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.
A wonderful journey in the heart of a legendary civilization that owns the world longevity record in good health. The archipelago of Okinawa, located in the Pacific Ocean at the very south of Japan sees its population with almost no diseases. What are the secrets of Okinawa’s inhabitants ? How can we live longer, happy and in good health ?
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 mining town of Norilsk sits in the heart of the Siberian Arctic, bathed in the billowing smoke and sulphur of its mills and factories. Built by Gulag prisoners under Stalin, Norilsk remains a mysterious place, haunted by its past suffering. While miners ponder lost comradeship and teenagers dream of escape, artists and descendants of the Gulag prisoners seek to shed light on Norilsk’s dark past, long since buried under the Siberian ice.
A woman travels around the world to talk to 15 women from 15 different countries, and they tell her their opinion about topics of general interest such as love, religion, pride of belonging to their country and the situation of women in the place where they live.
A feature-length documentary that follows a community in Australia who came together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises. Throughout the year the group build tiny houses, plant veggie gardens, practice simple living, and discover the challenges of living in community.
There have always been those who said "No" to meat due to different reasons. Whether it be ethical choice, health care or responsible consumption. The film will tell who and why has been giving up eating meat in Russia, and how it's connected to Leo Tolstoy, to Soviet soy developments and to nonviolence.
Mars is our nearest planetary neighbour and its environment resembles own more closely than any other member of our planetary family. Robotic probes have revealed that water once flowed on the surface. This episode follows the quest to find traces of life on Mars.
Hardly a drop of water makes it to the estuary of the Colorado River. Once it reaches Mexico, after its journey through the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Nevada, the river is dry – and has been for decades. The demand for water in its catchment area is simply too great. Now, conservationists are working to make the estuary green again. They’re persuading people along the Colorado to give some of its water back to the river.
Nearly 100 years after its creation, the power of the U.S. Federal Reserve has never been greater. Markets and governments around the world hold their breath in anticipation of the Fed Chairman’s every word. Yet the average person knows very little about the most powerful - and least understood - financial institution on earth.
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.
After the Revolution in 1949, legislation regarding equality was passed, a huge step forward for China at the time. The economic reforms of recent decades have also improved women's lives. Yet China is still the only country in the world where more women than men commit suicide (WHO).
The United Nations celebrates its 70th anniversary in the fall of 2015. Among other innovations, members of the UN devised the novel concept of “soldiers for peace.” But can peace be enforced militarily? The original mission of the United Nations was to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war by maintaining peace and security between states. Now that terrorists and internal conflicts strike far more frequently than traditional inter-state wars, what does international security mean?
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.
In this episode, we look at literature and film in the cultural nation of China. Stories and interviews with authors who struggle with censorship and self-censorship, and about the thriving film industry, which seeks to top Hollywood.
Economic reforms have led to a divided China, which threatens not only individual survival, but even economic growth and the entire Chinese society. In this episode, we hear stories and interviews about the middle class, about poverty in rural areas and about the precarious existence of hundreds of millions of migrant workers on the fringes of the cities.
How is China run, and how do the people get their say? Stories and interviews about China's ruling Communist Party, about being a representative of the people, about the potential political power of blogs, and about grassroots protests and mass incidents, which are only increasing in number.
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.
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.
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.
A survey of World War II and the pivotal role propaganda played in it.
A survey of World War II and the pivotal role propaganda played in it.
«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.
This documentary probes the life of Syria's despot, Bashar al-Assad. The country has been in the grip of a bloody civil war for more than six years, and although he's faced challenges from ISIS, the refugee crisis, and foreign governments calling for his removal, Bashar has stayed true to his one goal: to perpetuate his relentless power over Syria.
The documentary tells the story of the slow transformation of a man. Once democratic and pro-European, he is now a reactionary head of state with autocratic aims. From the abrupt cessation of Turkey's EU accession talks in 2010 to the colossal purges destabilizing the country today, we are studying the implementation of a ruthless strategy aimed at making the Turkish president the new Sultan of the Middle East.
A survey of World War II and the pivotal role propaganda played in it.
Five years ago, in 2012, Russia was a second-rate power surrounded by the expanding NATO alliance. Putin was destabilized since his controversial reelection triggered waves of protest. Yet he turned out to be a brilliant strategist, exploiting the weaknesses of the West and positioning himself as the main player in international affairs.
