Video Catnip

Some champion exhibits from the National Cat Club Show and the Combined Bird and Aquaria Show, described by W. Cox-Ife, F. Hopkins, and L.C. Mandeville.

Did Cartier dream of making a country from this land of a million birds? In his records of his exploration he certainly marvelled at seeing the great auks that have since disappeared from Isle aux Ouaiseaulx, the razor-bills and gannets that are gone from Blanc-Sablon, and the kittiwakes from Anticosti, all the winged creatures of all the islands which he described as being "as full of birds as a meadow is of grass". And that's not even counting the countless snow geese.

Annedore takes care of orphan birds. They give her that which humans througout her turbulent life could never give her: love.

In Pica Pica Kristersson invites the viewer to be enthralled for an hour and a half by the vicissitudes of magpie life. Opposing himself to the current nature films that tend to highly compress time in order to end up with a concentrated sequence of action-elements Kristersson leaves rhythm and tempo almost completely up to the magpies themselves. With great integrity he filmed the daily, social and emotional life of a species of birds that has many points of contact with human life. Thus, the movie offers us the oppurtunity to view our own everyday existence through other eyes, from a world right above our heads, but yet so far away.

Na ostrove kormoránov

To show the habitat, life cycle and typical activities of the Barn Swallow.

Výři

Ostrovy milionů ptáků

Luňáci a černí čápi

Na bílých křídlech

Mezi volavkami

Pták roháč

Jim Moir and his wife Nancy continue on their ornithological adventure as they seek out their favourite seasonal birds and learn how they best evoke the festive spirit of Christmas.

This experimental nature documentary by Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts depicts climate change and the wave of extinction from the point of view of our near future. Actually, it depicts the age we live in now, or rather its fateful consequences.

The flight and feeding customs of the most important sea bird species of the Galapagos Islands are described. Some characteristic body and wing measurements are used to describe the flight of these species. The species which are able to forage furthest out at sea and deepest in the water are the most successfull on the Galapagos Islands, measured by their abundance. The least abundant bird is the lava-gull, a shore bird and surface-feeder.

Jerry, an awkwardly plump hummingbird, desperately tries to fit in with his siblings. But more often than not, he only weighs them down, literally. After accidentally destroying the family nest, Jerry is exiled to an old dead tree, never to be seen or heard from again. Family always sticks together though. So when a hungry house cat attempts to turn his siblings into a three-course meal, Jerry must set his sorrows aside and be the bird he was born to be in order to save his family.

This film documents the yearly cycle of the great blue heron, its migration from Central America and the West Indies to the St. Lawrence River in Québec, and the breeding and rearing of its young. Outstanding footage shot by the filmmaker perched high in a tree affords close-ups of the birds' intricate courtship rituals. A sensitive, beautifully photographed nature film with much to tell us of ecology and wildlife.

In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.

"Harupoy sa Hangin" takes viewers to Olango Island, a sanctuary for migratory birds on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Locals recount the island’s past and narrate the present. While, a longtime bird watcher and author of Birds of Cebu and Bohol Philippines, presents the importance of Olango Island.

You don't have to travel to faraway countries to observe wildlife, because the fauna of the big city also provides surprises every day. Contrary to expectations, many bird, mammal and insect species have adapted to the concrete jungle. They have become experts of the urban space. “My Wild Neighbors” takes a poetic look at the lives of animals in the city.