Finn Keyes | Current Affairs Editor
Friday night saw the landmark event in the calendar of DU Zoo Soc with renowned wildlife filmmaker James Honeyborne receiving Honorary Patronage of the Society before delivering an address along with special behind the scenes clips from ‘Africa’, Honeyborne’s landmark miniseries which went out earlier this year on the BBC. The inimitable David Attenborough was of course the voice of the series.
Honeyborne spoke with great depth and detail about what inspired and instigated the series and the mammoth undertaking that was the filming process itself. Despite wildlife filmmakers having been going to Africa since 1908, Honeyborne felt he could still make a film which was fresh and interesting by challenging perceptions of Africa with footage from lesser known African wildernesses such as the eerie, alien landscape of the ‘Mountains of the Moon in Uganda’. “There’s more to Africa than the Kalahari” was a point he was keen to make.
“Africa is infamous for its droughts and famines but its impact on wildlife is rarely seen on television and we felt that was important in discussing the future of Africa’s wildlife.”
The film also used cutting edge technology to give us new insights, the ‘Starlight Camera’ for instance allowed the team to capture footage and observe animal behaviour at night in a way that quite simply had not been possible before. The figures surrounding the film are staggering. A total of 2,000 hours of HD footage was amassed on 79 excursions to 26 different countries over the course of five years. It took the equivalent of 21,000 DVDs to store all this footage before it was finally pared down to six hours of television over a twelve week edit.
Honeyborne said that his job is “the privilege of giving nature a voice” and in this series the message of climate change and conservation resonated deeply. One of the most affecting scenes in the recent documentary was that of a baby elephant collapsing and dying from thirst, malnourishment and exhaustion as its mother, and the camera crew, looked on.
Honeyborne said that his job is “the privilege of giving nature a voice”.
This caused a great deal of controversy as many viewers demanded to know why the crew had not intervened to avert this tragedy. I asked Mr. Honeyborne about the incident after the lecture. He explained “There was nothing to be done, there was no forage left in the whole of Kenya for wildlife… Africa is infamous for its droughts and famines but its impact on wildlife is rarely seen on television and we felt that was important in discussing the future of Africa’s wildlife.” It is hoped then that the documenting of the tragedy of this one elephant will motivate people to do more to save elephants like him.
Mr. Honeyborne concluded the lecture with words of encouragement for young Irish wildlife film makers, referencing an Irish produced film entitled ‘On A River In Ireland’ which made waves at the prestigious Jackson Hole Film Festival in Wyoming just a few weeks previously.
