Social & External
How safe is the future of the world’s food? This documentary explores a growing crisis in world agriculture. Plant breeding has created today’s crops, which are high yielding but vulnerable to disease and insects. To keep crops healthy, breeders tap all the genetic diversity of the world’s food plants. But that rich resource is quickly being wiped out. (NFB)
From growing potatoes in Green Park, London, to transforming rabbit crates into seed boxes – just a couple of the many ingenious ways of supporting the war effort which are covered in this film from the Ministry of Information.
An exploration of a new paradigm of health, science, and medicine, based on the interconnections between us and nature.
A poetic journey through the paths and places of old Castile that were traveled and visited by the melancholic knight Don Quixote of La Mancha and his judicious squire Sancho Panza, the immortal characters of Miguel de Cervantes, which offers a candid depiction of rural life in Spain in the early 1930s and illustrates the first sentence of the first article of the Spanish Constitution of 1931, which proclaims that Spain is a democratic republic of workers of all kind.
In this short documentary from the Canada Vignettes series, a Saskatchewan grain elevator is moved across the snow-covered prairie to a new home after nearly a half-century of use. The film follows the lifting and transporting of the 9-storey, 200-ton structure, and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their town's one and only grain elevator.
This film recreates the true story of Tom Sukanen, an eccentric Finnish immigrant who homesteaded in Saskatchewan in the 1920s and 1930s. Sukanen spent ten years building and moving overland a huge iron ship that was to carry him back to his native Finland. The ship never reached water.
For ten years, Raymond Depardon has followed the lives of farmer living in the mountain ranges. He allows us to enter their farms with astounding naturalness. This moving film speaks, with great serenity, of our roots and of the future of the people who work on the land. This the last part of Depardon's triptych "Profils paysans" about what it is like to be a farmer today in an isolated highland area in France. "La vie moderne" examines what has become of the persons he has followed for ten years, while featuring younger people who try to farm or raise cattle or poultry, come hell or high water.
King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.
A look at man's relationship with Dirt. Dirt has given us food, shelter, fuel, medicine, ceramics, flowers, cosmetics and color --everything needed for our survival. For most of the last ten thousand years we humans understood our intimate bond with dirt and the rest of nature. We took care of the soils that took care of us. But, over time, we lost that connection. We turned dirt into something "dirty." In doing so, we transform the skin of the earth into a hellish and dangerous landscape for all life on earth. A millennial shift in consciousness about the environment offers a beacon of hope - and practical solutions.
The daily schedule is rational and step by step the farmer's tasks are carried out both in the household (ironing, making beds, raising children, making food) and in the yard (feeding animals, analyzing milk samples, making cheese, churning milk, work in the vegetable garden, collecting eggs). In the evening, she puts the children to bed and has some time left for some relaxing activities such as knitting or reading.
Proximity Designs is a sustainable development group that works to improve the lives of the rural poor in Myanmar. Proximity Designs boosts agricultural productivity by designing, producing, and distributing affordable products for people living on less than $2 a day.
For decades, migrant workers have worked the fields of Immokalee, harvesting tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, oranges and other produce that is then shipped across the United States of America. Many of the workers are undocumented, and attempting to keep their jobs even as federal migration crackdowns hover over the town. The Fields of Immokalee film follows the daily lives of tomato workers, from the 5:00am trips to the parking lot in hopes of finding day labor, to work sessions in the scorching mid-day heat, to child detention centers for migrant youth that have been separated from their families. Via these vignettes, the film offers insight into the most volatile political issue of our time.
This short documentary illustrates rural French Canadian life in the early 1940s. The film follows Alexis Tremblay and his family through the busy autumn days as they bring in the harvest and help with bread baking and soap making. Winter sees the children revelling in outdoor sports while the women are busy with their weaving, and, with the coming of spring young and old alike repair to the fields once more to plough the earth in preparation for another season of varied crops. One of the first NFB films to be produced, directed, written and shot by women.
Told in the cinematic tradition of classic westerns, “COWBOYS - A Documentary Portrait” is a feature-length film that gives viewers the opportunity to ride alongside modern working cowboys on some of America's largest and most remote cattle ranches. The movie documents the lives of the men and women working on these "big outfit" ranches - some of which are over one million acres - and still require full crews of horseback mounted workers to tend large herds of cattle. Narrated through first-hand accounts from the cowboys themselves, the story is steeped in authenticity and explores the rewards and hardships of a celebrated but misunderstood way of life, including the challenges that lie ahead for the cowboys critical to providing the world's supply of beef. “COWBOYS” was filmed on eight of the nation’s largest cattle ranches across ten states in the American West.
Sangwoodgoon was founded in the Anti-High Speed Rail Movement and Tsoi Yuen Village Movement in 2009. In 2012, Sangwoodgoon tries cultivating rice for the second time. This film records the rice planting process in spring and Dragon Boat Festival. Not only did the director experience the unpredictable nature of weather, questions for his companion are raised at the same time: How is the life as a farmer in Hong Kong when there is shortage of land and labour? Apart from documenting the non-traditional rice cultivating techniques, the film also wants to discuss about the relationship between farmer and nature, and the changing state of mind of protestors all the way through.
In such a difficult situation in Hong Kong agriculture, to local farmers, before expecting a good harvest, they have to first overcome the problems caused by agricultural policy implementation, land policy and urban development in Hong Kong. This film is about three middle-aged local organic farmers and their farming stories: A peasant leader, who faces political infiltration in organization, decides to quit and focuses on his farming; a rural woman who fights against North East New Territories development plan and taking care of her sick husband at the same time, decides to combine family life with her home farming; a sixty years old truck driver who decides to have a career change, trying to live a fearless and free life as a farmer.
Tom Jones, a shepherd who lived in one of the Ystradfechan Cottages at Old Farm, Treorchy, was employed by the Ocean Coal Company who owned the land above ground and coal (the Park and the Dare Collieries) beneath. A farrier who lived in the adjoining cottage tended to all the Park and Dare pit ponies. Tom Jones was known world-wide as the “Wonder Shepherd” for his remarkable skills as an animal trainer which, together with his concern for his flock, are recorded here.
He has everything that the destiny wanted and that he has been able to expand: fertile lands as far as the eye can see, cattle, exceptional wines and cigars matured in the long voyages of the boats coming directly from the Caribbean, more precisely from Cuba. He enjoys all this in his rich rural house, with his wife and two children, whom he very much likes, but which sometimes interrupt him to enjoy these pleasures. The disenchantment of the passionate routine always reminds him of the fabled memories of a moment in the past when, unexpectedly, he discovered in a handmaiden the surprising elevation of passion. Until the harlot appears to her at the Estate, untouched by the past fifteen years, purer than before and, even in her eyes, rejuvenated. But married, to a dangerous man.
In barely a century, French peasants have seen their world profoundly turned upside down. While they once made up the vast majority of the country, today they are only a tiny minority and are faced with an immense challenge: to continue to feed France. From the figure of the simple tenant farmer described by Emile Guillaumin at the beginning of the 20th century to the heavy toll paid by peasants during the Great War, from the beginnings of mechanization in the inter-war period to the ambivalent figure of the peasant under the Occupation, From the unbridled race to industrialization in post-war France to the realization that it is now necessary to rethink the agricultural model and invent the agriculture of tomorrow, the film looks back at the long march of French peasants.
The successes and failures of a couple determined to live in harmony with nature on a farm outside of Los Angeles are lovingly chronicled by filmmaking farmer John Chester, in this inspiring documentary.
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.
A close-up portrait of the daily lives of a pair of cows: told by way of some narrative-free, intimate POV photography, with plenty of close shot images, we follow the daily routine of these animals as they live what can only be described as mundane, boring lives - all with an ultimate purpose within the human food chain.
Sheds light on an alternative approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.
Viewers will get a look at Parker and Stone's thought process as they approach a new episode and the 24/7 grind they subject themselves to each time the show is in production. The documentary also includes in-depth interviews with Parker and Stone about their working partnership and reflections on highlights from their careers.
A documentary on the making of the three Godfather films, with interviews and recollections from the film makers and cast. This feature also includes the original screen tests of some of the actors for "The Godfather" film, and some candid moments on the set of "The Godfather: Part III."
A suburban wife who finds herself and the security of her family threatened by another seemingly friendly neighborhood mom.
When an ambitious event planner gets an opportunity she can’t refuse, she goes undercover as her boss and returns to her rural hometown. With the help of her family and the man she left behind, she pulls off the perfect spring retreat, but will she discover home is where her heart is?
A glimpse into the raw and simple power of nature through encounters with farm animals: the eponymous Gunda, a mother pig; two cows, and a one-legged chicken.
Tara needs to go back to Parable, Montana, the place that made her the happiest, in order to move forward after a messy divorce. Her handsome neighbor presents an unexpected twist.
A young widow and her nine year-old son spend a week at her family’s pear farm in Washington state, where they both fall in love with small town farm life, and she falls for the guy who has been managing the farm.
The wealthy stock dealer bequeaths his Montana farm to the three daughters provided they would live there together at least for a year.
At Payden Farms, Rose meets Tom Novak — a handsome “flower broker” who acts as a liaison between the farm and local distributors — and discovers that the farm is faltering financially and that her parents are considering selling it to a ruthless competitor. As a last-ditch effort, Tom arranges for Frank to enter his most special tulip in an upcoming flower contest with the hopes of achieving national recognition and generating business. But when Frank’s flowers are mysteriously sabotaged, Rose struggles to find a way to get them to bloom in time for the competition. Along the way, she finds herself appreciating her humble beginnings, reconciling with Frank, and falling into a blossoming romance with Tom. With time running out, Rose must rediscover her green thumb to save her family’s farm, and decide whether she’ll find true happiness — and true love — by staying in Los Angeles or returning to her folksy hometown.
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Against the darkening backdrop of New Delhi's apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protecting one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite.
Liz McAdams is haunted by the memories of a tornado that destroyed her home 25 years ago. Now a professional storm tracker, she and her family are in danger once again as another devastating twister rapidly gains momentum. Caught in the path of destruction, Liz and her estranged husband struggle to save those they love...
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
The Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.
In 1997, Louis Theroux made a documentary about the world of male porn performers in Los Angeles. 15 years later, he returns to find a business struggling with the deluge of free porn on the internet. Louis revisits some of the original programme's contributors as well as meeting the latest crop of porn performers dreaming of porn stardom.
