Life After People

A document of days in and out of New York City and Philadelphia.

Marvel at "Old Faithful" erupting, vast rolling forests, abundant wildlife, thundering waterfalls, gurgling hot springs and mud pots, and the beautiful, haunting wilderness. Over 2.2 million acres located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, the great Yellowstone National Park was founded in 1872. The superb camera work of Dale Johnson and Bob Landis captures the natural wonders that captivated the early mountain men of the 1840s: petrified forests, mountains of glass and rivers that cooked fish. Thrill to rare and dramatic wildlife action; an antelope doe chasing a coyote from her young, a grizzly pursuing an elk in a life and death chase, a coyote matching wits with an otter; northern elk migrating in deep snow and bighorn sheep in mating battles. See the Yellowstone fire of 1988, and the charred land in full bloom. Ride with a park range into the backcountry. Enjoy a stagecoach ride to a sunrise cookout. It's all here, the magic of the great Yellowstone.

An artful feature-length documentary on life, nature, and creativity in Dýrafjörður, a beautiful and remote fjord in Iceland. The film explores the lives of resourceful characters living in the town of Þingeyri amongst the magical nature and light of Iceland. Journey into the timeless world of Dýrafjörður.

Archival footage, hidden documents, and personal records reveal one of the greatest environmental crimes of the 20th century: the secret and illegal slaughter of hundreds of thousands of whales by the Soviet Union and Japan during the Cold War.

The Arctic is accessible to man only because of ice dogs. As hunters, haulers, and guardians, they have been our vital link to nature for thousands of years. Dogs led the Sarqaq people out of Siberia and, a millennium later, led explorers to the North Pole. As the light returns to Greenland, we arrive in Scoresbysund with a troop of the only companions worth having in this harsh environment.

Mountain men Joseph R Walker was probably the first non-Indian to see Yosemite, in 1833, but not until the California militia entered the valley rounding up the Ahwahneechee Indians was the region discovered. In June, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, making it a California State Park. It became famous through the writings of Horace Greeley and the efforts of John Muir. Cinematographer Dennis Burkhart captures in this video the magnificence of Yosemite Valley (El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall, Half Dome), the High Sierra (John Muir Trail, Tuolumne Meadows, Tioga Pass) and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. The camera catches the wildlife that roams the 1,1170 square miles of Yosemite, i.e. the mule deer, mountain lion, black bear, coyotes, bighorn sheep, and the rare peregrine falcon. This video reveals why 3.8 million visitors come each year and stand before awe-inspiring panoramas they will never forget.

Two thousand square miles, a mile deep, approximately 10 miles wide- no geological feature on earth evokes a wider spectrum of human emotions than does the Grand Canyon of Arizona. It is impossible not to be profoundly moved when confronting such immensity. But it is more than a chasm, it is alive with mule deer, mountain lions, coyotes, bighorn sheep, wild turkeys, blue grouse, blue heron, desert tortoises, and the rare kaibab squirrel, found only in the Grand Canyon. Long before the Spanish arrived, the Anasazi (Ancient Ones) lived here. Included is an exclusive segment, never before filmed, of Shaman's Gallery, a significant Anasazi find of rock paintings in the Grand Canyon area, dating between 2000 B.C., and A.D 1. Established in 1908, Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon a parkland and said "do nothing to mar its grandeur, keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who will come after you."

Steve Backshall visits a hedgehog rescue centre in Surrey founded by Brian May. He meets the dedicated staff and discovering the stories behind some of the animals being treated, helps to release a successfully treated hedgehog back into the wild, and offers advice on how to make a garden into a welcoming environment for the creatures.

A moving documentary. The life stories told by immigrants in Paris are often saddening. The hardships they went through and their current uncertainty and difficult situation. No residence permit, fear of the gendarmerie, little money, poor housing. The quality and background of the musicians is many times amazing.

On Friday, June 23, 1972, Pennsylvania suffered the wrath of Hurricane Agnes, which at the time was the costliest hurricane to hit the United States and would claim the lives of 128 people in the storm’s path. Now, at the 50th anniversary, WVIA explores what we as a region have learned from the Agnes tragedy. Half a century later, how did this epic event permanently change our communities – economically, physically, and emotionally? What have local communities done over the past decades to address and mitigate potential flooding in the future? Have we done enough?

Golden Globe - New York

Metamorphosis seems like the ultimate evolutionary magic trick - the amazing transformation of one creature into a totally different being: one life, two bodies.

Convoque

Consisting of a single shot, Spiders on a Web is one of the earliest British examples of close-up natural history photography. Made by one of the pioneers of the British film industry, G.A. Smith, this short film details spiders trapped in an enclosure, and despite the title, does not actually feature a web.

For two-thirds of the year, the Little Rann is a desert. Suddenly, in August, monsoon winds whip up the Arabian Sea and carry it 100 km inland. The desert and these mounds soon become islands and homes to high concentrations of rarely-seen, endangered and spectacular wildlife.

Great herds of Asian elephants once roamed from Baghdad to Beijing. Now only remnants of these once mighty herds survive, protected today by the Indian government. It is here that filmmaker Naresh Bedi turns his camera, capturing an intimate portrait of thee largest of land mammals. An adult elephant eats 300 pounds of green fodder and drinks 40 gallons of water a day. This film follows these gentle giants as they forage and feed, wallow in watering holes, dust their skin with dirt, and care for their young.

The mountainous desert of Ladakh is one of the most desolate places on our planet. Here freezing winds sweep down from the Himalayas and shape the life of its inhabitants.

A documentary on the rare crocodilian, The Gharial.

When fighting for necessary change, rejection of the status quo is a worthy rebellion. SOMEHOW HOPEFUL is the story of Jason Rutledge, a woodsman dedicating his life to proven methods of protecting our most vital life-giving asset - a healthy, diverse forest.  The woodsman's ally in the fight to restore our environment has been mankind's most reliable partner for thousands of years, the powerful draft horse.  Jason, and those like him, are poets, craftsmen, artists, farmers and educators doing the real work to make our planet whole again. While the woodsman's critics say he's stuck in the past, Jason believes he is in the future.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd's reverence for his musical roots are center-stage on Ten Days Out...Blues From The Backroads. The guitar-slinger is featured with the Double Trouble rhythm section of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton performing with some of the greatest blues players of our time as well as lesser-known but historically significant bluesmen. Traveling to their hometowns to record everywhere from juke joints to front porches, from New Orleans to Kansas, Shepherd celebrates and becomes part of blues history with Ten Days Out...Blues From The Backroads.