I Can Haz Wildebeest?

Related Content

• "Surviving Progress": Looking Into Mankind's Bleak Future
  April 18, 2012
• Jane Goodall's Fight Over Baby Food, Chairman Bao Wants to Race, and More Pizza
  August 16, 2011
• Sentimental Journey: Traveling in 1957's S.F. Bay Area
  December 28, 2011
• 5 Tips for Feeling Like You've Accomplished Something By 30
  January 31, 2012
• Top 10 Dive Bars in San Francisco
  December 21, 2011

More About

• Chris Palmer
• Indiana Jones
• Jane Goodall
• Jeff Corwin
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Wildlife filmmaker seems like the best job ever, getting paid to lie on the Serengeti, tundra, riverbank, ice floe, sea floor, or branch, with a very expensive camera, surrounded by animals. But maybe it sucks? Maybe waiting around for animals to wander past is as interminable as waiting for your cat to look your way when you're shooting your Christmas card? Chris Palmer would know: He's been shooting wildlife for more than 25 years, producing more than 300 hours for television and film. For the past good while, however, he's been chained to a desk, like Indiana Jones teaching class, completing his book, Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom. The guy speaks his mind (Jane Goodall calls it “a very important and much-needed book”), striding into the ethics of nature filming like a man who needs a money shot with a croc before sunset — there's apparently a money shot in wildlife filming, which makes Palmer crazy. And some filmmakers rent animals from game farms for staged aggression, which makes him insane. Last month, he wrote a Huffington Post piece with Peter Kimball, slamming Shark Week for focusing "only on presenting graphic, sensationalized animal violence." Then they went after a whole industry, stating, "One of the least expensive ways to create content is to send someone like Jeff Corwin or the late Steve Irwin to grab at animals and make them seem menacing and dangerous." Why is this guy not on TV?
Mon., Aug. 30, 7 p.m., 2010