It’s been so long since I’ve done one of these and I haven’t really been keeping up with my documentaries, but since these files keep sitting on my computer, waiting to be deleted, I might as well write about them. Yet another well-produced BBC documentary series, Human Planet explores eight different terrains across the globe– from Oceans, to Jungles, to, surprisingly, Cities, all through a human lens and humanity’s impact and adaptability throughout the world. Narrated by John Hurt, it seems the series’s goal is to highlight human ingenuity in a time when it is so easy to blame and criticize ourselves (think: global warming, landfills, war, our fascination of the Kardashians). In many ways, Human Planet more than achieves this goal: as the series shows, humans are willing to walk towards lions to get freshly killed meat, live in high altitudes and train eagles to catch prey, and as a community, work together to save an ancient building by covering it with mud. Yes, we have lots of potential to do great and wonderful things.
One of the things that bugged me about this series is the cinematography. It’s very well-shot– almost too well-shot. Perhaps I’m just used to watching documentaries that feel more spontaneous, less technical and less set-up. There are shots were the human subjects stare off wistfully into the distance, as if asked by the British crew to do so, or, for example, shots of the villagers chasing monkeys in the jungle, and the camera just so happens to be on the ground floor, capturing their feet as they run past. It’s shot as if it were a feature film, at a variety of angles, and for me, it made me do a double-take. However, other scenes, like following a man as he walks across a river on a rope, is shot so well and beautifully that it doesn’t draw attention to it.
Although not as entertaining and awe-inspiring as Life or Planet Earth, Human Planet follows the trend of well-made BBC productions.
Annual fishing in Lake Antogo
aaron's random musings 