Winged Migration

Winged Migration, a film by Jacques Perrin, is an incredibly beautiful and captivating documentary. The story follows the large birds of this world that travel vast distances every year to find warmer climates. They create camera techniques that have never been used before, and the amount of love, energy, and time that went into this film completely shows. Each shot is beautifully and artistically created, being able to literally fly next to these birds is a remarkable achievement. For the first time we are no longer spectators of this journey across the globe, we are part of it every step of the way. The cinematography is able to keep our attention throughout the duration of the film regardless of the fact that there is no dialog and little narration. The communication with the audience rests on the ability for the composer to create a sound landscape to fit the story of the film. Through watching the making of the music for Winged Migration, it was clear that the success of this film relies heavily on the soundtrack, and they succeeded in achieving music as beautiful and commanding as the images on the screen.
The most incredible thing about this film is the persistence and relentless nature of the filmmakers. Through plane crashes, harsh weather, rough terrain, and creative technical obstacles, they filmed through it all for over 4 years. I am actually really interested in how they budgeted this, with over 500 crewmembers, shooting on all 7 continents (multiple times). It would seem as if this would take at least a decade of solid sales to just begin to makeup for the production costs.
This is a magnificent film, and I think that everybody should get a chance to see it, especially if you have a nice big screen to watch it on.