Alby Mangels

Albertus Zwier "Alby" Mangels (born 16 November 1948) is a Dutch-born Australian adventurer and documentary film-maker widely remembered for his "World Safari" adventure travel films (World Safari I, World Safari II, and World Safari III).

Early life

Mangels, who immigrated to Australia as a child in 1956, worked in a large variety of jobs, his last being for John Andrae in Murray Bridge doing brickwork.

Work

He set off in 1971 with friend John Fields on what was supposed to be a one-off trip. It turned into a six-year odyssey through several continents, which they filmed. The resulting film, first shown in Australia in 1981, was a considerable success and Mangels continued to travel through the 1980s, filming all the way. Two more World Safari films were made from this subsequent material.

The films

The films featured Mangels and his constantly-changing cast of companions travelling, on a shoestring budget and seemingly with little forward planning, throughout various wild areas. Mangels took a cavalier approach, both to natural and human hazards, relying on a variety of rickety vehicles, losing his ship to fire, travelling through a number of areas where guerrillas were active, and becoming involved in a number of unusual business enterprises. Mangels discovered that audiences responded to his risk-taking behaviour and featured more and more of it in his later films. While he may have played up the risks in some cases, he and his companions suffered a number of serious accidents and injuries along the way, the most notorious being an accident during the early filming of "World Safari II." An accident resulted with his friend Piers Soutier becoming a quadripalegic and soon dying from complications. Mangels chose to continue the film.

Mangels (and Field) also spent some time living with the local inhabitants in many of these locations, often working for room and board or just to get to know the local culture of each area.

Mangels became famous for an array of attractive female travelling companions, with a quota per film approaching that of James Bond. Mangels did point out (on-camera in his third film when meeting another one who had seen his previous films) that with the years it took to make each film the numbers were not so unusual.

Mangels also has a strong conservation theme running through all of the films. Mangels' voiceover narration for the films, as well as the many places he chose to visit, often emphasizes the need for the preservation of both wild places such as forests, and wild animals.

He was one of the pioneering travel advocates of the 1970s, showing the possibility of traveling as a way of life, similar to what Peter Jenkins and William Least Heat Moon had done with their bestselling travel books of the 1970s and 1980s.

After the financial failure of the third World Safari film in the late 1980s, Mangels dropped out of the public eye for several years.

Controversy

Mangels was often criticised for fabricating events during the making of his documentaries. On one occasion, he was accused of throwing his dog out of a moving vehicle to add drama. He denies this, with the camera only catching the dog hurtling out of the vehicle. It is unclear whether the dog jumped when he saw some kangaroos as Mangels claimed or whether it was thrown.

Some consider these moments to be amusing quirks since they often appear to be deliberate attempts by Mangels to add humour to the otherwise more serious "real" events.

1990s

In the late 1990s, much of the material from the "World Safari" films was recycled and re-edited into a series of twenty-six one hour episodes called "Adventure Bound," and broadcast on the American cable network, The Travel Channel (and on other networks around the world). Further episodes of more recent travel by Mangels were also filmed and broadcast.

A companion book to the films, "Alby Mangels' World Safari," was published in the 1980s. Lynn Santer recently authored Mangels's authorized biography and Australia-based JoJo Publishing has agreed to publish it.

External links

* [http://www.albymangels.com.au Alby's Official Website]
* [http://members.optusnet.com.au/alcalder2/alby.htm Biographical Site, including sightings]
* [http://www.albymangels.com Site updated often with Alby news]
* [http://www.jojopublishing.com/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?art_id=239&nav_cat_id=141&nav_top_id=69 Alby Mangels new Biography]