This is Africa, in all its glorious cliches

After visiting two countries, Uganda and Tanzania, Australian film producer Benjamin Dowie came up with a gorgeous video, grandly titled “This is Africa”, and it is indeed worth watching. Nevermind that the 55 countries that make up the giant diverse continent of Africa cringe every time anyone says: “Oh, I really want to go to Africa this year!”

Besides the title and the opening — never start your travel video with a shot of your aircraft landing, through the clouds, please — it is as nuanced as a short travel video can be while still resorting to cliches. The right generic boxes of any “African” video are checked as well: poverty, shots of white people on safaris, Mt Kilimanjaro, wildlife and of course, poor half-naked children running behind cars, smiling.

These nitpicks aside, this is a great short video, shot and cut well, with right filters and tone, overlaid with great ambient uplifting music, and also manages to show daily street and rural life in these parts as much as tourists who try and skim bit below the surface — beyond the safaris — can.

THIS IS AFRICA from Benjamin Dowie on Vimeo.

In case you’re interested in the background ambient music: