Inhabitants

Africa Light / Gray Zone

January 2010 •English

"Africa Light" - as white local citizens call Namibia. The name suggests romance, the beauty of nature and promises a life without any problems in a country where the difference between rich and poor could hardly be greater. Namibia does not give that impression of it. If you look at its surface it seems like Africa in its most innocent and civilized form. It is a country that is so inviting to dream by its spectacular landscape, stunning scenery and fascinating wildlife. It has a very strong tourism structure and the government gets a lot of money with its magical attraction. But despite its grandiose splendor it is an endless gray zone as well. It oscillates between tradition and modernity, between the cattle in the country and the slums in the city. It shuttles from colonial times, land property reform to minimum wage for everyone. It fluctuates between socialism and cold calculated market economy.

Hlavátky

January 1943 •Slovak

À ton tour Mireille

November 2008 •French

Die letzten Paradiese - Die Ökosysteme der Erde

August 2016 •German

Heligonka

December 1985 •French

Z ptačího světa

January 1948 •Czech

Arctique, la conquête glaciale

January 2015 •French

Dark fears over the North Pole. Long sheltered from large-scale industrial exploitation, the Arctic is now at risk of becoming the last El Dorado for major oil companies. This, combined with the melting of ice caused by global warming, poses enormous ecological risks: the impact of an oil spill, for example, would be incomparably more serious in this extreme climate than in any other part of the world.

No Impact Man

September 2009 •English

Follow the Manhattan-based Beavan family as they abandon their high consumption 5th Avenue lifestyle and try to live a year while making no net environmental impact.

Personal Drawing of a French Mercenary

January 1975 •French

Portrait of a French mercenary working in Libya, hired by the Phalange to train the militias. War leaves its traces; and for some, who see death as part of the job, it’s a vocation.

Powaqqatsi

April 1988 •English

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

Lobo Mexicano

April 2020 •Spanish

About the mexican wolf in northwest Chihuahua, the search for its conservation among local communities, landowners, and the Livestock Assurance Fund.

Stop for Bud

December 1963 •Danish

Stop for Bud is Jørgen Leth's first film and the first in his long collaboration with Ole John. […] they wanted to "blow up cinematic conventions and invent cinematic language from scratch". The jazz pianist Bud Powell moves around Copenhagen -- through King's Garden, along the quay at Kalkbrænderihavnen, across a waste dump. […] Bud is alone, accompanied only by his music. […] Image and sound are two different things -- that's Leth's and John's principle. Dexter Gordon, the narrator, tells stories about Powell's famous left hand. In an obituary for Powell, dated 3 August 1966, Leth wrote: "He quite willingly, or better still, unresistingly, mechanically, let himself be directed. The film attempts to depict his strange duality about his surroundings. His touch on the keys was like he was burning his fingers -- that's what it looked like, and that's how it sounded. But outside his playing, and often right in the middle of it, too, he was simply gone, not there."

Grotta

November 2023 •

In 1907 Herman Hesse spent a few days mediating and fasting in a cave near Monte Verità. During these days he collected the visions and insights that went on to be very influential in his thinking and shaped some of the most important works of his literary career. The images and sounds of this film were shot there and are a homage to this cave and its possible invocations. Grotta is part of Fieldworks, an ongoing experiment with ambient video and radio frequencies.

Andreas Gabalier – 10 Jahre Volks-Rock'n'Roller: Das Portrait

October 2019 •German

Seul au milieu des ours

January 2010 •French

Sheep

April 2025 •Dutch

In the lush fields of northern Belgium, as winter tightens its grip, the sheep of Eddy, Jeroen, and Johny become silent witnesses of a hidden drama when a wolf is driven to the edges of human lands in search of sustenance. With the three human protagonists doing anything within their power to patronize their rights of existence, this film stands up for the least heard voice in Belgium’s brand new wolf territory: that of the bleating sheep.

Jane

December 2017 •English

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

Microcosmos

September 1996 •French

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

The Grizzlies of Siberia

February 1999 •English

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

Year of the Hedgehog

October 2009 •English

It's springtime, the air is tepid, the skylarks chirp, and spring flowers cover the meadows and the forest grounds. Out of a pile of leaves a fluttery, sniffling snout tip appears: it's a hedgehog awakening from its winter sleep heading into the light of a new year, having only two things in mind: food and finding a partner.