plant portals: breath

A film about three teenagers - Klara, Mina and Tanutscha - from the Berlin district of Kreuzberg. The trio have known each other since Kindergarten and have plenty in common. The three 15-year-olds are the best of friends; they are spending the summer at Prinzenbad, a large open-air swimming pool at the heart of the district where they live. They're feeling pretty grown up, and are convinced they've now left their childhood behind.

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

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.

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.

Documentary exploring the hundreds of species of life that thrive in total darkness at the hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Ocean Ridge, several miles below the ocean surface. Little food filters down from the surface and there is no sunlight to support photosynthesis.

By the end of the Ice Age - only ten thousand years ago - many great mammals had died out. The woolly mammoth, the dire wolf, the saber-tooth cat and others disappeared as a result of severe climatic changes that engulfed the planet. And yet other animals persevered. Today, they go on in dwindling numbers as the last of the Ice Age survivors. Scientists are piecing together their past while others work to safeguard the future of these living relics. Despite climate changes over the past 15,000 years and human predation, their descendants persist in a few unspoiled regions of the globe.

Filmed by Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Al Giddings, this timeless program takes a stirring look at the largest, tallest, longest-living things on the planet: trees. Stunning location footage captures the variety and the grandeur of the Pacific Northwest, the Florida Everglades, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Great Sonoran Desert. Quotations from Sierra Club founder John Muir and others who revere nature are interwoven with information on topics ranging from the function of forest ecosystems, to the effects of deforestation, to the integration of parks into urban landscapes.

The wildlife and cultures of southern Asia have been shaped by one of the greatest phenomena on Earth: the mighty monsoon winds that sweep across this vast region, turning drought into deluge. All life – human and animal – is dominated by this rampaging weather system. From the northern shores of Australia to the highest peaks of the Himalayas and the wind-blown deserts of northern India to the lush equatorial forests of Borneo, this series makes an exhilarating journey through the lands of the monsoon. Along the way, it offers a taste of the variety and colour of the different regions’ most extraordinary wildlife and cultures and the way they cope with the tumultuous weather. This is the story of a relationship between humans and nature that has grown across thousands of years – all living in the shadow of the monsoon.

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."

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

About the mexican wolf in northwest Chihuahua, the search for its conservation among local communities, landowners, and the Livestock Assurance Fund.

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.

The Film is an exploration of the lives of tigers and the forest spaces they live in, outside the tiger reserves. Do these tigers teach us something new about conservation?

In a time of hardship, Hobart resident Peter Walsh turns to the secretive platypus for solace, only to discover it is the platypus that need his help to survive in a habitat under threat.

From 1968 to 1972, photographer and filmmaker Bob Campbell documented the activities of Dian Fossey as she developed a cross-species bond with Rwandan mountain gorillas. Campbell shot 70,000 feet of film, but only a fraction of his material was edited into the lecture presentation that preceded Fossey's Gorillas in the Mist. This program compiles highlights from the previously unreleased footage, offering an unforgettable glimpse into the gorilla community and Fossey's relationship with it. Her methods may not entirely jibe with those of modern conservationists, but there is no denying the profound impact of her work on current research and eco-activism.

Filmmakers Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey chronicle a year in the lives of an Alaskan brown bear named Sky and her cubs, Scout and Amber. Their saga begins as the bears emerge from hibernation at the end of winter. As time passes, the bear family must work together to find food and stay safe from other predators, especially other bears. Although their world is exciting, it is also risky, and the cubs' survival hinges on family togetherness.

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.