走进奥卡万戈

上影节看的，谁能想到看个自然风光类纪录片会热泪盈眶呢，结束时观众席上响起了一片的鼓掌声，我鼓掌是为记录片里这些人做的伟大的事业，也是感谢他们能把这个地方记录下来传递给我们。自然，野生动植物，河流，人类，战争，地雷这些词都联系了起来。很有感触的四点:一是很心疼大象，村落里大象头骨骸，还有一个躯干的，是一个小象的！一个国家捕猎大象不违法！捕猎者来自全世界各地！二是原来所谓的野火是人为故意的，但他们纵火捕猎也是为了生存呀，那谁错了？火是原罪吗？或许是缺乏对应的意识，但一直深处战争中的国家顾得了这个吗？所以交给时间吗？如里面那位土著民说的“我们以前也有过这个捕猎”，所以现在的“野火”也会成为以前吗？也看到了原来森林野火是如此的壮观和又残忍，莫名的心痛。三是战争，战争一中一个人的生命都变得渺小了起来。四是这些组织和参与一个项目的人，很敬佩他们能行动并且成功完成，而且还与政府建立沟通，寻求政府的协助，而且组织者很有前瞻性，若再往后推个几年再进行这个项目，这里还等得起吗？好想也像他们一样能有一个“伟大的项目”参与。

From the official website of NG:

The Okavango River Basin provides a vital source of water to about 1 million people, the world’s largest population of African elephants and significant populations of lions, cheetahs and hundreds of species of birds. However, this once unspoiled oasis is now under siege due to increasing pressure from human activity. From National Geographic Documentary Films, Into the Okavango chronicles a team of modern-day explorers on their first epic four-month, 1,500-mile expedition across three countries to save the river system that feeds the Okavango Delta, one of our planet’s last wetland wildernesses.

copyright NG

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Instead of focusing on one place, this documentary follows the scientific project led by ornithologists Steve, exploring three contries related to the Okawango Delta from upstream to downstream...It's an 80-days expedition to a place that has had no human intervention for millions of years, a place that is 'as perfect as it used to be'... In the end of the story, it becomes a spiritually transformative trip for Adjany, a young modern girl from Angola who is a refugee from the civil war and had no hope for her own country at the onset.

she said:

"What used to be my grandmother's apartment? ... I remember we are rushing to the toilet inside, all my cousins uncles. Aunts parents, my grandparents around a week in the corridor ...(The war) impacted our possibility to think a long-term , people saying now we don’t make plans for 5-10 years, history tells you that is the 'now' that matters ...can you make money now? can you support yourself now ? ...In the past 10 years Angola has changed so much. Because of development of building infrastructure and massive irrigation schemes..."

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"We are setting on to do something no one has ever done before. Find the source and follow the water all the way down to the Delta. Try to figure out what’s happening to 3 countries rely on this watershed. No one is connecting them. I wanna bring me to water source of the Okavango...

Steve asked the researcher that can join the project and one of my university teachers thought I would be crazy enough, it was literally a leap of faith... "

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As the movie states in the begining, one of the truths about the modern world is that people are becoming increasingly 'detached from each other' . There are fewer and fewer places for wildness in the human-made world, as the film shows, even places like Okawango face challenges such as less water and space for the indigneous inhabitants...

For today's human being,wild places like Okawango represent one of the few places that are out of human control.

The feeling of losing control is despiced by most of people...

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Undoubtedly, "Into the Okavango" has received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike for its stunning cinematography, compelling storyline, and informative portrayal of the Okavango Delta and its inhabitants.

For me, what a impressive moment when Mr. Water incorporates with a local bird to hunt honey for a hole in a trunk. As a bee history and anthropology lover, it is really fascinating to see someone truely apply wild 'tricks' to connect with a multi-species ecosystem...

As Adjany said in the dawn of the documentary,

"Your senses surged up...

Atomes in our bodies change throughout this expedition, i feel so much deeper before I can actually connect and link different context of different things...

Very honest, here for now, I see the opportunity and I see the hope for things to change the country..."

As Steve wantS to express,

" I realise that everything in life is not like a machine, it doesn’t run itself. Wetland in the Delta above the water line is bulit by germites ....

Everything is connected"

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What a satire it is to watch such an ecological documentary in a city of desire...

Few audiences delve into the content of this film and the deep thoughts it wants to convey . Instead, people tend to focus on the beautiful scenes in the documentary and how visually stunning it is...

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1. 不算那种会引起深远感触的电影，但好像确实是我眼下的生活里正好缺乏的当头棒喝式的感官沉浸，用来告诉我现在所沉迷的烦恼都是人类无聊和自恋的表现。放下手机，放下所见的生活，去体会和更宏大的生命图景之间的连接。 2. 特别特别喜欢这部纪录片里的女性视角，女性讲述是如此生动、细腻和鲜活，更讶异地发现地球上如此遥远的土壤上的女性share和我一样的困惑和思考，因为女性是一种处境啊，即使context是全世界。听到那句“有时候重要的不是银行户头里有多少钱，而且你正在做什么”，是整部影片里我唯一一次真实地流泪。 3. 探险家说diversity和connection是世界的两大支柱，而这却是我们每个人都缺乏的东西。专门去Discovery的野生纪录片里寻找这些正是一种匮乏的表现，观众不过都是画饼充饥。 4. 扣了一星是因为某些应该存在的反思好像被广电总局剪过片一样如此刻意地从记述里抹去。有些画面不是不给旁白就能让人忽略的，比如说整片草原燃烧的大火，被整齐摆放的大象头骨，怎么可以用沉默就打发你让观众看到的这一切？整个纪录片一头一尾出现了两次大象沉入河水、血色在四周蔓延的画面，比elephant standing in the room还更难忽略的恐怕只有elephant bleeding in the river吧，但导演对此不置一词，配上的旁白是女主角说通过这次冒险她在自己的国家看到了希望。我不知道她看见的东西是怎么看见的，我只知道我看见了很多别的。 5. 最后，其实我私人最大的触动是探险家团队拖着四百公斤独木舟在荒野跋涉那十几天，Steve说 we have to believe it's worth it. 触动的原因不是因为觉得探险家很伟大，而且觉得，啊，原来如此，确实有比我的工作困难绝望艰苦一百倍的工作，yet human being still gotta explore. 我们可以的。我们可以做好这一切艰难而有意义的工作。