Documentary Unit - Research into a Documentary, The Last Orangutan Eden (2015)

The Last Orangutan Eden is a documentary that documents the work being done to maintain the orangutan population in the jungles of Northern Sumatra. It shows how one conservationist group attempts to teach the baby orangutans the survival skills they require before they are released back into the wild.

Interviews are often given on the move while the conservationists are working with the apes and feel more like general conversations rather than interviews. It works really well as it gives the documentary a more natural feel to it, the documentary feels in no way choreographed and, like I said, it feels natural. The presenter Chris Morgan takes you through the steps taken by the conservationists in intricate detail, from where they look for the orangutans, how they save them from abuse/poor habitats and the studies undertaken to understand their behaviour, to how they use all this information to teach the orangutans to cope in the jungle on their own.

The majority of this documentary is well told from the images they used. The images tell the story without the narration, the narration purely helps move the documentary and keep the audiences interest. I feel that this is the key to the documentary's success, the images of the orangutans are often very powerful and help explain the situation to the viewer, thus allowing the audience to attach themselves to the orangutans while also informing them of the treacherous conditions these orangutans are often found in.

A large portion of the documentary focuses on the orangutan named Udin, who lived a horrific early life, being beaten by savages and having his mother killed in front of him, spent three years recovering in quarantine and went on to master the art of climbing, swinging from branch to branch, to the uncontrolled joy of the conservationists and the filmmakers.

Orangutan orphan, Udin, clinging onto a tree branch

Udins story is very well told, grasping onto the emotions of the audience while educating on the appropriate ways to handle and care for a young ape such as Udin. The shots were well done and like I said before, could tell the story on their own.

Though not as well told and shot as Attenborough's Planet Earth or Blue Planet, this documentary is still very well made and worth watching.