Spending life at high altitude: Kyrgyz highlanders in the centuries long struggle with harsh environment

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.

A biographical documentary about the Belgian free-diver Fred Buyle and his art of silent diving.

As „wings of men“ they became the faithful companion of a great nomadic nation thousands of years ago. Today, 28 years after the Soviet occupation, the little horse is an essential part of the cultural heritage and the search for identity of the modern Kyrgyz people. Based on its own story, a so called „good brown horse“ leads through the film and offers an insight of what it could mean to be „todays wings of men“. Told by a horse’s voice and through its eyes, this short film still is a documentary, but also a poetic journey to a nomadic culture.

A 20-minute documentary film about the Kyrgyz people living by the Narym River.

Life in a Kyrgyz aul (village) in the mountains connected to the rest of the world by a cable bridge, and the teenage boys who are constructing the rope of the bridge. A rope bridge which the locals call “The devil’s bridge” forms part of each and every event which takes place in a small village lost in the mountains of the Kyrgyz Republic. A platform driven by a huge winch which they have to pull with their own strength to cross the torrent is their only link with the outside world. But the director of the documentary wondered something else: “Does this bridge unite or does it actually separate?” Through the mist and over the thrashing waters, the inhabitants of the area glide along their ropes. A film, in the director’s own words, about ordinary people who live in an extraordinary place.

A documentary about a 15-day river-rafting trip on the Colorado River aimed at highlighting water conservation issues.

Documentary film about the Czechoslovak natural science group's expedition to Iceland in June 1948.

Two friends travel across Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on the search for Eagle Hunters.

People have always been fascinated by the tropics. Explorers from Europe were among the first to travel to the equatorial region centuries ago. Modern scientists are continuing what began with these pioneers. The documentary traces the historical exploration of the paradise belt at latitude 0 and looks at modern research at the equator.

Plastic Odyssey, mission pacifique

Feature-length documentary following award-winning wildlife cameraman Vianet Djenguet as he documents a gruelling but vital mission to ‘habituate’ a notoriously protective 450lb silverback, in a last-ditch effort to save the critically endangered eastern lowland gorillas from extinction.

The Grand Canyon is a breathtaking natural monument. It's one of the planet’s best-known landscapes, yet we often forget that it tells two billion years of the Earth's history. Geologists Karl Karlström and Laurie Crossey are the leading experts on this. Over the course of 8 days, they descend the Colorado river and tackle hundreds of rapids to unveil the mysteries held in the Grand Canyon, and the place that humans occupy within it.

A climatologist, a physicist, and a volcanologist set out to conquer the highest peak in the Alps. Through exceptional images, the film recounts their odyssey and reveals the immense wealth of this natural laboratory. Straddling France, Italy, and Switzerland, the Mont Blanc massif was formed 240 million years ago. Four times the size of Paris, it covers 400 km2. Its summit, the highest in Western Europe, rises to 4,810 meters. Three scientists begin its ascent: Martine Rebetez, a Swiss climatologist; Étienne Klein, a philosopher and physicist at the French Atomic Energy Commission; and Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff, a geologist and volcanologist. Advancing in two roped teams, they are accompanied by Jean-Franck Charlet and François-Régis Thévenet, mountain guides, as well as physiologist Hugo Nespoulet.

Mission Gombessa - Die Jagd nach dem Methusalem der Meere

One of the highest achievements of the new wave of Kirghiz cinema, which emerged in the mid-1960s. This story of a boy building sandcastles on the shores of the Issyk-Kul Lake becomes a documentary parable on the tensions between an artist and society.

Pélagos, voyage au large de la Méditerranée

On his ship "Calypso," as well as in a submarine, Jacques Cousteau and his crew sail from South America and travel to Antarctica. They explore islands, reefs, icebergs, fossils, active volcanic craters, and creatures of the ocean never before seen. This voyage took place in 1975, and Captain Cousteau became one of the first explorers ever to dive beneath the waters of the frozen South Pole.

Documentary about the work of Claude Lorius, who began studying Antarctic ice in 1957, and, in 1965, was the first scientist to be concerned about global warming.

The inside story of the Artemis II mission - filmed over three and a half years at NASA. How did four astronauts travel to the moon, going deeper into space than ever before?

The Kerguelen Islands, nicknamed the "Islands of Desolation," are a French archipelago of subantarctic islands in the southernmost part of the Indian Ocean. They constitute one of the five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). Uninhabited, the archipelago was discovered in the southern Indian Ocean on February 12, 1772, by the French navigator Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec. This scientific film by Gilbert Dassonville, intended for the general public and for educational purposes, presents the scientific missions underway in 1963 on the Kerguelen Islands. The permanent station at Port-aux-Français, founded in 1950, the archipelago, and the surrounding wildlife are documented by following the multidisciplinary teams (biology, geophysics, geology, meteorology).