Honey Hunting in Nepal

The goal of this project was to come up with a short documentary film produced by Samara Abramson from Insider Inc. for the Risky Business section regarding Honey Hunting in Nepal. After a lot of discussions and e-meetings, the plan was set in motion and things ran smoothly. The first challenge was to identify the village where the honey hunting would take place along with the main characters involved in honey hunting. 

After identifying the location and the character, the next step was to go on a recce and location scouting of the village to assess accessibility, accommodation, mode of transportation and realistic shooting days. Since it was monsoon season, the recce and location scouting turned out to be more challenging than initially anticipated. The team was only able to reach the village and due to flooding they were informed that reaching the honey hunting cliff would be next to impossible. 

Despite the challenges and after multiple discussions with the community involved in honey hunting, the team finalized the honey hunting dates. Since all good things take time, these dates too were one month later than initially anticipated. The team decided to patiently wait and also successfully convinced the producer at Insider Inc. to schedule the shoot a month later. This was extremely important since the entire Honey Hunting community and the filming crew’s safety depended on it. 

The challenges did not end here. Little did the team at Threemm Films know then that this project would be one of the riskiest projects that the filming and production crew had ever taken on. 

The crew reached Pokhara a day before the shoot. Upon reaching Pokhara, the team was not able to connect with the local contact. However, after rigorous attempts, the team got informed that the hunting was being postponed. After a couple of hours of discussion, the villagers agreed to proceed with the initial honey hunting plan. The next day, the crew traveled to the village and from there to the cliff. The team had not expected the road to the cliff to be life threatening. With teamwork and willpower, the team made it to the cliff and managed to film Honey Hunting.

The team, upon returning to the village, was not satisfied with the amount of content they were able to capture due to obstacles that the path to the cliff provided and also internal conflicts that loomed over the Honey Hunting community. Hence, the team discussed and came up with a new plan to film Honey Hunting in a different location altogether. To their surprise, the access to the cliff in the other village in Lamjung was much more convenient. This required a completely new production plan. Samara Abramson from Insider Inc. was considerate enough to see the passion that the crew at Threemm Films exhibited and gave the crew a green signal. Immediate Recce and Location scouting was conducted by the team at Threemm Films on a rented bike and things moved forward smoothly. 

The challenges of filming in Nepal is not just limited to the access of filming equipment and landscape but a large part of it also relies on how well one is able to form a connection with the communities present here in Nepal. Threemm Films is able to go beyond just the basics of filming and create a long term relationship with the people involved in the filming process. That is what gives us the edge and makes us one of the best film production companies to work with here in Nepal.