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If a Tree Falls: The Mozambican Forest at Risk – Mike & Sam Goldwater (2010)

February 25, 2016 at 10:42 am / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

“If a Tree Falls: The Mozambican forest at risk” is a documentary film produced and directed by Mike and Sam Goldwater. The project was commissioned by IIED – the International Institute for Environment and Development exploring the validity and application of the United Nations Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries abbreviated as REDD. The documentary was shot in the Northern Mozambican province of Nampula. The film portrays an example for the tragedy of […]

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Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) – Biosphere 2

December 29, 2015 at 11:24 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett- Biosphere 2 started as quite an ambitious challenge. It crammed five biomes into 3 acres of sealed facility and tried to create a mesocosm experiment. It was a “ship-in-a-bottle” style miniaturization of ecosystems; a tiny little man-made Hawaii in the Arizona desert (Hawaii is the only place on our planet where all biomes of the world, excepting Arctic Tundra exist). Biomes of the Biosphere 2 were […]

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Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life (1924)

November 19, 2015 at 12:13 pm / Human Nature, Technical Notes, Video

Filmed on location between Turkey and Iran, Grass is an amazing first ethnographical account of nomadic Bakhtiyari people. The subjects of this film later also were revisited by landmark documentaries like the “Harvest of the Seasons” episode of the Charles Bronowski’s Ascent of Man series in 1973. Similarly, Akira Kurosawa’s 1975 film Dersu Uzala, centered around an aboriginal Nanai tribesman and Werner Herzog’s Happy People (2013) are productions in this tradition. The film is contemporary to Robert Flaherty’s Flaherty’s Nanook […]

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A Tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau: Cries from the Deep (1981)

November 10, 2015 at 12:42 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Natural history, Video

Ever since the publication of his first book titled “The Silent World” in 1953 Jacques Yves Cousteau has generated multiple waves of inspiration worldwide. A documentary produced under the same title won the prestigious Palm d’Or award at Cannes Film Festival in 1956. This is a rare achievement among nature documentaries. Cousteau’s second big hit arrived in 1965 with another production titled World Without Sun documenting activities of six crew members living in Continental Shelf Station II at 10m depth […]

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Leonardo Da Vinci the Anatomist – Nature Video

October 27, 2015 at 7:47 pm / Human Nature, Video

Leonardo da Vinci transformed natural sciences by his careful observations, experiments and illustrations. He distinguished himself in the harsh world of the Medici ruled 16th Century Florence in the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople. In this video by Nature Magazine, Senior Curator Martin Clayton exlains three of Leonardo’s most intriguing anatomical studies. Today, Leonardo’s drawings kept in solander boxes in the Print Room in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. A selection of his drawings is on display in […]

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Secrets of the Hive – Why Puerto Rico’s Killer Bees Stopped Killing – Smithsonian Institution (2015)

October 27, 2015 at 1:04 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Human Nature, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Secrets of the Hive is a Smithsonian Institution documentary directed by Dennis Wells. It focuses on the decline of the honeybees and reviews potential solutions to restore pollination service provided by these important domesticated insects. A major emphasis of the documentary is on the Africanized honeybees. These bees are a result of a failed experiment that started with good intentions in Brazil. Researchers in 1950s wanted to introduce the genetic vigor lost in honeybees due to domestication. Trials to selectively […]

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Before Mars – Novo Mundo (Episode I) – National Geographic (2016)

June 14, 2015 at 9:40 am / Human Nature, Video

A defining feature of Human nature is exploration. We are hard wired with curiosity. It instinctively drives us to wonder what is behind the next hill. On planetary scale the Moon and the Mars are the nearest objects of interest in this endeavor. In this half-dramatized docu-feature film the National Geographic is aiming to inspire explorers that will colonize Mars. The mini-series takes place both in the future and in the present day. Episodes include interviews with influential people in […]

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The Antikythera Mechanism: The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer – Mike Beckham (2012)

March 21, 2015 at 7:51 pm / BBC documentaries, Human Nature, Video

Antikythera Mechanism is one of the best demonstrations of human intellect attempting to understand nature systematically. The contraption is most certainly a very complex device. It is an impressively accurate “analog model” of our then earth-centric universe. Science gives us prediction power and Antikythera Mechanism is an excellent example for how astronomical observations can be defined mathematically to reconcile lunar and solar calendars and predict eclipses with hourly accuracy using 27 gear pieces. It uses the Metonic Cyle first implemented […]

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Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle – Episode 1: One Small Step For Man (2009)

February 12, 2015 at 12:39 am / Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Beagle: In Darwin’s Wake is a commemoration of 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s book “On The Origin of Species”. Almost 180 years after Charles Darwin’s journey circumnavigating the world, a crew of authors, artists, and scientists follow in his footsteps. Journalist and presenter Lex Runderkamp, biologists Dirk Draulans and Sarah Darwin (who is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin), the artist Anthony Smith and the writer Redmond O’Hanlon are accompanied by a number of invited guests whose backgrounds are […]

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Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle – Episode 2: Low Life on the Ladder of God (2009)

February 12, 2015 at 12:37 am / Evolution, Human Nature, Natural history, Video

When Darwin set foot in Rio de Janerio he witnessed the brutality of slavery. Brazil is a melting pot of genetic diversity. All fossil and genetic evidence points that Africa is the home continent where modern Humans originated about 200 thousand years ago. As Humans spread and colonized new continents genetic diversity eroded gradually proportional to the distance away from Africa. Loss of genetic diversity was because of joint effects of two well understood genetic phenomena known as population bottleneck […]

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Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle – Episode 3: The Last Frontier (2009)

February 12, 2015 at 12:34 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Fish are cold blooded animals and this property make them very efficient in terms of biomass accumulation. For this reason ecological trophic levels in aquatic systems can be much higher than terrestrial systems. The documentary film The End of the Line by Charles Clover mentioned in this episode draws attention to the problem of overfishing. About 400 million years ago, the Falkland Islands were part of the supercontinent of Gondwana, located between southern Africa and what is now Queen Maud […]

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Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle – Episode 4: The Final Countdown (2009)

February 12, 2015 at 12:31 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

“In the wake of Beagle” series brings back the adventure/science mix documentary programs reminiscent of those of Cousteau. Expeditions carried out on a ship and underwater filming was a signature in Cousteau’s filmmaking. This episode prepares the audience for the next episode filmed in the Galapagos Islands. Darwin developed his insight towards evolving species in that volcanic archipelago. Galapagos islands are largely affected by long-term seasonal fluctuations that known as El Nino/La Nina cycle. A few events Darwin witnessed in […]

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Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle – Episode 6: Toolbox of Survival (2009)

February 12, 2015 at 12:12 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

In Australia the arrival of Europeans profoundly effected the biology of the continent through introduction of non-native species that are reproducing and invading at an unprecedented rate. Australian biologists call it “extinction calamity” since the continent has lost one in ten of its native mammals species in the past 200 years. The effects of climate change is also evident with severe droughts and wild fires. A large fraction of Australian vegetation is serotinous that is adapted to disperse their seeds […]

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Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle – Episode 7: Adapt or Die! (2009)

February 12, 2015 at 12:09 am / Evolution, Human Nature, Molecular Nature, Video

In this leg of the journey in Australia the theme “On the Future of Species” dominates the episode. Darwin absolutely had no clue on how genetic information from parents were transmitted to the offspring and he was perfectly aware of his situation. On the other hand, while he was writing his book battling with hereditary questions, an Augustinian friar with a scientific mind was carrying out his experimental crosses in a monastery which was going to lay the foundations of […]

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Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle – Episode 8: The Ruins of Progress (2009)

February 12, 2015 at 12:07 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

In this last episode of the series the crew of Stad Amsterdam visits Mauritius island before making a final stop in South Africa where the journey of modern Human ancestors began 200 thousand years ago. San culture in South Africa is the most ancestral Human population finding Like many island ecosystems Mauritius has been impacted by introduced species such as macaques. Species evolved on island systems are more prone to extinction. The flightless bird the Dodo is the icon of […]

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