The documentary Wildcat (available now on Prime Video) shows just how profound a nature film can be, through the story of a British Army veteran who found solace with an orphaned baby ocelot in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest.
In Wildcat, filmmakers Trevor Frost and Melissa Lesh introduce us to Harry Turner, who struggles with chronic depression and PTSD. After attempting suicide, Frost essentially attempted to disappear into the rainforest, but it turned into a personal healing journey when he met Samantha Zwicker, who runs a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center. Zwicker himself had a chaotic childhood with an alcoholic father.
When Turner meets Zwicker, they come together to rescue a month-old ocelot they name Keanu and reintroduce him to the wild.
“One of the driving ideas in the beginning was this theme of the healing power of nature,” Lesh told Yahoo Canada. “Both of us are drawn to wild places for most of our lives, and that’s where we feel at home and at peace, with nature and with wild animals.”
Turner’s story, personal and specific as it is, guides you through this emotional journey.
“[Harry] had a very clear narrative arc in terms of his war experiences, essentially making his death look like an accident, and then finding beauty and a reason to live on, frankly, once he got to the Amazon,” said Lesh.
Harry Turner in the documentary “Wildcat”, on Prime Video on December 30 (Trevor Frost/Prime Video)
Unusual collaboration
Work on this documentary actually began when filmmaker Trevor Frost was in Peru on a very different project looking for anacondas. When his search failed, a friend pointed out Harry Turner, stressing that he had a “crazy story”. A few days later, Frost officially met Turner and Samantha Zwicker.
“They brought in a hard drive and shared a bunch of footage with me … and I was immediately blown away by the quality of the cinematography,” Frost said. “Even in the most difficult moments, they kept the camera rolling, which is unusual. It’s not something most people do.”
The story goes on
Frost told Melissa Lesh about it and a month later he got a call from Zwicker saying she had rescued another ocelot who started the journey as a foursome to tell this story.
There’s a real intimacy in Wildcat that’s largely influenced by the fact that they lived on a 20×30 foot platform that was always together with no real room for privacy other than going into the rainforest. Lesh emphasized that there was intent behind a highly collaborative environment.
“That was something that we really embraced from the start, was let’s work together,” she said. “Let’s get them gear, let’s talk about how to use it and how to film scenes, and make this movie together. At the end you can see in the final cut that about half of it was filmed by either Harry or Samantha.”
“We couldn’t have access to Keanu as part of their reintroduction protocol, they wanted him to be as far away from humans as possible and so it was really only Harry who had access to him. When we saw the archive they filmed with the first ocelot, we could already see the innate talent and ability to beautifully capture some of those behaviors as well as those personal moments.
Harry Turner in the documentary “Wildcat”, on Prime Video on December 30 (Trevor Frost/Prime Video)
‘Wildcat’ documentary ‘tears people up’
One aspect of this story that the filmmakers really needed to work through carefully and attentively is how Wildcat deals with mental health and PTSD in a way that doesn’t come across as exploitative. This included the presence of a team of mental health consultants, particularly during the post-production process, to construct the narrative in a way that would not harm anyone watching the film.
“In some of those tougher moments that you see [Harry Turner] We were struggling a lot… our advisors said we don’t see that kind of material often… so in many ways, not flinching was just as important as being careful with it,” explained Melissa Lesh.
“I’ve entered therapy with my father for the first time since making this film and I’ve started to sort of come to terms with and deal with things that happened to me as a child… [Wildcat] makes people talk about things they may never have talked about.”
For Trevor Frost, who has personally struggled with depression and anxiety for a decade, he revealed he has a “very different relationship” to anxiety and depression after working on Wildcat.
“The exciting thing is that this film [is] Coming up at a time when we’re generally seeing a shift in the way people approach the way they think about conditions that we used to see as nothing but net negatives,” Frost said.
Regarding the personal moments to be captured in Wildcat, Frost said it wasn’t a difficult decision deciding when to stop filming.
“There are a lot of moments where I just felt like it was more important for me to focus on that [Harry’s] Well-being and his health, … but then there were other moments where it felt like it was okay to film,” explained Frost. “Honestly, there were quite a few moments where we were planning on filming something else and the camera was just set up and recording and we were shooting something that we weren’t expecting.”
“It wasn’t a difficult decision deciding when to stop filming because Harry is so clear. For some people, hiding their emotions or hiding their feelings or hiding their actions would be a much harder choice. Harry was very, very open to everything. Even with his self-harm, he got to a point where he did it without trying to hide it. It was very obvious that in those moments it was more important to be there for him and to focus on his well-being above anything else.”
Samantha Zwicker oversees camera traps she uses to examine jaguars in “Wildcat” on Prime Video on December 30.
The “doomsday” approach to conservation storytelling doesn’t work
A key focus in Wildcat is truly presenting human history within the interface between humans and wildlife.
“Our background is in telling conservation stories and has been for over a decade, and we often see many conservation storytellers telling the same stories or hitting people over the head with facts,” said Melissa Lesh. “The pointing kind of thing or the doomsday approach, if you will, we don’t think that works.”
“Either we preach to the same choir or we don’t break out of this bubble. So with this film, and with this story in particular, it was so important and such a unique opportunity to be able to tell this love story, this people story, within this wild space and within the larger conservation issues.”
Trevor Frost added that humans are “hardwired to love the outdoors”.
“Actually, during our childhood we are taught to distance ourselves from nature, and in our adulthood we are taught that nature is scary and that there are dangerous things out there,” he said. “Basically, we build our lives by putting ourselves in a kind of bubble.”
“But on a fundamental level, I think everyone has a deep connection to it somewhere inside. So when people see a movie like this or a story like this, they get so drawn in because something resonates deep within them… Of course, one of the ultimate goals of that is that we connect people better to nature, then there’s a much higher one Likelihood that they are committed to taking better care of them.”