Extinct or Alive: The Tasmanian Tiger

Original 35mm nitrate negative film shot by naturalist David Fleay at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart in December 1933. Colorized by Samuel François-Steininger at the Paris-based, Composite Films, from a 4K scan of the negative by the National Film and Sound Archive Australia.

This is the story of a charismatic family of endangered animals and one man’s extraordinary devotion. It unfolds in a distant wilderness, in a land forgotten by time. But change is coming. In less than a year, this magical place, along with those who live here, may be lost forever. Welcome to Quoll Farm.

Eight men escape from the most isolated prison on earth. Only one man survives and the story he recounts shocks the British establishment to the core. This story is the last confession of Alexander Pearce.

The director explores the birth origins of actress Merle Oberon, traveling to Tasmania and India in search of the truth, but her quest ultimately results in probably more questions than it answers.

In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.

A poetic cine-essay about race and Australia’s colonised history and how it impacts into the present offering insights into how various individuals deal with the traumatic legacies of British colonialism and its race-based policies. The film’s consultative process, with ‘Respecting Cultures’ (Tasmanian Aboriginal Protocols), offers an evolving shift in Australian historical narratives from the frontier wars, to one of diverse peoples working through historical trauma in a process of decolonisation.

The siren call of the ivory-billed woodpecker lures a New York based tantra and sex educator into the swamps of the American South on a 17-year journey to prove the iconic bird still exists. Along the way, he finds a tendril of hope in the face of climate change.

Follows amateur botanist Antonius Moscal's raft journey down the Franklin River (Tasmania, Australia).

Recorded by pioneers as far back as 1805, the Tasmanian tiger has become an intensely mystifying Australian icon, whose entire existence has become the stuff of both fable and legend. This program investigates a chequered past and puts the speculation into perspective, taking into account the tragic culling and ‘bounty era’ where the carnivorous creatures were thought to be solely responsible for a considerable loss of farmers’ livestock. Balancing the facts with personal reflections from Tasmanian locals, scientists and other informed practitioners, The Tasmanian Tiger is a thought-provoking and revealing look at the extraordinary life and death of one of Australia’s most mysterious marsupials.

Jarred by the loss of his closest friend, a farmer on Tasmania’s remote West Coast, begins to mentor at-risk local youth. In an area renowned for its poverty, low literacy, and high suicide rates, Stafford Heres is determined to provide opportunities for kids who have few. Eden Alone Surpasses Thee explores his relationship with the land, loss, and the young men he takes under his wing.

takayna / Tarkine in northwestern Tasmania is home to one of the last undisturbed tracts of Gondwanan rainforest in the world, and one of the highest concentrations of Aboriginal archaeology in the hemisphere. Yet this place, which remains largely as it was when dinosaurs roamed the planet, is currently at the mercy of destructive extraction industries, including logging and mining. Weaving together the conflicting narratives of activists, locals and Aboriginal communities, and told through the experiences of a trail running doctor and a relentless environmentalist, this documentary, presented by Patagonia Films, unpacks the complexities of modern conservation and challenges us to consider the importance of our last truly wild places.

Journey to far-flung islands off Africa, South America, Australia and Oceania for a look at the bird species that lived alongside our ancestors.

David Attenborough returns to the island of Madagascar on a very personal quest. In 1960 he visited the island to film one of his first ever wildlife series, Zoo Quest. Whilst he was there, he acquired a giant egg. It was the egg of an extinct bird known as the 'elephant bird' - the largest bird that ever lived. It has been one of his most treasured possessions ever since. Fifty years older, he now returns to the island to find out more about this amazing creature and to see how the island has changed. Could the elephant bird's fate provide lessons that may help protect Madagascar's remaining wildlife? Using Zoo Quest archive and specially shot location footage, this film follows David as he revisits scenes from his youth and meets people at the front line of wildlife protection. On his return, scientists at Oxford University are able to reveal for the first time how old David's egg actually is - and what that might tell us about the legendary elephant bird.

A portrait of environmental folk hero & gay icon Bob Brown, who took green politics to the center of power. His story is interwoven with the life cycle of the ancient trees he's fighting for.

Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.

The original film of the Tasmanian tiger (also known as the thylacine) was shot by Australian zoologist David Fleay in 1933 on black-and-white film. Recently, this historic footage has been colorized and digitized by a team of international experts. You can watch the remastered footage of the last-known surviving Tasmanian tiger here. The thylacine, which resembled a medium-to-large-sized canid, had dark transverse stripes radiating from the top of its back. Sadly, the last known thylacine died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.

In a time of hardship, Hobart resident Peter Walsh turns to the secretive platypus for solace, only to discover it is the platypus that need his help to survive in a habitat under threat.

Tasmania lies on the Australian continent, but is a world apart. It is home to an extraordinary cast of black devils and white wallabies. Trees here tower to one hundred metres and green lights dance in the southern sky. As the last landfall heading south before Antarctica, Tasmania's isolation, cooler climate and distinct seasons influence everything.

Journeying beyond the global headlines around 'Sudan,' the last male northern white rhino in existence, and explore the painful emptiness of extinction through the eyes of Sudan's three primary caregivers. Teetering on borrowed time and with his health in decline, Sudan's looming death and the uncertainty of employment that it will bring hangs over the heads of our three dynamic characters. Their only hope to save the species that they love - and perhaps their livelihood - rests fully in the success of a last resort IVF experiment.

Tasmanian Devil Synopsis: Danica McKellar (“The Wonder Years,” “The West Wing”) and Olympic speed skating champion Apolo Ohno take on a deadly mythical beast in the new Syfy Saturday Original Movie “Tasmanian Devil.”