The Lost Salmon

Before the Flood

October 2016 •English

A look at how climate change affects our environment and what society can do to prevent the demise of endangered species, ecosystems, and native communities across the planet.

Gambling on Extinction

March 2015 •English

Today, only 3,200 tigers roam in the wild. At the current rate of poaching, elephants, rhinos and tigers living in the wild will be extinct in our lifetime. Who are the global players in this deadly game of power, greed and profit? Who pulls the strings and who are the customers? And why have ivory and rhino horn become perfect investment opportunities?

Fish: Farming in Troubled Waters

February 2014 •English

Fish are an important part of the ecosystem and the human diet. Unfortunately, overfishing has depleted many fish stocks, and the proposed solution — fish farming — is creating far more problems than it solves. Not only are fish farms polluting the aquatic environment and spreading disease to wild fish, farmed fish are also an inferior food source, in part by providing fewer healthy nutrients; and in part by containing more toxins, which readily accumulate in fat. Farmed Salmon = Most Toxic Food in the World Salmon is perhaps the most prominent example of how fish farming has led us astray. Food testing reveals farmed salmon is one of the most toxic foods in the world, having more in common with junk food than health food.1 Studies highlighting the seriousness of the problem

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature

June 1997 •English

Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.

Big Data, Big Brother

November 2020 •French

The story of the cross destiny of George Orwell (1903-50) and Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), the genius authors of the two most groundbreaking novels of anticipation of the 20th century: 1984 and Brave New World; two lucid witnesses of the maledictions of the modern world whose novels have found a considerable echo with our time.

Alaska's Giant Bears

January 2023 •German

Europas Paradiese

November 1973 •German

Eugen Schuhmacher focuses on endangered and rare animal species such as the European bison and the Northern bald ibis as well as the general fauna of the diverse and species-rich continent of Europe. The need to protect nature and animals is made impressively clear through the power of images.

Human Nature

March 2019 •English

The biggest tech revolution of the 21st century isn’t digital, it’s biological. A breakthrough called CRISPR gives us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing disease, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. This documentary is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the genetic engineers who are testing its limits.

Le pari

January 2023 •French

During a long conversation between two friends, a bet is made. To direct a wildlife documentary, in the french mountains, in only one year, about rare and threatened birds.

Fishing Feats

December 1951 •English

With Pete Smith providing dry off-screen commentary, we watch some serious fishing: a marlin caught near Catalina, a hammerhead shark caught then wrestled in a small rowboat near Baja, the largest (721 pounds) great white shark caught to date in California waters, Chinook Indians catching salmon at Celilo Falls in Oregon - each with his designated place on the river where his ancestors stood, and, last, a crew on a boat off Mexico hoisting and hurling tuna using unbarbed hooks (baited only with a feather) as fast as they can as long as the school is there - backbreaking work - but a $25,000 catch.

Piblokto

March 2023 •Russian

On the coast of the Arctic Ocean of Chukotka live people cut off from the world. Their life revolves around hunting walruses and whales and protecting villages from bears coming from the tundra. This turns the film into a reflection on death. Marine animals become the food of people, animal leftovers are used to feed arctic foxes on a fur farm, human cemeteries become prey for bears. It seems that all the inhabitants of these places are involved in the cycle of food and death. The film departs from the usual rhythmic structure of cinema, being built on the principle of a shamanic ritual, a meaning-forming event for northern peoples.

Frogs: The Thin Green Line

April 2009 •English

An examination of the extinction threat faced by frogs, which have hopped on Earth for some 250 million years and are a crucial cog in the ecosystem. Scientists believe they've pinpointed a cause for the loss of many of the amphibians: the chytrid fungus, which flourishes in high altitudes. Unfortunately, they don't know how to combat it. Included: an isolated forest in Panama that has yet to be touched by the fungus, thus enabling frogs to live and thrive as they have for eons.

Quoll Farm

February 2021 •English

This is the story of a charismatic family of endangered animals and one man’s extraordinary devotion. It unfolds in a distant wilderness, in a land forgotten by time. But change is coming. In less than a year, this magical place, along with those who live here, may be lost forever. Welcome to Quoll Farm.

Pocket Desert: Confessions of a Snake Killer

January 1999 •English

This personal documentary is the story of Teresa Marshall, who grew up on a British Columbia ranch. Every child needs a demon, and Teresa took battle against rattlesnakes. In the dry interior of B.C., the south Okanagan and Similkameen valleys form the bio-region known as Canada's "pocket desert." As settlers' dreams of creating an agricultural Eden erase fragile desert lands that support a breathtaking array of wild species, the narrator and her snake-hunting neighbours are forced to examine their environmental attitudes.

The Great Buffalo Saga

August 1985 •English

By the late 1800s the free-ranging buffalo of the western plains of North America were almost extinct. This documentary is the story of the buffalo's revival. Live action, eye-witness accounts and archival photos document our fascination with this ancient and legendary animal.

Artifishal

May 2019 •English

Narratives of ecologists and conservationists are pitted against the human tendency to engineer and control in this probing documentary on the lucrative salmon-hatchery industry.

Africa, GMOs and Bill Gates

June 2022 •French

The philanthropic foundation set up by US billionaire Bill Gates quietly co-finances experiments with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in several African countries. In the age of philanthropic capitalism, billionaires "save the world" and make money in the process. But who is helped the most, ordinary Africans or the food industry?

The Food Cycle and Food Chains

January 1963 •English

Uses animation and live action photography to describe good food chains, almost all depending ultimately on green plants, and relates these food chains to the larger concepts of the oxygen-carbon dioxide and the nitrogen cycles, and to the unending pattern of life, growth, and decay which is known as the food cycle.

The Power of One

Invalid date •English

Naturalist, Alex Valdez, and a team of young documentary filmmakers will take us on an adventure to discover an unknown ecological sanctuary deep in the jungles of Colombia, where an anonymous conservationist, who goes simply by the name Jorge, is replanting a rain forest from a deforested piece of land and creating a home for a variety of endangered animals. This film is the first step in our mission to showcase the hundreds of unknown conservationists around the globe and inspire a whole generation to believe in the power of one.

Where the Bay Becomes the Sea

December 1985 •English

This is a documentary about the fragile and complex marine ecosystem in the Bay of Fundy. The film traces relationships within the food chain - from tiny plankton to birds and seals and finally to whales and humans. The film is a plea for careful management of our ocean resource and was first telecast as part of CBC's Nature of Things series.