Desert View

The Pigeon People(en)

Directed by Patrick Gramm, 'The Pigeon People' (2023) takes you deep into Arizona's underground pigeon racing scene as racing rivals prepare for and compete in the Grand Canyon Classic - a 350-mile pigeon race from Utah to Arizona that crosses over the Grand Canyon.

Aleph(es)

Structured as a labyrinth-like game and inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, Aleph is a travelogue of experience, a dreamer's journey through the lives, experiences, stories and musings of protagonists spanning ten countries and five continents.

Flood in the Desert(en)

Explore the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering and human failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, a self-taught engineer who ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing the city water via aqueduct. The catastrophe killed more than 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property.

Element of Survival(en)

Beyond the sprawl of the urban jungle, 150 race teams meet to do battle in the heart of the Mojave Desert in southern California. The format is "run what ya brung" Unlimited 4 Wheel Drive Racing, and the stakes are higher than ever. Only 20% of the teams that take the green flag will make it to the end, the remainder being left strewn across the desert floor in the wake of one of the hardest off road races on the planet, the King of the Hammers. Follow teams in 'Element of Survival' as they set out to conquer harsh desert at speeds in excess of 100mph, as well as some of the hardest rock crawling North America has to offer, all in an effort to be crowned "King" at the setting of the sun.

Nostalgia for the Light(es)

In Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime.

Desolation Center(en)

The untold story of a series of Reagan-era guerrilla punk and industrial desert happenings in Southern California that are now recognized as the inspiration for Burning Man, Lollapalooza, and Coachella. Interviews and rare performance footage of Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Redd Kross, Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Laboratories, Savage Republic, Swans and more.

The Desert Wagon(es)

A couple of artists travels through the Mexico desert to present their puppet show.

Dinolandia(es)

A mechanic discovers the fossil of a huge carnivorous dinosaur, unleashing a war between scientists, mayors and neighboring towns to keep “the biggest dinosaur in the world.” Among bone thefts, replicas and a mayor obsessed with creating Dinolandia, anything goes when it comes to surviving.

Spare My Bones, Coyote!(en)

For twelve years, a Mexican American couple have organized biweekly search and rescue missions along the desert border to find and return the bodies of migrants who died while trying to cross on foot to their families. Despite exhaustion, burnout and post-traumatic stress, they continue to bring closure to those who have lost loved ones in the pursuit of a better life.

Nazca Desert Mystery(en)

One of the world’s greatest ancient enigmas, the Nazca lines are a dense network of criss-crossing lines, geometric shapes, and animal figures etched across 200 square miles of Peruvian desert. Who created them and why? Ever since they were discovered in the 1920s, scholars and enthusiasts have raised countless theories about their purpose. Now, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of long-hidden lines and figures as well as evidence of ancient rituals, offering new clues to the origins and motivations behind the giant desert symbols.

The American Dreamer(en)

A documentary about actor/director Dennis Hopper, showing him at his home and studio putting together his film "The Last Movie."

The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation(en)

The rock pocket mouse is a living example of Darwin's process of natural selection. Evolution is happening right now everywhere around us, and adaptive changes can occur in a population with remarkable speed. This is essential if you're a mouse living in an environment where a volcanic eruption can reverse selective pressure in nearly an instant. The film features Dr. Michael Nachman, whose work on pocket mice reveals a complete story, from ecosystem to molecules, that demonstrates how random changes in the genome can take many paths to the same adaptation-a colored coat that hides them from predators.

30 Years of National Geographic Specials(en)

Celebrates 30 years of televised specials by The National Geographic Society.

The Man Who Stopped the Desert(en)

As a child in Burkina Faso, Yacouba was sent away from home to study the Qur'an, where he and his classmates were almost starving. The young boys would trek across miles of wilderness, only to fall and beg at a straw hut for meagre rations. It is from this harsh background that the young farmer became determined to develop techniques that would bring exhausted soil back into production. His efforts have outdone the work of the world's leading scientists and technological advances costing millions of pounds. They may also yet prove crucial to the future of the world's rapidly growing population and global food demands.

The Adventures of Chico(en)

A Mexican boy without young neighbors to play with, befriends a diverse group of desert animals.

Meerkats 3D(en)

Narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Emily Watson, MEERKATS 3D takes audiences on a journey with a family of meerkats as they cope with the twists and turns of life in the Kalahari Desert. The film begins as matriarch Klinky’s most recent litter emerges from the burrow for the first time. Klinky and her family, including elder children and regular babysitters Ms. Bean and Harry, must endure turf wars from rival families, attacks from vicious predators big and small and internal family turmoil. The survival of this clan hinges on the meerkat golden rule: Stick together, and keep calling.

The Accidental Sea(en)

A short film about the life and death of California's most famous post-apocalyptic hell-hole, the Salton Sea.

Out of State(en)

Out of State is the unlikely story of native Hawaiians men discovering their native culture as prisoners in the desert of Arizona, 3,000 miles, and across the ocean, from their island home.

L'expérience biosphère : 120 jours dans le désert(fr)

Kaktus Hotel(de)