A Bee's Diary

From PBS - The fascinating story of beavers in North America - their history, their near extinction, and their current comeback, as a growing number of scientists, conservationists and grass-roots environmentalists have come to regard beavers as overlooked tools when it comes to reversing the disastrous effects of global warming and world-wide water shortages. Once valued for their fur or hunted as pests, these industrious rodents are seen in a new light through the eyes of this novel assembly of beaver enthusiasts and "employers" who reveal the ways in which the presence of beavers can transform and revive landscapes. Using their skills as natural builders and brilliant hydro-engineers, beavers are being recruited to accomplish everything from re-establishing water sources in bone-dry deserts to supporting whole communities of wildlife drawn to the revitalizing aquatic ecosystems their ponds provide.

Short documentary about the Paykan automobile assembly-line

Waiting for Godot on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, an island where decay and luxury life are neighbours. A man in his eighties believes that he is still in charge of a complex for alternative forms of energy which was abolished long ago. The pictures - an homage to the late and famous Iranian director Sohrab Shahid-Saless - contrast the comment speaking about the perspectives for a great future.

Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon on Camera 1983

This exquisite documentary traces the history and artistry of stone carving in Ireland from earliest times to the Middle Ages. Directed by George Morrison, director of the ground-breaking historical films Mise Éire and Saoirse? This engaging film is beautifully shot and shows Morrison's skills as director, writer and cinematographer. It was awarded the Diplome d'Honneur in Moscow in 1971.

The night is not yet over but hardworking France is already up, workmen who cycle to work, some already at work like market porters busy carrying meat carcasses or workers printing the morning newspapers. Soon it will be daylight but for the prisoner in his cell, there is nothing to be happy about.

Tiny meerkats survive in the harsh desert elements and follow the matriarch that is pressured to produce heirs and ensure the family's survival for generations to come.

The same submarine which successfully captured the world's first moving images of a giant squid in its natural habitat is used for exploring the deep sea cliffs off the coast of New Guinea. The team encounters true living fossil species one after another. Join this exciting deep sea adventure!

In a taxi conversation in Tbilisi. Europe, immigration and the comparison between today's capitalism and the Soviet dictatorship are some of the subjects taken up.

Chalupkovci v čase

In Canada, the village of Val Gagné is facing a rural exodus. Life seems to be dissolving, the future is uncertain. But these Franco-Ontarian villagers are surprised by a wind of renewal. A wind that will give them hope.

On the coast of the Arctic Ocean of Chukotka live people cut off from the world. Their life revolves around hunting walruses and whales and protecting villages from bears coming from the tundra. This turns the film into a reflection on death. Marine animals become the food of people, animal leftovers are used to feed arctic foxes on a fur farm, human cemeteries become prey for bears. It seems that all the inhabitants of these places are involved in the cycle of food and death. The film departs from the usual rhythmic structure of cinema, being built on the principle of a shamanic ritual, a meaning-forming event for northern peoples.

Sweet Sweet Kink takes a sweet, sweet peek into the kinky world of bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism through stories of intimate connection, consensual exploration, and deep self-reflection.

A short documentary chronicling the personal lives and narratives of Thai "ladyboys," who are born men but present themselves as women, living openly in Thai society. The film interviews ladyboys from all walks of life-- performers, filmmakers, activists-- to learn what it's like to live in a society with visible gender fluidity, and to explore if Thailand is really as open to and accepting of sexual diversity as it seems.

A filmmaker follows her grandparents’ daily life after her chain-smoker and alcoholic grandmother is forced to stop drinking beer for a month.

Brindisi, Italy: a focal point in cigarette smuggling. The director returns to her hometown to see what's left of the past and what lies in store for the future.

The life and struggle of the Lower Sorbian poet Mina Witkojc - her uncompromising stand against the war, her expulsion from her homeland and her welcome to the Soviet liberators.

David Attenborough investigates the remarkable life and death of Jumbo the elephant - a celebrity animal superstar whose story is said to have inspired the movie Dumbo. Attenborough joins a team of scientists and conservationists to unravel the complex and mysterious story of this large African elephant - an elephant many believed to be the biggest in the world. With unique access to Jumbo's skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History, the team work together to separate myth from reality. How big was Jumbo really? How was he treated in captivity? And how did he die? Jumbo's bones may offer vital clues.

Interview with Tracy Cutts describing her experiences as an assistant to John Hughes on the classic 1984 film Sixteen Candles.

Swedish writer Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) was a literary sensation who after a few productive years, suddenly fell silent. Struggling with writer's block, Dagerman wrote the essay "Our Need for Consolation" about his inner demons and his quest for freedom. For the first time in English, featuring Stellan Skarsgard as an on-camera narrator, this film brings Dagerman's powerful words to life in the form of a visual poem.