Barack Obama Narrates A Gorgeous New Netflix Series: ‘Our Great National Parks’

Get set to get impressed by Netflix’s breathtakingly stunning new five-part sequence, Our Great National Parks, premiering April thirteenth. This stellar documentary is narrated and govt produced by Barack Obama, who has protected extra public lands and water than some other U.S. president. In case you’ve been longing to savor journey sights and sounds in distinctive wild yonder (significantly after two years of pandemic lockdown), then view this inviting unveiling of ravishingly different landscapes, seascapes, and stunning animal escapades. Its cinematography wows with grand sweeps of secluded terrain and astonishingly intimate close-ups of colourful creatures. “A fish that may stroll. Browsing hippos that wish to catch the waves. Species discovered nowhere else on earth,” says Obama in his soothingly optimistic voice. “Be part of me within the celebration of our planet’s best nationwide parks and wildernesses…. A journey via the pure wonders of our shared birthright.”

Ambitiously conceived and elegantly edited, this mission arced its manufacturing schedule over greater than three years, from preliminary brainstorms to closing cuts, whereas additionally navigating COVID-19 issues and precautions. Think about the sophisticated planning that spanned 33 expeditions in ten nations throughout 5 continents, spearheaded by govt producer James Honeyborne (of Emmy Award- and BAFTA-winning Blue Planet II), govt producer Tonia Davis and sequence producer Sophie Todd. “We got down to seize dramatic pure spectacles, reveal new conduct and expertise our nationwide parks as we by no means have earlier than,” explains Todd. “And to point out that, even should you’ve by no means set foot in a single, what occurs in them impacts each one among us. We wished to showcase the unimaginable habitats that exist globally. It’s one human concept we are able to all agree is an efficient factor!”

Logging greater than 1,500 days of filming, Our Nice Nationwide Parks pointed its digital camera lenses afar at Loango Nationwide Park in Gabon on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa; Tsingy de Bemaraha Nationwide Park in Madagascar; Yakushima Nationwide Park in Japan; Manuel Antonio Nationwide Park in Costa Rica; Kakadu Nationwide Park in Australia; the Nice Barrier Reef in Australia; Volcanoes Nationwide Park in Rwanda; Patagonia in Chile; Tsavo Nationwide Park in Kenya; and Gunung Leuser Nationwide Park in Indonesia.

Three of America’s most beloved wildernesses are applauded. About Hanauma Bay Nature Protect in Hawaii, close to the place Obama grew up, he says: “My mother used to inform me that when she was pregnant, she’d come and sit and take heed to the ocean and take a look at the waves lapping over the coral reefs. She used to joke that that was the rationale I used to be so calm: I had spent a variety of time right here even earlier than I arrived on the planet.”

Additionally filmed are acclaimed Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (offshore the Central Coast of California) and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Signed into legislation 150 years in the past throughout Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency, Yellowstone is taken into account the world’s first nationwide park. Globally, there are actually greater than 4,000 nationwide parks, tributes to a rising ardour for and dedication to preserve wild environments for future generations. Amazingly, roughly half of them had been established inside the final 50 years. “The formation of nationwide parks has been one of many best conservation success tales of the previous century,” says Honeyborne.

Motion-packed, pulse-racing animal scenes — akin to moms searching meals for his or her infants, males battling one another for territory area — drive episodes ahead.

“As storytellers,” explains Honeyborne, “we sought to … [find] methods to attach with as many individuals as attainable on an emotional stage — to have interaction us, make us snort and even assist us cry. We perceive how tales like these have the facility to maneuver folks on the deepest ranges.”

It took a mess of dreamers and doers to make this occur. Greater than 80 organizations, NGOs, analysis services and suppliers contributed their experience and vitality, together with greater than “400 folks on the bottom, working with native crews wherever we may,” continues Honeyborne. “Not solely did this guarantee we understood the native viewpoint, it additionally diminished the carbon footprint of our manufacturing. Our guides had been scientists, conservationists, park rangers and wardens.”

A riveting phase is filmed in Madagascar’s Tsingy de Bemaraha Nationwide Park, the place endangered Decken’s Sifakas (lemurs) leap exceptional distances amongst jagged limestone pinnacles of an enormous plateau to acquire meals within the surrounding forest. “Making an attempt to movie a uncommon animal in such a difficult location was formidable to say the least,” explains Briony Jones, assistant producer of Episode 1. “Becoming a member of us [were] James Aldred, a cover entry specialist who was in a position to rig and movie from tree platforms, and Miguel Willis, a rock climber. Finishing our workforce was native wildlife information Olivier Cadet Kesy and two park rangers, with out whom we might have been misplaced.” The park’s title means the place one can solely stroll on tiptoe. “Our boots saved getting caught in between the pinnacles and the feel of the limestone was so sharp and coarse, our garments and luggage saved catching on it and ripping,” continues Jones. “We discovered a household of sifakas with an eight-week-old child that we might attempt to observe over the following month. They moved round a big space of the forest, in a short time, with little warning! They might be quick asleep one minute after which utter a quiet woop woop woop to one another earlier than they had been instantly off, leaping toes first like kangaroos via the timber, leaving us behind to observe on foot via the dense thicket under. The workforce’s grit and willpower had been rewarded after we captured the rock crossing. Filming this from above with the drone actually gave a way of how precarious the crossing was and of the athletes these lemurs are. One flawed transfer would have been a catastrophe.” The chasms are humongous.

Spying very uncommon, fleeting animals is thrilling. “Tremendous Tuskers are tremendous elusive,” says Joanne Scofield, producer/director of Episode 3, which takes place in Kenya’s Tsavo Nationwide Park. “There are solely 30 or so of those monumental, iconic elephants left in Africa and Tsavo is dwelling to a 3rd of them. However discovering one in such an unlimited space isn’t any simple activity. With the assist of the Tsavo Belief and the Kenyan Wildlife Service we had been lucky sufficient to hunt out and movie one of many oldest bulls. We spent a whole day with him as he swaggered between waterholes, trying out the herds. He even fell asleep for an hour leaning on his gigantic tusks! [It was an] honor to accompany him via the bush and spend time in his enormous presence.”

“The primary time I visited Kenya, about 30 years in the past, I used to be a stranger,” says Obama. “This was the land of my father, who had handed away and whom I barely knew. However I had met my household. I visited the village that they got here from. I felt welcomed all over the place. And as my sister and I spent a number of days on safari, I felt one thing else: awe. The African bush…swept on without end with wide-open skies and wildlife that by no means appeared to finish. What a present to see the world anew, to see the place the place in the end all of us come from.”

In Chilean Patagonia, witness a delivery. “We arrived with Sergio Urrejola, a conservationist and vet from Tompkins Conservation who had been serving to us,” says Episode 2’s producer/director Emma Brennand. “We crouched within the grass and adopted the road of his finger as he directed our view: a feminine guanaco with a barrel-like stomach was on the again. She was clearly very pregnant and beginning to decelerate. I may completely relate. At this level, I used to be additionally 4 months pregnant. [She] quietly appeared up from chewing some grass as if nothing was about to occur, then turned barely to disclose the legs of a child guanaco ‘chulengo’ about to be born. Digicam operator Ryan Atkinson and I slowly crept to the sting of the herd so we may movie her. After a couple of minutes of standing up and sitting down a number of instances, the mom lastly discovered a gentle hummock and inside a few seconds the child guanaco was born. Nearly instantly the mom was checking the new child over and making an attempt to get it on its toes. Child guanaco can stroll inside minutes of being born. Quickly after, the herd circled again to greet the brand new arrival. It was an attractive second to expertise new life being introduced onto the Patagonia steppe. All of the extra poignant understanding that sooner or later I hope to return with my daughter (now nicknamed chulengo by the crew!) to point out her why this is without doubt one of the best nationwide parks on Earth.”

The splendidly surprising abounds all through the sequence. A one-ton leatherback turtle. A single gargantuan flower with petals that develop taller than an grownup human. An enormous Japanese cedar tree greater than a thousand years outdated.

Artistic, progressive photographers with state-of-the-art gear uncovered uncommon animal behaviors which are new to science and had by no means been documented earlier than, such because the “speed-dating” of blue whales (proven in Episode 4, produced/directed by Sarah Conner) and a fascinating underwater gathering of hippos. Filming Sumatran tigers in Indonesia (proven in Episode 5, produced/directed by Patrick Evans) was additionally a primary: Simply arranging the cameras required an arduous 10-day trek up mountains via leech-infested woodland.

It’s a present to have the ability to watch, from the consolation of your property, compelling goings-on in these awesomely complicated, faraway lands.

“Not solely do [national parks] nurture the best array of life on Earth, they regulate our local weather, clear our air, purify our water,” says Obama. “When humanity began to guard these wild locations, we didn’t understand how essential they might turn out to be. At this time, they’re a few of the final strongholds of wilderness and wildlife. Some are so distant that we’re simply beginning to unravel their secrets and techniques.”

A Netflix Documentary Collection, Our Nice Nationwide Parks is a creation of Wild Space Productions in affiliation with Larger Floor Productions (based by Barack and Michelle Obama) and Freeborne Media. To be taught extra about how safeguarding nature advantages people, animals and local weather well being, go to WildForAll.org. To share information and pictures of your favourite wild areas, use the social hashtag #WildForAll.