Content
Most programs or 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.
Although almost all have a human presenter, the role varies widely, ranging from explanatory voiceovers to extensive interaction or even confrontation with animals.
Well-known nature documentary makers and presenters include Oscar-winning Bernhard Grzimek, Sir David Attenborough, Richard Brock, Jacques Cousteau, Marlin Perkins, Heinz Sielmann, Hugo van Lawick, Jeff Corwin, Mark Strickson, Neil Harraway, Steve Irwin, Nigel Marven, Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente and Marty Stouffer.
The Panda Awards for nature documentaries are given every two years, by the Wildscreen Trust, in Bristol, UK.
Most documentaries are for television and are usually of 45–50 minutes duration, but some are made as full-length cinematic presentations.
Such films include:
- Animals Are Beautiful People
- Serengeti Shall Not Die
- The Last Paradises: On the Track of Rare Animals
- The Living Desert
- March of the Penguins
- The Leopard Son
- Among The Great Apes With Michelle Yeoh
- Winged Migration
In addition, the BBC's The Blue Planet and Planet Earth series have both been adapted for theatrical release.
Read more about this topic: Nature Documentary
Famous quotes containing the word content:
“Yet the New Testament treats of man and man’s so-called spiritual affairs too exclusively, and is too constantly moral and personal, to alone content me, who am not interested solely in man’s religious or moral nature, or in man even.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light,—to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem that its true success! But the pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and made into manure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)