KILLING THE SHEPHERD FILM SERIES - THE LAST KEEPER

KILLING THE SHEPHERD FILM SERIES

PRESENTS

THE LAST KEEPER

FILM SERIES SYNOPSIS

Scotland has seen generations of war. Today the war is different. Gone are the swords and muskets replaced by government policies pushed by groups staffed by Scotland’s urban elite.

Reminiscent of the acts of genocide during the Highland Clearances after the battle of Culloden in 1746, there is a modern effort to remove rural folks from the land. The targets are gamekeepers, ghillies, and deer stalkers whose families have been working the land, in some cases, for centuries. The land provides jobs and wages, which they use to buy food and pay bills; keep families in small communities, fill local schools with children; and provide active wildlife and habitat management.

It’s a war for control. It’s basically class warfare. It’s a war where wildlife biodiversity and habitat conservation may be a thing of the past.

Scotland, replete with heather-covered hills, moorlands, and majestic mountains,

finds itself, its people, and wildlife at a crossroads. This film is character-driven, exploring a disappearing way of life based on hunting/shooting and the associated conservation role. Conflict abounds as competing interests vie for control of the landscape. It’s a film that brings in the romance and uniqueness of rural Scottish landscapes, practices, and communities pitted against those who work to change a way of life. The anti-hunting movement is the obvious threat, but decades of flinging accusations and bad science have been a frustration rather than an existential threat.

Shooting sports characters, including Peter Fraser, King Charle’s retired

gamekeeper; Scott MacKenzie, the last employed keeper on the Isle of Skye and two-time UK Keeper of the Year Award recipient; Toby Fitchner-Irving, the proprietor of Gallanach Lodge on the Isle of Muck; explain how their relationship with the land has taken care of the wildlife and, also, provided for rural communities. On the other side, those who would break up the shooting estates and remove families from the

COVERAGE

PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATS :

land include David Balharry, CEO of the John Muir Trust; Nigel Frasar, chairman of the re-wilding organization Trees for Life; and retired Scottish Green MP Andy Whitman, who has led a charge to stop grouse moor operations and democratize the land.

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DIRECTOR & PRODUCER

Tom Opre

A film director, cinematographer, television producer, wildlife conservationist, and human rights advocate, Tom Opre has made educating the public on wildlife conservation and stewardships issues his main priority. As the past president of the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), he has worked to help other outdoor communicators and industry leaders understand and present a unified message regarding the top issues facing wildlife conservation today.

Since 1990, Opre has produced and/or directed national television commercial projects for Fortune 500 companies, feature films and episodic television including wildlife projects for Discovery Channel and PBS. In 2015, he wrapped a seven year prime-time run on NBC Sports producing the highest rated, award-winning, television show in the outdoor fieldsports genre, Eye of the Hunter. His latest project, Killing the Shepherd, is a documentary feature film telling the story of a rural indigenous community in Zambia and their struggle to survive, attempting to break the bonds of poverty by waging a war against wildlife poaching. The film was selected by 41 film festivals world-wide, winning 21 major awards including: best feature documentary; best indigenous film; best human rights film; and best humans & nature film. Opre’s vision is to give a voice to rural indigenous

communities around the world and their relationships with wildlife.

Today, he serves on the non-profit boards of African Children’s Schools and Shepherds of Wildlife Society™. He is the founder of the Shepherds of Wildlife Society, a 501,(c)(3), a non-profit with a mission to educate the broader public about the critical importance of modern day wildlife conservation and habitat stewardship and how they are intertwined with the human rights of rural communities.

Opre lives in the Flathead Valley of Montana with is wife Olivia; a travel specialists and wildlife advocate, and their four children.

Tom Opre

Film Director | Cinematographer | Television Producer | Wildlife Conservationist | Human Rights Advocate

KILLING THE SHEPHERD

In 2021 & 2022, the film Killing the Shepherd set a high bar for documentary filmmaking by being selected by over forty film festivals, winning 21 major awards including awards for social justice, indigenous, and human rights. But key to the mission of the Shepherds of Wildlife Society it has started conversations all over the world, not only in homes, but also corporate boardrooms, University classrooms, and world leaders about how key humans are to modern conservation and the fact rural communities who live with wildlife must see a benefit to living with wildlife — or we will loose wildlife habitat and the animals found in those ecosystems.

We are asking you to support efforts to produce these critical films enabling these vital messages to be heard around the world.

THE LAST KEEPER

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