It is with an old bus an about thirty snakes that Franz Florez struggles for the preservation of nature in Colombia, one of the most environmentally diverse country in the world. His snakes are his pass to enter the deep jungle, where guerrillas fight the regular army and where narco-traffickers meet coca growers. Facing the threat of the industrial exploitation of these preserved areas, he tries to gather support among the population, including the armed actors.
In a dark, ambiguous environment, minuscule particles drift slowly before the lens. The image focuses to reveal spruce trees and tall pines, while Innu voices tell us the story of this territory, this flooded forest. Muffled percussive sounds gradually become louder, suggesting the presence of a hydroelectric dam. The submerged trees gradually transform into firebrands as whispers bring back the stories of this forest.
Snow blankets the trees and green lights dance in a star-filled sky. For a brief time during the festive season, our thoughts turn to a winter wonderland, far to the north. It’s a place best known to outsiders as Lapland, the magical home of Santa Claus. But far from the festive lights, Santa’s home is even more enchanting than you may realise.
Trees talk, know family ties and care for their young? Is this too fantastic to be true? German forester Peter Wohlleben and scientist Suzanne Simard have been observing and investigating the communication between trees over decades. And their findings are most astounding.
This film, three years in the making, The remote forests of Kalkalpen National Park in Austria, the largest area of wilderness in the European Alps, have been left untouched by humans for nearly a quarter of a century in order to return to their natural, primeval state. The landscape regenerates itself in dramatic cycles of growth and decay, and this bold hands-off method of conservation yields salient results: the lynx, absent from the area for 115 years, has returned.
Costa Rica's motto is Pura Vida - Pure Life - and this deceptively small country is bursting with some of the most spectacular wildlife and pristine ecosystems in the world. All this diversity thrives, in part, thanks to one surprising little creature: hummingbirds. Venture across Costa Rica's wild and rugged landscapes, from volcanic peaks to coastal jungle to misty cloud forests and discover the nation's dazzling diversity of hummingbirds. Watch how these tiny birds play an outsize role in maintaining some of the richest and wildest environments on Earth, where a whole community of creatures, such as macaws and monkeys, enjoys The Hummingbird Effect.
Renouer avec le vivant
The passage of time is spellbinding in this cinematic tour de force about the Wadden Sea. A film that inhales and exhales along with the tides as it explores the fragile relationship between man and nature.
In the jungles of north west India, there lives a remarkable wild tiger family. Now, using 50 years of footage, the story of their matriarchal clan is pieced together.
A low budget, comedic documentary following a young man trying to take a deeper look into water, its purpose, and how we, as a society have chosen to use it.
A mountain landscape, and in the distance, a tiny dot with two gigantic horns. This is the realm of the Alpine Ibex. Our film tells the life story of Buck, a single dominant male. The film opens with his dying moments in Italy’s Gran Paradiso National Park, in the shadow of the same summit that witnessed his birth. In the flashbacks that follow, we relive the most important moments of his life.
This feature-length RealD™ 3D experience was filmed with revolutionary aerial devices and techniques to fly right alongside birds. This breathtaking journey will take viewers across the world’s most iconic landscapes to the heart of the greatest animal spectacles on Earth: snow geese dash through Monument Valley and New York City, vultures ascend miles above the earth then dive down to huge wildebeest herds below, scarlet macaws race at breakneck speed through the rainforest. Using unique, state-of-the-art 3D cameras in barely accessible and highly dangerous places, the audience has never before been so close to the drama and beauty of nature until now.
A young penguin, driven by his instinct, embarks on his first major trip to an unknown destination.
'The Great Sperm Race' tells the story of human conception as it's never been told before. With 250 million competitors, it is the most extreme race on earth and there can only be one winner.
Bluefin is a tale of epic stakes set in “the tuna capital of the world.” In North Lake, Prince Edward Island, filmmaker John Hopkins tries to shed light on a baffling mystery: normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans, and no one is quite sure why. Astonished Island fishermen and scientists offer conflicting explanations for the bluefin’s puzzling behaviour. One thing is certain: this great resurgence of gigantic tuna flies in the face of scientific assessments claiming that endangered stocks are down by 90 percent.
Only few big cats have been as intensively studied as lions. We thought we knew everything about them. Yet some parts of their lives kept hidden in the dark. Cameras follow two prides and their respective females by day and by night, revealing astonishing behavioral patterns of Africa's largest lions. Symbols of courage and power, lions have been intensively researched for many decades. While hardly a single facet of their lives has gone unnoticed, certain things have remained hidden. Thanks to thermal imaging cameras, this two-part series reveals the last secrets of Africa's largest wild cats. We follow two prides in Southern Kenya and their respective females by day and by night, discovering astonishing behavioral patterns. Lean times face the animals as the huge wildebeest herds, which, until now have supplied the young families with ample food, are migrating south to the Serengeti. We will watch the daily struggle for survival as these mothers risk everything in order to rear ...
"Percy Smith (1880-1944) was world famous as a photographer of plant life. Probably the first British example of time-lapse photography as applied to the growth of plants." Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1955.
Following David Attenborough as he travels the globe to film his series, David Attenborough's First Life, in which he explores the very origins of life on Earth. David journeys to the parts of the world which have had special meaning to him during his 50 years of broadcasting. Beginning near his boyhood Leicestershire home, where he first collected fossils, he then travels to Morocco's arid deserts, the glaciers of Canada and crystal clear waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. As a prelude to the First Life series, Attenborough's Journey provides a unique insight into the mind and character of one of the world's most iconic broadcasters as he shares his passions for the natural world. Combining his global journey for First Life and archive material looking back at his illustrious career both as a programme maker and a controller of the BBC, the film reveals what makes him tick.
An examination of the extinction threat faced by frogs, which have hopped on Earth for some 250 million years and are a crucial cog in the ecosystem. Scientists believe they've pinpointed a cause for the loss of many of the amphibians: the chytrid fungus, which flourishes in high altitudes. Unfortunately, they don't know how to combat it. Included: an isolated forest in Panama that has yet to be touched by the fungus, thus enabling frogs to live and thrive as they have for eons.
Isolated from the rest of the world since the time of the dinosaurs, New Zealand’s magnificent wildlife has been left to its own devices for 80 million years, with surprising consequences. This series reveals New Zealand’s rich and intriguing wildlife stories, from the bustling communities of penguins hiding away in giant daisy forests to the kakapo – Earth’s only species of flightless nocturnal parrots. New Zealand was also the last place to be discovered and settled by people who brought with them new animals, like merino sheep and new predators like the stoat. Finally the series meets the pioneering conservation heroes who are fighting to save some of its most endangered species.