Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough
David Attenborough brings to life, in unprecedented detail, the last days of the dinosaurs. Palaeontologist Robert DePalma has made an incredible discovery in a prehistoric graveyard: fossilised creatures, astonishingly well preserved, that could help change our understanding of the last days of the dinosaurs. Evidence from his site records the day when an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest devastated our planet and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Based on brand new evidence, witness the catastrophic events of that day play out minute by minute.
Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature
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.
Carnifex
An aspiring documentarian and two conservationists who venture into the Outback to record the animals displaced by bushfires where they discover a terrifying new species.
Woodpecker
Fanatical birdwatchers have descended upon a small town in the Arkansas bayou in hopes of finding the celebrated Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Declared extinct in the 1940’s, the bird has apparently been spotted by numerous experts. Enter amateur birder and poet Johnny Neander, who has convinced his taciturn sidekick that he will be the one to find the elusive woodpecker. The ensuing chaos divides the small town between believers and non-believers, rabid environmentalists and opportunistic entrepreneurs. Much like the bird itself, Woodpecker explores the intersection of fact and fiction, manipulating our notions of documentary and narrative techniques within a tragic comedy about hope, perception, and some very very strange birds.
Lonesome George and the Battle for Galapagos
A documentary about the last remaining member of the Pinta Island tortoise species, affectionately known as Lonesome George. The imminent death of George and consequent extinction of his race highlighted the impact of human activity on his home ecosystem - the natural paradise of the Galapagos Islands - and fuelled a movement by the local people to conserve their unique wildlife.
Thylacine Film
The original film of the Tasmanian tiger (also known as the thylacine) was shot by Australian zoologist David Fleay in 1933 on black-and-white film. Recently, this historic footage has been colorized and digitized by a team of international experts. You can watch the remastered footage of the last-known surviving Tasmanian tiger here. The thylacine, which resembled a medium-to-large-sized canid, had dark transverse stripes radiating from the top of its back. Sadly, the last known thylacine died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
The Last of the Curlews
After being hunted to near-extinction, the last male Eskimo curlew searches for a mate while making the annual migration from the arctic tundra to the nesting grounds in Argentina.
Death Sardine
A scientist's attempt to resurrect the megalodon goes horribly wrong.
Birds of America
In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.
Glorious Bustards
Tasmanian Tiger in Colour
Original 35mm nitrate negative film shot by naturalist David Fleay at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart in December 1933. Colorized by Samuel François-Steininger at the Paris-based, Composite Films, from a 4K scan of the negative by the National Film and Sound Archive Australia.
From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction
The passenger pigeon, the most abundant bird species in North America for thousands of years, became extinct by human hands in a geologic heartbeat. Its story remains relevant to conservation challenges today, and there are even plans for its possible revival. Rare archival material, CGI animation, and aerial cinematography combine to recreate the awe-inspiring nature of these birds.
Kifaru
Journeying beyond the global headlines around 'Sudan,' the last male northern white rhino in existence, and explore the painful emptiness of extinction through the eyes of Sudan's three primary caregivers. Teetering on borrowed time and with his health in decline, Sudan's looming death and the uncertainty of employment that it will bring hangs over the heads of our three dynamic characters. Their only hope to save the species that they love - and perhaps their livelihood - rests fully in the success of a last resort IVF experiment.
American Grail: A Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
The siren call of the ivory-billed woodpecker lures a New York based tantra and sex educator into the swamps of the American South on a 17-year journey to prove the iconic bird still exists. Along the way, he finds a tendril of hope in the face of climate change.
Woolly Mammoth: The Autopsy
Can cloning bring mammoths back from extinction? This documentary follows a team of mammoth specialists and cloning scientists as they dissect the best-preserved mammoth ever found.
Extinct or Alive: The Tasmanian Tiger
A trio of experts venture into Tasmania's undeveloped wilderness in search of the Tasmanian Tiger, one of the most terrifying predators ever to walk the earth.
The Mystery of the Giant Birds
Journey to far-flung islands off Africa, South America, Australia and Oceania for a look at the bird species that lived alongside our ancestors.
The Great Auk
Combining live action photography and actors with hand-drawn animation, an epic retelling of how the Great Auk was driven to extinction through the exploitation and often absurd cruelty of human beings.
The Mammoth. Titan of the Ice Age
Vanished Creatures: The Birds
Imagine a flightless bird weighing in at over 1,000 pounds. Envision another flightless bird standing taller than 13 feet. Each of these creatures flourished in our recent past, but have all now vanished into extinction. The single thread connecting each bird species, is their having fallen victim to the hands of human cruelty and greed. This one-hour documentary takes a stark look at humankind s embarrassing past, and the resulting implications for a humanity left unchecked.