Chasing Big Cats

The face of a cheetah fills the screen, then its sleek and streamlined body hurtles by in slow motion. Suddenly you are able to see the grace and poetry of this magnificent cat as never before, to watch the remarkable effort of each stride and turn as it chases its prey to the death.

These innovative images were the work of Owen Newman and Amanda Barrett, who made their reputations filming the big cats of Africa as no one had done before. This 14-year retrospective of their work features the two filmmakers talking about how they managed to capture never-before-seen footage of big cats, including some that had been written off as impossible to film. To these two filmmakers, "impossible" was just a challenge to overcome. Driving into the night, armed with night goggles, infrared lights and cameras, they were the first to film leopards at night, uncovering a whole array of behavior that was new to science and filmmakers alike. Two other cats, servals and caracals, only glimpsed in passing by other filmmakers, became newly discovered stars of their own films. And with captivating stories and characters, Newman and Barrett were able to transform lions from big cats everyone thought they knew into individuals with personalities, griefs, and grudges. Join these two remarkable filmmakers for a spectacular tour de force of the cat world, complete with high drama and some of the most exciting wildlife moments of cat action ever filmed.