Animal film

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As animal film (often used interchangeably: Naturfilm) refers to documentary films about animals . Usually the natural behavior of one or more animal species is shown. Due to the escape behavior of many wild animals , camouflaged camera hides or wild animals that are used to humans are often used. Due to the wide range of film opportunities and the zoological and technical knowledge required for this, the animal filmmakers usually specialize in certain areas within the animal film division, such as underwater film or individual geographical areas.

The animal film is a sub-genre of the documentary film and must therefore be distinguished from the feature film in which animals play a major role. In animal films, humans have at most a moderating or relevant role on the sidelines, whereas in feature films with animals, a historical or fictional story about people and animals is in the foreground. Example of feature films with animals: Flipper , The Bear , The Horse Whisperer , Homesick , The Wilderness Calls , Back Home - The Incredible Journey , Hogi's Family (2009), The Fox and the Girl , Amy and the Wild Geese or Free Willy . Cartoons like the Madagascar series do not belong to animal films.

Classification

Some animal films were produced for the cinema, such as The Desert Lives (1953), Miracle of the Prairie (1954), No Place for Wild Animals (1956), Serengeti Must Not Die (1959), Rulers of the Primeval Forest (1959), Galapagos Landing in Eden (1962), The Last Paradises (1967), Europe's Paradises (1973), Mikrokosmos - The People of Grasses (1996), Nomads of the Skies - The Secret of Migratory Birds (2001), The Journey of the Penguins (2005), The White Planet (2006), Our Earth (2008), Our Oceans (2010), Serengeti (2011), Russia - In the realm of tigers, bears and volcanoes (2011).

Many animal documentaries have been produced as a series for television, among the most elaborate are our blue planet and planet earth , in Germany the series Expeditions into the animal kingdom and animals in front of the camera are particularly well known. The largest producer of animal films is the BBC .

The zoological science film is a special form of animal film . With scientific animal films, special techniques such as B. the Crittercam (a camera attached to the animal), time-lapse or slow-motion recordings document behavior or make very fast or very slow biological processes detectable. In this way, observations and research results can be achieved that are not accessible by other means. The “ IWF Wissen und Medien ” in Göttingen was a long-time producer of zoological research films and is now an archive and media publisher for universities and institutes that archives and keeps such films accessible.

Animal film festivals

The two most important animal film festivals worldwide are the Wildscreen Festival in Bristol , England, and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Grand Teton National Park , USA. Well-known European animal film festivals also include the “Grasduinen Natuurfilm Festival” in The Hague , Netherlands, and the “ Trento Film Festival ” in Trento , Italy.

The largest animal and nature film festivals in Germany are the NaturVision Film Festival (founded in 2001 in Neuschönau in the Bavarian Forest National Park ) in Ludwigsburg , the Green Screen (since 2007) in Eckernförde on the Baltic Sea and the Darsser Nature Film Festival (since 2005) on the Fischland peninsula. Darß-Zingst .

Well-known animal and nature films

Well-known animal filmmakers and animal film producers

literature

  • Gregg Mitman: Reel nature: America's romance with wildlife on film , Cambridge, Mass. [u. a.]: Harvard Univ. Press, 1999, new edition in the series Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics: Paperback (Second Edition), Combined Academic Publishers, 2009, ISBN 0-295-98886-X
  • Gabriele Teutloff: Great moments in animal films . Verlag Tecklenborg, Steinfurt 2000, ISBN 3-924044-87-2
  • Michael Bright: 100 Years of Wildlife. BBC Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84607-321-2
  • Animals in Film: A Modern Human History , ed. by Maren Möhring , Cologne [a. a.]: Böhlau, 2009

See also

Web links