The River's Divide

This in-depth look into the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation in the U.S. and Africa unravels the complex consequences of treating animals as commodities.

Hunters have disappeared from wildlands without a trace for hundreds of years. David Paulides presents the haunting true stories of hunters experiencing the unexplainable in the woods of North America.

Wildgnorance

This is the untold story of a Nazi vision, that went far beyond the military conquest of European countries. As part of their crazed dream to create a thousand-year Reich they developed detailed blueprints for Aryan settlements and vast hunting parks for ‘Aryan’ animals. Goering and Himmler employed Germany’s best scientists to launch a hugely ambitious programme of genetic manipulation to change the course of nature itself, both in the wild and for domestic use. In a fascinating blend of politics and biology, Hitler's Jurassic Monsters is the true and asthonishing story of how the Nazis tried to take control of nature and change the course of evolution.

Fast on his feet with a fat mustache, short stature, and investigative gaze. For a couple of days in the mountain, in his native land, we approach a man, strange and loud but nevertheless genuine and sensitive, a hunter. In his own way, Mr. Sotiris shines light on our bond with nature, history and man.

An ethnographic film that documents the efforts of four !Kung men (also known as Ju/'hoansi or Bushmen) to hunt a giraffe in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia. The footage was shot by John Marshall during a Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody sponsored expedition in 1952–53. In addition to the giraffe hunt, the film shows other aspects of !Kung life at that time, including family relationships, socializing and storytelling, and the hard work of gathering plant foods and hunting for small game.

One day in the lives of an average Greenlandic family, which happens to be of great importance for 8-year old Kali - he's about to catch his first prey with the harpoon. The whole family is looking forward for the huge step in boy's maturation.

Amateur film of fishing and geese-shooting trips by a British party in India.

Mosha Michael made an assured directorial debut with this seven-minute short, a relaxed, narration-free depiction of an Inuk seal hunt. Having participated in a 1974 Super 8 workshop in Frobisher Bay, Michael shot and edited the film himself. His voice can be heard on the appealing guitar-based soundtrack…. Natsik Hunting is believed to be Canada’s first Inuk-directed film. – NFB

Archery expert Howard Hill and a cameraman go to Wyoming to film this wild-animal three-reel short. Besides the scenery, the scenes include a buffalo killed by an arrow shot by Hill (for food); a wildcat and a coyote in a battle, and a fight-to-the-death between a mother bear protecting her cubs against a killer male bear.

Duck archery is not the same as duck hunting. This is a Pordenone moment I will never forget – in actuality short Distraction et Sport à Batavia (1909), the residents of what is now call Jakarta make the most of their leisure time by pursuing a variety of mostly healthy exploits. But really, I can see no justification, nor explanation for why a round of archery needs to be enlivened by affixing live poultry to the target. As my good man Peter tweeted at the time: “One right in the neck, yeesh.” Sensitive viewers should be aware that animal cruelty abounds in silent cinema – the most notable, and egregious, example is Edison’s notorious Electrocuting an Elephant. The most poignant fictional example is perhaps the poor horse in Eisenstein’s October. (from http://silentlondon.co.uk/2015/01/23/10-disgusting-moments-in-silent-cinema/)

L'Homme Panache au Yukon 6

Great days of time, it is the meeting of Alain, man of the nature and passionate of hunting with the deer, at the moment where the nervousness of the first days of hunting settles down. It's a family reunion, a return to the source in the lands of Témiscouata.

This grisly documentary presents horrifying journalistic footage of suicides, assassinations, bombings, mob hits, decapitations, and more in bloody detail. Not for the faint of heart.

Russian hunters on horse and a pack of borzois hunt down and kill a wolf.

Etnographic documentary about lion hunting in Africa.

Shark: Beneath the Surface

Every single day in South Africa at least two to three captive bred or tame lions are being killed in canned hunts. And hundreds more are slaughtered annually for the lion bone trade. The Blood Lions story is a compelling call to action to have these practices stopped.

Human beings are the kings of all animals, at least if you ask us humans. Our vanity is given something to mirror itself in, but does not escape without a scratch or two in this documentary, which observes a taxidermist, a deer farmer and a museum curator at work. Three jobs that have one thing in common: turning animals into aesthetic objects, alive as well as dead. When the work is done properly, it is impossible to tell the difference. Dead pets are mummified. At the zoological museum, the animals' glassy eyes stare back at us from the showcases. Even a plastic alligator has its natural place in the human master plan.

This short follows two duck hunters in the Sacramento River Valley.