Are tourists destroying the planet-or saving it? How do travelers change the remote places they visit, and how are they changed? From the Bolivian jungle to the party beaches of Thailand, and from the deserts of Timbuktu, Mali to the breathtaking beauty of Bhutan, GRINGO TRAILS traces stories over 30 years to show the dramatic long-term impact of tourism on cultures, economies, and the environment.
Paul Hogan plays Charlie McFarland and Shane Jacobson plays his estranged son, Boots. After a family tragedy Charlie and Boots try and put their differences aside and head off on the road trip of a lifetime - from regional Victoria to the Cape York Peninsula - they overcome many challenges to reach their dream - to fish off the northern most tip of Australia.
Although theorised, no one is really ready when a mountain pass above the scenic and narrow Geiranger fjord in Norway collapses and creates a tsunami over 300 feet high. A geologist is one of those caught in the middle of it.
A journalist from an Eastern European country arrives in Paris to start a tour of European capitals. His intention is to make a documentary about the European dream. Between fascination and difficulty of adaptation, Sorgoï struggles to complete his project and his expedition drives him to a devastating state of madness.
The phenomenon of tourism arrives to a remote village. A married couple sells their property to open a motel, which would be a starting point for their daughter Andjelija's singing career. The local radio-amateur (and Andjelija's boyfriend) helps them to achieve these goals, but Andjelija is more interested in her love life than her career.
Martin Ward is a cove fisherman, without a boat. His brother Steven has repurposed their father’s vessel as a tourist tripper, driving a wedge between the brothers. With their childhood home now a getaway for London money, Martin is displaced to the estate above the picturesque harbour. As his struggle to restore the family to their traditional place creates increasing friction with tourists and locals alike, a tragedy at the heart of the family changes his world.
In between growing frustrations toward cleaning up after an endless parade of tourists and reflections on a traumatizing memory, a voice rises from within a soft-spoken Hawaiian janitor down on the sidewalk in Waikiki. This narrative short film is inspired by a collection of poetry published posthumously featuring the work of Kānaka Maoli poet Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947-84).
When a Hong Kong teenager from a poor family wins a trip to Japan, he unleashes a chain of events that will soon bring him from his secluded fishing village to Tokyo. On the way, he connects with a barely competent tour guide and a gender-fluid pickpocket. Upon returning home with this merry band of schemers, he and his family of counterfeiters discover that a multinational conglomerate led by a ruthless Japanese developer has found the village, and is determined to raze it to build the new center of world trade.
This short fictional film features the picturesque seaside landscape of Prince Edward Island as the setting for a summer romance between a girl from Winnipeg and a young fisherman from North Rustico, PEI. The young couple visits historic and scenic sites such as Government House in Charlottetown and Cavendish, of Green Gables fame. The film is a classic summertime romance and a nostalgic visit to the delightfully sun-soaked PEI of the past.
Cementeri d'Estiu
A middle-aged lady on a holiday in the sun tries to make new friends and have a good time. The role is played by a one year old girl, the rest of the cast are marionette puppets.
In a hidden paradise somewhere in the Philippines, two brothers share a simple but sufficient life. Things change when an unexpected visitor brings a new-found attention to their island home. With their idyllic island now on the tourism spotlight, they're now forced to cope with the perils of uncontrolled urbanization.
Arrested for a murder he didn't commit, American adventurer Bart Lanigan is about to be deported from Finland on a freighter. In the Helsinki harbor, he himself becomes a target for a hit man but manages to escape back to land. Lanigan contacts Arvo Mäki, a womanizing local con man recommended to him as a man he could trust. Lanigan is in Finland to catch an American millionaire businessman, Leonard Weston alias Lawrence Walker, who has fled the USA with the company's monies and begun investing them in Finland. Looking for the mysterious L.W. character while trying to get rid of various hit men, Lanigan and Mäki travel around picturesque southern Finland, joined by a pretty night club singer Marja Salo who won't leave Lanigan alone and insists on marrying him.
Cameras go behind the scenes at Brown's, London's oldest luxury hotel, during the Christmas season, as staff face the expectations of delivering a luxury festive stay for guests booking rooms that start at £750 a night. The hotel's elite team hosts a vibrant charity Christmas fayre, creates imaginative festive pastries, and concocts a signature holiday cocktail, all aimed at delivering the Christmas feast of a lifetime.
The story of Jarda Kuchař, a hero of the bygone era of Tuzex vouchers. His income comes from renting out his own apartment. Every summer, he is forced to spend his time at an abandoned pond, where he runs an even more abandoned snack bar. His right-hand man (and he is left-handed) is the local simpleton Kamil Hošpes. Among the handful of customers are two tractor drivers, Jirka and Péťa, and Jarda's sworn enemy, the fanatical fisherman Pepa Vrtílek with his dog Pepík. The capricious summer days are disrupted by an apparition of monstrous proportions. Lojza, a monster catfish, emerges from the depths of the third irrigation category and eats Vrtílek's dog. Jarda Kuchař sees Lojza as an opportunity to revive local tourism. He calls on fishermen from all over the country. And two actually arrive...
A man's journey becomes the wonderful experience of a grandfather and his granddaughter. In the intimate evocation of Ernest Hemingway, the old man leads the little girl into the historical memory of the land where the great writer lived. Riding their bicycles and recalling a past of timeless art and culture, the two will reach the most beautiful destination: the one from which to start again.
Exclusive access to the Four Seasons Hotel, London, in the run-up to Christmas. Expect festive photoshoots, afternoon teas, Christmas trees and sackfuls of presents.
Bora Bora is the most popular destination in French Polynesia, certainly because of its lagoon, considered the most beautiful lagoon in the world. In this context, the islet could have sunk under concrete and pollution, and the reef could have been irreparably impacted. However, thanks to the will of a handful of inhabitants including the mayor of the island, Bora Bora is today a model of sustainable development, with water treatment technologies that are 15 years ahead of France, programs to rebuild corals and protect wildlife, educational actions and the rehabilitation of Polynesian traditions such as “rahui” and the establishment of a monitoring network using new technologies. All of this makes the island a veritable open-air laboratory that shows the way for all tropical coastal environments around the world.
For six weeks we explored the Antarctic Peninsula by sea kayak, sailboat, foot and small plane, observing the fast changing evolution of this most remote place. Impacted by climate change - temperatures have warmed along the Peninsula faster than anywhere on the planet during the past 50 years - this part of Antarctica is also experiencing a boom in tourism and nations fighting over who owns what as its ice slowly disappears. This National Geographic-sponsored exploration is a one-of-a-kind look at Antarctica from a unique perspective - sea level.
An overview of the people, lifestyle, and traditions of Samoa, as well tourism and other economic changes on the Samoan islands.