traditional ecological knowledge into our work as filmmakers and storytellers. For generations, African communities have passed down stories about animals, landscapes, and weather through oral tradition. These stories carry embedded ecological truths; lessons about migration patterns, animal behaviour, and seasonal cycles, that have helped communities thrive and coexist with nature.
Sometimes, we fear that weaving in science will make our stories feel too academic, too removed. Precious, who has a background in fiction filmmaking, is keenly aware of this. In Big Mind Little Mind, she strikes a balance, applying her new knowledge of science while steering clear of a lecture format. Her goal is relatability, not just accuracy. And it has worked. The film feels like a conversation rather than an explanation, a story rather than a script.
What’s even more inspiring is that Precious didn’t come from a natural history background. She, however, grew up watching wildlife documentaries on National Geographic, which sparked her early fascination with nature. Yet her storytelling instincts come from fiction. She’s drawn to complexity, developing who the characters are as deeply as possible. The challenge, of course, is that in natural history
filmmaking, the “characters” are animals. How do you build an emotional arc when your protagonists don’t speak? When their behaviour is dictated not by a script but by instinct and environment?
In the first part of the two-part series, she focuses on small animals, animals that are often ignored or considered insignificant. In her words: “Big is relative to small. And in a lot of ways, the small are the building blocks of our world.” It’s a powerful reorientation. By shifting our gaze downward, we’re reminded that the foundation of ecosystems lies in the invisible and the minute.
Her perspective changed significantly during the Field Navigation Lab with NEWF. It was here she began to see patterns, how dung beetles use dung to grow their population and how they help recycle nutrients, how birds act as environmental indicators, how every animal and plant contributes to ecological balance. She filmed extensively during this experience, gathering footage that would later become the foundation for Big Mind Little Mind.
The film is not just a creative output; it’s a learning process. It’s her stepping stone toward a future in natural history filmmaking. In Cameroon, natural history media is still a niche genre, rarely explored, and even more rarely led by local filmmakers. But Precious believes that this can change. And it must. When stories are told by those who live them, they carry a different kind of truth, a deeper connection, a firmer root.
At its heart, Big Mind Little Mind is a short film Precious made for herself. She wanted to create something she would enjoy watching. In doing so, she’s also created something we all need to see, a reminder that storytelling, especially about nature, is most powerful when it comes from within and when we are not afraid to experiment and just do it.
