The Animal World

Behind The Garden Gate

October 2023 •English

'Behind The Garden Gate' is a documentary film about homegrown biodiversity and the challenges that come with it. In the 1970s Guus Lieberwerth and friends cleared a patch of agricultural wasteland in order to take care of rare and endangered plants and animals. ​Now, 50 years later nature is thriving within a hidden paradise just five minutes away from a city centre, but even closer to systemic pressures and land developers.

The Grizzlies of Siberia

February 1999 •English

Naturalists Charlie Russell and Maureen Enns film recently discovered grizzlies on Siberia's Kamchatka peninsula.

T. REX

June 2024 •English

From the team behind the NSF-supported prehistoric hits Dinosaurs Alive, Titans of the Ice Age, and Dinosaurs of Antarctica comes the planet’s most famous dinosaur — the hit-maker, the headliner, the apex attraction — TYRANNOSAURUS REX.

Snow Dogs

September 2022 •English

North Atlantic: The Dark Ocean

April 2023 •English

Inspired by the spirit of adventure of early explorers like St Brendan the Navigator, Irish underwater cameraman Ken O’Sullivan voyages out into the open North Atlantic in search of the great sea monsters described in the explorers’ early texts which may well have been large whales. Over the course of the film, such encounters reveal how enlightenment and awareness dispel the myths and damage of the darkness of our historic perceptions.

Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters

September 2011 •English

Tom Holland explores how our ancestors sought to explain the remains of dinosaurs and other giant prehistoric creatures, and how bones and fossils have affected human culture.

Australia: Land of Parrots

January 2008 •English

Discover the beauty, brilliance and behaviour of Australia's most conspicuous birds - parrots and cockatoos in Australia: Land of Parrots. Multi-award winning, natural history filmmakers David Parer and Elizabeth Parer-Cook have turned their cameras to the sky to capture the spirit of these dazzling birds with breathtaking results - including rare and never before seen footage - all shot in HD.

In the Garden of Sounds

October 2010 •Italian

«Nel giardino dei suoni» («In The Garden of Sounds») is a touching, poetic exploration of the relationship between mind, body and sound, and a cinematic journey to the borders of communication. Nicola Bellucci tells the extraordinary story of Wolfgang Fasser, a blind musician and soundscape artist who works with severely handicapped children, helping them to find their place in a world not made for them. On his own way into the darkness, Fasser discovered the world of sounds, a parallel universe to our visual world. His far-reaching explorations of sound’s effect on mind and body led him to the field of music therapy.

Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?‎

April 2010 •English

In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian scientist, philosopher & social innovator, predicted that in 80 to 100 years honeybees would collapse. Now, beekeepers around the United States and around the world are reporting an incredible loss of honeybees, a phenomenon deemed "Colony Collapse Disorder." This "pandemic" is indicated by bees disappearing in mass numbers from their hives with no clear single explanation. The queen is there, honey is there, but the bees are gone. For the first time, in an alarming inquiry into the insights behind Steiner's prediction QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? investigates the long-term causes behind the dire global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, commercial beekeepers, scientists and philosophers.

Life In The Snow

December 2016 •English

In a seasonal special, Gordon Buchanan meets the animals who live in nature's winter wonderlands. He reveals their survival secrets, from the polar bear mother who gives her cubs the best possible start in life to the owl that finds food hidden beneath a blanket of snow, plus the plucky penguins that huddle together to keep warm. Gordon also unwraps the lives of our favourite Christmas characters - those wonderful reindeer and our very own robin redbreast!

Sharks: Kings of the Ocean

September 2011 •German

The sharks are the predators of the seas, they are ruthless, bloodthirsty and they do not stop at anyone, not even humans! But is that really true? Are sharks really the cruel creatures that we have come to know? And if they're not, what are the misconceptions we have about them? What would be the consequences of their extinction? And how did the misguided opinion that we have about this species even emerge? "Sharks 3D" gets to the bottom of this, with the help of the internationally recognized expert on sharks, Erich Ritter, and with numerous excursions under water in search of the true nature of the so called beast of the seas. This underwater journey delivers unexpected insights on these cartilaginous fish that will fundamentally change the opinion that you have about sharks.

History of the World in Two Hours

October 2011 •English

Did you know that 1% of the white noise you see on old televisions is background radiation from The Big Bang? That the gold on a wedding ring comes from a star that exploded 5 billion years ago? And, that we're connected to the salt water of the first oceans through the water in our bodies? Our human story is actually 14 billion years old and the clues are all around us. This CGI-driven special will tell the history of our world in two hours, an ambitious story that will give surprising connections to our daily lives. From the formation of the earth and the emergence of life, to the advance of man and the growth of civilization, it’s a rapid-fire view of our unforgettable story.

Big Cat Odyssey

December 2010 •English

See firsthand the numerous changes that have led to dramatic decline of the lion population, and what needs to be done in order to ensure their survival. Live through some of the most extreme cat sequences ever captured on film. See a lion pride bring down a large buffalo, a blood feud erupt when scavenging hyenas move in on the kill and catch a glimpse of leopards who creep from the bushes to hunt and retreat into the trees before falling prey to larger killers. Beyond the blood and gore lies a stark reality: Big cats kill to live and live to kill.

Secret Life of the Rainforest

April 2012 •English

Join scientists, as they visit Barro Colorado Island in the centre of the Panama Canal, travelling deep into nature’s most stunning habitats.

Last Day of the Dinosaurs

August 2010 •English

Last Day of the Dinosaurs is a 2010 Discovery Channel television documentary about the extinction of the dinosaurs. It portrays the Alvarez hypothesis as the cause of extinction.

Dinotasia

May 2012 •English

Computer-generated animation about the daily lives of dinosaurs, narrated by Werner Herzog.

Acoustic Ocean

May 2018 •English

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.

Cave Crocs of Gabon

January 2018 •English

A caving expedition recently discovered a community of dwarf crocodiles living in the Abanda Caves, Gabon. The crocs are living in pitch darkness, hunt bats and some have bright-orange skin. Part of the original team returns to find out more about this bizarre phenomenon. It's mission impossible to access the crocs world and there's no way of knowing what they might find.

Yellowstone an American Legacy

January 2008 •English

A fully narrated glimpse into Yellowstone's history as well as its current offerings.

More Than Honey

August 2012 •German

With dazzling nature photography, Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) takes a global examination of endangered honeybees — spanning California, Switzerland, China and Australia — more ambitious than any previous work on the topic.