The White Diamond was one of three documentaries released in theaters this year (in the U.S.) by legendary filmmaker
Werner Herzog (the others being the more widely seen
Grizzly Man, about a man who studied bears in Alaska, and
Wheel of Time, about the practices and rituals of devout Buddhists). In
The White Diamond, Herzog introduces us to
Dr. Graham Dorrington, a professor of aeronautics who is obsessed with weightless, floating flight, and who is testing the design of a new airship in a large hangar outside of London. Herzog and Dorrington travel to the rainforest of Guyana, where Dorrington hopes to fly the small dirigible over the jungle’s canopy and study the innumerable plants and animals living there with the hopes of finding new species and potentially discovering plants with pharmaceutical and healing benefits – a practice he calls “canopy prospecting”. [more inside]
posted by billysumday
on Nov 10, 2005 -
14 comments
