2010
MARITIME AFRICA, ZANZIBAR
ÜBER DEN INSELN AFRIKAS, FOLGE: SANSIBAR
52 min. tv documentary
director: Thomas Wartmann
script / field producer: Marcel Kolvenbach
Producer: filmquadrat
SWR/ARTE
An aerial and cultural journey featuring Bi Kidude, Sufi singers, and Pemba‘s bat colonies.
A photographer in an inflatable boat, covering the island secrets of Pemba and Zanzibar. A high-end travel documentary series for international distribution. Photographer Matthias Ziegler is an Africa specialist. He has visited nearly every country on the continent on assignments for international agencies. Zanzibar, however, is new territory for him. He's come to the former slave island for a photo book – and this time he's not alone. To see the Tanzanian archipelago from the air, he has enlisted the services of ultralight pilot Richard Meredith-Hardy of England to fly him around in his FIB, or flying inflatable boat. Perfect conditions for an adventurous journey: as a world champion ultralight pilot, Richard and his FIB can take off and land practically anywhere – in theory. Matthias meets the most famous singer in Zanzibar, the centenarian Bi Kidude. The search for subjects leads Matthias and Richard from the old city of Stone Town and Nungwi to Zanzibar's largely untouched sister island of Pemba. They encounter boat makers and Sufi singers; discover "flying foxes", an endemic bat species; and taste the prized cloves cultivated by 108 year old Aladi.