Since We Last Spoke: Documentary Filmmaker Hunter Sykes

When preparing his family farm in upstate New York for sale several years ago, Sykes discovered old films, photographs and journals from a long trophy hunting trip his grandfather and other family members took to East Africa in the late 1930’s. Sykes, a self-described environmentalist in contrast says that as a young boy growing up in “hippie Colorado” he was “pretty radical.” Reading the family journals and watching the films was at times painful.

In The Hunter Legacy, Sykes connects with Alex Hunter, the grandson of J.A. Hunter, the famous big game hunter who guided the Sykes family on their hunting trip to Africa in 1937. Hunter is now based at Kenya’s Ol’Pejata Conversancy, where he leads hiking and photography safaris, and works on conservation issues. Weaving family history and comparing images and films from their grandfather’s times with today, the film explores issues related to population growth and human-wildlife conflict in modern day Kenya.

The film has received several awards in the film festival circuit, including Best Documentary from the Mediterranean Film Festival in Cannes, France. Covid-19 caused the postponement of plans for an in-person screening and discussion in Monterey, but Sykes says he hopes to be able to share the film with Middlebury Institute students next year. The pandemic has disrupted some of his other planned appearances and screenings, but he says that it is also worth noting that more people than ever are seeking out interesting streaming content.

Up next for Sykes is finishing a short film on traumatic brain injury recovery among professional athletes. He is also working on the preproduction of a feature documentary on deforestation using musical tone woods as a catalyst towards changing minds and actions.