against animal documentaries and in favor of david attenborough uxueta labrit
When we were young and there was a documentary on TV, we would watch it without paying much attention to it. Kids prefer expressive and illustrated animals of cartoons and comicbooks. Kids who enjoy documentaries become bullfighters, slaughterhouse workers or environment department heads. In our youth, when we were students, we would stay home and watch documentaries instead of going to school. The habit of smoking a joint after lunch had something to do with that too. The thing is that since we are human beings, when we turn on TV, we always find an animal documentary. And, let’s accept it, it is always on La2 channel. ETB also tried to launch a documentary program with Julen Guerrero, who won the Iparragirre award to the best host. But, we won’t make fun of the episode about the not bearded lion...
Documentaries are not all the same. Sometimes, the director gets jealous and tries to be the main protagonist, like Costeu’s documentaries. In the end, you are fed up with Calypso, Philip and the yellow diver.
National Geographic documentaries have wonderful photography. Too wonderfull. And Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente. There is so much stuff written about his way of filming and torturing animals. However, we have to admit that the theme of “El hombre y la tierra” is unbeatable. Nowadays, we hate the new trend that humanizes animals. Animals get names, human feelings and it seems that we are watching a Disney movie. Most of the times, a way too obvious postproduction methods are used. And the result is a fake classification between good animals and bad ones. That is why we like the BBC documentaries’ scientific and neutral point of view. And now that the days of joints after lunch are gone, we are still fans of David Attenborough’s seriousness and his not human centered perspective.
Documentaries are not all the same. Sometimes, the director gets jealous and tries to be the main protagonist, like Costeu’s documentaries. In the end, you are fed up with Calypso, Philip and the yellow diver.
National Geographic documentaries have wonderful photography. Too wonderfull. And Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente. There is so much stuff written about his way of filming and torturing animals. However, we have to admit that the theme of “El hombre y la tierra” is unbeatable. Nowadays, we hate the new trend that humanizes animals. Animals get names, human feelings and it seems that we are watching a Disney movie. Most of the times, a way too obvious postproduction methods are used. And the result is a fake classification between good animals and bad ones. That is why we like the BBC documentaries’ scientific and neutral point of view. And now that the days of joints after lunch are gone, we are still fans of David Attenborough’s seriousness and his not human centered perspective.
