Yachay Terra

Terre, la vie cachée d'une planète

Together, the three Bertrand brothers work their farm in a small Savoyard village. In 1972, they took the enormous risk to invest in the construction of an ultra modern stable for 82 milk cows. With modern organisation, they hoped to lead a better life. Almost 30 years later, the farm is successful. Their work is meticulous and the milk is graded top quality. The human cost is much more sombre. Indeed these thirty years can be summarised in one word : work. The brothers are bachelors and – each one now over sixty years old – a bitterness when they recall their past. The younger brother says it himself: "It's an economic success, but it's a human failure...".

As the international consumption of quinoa rises. The Mother Grain looks at how this increasing demand is affecting quinoa farmers. Bear Witness Pictures traveled to the Bolivian quinoa-growing communities surrounding the world's largest salt flat, the Salar de Uyuni, witnessing their lives first-hand to tell the story of quinoa from the perspective of the farmers themselves.

With the expansion of mining activities in Jharkhand, indigenous populations are at massive risk in terms of displacement and loss of livelihood. Especially, tribal women have been on the receiving end of economic and political marginalisation and invisible patriarchy. Through this film, we witness that tribal women’s bodies are testimony to their respective labour. These bodies narrate history, anecdotes, and advice for the future. Their identities hold powerful stories, absent in the mainstream.

Brothers Erik and Sigvard live by old traditions - they grow their own food and bake their own bread. The only time they leave their family farm is to buy tobacco and to see the king and queen visit Växjö, but they once biked to nearby Gislaved.

Le choc environnemental

Chocolate of Peace depicts the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó's experiences of resistance, via a journey through their processes of organic chocolate production. From the seed to the product, the cacao is the narrative thread that takes us through the Community's stories of violence and resilience, and their fight to remain neutral in the face of the Colombian armed conflict. This film offers a panorama of hope, proof that despite great difficulties it is possible to sow peace through human and economic relationships. It invites us to rethink our relationship with food, to value the efforts of those who produce it, and to build bridges between the victims of the armed conflict and other sectors of global civil society.

A magyar alma

Today, against a backdrop of sharply increasing demand, growth in the world population and the growing impact of an unsettled climate, water has become one of the most precious natural resources of our planet.

If the ice sheet covering Greenland melted, global sea levels would rise 21 feet, profoundly impacting our planet. How, why, and when could this happen? A few years ago, scientists found lost sediment from a secret sub-ice Cold War base in the Arctic from the 1960s that holds clues to a time when Greenland Ice Sheet was gone. The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice is an hour-long documentary about the discovery of this sediment and the critical implications of the science to our future. The finding that the ice sheet melted in the past completely transforms our understanding of the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Parámos II, El Origen

A film about life in the Czech borderlands after the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans.

Argentine, le soja de la faim

This short documentary includes three vignettes about life off the coast of Newfoundland. In Island of Birds, we visit Green Island, a sea bird sanctuary where puffins frolic. In Caplin Harvest, little silvery fish called caplin spawn by washing ashore along the waves, making an easy catch for fishermen. In Outports on the Move, off-shore houses are pried loose from their foundation and floated to the Newfoundland mainland, where schools, hospitals, stores and services are available to the community.

Poliske was contaminated with radioactive material after the 1986 Chornobyl disaster. Soviet authorities did everything they could to erase the ancient history of this town, and after Chornobyl, they destroyed its future.

A story about the environmental conflict between GM soy growers and Maya Beekeepers in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. It reflects on what the environment and economy could look like if bee health was considered as a criterion of sustainable development. The film explores the pre-colonial and ongoing relationship between Maya people and their environment, in particular the milpa agricultural system (and its main crop, maize), sacred sinkholes (called cenotes), and sacred stingless bees, the Melipona.

The forest is like an organism, ancient and full of mechanisms. Its plants need water and are temperature-dependent. Nevertheless, it survives in a wide variety of locations around the world. How does it manage to adapt to even the most adverse conditions?

The coral in the mediterranean form unique underwater habitats, usually between 30–150m deep. These ecosystems support more than 1,800 species but have been decimated by destructive bottom trawling fishing, which can flatten centuries-old coral structures in minutes. RAZOR’s Russell Beard meets Anastasia Miliou and her team of scientists at the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation. They have been mapping coral to provide the hard scientific evidence needed to secure their long-term protection. Their work has led to the recent creation of a protected no-trawl zone around the Fourni Islands. Over the years the organization has developed into one of the Mediterranean's most respected marine research and conservation institutes, attracting a new generation of scientists tooling up for a future of fighting the colossal challenges facing our seas. Over 26 years, they have hosted over 27,000 young people from 43 countries.

One song traces a pathway from oral poet and Mazatec shaman Maria Sabina's tradition to Mazatec rapper Xéti NdáJnio and Medicine woman Zara Monrroy, also a poet, rapper and dancer from the Comcaac Nation. Two stories of indigenous rappers struggling to sing in their mother tongue.

Through the six major categories of Chinese tea, the film traces the historical origins of famous tea-producing regions and explores the lives of generations who have lived with and for tea. It celebrates craftsmanship, explores lesser-known tea-making techniques, and honors the wisdom, dedication, and philosophy of Chinese tea artisans — revealing a deep respect for nature and an unwavering commitment to cultural heritage.