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Documentary film about the local employees in adventure tourism on the
Zambezi River (Zambia/Zimbabwe) and their perspectives on the post-colonial
setting around the Victoria Falls, 150 years after their “discovery” by Dr.
David Livingstone, the missionary and explorer.
The spectator is taken on a three days tour to the different locations and
activities at the Victoria Falls: White-Water Rafting, Bungee-Jumping, the
Hotelpool, the Sunset Cruise etc.
For the first time in the history of the extensively video-documented
adventure tourism in the area, a strong emphasis is put on the perspectives
of the local people and the hierarchies between employees and tourists.
The film questions the traveller’s stereotypical imaginations of “Real
Africa” and exposes the problematic issues of socio-economic development in
Livingstone, the tourism capital of Zambia, one of the poorest countries in
the world.
The film’s journey is exclusively commented by the local actors and it shows
some of the backstage realities in tourism: Porters and Raft-Guides give
insights into their work, the Director of The Livingstone Museum relates the
colonial history to the neo-colonial working conditions, a Government
Officer (Ministry of Tourism) explains the investment policies and the
competition with neighbouring Zimbabwe …
Throughout the film, entertaining and fascinating scenes of the river and
the various adventure activities visualise the commentary and are
compellingly inviting the spectator to join the ride into the ambiguities of
tourism development.
>From the footsteps of Mr. Livingstone to the modern “explorer” and, above
all, their service personnel, the film gives a voice to those actors, who
are, today, dealing with the complicated colonial heritage – Livingstone’s
heirs.
Main protagonist and intermediary between the tourists’ and the locals’
world is Vincent Mapulanga, a Raft-Guide who grew up in a rural Zambian
village and who got the opportunity to move up from a porter to become a
guide. He managed to leave the country, got trained in the USA and worked in
Austria for a company called Lemming Tours. Today he makes his living as a
postman in The Netherlands. Throughout the film, he narrates his personal
experiences that reveal a close linkage between tourism and migration
issues.
DVD, colour, English, 76 min., 2007
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