At the Movies   / Big Cats

Five Big Cats and a Camera

Comments: This is the BBC version of the PBS Chasing Big Cats. It's one of the best and most entertaining Big Cat documentaries I've seen.

Summary: The face of a cheetah fills the screen, then its sleek and streamlined body hurtles by in slow motion. Suddenly you are able to see the grace and poetry of this magnificent cat as never before, to watch the remarkable effort of each stride and turn as it chases its prey to the death.

These innovative images were the work of Owen Newman and Amanda Barrett, who made their reputations filming the big cats of Africa as no one had done before. This 14-year retrospective of their work features the two filmmakers talking about how they managed to capture never-before-seen footage of big cats, including some that had been written off as impossible to film. To these two filmmakers, "impossible" was just a challenge to overcome. Driving into the night, armed with night goggles, infrared lights and cameras, they were the first to film leopards at night, uncovering a whole array of behavior that was new to science and filmmakers alike.