The Real Lion Queen

The circle of life is broken in Zambia's Liuwa Plains National Park. Settlers, poachers, and professional hunters have almost wiped out the lion population, leaving just one lioness in the vast wilderness - but not for long. This is the story of "Lady Liuwa," a lion queen without a kingdom, and Herbert Brauer, a wildlife cinematographer on a six-year journey to find her a mate in hopes of forming a new pride. It's a mission full of setbacks and disappointments, chaos and danger, and the magic of unexpected relationships

Prater

Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

Living With Lions

Exclusive two-disc film documenting the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa in the summer of 1997. The unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the team shows the preparations, the training, the fun, the team selection, the 'earthy' language, the bonding, the awesome task of playing and some shocking footage of injuries. Despite securing the series with wins in the first two tests, the Lions remained motivated by the prospect of a 3-0 whitewash, a feat never achieved against the Springboks throughout the century.

Swamp Lions

The Swamp Pride is on its knees. Its mighty male was killed by poachers, leaving three mothers and their cubs defenseless in one of the toughest landscapes for a lion in Africa. Busanga Swamp is a quagmire, even in the dry season. Hunting in shoulder-deep water is all but impossible, and deadly hippos and crocodiles patrol the ever-present waters. Keeping cubs alive here is hard work, but for these lionesses it just got even harder: two massive young male lions are hunting them down. The males want to claim the Swamp Pride and its territory as their own, but to take over a pride they must kill its cubs. The mothers must fight tooth and claw to make sure that doesn't happen

Fakir

The feature-length documentary Fakir portrays the success of fakirism in Brazil, Latin America and France. This circus art origin show is presented and analyzed through archives that reveals the success of these presentations with their pain resistance championships and the great public presence, including politicians and government officials. Fakir spans current footage from contemporary artists who keep this art alive in performances and shows.

Cirque du Soleil: Quidam

A young girl has already seen everything there is to see and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her world and she finds herself in the universe of QUIDAM, where she is joined by a playful companion, as well as another mysterious character who attempts to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling and the terrifying.

Cirque du Soleil: Alegria

Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth - it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it.

Cirque du Soleil: Saltimbanco

From the Italian 'saltare in banco' – which literally means 'to jump on a bench' – Saltimbanco explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms. Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, it takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart and soul of the modern city.

Cirque du Soleil: Varekai

Icarus is the main character of Varekai, who falls to the ground, breaking his legs as he does. He is suddenly in a strange, new world full of creatures he has never seen before. Parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world populated by fantastical creatures, this young man sets off on an adventure both absurd and extraordinary.

Hatching by Cirque du Soleil

A Documentary on the Creation of OVO, by Cirque du Soleil

The Balloonist

Meet Brian Boland—the beloved, eccentric hot air balloonist and artist from the rural Upper Valley of Vermont.

The Circus

Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.

When Lions Attack

The dry season in northern Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park is as deadly as any predator. The rains stop, the temperatures rise, and the water sources evaporate, pushing herbivores past the normal boundaries of caution and into dangerous territory. Two lion families patiently await their arrival, one, a team of rookies, the other, seasoned pros, each with one shared goal: to hunt the thirsty herds. Get a remarkable look at their daily battles for survival as we take you on an action-packed journey into one of the wildest springs in Africa

Ma xi xue xiao

Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world. Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be number one in the circus, the Chinese way. (Storyville)

Grey Gardens

Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.

Lions de Namibie, les rois du désert

On the edge of the Namibian desert, cattle farmers are looking for new land to graze their animals. The lions, who occupied these previously wild spaces, are hunted by herd guards, or even slaughtered when they attack cows. Will and Lianne Steenkamp lived for two years in a territory occupied by a 17-year-old lioness - a "queen" -, her two daughters and their five lion cubs. This film traces the process of empowering the young: after learning to hunt alone, they will have to leave the family pack and find young females to reproduce. A necessity all the greater as their species seems threatened.

Back To Africa

Lionnes

Super Hunts, Super Hunters

Lions, leopard, cheetah, hyena, wild dog and crocodile - extraordinary scenes of super predators hunting. The Super Predators was filmed over three years at Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa and on Kenya's Masai Mara. It captures some of the most extraordinary scenes ever seen on film of these super predators hunting and killing. Dramatic slow-motion action replays allow the viewer the opportunity of observing all the subtleties of these magnificent hunters in action. The film includes a plea for the world's most notorious predator, man, to work in closer partnership with nature for our mutual benefit and survival.

The Odyssey Of Felines

In the company of zoologist Patrick Aryee, a discovery of the 37 species of felines that inhabit the planet, some little known, others threatened.