Wildlife Live: Austrian Federal Forests’ New Video Channel

The Austrian Federal Forests (Österreichische Bundesforste, ÖBf) have provided insights into the everyday lives of their staff among Austria’s forests, mountains, lakes, meadows and wild animals since the end of 2017. The concept and realisation of the channel was developed in co-operation with Cosmos Factory. What makes this project unique is that the staff members, including rangers, professional hunters, biologists and nature guides, do the filming themselves, using their own phones and cameras. “They see things most visitors to the forest never see, and we want to make these experiences available to everybody with an interest in nature,” says the director of Austrian Federal Forests, Rudolf Freidhager. Manfred Christ taught the staff the basic rules of film-making in workshops, then used the material filmed to produce a series of clips between 40 and 90 seconds long. The result is both authentic and fascinating, and provides an unusual perspective of Austria’s nature and wildlife.