West of England

Les fils de la terre

Merging sweeping wine country footage with insightful interviews, filmmaker Lori Miller showcases the dynamic natural wine movement that is transforming a growing number of Northern California vineyards.

The agriculture reforming process, after the 1974 revolution, is seen through an analysis of the social structures and class struggles of the Portuguese society.

A Place of Our Own

How safe is the future of the world’s food? This documentary explores a growing crisis in world agriculture. Plant breeding has created today’s crops, which are high yielding but vulnerable to disease and insects. To keep crops healthy, breeders tap all the genetic diversity of the world’s food plants. But that rich resource is quickly being wiped out. (NFB)

As the global economics of dairy farming has winnowed out most small and medium-sized dairies, the surviving farmers confront pressures to intensify production, even as they find that getting bigger presents new problems.

An affectionate and entertaining look at our nation's obsession with cinema from the early days of silent cinema, through the golden age of the picture palace, to the modern multiplexes and beyond. A celebration of Norfolk-area cinemas past and present that introduces some colourful characters who kept audiences coming back for more, this film also asks: Is this the final reel in the story of cinema or just another chapter in its continuing development?

Die Schweiz von oben

Exclusive two-disc film documenting the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa in the summer of 1997. The unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the team shows the preparations, the training, the fun, the team selection, the 'earthy' language, the bonding, the awesome task of playing and some shocking footage of injuries. Despite securing the series with wins in the first two tests, the Lions remained motivated by the prospect of a 3-0 whitewash, a feat never achieved against the Springboks throughout the century.

Devastation of a Welsh-speaking community: Capel Celyn village and farms of the Tryweryn Valley disappear beneath the waters of a reservoir so Liverpool’s thirst may be slaked.

This documentary-style short follows two impoverished teens performing on the streets of London in the days leading up to the London Blitz of 1940.

The cultivation of flax, long and complicated, requires constant precautions and care. This document describes the different stages of this culture, from tillage and fertilization of the soil to uprooting, retting, braying, stacking, retting and, finally, shipping to the factory.

Twenty-six-year-old Shani Warren was found drowned in Taplow Lake, Buckinghamshire, with her hands tied and feet bound together in 1987. Revealing how it took a forensic breakthrough to solve the 35-year mystery of the death of The Lady in the Lake.

The story of Dr. George Washington Carver (1864-1943), black educator and horticulturist. He is perhaps most well known for developing over 140 products from all parts of the peanut plant, including the shells and husks. He also developed products based on sweet potatoes and soybeans, and developed a cotton hybrid that was named after him.

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

Farming practices in America's heartland, including excess fertilizers and poor soil conservation, have wrought unintended yet severe consequences on the Mississippi River. Fortunately, farmers, scientists, and citizens are pursuing more sustainable land-use practices that meet ambitious food production goals while ensuring the long-term health of precious natural resources.

In the Cumbrian seaside village of Siddick, 9-year-old Laura-Anne narrates a year in her life in rhyming couplets, as she navigates the pitfalls of young love. Enduring various betrayals and heartbreaks, she persists in her quest to find her prince.

A look at the destruction that follows the breaking of long-neglected dikes and the measures being taken to prevent future problems.

Early Balkan footage.

Don Letts examines the history of this notorious subculture in a fascinating documentary, which features interviews with members of different skinhead scenes through the decades. Beginning in the late 1960s, Don fondly recalls a time of multiracial harmony as youngsters bonded over a love of ska, reggae and smart clothes as white working-class kids were attracted to Jamaican culture and adopted its music and fashions. But when far-right politics targeted skinheads in the 1970s and 1980s, an ugly intolerance emerged, and Don reveals how the once-harmonious subgroup has since struggled to shake this stigma.