Social & External
A tv documentary about a domestic hippo named Jessica and her love for sweet potatoes. Narrated by filmmaker John Waters.
Iceland is one of the wildest places on earth. You could be caught up in the midst of snowstorms and blizzards, but you are never alone... Although tourists from all over the world have started a silent invasion, nature keeps on winning.
The Alps – wild mountains, extreme lives, but also a magical world. This majestic mountain range connects eight countries and reaches heights of up to 4,000 metres above sea level. At a length of 1,200 kilometres, the Alps form both a connecting bridge between western and eastern Europe and a high barrier between southern and central Europe. The mountains act as a mighty water reservoir and continental watershed, feeding innumerable rivers that flow into three different oceans. Their highest peak, Mont Blanc, is surrounded by long, soaring mountains with ice-covered slopes. These great summits are just one reason the so-called “Roof of Europe” continues to fascinate – across the continent and around the world. The incredible diversity of landscapes, flora and fauna makes the Alps a unique natural treasure at the heart of Europe.
Norman Smith has dedicated his life to protecting and relocating the snowy owls from Boston’s busiest airport runways. Called “the Owl Man of Logan Airport,” Smith has single-handedly relocated more than 900 snowy owls, creating the blueprint for how airports across the US and Canada can manage wildlife conflict.
Bonobos show a particularly pronounced sexual activity and an extraordinarily broad spectrum of sexual contacts for primates. These also extend to non-reproductive life phases and partner combinations. For example, homosexual contacts and sexual contacts between young animals or with adults are frequent, and females are ready to mate throughout the menstrual cycle. Bonobos use sexual contacts not only for reproductive purposes, but also in the context of social conflicts, where they have a clear tension-reducing or peacemaking function.
An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
For many years lions and hyenas have competed hard for meat. Both control each other, stealing and killing each other. But in this game, both survive and no one prevails.Their destinies are united. This is the story of the ancestral confrontation between the most iconic predators of Africa
Recent studies show that insects are in decline across the globe and there may be a direct connection between the current climate crisis and these declining populations. DESYNCHRONIZED focuses on Pope Canyon Queens, a beekeeping and queen breeding company in Northern California. Pope Canyon Queens is currently trying to rebuild after the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex fires destroyed their farm, shop, and half of their hives. Their crucial work to breed honey bee queens with stronger genes fortifies beekeepers' hives across the country while they face the effects of climate change and unregulated industries. Dr. Nicholas Teets, PhD Entomology, explains how shifts in phenology are predicted to cause bigger issues. Howard Goldstein, Senior Forest Ecologist at the Prospect Park Alliance explores how community gardens and green spaces in large metropolitan areas may help insect populations recover from loss of habitat and food scarcity.
Weighing more than 15 tons, a sperm whale has a brain larger than any other animal on earth and is considered one of the more social whale species. Over the years, Patrick Dykstra has worked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to learn how whales communicate, how they perceive other creatures in the water, and how they behave in his immediate presence. With sensitivity and experience, he gets closer to whales than nearly anyone else, leading to once-in-a-lifetime experiences and personal bonds with specific whales.
Animals shock us with the most bizarre appearances - some even look like they've been dressing up. But the weird and wonderful shapes and colours of nature are vital to the animals' lives. Sometimes they're disguised to help blend in, other times they are designed to stand out and show off. But whether it's a monkey in make-up or a salamander's toxic stripes.
From space, our planet appears as a tiny blue dot in the vastness of space. Blue, because 99% of all living space on Earth occurs in the Ocean. But the seas are under threat. The industrialization that has occurred in the oceans over the last century mirrors the events that triggered mass extinctions on land. As we learn of the ecological crimes occurring worldwide, we also uncover the shocking truths happening on our own shorelines.
An alien species is out of control in America - the Burmese python. Breeding more and more, swallowing bigger and bigger prey, they're proving even humans are fair game. Can anything stop these man-eaters before it's too late?
Composed of serious and funny musical scenes, an exploration of the virtues of translation and desire for communication between humans and birds. Told by a narrator from the future, after the sixth mass extinction, an observation of the attempts made to establish a possible exchange.
The community of Woodberry Down in Hackney rallies to save a beloved local plane tree from development.
South Florida is under siege from a new invasive species. This time, they're man-eaters, African Rock Pythons. These lethal giant constrictors are one of nature's most aggressive snakes.
Wolves divide and fascinate us. 150 years after they were driven to extinction in Central Europe, they are returning slowly but inexorably. Are they dangerous to humans? Is it possible to coexist? Using Switzerland as a point of departure, where wolves have returned in the very recent past, this documentary sheds light on the wolf situation in Austria, eastern Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and even Minnesota, where freely roaming packs of wolves are more common sight.
Documented in television documentaries for over 40 years by the BBC and other broadcasters around the world, the Marsh Pride is the most filmed pride of lions on Earth. In this film, the Marsh Pride battle for survival in Kenya's famous Maasai Mara Reserve, which has become a magnet for tourists, many of them keen to see the pride for themselves. A tale of shifting loyalties, bloody takeovers and sheer resilience, the lions’ story is told by those who filmed them, tried to protect them and lived alongside them, as well as some who ultimately wanted them dead.
The wolf was almost completely eradicated in Europe over the past few centuries. The species also disappeared from the Netherlands 150 years ago and it was believed that this was forever. Only small populations survived in the large forests of Eastern Europe. In recent decades, not only did the wolf get legal protection, it also started a remarkable comeback. With time this magnificent animal found its way back from Poland through Germany to the Netherlands and Belgium. The carnivore, around which there are many myths and which is very often portrayed as bloodthirsty, welcomed back by many and despised by others. Are wolves really that dangerous to people? This exceptional documentary follows the journey of a young, lone wolf which grows up in eastern Germany and then head westwards on its search for its own territory and a consort to finally settle down in the Netherlands to found there the first permanent wolf pack since the extermination of the species long time ago.
African Cats captures the real-life love, humor and determination of the majestic kings of the savanna. The story features Mara, an endearing lion cub who strives to grow up with her mother’s strength, spirit and wisdom; Sita, a fearless cheetah and single mother of five mischievous newborns; and Fang, a proud leader of the pride who must defend his family from a once banished lion.
During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history: international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes: a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.
The film is a panorama shot-scene lasting just under a minute. The panorama film, as coined by Lumière, is a moving-camera shot--usually accomplished by placing the camera on a moving transport, such as a boat or train.
In Angola's mist-shrouded highlands, three KhoiSan master trackers embark on a spiritual quest to rediscover the legendary "ghost elephants" of Lisima, creatures presumed lost but remembered in ancestral trance, ritual, and memory.
Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.
These children live in the four corners of the earth, but share the same thirst for learning. They understand that only education will allow them a better future and that is why, every day, they must set out on the long and perilous journey that will lead them to knowledge. Jackson and his younger sister from Kenya walk 15 kilometres each way through a savannah populated by wild animals; Carlito rides more than 18 kilometres twice a day with his younger sister, across the plains of Argentina; Zahira lives in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains who has an exhausting 22 kilometres walk along punishing mountain paths before she reaches her boarding school; Samuel from India sits in a clumsy DIY wheelchair and the 4 kilometres journey is an ordeal each day, as his two younger brothers have to push him all the way to school…
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
A young penguin, driven by his instinct, embarks on his first major trip to an unknown destination.
The life of Bambi, a male roe deer, from his birth through childhood, the loss of his mother, the finding of a mate, the lessons he learns from his father, and the experience he gains about the dangers posed by human hunters in the forest.
A nature documentary centered on a family of chimps living in the Ivory Coast and Ugandan rain forests. Through Oscar, a little chimpanzee, we discover learning about life in the heart of the African tropical forest and follow his first steps in this world with humor, emotion and anguish. Following a tragedy, he finds himself separated from his mother and left alone to face the hostility of the jungle. Until he is picked up by an older chimpanzee, who will take him under her protection.
Carefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.
What does being a woman really mean? How do women live the status society reserves for them? A group of women, beautiful or not, young or not, gifted with motherly instinct or not, answer before Agnès Varda's camera.
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
Veteran naturalist Sir David Attenborough tells the story of a remarkable group of gorillas, from his first encounter in the '70s to the present day.
Although first glance reveals little more than stones and sand, the desert is alive. Witness moving rocks, spitting mud pots, gorgeous flowers and the never-ending battle for survival between desert creatures of every shape, size and description.
Described as being a film about determination, danger and the ocean’s greatest depths, James Cameron's "Deepsea Challenge 3D" tells the story of Cameron’s journey to fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming an explorer. The movie offers a unique insight into Cameron's world as he makes that dream reality – and makes history – by becoming the first person to travel solo to the deepest point on the planet.
Dive into our planet's greatest mysteries with a team of international underwater cinematographers as they explore the breathtaking bond between humanity and the ocean.
An unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).
A newborn monkey and its mother struggle to survive within the competitive social hierarchy of the Temple Troop, a dynamic group of monkeys who live in ancient ruins found deep in the storied jungles of South Asia.
