National Geographic has a new show called Queens, and it’s all about women empowerment!
Queens offers an insight look into the wildlife of female animals and what they encounter to survive. Each episode explores leadership, empowerment, and sacrifice from wildlife and humans.
The seven-part series leverages cutting-edge technology to reveal surprising details into how females in the natural world rise to power, often relying on cooperation and wisdom. In fact, this new show brings the natural world into focus through the female lens for the very first time and will be distributed in 172 countries and 43 languages.
Vanessa Berlowitz, the CEO of Wildstar Films and Executive Producer of Queens, shared the importance of the docuseries being transmitted in so many different forms.
“I’ve worked in wildlife filmmaking for nearly 30 years and this projects the most special one for me,” Berlowitz expressed to Celeb Secrets. “It’s totally different with a female led team that’s never been done before and we created a new way of working. Fledged a whole new generation of female film makers to flip the narrative so it’s a really special moment and I’m delighted the whole world to get to see it [Queens].”
Queens is four years in the making and helmed by a female-led production team from around the globe. Cinematographers Sophie Darlington and Justine Evans take audiences worldwide to witness matriarchs and female leaders in their natural habitats as award-winning actress Angela Basset narrates the entire series.
The series also features the talent of four filmmakers and photographers: Faith Musembi, Erica Rugabandana, Tania Escobar, and Erin Ranney.
When asked about creating Queens, the filmmakers shared why the series took four years, allowing them to commit to something so powerful and profound.
“When we’re making these Natural History films, we’re filming real animals, real behavior,” said film director Faith Musembi. “These are real animals, and we’re trying to capture their life cycles and the things they’re going through. All the different seasons in the series, so it took time.”
Each episode of Queens explores how the wildlife and humans can be so much alike. And that’s something cinematographer Erin Ranney hopes the audience takes away when watching the series. “I hope people will look at this and just get excited about the natural world in a different way,” said Ranney. “I hope they look at these stories and think ‘ohh this is something new.'”
She further explained how she hopes it’s also an inspiration for the younger audience. “I hope they are little kids that look at it and go ‘that person looks like me on the screen. I can do what she’s doing or I can I can go explore and be a park Ranger too.'”
Celeb Secrets’ Lupe LLerenas attended the press junket for Queens, in which she spoke to the talent behind-the-scenes about the show. Take a look at our exclusive conversations about the making of Queens in the interview below.
You can catch the entire docu-series when it airs today, March 4, at 5 pm PST/8 pm EST on National Geographic. Then, you can stream on Hulu and Disney+ the following day, Tuesday, March 5.
Of course, let us know if you’re excited for it by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecrets.
