The white stork is the only large European bird that has attached itself to humans. These elegant-looking birds build their nests on roofs and chimneys and are said to be lucky and bring babies. People generally like storks. They have a strangely magical presence that attracts visitors – and the village of Rühstädt, known as “Europe’s Stork Village”, profits from bird-loving tourism. But the struggles of stork life largely go unnoticed by tourists.
Blossoming fruit trees, colourful meadows, buzzing bees and luscious fruit – traditional orchards are like natural oases in our modern-day agricultural landscape. They are natural habitats for numerous rare grasses and herbs which attract diverse animal species – from foxes to butterflies and even the common redstart, it’s swarming with wildlife. Tall trunks of fruit trees add another level to the meadow - and apples, pears, cherries and walnuts are not only delicious tidbits for human beings.
Trackers have been around for centuries and when the police realized that it would be interesting to put them to use in tracking escaped and missing persons, Australia was still a British penal colony. Featured in this film will be some of the last great trackers of the outback. We will bring their most dramatic stories to life by recreating their gripping adventures deep in the unknown corners of the Australian Outback, in search of the soon-to-be lost Aboriginal art of the tracker.
Plastic is both a marvel and hellish stuff. On the one hand, it can be used in a variety of ways and is inexpensive. However, it is responsible for a global environmental problem. Plastic is everywhere: as a trash vortex in the ocean and as a microplastics in our food chain. This documentary addresses the question of why mankind has not come up with a solution for this problem yet.
We investigate the commercialization of the natural world. Protecting our planet has become big business with companies promoting new environmental markets. This involves species banking, where investors buy up vast swathes of land, full of endangered species, to enable them to sell 'nature credits'. Companies whose actions destroy the environment are now obliged to buy these credits and new financial centres have sprung up, specializing in this trade.
The first view that strikes a visitor approaching the British coast is that of the high White Cliffs of Dover, looking like a great natural fortress. Throughout history, this imposing vista has symbolized to invaders the frontier between a familiar world and unknown territory...
Seen from the sky, the rural landscape of the United Kingdom is a rich mosaic of fields, heathland, mountains and forests. Walk through the Scottish Highlands or in the Fens of the county of Norfolk and the land appears naturally wild and rugged. In fact, the landscape has been shaped by centuries of political decisions and economic choices that left their mark on the country’s history.
Protection measures and 20 years of prohibition of the ivory trade are making an impact: Almost all countries in Africa are reporting a rise in elephant numbers. In the past two decades, the population of these grey giants doubled to over 30.000, alone in the Safari-Paradise of Kenya. At the same time the population of humans is growing. Both require space. Conflicts between both are unavoidable and the survival of the biggest land mammal is again endangered.
Polar Bears are well adapted for life in a frozen snow-covered environment. However, during summer and early fall, Hudson Bay is ice free. This film follows the bears throughout summer, unraveling the difficulties in their fight for survival at a time of plenty for all other Arctic inhabitants. By early July, the bears are cast ashore and live off resources acquired during the winter. Cubs born in December experience for the first time the explosion of life during the colourful Arctic summer.
30 years after Chernobyl catastrophe, and 5 years after Fukushima, it is time to see what has been happening in the “exclusion zones”, where the radioactivity rate is far above normal. This film will offer a unique access to those territories, which gather millions of people within thousands of km2
«The Last Nomads» features the greatest traditional journeys left on Earth as seen through the eyes of the people who still travel on them. From the Zagros Mountains of Iran to the frozen wastelands of northern Siberia, the Sahara to the Himalaya, these beautifully filmed documentaries give a unique insight into the very last human journeys still being travelled as they have been for thousands of years.
«The Last Nomads» features the greatest traditional journeys left on Earth as seen through the eyes of the people who still travel on them. From the Zagros Mountains of Iran to the frozen wastelands of northern Siberia, the Sahara to the Himalaya, these beautifully filmed documentaries give a unique insight into the very last human journeys still being travelled as they have been for thousands of years.
«The Last Nomads» features the greatest traditional journeys left on Earth as seen through the eyes of the people who still travel on them. From the Zagros Mountains of Iran to the frozen wastelands of northern Siberia, the Sahara to the Himalaya, these beautifully filmed documentaries give a unique insight into the very last human journeys still being travelled as they have been for thousands of years.
For nearly a million years people roamed the untamed lands between Europe and what is known today as the United Kingdom. But at the end of the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago, massive sea-rise flooded the plains north of the European continent and separated the British Isles from the rest of Europe.
For centuries, the Dutch have tamed the sea with dykes and criss-crossed their country with canals and waterways. Lately, climate change is whipping up storms and raising the sea level and the Netherlands is now seeking a new pact with water in order to protect the low-lying country. They’re making use of state-of-the-art technologies and the power of nature and are systematically making space for the water elsewhere.
The Jordan River is the most important source of water for Jordanians, Israelis, and Palestinians. Intensive farming is robbing the sacred river of its water. Since Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994, campaigners from an environmental organization have been working across all borders to rescue both the Jordan River and the Dead Sea for the protection of nature and for peace in the region.
