Namib: Surviving the Sand Sea

A documentary that explores how life thrives in one of the harshest environments on Earth

Namib: Surviving the Sand Sea is an independently produced natural history documentary filmed in 2016 and 2017 about the adaptations of Namib Desert flora and fauna. The film is currently being shown in school classrooms throughout Namibia to learners of various ages as part of a capacity building initiative in environmental education.

"Namib: Surviving the Sand Sea explores life in one of the driest places on Earth, the hyper-arid Namib Desert. An abundance of unique and remarkable organisms call this seemingly inhospitable land their home. The filmmaker, Oliver Halsey, spent over a year getting to understand and film various desert organisms at Gobabeb, a scientific research station in the central Namib.

This documentary takes a close look at the natural history of several unique desert-adapted plant and animal species including, the Namib Dune Ant, scorpions, !nara and Welwitschia. It follows the work that several scientists at Gobabeb are undertaking in order to better understand this magnificent and otherworldly environment, and seamlessly merges research endeavour with stunning time-lapse photography capturing daily changes in the desert.

The Namib Sand Sea is inscribed as World Heritage for all four natural history criteria: spectacular natural beauty and superlative natural phenomena; outstanding global examples of geological and geomorphological processes; universally significant ecological processes; and extraordinarily special biodiversity. This documentary will instil an appreciation of the unparalleled Namib, and show why it is special for Namibians - and the world."

- Gobabeb Research and Training Centre