Ginger Mauney is an award-winning wildlife filmmaker who has lived and worked in the wilds of Namibia for 15 years. Her films have aired on National Geographic Explorer, PBS, Channel 4 in the UK, and in more than 50 countries worldwide. Mauney co-authored a dual memoir, The Best of Friends: Two Women, Two Continents, and One Enduring Friendship, with award-winning Dateline NBC correspondent Sara James. The Best of Friends explores their learning curve on life as seen through the lens of the 30-year friendship that sustained them and empowered these small town Southern (Richmond, VA) girls to pursue unconventional passions.
Becoming immersed in the wild and in the lives of her subjects, Mauney’s work as a wildlife filmmaker is also her way of life. She has spent years living with baboons, elephants, rhinos and lions in Namibia, studying animal behavior and, with the gift of time, patience and a storyteller’s eye, allowing these animals’ wild and wonderful stories to play out in front of her camera.
In 1989, Mauney moved to a remote desert canyon in Namibia where for the next four years she lived with a troop of desert dwelling baboons, gaining their trust and ultimately making a film, Baboons – Against the Odds. This one-hour film explores the baboons’ extraordinary adaptations to living without water, their social collapse, and ultimately documents their final fall to the elements. Nominated for Best Newcomer at the 1996 Wildscreen Film Festival, the so-called “Green Oscars” of wildlife filmmaking, the film premiered on PBS in the US and has aired in more than 50 countries world-wide.
Mauney’s next project, Legends of the Bushmen, combined wildlife filmmaking with the unique stories of Namibia’s indigenous people, the Bushmen. As the film’s producer, wildlife cinematographer and on-camera narrator, Mauney used a blend of natural history film-making and traditional story telling to explore the unique connection the Bushmen maintain to wild animals as told through their legends.
The elephants of Namibia’s Etosha National Park were the focus of Mauney’s subsequent project, a film for National Geographic’s Natural History Unit, Giants of Etosha. This one-hour special was the culmination of a two-year exploration into the life of a breeding herd of elephants, featuring cutting edge science and unique animal behavior.
In 2001, Mauney’s dear friend and co-author of The Best of Friends, James, was exposed to an anthrax-tainted letter sent to NBC news. The phone calls that followed between James and her formed the basis of Mauney’s next film, Living with Anthrax. This film examines how studies on anthrax in the wilds of Etosha may help us to better understand the disease and the idea of living with anthrax.
Mauney and her husband, Conrad Brain, a wildlife veterinarian and pilot, along with their young son, Kimber, were part of the cast for National Geographic Channel’s Mother’s Day special, Born Wild. This one-hour film highlighted Mauney’s personal story of raising wild babies and her son in the bush, providing the spine from which the film explores the survival tactics of all animals born wild.
In addition to these long-term projects, Mauney has filmed for the BBC, Paramount Productions and Partridge Films. She produced the film, The Chase, on game capture in Namibia and has worked as an on-camera correspondent for Fox Television’s series, World Gone Wild, and National Geographic Today.
As a writer and stills photographer, Mauney has had her work published in various magazines including National Geographic, Geo, Africa Environment and Wildlife, and Flamingo, Air Namibia’s in-flight magazine.
With her passion for wildlife and conservation unabated, Mauney coordinates the content and is a contributing author for the annual magazine, Conservation and the Environment in Namibia.
Mauney lives with her husband and their son in Namibia.