AVAILABLE FORMATS: 4K UHD

We go along different trails around the planet – but we will not take the easy road.

Hiking and biking will help us to discover spectacular places and unknown land-sites from the Inca Trail in Peru through Spain’s Extremadura to the Way of St. James in Norway.  We get to meet the local population, drink and eat the regional food and take part in fiestas and traditions.  But we will also look for spaces to relax and visit the cultural sites.  Travel through waterfalls and gorges to amazing peaks and cosy shelters.  You will enjoy the trip – the active way!

Competitors take part in all 3 stages of the Tour de Tirol.  The Söller Zehner, the Kaisermarathon Söll and the Pölven Trail.

On your mark!  Get set!  The boom of the starter gun indicates go and go they went.  The Tour de Tirol is a stage race of about 75 km and 3650 hm, which takes place in Söll and lasts three days.  On the first day, the finish line is set at 10km.  The second day is a 52km marathon over a mountainous trail and the final day is a 23 km trail rum with plenty altitude.  It is quite an insane challenge but with this race one gets to know one’s body, one’s limits, and one’s drive to succeed.  From this race one finds out what one is capable of!

The Tour de Tirol started in 2006.  It is a unique race with high standards within beautiful mountain sceneries of the Austrian Alps.  We accompany Alexander Bille, 42 years old, hobby runner from the flatlands, during these three days, we watch him from above and along the route to the finish line and interview him before and after the race.  He knew it would be hard, but he did not know how hard it was going to be.

How hard is it to do some of the toughest, oddest, most dangerous tasks on the planet?  Andrew Younghusband (Don’t Drive Here, Canada’s Worst Driver) finds out first-hand as he delves into the world of terrifying heights, extreme sports, tough trades, small spaces, and strange hobbies.  Younghusband’s wild quest takes him into the dangerous, weird and just plain crazy, as he meets people driven by passion who do jobs and partake in pastimes that often look impossible.  But are they?  In each episode, with minimal training, Younghusband struggles to keep up with the pros as they explain what they do, while showing him the ropes.  From working as a window cleaner on a dauntingly high skyscraper and wing walking on a bi-plane in mid-air, to barefoot water skiing and racing lawnmowers, nothing is too scary or obscure for Younghusband to try at least once.

Intricately handwoven cotton and silk, with adorning embellishments of threadwork and embroidery – each uniquely crafted in India.  It is through these colours, patterns, and textures that Indian designers express their individuality & creativity in this land of contrasts and contradictions.  New York-based Smita Conjeevaram has returned to India to uncover the hidden gems of her native land, exploring the artistry and ancient traditions of the textile industry from the foothills of the Himalayas to the backstreets of Mumbai.  Brought to life for the first time, Threads of India is an adventure like no other – a colorful feast for the eyes, a resounding musical treat for the ears, and an unparalleled cultural experience for the soul.

It is the largest body of water on earth, covering nearly 30% of our planet.  Home to a stunning menagerie of creatures.  Great Whites hunting in ghostly silence.  Ballets of whale sharks and giant mantas.  Swarms of mating squid in a magical kelp forest.  Voracious striped marlin, sea lions, and pelicans decimating great schools of herring.  Experience The Wild Pacific.  From Emmy-nominated producer Michael Watchulonis.  Cinematography by Emmy-winning cameraman Johnny Friday.

This documentary looks at the history of beer starting with the Sumerians who invented it 5.000 years ago through to the leading export of today and the new trend of the future: craft beer.  Prost!

Prince Luitpold of Bavaria: if Germany were still a monarchy, this member of the House of Wittelsbach would be King of Bavaria.  What does this have to do with beer?  His Highness brews one of the best beers in Bavaria.  No wonder – it was one of his ancestors that introduced the Reinheitsgebot (German purity law) in 1516, and it remains in force to this day: the only ingredients permitted are hops, malt, and water.  500 years of pure beer – without chemicals, flavour enhancers or colour additive additives as is common in the rest of the world.  There are 5,000 different beers in Germany, produced in more than 1,300 breweries.

Great beer has always been synonymous with Germany.  Let’s find out why!

This is a story that follows three famous pro-golfers during their off season training in Thailand and America.  See how vigorous the training is in preparation for the championships.  Also get some invaluable tips on how to improve your own game.  All this and more, against the beautiful backdrop of Thailand and America.

In 1959, a government employee named Richard Oyler, living in the tiny desert town of Lone Pine, California, asked world-famous modern architect Richard Neutra to design his modest family home.  To Oyler’s surprise, Neutra agreed.  Thus began an unlikely friendship that led to the design and construction of an iconic mid-century modern masterpiece.

Considered the father of California Modern Architecture, Time Magazine put Richard Neutra on their cover in 1949, ranking him second only to Frank Lloyd Wright among America’s greatest architects.  The Oyler House: Richard Neutra’s Desert Retreat explores how Neutra came to befriend this modest, small-town family, and how he was inspired by the site’s stunning desert setting, which Neutra compared to the grandness of the mystical Gobi Desert.

Now owned by the actress Kelly Lynch and her writer-producer husband Mitch Glazer, the post & beam-style home and its exotic surroundings shine through beautiful cinematography, and the story comes to life through interviews with Richard Oyler, Kelly Lynch, Neutra’s sons, and well-known Los Angeles real estate agent Crosby Doe, who has represented homes by some of history’s greatest modern architects.

Kakadu National Park is located in the northernmost part of Australia.  During the rainy season, when vast expanses of wetland appear and many aquatic insects and fish emerge, aquatic birds arrive to feed on them and breed.  Among them is the comb-crested Jacana.  These unique birds use their long toes to gracefully walk across lotus leaves and catch underwater prey.  Interestingly, these birds are polyandrous, meaning the females mate with more than one male.  Females therefore lay a lot of clutches and it is the males alone who care for them.  This episode, filmed between the rainy season and dry season when the park undergoes drastic changes, follows the lives of these aquatic birds.

Sperm whales are back, and learning how to steal fish off their hooks.  They are also learning how to speak a special “coda” language, and fool killer whales – their ancient enemies.  They have now started to investigate our oil rigs, telecommunication cables, and submarines.  Their large brains – the biggest in the animal kingdom – try to decipher our innovations … and turn them to their advantage.  Discover the new sperm whale.

The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef, covers a range of over 2,000 kilometers off the northeast coast of Australia.  Magnificent spectacles of the birth of life unfold here every summer.  Male and female surgeonfish swim at lightning speed toward the water surface and spawn; tens of thousands of green sea turtles simultaneously come ashore under the star-filled sky to lay eggs; and the climax is a rare sight of some 100 varieties of coral all spawning at once within a timeframe of only 15 minutes.

Enjoy the breathtaking moments successfully caught on an unprecedented scale by taking full advantage of the amazingly rich colors of high-definition 4K cameras.

Immerse yourself in the mysterious drama of life under the spell of the moon on a summer night.

Experience the thrill of flying and soar through the history of flight, from the Wright brothers to the dramatic high-speed aerobatics of the world-renowned Blue Angels.

The Living Sea celebrates the beauty and power of the ocean as it explores our relationship with this complex and fragile environment.  Using beautiful images of unspoiled healthy waters, The Living Sea offers hope for recovery engendered by productive scientific efforts.

Oceanographers studying humpback whales, jellyfish, and deep-sea life show us that the more we understand the ocean and its inhabitants, the more we will know how to protect them.  The film also highlights the Central Pacific islands of Palau, one of the most spectacular underwater habitats in the world to show the beauty and potential of a healthy ocean.

The Living Sea is narrated by Meryl Streep and features songs and music by Sting.

Fly across iridescent tropical reefs, brush through a cloud of a million jellyfish, visit an alien world where the closer you look, the more you see.

We think of reefs as exotic, distant places with little connection to our everyday world.  Yet there are many kinds of reef, each of them a living city beneath the sea, where plants and animals congregate in mutual benefit.  They have a parallel existence to ours, distant yet undoubtedly connected.

Each of them is a hotspot of biodiversity as vital to life on earth as the rainforests.  Just as the Amazon has its secrets, so too do the reefs.  Reefs have been molding and shaping our shorelines, literally forming islands and mountains, for millions of years.  Yet in our lifetime, they have come under threat: human activity is altering the chemistry of the oceans.  As the sea becomes more acidic, coral, shell and bone begin to crumble.

Shot on location in Palau, Vancouver Island, French Polynesia, Mexico, and The Bahamas, The Last Reef takes us on a global journey to explore our connection with the ocean’s complex, parallel worlds.  New underwater 3D technology takes us into the heart of the reef, revealing a habitat more diverse and more colorful than you ever imagined …

What would it mean to us if one of these vibrant wonderlands were to become the last reef?

The Greatest Places is a large-format film that takes you on an educational journey to seven of the most geographically dynamic locations on Earth, including Greenland, Madagascar, Namib, Okavango, Tibet, Iguazu, and the Amazon.

The Amazon River is home to a wide variety of unique fish.  NHK spent over two years exploring the dense jungle to closely follow the Amazon’s stunning underwater creatures with 4K cameras.  The exploration led to an encounter with a crystal clear natural spring, and successful recordings of fascinating creatures of the Amazon.  Captured on camera are very rare footage of electric eels hunting prey, energetic images of the Amazon river dolphin attacking a school of fish in high speed 4K, and a unique sight of local fishermen catching a gigantic 2-meter shark-like catfish.

Come and unveil the drama of the legendary fish in the most magnificent river.

The Amazon rainforest is a luscious jungle wonderland, a treasure trove of many unidentified animals.  The jungle is long on anecdotes about various legendary creatures, in particular the primate “Mono Grande.”  A photo taken in the early 20th century of this gigantic ape amazed the world as a possible new simian, and sightings remain rife today.

“Does the Mono Grande really exist?”

Driven by the desire to find out, an NHK crew thrusts deep into the jungle, encountering exotic monkeys on the way.

After over 100 days of desperate exploration, the crew finally meets up with a enormous monkey!  But is it the legendary Mono Grande they are after … ?

This is remarkable story about a young genet who after losing its mother’s track decides to embark on a lonely journey to look for her.  The forest gives it shelter, food, but it is also filled with traps of nature, threatening dangers, and enemies that turn into allies.

Marvel at the awesome power of nature as The Eruption of Mount St. Helens displays the change evoked by a massive volcanic eruption and the renewal process which follows it.  In this Academy Award nominated film, beautiful photography of the mountain prior to May 18th, 1980, is harshly contrasted with the apocalyptic post-eruption scenery created when the entire side of Mount St. Helens was blown away in billowing clouds of ash.  Soar over and through the unearthly landscape of mud, ash and steaming craters in a ride that shows just what it is like to have an exploding volcano in your backyard.

In the open wilderness of Africa, there are only 20.000 lions living a free life.  Humans have killed hundreds of thousands in the last decades – mostly for purely hunting purposes.  In the last couple of years, a new industry has developed called the canned hunting.  After 4-5 years of breeding, young lions are shot in special areas, after which tourists pay up to 40.000 USD for the corpse of the dead male lion.

A real industry developed in South Africa – lion cubs are used in petting zoos, bones of the animals are exported to Asia for so-called medical “purposes.”

Figures of more than 10.000 lions in captivity being targets for future canned hunting are supposed to be real these days.

We want to open public eyes on these industries using big cat lives for money making.  With investigative means, hidden cameras, we will try to get in touch with the people behind these intrigues.

First and foremost we want to stress the work of FOUR PAWS to save and protect big cats worldwide.  As part of FOUR PAWS’ work for wild animals in captivity, the organization focuses on the situation of big cats in zoos, in private captivity, and in the entertainment industry.

First successful action took place in 2002, when four lion cubs used for taking photos with tourists were sent from Romania to a sanctuary in South Africa.  Ever since then, FOUR PRAWS has increasingly stepped in more on this issue and has undertaken research in several countries in order to collect information about the conditions and numbers of big cats in captivity.  In November 2007, the first transfer or “rescue action” with two lions from Romania, and ten lions from Austria took place.

In the meantime the Big Cat Sanctuary LIONSROCK in South Africa is now home to more than 90 big cats.  Furthermore, FOUR PAWS concentrate on collecting more information on big cats around the world and will increase its network with other big cat sanctuaries and big cat experts.