Apple TV+’s The Elephant Queen directors on climate change, conservation and working with the tech giant

Nature documentary narrated by actor Chiwetel Ejiofor follows a resourceful mother elephant in Kenya as she looks to protect her herd’s young

Husband-and-wife directors Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone spent eight years making the film in the national parks of Kenya

Reading Time:3 minutes

A scene from The Elephant Queen, which is streaming on Apple TV+. The nature documentary tracks a herd of elephants as they survive a brutal drought in Kenya. Photo: Apple TV+

Published: 5:30pm, 6 Nov 2019Updated: 11:09pm, 4 Nov 2021

This week has seen the much anticipated launch of Apple TV+, with A-list stars like Jason Momoa, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon lining up to headline the tech giant’s foray into streaming.

But what if you’re not a Hollywood-style production? What if you’ve just been shooting a nature documentary in Kenya, tracking a herd of elephants as they survive a brutal drought?

That was what Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, the husband-and-wife filmmaking team, did when they made The Elephant Queen.

“We made it completely independently, which is pretty nerve-racking to do over eight years,” says Stone. “We had nobody telling us this film would ever see the light of day. No one telling us, ‘Go on guys, this is great.’ We had to totally believe in it and stay completely focused and motivated.”

A still from The Elephant Queen. Photo: Apple TV+

Narrated by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film follows Athena, a resourceful mother elephant as she looks to protect the herd’s young – Mimi and Wei Wei – inside and out of Tsavo National Park. When Deeble and Stone premiered the film in Toronto last year, executives at Apple saw it and negotiated to buy it within 24 hours, believing it an ideal candidate for one of the initial nine offerings available via the Apple TV+ app.