Students who traveled to Nepal in May 2023 as part of Professor Scott Semmens’ Global Engagement course presented the documentary “Coexistence: Living With Tigers” at the Putnam Theater on Sept. 19.
Senior Deven Ferguson, the lead editor of the film, said he spent a year and a half working on the final cut after the conclusion of the trip. The project was done in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Nepal Tiger Trust. Several members of the organization are featured in interviews throughout the film, some in-person and some on Zoom.
The group stayed for two weeks in a village called Meghauli at the entrance of Chitwan National Park, Semmens said. As of 2022, the park was home to 128 Royal Bengal tigers, according to Tiger Encounter.
Although tigers are prominently featured in the film, Semmens said the scarcity of seeing the animals led the filmmakers to mostly use stock footage.
“Getting encounters with tigers is not as common as people like to think it is,” Semmens said. “I spent quite a bit of time in southern Africa tracking lions and stuff like that, and they’re actually easier because it’s open; when you’re in a forested area, an animal’s M.O. is to remain hidden.”
Semmens also spoke about the significance of the experience and education the trip provided.
“I really wanted to have young people tell a story about how to live with large carnivores, in this case tigers,” Semmens said.
He added it was especially important for new generations to understand lifestyles that factor in carnivores like tigers.
“As we are going to adapt to climate change, one of the things that we really need to do collectively across the globe is to make ecosystems more resilient to changes that are going to come about,” Semmens said. “And one of the most effective ways of doing that is to really support the larger carnivores that exist within these areas because they actually help to diversify the biodiversity that exists within the ecosystem which they reside at.”
Ferguson said the trip was also important to him for personal reasons.
“I was born in Nepal, and then I was adopted and brought to the U.S. when I was like one, very little,” Ferguson said. “So this was my first time going back to Nepal. I was supposed to go back with my mother when I turned 18, but then that’s when COVID happened. So that was definitely new … I definitely feel like I had a more personal connection with the trip.”
Semmens said he hoped to distribute the film on YouTube. Ferguson added there was more work that needed to be done before distribution, such as ensuring that interviewee release forms would allow for public viewing.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
