Gorilla Doctors

a 52 Media Production

Co-Directors
Michael Boland, Roberto Verdecchia

DOP
Michael Boland

Producer
Bryn Hughes

Editor
Tony Coleman


COMPLETED

2014

In the thick of the jungle of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, an infant mountain gorilla has been caught in a snare. In order to treat it, a team of veterinarians will need to sedate his mother. But if the infant screams too much, the three 400-pound adult males will all attack. Everything must go perfectly, or there's no telling what could happen. 

This pioneering group of vets known as "Gorilla Doctors" is led by Canadian Mike Cranfield. They follow families of gorillas, perform routine check-ups, treat orphaned infants, and sometimes even operate on the jungle bed. It’s both incredibly risky and important work, as only 880 Mountain Gorillas are left in the world – all of them critically endangered. 

Human disease is the number one threat to the gorillas, who happen to live surrounded by the most densely-populated areas in Africa. The great apes are also threatened by poaching. And to make matters even worse, for more than a decade rebel armies in the Democratic Republic of Congo have routinely used the gorillas' mountain home as their base.

Through all this, Mike Cranfield and the Gorilla Doctors insist on their mission to bring the mountain gorilla back from the brink of extinction, one gorilla at a time. It's "extreme conservation", and it seems to be working. But at what price? Does the future of these gorillas depend on radical human intervention? And are these gorillas still truly wild?

Directed by Roberto Verdecchia and Michael Boland, Gorilla Doctors takes you to the spectacular Virunga mountains and the world of the mountain gorilla, putting you right alongside the jungle vets as they weigh the risks of intervening to save these great apes.

Music by DAVID WALL Director of Photography MICHAEL BOLAND
Editor TONY COLEMAN  Written by ROBERTO VERDECCHIA
Executive Producer DAVID YORK
Produced by BRYN HUGHES Co-Directors MICHAEL BOLAND, ROBERTO VERDECCHIA

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