In the heart of Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, the waters of Lake Urema explode with the thrashing of a giant crocodile tail. Gorongosa was once known as the place where Noah left his ark: 1,500 square miles of lush floodplains in central Mozambique, packed with wild animals. All around, enormous buffalo, soaring fish eagles, and countless antelopes roam freely. But on closer look, something strange is going on. Fifteen years of civil war has taken a heavy toll and many species have been almost completely wiped out. All the usual top predators and prey are virtually missing, except for one - giant crocodiles and thousands of them. Discover what is being done to bring this African oasis back to its former glory, including perhaps the most ambitious restoration effort ever attempted, with elephants, hippos and scores of zebra, wildebeest, impala and buffalo, being relocated into the park.
Tchai is the word used by Ju/'hoansi to describe getting together to dance and sing; n/um can be translated as medicine, or supernatural potency. In the 1950's, when this film was shot, Ju/'hoansi gathered for "medicine dances" often, usually at night, and sometimes such dances lasted until dawn.
Women from three separate Ju/'hoan bands have gathered at a mangetti grove at !O to play an intense game in which under-tones of social and personal tensions become apparent.
While most teens spend their days in a self-absorbed haze, Simon Jackson was out in the world connecting with anyone who could help him save the spirit bear. For this, Simon became one of Time's Heroes of the Planet. It's a remarkable accomplishment for one so young, and an inspiring story for lovers of wilderness of all ages. But his devotion to the cause made him an outcast amongst his peers.
Shout Gladi Gladi is a documentary about hope. It tells the story of one woman's quest to cure fistula and save mother's lives in Africa. Shot in Malawi and Sierra Leone (just prior to the Ebola crisis) this is an intense portrait of the people suffering from fistula and the struggle of those who are not only trying to fix this condition but curtail it through better maternal health care. In addition, it is about women's empowerment, specifically through a radical device from BBOXX, a solar powered generator that provides the women not only with electricity in a region where there is none but also as a means to make money by charging cell phones.
This documentary explores the emigration myth. The main character’s curiosity takes him to London, a cosmopolitan city where one must fight to survive, before he joins other communities with different horizons. Why do people from so many nationalities end up on that piece of land? Were they looking for something better? A fifth island?
A documentary film about the art and process of making Fura Da Nono - a type of food that is originated from West Africa's Sahel region, one of the many unique traditions of the Fulani people which has been preserved for centuries.
It would be hard to name anyone who has had more of an impact in the realm of animal research and wildlife conservation than Jane Goodall, whose 45 year study of wild chimpanzees in Africa is legendary. In Jane's Journey, we travel with her across several continents, from her childhood home in England, to the Gombe National Park in Tanzania where she began her groundbreaking research and where she still returns every year to enjoy the company of the chimpanzees that made her famous. Featuring a wide range of interviews and spectacular footage from her own private collection, Jane's Journey is an inspiring portrait of the private person behind the world-famous icon.
In French Polynesia, there is a place where every year, thousands of groupers gather in secret followed by hundreds of sharks… The photographer, diver and biologist Laurent Ballesta, with his team, wanted to better understand what motivates these fish to wait until the exact day of the full moon to spawn all at once! With the help of researchers from the CNRS of Moorea, they dived and conducted numerous experiments to study and witness this unique phenomenon. Taking advantage of this period of incredible richness, Laurent Ballesta did a record dive of 24 hours at over 20 meters.
The made-for-cable documentary film The Real Eve is predicated on the theory that the human race can be traced to a common ancestor. The mitochondrial DNA of one prehistoric woman, who lived in Africa, has according to this theory been passed down from generation to generation over a span of 150,000 years, supplying the "chemical energy" to all humankind.
In Africa, the giant fig tree and the tiny fig wasp differ in size a billion times over, but neither could exist without the other. Their extraordinary relationship is a marvel of co-evolution, a marriage which has lasted for millennia. It forms the basis of a complex web of dependency that supports entire ecosystems, providing food for thousands of creatures, from elephants, giraffes, and fruit bats, to forest hornbills, monkeys, insects, and fish.
This fascinating film tells the story of one man's struggle to protect a small population of gorillas on the slopes of Mount Kahuzi in Zaire and of his incredible relationship with Kasimir, the great silver-backed male, and his family.
An attempted exposé of worldly violence using various scenes of graphic human and animal behaviors.
A European director is making a film with children from a social center in Tangiers. Because of his methods, his relationship with the children during shooting degenerates and transforms the evolution of the project.
At the time of Tunisian independence, owners of large boats decide to sell, while many small fishermen soon find themselves without work. Their wives then decide to pool their gold rings to sell them and thus buy boats.
Famed explorer Lewis Cotlow leads a hunting and archaeological expedition into Africa.