The Ghosts of Lomako

Journey into the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo with primatologist Jef Dupain, conservation maverick Karl Ammann and Canadian bioethicist Kerry Bowman, as they track the mysterious and endangered bonobo ape. Civil war broke out in 1997 in Zaire, as Congo was then known. The Lomako forest, home to the bonobos, was cut off from the outside world. Dupain gathers a team to return to the forest, where he was forced to flee years ago. The film examines the paradox of a mission to save the apes from extinction in a country facing annihilation itself.

Credits

Director Kenton Vaughan
For CBC

    • Jules Verne Special Jury Award
    • Gold Medal, New York International Film & TV Festival
    • Best Point of View Documentary, International Wildlife Film Festival
    • Best Science and Nature Documentary, Yorkton Festival
    • Honourable Mention, Deborah Fletcher Award for Excellence in Filmmaking on International Development
    Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival, Toronto; Calgary International Film Festival; Journees du Cinema Africain et Creole Film Festival, Montreal; International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula, Montana (Best Point of View, Merit Awards for Conservation Message, for Cultural Sensitivity and for the Interface of Science and Society); Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival; Ecocinema, Rhodes, Greece; Far North Conservation Film Festival, Fairbanks, Alaska; Explorers Club Documentary Film Festival, New York (Special Jury Award); The Jules Verne Film Festival, Paris (Special Jury Award); International Festival of Cinema and Technology, Orlando, Florida.