The Flying Doctors of East Africa – Werner Herzog

Herzog
The Flying Doctors of East Africa

Woven throughout the film are bits of an interview filmed in an airplane, flying over the mountainous African terrain. The camera is positioned behind the subjects, which creates a good vantage point for the audience; we are able to see the speakers while simultaneously being able to see out the window. This might be something to keep in mind while filming for this class, some of us might be filing in a car or van or maybe even a motor-scooter.

Occasionally the frame is straight out the window of the plane — I would imagine that these shots were filmed while the pilot and doctors were preoccupied by other (more pressing matters; such as flying the plane or arranging medical supplies, etc.) Most likely all of us will encounter times when it is inappropriate to film, either out of respect to the subject, or because it is irrelevant to the film — Regardless; this is a great time to capture some ‘b-roll’ (I think its called) film the atmosphere of the film, the environment.

Back on land, there was a back and forth between interviews with the doctors, and inside the makeshift hospitals and medical clinics. I was shocked to see the film take us INSIDE the operation room; blood and guts and everything, and not even the Hollywood versions, the real guts. After a moment I realized though, this is Africa in 1969, so the legalities are probably much different than we expect in current-day America.

The glue of the film I suppose the narrator — the film could still be coherent without the narrator, but in this case the narrator provide us with information, story and explanation of the circumstances, which in a way, makes the film more powerful.