Africa (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Katrina Bartlam, Ben Aviss, Nick Easton, Felicity Egerton, Javotte Flatman, Felicity Lanchester
	Narrator: David Attenborough
	Country: GB
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: October 2016, VOD, 10" tablet
Synopsis: A BBC mini-series that focuses on wildlife and their habitats on the African continent.
Review: I haven't watched many Nature Documentaries since the revolutionary BBC Planet Earth (2006), which was one of my motivations to invest in a full-HD Home Cinema system back in 2009. I have started to watch one called Life (2009) and have now completed this Africa mini-series, which five episodes are entitled Kalahari, Savannah, Congo, Cape and Sahara to cover the different environments of the continent. What is interesting in such recent series is how the technique has evolved: they managed to put cameras at incredible locations for taking never-seen-before shots like a travelling inside an ant's nest. The cameras are often in motion, in extreme close-ups and use is also made of extreme slow-motion, like already was in Planet Earth. It is also interesting to see how the series tries to show familiar scenes under a new angle, for example we see for only 20 seconds the usual millions of Wildebeests crossing the crocodile-infested river (scenes I have seen on TV as a child already) to then rather focus on a species of lizards that jump from lion to lion to catch flies. The episode Cape shows for one of the first times the landscapes and wildlife of Mozambique which has been inaccessible for decades because of civil war. One thing that disturbs me however are the sound effects that are synchronized with slow-motion shots (or even normal speed ones). I am often too conscious that none of them were recorded on the spot and that they were added later on in studio. Anyway, such quality Documentaries always amaze me. It is only a pity a couldn't watch this one in HD on a decent size screen.
Rating: 7 /10