Documentaries

Wildlife cinematographer Danny Schmidt plunged into Colombia’s remote Magdalena River Valley earlier this year to document the plight of the critically endangered brown spider monkey in a project for National Geographic. Schmidt and camera operator Federico Pardo had just eight days to locate the rare albino spider monkeys (their albinism is a genetic abnormality cause by habitat degradation), record their story and capture the fragile environment in which they live.

Lion Ark, the documentary about the rescue of 25 lions from circuses in Bolivia and their journey to freedom, has been voted the Audience Award out of all features at Yes Film Festival in Columbus, Indiana. The Yes Film Festival Audience Award comes with a $500 prize, which has immediately been donated towards helping 33 lions rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia reach a new life in South Africa before Christmas.

The Hadza: Last of The First chronicles the lives of the Hadzabe tribe of Tanzania, possibly the last true hunter-gatherer group on the planet. The film, to be released digitally by Journeyman Pictures starting today, is directed and produced by Bill Benenson. The Hadza: Last of the First was shown at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and is produced in association with The Nature Conservancy, one of the most highly regarded non-profits in the world.

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has released the trailer for Moving Images, a SMPTE film project aimed at documenting the history of motion-imaging technology. The production team has captured more than 48 hours of interview footage and gathered archival material from the past 100 years, and drew from these extraordinary sources to create both a first-look preview for screening in 4K at the 2015 NAB Show and, more recently, a recut version newly released for public viewing at http://www.smpte100.org. Production of the feature-length documentary is dependent on further funding.