New web series uses drone to film Benin from the air

What does the West African nation of Benin look like from the sky? A young man from Benin was tired of negative stereotypes about his country and decided to film with a drone to get a bird’s eye view of his country. His footage gives new insights into Benin and its geography, sometimes revealing hidden places of striking natural beauty. 

Mawunu Feliho, a 23-year-old French-Beninese blogger, is the brains behind the series of short films which he has jokingly baptised "Fly shit only", which are all filmed with a drone. Since he first launched the project on September 14, 2016, Feliho has made 19 different two-minute-long episodes, each one focusing on a different region in Benin. He likes to focus his lens on areas that don’t usually get much coverage and that people might not know about. 

Inspired by the documentary series "Vu du ciel " (“Seen from the Sky”) by French photographer Yann-Arthus Bertrand, Feliho is interested in using his project to show off his country’s natural beauty, thus inspiring tourism from abroad and growing concern for the environment amongst people in Benin. In the first part of his series, Feliho focuses his lens on the Beninese capital, Cotonou. In the second part, he shows footage of the smaller towns between Cotonou and Parakou, which is located in the centre of the country. His next instalment will focuses on cities in the north of the country.