Arch of Light and Shadow

A documentary about forgotten pioneers of documentary filmmaking, Martin and Osa Johnson, from an era when filming in Africa was more dangerous than lions or malaria.

They met on Friday and were married on Sunday. Fleeing their parents' anger, they chose to spend their honeymoon among cannibals instead. Those encounters cost them their illusions, their camera, and nearly their lives.

Where others would have given up, American filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson risked everything to bear witness to vanishing wilderness. Their story captures a time when photography meant taking chances: at best failure, at worst death. Their work fascinated not only the general public but also Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin, and the British royal family. Yet our era has forgotten them.