Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Editor’s Note
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Review
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Dispatches

Since We Last Spoke: Hunter Sykes, MA IEP ’05

The latest in our new series, in which writers and subjects from magazine stories past reconnect, catch up, and reveal how their lives have unfolded . . . since they last spoke.

By Eva Gudbergsdottir
September 24, 2020
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

When we* last spoke with Hunter Sykes, who graduated from the Middlebury Institute’s International Environmental Policy program in 2005, he was putting the finishing touches on his new documentary The Hunter Legacy, a personal exploration of family legacy and the intensifying competition for resources between humans and wildlife in Kenya. The film has since won several awards and is available for streaming on Amazon Prime, and is coming to Google Play soon.

When preparing his family farm in upstate New York for sale several years ago, Sykes discovered old films, photographs, and journals from a long trophy-hunting trip his grandfather and other family members took to East Africa in the late 1930s. Sykes, a self-described environmentalist in contrast, says that as a young boy growing up in “hippie Colorado” he was “pretty radical.” Reading the family journals and watching the films was at times painful.

In The Hunter Legacy, Sykes connects with Alex Hunter, the grandson of J. A. Hunter, the famous big-game hunter who guided the Sykes family on their hunting trip to Africa in 1937. Hunter is now based at Kenya’s Ol’Pejata Conservancy, where he leads hiking and photography safaris, and works on conservation issues. Weaving family history and comparing images and films from their grandfathers’ times with today, the film explores issues related to population growth and human-wildlife conflict in modern-day Kenya.

The film has received several awards in the film festival circuit, including Best Documentary from the Mediterranean Film Festival in Cannes, France. COVID-19 caused the postponement of plans for an in-person screening and discussion in Monterey, but Sykes says he hopes to be able to share the film with Middlebury Institute students next year. The pandemic has disrupted some of his other planned appearances and screenings, but he says that it is also worth noting that more people than ever are seeking out interesting streaming content.

Up next for Sykes is finishing a short film on traumatic brain injury recovery among professional athletes. He is also working on the preproduction of a feature documentary on deforestation using musical tone woods as a catalyst towards changing minds and actions.

*The original piece on Sykes, titled “Atonement,” appeared in the winter 2020 issue of our sibling publication, Communiqué.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

View Finder

For years, photographer John Huddleston has been walking the woods near his home in Weybridge, Vermont, capturing the transitory nature of the forest with his camera. An excerpt from his latest book of photography At Home in the Northern Forest.

By John Huddleston
Photography by John Huddleston
March 12, 2021

The Man Who Saw in Technicolor

Two years after his death, remembering Jason Spindler up close.

By Ellen Halle '13
Illustration by Vanessa Lovegrove
January 29, 2021

What’s The Deal?

The story behind the critically acclaimed podcast, hosted by Middlebury Institute professor Jeffrey Lewis, that tells you everything you need to know about the Iranian nuclear deal.

By Rhianna Tyson Kreger
Photo illustration by Paul Dahm
December 16, 2020

Hunger Fight

How two Middlebury alumni are building on the local food economy to help hungry Vermonters.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photographs courtesy ShiftMeals
December 3, 2020

Dispatches

More Than Unwelcome in America

Reflections on what it feels like to be Asian in the United States.

By Bochu Ding '21
Photograph by Getty Images
March 26, 2021

One for the History Books

Working at Middlebury for nearly 50 years, Bob Preseau had experienced just about everything that can happen on a residential campus. A retirement party on Zoom, however, was a first.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by John Dykes
March 25, 2021

Whiskey*, with a Twist

What does it mean to create a line of craft spirits that hews tightly to sustainability practices? Will Drucker '08.5 thought he'd try and find out.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph courtesy Split Spirits
February 26, 2021

May I Have a Word?

During the pandemic, as the arts have struggled to stay relevant in a virtual world, one artistic director came up with a brilliant idea to showcase local talent.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
February 12, 2021

Otter Nonsense

Who had giant mutant otters on their 2020 Bingo card?

By Matt Jennings
Photograph by Daniel Houghton '04
December 17, 2020

Marble Works

How recycled stone from a College building has a second life in the local arts world.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Todd Balfour
December 16, 2020

Home Schooled

With COVID restrictions temporarily halting normal campus activities such as in-person lectures, a pair of faculty members devised a digital alternative that should have a shelf life for years to come.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Harry Campbell
November 5, 2020

Home, Heart

A student-designed affordable home wins major architectural award

By Stephen Diehl
Photographs by Lindsay Selin Photography
October 8, 2020

Catching Up with Elise Morris

Our colleagues in Athletic Communications talk to the women's soccer player about one of higher education's most pressing issues: sexual assault prevention and awareness on college campuses.

By Ali Paquette
Photography by Ali Paquette
October 7, 2020
View All

Pursuits

In the Line of Fire

What it's like to be a firefighter in California, when each emergency is more extreme than the last.

By John Devine
Illustration by Stuart Biers
February 12, 2021

Q&A

On the World Stage

Only a sophomore, Nordic skier Sophia Laukli makes her World Cup debut for the U.S. National team. We catch up with her to talk about the experience.

By Matt Jennings
Photograph by NordicFocus, GMBH
February 12, 2021

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

The Magnitude of Systemic Racism

Acknowledging a national scourge and examining the work that must be done at Middlebury— individually and collectively—to combat it.

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
June 9, 2020

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Editors’ Picks for March and April

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
March 23, 2021

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020

All the Feels

Current students, alumni of all ages, parents, faculty, and staff come together to sing Middlebury's alma mater "Walls of Ivy."

By Chris Spencer
May 26, 2020

A (Virtual) Visit with Kenshin Cho ’20

Laurie Patton chats with the political science major and SGA treasurer, who has been unable to return to his native Tokyo.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 18, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2021 Middlebury College Publications.