“What could you ask for more ?: a tuna scramble, the full moon, fire, warm, the Kalahari desert & mldr; & rdquor ;. These words are from Unai Canela, at dusk, preparing dinner with her father, the prestigious nature photographer Andoni Canela, after a hard day looking for cheetahs in Botswana. It’s just one of the many moments they share in the documentary film. panthers (Wanda Natura), which this Friday, November 5, hits theaters throughout Spain.
Both of them, father and son, they have traveled for four years all over the world, camera in hand, searching the most remote places for eight endangered felines. A way to record the beauty and majesty of these animals, whose ecosystem is increasingly fragile, and, at the same time, a wake-up call for all of us to try to protect them. Andoni and Unai’s grain of sand is panthers, a documentary journey and, at the same time, a vital and growth journey for both.
It was in the Andes, in the mountains of Chilean Patagonia, where the idea for the film was born. “It happened after watching a cougar disappear over the horizon after a frustrated hunting attempt. With that vision and the cold wind in my face, I began to think about it: go out in search of all the big cats on the planet, & rdquor; explains Andoni Canela.
The list of screenings programmed for this work can be consulted at Panteras.org, and the protagonists are open to on-demand screenings Upon request with a minimum of attendees.
The documentary shows the life of the fauna and, at the same time, the vital growth of father and son
Travel companions
“At the beginning of the project, I suggested that my son accompany me on trips and he accepted without hesitation and since then he has been my travel companion. When we started, he was a twelve-year-old boy and he couldn’t reach my shoulder. Now a teenager, he is seventeen and taller than me & rdquor ;, says the photographer.
And so father and son have sought the jaguar and puma in America, Iberian lynx in Europe; to the lion, leopard and cheetah in Africa, and the tiger and the snow panther in Asia. They have experienced extreme cold, excruciating heat, have suffered insect bites and once went without food during the trip, but all this has compensated them after the encounter with the animals they have persecuted so much. The final form is a documentary film that flees from the typical voice-over, which plays with the ambient sound, the conversations between father and son on the ground and a skillful offset between images and sound.
Andoni and Unai will program a la carte passes of ‘Panteras’
“It is a very transparent way of telling, with which we wanted that the viewer felt at all times as if he were by our side, on the trip& rdquor ;, comments Andoni Canela. The script is by Meritxell Margarit, Andoni’s partner and Unai’s mother, who knows the protagonists well.
The photographic version of the project arrived in 2019, with the book of the same name, panthers, in which the drawings that Unai made during the trip took on a special importance. They can also be seen here at the beginning of the film. Many of the notebooks that the teenager made during the trip were part of the jobs that his teachers had commissioned him in exchange for letting him travel during school time. “They have asked me to hand over the work, but I do this out of passion & rdquor ;, Unai says in the documentary.
Unai already starred in his father’s first documentary feature film in 2016, Unai’s journeyAnd, since then, Andoni has followed this path. “In recent years, I have been opting more for documentaries. The voices, the sound, the movement enrich the final result. And in our case, with felines, it gives a higher added value & rdquor ;, explains the photographer.
The sound of the places where animals live has in panthers a key importance. As well as the soundtrack, which includes several songs that Unai composed and sang during the trip.
The soundtrack includes songs that Unai composed and sang during the trip
Related news
“The movie doesn’t just talk about felines, it talks about a passion. It is the passion for nature transmitted by my father and that it has given me the energy necessary to spend countless hours frozen, tired, dehydrated or hallucinated by the ends of the world & rdquor ;, explains Unai
The documentary film also illustrates the profession of the nature photographer, who must be patient, constant and respectful of the environment. As Andoni and Unai comment in the film, it is necessary to be patient: “You have to wait. Wait and search & rdquor ;.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com