A documentary mosaic about our Czech fellow countrymen from a little Serbian village. Ninety years ago, the Frič family started to feel a desire for change. They left the harsh life of the mountainous Banát, the southern spur of the Romanian Carpathians, and descended to the more fertile lowlands along the mighty Danube. The Gájan […]
Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over– prophetic words credited to Mark Twain. Yet even he could scarcely have imagined they would one day apply to the Southeastern United States, a region better known for plentiful rainfall and abundantly flowing rivers. But for almost twenty years three states – Georgia, Florida and Alabama […]
The journey through 50 countries is an ode to the beauty and gentle harmony of our planet. Using an optimistic approach and looking at current topics the film concentrates on the growing awareness of current social issues and environmental problems. Home provides us with a particular approach to issues that our planet has to face: […]
The prospect of manipulating thought and behavior with machines has captured human imaginations for decades, but recent conceptual and technological advancements in brain sciences are turning science fiction into genuine medical reality for the millions suffering from brain disorders. Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Epilepsy and Dystonia: patients suffering from these diseases, male and female, old and […]
The forests of North America are undergoing huge changes. With warmer temperatures during the winters, the pine beetles are surviving in astounding numbers and are killing the forests of the western US and Canada. To date millions of acres of forests and billions of trees are dead and there is no end in sight. By […]
Capital for the Canopy is a plea to implement REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), an international plan to compensate developing nations in preserving their forests. Filmed in Central America, Haiti, and Colorado, the film argues that giving people in these countries better access to energy through economic compensation would allow them to both […]
This film follows a team of scientists and mountain leaders into one of the last unexplored rain forests in the world: the interior of the North Negros Natural Park in the Philippines.
Law of the Jungle features portraits of Wanze Eduards & Hugo Jabini. The pair successfully organized their communities against destructive Chinese logging operations on traditional Saramaka lands in Suriname’s rain forests. Their actions led to a landmark ruling in the Inter-American court, allowing all indigenous and tribal peoples in the Americas to control resource extraction […]
Ora Anderson, 93, was a journalist living in southeastern Ohio during the Great Depression (1930’s). He recalls the environmental and social conditions that led to the establishment of the Wayne National Forest and our evolving relationship with the land.
With unprecedented clarity, Deborah Koons Garcia’s documentary, The Future of Food, distills the complex technology and key regulatory, legal, ethical, environmental and consumer issues surrounding the changes happening in the food system today into terms the average person can easily understand. It empowers consumers to realize the consequences of their food choices on our future.
Along the Danube between Vienna and Bratislava the force of water is still capable of creating previously non-existent habitats: floods create new bluffs; new gravel banks and islands grow out of the current; forests are washed away and created from scratch. This dynamic is a valuable treasure, a living current no longer found anywhere else […]
Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn’t belong to her. She is a female orangutan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. This film is an emotional journey with Green’s final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land […]
« Alma » is an insight into the Amazon and the industries destroying it. It is a poetical ride of beauty and suffering, a reflection on the value of life. Alma reveals what lies behind products such as meat, leather, dairy and exotic hardwood. The film invites us to question our consumer habits, to open […]
Journey with Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol to the heart of the Amazon rainforest in search of the indigenous children she photographed fifteen years ago. Children of the Amazon invites you to see through the eyes of these inspiring, remarkably resilient people whose lives are transformed by a road carved through their forest home by an […]
In 2008, filmmaker Denise Zmekhol returned to the Amazon to film with the Surui tribe again — this time documenting its unique collaboration with Google Earth Outreach. The partnership, a result of Chief Almir Surui’s request that Google help raise visibility for his tribe, involves training the Surui people to use Internet technology to protect […]
Factory pig farming is inflicting hidden long-term damage on public health and the environment, undermining animal welfare and driving traditional, small-scale farmers to the wall. Lawyer and Waterkeeper, Robert Kennedy jnr, and environmental activist Tracy Worcester reveal the true cost of cheap pork.
Narrated by Robert Redford, The New Environmentalists is the latest version of the Emmy Award-winning series featuring inspiring portraits of passionate and dedicated activists. The New Environmentalists share a common goal– safeguarding the Earth’s natural resources from exploitation and pollution, while fighting for environmental justice in their communities.
Viruses can evolve fast and sometimes adapt quickly to a new host species. For example, an influenza virus that normally infects birds can become adapted to humans. The tobacco etch virus normally infects tobacco plants. Professor Santiago Elena from Valencia wants to find out what it takes to make the tobacco virus capable of infecting […]
How come milk is popular and considered healthy in some parts of the world, but in other parts of the world it makes people sick? Did some of us evolve to be able to digest milk? Scientists have found out that there is a specific gene involved, the lactase gene. People with one version of […]
What happens when plastics, metal, corrugated cardboard or carton has served its time as packaging? Does it end up on landfills? The main characters in the movie “Raw Materials in a Loop” are flying milk cartons, empty tubs of butter, canned mackerel in tomato sauce and clumsy cartons of crisps. We follow them through the […]
What influences the choice of food most is taste. However, according to recent studies, our food preferences also depend on genetic features. In the Summer 2010, a group of genetists, accompanied by photographers, camera operators and journalists, travelled along several parts of the Silk Road from Georgia to China. On the way, the group visited […]
This documentary highlights the Canadian Institute of Forestry’s Centennial and the work the Institute has done over the past 100 years, influencing industry, research and practice in Canada’s forests. Growth Rings reveals the important role the CIF has had in developing a sustainable approach to resource management and ensuring that the forests remain a renewable […]
A Brief Introduction to Genetics explores the history of genetics from Gregor Mendel to DNA, the genetic code and the fundamental ideas of genetics. The film then describes the current techniques used to study genetics and explores the connection of these core concepts to genomics and bioinformatics.
Perhaps the most iconic scientific equation in history, Einstein’s equation describing mass-energy equivalence has had a profound effect, not just in the scientific realm but in almost every other intellectual field. Across the globe, this famous equation is the prime example of scientific knowledge and critical thought. “In His Own Words” is a visual tribute […]
The fascination with and enthusiasm for plastic is just as great as the list of problems, risks and studies associated with its use is long. Most types of plastic that we use every day are nearly non-degradable – but, as time goes by, they are degradated and are released into the environment and into the […]
When genetic engineering entered agriculture Josef Feilmeier was a supporter, but soon he started to ask questions and search for more information. And he wanted precise answers. Today, with his storehouse near Vilshofen by the river Danube, Josef Feilmeier is the driving force of the whole region. His family enterprise is the turntable for GMO […]
Suddenly everything seemed possible. Scientists experimented with chickens without feathers and sheep without pelts, with cows producing more milk and goats making silk, with sterile, genetically manipulated giant salmon, which grows six times larger in only half the time than the other members of its species living in the wild. Some scientists are doing independent […]
Sepp Braun has been an ecological farmer since 1984. At his farm near Freising he is practising ecological agriculture and also biological stock farming. For him and his wife it is more than just sustainable agriculture. Ecological agriculture is for them an answer to the question of climate change. While on conventional fields there are […]
In the southernmost tip of Salzburg Land – in Lungau– the “Siberia” of Austria, Sepp Holzer, farmer and forester, does farming at his mountain farm in a special way. Contrary to all conventional rules he has created an edible, paradisiacal landscape and caused quite a stir in doing so. In 40 years of observing nature, […]
In the mid-eighties, science, with the help of genetic technology, found the key to mastering the Earth and especially its creatures. Suddenly everything seemed possible. 20 years later we embark on a journey to explore the progressive and continual genetic manipulation of plants, animals and human beings. Many Indian farmers have problems because of a […]
A butcher that loves animals is a good butcher. This apparent paradox is the principle of conduct for Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth, master butcher and former meat producer who can truly say: We must kill for life, because we live thanks to the lives of others. Karl shows us how old tradition and craftsmanship can carefully […]
Rainer Bergmaz and his Indian friend and collegue Yung Sandy had to travel far into the wild heart of Guyana’s Hinterland to find the shy and rare reptile – black caiman. To get a close insight of the life of the caiman took the two men several weeks. Right from the beginning Rainer and Yung […]
Werner Boote presents an up-close and personal view of the controversial and fascinating material that has found its way into every facet of our daily lives: plastic. He takes us on a journey around the globe, following plastic through its 100 years of “glorious triumph” and showing us what an unexpected impact plastic has on […]
A documentary showing a possible approach to bees, but also a way to understand them, so that they don’t fly away.
Young activist Mikael Rioux travels the world, meeting exceptional men and women behind innovative projects for the future of society. Earth Keepers breathes hope into an atmosphere of defeatism. This positive documentary – featuring dynamic, modern visuals and sound – is for all those who refuse to give up, despite the enormity of the challenges.
In Turkish headquarters the world’s top earthworm scientists concoct a plan to find and name their ultimate discovery. An epic adventure into an underground science and an unstoppable passion.
Brucellosis is a very dangerous disease that affects sheep, goats and other animals. It also gets transferred to people and it is very hard to treat. About 500.000 people get affected every year, worldwide. Until year 2004. in Bosnia and Herzegovina, brucellosis was not significantly present. But with uncontrolled import of live stock, that started […]
A lover of nature, forest, water and astronomy is trying to build a weekend house on his own and bring forest water to it from 1200 meters away. With humble eastern finances and western ideas he uses lumber waste material, preserving the environment and facing incomprehension and derision from the local community.
In the documentary What Am I? The Food in My Stomach? you will see seven people for whom food has become their prime topic and seven opinions on how one should eat. Jaroslav Dušek, Milan Calábek, Hana Micholupu, Hana Zemanová and others in Jolana Matějková’s documentary. It’s about fasting, meat eating, vegetarianism and about a […]
A documentary showing how a DNA research can reveal who our relatives are and that we do not necessarily have to be pure-bred Bohemians. The aim and the objective of the film is to point out the fact that most Czech families have an ancestor in their past that belonged to a different ethnic group, […]
The documentary evokes the memory of a unique event in the history of the Czech science from the year 1963. Back then a young astrophysicist, Stanislav Fischer (1936), spent a year in the Soviet observatory Vostok in the Antarctic. By means of authentic journal entries and amateur film takes, which the young scientist had taken, […]
The documentary of Josef Harvan captures not only Helena Hartová’s brave fight with multiple sclerosis, but also her professional zeal in behalf of people with the same diagnosis. As a virologist and an immunologist, she tried to contribute to solving the questions connected to this disease. Together with the Scottish association for patients with multiple […]
In the times of Normalization, Miroslav Cink invented a new type of turbine. Just as children learn about Kaplan’s or Pelton’s turbine, they should be learning about Cink’s. His type of the device is being used worldwide – in small power plants in South America, Tibet, USA, India or the Balkans.
Together with university teachers from the biology department at PřF OU in Ostrava, we will visit the Polish national park Biebrza. On their rambles through the wetlands surrounding the untamed river Biebrza and through the pine woods on the sand dunes, we shall meet the Common Crane, the Common Tern, the Ruffs, but also the […]
In the next part of the Join Us series, together with expert ornithologists and environmentalists we shall visit three towns in the Moravian-Silesian region in order to become acquainted with the unsatisfactory conditions for the nesting of swifts in insulated panel as well as brick houses and with the activities of environmentalists on behalf of […]
The poplar has a remarkable ability to absorb the energy of sunlight; it grows quickly and is an undemanding tree. Therefore it can be grown in infertile soil Scientists joined together in the European Energypoplar project intend to create a superpoplar that would grow even faster and create even more biomass. It should also be […]
Man has exploited the energy of streams and rivers since time immemorial. The desire to use the energy of water gradually lead to the construction of small power plants. Technical buildings in the landscape had, in time, become not only its harmonic constituents, but also a cultural heritage. These unique objects have, however, not remained […]
The idea that soil sleeps in winter is just an illusion. Scientists from the University of Southern Bohemia in České Budějovice will show us that soil does not rest even when it is covered with snow. On the contrary, it lives a rich life. We shall look at fungi and bacteria which are a direct […]
Witness a crime in prime time. What was about to happen on a lawn in the middle of a Prague’s estate would, in the world of humans, mean a war. An army of ants related of the Polyergus Rufencens species attacked a close-by anthill belonging to Formica Fusca ants and stole all their pupas to […]
Contaminated air, water and soil. A problem that is almost omnipresent in the modern world. However, scientists are coming to understand that the solution does not have to be very technologically demanding in many cases. It just needs the right kind of plants. For example maples and pines standing close to busy traffic roads can […]
It’s commonplace. We can’t imagine our lives without electricity. Let’s look at its production in the Poříčí coal power plant. To what extent is it run, like our other coal power plants, in accordance to the rules of environmental protection? Does the technology and parameters for lowering emissions of substances that pollute the air correspond […]
We release a number of foreign chemical substances into nature and we only subsequently find out that they have a negative impact on the environment. There is relatively enough evidence that unnatural changes are also caused by substances called endocrine disruptors. They damage the hormone system of animals and unfortunately also us, people. Either they […]
More and more beekeepers around the world are witnessing the decline of their bee colonies. This massive dying out of bees, denoted by the abbreviation CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) has not only serious consequences for the balance in nature and the pollination of plants, but also for the economy. The EU project Bee-Doc stands on […]
On the Taiwan island, fog envelops the mountain Chilan all year round. Only three days of the year are clear of fog and moisture left on the trees alone can reach 300 millimeters. This fog stabilizes temperature and humidity in this forest, creating a perfect environment to nurture Asia’s precious primal cypress forest. Prominent female […]
The rainforest is an enormous carbon warehouse. Through the process of photosynthesis, CO2 from the entire planet is locked up here. This fact provides the reasoning behind the REDD+ programme – Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Forest Degradation. REDD+ is a large scale global climate and development initiative run by UN and other partners.
This film follows the Earthship Biotecture team, lead by Michael Reynolds, to Port-au-Prince Haiti to build a small Earthship demonstration unit following the devastating Earthquake. The team worked with 25 local Haitians to build a home that is earthquake resistant, collects water, has solar power and its own contained sewage treatment system. The building was […]
In the beginning of the 20th century, the Austrian philosopher and social thinker Rudolf Steiner began disseminating thoughts on the future of agriculture – he held that the current system was on the road to failure. In his opinion, agricultural practices should be tailored to be a reflection of each individual site, with the presence […]
“Banana Wars” tells the story of an economic conflict that was to last for over one hundred years. Archive images place the contemporary conflicts in their historical context. “Banana Wars” reveals the workings and the consequences of an international trade which has led to what we know today as globalization.
Seafood has played a significant role in human diet for ages. Fishing and fish farming are nowadays the two most important uses of the sea. Not only do they provide healthy and enjoyable source of food but they create jobs in coastal areas and promote the social and economic well-being as well. Integration of science […]
Are these the last of the Baltic Sea harbor porpoises? We humans kill porpoises by the way we exploit the marine environment. Very few of us are aware that these creatures even exist. Even fewer of us realize that these mammals are our Baltic Sea neighbours. Scientists study their biology and behaviour. They diagnose diseases […]
English
Čeština
