In Thailand, a hymn to rice need not always be sung. A dance, or spectacular homemade fireworks can say the same thing. As can a film, as is convincingly demonstrated by this lyrical, beautifully filmed homage to this essential staple food.
Social & External
Japan is a country of steep mountains surrounding wide flat plains where people have lived for thousands of years. On the largest plain lies the country's largest freshwater lake, Lake Biwa, which is not at all far from Japan's ancient, capital city of Kyoto. The slopes that stretch down towards the lake have been terraced. Here rice seedlings need shallow water in which to grow, and the neat, meticulously constructed paddy fields provide just this. Some of them have been cultivated continuously for thousands of years. Alongside them stand patches of woodland where, for centuries, the people have found their fuel and their food. This is a land that has been touched by people, yet the people tread lightly upon it. It's a land that has been ruled for centuries by the demands of the rice, yet it's still dominated by the rhythmic cycle of the seasons. Here is a landscape that the Japanese people hold so close to their hearts that they have a special word for it: Satoyama.
Sangduen Chailert, or Lek, as she is generally known, has already rescued over 200 elephants. She has dedicated her life to saving the Asian elephant and founded a special camp, The Elephant Nature Park to protect them. We follow this winner of Time Magazine’s “Asian Hero of the Year” Award in her work. Lek is on a mission to save the Asian elephant in her native Thailand. This film looks at the plight of the Asian elephant, as it goes from being a widely used domestic animal, to becoming a burden on modernizing communities. With experts predicting its extinction within four decades, Lek’s work is needed now more than ever and she has gathered a large group of supporters and volunteers in her quest for a better future for the Asian elephant. This moving film demonstrates Lek’s natural understanding of and rapport with these huge animals and will stir the viewers emotions as it highlights the often desperate state some elephants are kept in.
A look at global sex tourism, focusing on the situation in Venezuela and Thailand.
Are tourists destroying the planet-or saving it? How do travelers change the remote places they visit, and how are they changed? From the Bolivian jungle to the party beaches of Thailand, and from the deserts of Timbuktu, Mali to the breathtaking beauty of Bhutan, GRINGO TRAILS traces stories over 30 years to show the dramatic long-term impact of tourism on cultures, economies, and the environment.
The enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand.
The Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 was the most devastating natural disaster in modern times, killing 228,000 people across 13 countries in just a few hours. AFTER THE WAVE tells the untold story of this epic forensic operation in Thailand to identify and return home the bodies of over 5,000 victims, both locals and holidaymakers from around the world. Led by a crack Australian team, the best forensic specialists from around the world were in a race against time to give back every victim their identity. Creating forensic history, the international team’s mantra from the outset was ‘we will take them home’, a seemingly impossible ambition but one that almost succeeded. In this film forensic science intersects with powerful stories of survival and loss, attempting to make some sense out of a tragedy so bewilderingly complete that nearly a decade out it still seems far-fetched to most of us.
A film about rice cultivation that depicts the most beautiful rice field landscape in Japanese cinema history and the most realistic depiction of modern rice farmers.
Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it?
This expository documentary is shedding some light on the southeast Asian elephant industry. What is this dark secret? And why is it harmful for the elephants? What is behind the latest trend “no riding”? What are the ethical elephant parks, and are they really in favor with their beloved animals?
Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers led by world renowned Asian elephant conservationist Lek Chailert, embark on a daring 48-hour mission across Thailand to rescue a 70-year old captive blind Asian elephant and bring her to freedom.
The camera floats quietly to capture the beauty that emerges from the mundane. Accompanied by Ryuichi Sakamoto's composition, Arseny Tarkovsky's poem celebrates life.
Women workers stand up to the toxic flower industry in Colombia.
The personal story of a young woman in her early 20's who escapes societies expectations and becomes a sheepherder for a summer season.
A short documentary about Thailand, formerly known as Siam.
Director confronts with his grandfather who used to work in Mae Moh power plant, exploring the atmosphere of local conflict and the many debates that arise from the existence of the power plant, including issues of toxic leaks, eviction from mining sites, and the future of Mae Moh when coal runs out in the future.
Even in the push and pull era which is full of flour and sugar, rice firmly protects the table of the rice bowl nation! There are farmers who grow the rice in different ways. Nam Ho-hyeon, a young farmer who continues his father's family business, challenges farming with agricultural drones that spray coated rice seeds in large quantities, but new technologies that seemed to bring a rosy future leave only endless homework in a series of trials and errors. Lee Geun, an urban farmer who started farming on weekends and fell in love with farming, lives a life of small farmers who touch and cultivate them with their hands rather than machines, and studies and protects the world of traditional native rice that has disappeared in history. Our rice, which grows with sincerity, is filled with happiness, and conveys the power of life presented by nature for a long time! The moving journey begins now!
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are on a mission to build a bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand. In order to do so, they must first drive across a country that has been largely closed to Westerners for over 40 years: Burma. What follows is an epic journey of beautiful scenery, regular adversity, ongoing malfunction, and constant bickering between the three hosts.
It is quickly becoming the most populated country in the world, but India holds a dark secret. Men and women who make their homes in the poor villages throughout the central region of the country are forced to make decisions that no parents should ever have to make. Sell a child into slavery or watch your children starve to death.
The Odd Monk is a personal journey through modern day Buddhism. German first time Filmmaker Jesco Puluj travels around the world, meeting a variety of monks and nuns to discover the essence of Buddhism.
Mar believes in the mysterious legend of the lovers Halimah and Sukab on the island of Sawai from a hundred years ago. She travels to Sawai to experience what Halimah once felt, hoping to find Sukab there.
Get ready for a howling good time as an all new assortment of irresistible animal heroes are unleashed in this great family tail! In an unlikely alliance, the outrageous Waddlesworth - a parrot who thinks he's a Rottweiler - teams up with Oddball - an un-marked Dalmatian puppy eager to earn her spots! Together they embark on a laugh-packed quest to outwit the ever-scheming Cruella De Vil.
After learning that his girlfriend recently broke his typing test record for a friendly competition, Danny attempts to gain the record back in the middle of a work meeting.
As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.
When Alex is caught using magic to clean her room she is forced to go to wizard school with Justin. Max and Jerry camp out on the terrace to prove their manhood.
After brothers Jonathan and Crusty pass away, they reunite in Nangijala, the land of eternal spring. Casting a long shadow over their world is the tyrant Tengil, ruler of the country Karmanjaka, where he’s building his new fortress up in the Ancient Mountains.
The unsanctioned efforts of a covert unit to gather evidence about illegal arms shipments with the unwitting help of an embassy employee.
A DVD compilation of 3 zombie-themed episodes from What's New, Scooby-Doo?. Smile and say "ciao"! The phantom-busters travel to Italy in Pompeii and Circumstance. With a colossal mystery to solve, will our friends be ghoulish gladiator goners, or will their love for Italian art and Scooby Snax save them? Then it's off to the City by the Bay for the Grind Games in The San Franpsycho, where a seaweed-sprouting ghoul from Alcatraz prison cares competing skateboarders to the core. If they don't find the creep behind the Legend of the Creepy Keeper, it'll be lights out in Fright House of a Lighthouse. Who's scared of zombies? Not Scooby-Doo!
A short film based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fictional universe, combining the “Picnic to the curb” of the Strugatsky brothers, “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky and the “Exclusion Zone” location around the Chernobyl NPP. According to the scenario, an agent of the peacekeeping forces, nicknamed "The Photographer", arrives in the Zone to prevent a global scale catastrophe, which could be caused by an experiment that went out of control at a scientific lab.
Five men heist the Camp Pendleton payroll and kidnap a pilot and his daughter, who are forced to fly them to Mexico. Enroute a double cross has one of the thieves parachute with the loot into an abandoned farm surrounded by strange scarecrows. The rest of the team jump after their loot and their former partner. Everything happens during the course of one very dark night.
Three generations of the same family deal with the consequences of unleashing the forces of hell.
An animated road-movie set across the vast and barren landscape of Australia's Nullarbor Plain.
An independent group of researchers called the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN) actively track Godzilla as he makes landfall in Nemuro. Matters are further complicated when a giant meteor is discovered in the Ibaragi Prefecture. The mysterious rock begins to levitate as it's true intentions for the world and Godzilla are revealed.
A hitman is tasked to take out ex-mobsters when he suddenly hears a voice that questions his morality.
"The Wild Soccer Bunch" celebrate their last victory against the "Silver Lights" - and set one record in volley-pass game after another in the forest. But they are not alone: Vampires target the team. To lure them into their bunker, they kidnap Leon. Will Vanessa ever see him again?
An all-new documentary celebrating 10 years of adventure, camaraderie, and /dancing on mailboxes all around Azeroth. Explore the history of WoW with its creators, and journey into corners of Blizzard and the WoW community you’ve never seen before.
Lina Inverse and Naga the White Serpent are back! What begins as a routine bandit-stomping turns into the adventure of a lifetime involving magical golems, an ancient Elven weapon and even someone bent on destroying the world. It's a predicament only Lina and Naga could get themselves in to.
A bedtime story leads Littlefoot and his grandparents on a journey to a new land, where Littlefoot discovers someone who vanished before he was born: his father! Now Littlefoot must decide between two worlds. Will he leave to be with his friends in the Great Valley, or stay behind and start a new life with his father?
A writer's career — and entire life — suddenly goes off script when he falls prey to a dangerous web of criminals right before moving to Barcelona.