The Flying Doctors of East Africa

The German version is, in my opinion, a little better than the English version now available on DVD.

Interesting enough subject matter but the whole thing feels so blah.

Very interesting documentary, though the personal signature present in Herzog's later ones is missing here (it isn't even him narrating).

As Herzog says this is not a documentary but rather a Bericht (report). But to most, what Herzog calls a Bericht is what is traditionally considered a documentary. In any case, this makes for a very interesting view into the workings of the African Medical and Research Foundation and the tension between Western medicine and tribal beliefs about the body, health, sickness and death.

Pay attention and you will see Herzog's wonderful camera eye shining through what initially appears to be a dry information dump. After about five minutes I was transfixed.

Depiction of an ongoing venture that flies right in the face of my usual ultracynical view of the world and of humanity. I hope not *too* many of the people featured here were killed by AIDS

You can see the early genesis of Herzog's documentary style here, from the lingering shots, the occasionally quirky subjects and the strangely stunted interviews. The subject matter is interesting, if presented in a slightly dry way, but I think any Herzog fan would enjoy this for what it is, an early attempt.

Very much a "typical" documentary in the sense that it mostly lacks Herzog'z trademark quirks. He even calls this less a film and more a report. What this 45 minute film does is examine a culture that is very far removed from "civilization" in a very straightforward way, and it is actually quite interesting. The most amazing part was seeing the people's fear in ascending the four small steps into the doctors' medical trailer. This is worth seeing mostly for its content than its style.

Stands separate from Herzog's other documentaries in that it was commissioned purely to educate people on the work that this organisation does. It's still really interesting, especially the latter part of the film that looks at cultural differences in visual information processing and communication. It also makes a nice point of exposing the constructivist element of the more developed world's higher processing faculties, as opposed to any kind of "lack" in the Maasai people.