Earth teems with a staggering variety of animals, including 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish, and more than 350,000 species of beetles. What explains this explosion of living creatures—1.4 million different species discovered so far, with perhaps another 50 million to go? The source of life's endless forms was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin brought forth his revolutionary idea of natural selection. But Darwin's radical insights raised as many questions as they answered. What actually drives evolution and turns one species into another? To what degree do different animals rely on the same genetic toolkit? And how did we evolve?
Earth teems with a staggering variety of animals, including 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish, and more than 350,000 species of beetles. What explains this explosion of living creatures—1.4 million different species discovered so far, with perhaps another 50 million to go? The source of life's endless forms was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin brought forth his revolutionary idea of natural selection. But Darwin's radical insights raised as many questions as they answered. What actually drives evolution and turns one species into another? To what degree do different animals rely on the same genetic toolkit? And how did we evolve?
2009-12-29
9
One hundred and fifty years later, scientists decode nature's greatest mysteries
Good Witch Cassie Nightingale is back to her bewitching ways, but this time she’s also juggling a newborn daughter and her job as town Mayor. With such a busy schedule she and her husband, town sheriff Jake Russell, aren’t getting much sleep. Hoping for a break, Cassie plans a much needed vacation with her new family. But things go awry when a crime wave sweeps through town and an investigative reporter tries to ruin Cassie’s image after a video of her magically disappearing turns up on the internet. To make matters worse, Cassie’s estranged foster mother appears in town and Cassie’s stepdaughter is suddenly accused of the recent robberies. Supported by her loyal family and friends, Cassie must rely on her signature charm to put a stop to the rumors before they completely destroy the town, and a Good Witch’s reputation!
After the death of their abusive father, two estranged twin brothers must reunite and sell off his property.
When his sister disappears after leaving their home in hopes of singing stardom, Luis tracks her down and discovers the grim reality of her whereabouts.
The sixteenth night of the tournament took place on August 8th, 2023 at Act City Hamamatsu in Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.
An archeology professor unearths a dangerous artifact, unwittingly releasing a creature that is able to kill with the power of its bone-splitting scream.
Ruth Butler, a clerk in an emporium, marries Jimmy Rutledge and thereby greatly displeases his mother, the owner of the emporium, because of Ruth's lowly origins. Renaud Graham, one of Mrs. Rutledge's friends, becomes interested in Ruth, forces his way into her apartment, and attempts to make violent love to her. Jimmy walks in on their embrace and, suspecting the worst, leaves Ruth. In the family way, Ruth finds refuge in a boardinghouse where she meets Al Bryant, an aspiring writer. Ruth tells Al her life story, and he makes it into a bestselling novel and then into a play. Jimmy sees the play and comes to his senses, winning Ruth's forgiveness.
In a desolate place called the Badlands, four men stand off with guns drawn, their fingers ready at the trigger. Among them are a fugitive seeking redemption, a son out to avenge his father's murder, a loyal servant with a secret and a murderous criminal hired to kill with a vengeance. This is their story...in a place where revenge, deception and cruelty are a way of life.
Liana and Alexa (Barbie and Teresa) are best friends who share everything, including their love of singing. Upon meeting a girl inside a mirror, the duo embark on a journey that will put their friendship to the ultimate test.
Ordered to teach a martial arts class of rambunctious bunny kittens, Po tells stories of each of the Furious Five's pasts.
Captain Kirk. T.J. Hooker. Denny Crane. Big Giant Head. Alexander the Great. Henry V. Priceline’s Negotiator. These are but a handful of the innumerable masks worn by William Shatner over seven extraordinary decades onstage and in front of the camera. A peerless maverick thespian, electrifying performer, and international cultural treasure, Bill (as he prefers to be called), now 91 years young, is the living embodiment of his classic line “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” In unprecedented fashion, You Can Call Me Bill strips away all the masks he has worn to embody countless characters, revealing the man behind it all.
True enemies are uncovered in the continuation of Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These.
Many Minions are ready, just out and about, to sing the classic Christmas song, Jingle Bells!
Ice suddenly becomes a more valuable commodity during the Joseon Dynasty and a gang of eleven professionals are assigned to protect the market situation from irresponsible people.
Fourteen year old Nim, more determined than ever to protect her island and all the wildlife that call it home, faces off against resort developers and animal poachers. Soon she realizes she can’t depend on her animal cohorts alone and must make her first human friend – Edmund, who’s run away to the island from the mainland – to save her home.
Shishio sets sail in his ironclad ship to bring down the government. In order to stop him, Kenshin trains with his old master to learn his final technique.
La otra educación (The Other Education) is about the class action suit Rosa Lydia Velez vs the Department of Education, and serves as the storyline to document 30 years of struggles that the families of disabled children in Puerto Rico have suffered. Their only request is the right to an education for their sons and daughters with special needs.
The incredible, true-life story of a baby elephant born into a rescue camp in the wilderness of Botswana. When she's suddenly orphaned at one month of age, it's up to the men who look after her herd to save her life.
Documents Ku Klux Klan activities in California, Georgia, Chicago, and Ohio.
This documentary analyzes the origins of the Puerto Rican economic development plan of the 1960’s, better known as Manos a la Obra (or Operation Bootstrap). The film examines this economic plan within the framework of Puerto Rican society, with special emphasis on the mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland.
Women workers stand up to the toxic flower industry in Colombia.
An educational documentary spanning two continents, opening up a much-needed debate about traditional African spiritual systems; their cosmologies, ideologies and underlying ethical principles. Modern science no longer refutes the origins of mankind being in Africa and similarities in the cosmological ideologies of African esoteric systems with those found many established world religions today, suggest that it was not only people that migrated, but also concepts and themes that then provided bedrock for the formation of other systems of belief.
Filmmaker Molly Gandour, in her mid-20s, returns to her childhood home in Indiana to speak with her parents in depth for the first time about her sister's death from cancer sixteen years earlier. The filmmaker comes of age as she weaves a deeply observed portrait of a family unearthing a long ago loss. Unflinching and poignant, Peanut Gallery shows us how we can transform when we begin to fill the silences between those closest to us.
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film opens with a renowned introduction that compares modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes, then goes on to provide thrilling in-the-moment coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including African-American athlete Jesse Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. Where the two-part epic's first half, Festival of the Nations, focused on the international aspects of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, part two, The Festival of Beauty, concentrates on individual athletes such as equestrians, gymnasts, and swimmers, climaxing with American Glenn Morris' performance in the decathalon and the games' majestic closing ceremonies.
Friends and admirers of iconoclastic film director Sam Fuller read from his memoirs in this unconventional documentary directed by Fuller's only child, Samantha.
A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.
This feature documentary is an exploration of the concept of dirt and impurity. From the slums of Kolkata to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to a barbeque joint in Central Texas, Dirt digs deep into the webs of meaning and feeling attached to that deceptively simple 4-letter word. An odyssey into all things unclean, the film features animation to make Hieronymus Bosch blush and music from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Chris Packham presents, mentioning others that didn't quite make the list, his favorite top ten animal - and plant species from the half million discovered in the first decade of the 21st century. The animals include the most endangered African monkey, a lemur (Madagascar simian), a mouse-size and -resembling relative of the elephant, a Caribean island-adapted sloth, a shark which 'walks coral reefs on an arm', the largest mega-stick, a deep sea jellyfish without tentacles and a jungle gecko mutation happening in Malaysian state Perlis in order to flee serpent predation into caves. Plant species include a giant Venus-flytrap on Palawan (Philipines) and the largest ever orchid from Peru.
Flight is the ultimate superpower, an extraordinary ability that humans can only dream of. Yet an astonishing number of animals have mastered the skies. Now, new technology allows us to join them in their previously hidden world, ‘flying’ alongside these gravity-defying animals and experiencing their unique point of view. With exceptional skills and breath-taking design, creatures ranging from frogs to fish, from spiders to squirrels, spend their lives mid-air. Life in the Air captures this extraordinary animal behaviour and reveals – in incredible detail – the amazing science of flight.
Acoustic Ocean is an artistic exploration of the sonic ecology of marine life in the North Atlantic. Located on the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway, the video centers on the performance of a marine-biologist diver who is using a life-size model of a submersible equipped with all sorts of hydrophones and recording devices. In this science-fictional quest, her task is to sense the submarine space for acoustic and bioluminescent forms of expression.
Hidden in the heart of Russia, there is a Soviet-era city where thousands of people live and work behind barbed-wire fences monitored by armed guards. It is Ozyorsk (Ozersk), located in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, one of the most polluted places on the planet and home to the largest stockpiles of nuclear material. Its code name: City 40.
REAL BOY is the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager on a journey to find his voice-as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man. As he navigates the ups and downs of young adulthood, Bennett works to gain the love and support of his mother, who has deep misgivings about her child's transition. Along the way, he forges a powerful friendship with his idol, Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician with his own demons to fight.
When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
Documentary depicting the lives of child prostitutes in the red light district of Songachi, Calcutta. Director Zana Briski went to photograph the prostitutes when she met and became friends with their children. Briski began giving photography lessons to the children and became aware that their photography might be a way for them to lead better lives.