It has been a while since I've stopped by the ol' blog - I have been consumed by the Discovery Channel's Life documentary series. It's AWESOME!
This 11-part nature series from the networks that brought us Planet Earth (you know how I loved that one, too) captures the various life forms that inhabit the planet. It's narrated by Oprah Winfrey (my main, if petty complaint about the project; her voice doesn't quite seem to fit and I'm a bit distracted by the fact that it's Ms. Winfrey) and explores how the various species survive, interact with each other, and procreate.
Last night, I watched the episode on insects, and the filmmakers somehow captured grass-cutter ant colonies chew apart grass, carry it back to their ant hills and use it to fertizlize the fungus that is their food supply. It's like the real Antz or A Bug's Life without Hollywood recasting. Crazy! There is more where that came from: hunting chase sequences that are more nail-biting than any big budget thriller, delicate mating rituals and emotional family moments, all enveloped in bar-raising cinematography. I got my new HD tv just in time.
Check it out - I am sure Discovery will play it many times over as it has garnered its best debut ratings in a decade with this series; this weekend features the final installments and a "making of" episode, where I hope to learn more about the production of this incredible doc series.
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Cove
I'm making my way through the Oscar®-nominated documentaries; just one more to go. I saved my Netflix copy of The Cove for a recent rainy day here in Southern California, knowing that this was not going to be a sunshine kind of film. I wasn't wrong.
Part real-life horror film and part thrilling investigative journalism piece, The Cove exposes the gruesome practice of dolphin slaughter in the Japanese seaside hamlet of Tajiji. It all started with Flipper on television in the 1950s (remember him and his happy theme song?), who kicked off the worldwide fascination with these lovable marine mammals. Honestly, how many times have you been to Sea World just to see the dolphin show? A lot, that's how many.
Flipper's trainer was Richard O'Barry, who unwittingly set off the booming dolphin captivity industry for aquariums and marine shows around the world. Upon realizing the harmful effects of captivity on dolphins, he has spent the last several decades as an activist trying to end it. Dolphins are apparently big business, particularly for Tajiji, which is the largest dolphin supplier in the world. However, not every dolphin even makes it into captivity. From September through March every year, 23,000(!) dolphins are slaughtered in a secret cove in Tajiji, away from the sightline of residents. The remaining dolphin meat, full of toxic mercury, is often sold as whale meat to unsuspecting consumers in Japan.
The filmmakers start covertly filming the activities at the cove in order to expose this sickening practice. What is captured on film is heartwrenching, but the hope is that this film can help shame the Japanese into ending this practice before this year's slaughter begins, and allow these beautiful creatures to live freely in the oceans (although that just seems like it will eventually be the lesser of two evils at this point in the environmental decline).
This is an opportunity for a documentary film to make a direct impact on an urgent issue, so I for one hope that The Cove filmmakers get their 45 seconds on Oscar® night to trumpet their message to the masses.
Win one for the Flipper.
Part real-life horror film and part thrilling investigative journalism piece, The Cove exposes the gruesome practice of dolphin slaughter in the Japanese seaside hamlet of Tajiji. It all started with Flipper on television in the 1950s (remember him and his happy theme song?), who kicked off the worldwide fascination with these lovable marine mammals. Honestly, how many times have you been to Sea World just to see the dolphin show? A lot, that's how many.
Flipper's trainer was Richard O'Barry, who unwittingly set off the booming dolphin captivity industry for aquariums and marine shows around the world. Upon realizing the harmful effects of captivity on dolphins, he has spent the last several decades as an activist trying to end it. Dolphins are apparently big business, particularly for Tajiji, which is the largest dolphin supplier in the world. However, not every dolphin even makes it into captivity. From September through March every year, 23,000(!) dolphins are slaughtered in a secret cove in Tajiji, away from the sightline of residents. The remaining dolphin meat, full of toxic mercury, is often sold as whale meat to unsuspecting consumers in Japan.
The filmmakers start covertly filming the activities at the cove in order to expose this sickening practice. What is captured on film is heartwrenching, but the hope is that this film can help shame the Japanese into ending this practice before this year's slaughter begins, and allow these beautiful creatures to live freely in the oceans (although that just seems like it will eventually be the lesser of two evils at this point in the environmental decline).
This is an opportunity for a documentary film to make a direct impact on an urgent issue, so I for one hope that The Cove filmmakers get their 45 seconds on Oscar® night to trumpet their message to the masses.
Win one for the Flipper.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Sundance
I finally made it to Sundance. Not in it, but at it. A day trip to check it out - I like to call it my "Sundance Sampler".
I arrived just in time to check out the new documentary film, Gasland, which ultimately was named Winner of The Special Jury Prize for Documentary at the festival.
The film provides a fightening look at the effects of "fracking", a drilling process for natural gas - the supposed great solution to our energy crisis. Filmmaker Josh Fox finds out fracking is coming to his area of Pennsylvania, and sets off on a multi-state journey to investigate what this means. The results are shocking (or maybe not so shocking if you lean toward corporate cynicism to begin with): Natural gas creeping into the water supply of homes near drillng sites - water that can be lit on fire right out of the faucet, people getting mysteriously sick, crazy gas explosions, toxic sludge and dying animals.
Over 30 states now have this drilling going on and the numbers are expanding - natural gas companies are circling the New York City Watershed like wolves, with the intent to build 20,000 more wells! Check out the film website for more up-to-date information, and spread the word.
The amazing thing about documentaries is that they continue to bring such critical and timely issues to light. And thanks to the folks at Sundance for putting this one at the top of the pile.
I arrived just in time to check out the new documentary film, Gasland, which ultimately was named Winner of The Special Jury Prize for Documentary at the festival.
The film provides a fightening look at the effects of "fracking", a drilling process for natural gas - the supposed great solution to our energy crisis. Filmmaker Josh Fox finds out fracking is coming to his area of Pennsylvania, and sets off on a multi-state journey to investigate what this means. The results are shocking (or maybe not so shocking if you lean toward corporate cynicism to begin with): Natural gas creeping into the water supply of homes near drillng sites - water that can be lit on fire right out of the faucet, people getting mysteriously sick, crazy gas explosions, toxic sludge and dying animals.
Over 30 states now have this drilling going on and the numbers are expanding - natural gas companies are circling the New York City Watershed like wolves, with the intent to build 20,000 more wells! Check out the film website for more up-to-date information, and spread the word.
The amazing thing about documentaries is that they continue to bring such critical and timely issues to light. And thanks to the folks at Sundance for putting this one at the top of the pile.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Earth
Our magnificent planet earth is top of mind today. It should always be top of mind, but two earth-focused documentaries have given me a swift kick reminder that sometimes I am slacking off in this department.
Last night, I attended a screening of the new documentary Earth Days. This enlightening film details the origins of the modern environmental movement in America - starting in the post-WWII era - from the perspectives of several key figures that helped drive it forward. Oddly, the film doesn't carry the story completely through to the 21st century, but it does provide real insight into how many of our present problems, policies, and protection efforts came to be.
Tonight, I stumbled upon the re-airing of Discovery Channel's landmark 2007 documentary series, Planet Earth (which originally aired on the BBC in 2006). I missed it the first few times around, so I'm thrilled to catch this most definitive look at our planet again on the network's schedule - especially now that I can watch it on my HD tv. The series starts tonight and runs through early September. It's don't-miss tv and quite simply, breathtaking.
I guess I know what I will be doing for the next few weeks - keeping the earth top of mind. Which I should have been doing anyway.
Last night, I attended a screening of the new documentary Earth Days. This enlightening film details the origins of the modern environmental movement in America - starting in the post-WWII era - from the perspectives of several key figures that helped drive it forward. Oddly, the film doesn't carry the story completely through to the 21st century, but it does provide real insight into how many of our present problems, policies, and protection efforts came to be.
Tonight, I stumbled upon the re-airing of Discovery Channel's landmark 2007 documentary series, Planet Earth (which originally aired on the BBC in 2006). I missed it the first few times around, so I'm thrilled to catch this most definitive look at our planet again on the network's schedule - especially now that I can watch it on my HD tv. The series starts tonight and runs through early September. It's don't-miss tv and quite simply, breathtaking.
I guess I know what I will be doing for the next few weeks - keeping the earth top of mind. Which I should have been doing anyway.
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