Something Else

Summer is here at last. Or is it? Given that glimpses of the sun are about as convincing as government assurances that the country is out of recession, shouldn't you start heading somewhere exotic? Bradford, for example.

The recession has spawned a variety of yuppie-lifestyle substitutes. Visitors to the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television are currently forgoing a flight to an African wildlife reserve and instead having the holiday of an afternoon, courtesy of the museum's giant IMAX screen.

Africa - The Serengeti offers a 40-minute reproduction, not just of your average safari, but an entire self-sustaining eco-system. Magnified by the world's largest film format (70mm) and amplified by surround sound, the residents of the East African Serengeti grasslands are shown migrating together and eating each other. Hundreds of thousands of tiny mole rats, wildebeest, giraffes et al were filmed by a crew from the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They could record but not intervene to stop animal-on-animal cruelty.

'If you aren't looking for lunch you're likely to be someone's lunch,' muses NMPFT press officer, Penny Fell, who has watched the film three times since it opened last week. She hopes the quality of the images will discourage the planet's tourist life from trampling over the real thing. 'It's not as addictive as the Rolling Stones in concert, where people come back 18 times, but it's early days.' David Attenborough must be quaking in his boots.

Tues-Sun to Nov, Pictureville, Bradford (0274 732277) pounds 3.80 / pounds 2.60

(Photograph omitted)