From the burning deserts to the icy steppes of the poles, from the green meadows to the tropical forests, insects occupy every ecosystem on the planet. An astonishing, fascinating and yet long ignored world. Who are they? Where do they come from? When did they first appear? How and why have they diversified and multiplied so much? Today, new methods in paleo-entomology, in the exploration and analysis of fossils and living organisms reveal the extent to which insects have contributed to shaping our world. They have even participated in the evolution of humans. At a time when some of their species are in danger of extinction and their place in ecosystems is being questioned, this film tells the fascinating story of the mysterious insects and the secret of their origins.
Is it possible for the entire world to switch to decentralized and renewable energy sources by 2030? In this inspiring documentary, we meet with German politicians, scientists, farmers, social workers, activists and visionaries who say yes, and who all push forward for a global change in climate by changing the local power supply sources to renewable energy. Director Carl-A. Fechner is not ready to give up on our planet just yet, and POWER TO CHANGE is a welcome antidote to the pessimism that defines our era's visions of the future.
Once upon a time, there was a pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), born in 1810, 210 years old and a pillar in its kingdom. This spectacular adventure features an extraordinary cast: squirrels, barnacles, jays, ants, field mice... This vibrant, whirring, marvelous little world seals its destiny around the majestic tree that welcomes them, feeds them and protects them from its roots to its crown. A poetic ode to life, in which nature alone expresses itself.
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.
The Amazon is one of the wildest and least explored parts of the planet. Encompassing 6 countries and 2 million square miles of forest, river and floodplain, it has the highest diversity of life on the planet, but what lies below it is truly shocking. In its deep muddy rivers, clear streams and expansive floodplains a freak-show of fish life has exploded, with some of the strangest shapes and weirdest adaptations on Earth. Hiding in the vast rivers and streams is an electric grid, a bizarre community of fish with a highly sophisticated electric sixth sense. Using electricity, these "Super" fish can communicate wirelessly, control each other remotely and emit shocks that can stop a human heart. This cryptic world has mystified scientists throughout the ages. Now an intrepid scientist, Will Crampton ventures back into the dark jungles where the inspiration for our technology driven world first emerged, in an attempt to unravel their secrets and unlock the electric code.
Africa the Serengeti takes you on an extraordinary journey to view a spectacle few humans have ever witnessed: The Great Migration. Journey with more than two million wildebeests, zebras and antelopes as in their annual 500 mile trek across the Serengeti plains.
This documentary is about microorganisms that live, compete, feed, and breed on the surface or in the depths of our bodies.
An examination of the extinction threat faced by frogs, which have hopped on Earth for some 250 million years and are a crucial cog in the ecosystem. Scientists believe they've pinpointed a cause for the loss of many of the amphibians: the chytrid fungus, which flourishes in high altitudes. Unfortunately, they don't know how to combat it. Included: an isolated forest in Panama that has yet to be touched by the fungus, thus enabling frogs to live and thrive as they have for eons.
A silent succession of black-and-white photographs of the city of Montreal.
Water as a physical and metaphysical metaphor and background of human existence. A docu-fictional essay between the Brazilian Sertão-deserts and the Northern-German flood areas of Dithmarschen. Dramas and day-by-day-observations in times of climate change.
Made for Milton Keynes Gallery's 10th anniversary using images from its archive and language from its press releases and catalogues.
Autumn, photographed during the last months of the drought year, 2015, is a stately, but intimate, seasonal tome, a celebration of the poignancy and mystery of our later years. – Nathaniel Dorsky
This year our mid-summer’s night was adorned with a glorious full moon. The weeks and days preceding the solstice were magically alive with crisp, cool breezes, bright, warm sunlight, and a general sense of heartbreaking clarity. The Dreamer is born out of this most poignant San Francisco spring.
Milah van Zuilen, visual artist and forest ecologist in training, uses the square to deal with the habit of people to construct nature. Square Fieldwork is filmed in the Bohemian forest in the Czech Republic and the concrete structure of Barendrecht, The Netherlands.
Every weekend for six years, Jessica takes a bus from NYC, where she lives and works as a set decorator, to Boston, her hometown, where she cares for her dad, Aloysius, who is 87 and has advanced Alzheimer's disease.
The white chalk cliffs of Rügen are among the most impressive natural monuments on earth, which the painter Casper David Friedrich immortalized for posterity as early as the 19th century. Germany's largest island with its seaside resorts from the Gründerzeit, its smaller side islands and peninsulas that give it its shape, its lagoon-like Bodden waters, the dense beech forests, the yellow rapeseed fields and the meadows, the shady tree avenues and the white sandy beaches is not only a magnet for tourists, but also a unique natural paradise in the middle of the Baltic Sea, a habitat for the rare white-tailed eagle, fallow deer, raccoon dogs and badgers as well as a resting place for huge swarms of migratory birds such as geese and cranes that can be heard trumpeting from afar. In this nature documentary, the unique landscapes and the diversity of the animal world of Rügen are captured with beautiful pictures during the changing of the seasons.
The film consists of three sequences shot by a fixed camera: the first shows the balcony of a hospital with patients (soundtrack from the film "Vivre sa vie" by Jean-Luc Godard), the second is a scraped wall and the third is a crossroad with pedestrians and cars (sound taken from the film "The Time-Machine " by George Pal).