Meet the Mentor: Geoff Luck
Geoff Luck is a seasoned producer and director with over twenty years of experience — fifteen of them at National Geographic. His extensive portfolio spans six continents and includes ten television series as a showrunner, with his work featured on platforms like Netflix, PBS, Nat Geo, Discovery, ZDF, and Sundance. Celebrated with awards from prestigious institutions such as the United Nations, Jackson Wild, and The Museum of Modern Art, and an Emmy nomination.
At the 2024 NEWF Fellows Summit, Geoff led a Story Development session delving into how to identify and develop compelling stories, the role of blue-chip natural history films in African storytelling, and the essential tools filmmakers need to bring to the table. In September 2024 he was back to join NEWF for a special conservation film project now known as Wild Hope - Rhino Ops and stayed to present a week-long Story Lab to film fellows at eKhaya Storytelling Centre.
A longstanding supporter of NEWF, his journey with the community at large has left a meaningful impression — particularly on the fellows, team members and collaborators who have had the opportunity to engage in his audience sessions and closed sessions (labs) on Storytelling and Development and Nature and Wildlife Production.
Photograph by Samuel Gichuru Mugaisi / #NEWF2025
What inspired you to become part of the NEWF community?
I first met Noel and Pragna when we were asked to be on the same panel at Jackson Wild to discuss our independent efforts to increase local representation in natural history film production. I was blown away by their vision and passion, and immediately felt that NEWF not only offered an important critique of “business as usual” in the industry, but a meaningful mechanism for changing the status quo. So I was all in from that point on.
As filmmakers think about our work, what our films are about is just part of what they are—and that means we also need to consider how they’re made, and by whom.
How do you see the role of African storytellers evolving in the global nature and wildlife filmmaking space?
I think there has been growing interest in African storytelling throughout the nature and wildlife space for the past five or more years as part of a larger movement toward local and in some cases indigenous storytelling. And that’s all good. But I’m also concerned that some expressions of support may turn out to be one-offs or count simply as a “checked box”, and that the interest may become a passing fad. This would be a grave mistake.
I have only just begun to see the difference that changing the storyteller makes to the story, and think the benefits of continuing to support the voices of African storytellers aren’t confined to the local industry, but to the global community’s opportunity to see and be affected by their stories.
Already I’ve seen the change when the local subject of film is spoken to in their own dialect, or when the community at a location sees themselves in the crew that’s unpacking the camera kit to film there, or when a writer incorporates their lived understanding of local tradition and culture into the script. Each is a paradigm shift that removes a veil, shortens the distance, and potentially connects us all to a deeper understanding of the world we ultimately share. As such, it’s a role and opportunity that must not only be supported, but amplified.
Why is mentorship important to you?
I have always been excited to share my interest and passion for storytelling and its possibilities with others, and actually spent my first fifteen years after college & grad school as a film professor before I ever worked at National Geographic or in conservation/impact media.
Beyond that baseline disposition, however, the creativity and commitment I witness time and again throughout the NEWF community inspires me to recognize the boundless potential of these filmmakers —and the way they in turn can impact others. That is more than enough to get me going!
Anything I can do to help them realize their goals only helps the aim all of us have, which is to advocate for the natural world.
How has your upbringing and background influenced your approach to mentorship and storytelling?
When I grew up, virtually all of my adult family members were educators. My father and uncle were professors (of theology and astrophysics, respectively), my mother and grandmother teachers and then school administrators, and as previously mentioned, I myself worked as a film professor.
So I believe in the sharing of knowledge — and especially, in sharing excitement about the things I’m passionate about. My grandmother, who was an English teacher, told me Yeats once paraphrased Plutarch to say: “Education is not the filling of a pail. It is the lighting of a fire.”
And I’ve spent my career — as both an academic and later as a producer and EP in the business — approaching my work with a similar point of view. Quite simply, I try to fire up and mentor everyone I work with - to give them opportunities and support - even as I recognize that I have just as much to learn from them.
On stage with the Wild Hope - Rhino Ops Crew for the private premiere hosted at the Barnyard Theatre during #NEWF2025. Photograph by Breno Luckano / NEWF.
What skills or perspectives have been the most valuable to pass on to the fellows (and others) who Have engaged in the storytelling sessions and discussions you have hosted with NEWF?
I’d like to think the most valuable insights the participants receive are the insights I come up with on the spot — but I’m actually quite certain that the most meaningful were the step-by-step explanations I provide about our storytelling process on Wild Hope.
What is most exciting is to demystify the process and give concrete tools to the fellows. Tools they can directly use in making their own work.
Using this series I am able to share not only how we create a beat sheet during development, but how that in turn becomes the source of shoot schedules, shot lists, interview questions, edit scripts, and more; the nuts and bolts of the process more than its potential for poetry.
What do you find most impactful about your time spent in session with NEWF fellows?
For me, the greatest part of these sessions is having the opportunity to spend time with—and grow close to—such an incredible group of artists, many of them in the earlier stages of their career. They each bring their own particular drive, focus, and vision to the group — and can see landscapes I can only dream to imagine.
What’s more, they’re able to bring their desire to learn and create to an environment that the NEWF crafts to maximize a collaboration, egalitarianism, and a culture of support. That means everyone can grow and develop both as individuals and as a community. And that is badass!
What insight can you share about female representation in the industry?
There’s no doubt that the film industry - including our segment of it - remains male-dominated.
That said, I’ve also seen that female representation can be variable in different parts of the industry. There are some markets and disciplines like editing (and in some regions, producing) where we’re beginning to approach equity.
But there are also many fields - especially in the camera department - and industries that remain male-dominated; including several I’ve experienced in different parts of the world and my own country.
What are some of the better ways to support gender equity?
For me, the most effective way to support change has been directly through hiring—and thereafter, through mentorship and promotion.
The series I currently run, Wild Hope, has more women than men on the team, and that includes key positions like EP, Producer and Line Producer. And while our freelance production teams have mostly been men, we have hired female DPs, ACs and Sound Ops whenever we can. So we look for opportunities to create change rather than simply accepting that the playing field will always be uneven.
I also think that continued training for women wanting to enter these fields, and dedicated opportunities to network (both for them and those already established in these disciplines) can also make a big difference. So can mindful recommendations of outstanding female filmmakers by anyone already established in the business.
What challenges do you think future generations of filmmakers and storytellers face, and how can programs like NEWF help them overcome these barriers?
This is a tricky question to answer when our part of the industry - and the film production industry as a whole - is in such a state of uncertainty and realignment. Whether or not it turns out to be just a seasonal slowdown or a paradigmatic collapse remains to be seen.
That said, I think all storytellers and all filmmakers benefit from access. Access to tools and training. Access to diverse voices and influences. Access to markets and mentors.
By bringing together a global community to provide a rising generation of filmmakers (and the expanding communities and markets they are part of) with access to all of these factors, NEWF is already bridging the most critical gap of all: connecting people.
That means mentors and mentees, but even more importantly, it means peers with peers, creating a networked community of filmmakers who can help one another on projects, recommend each another for work, and share news of opportunities or ideas between them. So even as NEWF provides each fellow with the access and support they’re looking for as an individual, it also engenders a larger network of opportunity - both across the continent and far beyond. And that may turn out to be even more important than any individual skills that are shared or learned.
Photograph by Samuel Gichuru Mugaisi / #NEWF2025
What advice would you give to aspiring visual storytellers who want to focus on nature and wildlife, particularly in Africa?
I think anyone trying to give advice at this moment in history has to start by saying that no one knows what’s coming next — and whether the modes that the industry is accustomed to and dependent on will return. The likelihood is that something new will emerge — and I think we’re already seeing that.
So my advice is to continue developing skills, experience, and a body of work however you can — most likely by finding local stories you can tell in short form. That will allow you to use more of the time the industry’s sorting itself out to create work. And that, in turn, will let you keep advancing and refining your voice and point of view; to create stories about the African wild that are truly African.
At the same time, I think it’s critical for all of us in the industry to connect and find opportunities to collaborate, so doing whatever you can to expand your circle of contacts and colleagues is also a good move.
How do you envision the future of this community — and your role in it?
For me, I simply want to contribute however I can to the growing community of colleagues and friends that all want to support one another’s work and create stories that help protect the wild world we care about and depend on.
What’s exciting isn’t just how much has already been achieved so quickly; it’s also that NEWF is a model that could be replicated by local communities in other places, both across Africa and around the world. If the movement continues to catch on, we can all connect with an even wider community of like-minded filmmakers and conservationists — and experience the vibrant parts of our living world through the eyes and minds of people who come from that place.
That would be pretty amazing!
