The Cow Jumped Over the Moon (1999)

Overview

For the Fulani nomads of West Africa cattle are their life-blood. To make way for rice-farming, they must move their herds seasonally, but this annual migration has been disrupted by years of drought. Traditional routes may or may not yield green pastures and enough water for the people and their cattle to survive the dry season. Enter modern satellite imagery, and with it, the ability to see the entire region and its resources from space. THE COW JUMPED OVER THE MOON documents the interaction between the tradition-based knowledge of West African nomads and the advanced technological knowledge of the United States, represented by agencies such as NASA and NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency). Connected by an extraordinary program that aims to preserve the "old" by using the "new," these radically different sets of information are expressed in contrasting images - from thousands of cows swimming the Niger River to enormous satellite dishes scanning the night skies.