Éloge des animaux lents

Penguin Post Office

In the heart of the Antarctic Peninsula there's a unique British post office staffed by a dedicated team and surrounded by jaw-dropping scenery that includes 3,000 gentoo penguins. Every summer, this particular colony of penguins returns from an intensive spell of deep sea fishing to its breeding grounds alongside the post office, trekking nearly two miles across sea ice and snow to get there when the weather is especially bad. They rush to find a partner, build a nest, lay eggs and protect those eggs from predators, and then finally get down to the task of raising their young. We see their four-month drama unfold against the backdrop of their lives - primarily, the comings and goings of cruise ships, bringing enthusiastic tourists to photograph the penguins and their chicks, and to buy postcards to send to friends and family around the world - from the Penguin Post Office.

Being Bublé

A deeply unqualified man is inexplicably hired as a Michael Bublé impersonator for a rich stranger’s party. Despite no resemblance, no singing ability, and just one week to prepare, he gives it everything he’s got. A hilarious, oddly inspiring documentary about effort over ability and the joy of letting folks believe.

Mauna Loa Volcano

A silent film featuring footage from the 1935 Mauna Loa eruption at Mokuʻāweoweo Crater and the 1942 Mauna Loa so-called "secret eruption" which was not publicized to prevent Japanese planes from navigating at night. There is also footage from Halema'uma'u Crater on Kīlauea from 1934. Filmed on 16mm Kodachrome, this is possibly the first color film of a volcanic eruption.

Bee Wild

Bee Wild is an inspirational, upbeat, and poetic documentary that explores the foundational role that bees play in sustaining humanity, the reasons for their sharp population decline and how we can regenerate bees worldwide so they are once again part of a thriving ecosystem. Because we are losing 1 billion pollinators annually, the film will focus on the urgent nature of both bees and other insects that pollinate our food and emphasize ways that viewers can get involved in restoring, regenerating and nurturing this largely unseen world.

Tsunami - Killer Wave

The globe learned on December 26, 2004, that tsunamis can bring death and devastation to the world's coastlines. The product of undersea earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, tsunamis can race across oceans at more than 500 miles an hour, leaving a huge wake of destruction when they hit shore. Because it is difficult for scientists to predict how large these massive waves can be, tsunamis are one of the least understood of nature's forces, and one of the most dangerous. With insight from some of the scientific community's foremost researchers, and vivid accounts from past tsunami survivors, Tsunami: Killer Wave depicts nature at its most extreme, profiles the efforts being made to curb its effects, and illustrates the financial, physical and emotional toll it can leave on its victims.

March of the Jaguars

Follow the journey of three jaguars in the Pantanal region.

Return From Forever

Documents an eight-year project begun in 1979 under the direction of Larry M. Rymon to reintroduce the osprey into Pennsylvania. Due to loss of habitat and wide use of agricultural chemicals, the bird has disappeared from the state for nearly forty years

Electric Eel

The electric eel lives in the fresh waters of the Amazon Basin. It can give an electrical discharge capable of killing a horse. This eel can locate fish by means of "radar," then captures its prey by knocking it out with a violent shock of electricity. In Experience With an Eel, Dr. Irwin Moon and his lab assistants demonstrate the eel's electrical shocking power. The study of the electric eel helps to answer many questions concerning the relationship of science and the Word of God.

Of Books and Sloths

The sloth. Nature’s champion sluggard. One of the most misunderstood animals in the world. As recent as a century ago, the sloth was regarded as a "blunder of nature." To capture this story, the Moody Institute of Science did research in the laboratory and in the jungles of Panama. The message, Of Books and Sloths, points out the dependability and the accuracy of the Scriptures as compared with man's writings that must be constantly revised to correct inaccuracies.

CircleSpeak

Shot in Southern England over the course of six weeks by a crew of three American filmmakers, CircleSpeak offers a nuanced look at the passions and beliefs of the people immersed in the crop circle phenomenon during the season of 2001. This feature-length documentary presents interviews with serious “researchers”, self-proclaimed “hoaxers”, local farmers and villagers who are all, in one way or another, involved in this strange and compelling summer spectacle taking place year after year.

Tomorrow

Climate is changing. Instead of showing all the worst that can happen, this documentary focuses on the people suggesting solutions and their actions.

The Polar Bears of Churchill with Ewan McGregor

A documentary about polar bears of the churchill

Fühlen Wie Ein Ozean

Behind the Crime: Self Defense or Slaughter

Responding to a shooting, authorities find an Ex-NFL player injured and another dead. They now face the question, was it self-defense or slaughter?

Caste Aside

Caste Aside is a documentary about the British government's controversial decision on whether or not to introduce legislation against caste discrimination in the UK. Highlighting both sides of this heated debate, the documentary speaks to Dalit rights activists, Hindu community leaders, academics and lawyers, as well as those who say they have been discriminated against on the basis of their caste - here in Britain.

John Bishop's Gorilla Adventure

John Bishop encounters one of the most endangered animals on Earth, and discovers they and his family have more in common than he ever imagined. Filming in the jungles of Rwanda for John Bishop’s Gorilla Adventure, the comedian realises adolescent male mountain gorillas are just like his teenage sons – bulging muscles but no sense. Plus they fart, flirt and pick their noses. We follow John as he joins a group of vets who have dedicated their lives to saving the, sadly, precious few mountain gorillas left in the wild rugged mountains and valleys between the borders of Rwanda, Congo and Uganda, which were made famous to UK viewers by David Attenborough’s iconic sequence filmed among them in the 1970s.

Wolf Law

There is a harsh law in nature - some animals live at the expense of the lives of others. The film tells about the fate of four wolf cubs left without a mother. How their character is formed and skills are acquired. How, by instinct, wolf cubs learn to hunt and survive in the wild, where they have many enemies. The cubs have learned the first lesson that life in a pack is much more reliable than alone. In the course of the film, we follow their short but courageous lives. Our heroes have grown up, but the main law of the wild nature - the war for territory, has become the most difficult for them.

Colombia: Wild Magic

A wonderful country full of amazing creatures in America called Colombia, seen as never before, accompanied by incredible shots, make it a must-see place for adventurers and wildlife lovers this natural paradise.

Fly Chicks

Fly Chicks explores the practice of fly fishing through a feminist lens. The film follows three fly fisherwomen and their relationship with the river and its inhabitants, the sport, and their identities.

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country

Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country.

City of Ghosts

With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.

2000 Meters to Andriivka

Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.

20 Days in Mariupol

As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.

Listen to Britain

A depiction of life in wartime Britain during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.

For Sama

A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

Korengal

Korengal picks up where Restrepo left off; the same men, the same valley, the same commanders, but a very different look at the experience of war.

Naqoyqatsi

A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.

Powaqqatsi

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

Heart of a Dog

Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.

Hell and Back Again

What does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home? Hell and Back Again is a cinematically revolutionary film that asks and answers these questions with a power and intimacy no previous film about the conflict in Afghanistan has been able to achieve. It is a masterpiece in the cinema of war.

Earthlings

Using hidden cameras and never-before-seen footage, Earthlings chronicles the day-to-day practices of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit.

Baraka

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

McCullin

Biographical documentary of the war photographer Don McCullin, with sections on his upbringing, early work for the Observer and extensive war reporting for the Sunday Times until the purchase of the newspaper by Rupert Murdoch in the 1980s.

Finders Keepers

In this documentary, recovering addict and amputee John Wood finds himself in a stranger-than-fiction battle to reclaim his mummified leg from Southern entrepreneur Shannon Whisnant, who found it in a grill he bought at an auction and believes it therefore to be his rightful property.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

A documentary on the life of John Lennon, with a focus on the time in his life when he transformed from a musician into an antiwar activist.

Father Soldier Son

When Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch is critically wounded in Afghanistan, it sets him and his sons on a journey of love, loss, redemption and legacy.

Champs

A documentary about the sport of boxing, as seen through the eyes of champions Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Bernard Hopkins.

Chronos

Carefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.

Cameraperson

As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.