---
title: "Award-winning documentary witnesses local wildlife experts take on lion cub rescue mission"
description: "In local nature documentary Bucket: The Lion Cub, wildlife filmmaker and safari expert Brent Leo-Smith navigates the delicate balance of conservation and human empathy in the wild."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "WHAT WE’RE WATCHING"
author: "Kristen Harding"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/kristen-harding/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-07-23-award-winning-documentary-witnesses-local-wildlife-experts-take-on-lion-cub-rescue-mission/"
published: "2026-07-23T07:00:00"
updated: "2026-07-24T07:00:00"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 690
---

# Award-winning documentary witnesses local wildlife experts take on lion cub rescue mission

> In local nature documentary Bucket: The Lion Cub, wildlife filmmaker and safari expert Brent Leo-Smith navigates the delicate balance of conservation and human empathy in the wild.

By Kristen Harding · Published 23 July 2026, 09:00 SAST · Updated 24 July 2026, 09:00 SAST

## Key points
- A documentary from Painteddog.tv, Bucket: The Lion Cub, explores the interplay of conservation and empathy in wildlife filming.
- The film follows a lion cub’s journey at Rietspruit Game Reserve, raising questions about human intervention in nature.
- Unlike traditional nature documentaries, this film features an unfiltered, immersive storytelling style that gets viewers invested in the narrative.
- As Leo-Smith navigates the challenges of wildlife conservation, he emphasises humanity’s role in nature and the importance of living in harmony with the wild.

## Content

In nature documentaries, the human species tends to remain behind the camera, casting wildlife into a narrative as seen through our eyes, yet keeping at a distance as if we are not a part of nature ourselves.

Avoiding imposing on or disrupting natural processes in the animal kingdom can be considered one of the [ethical foundations of nature filmmaking](https://theconversation.com/dynasties-should-nature-documentary-crews-save-the-animals-they-film-107539). But where does one draw the line between allowing nature to play out in both its awe and its anguish and using our position as humans to intervene?

[YouTube video: "YouTube video"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuaSwjRz9Ys)

Award winner at the International Tourism Film Festival Africa, the South African documentary Bucket: The Lion Cub is a testament to the work of wildlife conservationists.

Told through the narrator, wildlife filmmaker and safari expert Brent Leo-Smith, Bucket: The Lion Cub follows the life of a tiny cub on the Rietspruit Game Reserve in Limpopo, who finds herself on a grand adventure with adult male lions before she is able to physically fend for herself independent of her mother.

Made by wildlife media and safari company [Painteddog.tv](https://www.painteddog.tv/), Bucket: The Lion Cub takes a while to settle into its narrative.

It begins with Leo-Smith’s childhood memories of the bush, the backstory of his creative partnership with co-founder and cameraman Wium Dörnbrack, and contextualising the conservation work at the story’s core. But what’s clear from the start is not only Leo-Smith’s palpable passion for wildlife, but also his flair for engaging storytelling.

In the film, he describes how, through his work with wildlife on a reserve, one becomes accustomed to the heart-aching ways that nature can unfold.

“You’re looking at the species as a whole rather than the individual,” he explains. “The survival of an area or an ecosystem rather than an individual.”

Yet when Leo-Smith and his team begin witnessing the gradual deterioration of the cub’s health, they begin to question their responsibility as humans who are witnessing what would probably become a life-or-death situation for the cub.

“You have to sort of wonder,” Leo-Smith says, “shouldn’t we help? Can we help? Is it right to help?”

In this way, the film raises and confronts the tension between being a documentarian – whose role is to observe and document the animal kingdom – and the very human sense of empathy that makes intervening feel instinctual.

![bucket-lion-cub](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/aX5KdJkfIkm19mOCld530M9auXo=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/bucket-lion-cub2_744909.jpg)

*Bucket: The Lion Cub brings audiences into a close-up encounter with wildlife. (Photo: Painteddog.tv)*

Once the film reaches its midpoint, it leaves behind its frequently oversentimental instrumentals for a shift towards a subtle yet effectively suspenseful percussion.

It’s from this point that emotions run high as the team take on their high-stakes rescue mission, which involves coaxing the male territorial lions with an impala carcass, mimicking a lioness’ call to her cubs and navigating a treacherous landscape in the black of night.

These scenes have a visceral intensity that draws the viewer in to become invested not only in the survival of the cub, but also in the safety of the filmmaking and reserve teams.

Unlike a traditional nature documentary, in which the human – apart from a disembodied voiceover – tends to be removed, Bucket: The Lion Cub integrates human perception into its story.

This is not a narrative told through scripted voiceover or polished footage. Instead it’s a raw, unscripted tracking of a tiny cub’s survival away from its mother, with moment-by-moment reactions from Leo-Smith that make it feel as if we as the audience are sitting alongside him in the safari vehicle.

Its unpretentious, unfiltered style of filmmaking allows Bucket: The Lion Cub to bring viewers into a close-up encounter with wildlife, without the sheen of big-budget documentaries that can be, at times, focused on the beauty and wondrous aspects of the natural world.

As Leo-Smith describes in his narration, his production work with Painteddog.tv is about taking people deeper into the reality of the day-to-day trials and tribulations of conservation heroes.

“Humans are a part of nature’s design,” Leo-Smith says. “Our challenge is to live in harmony with it, not separate from it.” **DM**

*The original footage on which Bucket: The Lion Cub is based can be watched on [Painteddog.tv’s YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdtvJedDIRQ&list=PLjSRj3THazpD71k4QDJtGrHqde_UvxlOm).*