Sepp Holzer's Secrets of Eden(NaN)

Modern Life(fr)

For ten years, Raymond Depardon has followed the lives of farmer living in the mountain ranges. He allows us to enter their farms with astounding naturalness. This moving film speaks, with great serenity, of our roots and of the future of the people who work on the land. This the last part of Depardon's triptych "Profils paysans" about what it is like to be a farmer today in an isolated highland area in France. "La vie moderne" examines what has become of the persons he has followed for ten years, while featuring younger people who try to farm or raise cattle or poultry, come hell or high water.

The Whisper of the Leaves(es)

A poetic and contemplative journey of harmony between different forms of life that coexist on the earth. This film is a meditation on the effect of time, movement of the human spirit, and passage to new forms of life, through the eyes, ears, and bodies of three elderly land workers living in a small community in the outskirts of Bauta, Cuba.

The Ants and the Grasshopper(en)

Anita Chitaya has a gift: she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and maybe she can end child hunger in her village. Now, to save her home in Malawi from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real. Traveling from Malawi to California to the White House, she meets climate sceptics and despairing farmers. Her journey takes her across all the divisions that shape the USA: from the rural-urban divide, to schisms of race, class and gender, and to the American exceptionalism that remains a part of the culture. It will take all her skill and experience to help Americans recognise, and free themselves from, a logic that is already destroying the Earth.

It's Hard By Oneself...(pl)

The documentary takes the viewer to the Polish countryside of the mid-1970s. Andrzej, Leszek, Eugeniusz, Ryszard and Jerzy are young men who dream of finding their other half. The film's protagonists have advertised in newspapers and talk frankly and without inhibition about their search and the dilemmas it involves. The picture is complemented by the statements of their parents, who watch their sons' efforts to start a family with love but also concern. The film also gives an insight into the problems farmers face - not only love but also hard work on the land awaits the chosen one of their hearts. "Either get married or quit this farm", "What's one to do on a farm?" - say the characters in the film. The countryside is not a place made for living alone.

The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic(fr)

This feature-length educational film teaches you how to set up your own permaculture orchard at virtually any scale. We recognize the limitations of the organic model as a substitute to conventional fruit growing, and want to propose a more holistic, regenerative approach based on permaculture principles. Based on 20 years of applied theory and trial and error, biologist and educator Stefan Sobkowiak shares his experience transforming a conventional apple orchard into an abundance of biodiversity that virtually takes care of itself. The concepts, techniques and tips presented in this film will help you with your own project, whether it is just a few fruit trees in your urban backyard, or a full-scale multi-acre commercial orchard.

Morocco from Above(fr)

Yann Arthus-Bertrand flew over Morocco with his cameras and asked the journalist Ali Baddou to write and record the comment.

Prime Farmland(en)

This documentary film follows farmers and activists fighting together to stop the Indiana Enterprise Center, a mega-sized industrial park planned west of South Bend, Indiana

Gary Hemming, le beatnik des cimes(fr)

The American mountaineer Gary Hemming marked the era of the 1960s. The story of this "exceptional" character is intimately linked to that of the rescue of the two German mountaineers on the west face of the Drus, in 1966, a rescue which he had took the initiative. While the official emergency services of the EHM try to reach them from above, a pirate rope made up of Gary Hemming, René Desmaison, Lothar Mauch, Gil Bodin, Mike Brurke, François Guillot, the filmmaker Gérard Bauer organizes to join them from below and succeeded after a fierce struggle the rescue. The press seizes the event and elevates Gary Hemming to the rank of national hero. All the newspapers feature this big guy with a cool attitude, mismatched clothes, jovial smile and long blond hair on the front page. From then on, he was nicknamed: "the beatnik of the peaks".

The Farmer's Wife(en)

A landmark portrait of three tumultuous years in the life of a Nebraska farm couple, chronicling three years of their struggle to save their farm and their marriage.

King Corn(en)

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

Tu nourriras le monde(fr)

Reinhold Messner - Il quindicesimo 8000(it)

A Life on the Farm(en)

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

Wheat Cycle(en)

The people and their labor are bound to the land in the cycle of activities to the sowing to the harvesting of wheat. Without narration or subtitles, the film conveys a sense of unity between the people and the land. Filmed in the Balkh Province, an area inhabited by Tajik and other Central Asian peoples. The town of Aq Kupruk is approximately 320 miles northwest of Kabul. The theme of the film focuses on rural economics. The film and accompaning instructor notes focus on herding, and fishing under diverse environmental conditions. The impact of technological change, human adaptation, and governmental extension of market systems are parallel themes.

Dominion(en)

Exposing the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture through drones, hidden & handheld cameras, the feature-length film explores the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.

The Neglected Miracle(en)

Indigenous farmers in Peru, Nicaragua, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand share their intimacy with the land and the seeds they have nurtured for generations; global corporations attempt to 'own' the intellectual property of seeds.

Cow(en)

A close-up portrait of the daily lives of a pair of cows: told by way of some narrative-free, intimate POV photography, with plenty of close shot images, we follow the daily routine of these animals as they live what can only be described as mundane, boring lives - all with an ultimate purpose within the human food chain.

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness(en)

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

The Sadies Stop and Start(en)

The Sadies Stop and Start captures a moment in time. That time was uncertain and dark. Still reeling from losing Dallas, we found out that Mike needed to have emergency wrist surgery. We needed to play these songs, not knowing if we would ever have the opportunity again. With one day's notice, documentary filmmaker Ron Mann and a stellar crew pulled together to help us capture these songs. Friends and family gathered to help out and show their support. James McKenty engineered in his mobile recording trailer, In Record Time Studio. The resulting film looked and sounded better than we could have hoped. We are thankful to share that Mike's surgery was successful and we are back out on the road and coming to a city near you.

Refuges(fr)