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Clip description
With re-creations of a prehistoric tribe interacting with each other, the narration tells us that the survival of humankind has always depended on our ability to view and interpret the world, to feel for others and to think about the past and the future.
Curator’s notes
It must have taken a leap of faith for production company Beyond, and then the Discovery Channel through its subsidiary The Learning Channel, to see the possibilities for this series. It’s difficult to imagine a documentary that is harder to visualise for television. And yet the filmmakers have pulled it off. They have written it as part scientific mystery, part detective story. And their conclusions are just as extraordinary. Everyone on earth is related to the one tribe or family in Africa – it’s in our genes.
The filming for this three-part series took place around the world although, interestingly, Roger Scholes found Tasmania offered a full range of environments that he could adapt to re-create the earth of millions of years ago. He also chose his actors from Tasmanians who, he says, still know how to live in the bush and use their hands to make things. It’s certainly true that his re-creations look great. The narration script is read superbly by Hugo Weaving and makes complicated science very accessible – a credit to the writers, Roger Scholes and Andrew Waterworth.
