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FINE COCOA FROM ESMERALDA
Cacao Nacional from Ecuador is also known as "Theobroma Cacao" or "food of the gods". The pods grow in the remotest regions of the country, including in small villages along the Rio Santiago and the Rio Napo. Theobroma's distinctive flavor is valued by chocolatiers around the world. The high demand helps cocoa farmers like Lilian and Cleofe develop a new, long-term and more reliable means of subsistence. Cocoa plantations also immensely benefit the environment: cocoa trees grow in mixed species plantations and thereby protect the rainforest. They represent an alternative to palm tree plantations that are highly destructive to the local environment.
CHINA UNCOVERED
THE QUEST FOR WEALTH. Two brothers from rural China train in the art of Kung Fu in the hopes of elevating their lives however minimally. Meanwhile, rich kids in the city attend private English schools to improve their chances to study abroad. But China’s favorite philanthropist Chen Guang Biao shares his rags-to-riches story proving that odds can indeed be beaten. Rural children in China may still dream small, but as for the young elite partying away in rooftop bars, life is sweet.
CHINA UNCOVERED
THE COST OF BEAUTY RISING. Fashion designer Ji Cheng has shown her designs at London fashion week and, like beauty stylist A Zhi, is beginning to challenge the monopoly of Western brands in China. New levels of expendable income mean the wallets of the wealthy elite are helping fund this rising beauty scene and creating a market for luxury goods for shrewd businesswoman Felicity Feng. Expats from everywhere are trying to gain a foothold in this blossoming city, but can they handle its lightning speed?
HERDING SHEEP IN ICELAND
Starting at the beginning of September, the Northern Lights unveil their magical patterns on Iceland's starry skies. At the same time, Icelanders celebrate the "Retir": sheep and horses are herded to the lowlands. 4,500 sheep and 800 horses spend 3 to 4 months in the untamed highlands. Now, they are rounded up. No single farmer can herd so many animals to the lowlands. The entire community helps.
QUIRKY SCIENCE
Few substances in history have had as profound an effect on mankind as gunpowder and yet its discovery was probably an accident! A big bang, for one… Records show that the Chinese were aware of the explosive stuff as early as 300AD. The invention of gunpowder is a bit of a mystery, and so are its ingredients: it was made by mixing sulfur (a yellow stone- hiding deep underground), charcoal (burned wood), and saltpeter (or potassium nitrate) which was the white frosting found on poop that had been given time to settle and get comfortable. As you can imagine, it takes some effort to make gunpowder. But, rulers needed gunpowder. Gunpowder needed saltpeter. And saltpeter needed poop. And so, dukes declared a monopoly on their lands' waste. Until, only 500 years after the Chinese discovered it, we found out why secretions have such an explosive character. It turns out to be caused by microscopic bacteria, which produce the nitrates as byproducts of digestion. The reason why gunpowder explodes is that it burns very fast, and when it burns it releases gases that have a bigger volume than the original powder (similar to how steam is bigger than water is). But the gunpowder from the old days gave off so much smoke that battlefields were literally too smoky to aim. Until, in 1888, Albert Nobel invented a dense smokeless powder explosive called ballistite. And now, is gunpowder about to be replaced?
COLONIES UNDER THE SEA
The film follows four unique divers as they explore shipwrecks in the heart of the Bahamas archipelago in order to discover the unexpected life they harbor.
SAVE THE BUCARDO
During many years, scientists and institutions fought to avoid the extinction of the Bucardo, a rare Pyrenean mountain goat. In 2003, Spanish and French scientists managed to clone the last bucardo. It was the first time in history that an extinct animal came back to life. They took a historic step in science, the first de-extinction in the world, the first real “Jurassic Park” and a new door was opened to hope.
JOURNEYS IN AFRICA
NGORONGORO: BATTLE FOR THE CRATER. Nicknamed the Garden of Eden, this volcanic caldera is home to over 25,000 big game animals. Here survival isn’t just a game—it’s a matter of life and death. You’ll witness one of the great acts of nature—buffalo, lion and hyena in a face-to-face struggle for dominance. Life in the crater can take surprising twists.
HISTORIC FOOTBALL MATCH IN FLORENCE
Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, is today a so-called "museum-city". The small city center is invaded by thousands of tourists every day. But there is one sport tourists usually don't know : the calcio florentino, a violent game with no rules, exclusively for Florentine people. Struggling with the consequences of gentrification, the city is losing its identity and its citizens. But there is still one way in which Florence and the "Fiorentini" can express their own identity - the "Calcio Storico Fiorentino" (Historical Florentine soccer), a game that has been played in Florence for 800 years but only 3 days a year in the month of June! This primitive, tough and dangerous mix of football and boxing is played in one of the world's most famous squares, the Piazza Santa Croce. The players can hit the ball with their hands or feet, and they can stop their adversaries in any way possible. These two rules make the game one of the roughest sports ever played.
EUROPEAN ISLANDS EP
03: TENERIFE. The European islands are renowned primarily for their hotel resorts. However, we will show you a completely different face of theirs: forests, beaches, coves, mountains, valleys and rivers. Perhaps you will find places that will take your breath away. Why just lie on the beach when there is so much to see? Put on some good hiking shoes, pull your shoelaces tight, and get to know the entire island like the back of your hand.
INDIA'S JUNGLE BOOK HOSPITAL
In the densely populated India, living space for wild animals is getting short. Around the country land is being cultivated and houses are constructed. India's only scientifically run rehabilitation center offers shelter for wild animals. Here veterinarians Dr. Phulmoni Gogi and Dr. Prasanta Boro take care of ill and injured animals, which got in conflict with civilization and would have hardly survived on their own: a feverish buffalo, a dozen orphaned elephants and a young rhinoceros. With a lot of dedication and patience, the doctors aim is to slowly raise the awareness of the people to save the wild animals.
AFRICA'S DEADLIEST
EP. 03. Hippos are terrifying animals in their own right, but they also have enough meat on them to be tempting prey. A pride of 16 lions surround one, but its jaws can crush a skull with one bite – who will triumph?
THE LAST ORANGUTANS OF SUMATRA
Today there are only 6000 Orang-Utans living in Sumatra. According to pessimistic evaluations the chances of this threatened species to survive seem rather limited. The main reason for their extinction is that their natural habitat is being destroyed for the more profitable cultivation of palm oil plantations. By today already 70 % of the Sumatran Island is already covered by palm oil trees. In addition most of the local population sees them more as an object of entertainment rather than a national heritage which is worth being protected. Since that common attitude in society is even changing it could still come too late for those anthropoid apes. Ian Singleton who moved here from England is dedicating his life to the care of these apes. Since 20 years, he is working to facilitate a refuge for the last ones of their kind so they could live again untroubled in Nature and maybe even decrease their population
OUT OF TOWN ADVENTURES
S1 EP 07: UTAH - SALTON SEA. Outta Town Adventures travels both near and far to discover the best advenures the destinations have to offer. Season 1 visits attractions from California to Rwanda, Switzerland, Iceland, Utah, Zambia, Mexico, The Grand Canyon, Georgia (the Eastern European one) Louisiana, Hawaii, Mauritius and Seychelles. This TV series is dedicated to presenting history, culture and geography in a fun and pisitive way. It encourages people to explore this beautiful world - something that starts with simply getting out of town!
OUT OF TOWN ADVENTURES
S1 EP 08: GEORGIA. Outta Town Adventures travels both near and far to discover the best advenures the destinations have to offer. Season 1 visits attractions from California to Rwanda, Switzerland, Iceland, Utah, Zambia, Mexico, The Grand Canyon, Georgia (the Eastern European one) Louisiana, Hawaii, Mauritius and Seychelles. This TV series is dedicated to presenting history, culture and geography in a fun and pisitive way. It encourages people to explore this beautiful world - something that starts with simply getting out of town!
QUIRKY SCIENCE
In contrast with popular belief, Edison did not invent the light bulb. Many people contributed to the invention. Mind you, the first lamp was invented around 70,000 BC. Once upon a time we had limelight, which was actually quite unsafe, and then there were arc “arc lamps” – shedding light that blinded movie stars up to the point where they had to wear sunglasses. What Edison did was improve the light bulb to become a practical, affordable and safe product. He tested over 5000 filaments to make the bulb last: from bamboo fiber to a hair out of an assistant’s beard. At the same time others were working on light bulbs made with gasses, which we now know as energy efficient lamps. Modern-day lighting innovations are quite startling, a lot of them - we can’t even see with the naked eye… Lasers, for example. For the longest time it was merely a pet-theory of the grand Einstein. Nobody knew what to make of this idea that ‘atoms could release their excess energy as light’ When the laser was invented, people joked that the laser was ‘a solution looking for a problem’. Now it is omnipresent. In the near future: laser-light therapy by flashing the human brain.
QUIRKY SCIENCE
A man with an ear for music, one of the first to try teaching the deaf how to speak, thought he could build a "harmonic telegraph". He had this idea that several notes could travel through a wire simultaneously, instead of the one Morse code that the telegraph could transmit. He thought this to be possible because he misinterpreted the writings of a researcher writing in German – a language he did not know. – And would later describe his misinterpretation as a "very valuable blunder". The man was Alexander Graham Bell and he invented telephony. The big question is: what happens in that wire? How can voices travel? Bell and his assistant eventually proved that different tones would vary the strength of an electric current in a wire. In fact, it’s the vibrations of the voice that determine the strength of the current. His invention caused a lot of fuss – yet it took years before people comprehended the scale of it: before the widespread use of the phone – whom were you going to call? Eventually, the telephone, or better said, its wiring, leads to the Internet. Nowadays we mostly make our calls ‘wireless’ so the wire Graham Bell used to make voices travel over long distances is no longer needed How does that work? Even wireless calling, some say, is actually a very unnatural way of communicating. Looking at the future, are we heading towards a ‘phoneless’ call?
SHATTERED GROUND
Hydraulic Fracturing or “Fracking” is a new technology that has opened up immense resources of natural gas buried in deep shale beds. Some see it as the answer to the energy crisis and a chance at energy independence. But fracking has become an incredibly divisive issue ripping apart communities and even families. The backlash is unprecedented, with states and countries adopting fracking bans. Shattered Ground is a one hour documentary that looks past the rhetoric and emotional arguments to find the real issues involved in hydraulic fracturing, the opportunity, and the potential health and environmental issues that will affect us all.
WATER: H2O STORIES
THE BLUE PLANET. Water: H2O Stories is a 3x52 series revisiting the story of water on planet Earth and its disrupted course over time which has led to the 21st century biggest challenge.
CHINA UNCOVERED
THE QUEST FOR WEALTH. Two brothers from rural China train in the art of Kung Fu in the hopes of elevating their lives however minimally. Meanwhile, rich kids in the city attend private English schools to improve their chances to study abroad. But China’s favorite philanthropist Chen Guang Biao shares his rags-to-riches story proving that odds can indeed be beaten. Rural children in China may still dream small, but as for the young elite partying away in rooftop bars, life is sweet.
ANATOLIA LAND OF THE APRICOTS
Millions of golden yellow fruits dry out in the sun. They are called 'Gold of Mesopotamia', the juicy apricots of Anatolia. On the plantations at the shore of the Euphrates grow 95 % of all apricots processed worldwide. But the idyllic atmosphere is deceiving: behind this picturesque façade, seething conflicts erupt among the old patriarchs about more self-determination and, above all, the concerns over climate change and its effects on the harvest are hovering.
NEW YORK
THE WORLD'S SMALLEST OPERA HOUSE. "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere". That's the vision people from all over the world have of New York. This report takes a look behind the scenes of the world's smallest opera house, in the heart of New York. Tony Amato, the son of an Italian butcher, thought when he came to New York in the 40s that he could make it too by realizing his dream of owning an opera house. The house is 3 stories high and three windows wide. The hall feels no bigger than a living room, however its 107 seats are always sold out. Tony Amato continues to be the center and linchpin of this miniature opera. Tony is barely 5 foot tall, with his sneakers and the small, wiry man seems to be held up by his pant-suspenders. His voice is persuasive, his eyes bright. He conducts, sings, jumps, laughs and grumbles all at once. At 88 years of age, Maestro Tony Amato is in the middle of the season's last production.
THE NEW NOMADIC PEOPLE OF KYRGYZSTAN
360° GEO - Report accompanies the Kyrgyzstani nomad family and their 600 animals as they trek through gorges and rapid mountain springs. 40-year-old Kyrgyzstani Bachit makes his living by pasture farming. He is an astute shepherd and realized long ago that major changes were taking place in his homeland, the Tien Chan Mountains, on the Chinese border: the high mountain peaks - some of them at an altitude of 7,000 metres - are thawing rapidly. This is an effect of global warming, with as yet unknown global consequences. Bachit has adapted to the new situation: fince several years now, he has been leading his huge flock anually from the village to a 3,000-meter altitude summer pasture - a risky adventure.
THE BEST SHEEPDOGS FROM WALES
The film follows Nigel and his dogs throughout the summer. Nigel Watkins is a farmer and vice-world champion sheepdog handler. Together with his partner, Janet, he runs his little farm Llanddeusant in the Brecon Beacons National Park in the south of Wales. Farming takes up a fair amount of his time, but his hobbies take up much more of it: he trains Border Collies, a breed of sheepdog.
A COUNTER HISTORY OF INTERNET
A look back at the emergence of Internet freedom defence movements that have sprung up in reaction to growing regulation of the Web by governments and multinationals. Internet was created by hippies while being funded by the military! This improbable culture shock gave birth to an area of freedom that was impossible to censor or control. Yet for years, that is precisely what a certain number of political leaders have sought to do, prompting hackers and defenders of freedom to enter the political arena.
JOURNEYS IN AFRICA
GREAT CITIES OF TANZANIA: COUNTDOWN TO HISTORY. To this day sisal, a rope making fiber plant, is a mainstay of the economy. Journeys tours the capital city of Tanzania and its diverse religious institutions before heading into sisal country. We’ll learn about the German influences and the seldom heard story of Livingstone’s final trip across Africa.
JOURNEYS IN AFRICA
SAADANI NATIONAL PARK. This is one of the few national parks in Africa where the bush meets the ocean. The big game of Africa face off with the creatures of the deep. Our host goes a little rogue for supper and tries his hand at surf netting prawns after spending a day looking for the elusive elephants of Saadani.
ROLL ON CINEMA
This film endeavours to show how the invention of cinema was in no way inevitable, and how it may well have been a mere accident. To pinpoint the start, it all began in the heart of Paris, in the depths of darkened room, on 28 March 1798, when Etienne-Gaspard Robertson gave one of his first screenings of his "Fantasmagoria" - making ghosts and spectres dance. But how did we move from perfecting the magic lantern to the cinematography of the Lumiére brothers? The invention was born throughout the 19th century, out of the unpredictable crossing of two parallel research paths - that of philosophical toys and the photography of movement. Originally-named optical devices - such as the kinesigraph, the zoetrope, the praxinoscope and the phenakistoscope, without forgetting the photographic revolver or gun - associated the realm of toys with the realm of thought, reflecting both a fascination for the magical effects produced by animation and speed, and a desire to understand human anatomy, and analyse the phenomenon of vision. All these pre-cinema optical devices literally stemmed from a desire for spectacle and the will to acquire knowledge. Robertson, Reynaud, Plateau, Muybridge and Marey spearheaded the adventure. Thanks to these brilliant inventors, we travel across the 19th century, ending in Paris in 1895 in the Salon Indien du Grand Café, where the first public movie screening took place.
SEED HUNTER
Our planet is heating up and one of the first casualties will be the crops that supply our food. Scientists are working overtime to find solutions including going back to the ancestral origins of our staple foods. SEED HUNTER will take you on a remarkable journey from the drought ravaged farms of Australia, to the heart of the Middle East, to the mountains of Tajikistan where charismatic Australian scientist Dr Ken Street – a real life version of Indiana Jones – and his team of ‘gene detectives’ hunt for plant genes that will help our food withstand the impact of 21st century global warming. Along the way we meet farmers around the world who are struggling to grow crops in a climate that’s gone haywire, as well as scientists working at the front line of gene technology to save tomorrow’s food. At journey’s end, deep in the Arctic Circle, Ken deposits his bounty of seed in the newly constructed seed bank known as the ‘doomsday vault.’
MAN EATERS
The first documentary about the Human-leopard conflict in Sri Lanka, “Man Eaters: A Human Leopard Story” approaches the conflict by analyzing past and present cases of man-eating leopards in Sri Lanka and what led to their strange behavior. Unlike India, man-eating leopards in Sri Lanka are very rare.
GUANO THE ISLAND OF AGONY
Millions of sea birds nest on the Peruvian coastline. Their excrement - guano - is highly valuable, and is exported as fertilizer all over the world. Guano farming is done manually, in the same way it was done during the period of the Incas. Only the strongest of men can endure the harsh work, as well as the long months of isolation on the uninhabited islands. The stench of the excrement is difficult to bear, and the acidic dust burns the lungs. 360° - GEO followed the workers who collect the guano. A documentary on the islands of suffering.
NEW FRONTIER
ORBIT. The International Space Station is undoubtedly the jewel in the crown of low Earth orbit; observation post, research lab and class room. Equally however there are many other assets orbiting Earth that are even more important to our everyday lives; delivering communications, weather observation, global positioning and resource management the list is growing with every year.
NEW FRONTIER
SHORE TO SHORE. Our seafaring nature has translated well to the space age, seeking to sail out into the unknown in search of riches of one kind or another. While Europe and Asia continue their interest in the resource rich Moon, The United States and NASA have set their sights on nothing less than manned missions to Mars. Can they manage to go shore to shore on the most dangerous of unknown seas, deep space.
THAILAND'S ELEPHANTS, GET OUT OF THE CITY!
In former times, 4.000 elephants and their Mahouts used to work in Thailand's forestry but nowadays, they are no longer welcome in Bangkok. Since then, at the end of the 1980s, when the government stopped deforestation, they have been unemployed. More and more elephant guides have moved to the big cities. For 4 years now, the government has been trying to ban them from the cities, as they are a safety risk for street traffic. Non Yamdee lives with his elephant Poon Thap in the outer districts of Bangkok but doesn't want to be caught by the police and resettled. He has heard about a new elephant camp in the south – and that is where he intends to go.
FALKLAND ISLANDS PENGUINS ADVANCING FORWARD
360° GEO - Report captures the rough beauty of the Falkland Islands on camera, and plunges into the life of the penguin colonies at the far end of the world. The Falkland Islands is an archipelago in the South Atlantic, not far from the South American continent. In the 1980's, England and Argentina fought a cruel war for sovereignty. Altogether on both sides, about 1,000 people lost their lives before the Argentinians surrendered. Today, the roughly 700 islands of the British Overseas Territory are once again a natural paradise: thousands of penguins crowd the coast, while the almost 3,000 inhabitants lead a "British way of life" and try to do their best given their economic and territorial isolation, at 12,600 km from London.
BHUTAN IN THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Nestled in the heart of the Himalayas, the small kingdom of Bhutan has decided to do away with the dictatorship of Gross Domestic Product and economic growth at all costs. A new wealth indicator has now become the country’s gold standard: Gross National Happiness. Launched by the country’s fourth King, the “new paradigm” is based on four pillars: protection of the environment; conservation and promotion of Bhutanese culture; good governance; and responsible and sustainable economic development.
JOURNEYS IN AFRICA
NAIROBI: THE ENCHANTED CITY. Nairobi is the capital of Kenya and one of the most fascinating cities in Africa. On our visit we’ll see the colonial architecture of a bygone era and the ultra-modern side of town as well. We’ll learn the truth behind the “Out of Africa” story and our host gets eye-to-eye with some endangered giraffes.
WONDER
NATURE'S GAMES. Seg 1 Carrion flowers. Carrion flowers are the unorthodox perception of flowers for they are rare, big, and very unpleasant. Other terms are stink flowers and corpse flowers. The biggest flower in the world, rafflesia arnoldii, is a carrion flower. These flowers are difficult to find and reproduce and could breed through cross-pollination by attracting flies and dung beetles. Seg 2 Aposematism. Aposematism is a form of signalling that enables protection for both preys and predators by giving signs of poison and danger through showing off the bright colors and patterns on their epidermal layers that become associated with inedibility. Some species have developed mimicry based on aposematism in order to avail the protection aposematic colors give. Seg 3 Cuckoo Misdirection. Cuckoo misdirection demonstrates the mimicking abilities of a female cuckoo in order to find host nests to hatch her eggs. The female mimics a cry of a predator bird in order to frighten the hosts, leaving them vulnerable, thus the cuckoo can seize the chance to drop her egg on a host nest. Seg 4 Pheromones. Animal pheromones are the chemicals secreted and released by different species to communicate with other organisms. There are various types serving different purposes, ranging from reproduction, to trailing, to alarms. Some pheromones are also specific to one species of animals. Seg 5 Deimatic Behavior. Deimatic behavior is another type of defensive behavior in animals that also involves mimicry. It’s the opposite of aposematism because while aposematism works by blatantly showing or signalling its danger or unpalatability, deimatic behavior relies on the element of surprise to startle predators in order for species to flee to safety.
ISETENKHEB'S EGYPTIAN COFFIN
Follow from the amazing restoration process of one of the most cherished and mysterious pieces of History: an Egyptian sarcophagus covered with hieroglyphics (painted wood). With exclusive interviews of experts, art curators and restorators, discover everything about the story of the Isetenkheb coffin of Ancient Egypt dated from around 664-500 BC !
DIVING WITH CROCODILES
In Africa’s waterways, one predator reigns supreme – the Nile crocodile. One of the biggest and most deadly reptiles on Earth, it commands a fearsome reputation and strikes terror those who share its domain. Countless attacks in which victims are ruthlessly taken from riverbanks or attacked in their canoes leave no doubt that the Nile crocodile may views humans as natural prey. In fact, the animal was recently reclassified as the number one killer of humans in Africa, overtaking the previous record holder, the hippo. In ‘Diving with Crocodiles’ cameraman and crocodile expert Brad Bestelink undertakes the unthinkable and dives into the waters of the Okavango Delta. Without a cage or any other protection, he gets up close and personal with these fearsome creatures in this groundbreaking film. Such a feat has never been recorded before. But Brad is well prepared – his decision to take the plunge is the result of many years spent studying crocodile behavior in his native Botswana. His window of opportunity to dive is small and dependent on the seasonal ebb and flow of the Okavango. There are only a couple of months each year when visibility in the delta allows for perfect filming conditions. This extraordinary film provides all the high drama associated with modern-day exploration, coupled with the exhilaration of interacting with wild animals. The underwater secrets of the Nile crocodile are revealed with unique and compelling footage in the pristine underwater environment of the Okavango delta.