PROGRAM | BRATISLAVA

Costa Rica’s coastline and the sea that bathes it are as sought after as the unbounded nature inland. Local beaches are attractive for their natural beauty, as well as for the miracle of creation. Evidence of Mother Nature’s – or in this case, the god Siba’s – boundless fantasies is the Osa peninsula. Long ago it was an island, and it seems as if the virgin rainforest grows directly from the ebb and flow of the tide… The exceptional number of local ecosystems makes it possible for new plant and animal species to continue to emerge even today, some of which exist nowhere else on Earth.

First the insects die, then the birds and then the humans. In parts of Central Europe, as many as 70 percent of all insects are extinct and even the birds are less. In China there are no more insects in some places and humans have to pollinate the plants. The authors show a variety of causes and offer solutions. In the course of their research, they encounter a country that still has an intact nature in large parts: Romania. A paradise for birds and insects. But the economic expansion of the EU could soon have unforeseeable consequences...

Four friends are heading into the Amazonian jungle for a challenging journey. They paddle down the wild rivers and hike through deep forests to become a part of the Indian Hodi tribe. The mysterious Sierra Maigualida Mountains, which haven´t been crossed by any European human being ever before, hides them from the surrounding world. Living side by side with Indians in their natural way of life and spending many days in their village show them how to respect the nature and its balance. Indian tribe Hodi represents the opposite of our western culture. It is their pleasure from the simple things and happiness from life versus our never- ending urge and desire to buy and possess.

As the population grows and the pressure to provide cheap food increases, there has been a drive towards relentless productivity and industrialized farming. Animal cruelty, major health issues and environmental damage are inevitable consequences. But are there alternatives? We go on a journey to the United States, Portugal, France, Sweden and Germany to reveal the worst excesses of industrial farming and positive examples of women and men who use farming methods that work in harmony with nature and animals. This film offers an alternative sustainable vision for the future of meat consumption.

At the very northern edge of Canada is Ellesmere Island, where the unforgiving Arctic winds tear through the tundra, dipping temperatures to 40 below zero. Running through this shifting sea of snow and ice is one of the most hardened predators on the planet, the Arctic Wolf. But as the spring melt approaches, these roaming hunters must adapt to being tethered parents as new additions to the pack have just been born. With never before-seen footage of wolf family life, Ghosts of the Arctic is a dramatic and touching story of loyalty, companionship and devotion. It’s an epic true tale that reveals the struggles and triumphs of a family working to survive in one of the last great wildernesses on Earth.

Austria’s love affair with water has given her unique and amazing landscapes and biospheres, carved out by Alpine glaciers, ancient seas and mighty rivers, home to iconic animals like eagles, wild boar, ibex and deer. The documentary melds overwhelming spectacle with miniature high drama in a portrait of a country where water in all its forms brings beauty – and life. Water is the basis of all life. And it is surely Austria’s greatest treasure.

The Arctic ice is retreating due to climate change. The region’s once inaccessible raw materials have caught the attention of major world powers. And the tourism industry has also discovered the Arctic for their interests. More and more further north, the cruise ships come to previously untouched regions.

On the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe, vulcanism has many faces. Almost every one of the deeply incised valleys is home to species of animals, which exist only here. Because of these special conditions special behavioral forms could also arise. The sperm whales of Dominica eat smaller squid than elsewhere, dive much more often per day and live differently than their fellow-species in direct coastal proximity. But their population is shrinking seemingly unstoppable. If the development is not stopped, there will probably be no sperm whale in 2030.

Founded in the fifth century, Venice is built across around 100 islands linked by canals and more than 300 bridges. The city floods increasingly often. Like a journey back in time, this documentary goes from the city’s foundations to the Venice we know today. Historians, architects, engineers and residents share their love for this unique city, which they are trying to save from the waters through a very ambitious project (MOSE) on an unprecedented scale.

A passionate conservation biologist brings together a river bushman fearful of losing his past and a young scientist uncertain of her future on an epic, four-month expedition across three countries, through unexplored and dangerous landscapes, in order to save the Okavango Delta, one of our planet's last pristine wildernesses.

Over 30 species of whales and dolphins, one-third of all species, have been recorded in Taiwan. Some of these cetaceans migrate like birds and others stay year-round. Some dolphins’ preference for coastal habitats put them in historical conflict with mankind. How have the three representative dolphins of Taiwan fared? This film follows three cetacean researchers as they work to answer this question.

Burkinabè Bounty chronicles agricultural resistance and the fight for food sovereignty in Burkina Faso—a small, landlocked country in West Africa. Showcasing activist farmers, students, artists, and leaders in the local Slow Food movement, the film looks at how the Burkinabè people are reclaiming their land and defending their traditions against the encroachment of corporate agriculture. The film shows the creative tactics people are using to take back control of their food, seeds, and future.

(SLOVAK ONLY)

To stop the jungle dying, 25 years ago, an international organization was founded, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an association for the certification of sustainable forestry. The FSC seal should show that furniture, paper, decking, flooring etc. were made of "environmentally friendly" logged wood. But what is the ecological benefit of 25 years of FSC?. This investigative film reveals the links between FSC, illegal logging and the expulsion of indigenous people living in the forests.

Birds of the Lakes Return is a film showing how birds returned to an environment once devastated by industry. The author unveils astonishing details from the lives of birds. Some of them live in the vicinity of the people but are hardly ever spotted. The film also shows how the industry nowadays coexists with this vibrant life. Birds of the Lakes Return is an excellent display of how a man can transform a once devastated natural area into a much friendlier environment.

Surrounded by mighty glaciers and fortress-like granite peaks, battered by Antarctic winds and icy rain, a female puma tries to raise its family and tracks its prey across the rugged landscape of Patagonia. Whereas in the Valdivian rainforest Darwin beetles fight for a mate. Constant upheaval and explosive change tests life in the Southern Andes at any moment. It is even more astonishing then, that there exist trees here, that outlasted the dinosaurs and are even older than the mountains themselves.

(SLOVAK ONLY)

A one of a kind documentary Oymyakon tells the story of the people from an isolated village located deep in the Northern Siberian taiga, known as the Pole of Cold. Witness a day in the life of the citizens of the coldest inhabited place on Earth and discover the challenges they face in this inhospitable landscape where the lowest ever recorded temperature stands at -71.2°C (-95.8°F).

Termites - for somebody exotic crap, for others, the pests that are causing tremendous economic damage. The film attempts to show them differently: as a force that significantly influences the ecosystem of our entire planet, and also as an object of intense scientific research that reveals their fascinating life and extraordinary adaptation.

The Last Guardians is a documentary made alongside the indigenous Sàpara and Kichwa communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Bringing exposure to the threats they are facing from the oil industry, the film also sheds light on their philosophy and way of life, illustrating what the world stands to lose if their rights are not respected. Now, more than ever, the global community can learn from indigenous knowledge and wisdom in its battle to conserve the planet. Becoming, once more, guardians of the land, which gives us life.

4 young filmmakers document their journey through the changing world of plastic pollution and see what can happen when masses of people become aware of an environmental catastrophe - and demand change.

Dragonflies are the sentinels of the Earth. Being among the oldest creatures on our planet, they have lived in harmony with the indigenous plants and animals of Earth’s bountiful landscapes for 300 million years. We came, we conquered and we evicted them from their habitats. South Africa’s scientists and industries are working to bring them back into our world through a creative system of connected corridors, known as Ecological Networks.

The Arctic fox, the only autochthonous land mammal in Iceland, is one of the species that has been able to adapt to the hard living conditions on this island. A territory that was born from the fire in the heart of the Earth where life has sprouted in the most astonishing way. The fox will guide us through the island’s great biodiversity, which includes puffins, Arctic terns, eiders, fulmars, black geese, seals, whales, guillemots or razorbills.

Meet the researchers who uncovered the cheat devise and investigate the dangers posed by NOx emissions. We meet a team of researchers from MIT who say there have been 4000 premature deaths across Europe due to NOx excessive emissions due to diesel cars marketed as ‘clean’. Thirty people in France are now taking the state to court for not protecting them. Recently in Europe all 27 member states voted to increase the allowed standard for NOx emissions to more than double.

Production at Russia’s enormous Bovanenkovo natural gas field began in 2012. Bovanenkovo is located on the Yamal Peninsula, a remote area of Siberia where temperatures in winter sink below minus 50. But gas production facilities obstruct the historical migration routes of the Nenets people, indigenous reindeer herders, who have to pass through sprawling industrial zones to reach their summer pastures. The intrusion of modernity means the nomadic herders are facing a stark choice: to try and save their unique lifestyle or assimilate with the new reality. Squeezed between the past and the future, this is a story about a people bound to the land and their struggle to endure.

Hidden from sight is the Kingdom of Fungi that rules life on land. It’s an alien world with the largest and oldest organisms alive today. It was fungi that made life possible on a barren planet and it was fungi that brought life back to Earth after the last mass extinction event. By looking at fungi in the context of evolution and natural history, scientists are making discoveries that will change our lives. Some fungi will save us, others will threaten us and we are just beginning to understand which is which.

Following the deaths of his father and many others from his village, filmmaker Daniel Lambo sets off on a passionate quest to find the truth about the deadly asbestos industry. His search takes him to the largest asbestos waste dump in India and unveils a cold-blooded industry still endangering the lives of workers and consumers around the world. A gripping story on the fight of individuals against a booming asbestos industry.

Man is a good observer. Harvesting honey from wild bees, man observed their lives as well. In the course of time, man came to realize when he respects the bees, he will be able to return to their nests and collect the honey regularly. However, man did not manage to tame them, he learned to make the most of them. Our society seeks globalization - that is to say, global prosperity, but there are so many conflicting of interests threatening the balance of life - respecting the needs of every living organism. No one should live at the expense of the other without respecting the needs.

This is the incredible story of a tree that has been around for eight hundred years… that can withstand the harshest conditions… and that is more loved by insects, birds and animals than any other… the enormous Baobab. Rooted on the savannah of Malilangwe Game Reserve in southern Zimbabwe. Baobabs are trees that can withstand extreme drought by storing water in their trunks. This makes them a valuable commodity for elephants during the drier seasons. But today, livestock threatens Baobabs.

Citarum River, Indonesia, is the world’s most polluted river. One of the main polluters is actually the fashion industry: 500 textile factories throw away their wastewater directly into the Citarum river. Thanks to the help of concerned citizens, the Green Warriors team analyzed water samples, rice, children’s hair, etc. and found out many toxic chemicals are endangering the lives of the 14 million Indonesians using the Citarum water. These findings made the Indonesian government change its wastewater regulations. The president also recently announced a new plan to clean up the Citarum. The fashion brands questioned in this documentary promised a better control of their Indonesian suppliers.

In the documentary UseLess, we try to find out why food and fashion waste has become a pressing social and environmental problem and what we can do to change it. The documentary is seen through the eyes of a young Icelandic mother who is trying to understand the issues and change her ways. Interviews with experts, designers, activists and producers shed light on the problem as well as offer many solutions to the audience. Even small adjustments to our habits can generate a great impact for our planet.

Before the Plate is a feature length documentary that follows a single plate of food backwards to the farms its ingredients came from, upsetting modern myths about farming and revealing the challenges the industry faces as it moves forwards. Starring John Horne, executive chef of the downtown Toronto restaurant Canoe, Before the Plate showcases 10 ingredients from planting to cooking (and every step in between) to help better connect the modern consumer with their food.

The Balkans cradles Europe's last wild rivers and supports abundant wildlife and healthy, intact ecosystems. These rivers are The Undamaged – clean, pristine, and undammed. With over 2,700 small and large hydro power plants planned or under construction in the Balkans, corruption and greed are destroying the last free-flowing rivers of Europe. Follow the Balkan Rivers Tour, a crew of whitewater kayakers, filmmakers, photographers and friends who decided to stand up for the rivers, traveling from Slovenia to Albania for 36 days, kayaking 23 rivers in 6 countries to protest the dams and show the world the secret, wild rivers of the Balkans.

Activist is a modern Jeanne d'Arc story in which a determined teenager from Finnish Lapland commences a battle against one of the world's biggest mining companies. She fights for the future of her home village and for outstanding mire protected by European Union's nature program. Riikka Karppinen was a 15-year-old schoolgirl when Anglo American, an international mining giant, found nickel and copper deposits under her home village in northern Finland, 120 kilometres north of the Polar Circle. The discovery was described as the most significant of the century.

Imagine a world, where garbage bins are filled with flowers. A world without waste. Dumpster divers explores how far this vision is from our everyday life. The film portrays the range from institutional waste management, waste separation, recycling, to NGO's and individuals who are striving to prevent waste in the first place. In a mix of creative documentary and animation Dumpster divers questions our own role and responsibility for a sustainable life style.

Air pollution is responsible for an estimated 50,000 premature deaths annually in Poland. On January 9, 2017, Warsaw’s air quality measured worse than any major city in the world, sparking a national conversation about how to fight smog. Featuring interviews with people from across all levels of Polish society, the film shows how air pollution can have a severe impact on a major European capital city in the year 2018 - and how solving the problem is much easier said than done.

As soon as the days get cold and dark insects begin to disappear from the meadows and fields. All animals have their special ways to survive winter. Migrating birds like swallows and cranes fly towards south, a lot of mammals like deer get a thick winter fur or hide away and sleep where it’s warm. But what do insects do? And why are they all back in spring? In extravagant nature shots the different and most fascinating strategies will be revealed.

The small Indian state of Sikkim dares to do a unique experiment: agriculture without pesticides or artificial fertilizers, 100 % organic. In Germany, like in many other countries, organic farming doesn't gain momentum. Why is that? Could Sikkim be a role model for us?

(SLOVAK ONLY)

In recent years, the inhabitants of Elalab have been embroiled in an uphill battle against rising sea levels. Elalab is a small village on the Northern coast of Guinea-Bissau with only 435 inhabitants. Zé is one of the oldest men in the community. The question that no one can answer and that seems to be going through everyone’s mind is: “Why is this happening?” The inhabitants of Elalab don’t know what global warming is, they haven’t even ever heard the term, but they describe all its effects, against which they are forced to fight, with upsetting accuracy.

A story as exciting as a crime novel: This investigative documentary shows how the oil industry secretly has been financing scientific studies, launching false media reports and has systematically been deceiving the public about the consequences of climate change - since 1946.

Surinam, South America. The under-forest beauty equals the superb littoral, and the laid back style of life gives the region a very cinematographic touch. A paradise? Not for the sloth, one of its first inhabitants, who hardly survives in a context of deforestation and lost of its last territory. The film portrays the action of Monique Pool, nicknamed "Lady Sloth" who is fighting days after days for the survival of this species, qualified by the IUCN as one of the most threatened in the world.

Murder on the Reef follows the hotly debated issues surrounding the world’s largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef. But is it too late? Many scientists now believe as much as fifty percent of the corals in the Great Barrier Reef have died. Through a complex mix of voices from locals, to scientists and indigenous spokespeople, this documentary traces the many culprits including water contamination, crown-of-thorns starfish and dredging. But the elephant in the room is climate change and some of the exhausted scientists believe the fight is futile.

"The Story of a Panty, and of Those Who Make It" is the story of a panty, so innocuous, that protects what is most intimate. A garment which, when one traces its manufacturing process, can symbolize on its own the mechanisms of our globalized world. This film connects five women: a farmer in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan, a spinner and a dyer in India, an activist for the rights of women workers in Indonesia, and finally the filmmaker´s mother working in her shop in Belgium where she grew up. A unique chance to check out what stories are behind our underwear...

Trash is a symbol of our times. The amount we generate and the way we deal with it speak volumes about our consumption and prosperity – and our levels of social inequality. Godwin Ochieng lives in Dandora, Kenya, where one of the largest dumpsites in Africa is located. He spends his days combing through the piles of garbage from the city’s wealthier districts in the hope of finding something to sell. Pierre Simmons combs the streets of New York for cans he can sell to recycling companies. The rich consume much more than the poor and produce much more waste. But what some people throw away, others need to survive.

A high seas documentary about the 110-day chase of the Interpol purple noticed illegal fishing vessel the Thunder. The marine conservation activist organization Sea Shepherd’s Captain Peter and Captain Sid follow the Thunder for 16,000 km through Antarctic Icebergs and through the Southern Ocean storms and confrontation and sailing through the Indian Ocean and East African waters and the South Atlantic. For over three months and across oceans, Sea Shepherd crews stalked this fugitive fishing boat considered the world’s most notorious poacher. The surprise ending is the dramatic sinking of the Thunder to the bottom of the sea.

Western views and the legal system tend to view nature as property, a commodity whose only value is to provide for human needs. But for millennia indigenous communities have viewed themselves as part of nature. As pressures on the environment mount, people are turning to a new legal strategy known as The Rights of Nature, based on indigenous concepts. This film takes viewers on a journey to Ecuador, New Zealand, and the United States. Learn how constitutional reforms helped recognize nature as a legal entity.

For many, the arctic is a lifeless, sterile place, but Joseph Cook is investigating how a rich ecosystem of microbial life is thriving in one of Earth's harshest environments. Not only that, but also these microbes could actually be accelerating the melting of our precious glaciers and ice sheets. Joe's pioneering work with remote sensing from drones (and one day satellites) could help us to understand the effects of climate change on our poles.

Shocking undercover footage shows how animas exported from Europe as livestock are routinely exposed to inhumane conditions and abused. A ruling that EU animal welfare regulations should remain in place until the very end of the journey is not being imposed. We investigate the hidden side of Europe’s trade in live animals.

Filthy? Greedy? Lazy? Time to think again. Pigs are highly intelligent, possess acute senses and thrive in almost every habitat on earth. With some two billion of them now sharing our planet, Amazing Pigs takes viewers on a surprising, funny and fascinating journey around the world to reveal the extraordinary secrets behind the success of these much-overlooked animals. From the steamy jungles of Indonesia to the frozen wastes of Siberia, you’ll never look at pigs the same way again.

Sustainable Nation, an hour-long documentary from Imagination Productions, follows three individuals working to bring sustainable water solutions to an increasingly thirsty planet. Using solutions developed in water-poor Israel, they are working to change the status quo of a world where one in 10 people lacks access to safe drinking water. But water is just the beginning. The work of this visionary trio highlights the nexus between food, energy and water and underscores how solving these enormous challenges can help free women, and the world, from life threatening poverty, illness and lack of opportunity.

(SLOVAK ONLY)

Geo-engineering, large-scale modification of the global climate system is no longer science fiction, under the pressure of global warming. By catching the CO2 present in the atmosphere thanks to artificial tree forests, by reflecting sunlight in making a shield in the stratosphere, scientists are testing new technologies, which should limit global warming effect, and not to say, cool down the whole planet. What is the process? How does it work? It is really feasible already? How can the solutions be tested? What are the risks for the planet?

Summertime is barbecue time: in no country in the EU is more charcoal consumed than in Germany. But summer fun has its downsides. The fact that this hides a billion-dollar business that destroys primeval forests and funds terror, among other things, is something most consumers are unaware of. The investigative report "The dirty business with the charcoal" follows the coal from our grill back to its origin in Africa and Eastern Europe. Experts from Interpol, Earthsight, The Forest Trust and the WWF make it clear: Coal trade routes are intricate, and it is not unusual for mafia structures to hide behind the producers. Corruption and criminal networks are an integral part of black gold trade.

Daniel Balima is a senior horticulturist from Tenkodogo, a small Sub-Saharan African town in Burkina Faso, where he lives with his large family and has worked since he was born 67 years ago. Daniel as a child falls ill with polio and, although growing without the use of his legs, he is able to follow his father in the family nursery, walking on his hands. In over fifty years of activity he has given life to more than a million trees and this is what is most important for Daniel because, as he tells us, his country, because of the drought, needs many trees and does not stop, on the contrary, he dreams of planting another million.

Food production has increasingly become a huge business for a handful of giant corporations. SOYALISM follows the industrial production chain of pork and the related soybean monoculture, from China to Brazil through the United States and Mozambique. The documentary describes the enormous concentration of power in the hands of these Western and Chinese companies. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of small producers have gone out of business, and entire landscapes have been permanently transformed. The system has been exported across the world. From waste-lagoons in North Carolina to soybean monoculture in the Amazon rainforest, the movie asks whether this process is jeopardizing the environmental balance of the planet.