Topophilia

An exploration of built and natural environments along the 800-mile length of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

Climate Change: Our Planet - The Arctic Story

In the far North, in the late fall, at a time of year when it should be covered with ice, the sea remains frozen along the coast of Greenland. Glaciers are melting and shedding chunks of ice that are scattered across the ocean surface. The animals inhabiting the land and water are threatened by warming temperatures and loss of sea ice. Climate change is fundamentally altering the natural environment of Greenland and affecting the lives of its wildlife and indigenous people. Greenlanders, who have survived for generations by hunting, are now losing their prey and their traditional way of life. They are facing the stark reality of a warming climate and are trying to adapt. Until now, the Inuit people who were born in Greenland and know only their traditional life of hunting, have never thought of a different place, a different life, a different future. But now they must face the possibility of losing their ancient traditions and their prey along with the disappearing ice.

Milikᵘ tshishutshelimunuau

The journey of a young candidate running in the Pessamit community band council elections.

J'aime toute

At the age of eight, José shows us his village, Nutashkuan, and everything he loves there.

A Fierce Green Fire

It is the largest movement the world has ever seen, it may also be the most important - in terms of what's at stake. Yet it's not east being green. Environmentalists have been reviled as much as revered, for being killjoys and Cassandras. Every battle begins as a lost cause and even the victories have to be fought for again and again. Still, environmentalism is one of the great social innovations of the twentieth century, and one of the keys to the twenty-first. It has arisen at a key juncture in history, when humans have come to rival nature as a power determining the fate of the earth.

Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon

This documentary depicts a vivid example of America's current culture war. It shows a rural community, Philomath, Oregon, that is making a large transition from once being a dominant force through an "old time" profession, the timber industry, to one that is dominated by professionals and techies, the "information age". This is shown by the drastic decline of lumber mills in the area. In 1980, there were twelve mills around Philomath, but twenty-five years later there were only two. The largest employers are no longer the lumber mills but Oregon State University in Corvallis, which is about six miles from Philomath, and a Hewlett-Packard center involved in engineering ink-jet components.

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

A story of destinies joined by Guatemala's past, and how a documentary film intertwined with a nation's turbulent history emerges as an active player in the present.

Océans de plastique

Every km of ocean now contains an average of 74,000 pieces of plastic. A 'plastic soup' of waste, killing hundreds of thousands of animals every year and leaching chemicals slowly up the food chain. In Holland, scientists found plastic in the stomachs of 95% of all fulmar birds. In Germany, plastic has been found to affect the reproductive systems of animals, while in the US, conservationists are seeing increasing numbers of dolphins die in agony, their guts blocked with rubbish. What will be the long term impact of this 'plastic pollution'? Can anything be done to clean up our oceans?

the lab

Observations of birds and other wildlife at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and a Forest in Ithaca, NY.

La Buena Vida - Das gute Leben

The village of Tamaquito lies deep in the forests of Colombia. Here, nature provides the people with everything they need. But the Wayúu community's way of life is being destroyed by the vast and rapidly growing El Cerrejón coal mine. Determined to save his community from forced resettlement, the leader Jairo Fuentes negotiates with the mine's operators, which soon becomes a fight to survive.

Ikátena

Chasing Ice

When National Geographic photographer James Balog asked, “How can one take a picture of climate change?” his attention was immediately drawn to ice. Soon he was asked to do a cover story on glaciers that became the most popular and well-read piece in the magazine during the last five years. But for Balog, that story marked the beginning of a much larger and longer-term project that would reach epic proportions.

Surviving Progress

Humanity’s ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, “A Short History Of Progress” inspired “Surviving Progress”, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by “progress traps”—alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the world’s resources accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined civilization escape a final, catastrophic progress trap? With potent images and illuminating insights from thinkers who have probed our genes, our brains, and our social behaviour, this requiem to progress-as-usual also poses a challenge: to prove that making apes smarter isn’t an evolutionary dead-end.

Total Disaster

Armed with realistic bird puppets, trickster environmental activists pretend to be oil company Total—staging a satirical press conference to introduce “RéHabitat,” a program to rescue animals from the East African Oil Pipeline by relocating them to “more sustainable” habitats. Using humor and mischief, they expose a deadly ecological disaster in a zany effort to help #StopEACOP.

The Writing in the Sand

A richly lyrical documentary celebration of the vibrant beach life in the North East of England, constructed entirely out of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's black & white photographs.

Overburden

After a mine explosion kills her brother, a pro-coal activist joins forces with a tree-hugging grandmother to take down the most dangerous coal company in the United States.

Echo in the Desert

In the vastness of the Iranian desert, young artists strive for freedom, community, and the preservation of their cultural heritage in the ancient caravanserai of Deyr-e Gachin, while facing the harsh conditions of their surroundings.

Psychohydrography

An analysis of the flow of water from mountain to aqueduct, city to sea. Shot at and around the Eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, Los Angeles Aqueduct, Los Angeles River and Pacific Ocean.

Message from Mungo

Lake Mungo is an ancient Pleistocene lake-bed in south-western New South Wales, and is one of the world’s richest archaeological sites. Message from Mungo focuses on the interface over the last 40 years between the scientists on one hand, and, on the other, the Indigenous communities who identify with the land and with the human remains revealed at the site. This interface has often been deeply troubled and contentious, but within the conflict and its gradual resolution lies a moving story of the progressive empowerment of the traditional custodians of the area.

Our Story: The Indigenous Led Fight to Protect Greater Chaco

Over 90 percent of the available lands in the Greater Chaco region of the Southwest have already been leased for oil and gas extraction. Witness the Indigenous-led work to protect the remaining lands that are untouched by oil and gas, as well as the health and well-being of communities surrounded by these extractive industries.