Tag: Documentary

Walking With Dinosaurs: Time of the Titans. Dir. Tim Haines and Jasper James. BBC Worldwide. 1999.

Walking With Dinosaurs: Time of the Titans is a 1999 BBC animated documentary that brought together paleontologists and animators alike with the aim of bringing the age of dinosaurs to life, giving the audience a feeling of what it was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth. This particular episode is part two of a six episode…

15th January 2017
Fly Away Home . Dir. Carroll Ballard. Columbia Pictures, Sandollar, The Saul Zaentz Film Center. 1996.

Fly Away Home focuses on 13-year-old Amy Alden who has just lost her mother due to a car accident. She has to move to her dad Tom, whom she hadn’t seen for years and whose passion for pottering aircrafts seems weird to her. Being alone, Amy finds a nest with 16 eggs, which have been abandoned…

29th June 2016
Fly Away Home . Dir. Carroll Ballard. Columbia Pictures. 1996.

Fly Away Home focuses on 13-year-old Amy Alden who has just lost her mother due to a car accident. She has to move to her dad Tom, whom she hadn’t seen for years and whose passion for pottering aircrafts seems weird to her. Being alone, Amy finds a nest with 16 eggs, which have been abandoned…

23rd June 2016
Wir sind im Zoo. Dir. Bruno Kleberg. Progress Film-Verleih. 1953.

We are at the zoo is an 1953 Film about a class of pioneers visiting the Leipziger Zoo in the German Democratic Republic. On their visit the class is being accompanied by an Off-Speaker, who comments on the action and introduces the animals while the pioneers walk through the park. In most cases this is…

29th May 2016
Kes. Dir. Ken Loach. Tony Garnett. 1969.

Ken Loach (dir.) “Kes” 1969 (Fig 1: Promotional Poster for the film) Since the dawn of man Birds, or more precisely, the notion of flight, has fascinated humankind. Proud and mighty birds of prey have found their way onto flags and military insignia as symbols of strength, independence and freedom. As such, the idea of…

4th February 2016
Sweetgrass. Dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash. Cinema Guild. 2009.

Spend three years following some Montana shepherds, then five years editing over 200 hours of footage, and you end up with Sweetgrass.1 This documentary film examines the reality of the human-animal relationship between a shepherd and his flock – a relationship in which both parties are completely dependent upon each other. With an unflinching eye and slow…

25th January 2016
Samsara. Dir. Ron Fricke. Oscilloscope Laboratories. 2011.

Samsara (2011) is a non-narrative documentary directed by Ron Fricke.[1] “Samsara” is a Sanskrit word for the cycle of birth, life and death. Through this theme, the film aims to ‘illuminate the links between humanity and the rest of nature, showing how our life cycle mirrors the rhythm of the planet’.[2] One particular sequence depicts the different…

25th January 2016
The Whale. Dir. Suzanne Chisholm, Michael Parfit. Kinosmith & Paladin. 2011.

The 2011 documentary The Whale confronts the moral and ethical struggle within intense human-animal interactions. While the film can be perceived as a cautionary tale about human interference in nature, there is no political statement being made to sway the audience. The leading affect within the film is sentimentality. Luna, the 2-year-old orca, is forced…

16th January 2016
Povelitel’Mukh / Lord of the Flies. Dir. Vladimir Tyulkin. Kazakhfilm. 1990.

Vladimir Tyulkin’s Lord of the Flies (Tyulkin, 1990), shot in Kazakhstan on the eve of the Soviet Union’s fall, discusses imperial, social, and human fragility within the microcosm of ‘Grandpa’ Kirill’s yard. As Kirill states, “My yard is… a state in miniature… I look upon the numerous breeds of animals living in my yard as nations”. Kirill,…

29th December 2015
Animals: Friend or Food?. Dir. Jason Young . National Film Board of Canada. 2003.

Animals, a documentary film directed by Jason Young, follows a young couple’s journey through a year-long experiment in raising their own livestock on a farm in Nova Scotia. The re-birth of the abandoned farm the couple takes over mirrors his re-birth as he changes from urbanite to farmer. After questioning their relationship with animals, the two…

10th November 2015