cover image Tarantulas & Marmosets

Tarantulas & Marmosets

undefined. Metro Books (UK), $14.99 (238pp) ISBN 978-1-900512-37-4

Intrepid filmmaker Gordon has spent 11 years in the Amazonian rain forests making wildlife documentaries. Through this detailed account of reconnoitering locations, hiring local guides, setting up dangerous film towers, negotiating with indigenous populations and adjusting to local diets, Gordon provides a behind-the-scenes look at movie-making in the jungle. Set in Venezuela and Brazil, the book provides vivid descriptions of the tremendous labor that can go into just a few minutes of film, such as the digging of sand pits from which to stake out terrapin turtles laying their eggs. Though the title highlights two of Gordon's projects, one on the world's largest tarantula, the other on the world's smallest monkey, a plethora of other animals appear as well--including otters, anacondas, jaguars, jabiru storks and toucans. Gordon's more unusual experiences--sniffing a revolting hallucinogen with a Piaroa medicine man and witnessing the Satar Indians' painful initiation ceremony, which involves two-inch-long venomous ants--lighten the sometimes repetitive descriptions of the difficulty of transporting equipment and the frustrating slipups of an occasionally incompetent staff. Gordon's conversational tone is appealing, and while his descriptions of the scenery around him never soar, he does a fine job of drawing the reader into the ins and outs of his job. Photos. (May)