Holding Up The Sky(2023)

Grizzly Man(en)

Werner Herzog's documentary film about the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in one man's attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

Sous les pavés, la Terre !(fr)

The Medicine of Forgiveness(es)

Benito Arévalo is an onaya: a traditional healer in a Shipibo-Konibo community in Peruvian Amazonia. He explains something of the onaya tradition, and how he came to drink the plant medicine ayahuasca under his father's tutelage. Arévalo leads an ayahuasca ceremony for Westerners, and shares with us something of his understanding of the plants and the onaya tradition.

Voices That Heal(es)

Herlinda Augustin is a Shipibo healer who lives with her family in Peruvian Amazonia. Will she and other healers be able to maintain their ancient tradition despite Western encroachment?

Ayahuasca Diary(en)

Four Westerners with various ailments travel to Peruvian Amazonia to drink ayahuasca, a traditional medicine renowned for its healing powers.

Dark Green(en)

In Dark Green we follow conservationist and storyteller Paul Rosolie deep into the jungle of the Amazon, risking his life to learn more on this last remaining wilderness on earth.

Amazonia: Healing with Sacred Plants(en)

Psychologist and anthropologist Alberto Villoldo talks with traditional healers of Madre de Dios, a department within in Peruvian Amazonia. They and Dr. Villoldo explain aspects of ayahuasca, a powerful, plant-based medicine of crucial importance.

A Life's Work(en)

What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.

Miwene(es)

Steeped in the long oral tradition of Waorani storytelling, Gange Yeti shares her own coming-of-age story as a young Waorani woman living deep within the Amazon rainforest. Following Gange and her community for over 11 years, the film captures her transition from a quiet teenager into a confident young mother at a critical turning point for her culture and rainforest. As the granddaughter of one of the last Waorani elders that lived in complete isolation before outside contact, Gange is determined to capture her grandmother’s unique experience while she still can -- balancing school, motherhood, and tradition along the way.

Du Chocolat Pour Sauver l'Amazonie(fr)

The Amazon is the river of superlatives: the longest - 7,025 km, the most powerful, the most indomitable - no dam possible over hundreds of kilometres. Its waters cross the largest tropical forest in the world: the Amazon, “the lungs of the earth”. Going against the current of this gigantism, this documentary is betting on approaching this extraordinary natural space through one of its tiniest productions: the cocoa bean. Scientists, chocolate makers, producers and farmers, many are those who, faced with the deforestation of this unique ecosystem, use this chocolate seed to recreate, on a small scale, human exploitations in harmony with nature. This film tells us about the fight of those who decided to make cocoa the spearhead of environmental defense in Brazil.

We Are Zama Zama(tn)

In South Africa’s abandoned mines, men scrabble for gold, using hand hammers and bicycle head-lamps, often remaining underground for days, often without food. Their survival is dependent on their hands – and luck. They are gamblers, or Zama Zama, who hope to scrounge a living from exhausted veins despite crumbling mineshafts and criminal overlords because at home in Zimbabwe they have nothing, there is nothing. The video footage is shot by miners with GoPros and in spite of harrowing conditions, we see uplifting camaraderie, caring collaboration and inspiring good cheer, as we are taken into their subterranean lives, guided by director-producer-anthropologist Rosalind Morris. Above ground, they smile. Gangsters prey on them, and the women cough from the glass-like dust of the rocks they crush by hand. But still they smile. An extraordinary story of human endurance, not to be missed.

Amazon(en)

Explore the mysterious Amazon through the amazing IMAX experience. Amazon celebrates the beauty, vitality and wonder of the rapidly disappearing rain forest.

Hummingbirds: Jewelled Messengers(en)

David Attenborough narrates this close up look at these tiny pollinators captured in flight as never before. Acrobats of the air - flying jewels - iridescent partners of countless plants: hummingbirds are amongst the most remarkable creatures on our planet.

Grazing the Amazon(pt)

There are 85 million cows in the Brazilian Amazon, which means three cows for each human dweller grazing today and area that was once forest. Less than fifty years ago, in the 1970s, the rainforest was intact. Since then, a portion the size of France has disappeared, 66% of which transformed into pastures. Much of this change is a consequence of government incentives that attracted thousands of farmers from southern lands. Cattle ranching became an economic and cultural banner of the Amazon, forging powerful politicians to defend it. In 2009, there was a game changer: the Public Prosecutor's Office sued large slaughterhouses, forcing them to supervise cattle supplying farms.

Chacrinha: Eu Vim para Confundir e Não para Explicar(pt)

Chacrinha's legacy on TV and excerpts from his personal life are revealed through testimonials and archive images, which tell the story behind the cameras, the behind the scenes that consolidated a new way of communicating Brazil and the facets of a man who is one of the most interesting contemporary characters on the national cultural scene.

The Stages of Whale Decomposition(en)

Fallen whale carcasses, abundant in the deep-sea, form ecosystems of their own. As it decomposes, different stages support a succession of marine biological communities. It is these complex and fascinating stages that are here explored.

O Rio Negro São as Pessoas(pt)

Iniciación de un shamán(es)

Halfway between fiction and documentary, Initiation of a Shaman tells the story of Rarowe, a young Yanomami who is about to be initiated and must make contact with spirits brought by other shamans. The young man feels the effects of the initiation and always waits until the end to see if he can withstand it. The initiation itself is a rare event and occurs only when the old medicine man is about to die. The ancient rites includes the struggle of the youth with evil spirits which attempt to prevent the old witch doctor from imparting his wisdom to the young man. Hallucinogetic plants are used by the tribe to increase perception. The eerie images depicted are similar to those evoked in the books of Castaneda.

Intoxication of an Oasis(fr)

On an island in the Indian Ocean, the Comoros archipelago, unoccupied houses await the arrival of their owners. These places without souls and half built abound across the landscape. The myth of eternal return is repeated in the Comorian diaspora.

The Shaman & Ayahuasca: Journeys to Sacred Realms(en)

Filmed in the jungles of Peru, shaman Don Jose Campos introduces the practices and benefits of Ayahuasca, the psychoactive plant brew that has been used for healing and visionary journeys by Amazonian shamans for at least a thousand years.