Our planet is one in a billion. How incredible, awe-inspiring life is driven by its natural forces - and how we can ensure humans become a force for good. David Attenborough narrates a series revealing how the forces of nature drive, shape and support the Earth's great diversity of life. The first edition examines volcanoes, which responsible for both for the planet's breathable atmosphere and the oceans, but are also the architects of the planet, with over 80% of the Earth's surface being the result of magma bursting up from the molten interior - providing a platform for life.
The film intends to illustrate the birth and death of an undiscovered universe, with powerful images, from the Big Bang to the Mesozoic era and through the present and beyond. Based on a project conceived decades ago, the documentary is highly experimental and perhaps Terrence Malick's most ambitious film, described by the director himself as 'one of my greatest dreams.'
With unprecedented access, the film goes deep inside a Zen Buddhist community who have given up all their possessions and signed up to a life of chastity for one common purpose - to transform their suffering, and practice the art of mindfulness with the world-famous teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Filmed over three years, in their monastery in rural France and on the road in the USA, this visceral film is a meditation on a community grappling with existential questions and the everyday routine of monastic life. As the seasons come and go, the monastics' pursuit for a deeper connection to themselves and the world around them is amplified by insights from Thich Nhat Hanh's early journals, narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.
From the makers of Walking With Dinosaurs comes an epic and entertaining new exploration of early life on Earth, revealing that before the age dinosaurs, a succession of fantastical animals and plants ruled the planet. A time when a two-ton predatory fish came on land to hunt, when four-metre sea scorpions sliced sushi in the shallows and when just one species of lumbering reptile represented 80 per cent of all life. For the first time, this special two-hour presentation uncovers and recreates these creatures and the bizarre world they inhabited.
A wholly innovative, original, and vital history lesson, with pioneering animation, Waltz With Bashir delivers its message about the Middle East in a mesmerizing fashion. Director Ari Folman's animated quasi-documentary follows the filmmaker's emotional attempt to decipher the horrors that unfolded one night in September of 1982, when Christian militia members massacred more than 3,000 Palestinian refugees in the heart of Beirut as Israeli soldiers surrounded the area". Folman was one of those soldiers, but nearly 20 years after the fact, his memories of that night remain particularly hazy. After hearing an old friend recall a vivid nightmare in which he is pursued by 26 ferocious dogs, Folman and his friend conclude that the dream must somehow relate to that fateful mission during the first Lebanon War. When Folman realizes that his recollections regarding that period in his life seem to have somehow been wiped clean, he travels the world to interview old friends and fellow soldiers from the war. Later, as Folman's memory begins to emerge in a series of surreal images, he begins to uncover a truth about himself that will haunt him for the rest of his days.
Washington, D.C. is in many ways a city of extremes. Starland Vocal Band, Marvin Gaye, Duke Ellington, Nils Lofgren, Chuck Brown, Henry Rollins, Fugazi and Trouble Funk all hail from D.C. In the early '70s, the music style go-go originated here, and has remained a local craze ever since. Dave Grohl sits down with Trouble Funk's Big Tony Fisher to talk about go-go, and explores its origins with Chuck Brown, the genre's undisputed godfather. He also chats with Don Zientara, owner of Inner Ear Studios, which the Virginia-raised Grohl says 'produced the entire soundtrack of my youth,' as well as with members of the harDCore band Bad Brains and Ian MacKaye of Teen Idles, Minor Threat and Fugazi, who all recorded at Inner Ear over the decades. The song 'The Feast and the Famine' is recorded during this episode.
The first edition examines volcanoes, which responsible for both for the planet's breathable atmosphere and the oceans, but are also the architects of the planet, with over 80% of the Earth's surface being the result of magma bursting up from the molten interior - providing a platform for life.