Recently in Documentary Category

Where Hope Resides shows the many challenges that BC's Skeena River ecosystem faces. From the different perspectives of the rivers inhabitants, to the ever present threat of resource exploitation.

Filming began in June of 2008, and involved three separate two week blocks in the area. the filmmakers were able to follow the salmon on their migration up the Skeena River.

This film displays the struggle that we see so often in today's world. You'll find no easy answers here. But there is hope. Hope that together, we will recognize the importance of protecting the Skeena Watershed.

By 2030 the United Nations estimates two-thirds of the world will lack access to clean drinking water. Tapped will illustrate the impact of the global water crisis on America and what we can do as individuals to enact change sooner rather than later. Tapped examines the role of the bottled water industry and its effects on our health, climate change, pollution, and our reliance on oil.

Visit the official movie web site: http://www.tappedthemovie.com/

(Source: Atlas Films)

Watch the Tapped the movie trailer:

Aquacultural Revolution, a new documentary from the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, features many prominent scientists and First Nations representatives who speak their minds about the salmon farming industry and the numerous problems associated with it.

The film makes a comprehensive, science-based case for changing the aquaculture industry.

You can view the entire film at the Watershed Watch website, or check out the shorter YouTube version of the film.

The Watershed Watch also suggests some simple ways you can help, listed below:

• Always ask if it's farmed or wild, and think twice about buying farmed salmon
• Make a donation to Watershed Watch Salmon Society or other environmental NGOs and help protect wild salmon
• Get your concerns on record. Send a fax to the government and let them know changes must happen soon
• Learn more about sea lice and salmon farming below and at Watershed Watch's sea lice page

Aquacultural Revolution was created by filmmaker Damien Gillis, from Save Our Rivers Society, in collaboration with Watershed Watch Salmon Society (with support from the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform and Save Our Salmon.)
 

In the 1960’s, Richard O’Barry was the world’s leading authority on dolphin training, working on the set of the popular television program Flipper. Day in and day out, O’Barry kept the dolphins working and television audiences smiling. But one day, that all came to a tragic end. THE COVE, directed by Louie Psihoyos, tells the amazing true story of how Psihoyos, O’Barry and an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate a hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The mysteries they uncovered were only the tip of the iceberg.

Learn more @ www.takepart.com/thecove or http://thecovemovie.com/ 

Watch the trailer:

 

Full Synopsis (http://thecovemovie.com/)

The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.” 

But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day -- led O’Barry to a radical change of heart.  One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again.This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast. 

But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality.  It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt.  The nature of what they do is so chilling -- and the consequences are so dangerous to human health -- they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.

Undeterred, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world.  With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit an “Oceans Eleven”-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed. The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.

The Cove is directed by Louie Psihoyos and produced by Paula DuPre Pesman and Fisher Stevens.  The film is written by Mark Monroe.  The executive producer is Jim Clark and the co-producer is Olivia Ahnemann.

"The Inconvenient Truth of our oceans" the indie documentary "The End of The Line"  (various theaters across the US & UK. The End of The Line is the world's first major documentary about the devastating effect of overfishing, which premiered earlier this year to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.

Read the initial press release below:

WORLD’S FIRST MAJOR DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE DEVASTATING EFFECT OF OVERFISHING TO
PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
“THE END OF THE LINE” TO LAUNCH AT 2009 FESTIVAL

Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.
The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of  overfishing on our oceans, will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Sundance takes place in Park City, Utah, January 15- 25, 2009.

Waitt Family Foundation, Marviva and Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation present an Arcane Pictures, Calm Productions, and Dartmouth Films production of The End of the Line, based on the book by Charles Clover. Executive Producers: Christopher Hird and Jess Search; Ted Waitt and Erica Knie. Editor Claire Ferguson. Producers: Claire Lewis and George Duffield. Directed by Rupert Murray.

In The End of the Line, we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food. The film examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the indefatigable investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans. One of his allies is the former tuna farmer turned whistleblower Roberto Mielgo – on the trail of those destroying the world’s magnificent bluefin tuna population. Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the
world.

Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048. The End of the Line chronicles how demand for cod off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1990s led to the decimation of the most abundant cod population in the world, how hi-tech fishing vessels leave no escape routes for fish populations and how farmed fish as a solution is a myth.

The film lays the responsibility squarely on consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally and the global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster.

The End of the Line points to solutions that are simple and doable, but political will and activism are crucial to solve this international problem. We need to control fishing by reducing the number of fishing boats across the world, protect large areas of the ocean through a network of marine reserves off limits to fishing, and educate consumers that they have a choice by purchasing fish from independently certified sustainable fisheries.

The End of the Line premiere at Sundance will also kick-off a global campaign for citizens to demand better marine policies. Leading international environmental organizations are lending their full support to the film. The End of the Line will be released worldwide in 2009 using multiple formats and venues including theaters, broadcast and cable television networks, film festivals, online video campaigns, aquariums, museums and special screenings for environmental and educational organizations.

“There is no better place than Sundance for The End of the Line to have its world premiere,” said the film’s director, Rupert Murray. “Sundance has a long history of making cutting edge, issue-based documentaries matter.” Murray’s first film, “Unknown White Male” premiered at the festival in 2005. “We must stop thinking of our oceans as a food factory and realize that they thrive as a huge and complex marine environment. We must act now to protect the sea from rampant
overfishing so that there will be fish in the sea for our grandchildren and greatgrandchildren,” said the book’s author, Charles Clover

“Overfishing is the great environmental disaster that people haven't heard about,” said producer George Duffield. “Just last week, a global conference about bluefin tuna stocks saw almost no media coverage in the U.S. We hope this film really sounds the alarm. We can fix this problem starting right now.”

“Reading the book The End of the Line changed my life and what I eat. I hope the film will do the same for others,” said producer Claire Lewis.

Film’s Web site: www.endoftheline.com

Watch the trailer

Official Site:  http://endoftheline.com/film/
Official Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjGjEogAze8

How did the polar bear become the rock star of the animal kingdom?
Watch this program online.

Background from CBC:

Question: How did the polar bear become the rock star of the animal kingdom? The answer may be that around the world millions of otherwise ordinary people have developed a serious case of polar bear fever. It afflicts photographers, environmentalists, eco-tourists and ordinary citizens who can’t bear the thought that this magnificent solitary creature may be in trouble.

This the story of a creature that can be considered a treasure, or a trophy. It follows the polar paparazzi as they wait in bone-chilling weather to capture the holy grail of polar bear images - a mother and her cubs emerging from the den. And Polar Bear Fever joins the annual circus that descends on the polar bear capital of the world to watch the celebrities of the animal kingdom in their annual trek to the sea ice.

Read more about this story.

In 1985, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki produced an 8-part series called A Planet for the Taking. The special's message was one of planetary emergency, dealing most prominently with all the things our society was doing wrong with respect to the Earth - toxic waste dumps, deforestation and biodiversity loss, to name just a few.

In The Nature of Things with David Suzuki - Volume 1: Visions of the Future, a just-released DVD box set of the popular show's more recent highlights, the focus is far more concerned with positive prospects for a greener future.

In the Suzuki Diaries, the first of five episodes in the collection, David Suzuki is joined by his youngest daughter Sarika for a cross-Europe tour in search of sustainable communities. The journey sets the stage for the next four episodes, all exploring vital solutions to our environmental woes.

Viewers are taken from geothermal-powered Iceland to tiny Denmark, where a quarter of the nation's energy is harnessed from the wind. The pinnacle of solar energy is showcased in Spain, near the sunny city of Seville. The PS10 solar power tower produces 11 megawatts of electricity using an awesome system of 624 large mirrors, called heliostats, which reflect the sun's rays to a central tower and steam turbine.

In the Build Green episode, innovative techniques for sustainable architecture are featured in the unlikeliest of places, such as Canadian rocker Randy Bachman's rammed earth home on Salt Spring Island.

Not every episode in this collection is hosted by Dr. Suzuki - with notable architectural columnist Christopher Hume standing in for the Living City documentary on sustainability initiatives in Canada's largest communities. But each episode shares a common theme that insists that a 'green economy' is well within our grasp, if we only had the collective will.

Besides the entertaining look at the world's best examples for living sustainability, the DVD offers viewers some hope for the future of this planet. These classic episodes of The Nature of Things prove more than ever that solutions, in fact, are all around us.

For a sneak peek at the collection, view the trailer here.

“You will never look at the dinner the same way again.”

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Source: robertkennerfilms.com

Watch the trailer below:

Take part
Take part is the Participant Media social action web site.
takepart.com/foodinc/

At the end of 2008, CBC televised a fascinating documentary on Germany's maverick renewable energy guru, Herman Scheer, called The Gospel of Green. 

 

To view the show in its entirety, including background and discussions, visit the CBC website at The Gospel of Green. 

 

See below for CBC's full synopsis of the feature documentary:

 

In the face of dire predictions, rhetoric and warnings about the planet's environmental crisis, one man stands alone as a revolutionary who is transforming the country. And it's likely you've never heard his name.

 

Hermann Scheer is a German parliamentarian who has turned ideas into practical solutions. Because of the laws that bear his name, Germany is now a solar-paneled, windmill-building, job-producing green powerhouse of the industrialized world. Fifteen per cent of Germany's electricity now comes from renewable energy systems. Scheer predicts that, if his country continues on this course, that number could be 100 per cent by 2030.

 

In The Gospel of Green, the fifth estate's Bob McKeown travels to Germany to meet Scheer and find out how this green miracle has been accomplished. What he finds is a man with an evangelist's fervour and economist's drive for practical applications. It was Germany's renewable energy act -- now known as Scheer's Law -- that launched the country as a world leader in green power.

 

He first proved it could work, ten years ago, when he promised to install solar panels on 100,000 homes, offering contracts that paid a premium to the homeowner for the electricity produced by the panels.  Even Greenpeace thought that too ambitious, but Scheer finished the project a year early.

 

In the course of the documentary, you'll also meet a young Ontario manufacturer of solar panels whose business was days away from closing when he received a call from, who else, German authorities offering him tens of millions of dollars to move to Germany and build a factory there which he has done successfully.

 

The Gospel of Green then turns to Canada and asks: if one man can transform a country whose economy is so similar to that of Ontario, why can't, and why isn't, that province embracing Scheer's gospel of green? The fifth estate's investigation shows that after initially embracing the philosophy of renewable energies, the pace of change has faltered. The answer to why may lie in the power of Ontario's traditional energy giants.

 

Watch the entire film - runtime 88 min.