ENVIRONMENT

On a river in Ireland

1h 00m

The Shannon is Ireland’s greatest geographical landmark and the longest river in these islands. For 340 kilometers the river carves its way south through the heart of the country almost splitting Ireland in two. It is both a barrier and highway. On its journey, the Shannon passes through a huge palette of rural landscapes. “On a River in Ireland” offers a portrait of Ireland’s greatest geographical feature, using a lot of techniques and showing never before filmed Irish sequences and stories.

Erosión

1h 17m

Independent documentary that addresses the different environmental problems in the north of Quintana Roo region, located in the Mexican Caribbean, caused by the rapid tourism development and uncontrolled population growth.

Bugs: Nature's Little Superheroes

51m 55s

Think insects are a pest? Think again. This visually stunning science documentary shows how these tiny geniuses can help us solve some of science’s biggest problems – from producing biofuel to killing drug-resistant bacteria and curing cancer. Insects are the most diverse group of animals on the planet, making up more than 90% of the animals on Earth. They can be found on all continents, in all climates. Nature has equipped them with an amazing range of tricks.

Consumed

52m 04s

Consumerism has become the cornerstone of the post-industrial age. Yet how much do we know about what it is doing to us? Using theories of evolutionary psychology, this film takes a whirlwind tour through the "weird mental illness of consumerism", showing how our insatiable appetite has driven us into "the jaws of the beast". Both an apocalyptic and redemptive view of the human condition

Power of Wood, Resource of the Future?

44m 10s

Unless we use wood more sustainably, the world's forests might have disappeared in 200 years. We present groundbreaking methods in sustainable forestry and in the energy industry.

Soyalism

1h 05m

Food production has increasingly become a huge business for a handful of giant corporations. SOYALISM follows the industrial production chain of pork and the related soybean monoculture, from China to Brazil through the United States and Mozambique. This eye-opening documentary describes the enormous concentration of power in the hands of these Western and Chinese companies and the impact this is having on the food we consume.

Aina

22m 55s

‘ĀINA: That Which Feeds Us’ – The best-kept secret on Kaua`i isn’t a secluded beach or local surf spot, it’s that four of the world’s largest chemical companies are using the island as an open-air testing ground for pesticides on genetically modified crops. Winner Accolades Global Film Competition.

Emptying the Skies

1h 17m

Based on an essay written by noted best-selling novelist Jonathan Franzen for The New Yorker, ‘Emptying the Skies’ chronicles the rampant poaching of migratory songbirds in southern Europe. Songbird populations have been drastically declining for several decades, and a number of species face imminent extinction. The film explores the wonder of these tiny globe-flying marvels, millions of which are unlawfully slaughtered each year for large sums on the black market.

The Food Race - Pesticides, GMOs and Organic Farming on the Test

51m 31s

The world’s food supply becomes more and more imbalanced. One billion people are starving, every second a child dies of hunger or its consequences. At the same time food production is at its peak, the demand for meat is growing not only in the industrial world. Up to 30% of the world’s harvest is ruined by diseases or pests and less than half ends up on our plate. This film reveals the causes and impacts and tries to find solutions how we can feed up to nine billion people in the next 35 years.

Global Junk Food

51m 27s

In Europe, food manufacturers have signed up to ‘responsibility pledges’, promising no added sugar, preservatives, artificial colours or flavours and not to target children. So why are they using tactics banned in the West in the developing world? There, they have created ultra low cost products with higher levels of salt, sugar and saturated fats. Filmed in Brazil, India and France, we investigate the new tactics of brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza.

Do More With Less

1h 25m

By 2030, two billion people are expected to be living in slums. Therefore learn how to operate in conditions with low capital resources, giving an answer to the economy from the local is the great challenge.

The Cost of Cotton

56m 12s

It's the soft, natural fabric associated with high quality and versatility. Used to make everything from jeans and t-shirts to tarpaulins, oil and cattle feed, it powers a 37 billion euros a year industry. But is cotton really as pure as it seems? Claims of forced labour, pollution, and even slavery have stained its wholesome reputation, creating a market for 'ethical, responsible' cotton.

A Plastic Surgery: Coca-Cola hidden secrets

53m 05s

Every second, another ten tons of plastic is produced. 10% of all plastic produced ends up in the oceans, leading to predictions that, by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. Faced with this global scourge, more and more businesses are promising to recycle, including the Coca-Cola Company, a group that sells 4000 plastic bottles around the world every second.

Microtopia

52m 05s

Microtopia explores how architects, artists and ordinary problem-solvers are pushing the limits to find answers to their dreams of portability, flexibility - and of creating independence from the grid. Microtopia deals with contemporary urgent ideas that are addressed, and solved, in very surprising ways.

Raising Resistance

54m 22s

Beautifully shot and interweaving interviews with scenes from soy fields in Paraguay, Raising Resistance explores Latin American farmers’ struggle against the expanding production of genetically modified soy in South America. Biotechnology, mechanisation, and herbicides have radically changed the lives of small farmers in Latin America. For farmers in Paraguay this means displacement from their land, loss of basic food supplies, and a veritable fight for survival.

Living The Change

1h 25m

Living the Change explores solutions to the global crises we face today through the inspiring stories of people pioneering change in their own lives and in their communities in order to live in a sustainable and regenerative way.

The Mermaids' Tears: Oceans of Plastic

53m 51s

Oceans are rapidly becoming the world’s rubbish dump. 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 researching the decline of the fulmar bird found plastic in the stomachs of 95% of all samples; In Germany, chemicals leached from plastic have been found to affect the reproductive systems of animals...

Future Food - Nigeria : Near or Far

28m 07s

Future Food is a highly topical new series of 6 x 27’ documentaries, asking how we are going to feed ourselves in the 21st Century. Tonight there will be 219,000 new mouths to feed at the world’s dinner table – that’s 80 million more people over the next year. By 2050, the world’s population will have risen to around 9.5 billion and require 70% more food than we grow today. How will we feed them? Future Food visits Nigeria and exploring six questions at the heart of the debate.

A Simpler Way : Crisis As Opportunity

1h 18m

A feature-length documentary that follows a community in Australia who came together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises. Throughout the year the group build tiny houses, plant veggie gardens, practice simple living, and discover the challenges of living in community.

Chernobyl, Fukushima: Living with the legacy

51m 59s

30 years after Chernobyl catastrophe, and 5 years after Fukushima, it is time to see what has been happening in the “exclusion zones”, where the radioactivity rate is far above normal. This film will offer a unique access to those territories, which gather millions of people within thousands of km2

Smoke and Fumes: The Climate Change Cover-Up

52m 28s

With Donald Trump, an outmoded view of climate change has taken hold of the White House again. Great news for oil companies such as Exxon and Shell. They have been secretly financing scientific studies and campaigns, which are talking down climate change and have been influencing the public debate for 60 years. New documents prove that since 1957, these companies have known that burning fossil fuels changes the climate - their own, strictly secret research had revealed this.

Green Warriors: Indonesia, the World's most Polluted River

54m 12s

The Citarum river in Indonesia, is the world's most polluted river. A reporter teamed up with international scientists to investigate the causes and consequences of this pollution. One of the main polluters is actually the fashion industry : 500 textile factories throw away their wastewater directly into the Citarum river.

Amazonas

36m 17s

Numerous climatic, political and civilising changes have a great impact on the settlements in the central Amazon area. Step by step the local people develop their own mentality regarding a sustainable and well-adapted life in the heart of the Amazon rain forests. In 2012, the film maker Thomas Miklautsch from Carinthia, together with his assistant Anja Krois, set off to travel for several months along the Amazon, from the Columbian Leticia to Rio Ampiyaco near Iquitos in Peru, always in harmony

Longyearbyen, a bipolar city

56m 49s

A climate dilemma in the Arctic circle ! Located in the Svalbard archipelago, Longyearbyen is the northernmost city in the world. Here we extract coal for one hundred years as an energetic and economic source, which stirs many environmental paradoxes. For scientists, politicians and city locals, Longyearbyen is now facing a race against the clock.

Urban Mining

44m 32s

Our demand for raw materials is enormous and the mineral and ore mines can hardly keep up with the growing demand. Weirdly, we're surrounded by raw materials! They're in our cars, in the underground tunnels we use to travel to work, in the pavement that leads to our houses, in the bridges we cross, and they're in our homes. In European cities, there are approx. 4.500 kg of iron, 340 kg of aluminum, 200 kg of copper, 40 kg of zinc and 210 kg of lead attributed to each inhabitant.

How environmentally friendly are electric vehicles?

44m 22s

Electric cars are supposed to be more environment friendly than vehicles with combustion engines. But how ecological is it to produce batteries, and are they used efficiently? We take a look at technical developments and ask how we can produce more environment-friendly batteries and make the energy management of electric cars more efficient.

Dry Season - Central Asia's Battle for Water

52m 09s

Anyone in Central Asia who has water also has power. Will there soon be an all-out battle for water in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan und Uzbekistan?

Transgenic Wars

51m 45s

The march towards the dominance of GM products in agriculture started 15 years ago but where will it end? Today in Argentina all agriculture is transgenic but after 15 years the weeds have adapted and the Glyphosate no longer works. In response farmers have started using hazardous chemicals in an indiscriminate and unregulated manner. In some areas the rate of serious genetic deformities in children has exploded. We meet the families and doctors convinced that living so close farms is the cause.

Diesel: The Industry's Smokescreen

54m 58s

‘Dieselgate’ made headlines around the world. For deliberately cheating the system, Volkswagen were made to pay a record $20 billion fine. But, as this investigation shows, they were far from the only culprits. We met the researchers who uncovered the cheat devise and investigate the dangers posed by NOx emissions.

Isabela

1h 18m

A darker look at paradise in the Galapagos archipelago. Environmental artist and world traveller Billy Strong and Filmmaker / Photographer Dell Cullum, both from East Hampton, New York take an unauthorized journey and expedition onto never before landed locations of the Galapagos, to show the devastating effects of ocean-borne trash and debris on it’s shorelines.

Of Locusts and Men

52m 19s

In Madagascar, locusts invasions are so intense that it has plunged millions of people into utter misery, ravaging and devouring crops and grazing fields. To fight against an insect which reproduces itself at an amazing rate, complex operations need to be put in place. And there are men whose only job consists in conducting this struggle...

The Earth's Furies: Volcanic Explosions

52m 22s

Iceland, Indonesia, South America, the Reunion Island... The threat of volcanic eruptions never ceases to hound those who have chosen to live at the feet of volcanos on continents the world over. This threat requires humans to continually come up with new ways to both foresee the danger to come and to tame the violence of volcanoes; a violence that is indispensable to life on Earth. What do these volcanoes reveal about the way the Earth works?