Namibia's Desert Kingdom

This Terra Mater Factual Studios production tells the fascinating story of how the largest animals on our planet survive in the oldest and most inhospitable desert on earth.

Director: Mike Birkhead

AFTER GAINING A DOCTORATE AND TWO YEARS POST-DOCTORAL WORK IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD MIKE LEFT TO JOIN LONDON WEEKEND TELEVISION IN 1984.

AT LONDON WEEKEND TV HE WORKED FOR FOUR YEARS ON A VARIETY OF PROGRAMMES IN THE CURRENT AFFAIRS AND FEATURES DEPARTMENT BEFORE GOING INDEPENDENT/FREELANCE TO MAKE FILMS FOR BBC, PBS, HTV/PARTIDGE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, WNET DISCOVERY AND ANIMAL PLANET.

MIKE SET UP HIS OWN COMPANY, MIKE BIRKHEAD ASSOCIATES, IN 1988. SINCE THEN HE HAS PRODUCED/DIRECTED MANY WILDLIFE TELEVISION PROGRAMMES INCLUDING HIS MOST RECENT PROGRAMMES 'RADIO GIBBON', 'AMBA THE RUSSIAN TIGER', 'CUCKOO' AND A 13 PART SERIES ' ECHO AND THE ELEPHANTS OF AMBOSELI'.

Director: Martyn Colbeck

For over 20 years award-winning filmmaker and photographer Martyn Colbeck, has been filming wildlife all over the world working mainly with the BBC’s world-renowned Natural History Unit in Bristol and contributing many sequences to BBC landmark series such as The Trials of Life, The Life of Mammals, Planet Earth and Nature’s Great Events as well as award-winning films on orang-utans, gelada baboons, pygmy chimpanzees and desert elephants. He has won awards at the prestigious Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and Wildscreen International and Environmental Film Festival as well as an Emmy as part of the camera team on Planet Earth plus three BAFTA nominations as a member of the camera teams of Wild Africa, The Life of Mammals and Planet Earth.

Martyn is well known for his work with African elephants filming and photographing them throughout Kenya, Namibia and the Congo. He also won awards for the BBC series Africa featuring his sequence of fighting giraffes in Namibia.

Austria
2013
53 Min.
German
1
Director: Mike Birkhead, Martyn Colbeck
Script: Martyn Colbeck, Mike Birkhead
Cinematography: Martyn Colbeck
Editing: Matt Meech
Music: David Mitcham
Narrator: Otto Clemens
Nominations: Best Postproduction 2014
Website URL: www.terramater.at