LSFF 2016 Film Catalogue

The Food Race investigates how global food production needs to change to feed up to nine billion people by 2050. Will we need more industrial agriculture, or genetically modified crops or could organic farming provide a solution? The film provides surprising answers to a problem that is also at the root of the current migration […]

A documentary about precious stones and their mining in the Ore Mountains by Václav Havlíček from Boleboř.

A documentary about graffiti, one wall and one artist. Graffiti is a part of him just as he is a part of the graffiti scene.

An adventurous trip on an unknown African river leads us to the unique Suri tribe. During the journey we get to know enthusiasts determined to fight for the Suri’s traditions and way of life. The film Suri is a reflection on their future, and on the massive extinction crisis of human cultures. Cultural diversity is […]

This is a short film about the philosophy of one of India’s most progressive agricultural scientists working to protect his nation’s biodiversity from international biopiracy, Dr Debal Deb. If we want to create systems of food security we need to return the knowledge and the power to the people who had been responsible for food […]

Right in the middle of the economic crisis, in the aftermath of Wall Street in New York, an institution that represents another lesser-known American tradition is flourishing. The Food cooperative Park Slope is an independently run supermarket in which 16 000 members work 3 hours per month in order to gain the right to buy […]

From the bloody campaign of ‘Red Terror’ to today’s environmental transformation, this is a story of restored landscapes and renewed hope, by the award-winning director of ‘The Man Who Stopped the Desert’.

Stored in biobanks, genes and the information they contain are turning into time travellers – be it a sheaf of barley, the stem cells of a polar bear or drops of human blood. Within this time capsule we also place old dreams: the re-creation of extinct animal species, putting an end to world hunger, human […]

By their sheer size and original shapes, baobabs are among the most remarkable trees. Relatively unknown in Madagascar, the giants are currently threatened by deforestation. To study them, in the heart of their forests, Cyrille Cornu and Wilfried Ramahafaly travel by pirogue, exploring 400 km of wild coastline in the southwest of Madagascar.

I am a botanist. It took me two years to complete this video. Two years of watching and analysing mesmerizing movements and metamorphoses of plants. We can describe them using the language of biology, mathematics, or physics, but I now know there might be another way too.

Huntsmen is the first film to immerse itself in the world of German hunters and to observe how they move, caught between a yearning for unspoiled nature and utilitarianism, between fairytale forest and modern, cultivated landscape.

After the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, the German government decided to gradually decommission all nuclear power plants, instead re-directing investments to alternative energy sources. The film shows the implications of the German “Energiewende” (energy transition) by examining the controversy over wind farms in the forests of Central Germany.

The Baltic Sea contains one of the highest concentrations of shipping in the world. At the same time, the Baltic Sea is one of the most sensitive landlocked seas in the world. And shipping has impaired the environment and citizens to an extent that most people are unaware of.

Glyphosate is the world’s most widely used weed killer. Some claim it is completely harmless, others say it is a serious health hazard for man and animals. A topical investigation into a controversial substance.

Visionary scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger takes us on a journey to the ancient forests of the northern hemisphere, revealing the profound connection that exists between trees and human life and the vital ways that trees sustain all life on the planet.

When a brutal crime is committed who is ultimately to blame – the perpetrator or their brain? Neuroscientists are generating new research that is creating new challenges for the justice system and making us re-evaluate the way we sentence, punish, and rehabilitate people for criminal behaviour.

Using a fast paced, fun and energetic style, The Curious Case of Vitamins and Me consults with leading health and nutrition experts in an attempt to debunk myths and misconceptions around vitamins and supplements, and determine the best course of action for optimal nutritional health.

Seven women and seven ways to provide a better future for their kids as well as whole communities. They are the first to feel the impact of climatic changes. Droughts, flooding or mudslides destroy their hervest. These women fight for climatic equality so that their children don’t suffer from hunger in the future.

Driving across Portland, Oregon with approximately 10,000+ honeybees in her truck at sunset, Wisteria knows she has done it again. She has successfully captured a swarm of wild homeless honeybees. We ride shotgun in this short documentary as we follow Wisteria on a swarm call, showing us just how unique and personal the process is.

Shot in stunning northern Pakistan, K2 and the Invisible Footmen chronicles the plight of the unsung heroes, the indigenous porters of majestic K2, the earth’s second-highest peak.

Short film about “murmurations”: the mysterious flights of the Common Starling. It is still unknown how the thousands of birds are able to fly in such dense swarms without colliding. Every night the starlings gather at dusk to perform their stunning air show.

In Anthropocene scholars deciding if we live in a new geological epoch describe how we created our artificial planet. Is our story a tragedy, a comedy… or something more surreal? And how should we write the next – and maybe final – chapter? The first feature film about the Anthropocene age.

Age of the Farmer is a meditation on farming, as seen through the eyes of a handful of young farmers in the stunning Pacific Northwest of the US, who are trying to revive a dying profession.

Eat less, do more. That’s the simple solution to losing weight – or so we’ve been told. It Takes Guts is a revealing look at the brand new science of the “gut microbiome”, as researchers discover the fascinating relationship between diet, weight and the trillions of secret agents who are at war inside our bodies.

Life in Syntropy is the new short film from Agenda Gotsch made specially to be presented at COP21 – Paris. This film put together some of the most remarkable experiences in Syntropic Agriculture, in which environmental services are a consequence of good farming.

2011 brought fundamental changes for the Tibetan people. The Dalai Lama retired from political functions and brought secular change to the traditional society in the Himalayas. Is the fight for Tibetans’ freedom viable without their leader?

A film balancing between a scientific description and non-sense poetics that tries to grasp the gentle, absurd as well as cruel relationship between people and parrots. For years we have been asking whether parrots are clever enough to be able to speak. But why should they want to speak to us?

Resolve water shortage crisis with new ideas. Saeed Naghavian’s film was selected for the International Nature Film Festival Gödöllő 2016 and the Iran International Green Film Festival 2016.

The New Forest of England has remained unchanged for centuries and while many of the country’s ancient beasts have long since vanished, here the creatures of old can still be found. This film captures their lives using macro, slow-motion and time-lapse techniques to reveal behaviours beyond the capabilities of the human eye.

We have been helping students and researchers at the University of Southampton to tell the story of their work in short films. We use smartphones because they are pervasive. Flo Broderick, who graduated in 2013, reported on the archaeological study of Rome’s ancient port, Portus.

Is community gardening an adventure? Yes! Especially when you start gardening with your neighbours who you don’t know and who hardly have any skills in gardening. From your window you see the spot where things start to happen: a public paltry square of grass, not even worth noticing. Will it work out? Well, perhaps differently […]

Bees are responsible for one in three bites of food we eat. They are key to healthy ecosystems, plants and agriculture. This short animation tells the story behind dwindling bee populations, and asks us to take action.

The very first baby conceived following a womb transplant was born in Sweden in 2014. The film relates this scientific undertaking, which has ignited hope among the 1 in 5,000 women born without a uterus, as well as among women who have lost their wombs to cancer or an accident. However, medicine collides with society’s […]

While industrial resource developments continue to put at risk our natural and cultural significance, people across Australia are standing their ground for nature. These everyday Australians take extraordinary steps toward working with their communities to minimize the impacts on these places by keeping oil, coal and gas in the ground.

Epigenetics is an educational science documentary. With the help of “game” metaphors (lego, flipper, billiard, origami) it tries to explain a complex matter and the creativity that lies at the bottom of scientific research. Epigenetics investigates how DNA responds to the environment, allowing every living being to rapidly adapt to external influences.

The Spirit of the Forest – A politico-poetical documentary. In less than a hundred years, half of the world’s tropical forests have been destroyed. With the destruction of their habitat, everywhere forest peoples are endangered. Among them, the Baka of Central Africa claim their right to live in their natural environment, their “source of life”.

Food Frontiers showcases six U.S. projects that are increasing access to healthy food, including: farm-to-school produce from a food hub, a student-run rural grocery, farmers’ markets in needy New York neighbourhoods, a paediatrician who prescribes cooking classes, community-based cooking education, and a creative financing scheme for supermarkets.

Undune is a documentary about terra preta, toilets and Mars. Yes, about toilets. Human faeces are inevitable and valuable. Turned into the fertile, black soil, Terra Preta, they deliver nutrients to plants so we can grow our food on a Mars base as well as on Earth.

Bacteria are everywhere, in the soil, in the air, in the water and on and in our body. The huge majority lives in perfect harmony with us.

As what is commonly known as junk food increases in popularity, two epidemics are spreading at high speed across the globe: obesity and diabetes.

Edmond, Jean-Pierre and Jean-Marie have something in common, they are showing the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease earlier than normal, before the age of 60.

Anaïs and Elisa are two very astute young flatmates. Among their regular topics of conversation are their boyfriends but also food, of course, and fat in particular. That notorious fat we love eating but hate finding on our stomach or hips…

With stories and impressions from the alienation zone, Roadside Radiation portrays different fates of its past and present residents and researches in this way the complex human consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe: a place of collective loss but also of individual survival.

At the moment, the amount and quality of agricultural land is most threatened by several factors, for example fast industrial construction and colonies of family houses built on arable land, ineffective soil management, soil harmed by industrial fertilisers and inconsiderate treatment… An episode of Don’t Give Up series.

Carp was first kept in ancient Rome. Romans brought it from their eastern provinces. The carp is ideal for farming. It is big, omnivorous, it gains weight fast and has tasty meat. The first mention of its systematic farming dates back to the 11th century and the greatest boom in pond farming came in the […]

Jakub returns to show how freshwater fish live, which of them are worth farming and fishing and which everyone enjoys eating. This time he sets out to catch trout with fishing tackle writer Ota Pavel and his brother Hugo used to fish with. Will it bring him any luck?

Thanks to Jakub and his friend we see pike in its natural environment, but waterways regulation destroys natural places where pike spawn and their numbers are falling. Pike survive thanks to fry released by hatcheries. You can witness this unique event, the miracle of birth and alchemy of life…

This time we travel with Jakub Vágner deep into Mongolian wilderness to find Siberian taimen. Few have seen this fish with their own eyes. Taimen is the largest salmonid reaching up to two metres in length. Because of its mouth full of dangerous teeth, its strength and size, the local fishermen call taimen the “river […]

The series introduces top Czech science, presents facts that are not well known and shows research institutions and environments to which the viewer can’t normally gain access (i.e. laboratories and museum collections at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Czech protected landscape areas, Czech base in Svalbard or the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine).

Animal, man and hard work. A strong bond that has survived unchanged for centuries. Horses’ work in forests is inconspicuous and persistent as well as necessary and irreplaceable. Even today forests cannot be managed with machinery only and people wouldn’t manage in many places without horses. An episode from Our Countryside series.

Hydrologist Bohumír Janský and his team rewrote geography textbooks at the turn of the century: during a demanding expedition they measured the Peruvian Amazon proving it to be the world’s longest river.

Thanks to a unique project the first eagle fledgling in the Czech Republic flew from its nest after over a centrury. An episode of the Don’t Give Up series.

The future of the chamois population in the Jeseníky mountains. An episode of the Don’t Give Up series.

In the world of fluorescent, neon and street lights darkness is in short supply. Light pollution is unhealthy to humans and animals because the ubiquitous light disturbs the natural alternation of the day cycle. On the Moravian-Slovak border the Beskydy Dark-Sky Park was established in 2013. An episode of the Don’t Give Up series.

It’s hard to believe that the voluntary project of the Beskydy Protected Landscape Area Management called “Mapping the presence of large predators” has been in existence for 30 years. One of Czech most respected zoologists Ludvík Kunc was one of its founders. In 1984 he came with the idea that it would be good to […]

If you walk through the countryside around Krnov and Osoblaha an unusual view will open up for you. You will see land stretching to the distance planted with hundreds and thousands of dead fruit trees that remain here as a strange trace of destruction and fall. An episode of the Don’t Give Up series.

Giant eland is the largest antelope in the world and in Senegal it is one of the critically endangered species. Among others, a group of people from the Czech Republic are trying to enusre its survival. Why do the efforts to save exotic fauna often come from the West rather than from people who share […]

Conventional fast fashion is one of the most lucrative as well as the most environmentally damaging industries. Czechs too love supranational fashion supply chains that bash out new clothing collections up to hundred times a year. Cheap and trendy. Only few people realise that these fashionable clothes literally kill… An episode of the Don’t Give […]

Milan Cyrus from Kamenné Žehrovice in the Křivoklát district keeps up the old trade that shaped cultural landscape for centuries and has become a part of folk tradition. An episode of the Folklorica series.