Educational Media Reviews Online

This program is part ethnography of the sea-faring Vezo people of Madagascar and part chronicle of a three-week French ecological expedition to study long-lived Baobab trees in Madagascar. Six Baobab varieties are found only on this African island nation and they are threatened by deforestation owing to slash-and-burn agricultural practices. Latin species names (Adansonia grandidieri) mix with common adjectives (awesome!) that describe the scenery, which has seldom been filmed because if its remoteness. Many of the study areas were only accessible by boat so French biologist Cyrille Cornu and his translator Wilfried Ramahafaly relied heavily on Vezo sailors and their experience with these forests of Upside-Down Trees.

A charming story of a Vezo family taking refuge from a hurricane inside a Baobab tree includes a look at the cavernous interior of that specimen. The crew is shown collecting leaves, bark, and sap and measuring the girth of some truly gigantic trunks. Welcome silence in the narration when individual trees are first shown will allow viewers paying attention simply to gasp at their unusual appearance. Staying fully awake could be a challenge for students, however, especially if they view this after lunch. Thüryn Mitchell’s, deliberate, hushed-voiced narration throughout, along with quiet dreamy music or the sound of surf in the background, could lull even the most dedicated future forester or conservationist into nodding off.