Joan Root (18 January 1936 – 13 January 2006) was a Kenyan conservationist, ecological activist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
With her film-maker husband, Alan Root she made a series of acclaimed wildlife films. The couple divorced in 1981 and Alan Root settled in Nairobi afterward.
Early life
Born in Nairobi in 1936 as Joan Wells-Thorpe, Root was the daughter of Edmund Thorpe, a British banker who immigrated to Kenya to start a new life and became a successful coffee planter. Her mother was Lilian (Johnnie) Thorpe, née Walker.
Work
Decades before wildlife films such as March of the Penguins, Joan and Alan Root pioneered filming animal migrations without interference from human actors. Their movies were narrated by such distinguished actors as Orson Welles, David Niven, James Mason and Ian Holm. Their 1979 Survival documentary, "Mysterious Castles of Clay", was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
The Roots introduced Dian Fossey to the gorillas she later died trying to save, took Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis over Kenya in their balloon, and covered much of Africa in their famous single-engine Cessna, their amphibious car, and their balloon, at one time equipped with a raft for water landings.Following the Roots' divorce, she received the Lake Naivasha farm, along with their airplane and a cash settlement for the films they had made together.
