Dominica: Charting a Future for Paradise
Dominica: Charting a Future for Paradise is a 2011 documentary short film about the history of the Commonwealth of Dominica and the challenges it faces as a young independent nation.
Juxtaposed to the hustle and bustle of city life on the diminutive Caribbean island of Dominica, Jerry Maka West works his garden in the island's lush interior, his Zion, growing and preparing his food just as his grandparents once taught him. Jerry is Nom Tèw, Man of the Soil.
Dominica: Charting a Future for Paradise is a 2011 documentary short film about the history of the Commonwealth of Dominica and the challenges it faces as a young independent nation.
In the mid 19th century, Yankee whalers taught the sailors on the tiny island of Bequia in the West Indies how to catch whales. The once proud American tradition has been kept alive and cherished by Bequians generation after generation. For the last few decades outside pressures, overt and covert, have conspired against the whale hunters and those who rely on them. The stouthearted whalers simply seek sustenance for their community but also provide something else: identity.
Global warming in context. What the climate of the past tells us about the climate of the future.
In the heart of the Ariege Pyrenees, Patrick Chêne, a farmer and osteopath, cares for humans and animals with his hands and diphonic song. The vibrations of his singing radiates through the body and acts like an acoustic probe, showing a sensitive world full of invisible energies that make and form life, building our link with Earth and our environment.
Elvis Sabin’s assured debut follows Albert and André, two Central African Aka Pygmies, as they attempt to establish a new education system in their forest community. The last in their village still attending school, they are determined to pass their knowledge on, holding classes for other Aka children every afternoon. But their project requires funding and they are counting on the year’s caterpillar (known as “Makongo”) harvest to provide much needed income. Evocatively capturing the visual and sonic textures of the forest, Makongo is a layered ethnographic study of two men working to build a sustainable future for their community.
They are giants—stretching more than 300 feet above the ground, with hidden gardens and mysterious predators thriving within their canopy. National Geographic reveals the unexplored environment of the California redwoods in an epic, year-long exploration. Obsessive redwood climber Steve Sillett of Humboldt State University explores their massive crowns, discovering new record-breaking trees, while escaping falling branches and crashing trees in the process. Down below, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Mike Fay charts the redwood range to size up the past and future of these primeval trees threatened in 21st century California.
Milah van Zuilen, visual artist and forest ecologist in training, uses the square to deal with the habit of people to construct nature. Square Fieldwork is filmed in the Bohemian forest in the Czech Republic and the concrete structure of Barendrecht, The Netherlands.
A black-and-white visual meditation of wilderness and the elements. Wildlife filmmaker Richard Sidey returns to the triptych format for a cinematic experience like no other.
Geoff Lawton demonstrates how to grow a food forest from start to finish. Geoff helps get you on the right track toward growing a productive garden paradise.
This documentary explores an unknown civilization of the Brazilian Amazon, who risk their lives to protect their forest. In order to save the exploitation of the environment by big corporations, they have to create legal institutions.
This documentary chronicles David Beckham and his friends' unforgettable journey deep into the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Travelling by motorbike and boat, and guided by locals, he visits far-flung communities and tribes that live in this remote landscape.
Smart as a Fox is a 1946 short documentary film supervised by Gordon Hollingshead. In this short film, a fox cub experiences life in the forest. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short, One-Reel.
“Beneath the Concrete, The Forest” is a short experimental documentary that takes us inside an ongoing struggle inside the city of Atlanta, GA between two sides to determine the future of Weelaunee, the biggest contiguous urban forest in the country.
A walk in the woods become a metaphoric journey in Chloé Leriche's short film. As a solitary figure moves through the forest, the texture of stone, the movement of water, all the infinite pageantry of the natural world is captured in its richness and detail. With the help of an orchestrated soundscape and composed cinematography, Blue Suns catches the miracle and mystery of this world as it unfolds.
On July 18th of 1995, Montserrat's sleeping volcano rumbled back to life after hundreds of years of dormancy. This is the ten year story of that eruption and it's effects on the people of, 'The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean'.
The true story of naturalist Dean Bernal and his efforts to protect his friend JoJo: a wild, sociable dolphin in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
A documentary about the domination of Caribbean television by programs from the North, primarily the US. Proceeding from the observation that television in the Caribbean is overwhelmed by US and French programs, this film ambitiously weaves together interviews, indigenous poetry and music with clips from imported French and US television programs to show how Caribbean viewers receive a distorted view of the world that alienates them from their own cultural heritage. Also included is a glimpse of how Cuba has tackled the problem, featuring an interview with Cuban film director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, and the US response in the form of Radio and TV Marti. This is part of the Developing Stories Series on Environment and Development. Starweek Magazine called it "An astonishingly searing look at TV."
A documentary describing the forests of Alberta - their history, contribution, diversity, and bounty. Made in conjunction with Alberta's 2005 centennial anniversary celebration.
Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.
The human impact on forests is explored through breathtaking vistas and poignant vignettes set in Canada's Pacific Northwest. Those who rely on this precious resource highlight the tensions and dilemmas between commodification and conservation.