Nature Documentary

A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of trained and captive animals. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema medium. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series.

History

In cinema

Robert J. Flaherty's 1922 film ''Nanook of the North'' is typically cited as the first feature-length documentary. Decades later, Walt Disney Productions pioneered the serial theatrical release of nature-documentaries with its production of the True-Life Adventures series, a collection of fourteen full length and short subject nature films from 1948 to 1960. Prominent among those were ''The Living Desert'' (1953) and ''The Vanishing Prairie'' (1954), both written and directed by James Algar.

The first full-length nature-documentary films pioneering colour underwater cinematography were the Italian film ''Sesto Continente'' (''The Sixth Continent'') and the French film ''Le Monde du silence'' (''The Silent World''). Directed by Folco Quilici ''Sesto Continente'' was shot in 1952 and first exhibited to Italian audiences in 1954. ''The Silent World'', shot in 1954 and 1955 by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, was first released in 1956.

Many other nature-documentary films followed in subsequent years, such as those made by Nicolas Vanier (''The Last Trapper'', 2004), Luc Jacquet (''March of the Penguins'', 2005), and Alastair Fothergill (''African Cats'', 2011), among others.

In television

In 1954, the BBC started airing Zoo Quest, featuring David Attenborough. Other early nature documentaries include ''Fur and Feathers'' shown on CBC from 1955 to 1956 and hosted by Ian McTaggart-Cowan., and ''Look'', a studio-based BBC magazine-program with filmed inserts, hosted by Sir Peter Scott from 1955 to 1981. The first 50-minute weekly documentary series, ''The World About Us'', began on BBC2 in 1967 with a color installment from the French filmmaker Haroun Tazieff, called "Volcano". Around 1982, the series changed its title to '' The Natural World'', which the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol continues to produce . In 1961, Anglia Television produced the first of the award-winning ''Survival'' series.

Between 1974 and 1980, the Spanish nature documentary television series '' El Hombre y la Tierra'' (The Man and the Earth), produced by TVE and presented by naturalist Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente used 35 mm film, which posed significant logistic and technical challenges at the time. The show gained international recognition.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, several other television companies round the world set up their own specialized natural-history departments, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Melbourne, Australia and TVNZ's unit in Dunedin, New Zealand — both still in existence, the latter having changed its name to "NHNZ". ITV's contribution to the genre, ''Survival'', became a prolific series of single films. It was eventually axed when the network introduced a controversial new schedule which many commentators have criticized as "dumbing down".

Wildlife and natural history films have boomed in popularity and have become one of modern society's most important sources of information about the natural world. Yet film and television critics and scholars have largely ignored them.

The BBC television series ''Walking With'', narrated by Kenneth Branagh, used computer-generated imagery (CGI) and animatronics to film prehistoric life in a similar manner to other nature documentaries. The shows (''Walking with Dinosaurs'', ''Walking with Beasts'', and ''Walking with Monsters'') had three spinoffs, two of which featured Nigel Marven: '' Chased by Dinosaurs'' and ''Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy''. Robert Winston presented ''Walking with Cavemen''.

Content

Overview

Most nature documentary films or television series focus on a particular species, ecosystem, or scientific idea (such as evolution). Although most take a scientific and educational approach, some anthropomorphise their subjects or present animals purely for the viewer's pleasure. In a few instances, they are in presented in ethnographic film formats and contain stories that involve humans and their relationships with the natural world, as in ''Nanook of the North'' (1922), ''The Story of the Weeping Camel'' (2003), and '' Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life'' (1925).

Although almost all have a human presenter, the role varies widely, ranging from explanatory voice-overs to extensive interaction or even confrontation with animals.

Most nature documentaries are made for television and are usually of 45 to 50 minutes duration, but some are made as full-length cinematic presentations.

Such films include:

* '' Among the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh'' (2009)
* ''Animals Are Beautiful People'' (1974)
* '' Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927)
* ''Coral Reef Adventure'' (2003)
* '' The Cove'' (2009)
* ''Encounters at the End of the World'' (2007)
* ''Grizzly Man'' (2005)
* '' The Last Paradises: On the Track of Rare Animals'' (1967)
* '' The Leopard Son'' (1996)
* ''The Living Desert'' (1953)
* ''March of the Penguins'' (2005)
* '' Microcosmos'' (1996)
* ''Sharkwater'' (2006)
* ''Serengeti Shall Not Die'' (1959)
* ''The Silent World'' (1956)
* ''The Story of the Weeping Camel'' (2003)
* '' Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life'' (1925)
* ''The Vanishing Prairie'' (1954)
* ''The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill'' (2003)
* '' White Wilderness'' (1958)
* ''Winged Migration'' (2001)
In addition, the BBC
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