Apple held a London premiere of the acclaimed documentary THE ELEPHANT QUEEN, which has been narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, on Thursday 17th October with a number of special guests in attendance for the event. You can take a look at some of the images from the premiere in the slideshow below.
In addition to the filmmakers Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone, producer Lucinda Englehart, several celebrity guests were in attendance to support the film including; Sir David Attenborough, Princess Beatrice Of York, Thandie Newton, Emilia Fox, Krishnan Guru Murthy, Tom Hooper, Edie Campbell, Jean Campbell, Laura Bailey, James Middleton, Alizee Thevenet, Lord Snowdon, Holly Branson, Leah Wood, Jodie Kidd, Arizona Muse, Cherry Healey, Ronnie Newhouse, Jonathan Newhouse, Charles Aboah, Camilla Lowther, Ella Kingston (Nee Windsor), Vanessa Kingori, Marina Fogle, Annie Morris, Clarissa Ward and Tyrone Wood.
Embark on an epic journey of family, courage, and coming home. The Elephant Queen is a genre-crossing wildlife documentary, uniquely crafted as a character driven narrative. Its enduring themes are built upon a foundation of authenticity and integrity, brought from filmmakers Mark Deeble (Voyage of Time) and Victoria Stone’s (The Queen of Trees) 60 years of collective experience in the rich tradition of wildlife documentary filmmaking and production. Deeble and Stone, who are Emmy and Peabody Award-winners, spent 25 years living in the East African bush, preparing them for the unforgettable odyssey of The Elephant Queen.
The Elephant Queen is Athena, a majestic elephant matriarch, who leads her family across an unforgiving, yet cinematic natural landscape made up of grasslands and woodlands, dotted with seasonal waterholes. The elephants share their home with a cast of supporting character species who provide texture and richness to the elephants’ ecosystem – from a toenail height perspective. Athena, as leader of her herd, anticipates the coming dry season and knows there are lean times ahead. As the waterholes dry up, she has no choice but to take her family on a treacherous journey across even more foreboding landscapes, as the majestic creatures seek refuge until the rains fall again.
The film is directed by Deeble & Stone and produced by Stone and Lucinda Englehart. Deeble is the cinematographer and writer. The Music is by Alex Heffes (Last King of Scotland) and narrated by Academy Award- nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Boy who Harnessed the Wind and The Lion King).
The documentary was an official selection of the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The film has also been nominated for two Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards; Best Science/Nature Documentary and Best Narration (Chiwetel Ejiofor, narrator and Mark Deeble, writer).
What do you think of the red carpet photos for the premiere? Will you be watching the documentary when it arrives in cinemas and on Apple TV+? Let us know your thoughts in the box below, tweet us @filmandtvnowor leave us a comment on our Facebook page.
THE ELEPHANT QUEEN opens in select cinemas on October 18, 2019, before it debuts on Apple TV+ on November 1, 2019.
