Peaceful

26/04/12 17:48

Many people imagine Africa influenced by the movies they see on television and in the cinemas. But is this really like the bush is?
All films are a compilation of moments in the bush. The choice of moments is influenced by the target group the film production has in mind.
The traditional BBC documentary with David Attenborough was aiming on education, the wonder of nature and to give the audience the feeling to be there. Nowadays wildlife TV channels focus on entertaining a target group that likes action, spectacular situations, high tech and excitement. On the other hand Disney has just discovered a market for nature fairy tales with real animals where the lion’s mouth gets cleaned from blood after filming and the kill happens out of sight.
It is not surprising that people have diverse ideas what to expect when visiting the bush for the first time. Often female visitors are afraid of seeing fighting and kills all the time and male visitors are disappointed when not seeing spectacular kills the whole day. But mostly all end up loving it. A day in the bush is for 95 % peaceful and the other five percent can be impressive moments with their own beauty. There is nothing like a one-hour sequence of kills and fights in the bush. Only men create something like that.

Ute Sonnenberg, rohoyachui.com