Broken Paw could not put weight on her injured foot when wildlife filmmaker Robert Hofmeyr first encountered her five years ago along the Chobe River in Botswana. Unable to hunt, she became the group’s babysitter while her sisters brought down prey. Today, against every reasonable expectation, she is raising two cubs of her own. Her story sits at the center of a three-part documentary following a sisterhood of lionesses who have no territory they can truly call safe, no adult males to back them up, and no margin for error.
The Chobe River runs along the northern edge of Botswana, and its banks divide power sharply. The River Front Pride commands the eastern stretch of this coveted ground, while the Ngoma males dominate to the west. Caught between them is the ragtag group Hofmeyr calls the Misfits, a band of lionesses blending into the edges of both prides simply to avoid being driven out altogether. Help this documentary become a reality HERE 🙂
The lionesses who became their own pride
The group’s leader is Stumpy, described as a powerful lioness in her prime whose fearless approach to hunting has kept the sisterhood fed. She is currently raising two adolescent cubs, walking them through the kind of high-stakes lessons that border territories demand. Her sister Black Mouth earned her name the hard way: she drinks with her mouth fully submerged rather than lapping like most cats, which means she typically surfaces with mud caked along her chin. It is the sort of specific, unheroic detail that makes a wild animal feel like an individual.
Together, these lionesses have carved out a precarious but real existence in one of Africa’s most competitive wildernesses, raising cubs under relentless pressure from the prides on either side.
Twenty-six weeks in the field, and a Kickstarter to finish the job
Hofmeyr and his crew, which includes his brother-in-law Andy handling the camera, have spent three years and nine separate shoots tracking these lions through dust storms, punishing heat, and torrential rain. They have accumulated over 250 hours of 8K raw footage, including multiple hunts and what Hofmeyr describes as some truly unique scenes. Out-of-pocket hard costs have already passed $50,000, excluding their time, their vehicle, and their specialized gear.
The production has pushed the team to build its own solutions along the way: a hands-free coffee dispenser for long overnight watches, a remote-controlled filming boat named Floaty McFloatface, an air-conditioned suit for the worst of the Botswana heat, and low-angle vehicle mounts designed to pull viewers down to eye level with the lions.
Episode 1 is fully filmed. The rest of the three-part series is nearly finished. What remains is post-production, and that is where a Kickstarter campaign comes in. Rewards range from digital posters to virtual safaris to a three-night stay in Chobe for supporters who want to meet the Misfits in person.
Floaty McFloatface, somewhere on the Chobe
The remote-controlled filming boat sits on the river, a small, low machine built to get the camera where no vehicle and no person could go without scattering every animal on the bank.
The Chobe keeps moving regardless. The river does not wait for post-production schedules or funding campaigns, and neither do the cubs Stumpy and Broken Paw are raising right now. Hofmeyr put the pressure plainly: the second half of this year is the window to finalize everything, and the footage, all 250-plus hours of it, is already waiting.
