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Japan Wildlife Film Festival 2011

35 Finalist Films

Entry No.11-001 
A MAN AMONG ORCAS (France 52’)

Production: SAINT THOMAS PRODUCTIONS
Executive Producer: SAINT THOMAS PRODUCTIONS
Producer: SAINT THOMAS PRODUCTIONS
Director: Jean-François BARTHOD
Camera: Jean-François BARTHOD & David REICHERT

A thousand miles off the coast of South Africa lie the Crozet Islands, an archipelago battered by wind, rain and sea. The storm-ravaged shores are patrolled by killer whales, scouring the surf for the islands' wild inhabitants: elephant seals and king penguins. Filmmaker David Reichert explores the relationships that exist between the three species and in the process begins to form his own remarkable relationship with the whales. A relationship that he hopes will encourage a reversal of the species' descent into extinction.

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Entry No.11-007
Poppy's Promise - Secret Life in a Cornfield (Germany 45’)

Production: nautilusfilm GmbH
Executive Producer: Udo A. Zimmermann
Producer: Jan Haft
Director: Jan Haft
Camera: Kay Ziesenhenne, Felix Pustal, Jan Haft

 The cornfield - just an area for producing food … or a land full of secrets?  In the western industrial nations cornfields and woods take up the greatest proportion of rural land. But how much natural life dwells in a cornfield? Why are some cornfield inhabitants harmful and others useful and what do the colorful flowers at the edge of the field promise us?
"Poppy's promise" portrays a little recognized and rather unspectacular habitat right next door. The spectacular visuals filmed with state of the art equipment introduce the surprisingly large diversity of field inhabitants. We follow a hamster family through a season full of adventures and are drawn into an unknown world - a world of which we thought we knew everything about.

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Entry No. 11-020
The Man Who Stopped the Desert (UK 64’14”)

Production: 1080 Film and TV Ltd
Producer: Mark Dodd
Director: Mark Dodd
Camera: Mark Dodd

From a harsh and uncompromising land comes a story of hope...
Yacouba Sawadogo, an illiterate peasant farmer from Burkina Faso, Africa has succeeded where international agencies failed. Over the last twenty years he has successfully battled against nature, and man, to become a pioneer in the fight against desertification. One man's conviction now has the potential to benefit many thousands living in the Sahel region of Africa.
His story is both incredibly timely and important given the current crisis in many parts of the world with desertification.  It is also rare to find a conservation story with such an upbeat and inspirational ending.
The Man Who Stopped the Desert is a beautifully filmed, emotional roller coaster that will leave you moved and inspired.
    

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Entry No. 11-022
Frogs -The Thin Green Line (US 53'30'')

Production: ArgoFilms, Ltd
Executive Producer: Fred Kaufman
Producer: Allison Argo
Director: Allison Argo
Camera: Andrew Young

Frogs are slipping away... From Australia to Panama, 1/3 of the world's amphibians are threatened with extinction.  It's being called the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs. Ecosystems are unraveling, medical cures are vanishing, and we're losing a dear, old friend. Across the globe, citizens and scientists are racing to stop one of the greatest environmental crises of our time.

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Entry No. 11-059
Beyond the summits (France 73’)

Production: TEC TEC PRODUCTION
Producer: Reny Tezier

Catherine Destivelle is an ambassador for the French alps and is well known in France and abroad for her record-breaking career. In "Beyond the Summits", viewers feel life they are climbing up the mountain with her. The film shows three classic Chamonix routes with three different climbing partners. Each partner was chosen because they had a profound impact on her life. The camera captures the magnificent scenery, as well as frank and intimate moments during the ascents.

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Entry No. 11-079
A Thousand Suns (USA 27'34")

Production: The Global Oneness Project
Exective Producer: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
Producer: Gayatri Roshan
Director: Stephen Marshall
Camera: Stephen Marshall, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

 'A Thousand Suns' tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley and the unique worldview held by the people of the region. This isolated area has remained remarkably intact both biologically and culturally. It is one of the most densely populated rural regions of Africa yet its people have been farming sustainably for 10,000 years.
Shot in Ethiopia, New York and Kenya, the film explores two interrelated threats to the Gamo Highlands: 1) the evangelistic aspirations of the protestant church that are destroying the Gamo’s indigenous spirituality and governance systems; and 2) the efforts of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a Western aid organization which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars bringing chemical pesticides, fertilizers and so-called improved seeds to the continent.
Through these external forces we gain insight into the modern world’s untenable sense of separation from and superiority over nature. And we see how the interconnected worldview of the Gamo people is fundamental in achieving long-term sustainability, both in the region and beyond.

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Entry No. 11-081
Bohemia - A Year in the Wetlands (Austria 50’)

Production: ScienceVision Filmproduction
Executive Producer: Walter Kvhler
Producer: Rita Schlamberger
Director: Michael Schlamberger & Jiri Petr
Camera: Jiri Petr & Michael Schlamberger

 In the heart of central Europe there is an extraordinary system of ponds and linking irrigation channels that were built in the Middle Ages. These artificial wetlands in Bohemia, a region in the Czech Republic, have become an essential refuge for wildlife.
Over 150 species of birds breed in this area; there are mammals, like the moose, that are almost no longer found in Europe. These artificial wetlands were constructed in the Middle Ages and today they have become a part of the culture and tradition of the people who still farm them for the carp that were introduced in the 13th Century. 
BOHEMIA ・A YEAR IN THE WETLANDS explores these manmade wetlands, and shows that wildlife can still exist side by side with sustainable farming

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Entry No. 11-086
Big Cat Odyssey (South Africa 50’)

Production: WILDLIFE FILMS BOTSWANA
Producer: DERECK & BEVERLY JOUBERT
Camera: DERECK JOUBERT

Over 30 years ago Dereck and Beverly Joubert, National Geographic Explorers in Residence, went out of a quest to understand big cats. They worked through the night, droughts and floods following lions and then leopards trying to piece together the puzzle of what makes cats unique in this environment.  Their odyssey leads them to understand that these are both specialists and adapting generalist hunters and yet they are both in drastic decline because of hunting and poaching, poisoning and the advance of civilization. The film also looks at some of the most extreme scenes of cats ever filmed.

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Entry No. 11-092
Wild Hungary - A Water Wonderland (Hungary, Germany 51'35'')

Production: Azara Film
Executive Producer: Jvrn Rvver
Producer: Britta Kiesewetter, Zoltan Torok
Director: Zoltan Torok
Camera: Jan Henriksson, Szabolcs Mosonyi, Zoltan Torok

A country like no other in Europe, Hungary is influenced by the rhythms of its rivers. White-tailed eagles, otters and enormous catfish share the wetlands with many other species and also with the local people. 
They both have learnt to cope with alternating floods and droughts. "Wild Hungary" is their story presenting some never-before-filmed animal behavior like dancing deer or wintering catfish.

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Entry No. 11-103
Intelligent Plants (Germany 43'30'')

Production:Mathhey Film
Executive Producer: Gabriele Conze/ WDR TV
Producer: Heinz von Matthey
Director: Volker Arzt
Camera: Brian McClatchy

It's nothing new for plant lovers. They've always known their green darlings can do more than just grow and flower. Plants may not have muscles or nerves but they still manage to master the great challenges of life - faced by humans and animals too: they must explore their surroundings and struggle against enemies and competitors. They have to find sexual partners, and send out their offspring into the world.
In the process they have developed almost uncanny strategies and abilities. They defend themselves and warn their neighbors. They lie and deceive. They communicate with each other and call for help. We're starting to look at plants in a new way, and this new approach has given a big boost to plant research.

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Entry No. 11-125
Poisoning Paradise-Ecocide New Zealand(New Zealand 98’)

Production: The Graf Boys
Executive Producer: Clyde & Steve Graf
Producer: Clyde & Steve Grafr
Director: Clyde & Steve Graf
Camera: Clyde & Steve Graf

For the first time, supported by scientific evidence, and indisputable footage, this film exposes the truth about a practice that breaches human rights, animal rights, and unveils a deception that will leave viewers in shock!
New Zealand claims to be clean, green, and 100% pure. But can a country that annually drops from helicopters, 90% of the worlds supply of the deadly pesticide 1080 - enough to kill its human population 5 times over - qualify for such an esteemed self evaluation?
Can a country that relies on farming, tourism, and exports, afford to be so cavalier with one of the worlds most deadly poisons?
Poisoning Paradise lifts the lid on this bureaucratic practice, exposing an atrocity that will leave you in disbelief.....

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Entry No. 11-139
Spirit of the Arctic (USA 38'59'')

Production: Spirit of the Arctic, LLC
Executive Producer: Kathy Turco
Producer: Kathy Turco
Director: Kathy Turco
Camera: still images= the late Michio Hoshino

About the Program:
Spirit of the Arctic is a timeless northern journey of natural sounds and images with Native voices and music. You will experience nine distinct regions or eco-scapes of Alaska: Denali-Interior, Southeast Panhandle, Prince William Sound, Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Island Chain, Bering Sea, Brooks Range, North Slope, and Arctic Ocean Coast. Qiksigilugu Nunam Inua, which means may you respect, cherish, and protect the place, life, and spirit of the Arctic.
This 39-minute DVD contains 280 images taken by legendary photographer Michio Hoshino, depicting 100 species of wildlife and plants characteristic of Alaska. It opens with a "fly-over" animation of the Alaskan landscape, traversing nine eco-scapes, launching in spring and circling the seasons to end the following spring. The image sequences come alive with 1,252 original digital recordings from Kathy Turco's unique, comprehensive library of natural sounds captured in the wild, mixed in surround sound to create a unique audio-visual journey through Alaska.  The soundtrack includes instrumental music, voices, and traditional songs of Native American and Alaskan sound artists. The enclosed booklet contains a map of the program's journey, and provides detailed information on its audio-visual content, music, production credits, and more.

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Entry No. 11-145
Swarms: The intelligence of the Masses (Germany 52’)

Production: a & o Buero
Executive Producer: Robert T. P|tz
Director: Jacob Kneser
Camera: Christian Eichenauer

How does the collective outdo the individual and what does this mean for science?
It is a stunning sight: hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of fish, birds or insects moving as fast as lightning and as if on command. Except that there is no command, no pilot, no mastermind pulling the strings. It is the swarm itself, which acts as a collective and is capable of behavior that far exceeds the capabilities of its individuals.
It is a form of intelligence that is radically different from our own: "swarm intelligence". For us humans, this type of intelligence is completely foreign, but it is possible for us to learn from the swarms.
Scientists the world over are attempting to discover their secret. Not just biologists however; recently engineers and cyberneticists have joined in the hunt. Their idea is to translate the behavior of swarms to machines. Robot swarms, which can act autonomously and control themselves, could be used in the future in the future in the field of space exploration and research or for operations in the human body.
If anything, we humans have more in common with swarms that we think. An experiment investigates whether people allow themselves to be led in their decision-making by a collective dynamic - and whether they are actually smarter together.
A journey into the mysterious and complex world of swarms, and at the same time into the very sources of intelligence.

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Entry No. 11-151
Night of the Hunt (UK 50'10'')

Production: Ammonite
Executive Producer: For Nat Geo: Michael Welsh
Producer: For Ammonite: Martin Dohrn
Director: Martin Dohrn
Camera: Martin Dohrn, Richard Jones, Tom Stephens

Through the use of specially developed Starlight and Thermal cameras, this ground breaking film reveals the truth about lion hunting behaviour at night. Filmed in complete darkness yet with vibrant colours from unique night photography, adult lionesses appear as skilled and clinical hunters while their inept and clumsy offspring try to learn the basic lessons of stealth and patience.

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Entry No. 11-154
Kestrel: Wooded Shrine which birds attracts (Japan 32'52'')

Productionro: Core-T-9
Executive Producer: Takekazu Kuroiwa
Producer: Yuko Tanaka
Director: Hirohisa Tanaka
Camera: Takekazu Kuroiwa and Hirohisa Tanaka

The Common Kestrel is a bird of prey species belonging to the Kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. This is a only bird which hasn’t own territory however the Kestrels arrived at the woods of the shrine in Tendo city, Yamagata Prefecture ,build nests as a group. There are 13 large Zelkovas which are over 800 years old. In this wood, the Kestrel coexists with other birds. This film records unknown life between Kestrels and other birds in there.

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Entry No. 11-228
First Snow in the Woods (USA 27'30'')

Production: Sisbro Studios, LLC
Executive Producer: Carl R. Sams II
Producer: Jean Stoick
Director: Laura Sams and Robert Sams 50
Camera : Robert Sams,Carl R. Sams II, Luca Fantini, Dave Cain

First Snow in the Woods is a heartwarming, hilarious tale filled with stunning wildlife footage filmed over the course of two fall seasons, featuring intimate looks of animals from white-tailed deer to chipmunks to the magnificent great gray owl.
Based on the award-winning children's book, the film begins with a worried scarecrow, standing alone in a pumpkin patch surrounded by the reds and golds of the fall season. The scarecrow is worried because the first snow is coming early this year, and when the snow comes, he must go back in the barn, alone until spring. He is also worried because he cannot scare a single crow, especially the crow who visits him every day on his shoulder. "If I'm no good at scaring crows, what am I supposed to do?" the scarecrow cries.
As the scarecrow worries about all the changes in his life, a little mouse moves into his straw-filled heart and tells him the story of First Snow in the Woods.

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Entry No. 11-263
DJEMO, GOAT, BRUCELLOSIS (Bosnia and Herzegovina 19'04'')

Production: Independent Production
Executive Producer: Nisvet Hrustić
Producer: Nisvet Hrustić
Director: Nisvet Hrustić
Camera: Nisvet Hrustić  Second cameramen: Teo Agačević

Brucellosis is a very dangerous disease that affects sheep, goats and other animals.
It, also, gets transferred to people and it is very hard to treat.
About 500.000 people get affected every year, worldwide.
Until year 2004. in Bosnia and Herzegovina, brucellosis was not significantly present.
But, with uncontrolled import of live stock, that started this year, brucellosis became highly increased disease in this country.
In 2007. 500 people got affected.
In first half of 2008. 12.500 sheep and goats were euthanized, when brucellosis got epidemic proportions.

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Entry No. 11-270
It Takes Two to Tango! (Hungary 52’)

Production: Beszelo Szem Production Company
Executive Producer:  Péter Palatitz
Producer: Szabolcs Pálfi, Péter Palatitz
Director: Szabolcs Pálfi
Camera: Gergo Kiss, Marcell Rev

Lately, humans have intervened in the affairs of these birds.
A large scale anti-rook persecution campaign was launched in the previous decades, and Red-footed Falcons became collateral damage in the many years of man-rook "war".
This film is about the Red-footed falcons, the Rooks and the follow up work of conservationists trying to restore the peaceful life of these protected birds.

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Entry No. 11-280
The Oriental Honey Buzzards of Ninety-nine Peaks (Taiwan 49'41'')

Production: Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan
Executive Producer: Chieh-Teh Liang, Chien-Hung Yang
Producer: Raptor Research Group of Taiwan
Director: Wei-Jie Lee
Camera: Wei-Jie Lee

Oriental Honey Buzzard, one of the famous migratory raptors in East Asia, is the most secret raptor in Taiwan. The team led by Dr. Lucia Liu Severinghaus has spent more than three years to find out their migration route through Taiwan. But instead of migration route, there are many evidences indicate that many Oriental Honey Buzzards also stay in Taiwan around whole year. Raptor Research Group of Taiwan cooperates with the study team and has recorded this valuable discovery. This film will show you their courtship display, breeding behavior, hunting behavior, and also the relationship with the apiculture occurred in Ninety-nine Peaks in Taiwan.
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Entry No. 11-295
Natural World Prairie Dogs - Talk of the Town (UK 59’)

Production: BBC Natural History Unit
Executive Producer: Tim Martin
Producer: Stephen Dunleavy

Prairie Dogs are America's answer to the meerkat - small, sociable and exceptionally cute. This offbeat film narrated by Rob Brydon takes us to the Wild West where prairie dogs live in huge colonies known as 'towns'. Like meerkats they are comical to watch, but there is a whole lot more to prairie dogs than just being cute - they can talk. For 30 years Professor Con Slobodchikoff has been recording their calls in response to predators like coyotes, hawks and badgers. He believes he has discovered a language second only to humans in its complexity. It's a bold claim but is he right? Con has devised a series of cunning field experiments to help prove his point.

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Entry No. 11-305
Yanomami (Japan 59' )

Production: NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.
Senior Producer: Toru Ogawa

Deep in the Amazon rainforest lives an indigenous tribe that has retained its distinctive culture for more than 10,000 years: the Yanomami, which Westerners call “the last of the Stone Age peoples.” There are some 20,000 Yanomami living in remote villages on the Brazil-Venezuela border.
 After 10 years of negotiation with the Brazilian government and seven tribal elders, NHK’s TV crew was finally permitted to film in a village. For 150 days, the crew lived with the villagers, learning their language, eating the same food, and experiencing their way of life. These rare images of the Yanomami reveal their unique customs—childbirth attended only by women, the shamanism of the spirits of the forest, the monkey hunt, sexual tolerance, the burial practice where the corpse is fed to termites to send it off to heaven.
Smiling endlessly, sharing everything, sleeping when they like, hunting when they are hungry – the Yanomami’s primal way of life leads us to look within ourselves and examine our roots.

 
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Entry No. 11-316
Goshawk , The Soul of the wind (Korea 46'06'')

Production: EBS
Executive Producer: Mr. Yeon-kyu, LEE
Producer: Mr. Yeon-kyu, LEE
Director: Mr. Yeon-kyu, LEE
Camera: Mr. Young-ho, SEO

Diving falcons were seen as great hunters and soaring eagles were resplendent symbols of perseverance honored as symbols for armies and nations. Though no less majestic, the hawk family has its own share of majestic predators with keen hunting skills and even more adept flight With delicate care, an EBS camera crew chronicled the arrival and growth of a new generation of goshawk chicks in the wild. Viewers witness their parents' courting ritual, the making of a nest, as well as the laying and tending of eggs. After the offspring have hatched, we see how the young goshawks are cared for and trained for a life of seeking out and capturing prey.
This visually stimulating documentary provides a rarely seen glimpse of this majestic migratory bird, including meticulously captured video that demonstrates the expertise with which this bird flies, even through dense forest. Whereas eagles or falcons may soar high above obstacles, the goshawk flies while navigating trees and other plant life, with phenomenal precision. Amazing slow-motion video reveals how the goshawk adroitly bounces off these barriers, turning hazardous barriers into means to propel, to stop, or to change direction.

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Entry No. 11-323
My Fancy High Heels (Taiwan 55’)

Production: Conjunction Films
Producer: Ho Chao-ti
Director: Ho Chao-ti
Camera: Wang Ying-shun / Tsai Yen-shan

This is a film about dreams, and a tale bound together by beautiful high-heeled shoes. Brand-name high heels costing anywhere from $300 to $1000 exactly who is it that makes them? From procuring the leather, to the assembly line, to the contract manufacturer, to the moment when lily-white feet slip into each pair of high heels, how many people's hands do these shoes pass through? The farming woman who tends the cattle, the worker, the manager of the contract manufacturing firm, the young New York woman from a wealthy family who wears the shoes they all have their own difficulties and little sources of happiness in life. This film adopts their dreams as its central theme, and reveals the story that lies behind a pair of beautiful high heel shoes.
Filmed over a period of two years, this documentary traces the footsteps of a pair of name-brand high-heeled shoes, from the border of China and Russia to the streets of Manhattan, from an impoverished farm town and the sanguinary spectacle of slaughtered cows and skinned hides, to the fashionable, prosperous metropolis. In the spring, the hide of the calves have just been skinned, and the woman assembly-line worker meticulously touches up every last detail of the shoes. By winter of the same year, those tiny details can be seen on the feet of a fashionable woman in New York City.
The impact of globalization on this world manifests itself in each pair of high heel shoes. Every link in the manufacturing chain is its own segment with its own story, and each has its own protagonist. Through the camera, we see the shoes the protagonists wear, ranging from 2 renminbi to 600 US dollars. The film reveals a young female assembly-line worker, with her own feelings of joy, disillusionment and sorrow; a Taiwanese businessman in China, managing a contract manufacturing firm and negotiating with international customers; the inner world of a fashionable, well-off young woman of New York; and the cruel realities of the slaughterhouse. The dreams of all these people reveal the disparities in their positions in life. Beneath the calm and quiet of the entire film lurks an enormous energy, like an immense poem floating amidst the affairs of the world.

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Entry No. 11-330
VARMINTS (UK 24’)

Production: STUDIO AKA
Executive Producer: PAM DENNIS / SUE GOFFE / PHILIP HUNT
Producer: SUE GOFFE
Director: ARC CRASTE

In the face of overwhelming urbanization, indifference and recklessness, a small creature struggles to preserve a remnant of the peace he once knew. His selfless acts of love plant the seeds of change that will ultimately prove the salvation of his world.  But at what cost to himself. ..
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Entry No. 11-370
ECHO AN UNFORGETTABLE ELEPHANT (UK 59’)

Production: MIKE BIRKHEAD ASSOCIATES
Executive Producer: FRED KAUFMAN FOR THIRTEEN/WNET.ORG AND TIM MARTIN FOR BBC
Producer: MIKE BIRKHEAD
Director: MIKE BIRKHEAD
Camera: MARTYN COLBECK

When the most famous elephant in the world dies, the timing could not be worse. The drought in living memory is devastating Echo's home under the shadow of Kilimanjaro. As head of her family, Echo carried immense experience gained by her forebears over centuries. But the final test of a matriarch is whether she passes on that knowledge.
This film reflects on the life of a remarkable elephant and discovers what happens to the family, bereft of Echo's leadership for the first time in almost half a century. Will her strong band of relatives overcome the loss of their leader, hunger, and poachers to survive?

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Entry No. 11-381
The Great Grey Shrike (Estonia 6'22'')

Producer: Chintis Lundgren
Director: Chintis Lundgren
Camera: Chintis Lundgren

The Great Grey Shrike is a strange wildlife-story about the very peculiar manners of the great grey shrike, the common cuckoo, starlings and other birds.
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Entry No. 11-393
Water flea (Japan 25'47'')

Production: EUGLENA
Producer: Yasuo Hotta
Director: Yasuo Hotta
Camera: Yasuo Hotta

Due to transparency of a water flea body, we can examine movement of heart and digestive of them using microscope. This is the mysterious creature. When conditions are favorable, reproduction occurs by parthenogenesis for several generations, producing only female clones. As the conditions deteriorate, males are produced, and sexual reproduction occurs. Even though water flea is so small, it is not primitive organism.  Many kinds of water flea keep on evolving in different environments, for example, lake, paddy field.
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Entry No. 11-395
Rat Attack (USA 52’)

Production: National Geographic Television
Executive Producer: John Bredar, Paula Apsell
Producer: Rick King
Camera: Alphonse Roy Saravanakumar

Once every 48 years, forests of the bamboo known as Melocanna baccifera go into exuberant flower in parts of northeast India. And then, like clockwork, the event is invariably followed by a plague of black rats that spring from nowhere to spread destruction and famine in their wake. For the first time on film, NOVA and National Geographic capture this massive rat population explosion in the kind of vivid detail not possible in 1959, when the last invasion occurred.

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Entry No. 11-400
Old Partner (Korea 78’)

Production: STUDIO NURIMBO
Producer: GOH Young-jae
Director: LEE Chung-ryoul
Camera: JI Jae-woo

The story of 30-year companionship between a 40 year-old ox and an octogenarian
The Sound of the Cowbell.
Neither time nor civilization can go against their companionship.
I’ll be with only you till the day I die!
Just stay by my side!
80 years old, CHOI has an old ox that he’s worked for 30 years,and the ox aged no less than 40.
However, there’s something special about the way Old CHOI treats this ox, which is so worn-out that it might drop dead any minute.The old man is single-mindedly focused on the ox, instinctively turning to the beast when he hears the cowbell even though he’s nearly deaf.
One spring day, however,Old CHOI learns that his ox only has a year to live,which greatly troubles him.

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Entry No. 11-406
Natural World Chimps of the Lost Gorge (UK 58’)

Production: BBC
Executive Producer: Tim Martin
Producer: Verity White
Director: Verity White
Camera: Justine Evans

A real life drama set deep in the heart of Africa's Albertine Rift, a secret gorge cuts through the savannah like a jagged scar. Its full of wild, ancient jungle and home to hyena, hippo and elephants. An unlikely family is trapped in this lost world.
Meet the Kyambura chimps, the most special family in Africa. Here they face a daily life or death dilemma they have to leave the safety of the gorge and venture into the predator ridden savannahs above to find enough food to keep them going.
They've been trapped for 15 years now and there are only twenty of them left, as Brutus the alpha loses his grip and their society crumbles around them, can the family hold together enough to produce some baby girls? Will time run out for the Kyambura chimps?!

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Entry No. 11-411
City of Ants (USA 50’)

Production: National Geographic Television
Executive Producer: Jared Lipworth
Producer: Martin Dohrn, Stephen Dunleavy, James Manfull
Camera: Martin Dohrn

Can a group of insects morph into a single creature? They can, when it's a group of ants. Their colonies are so in sync that some scientists call them a "superorganism" where individuals act more like cells in one huge body. National Geographic's Antzilla reveals ants as you've never seen them before. New science explores how ants communicate, organize and make decisions, all in the blink of an eye. State-of-the-art macro photography gets closer to these astonishing creatures than ever before, revealing how a million tiny brains can accomplish wonders by working together as one.
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Entry No. 11-435
The Legend of Pale Male (Belgium 85’)

Production: BirdJail Productions
Executive Producer: Fred Kaufman
Producer: Frederic Lilien and Janet hess
Director: Frederic Lilien
Camera: Frederic Lilien

When a young Belgian comes to New York City looking for his destiny, he finds a remarkable red-tailed hawk living on the ledge of a posh 5th Avenue building.  Inspired by this bold bird, he buys his first video camera and begins to follow the hawk.    
And so begins a magnificent obsession.  In an epic sweep of eighteen years, Frederic Lilien takes us on a wild ride that twists and turns through triumph and loss to find hope in the heart of a great city.

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Entry No. 11-438
Great Migrations (USA 50')

Production: National Geographic Television
Executive Producer: Keenan Smart, Char Serwa
Producer: David Hamlin
Camera: Many

Move as millions. Survive as one. National Geographic Channel's Great Migrations gives the word “move” a whole new meaning. This global programming event takes viewers around the world on the arduous journeys millions of animals undertake to ensure the survival of their species. Shot from land and air, in trees and cliff-blinds, on ice floes and underwater, Great Migrations tells the powerful stories of many of the planet’s species and their movements, while revealing new scientific insights with breathtaking high-definition clarity and emotional impact. The beauty of these stories is underscored by a new focus into these species' fragile existence and their life-and-death quest for survival in an ever-changing world.
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Entry No. 11-440
That Shouldn't Fly (USA 50’)

Production: National Geographic Television
Executive Producer: Keenan Smart
Producer: Robert Wise
Camera: John Benam

Hundreds of feet in the air, in the midst of the verdant canopy of the Malaysian rainforest, is a world unto itself. The rules that preside on the ground do not govern up here. Animals have adapted to a life virtually free from terra firma. It is home to the gliders: animals that travel through the air without the benefit of wings. 
As a result, the canopy is home to some of the most bizarre and least understood animals on the planet. In fact, there are more gliders here than any place else on Earth. And they take all shapes and sizes. That Shouldn't Fly travels to this remote part of the world to discover how these creatures “fly.”

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Entry No. 11-449
The Last Lioness (South Africa 50’)

Production: Aquavision TV Productions
Executive Producer: Peter Lamberti
Producer: Bronwyn Watkins
Camera: Hesbest Brouer

A haunting roar echoes across the Liuwa Plain. There is no answer, there hasn't been for years. She has no pride, no support - she alone must safeguard her own survival. She is Lady Liuwa, the Last Lioness.
In the early nineties, a scourge of illegal poaching and trophy hunting tore through Liuwa Plain. Many species were lost. Liuwa's lions, once famous for their size and beauty, were reduced to one resilient survivor. She's become known as Lady Liuwa, and today she is the only known resident lion on Zambia's Liuwa Plain. Each day is a new test of survival for her. Hunting alone is difficult and often unsuccessful. Since the lions disappeared, hordes of hyenas have come to dominate the plain, threatening to steal every kill she makes. But her deepest struggle lies within. Lions are the only truly social cats, and for an animal hardwired to live in a pride the years of utter isolation must be unnaturally lonely.
For four years, wildlife cameraman Herbert Brauer has watched Lady Liuwa's lonely life unfold through his lens, and witnessed an unexpected change in her. In her solitude, she began to reach out to him for companionship. Slowly trust grew between them, and they forged an incredible friendship. Today, she enters his camp, sleeps outside his tent, and fearlessly follows only metres behind him. But Herbert knows he is not the companion this lonely lioness needs - she should be in the company of her own kind.
In May of 2009, there is hope for returning lions to Liuwa. A translocation of two male lions has begun. Will this be the beginning of a new generation of lions in Liuwa, and the end of Lady Liuwa's reign as The Last Lioness?

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