The lyric passage of a Monarch butterfly, beginning with its birth, through its delicate metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly and on its journey from country to city. From the first frame, the audience experiences the tension of this perilous flight as numerous adversaries, threaten the butterfly's freedom. A lively sound track, with music composed by Frederic Chopin, allows us to live for a few moments in this fleeting world.
An intimate view of the panorama of African wildlife, giving a sense of what it is really like to be there, and in a dramatic climax makes a poignant plea for conservation. Filmed in Zaire, Kenya and Tanzania, the film takes the viewer from deep inside an anthill, to the majestic giraffes suckling their young. African storms, dung beetle ritual dances, duels for supremacy, feeding time, and playtime all end as the animals disappear one by one while the sound of a rifle shatters the existing magic of life. Winner of the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, 1976.
Attractive travelogue filmed in and around Delhi's Qutb complex.
Gorgeously dreamlike colour images of (then) French India – present-day Puducherry.
Remarkable amateur footage of Mahatma Gandhi shot by his great nephew in 1947.
Soon after we meet Manyari, the queen of her pride, she does something both unusual and bold: She leaves the sanctuary of the clan with her young cubs and takes them on a dangerous odyssey. She makes a bid to escape because two young bloods are sniffing around, and if they take over the pride, they will kill her cubs
Every year, thousands of Antarctica's emperor penguins make an astonishing journey to breed their young. They walk, marching day and night in single file 70 miles into the darkest, driest and coldest continent on Earth. This amazing, true-life tale is touched with humour and alive with thrills. Breathtaking photography captures the transcendent beauty and staggering drama of devoted parent penguins who, in the fierce polar winter, take turns guarding their egg and trekking to the ocean in search of food. Predators hunt them, storms lash them. But the safety of their adorable chicks makes it all worthwhile. So follow the leader... to adventure!!
A young penguin, driven by his instinct, embarks on his first major trip to an unknown destination.
There are fewer than 20 tuskers left on earth, where ivory still sweeps the ground. Filmed throughout the Greater Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya, Kimana Tuskers is a short film of epic proportions. Follow the famous tusker known as Craig, and the younger elephant bulls who entrust their lives to him as they navigate a vanishing landscape through the Kimana Wildlife Corridor. This is the passage of experience, a brotherhood, built on respect, trust and loyalty, and what awaits them is the promised land, so that one day their sons will rise to be kings…
The Southern Sea Otter was historically abundant along the California coastline until intense hunting pressures reduced their numbers to near-extinction levels. But now the otters are coming back, and with them they bring the potential for drastic change to the modern-day economics and ecology of the Santa Barbara Channel.
Sea otters are once again in peril after being brought back from the brink of extinction. An unprecedented number of sea otter deaths have occurred along the California coast in the last three years. Meanwhile, the Fish & Wildlife Services decision to eliminate their No Otter Zone from Southern California waters remains controversial. This fragile species threatened by pollution, infectious diseases, starvation, and competition with fishermen struggles for survival.
Can Aji's talent and triumphs elevate him from his poor, Tamil background to succeed on the national stage at Mr India? Or will his dreams be shattered by corruption and discrimination? The booming world of Indian bodybuilding is a captivating window through which to observe a rapidly changing society, while Aji's journey is a story of unity, brotherhood and celebration of India's incredible diversity.
Sir David Attenborough narrates a documentary about the Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. Playful and destructive, it attacks cars, starts landslides and terrorises New Zealand ski resorts but behind the bad behaviour there's a sharp mind at work. David tries to play chess with a kea and discovers how its cheeky character is the key to its survival.
Richly detailed amateur ethnographic film on the agrarian economy and society in rural Punjab.
Repping best view to date into the world of the Indian eunuch, “Between the Lines: India’s Third Gender” may not answer all the questions it poses, but helmer Thomas Wartmann provides an intimate glimpse at a community whose members are considered pariahs and conduits of supernatural force. Following shutterbug Anita Khemka in her quest to discover why these castrated men fascinate and repel, docu concentrates on three personalities and uses them as guides to their highly stratified world. Under its nautch skirts, film has strong enough legs to step out into international arthouses.
The Borneo Case is a unique story filmed over 25 years and tells the epic tale of how the rainforest, home of the last nomads was stripped of its natural resources. It reveals how billions of dollars of illegal profits solicited by the Chief Minister of Sarawak State in Malaysia were money laundered with the assistance of the largest global banks into offshore accounts and property portfolios all over the world. The case was labelled as the largest environmental crime of the century.
In this critical investigation into the most arresting victims of the climate emergency, biologist Ella Al-Shamahi joins a specialist autopsy into the death of a 40-foot sei whale, which washed up near Edinburgh. Across the 90-minute single doc, Ella sets out to uncover why whales are dying in record numbers and whether or not the crisis is man-made.
In a poetic hour and a half, director Mani Kaul looks at the ancient art of making pottery from a wide variety of perspectives.
To the city come men, women, fruits, flowers, vegetables, goats and sheep – all ready for consumption. It is the process of consumption/exploitation that forms the core of the film.
In the holy city of Varanasi, 16-year-old Ali has one of the most dangerous jobs in the world – catching poisonous snakes. The boy balances life and death on a daily basis to support his family.