Swimming with Legends

The waters of the North Pacific around Canada's Vancouver Island are a strange and little known world. The water is incredibly clean, the location is isolated and huge thermal vents heat the otherwise cold surrounding these factors combined have led to animals and plants that can grow to huge proportions. Humpback whales, orcas, wolf eels and bald eagles all thrive here. Our team of experts go in search of the elusive Pacific Giant Octopus. Growing up to 7.5 meters across with the power to kill sharks, it is a formidable creature, but also intelligent and incredibly shy. The dive team invites us into an alien world, where persistence is rewarded with encounters with three of these magnificent creatures.

Cataclysmes, les grands régulateurs

Le mystère de l'homme de Denisova

This personal documentary is the story of Teresa Marshall, who grew up on a British Columbia ranch. Every child needs a demon, and Teresa took battle against rattlesnakes. In the dry interior of B.C., the south Okanagan and Similkameen valleys form the bio-region known as Canada's "pocket desert." As settlers' dreams of creating an agricultural Eden erase fragile desert lands that support a breathtaking array of wild species, the narrator and her snake-hunting neighbours are forced to examine their environmental attitudes.

Offshore wind farms are a major player in the move away from fossil fuels, especially in the North Sea, and they are increasing in number. But their impact on the environment is not yet clear: We take a look at ongoing research in Europe that is measuring the impact of wind turbines and their harm, or benefit, to biodiversity in our seas.

Famous and talented feature film director and scriptwriter Jan Kounen plunges the viewer into a unique and thrilling adventure of pregnancy, birth, and baby’s first swim, alongside marine creatures. Leina Sato is a Japanese professional free diver and is expecting her first child. Her partner, Jean-Marie Ghislain is a famous underwater photographer. They share a passion for the oceans, and believe that a strong bond between a mother-to-be and cetaceans exists. And they want to prove it. Leina will be multiplying her encounters with whales, dolphins and other underwater mammals. Mother Ocean is the incredible encounter between humans and under water species, around the universal question of giving birth and the power of creating life.

Follow a three-month-old baby whale on a magical journey down one of the Earth’s great ocean highways to discover the incredible world of ocean currents. She will never know it, but as she swims with the flow of the current, her story becomes inexorably connected to our own. Ocean currents are hidden marine rivers that flow around the Earth. They are responsible for the fish we eat, the rain that feeds our crops, the snow that covers our mountains - even the air we breathe, and they have been helping to keep the temperature of our planet just right for life for millions of years. As our young whale goes with the flow of the current on a great migration from the warm tropics to the frozen ice floes of Antarctica, she meets the curious creatures that call the current home.

Bacteria, viruses, but also fungi, algae, pollen, and even insects: micro-organisms thrive and circulate constantly in our sky. How can so many living beings find their way into the air and circulate? How do they survive? And what influence do they have on our lives and the living world? Biodiversity, health, climate: it is only recently that scientists have begun to understand how this discreet aerial "plankton" affects our lives and our ecosystem. But despite their many virtues, some of these micro-organisms are now threatened by human activities. With the help of experts and 3D models, this scientific investigation plunges us into the heart of a still mysterious world, and reveals the diversity and fragility of the air we breathe.

Professor Alice Roberts follows a decade-long historical quest to reveal a hidden secret of the famous bluestones of Stonehenge. Using cutting-edge research, a dedicated team of archaeologists led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson have painstakingly compiled evidence to fill in a 400-year gap in our knowledge of the bluestones, and to show that the original stones of Britain’s most iconic monument had a previous life. Alice joins Mike as they put together the final pieces of the puzzle, not just revealing where the stones came from, how they were moved from Wales to England or even who dragged them all the way, but also solving one of the toughest challenges that archaeologists face.

Two biologists set out on an undertaking as colossal as their subjects—deciphering the complex communication of whales. Dr. Michelle Fournet and Dr. Ellen Garland journey to opposite hemispheres to uncover a culture eons older than our own.

Most of us think of death as something clear-cut, and that medical science has it neatly figured out. This feature documentary explodes such assumptions through its exploration of a phenomenon that blurs life and death to an unprecedented degree. In what Tibetan Buddhists call tukdam, advanced meditators die in a consciously controlled manner. Though dead according to our biomedical standards, they often stay sitting upright in meditation; remarkably, their bodies remain fresh and lifelike, without signs of decay for days, sometimes weeks after clinical death. Following ground-breaking scientific research into tukdam and taking us into intimate death stories of Tibetan meditators, the film juxtaposes scientific and Tibetan perspectives as it tries to unravel the mystery of tukdam.

By decoding ancient hieroglyphic texts, Jean-François Champollion gave voice to an enigmatic civilization, but behind his legendary feat is a mysterious brother who made it possible. The recent discovery of correspondence between Jean-François Champollion and his brother Jacques-Joseph now allows us to fully understand how a young, self-taught genius was able to make one of the most important discoveries of the 19th century. Without the ingenuity and unfailing support of his older brother, Jean-François would never have succeeded in solving this enigma, which had international repercussions. With animated sequences of their private correspondence, and with the help of archives and expert analysis, this film revisits this unique scientific, human and intellectual adventure to celebrate the bicentenary of the decoding of hieroglyphics.

Tania and Cocteau, a cat that comes from the not too distant future, tell the story of the passage of animals through the world and their relationship with humans.

Bertie Gregory heads to the Azores, a vital marine sanctuary and seasonal hotspot for migrating ocean predators. During feeding season, thousands of elusive hunters gather to feast on massive bait balls. Battling storms and scanning vast seas, Bertie races against time to capture the most epic feeding frenzy of his career.

12,000 feet down, life is erupting. Alvin, a deep-sea mechanized probe, makes a voyage some 12,000 feet underwater to explore the Azores, a constantly-erupting volcanic rift between Europe and North America.

Shot on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and in the Bahamas, Ocean Wonderland brings to you the amazing beauty of the many varieties of coral and the immense diversity of the marine life thriving there.

The film follows an expedition into Ivohiboro — a small, previously unexplored tropical forest in Southeast Madagascar rich with biodiversity.

Join NOVA on a voyage beneath the waves, where you'll discover a bizarre, alien-like creature like no other. It's an animal with eight sucker-covered arms growing out of its head, three hearts pumping its blue-green blood, and a doughnut-shaped brain. It has the ability to change its color and shape to blend in with seaweed and rocks, and it has a knack for switching on electrifying light shows that dazzle its prey. Perhaps most surprising of all, this animal is quite intelligent, with a highly complex brain. In this program, underwater cameras capture the extraordinary powers of the cuttlefish.

Italiani all'Antartide

This immersive documentary uses underwater drones to investigate the impact of invasive quagga mussels on the Great Lakes ecosystem, illustrating significant ecological changes. The filmmakers spent over 150 days capturing underwater footage, resulting in a comprehensive exploration of freshwater wildlife and environments. Blending scientific inquiry with natural history, the film offers a unique perspective on this pressing ecological issue.