Grounded

"It was good for the skin to touch the bare Earth, and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with their bare feet on the sacred Earth. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing"
~ Luther Standing Bear ~ Sioux Tribal Leader - 1868-1939

From a world older and more complete, a nomadic arctic animal, the wolverine, and all such creatures, help a man on a lifelong quest in a journey to explore life's profound mysteries. From ancient times, nature revealed an interconnected life force to humans, in the form of rhythms and patterns.

This is a true story of actual events unfolded over thirteen months, which changed this man's life. Could it happen to you?

Anima Mundi

Will you survive the transition of human industrial civilization happening now due to peak oil and climate change? Can you see the forest for the trees, the earth for the dream, the universe for the seed? Anima Mundi is an innovative documentary about the planetary animal called Gaia and the human animal we deny, we deny at our own peril, yet a peril that is perfect in design.

Featuring:
David Holmgren – co-founder of Permaculture
John Seed OAM – Deep Ecology
Stephan Harding – Gaian Ecology
Vandana Shiva – Human Rights
Michael C Ruppert – Peak Oil (as seen in the movie Collapse)
Michael Reynolds – Earthships (as seen in the movie Garbage Warrior)
Noam Chomsky – Activism
Dr Mark O’Meadhra – Integrative Medicine
Dr Christine James – Psychology
Permablitz – Permaculture



Peak Oil

Wonders Of Life (BBC 2013)

Professor Brian Cox explores the globe to reveal how a few fundamental laws of science gave birth to the most complex and unique feature of the universe - life.

Episode 1: What Is Life?



Episode 2: Expanding Universe



Episode 3: Endless Forms Most Beautiful



Episode 4: Size Matters



Episode 5: Home

The Majestic Plastic Bag

Follow the poignant migration of a plastic bag as it travels from the parking lot of a supermarket, through the urban landscape, to the sea. If it can avoid predators and earthly ensnarement, it will 'join a billion other petroleum species' in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and live joyfully in perpetuity.

Let's Talk About Soil

This animated film tells the reality of soil resources around the world, covering the issues of degradation, urbanization, land grabbing and overexploitation; the film offers options to make the way we manage our soils more sustainable.

The Living Planet (BBC)

The Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 19 January 1984. The sequel to his pioneering Life on Earth, it is a study of the ways in which living organisms, including humans, adapt to their surroundings. Each of the twelve 55-minute episodes featured a different environment. 

Episode 1: The Building of the Earth

Episode 2: The Frozen World



Episode 3: The Northern Forests



Episode 4: Jungle



Episode 5: Seas of Grass



Episode 6: The Baking Deserts



Episode 7: The Sky Above



Episode 8: Sweet Fresh Water



Episode 9: The Margins of the Land



Episode 10: Worlds Apart



Episode 11: The Open Ocean



Episode 12: New Worlds

A Silent Forest

The Growing Threat: Genetically Engineered Trees

This award winning documentary film explores the growing global threat of genetically engineered trees to our environment and to human health. The film features renowned geneticist and host of PBS' The Nature of Things David Suzuki, who explores the unknown and possibly disastrous consequences of improperly tested GE methods. Many scientists and activists are interviewed in the film, which serves as an effective and succinct tool for understanding the complex issue of GE trees.

"It doesn't matter how it gets there, destroying your crop. All of your crop, becomes Monsanto's ownership and they can lay a lawsuit on top of it against you. Even if the contamination rate is 1%, all your other 99% of your crop goes to Monsanto. And that's what startled the world, how farmers can lose their rights overnight, an organic farmer can lose his seeds and his rights overnight, and get subject to a lawsuit."

Man

Looking at mans relationship with the natural world.

Wild Europe (BBC)

All across the continent are clues that help us to shed light on the deep past and Europe's dramatic creation. In Genesis, we witness the birth of mountains as tall as the Himalayas, coalfields transformed in to leafy swamps roamed by giant dragonflies and plesiosaurs roaming our once-tropical oceans. In this educational BBC documentary programme we see the raising of the Alps and the ripping open of the Atlantic as Europe is finally born.

Part 1: Genesis



Part 2:  Ice Ages

2.5 million years ago, a periodic shift in the Earth's orbit, coupled with a tilt in its axis, triggered a sudden change in climate and Europe was plunged into an ice age. The wintry iciness of today's Alps spread across northern Europe as ice sheets extended as far south as London, Amsterdam and Berlin. Conditions were ideal for cold-adapted animals, forerunners of musk oxen and reindeer. Woolly mammoth bones dredged from the bottom of the North Sea are evidence that this was once icy tundra. The warm interglacial periods attracted very different creatures: fossil hippos, rhinos, lions and hyenas have been unearthed in London. This thermal pulsing has occurred around twenty times, the last ice age ending 15,000 years ago.

Part 3: Taming The Wild

The third programme explores the growing influence of people on the land. After the last ice age, Europe's mild climate and virgin forests attracted human and animal immigrants, including moose, bear, deer and wild boar. The agreeable climate also attracted immigrant farmers from Mesopotamia to the eastern Mediterranean, and reliable food supplies encouraged permanent settlement. By 3000 BC, civilization had spread to western megalithic sites such as Stonehenge and Carnac. Bronze Age Europeans discovered the smelting process, leading to a period of conflict and conquest over valuable metal ores. The Roman Empire was born, and a massive road-building enterprise ensued, enabling a flow of trade, livestock, ideas and culture.

Part 4: A New Millenium

Europe is home to more than 700 million people, most of them city dwellers. Much of its wildlife has suffered as a result, but efforts are underway to protect and reintroduce some species.

Mother Trees Connect The Forest

In this real-life model of forest resilience and regeneration, Professor Suzanne Simard shows that all trees in a forest ecosystem are interconnected, with the largest, oldest, "mother trees" serving as hubs. The underground exchange of nutrients increases the survival of younger trees linked into the network of old trees. Amazingly, we find that in a forest, 1+1 equals more than 2.

Anima Mundi

Anima Mundi is a poetic combination of music and images created from the finest existing footage from the naturalist film field, interwoven with original images and accompanied by a continuous soundtrack composed by Philip Glass based on rhythms and music from the most unspoiled traditional ethnic music.

This work was designed to celebrate the Biological Diversity Campaign of WWF and to create feelings and emotions which, through rich, striking and breathtaking images from Nature may lead its viewers to feel that they are truly a part of the natural world.

The title, 'Anima Mundi', reproposes a concept which, throughout the history of mankind from ancient times, conjures up a harmonic principle controlling the laws of life on earth in all its various forms and relationships. Natural order and beauty are based on differences and the endless variety of species, elements, beings and systems which together form a marvelous balanced and harmonious Whole.

Several ecological themes are firmly based on the idea of anima mundi, which attributes a cosmic breath to the earth. Nature, joyfully venerated for thousands of years by people all over the globe, supports the suffering of its generation simply because it is animated by a deeply rooted and mysterious vital force which justifies everything as well as the position of all elements in the complex order of nature.

Godfrey Reggio, the director of Anima Mundi, translated this concept into images to interpret WWF's campaign on biological diversity: the concept of anima mundi forms the basis of this film and requires a stylistic type of poetic communication, which is both immediately and deeply felt as it emotionally expresses the myriad of meanings contained in this concept, rather than to simply describe and explain them. Godfrey Reggio's intention is that of conjuring up a sense of the force of nature by following a path which goes beyond habit, calling forth the deep rooted and archaic sense of man's 'being a part' of nature.

Part 2

Baraka

Baraka is an incredible nonverbal film containing images of 24 countries from 6 continents, created by Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, with music from Michael Stearns and others. The film has no plot, contains no actors and has no script. Instead, high quality 70mm images show some of the best, and worse, parts of nature and human life. Timelapse is used heavily to show everyday life from a different perspective. Baraka is often considered a spiritual film.

Deep Ocean Mysteries And Wonders

In the deepest, darkest parts of the oceans are ecosystems with more diversity than a tropical rainforest. Taking us on a voyage into the ocean -- from the deepest trenches to the remains of the Titanic -- marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder and beauty of marine life.

Repurposing Plastic Beach Debris

Along the surf line of a seemingly pristine beach on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, fashion designer Barbara de Vries spotted some pretty specks of color, which turned out to be pieces of discarded plastic. And so, what started out as a vacation turned into a new career - raising awareness about plastic debris through art. De Vries marvels at the poetic justice of picking up plastic on a beach, taking ownership of the problem, repurposing the plastic into high fashion jewelry, and having it sold back right on the same beach.



One Beach

Why do we love the beach? "Maybe we love the beach because we carry the sea within us, a heart full of ocean pumping a rhythm, a rhythm, a rhythm..." But our beaches are currently filled with plastic debris, littered or washed up from across the sea. This film highlights the work of five individuals and organizations that are caring for their ONE beach with creative solutions. Their message? Take ownership of this plastic. And while you are at it, pick it up and do something creative with it.

Life After People - Complete Season One

What would happen if every human being on Earth disappeared? This isn t the story of how we might vanish it is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind. Building off the success of the HISTORY two-hour special Life After People, this series continues the exploration of a world wiped clean of humanity, in even more vivid detail.

Each episode is a stunningly graphic examination of how the very landscape of planet Earth would change in our absence, using cinematic CGI to reveal in scientific detail the fate of every aspect of the man-made world. What happens to the millions of animals that supply our food? The chemicals stored in industrial complexes? Which animals take over subways? Do satellites fall to Earth? When does Mt. Rushmore wither away? Every episode will unfold in the hours, days, months and years after people disappear and will combine three to four different kinds of stories, from animal outbreaks to structural collapses, building to a unique visual finale. Welcome to Earth, population zero.

Episode 1: Life After People



Episode 2: Outbreak



Episode 3: The Capital Retreat



Episode 4: Heavy Metal



Episode 5: The Invaders



Episode 6: Bound And Buried



Episode 7: Sin City Meltdown



Episode 8: Armed And Defenseless



Episode 9: The Road To Nowhere



Episode 10: Waters Of Death

Give Earth A Hand

How often have we allowed ourselves to be consumed by our wants? As this video shows, the earth needs a hand to achieve a sustainable future.

Meghalayas' Living Bridge

A bridge in Meghalaya constructed by the living roots of Fig Trees

Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out Of Balance

Prepare to experience a truly remarkable filma cinematic masterpiece so extraordinary that it regales the senses, stimulates the mind and actually 'redefines the potential of filmmaking (The Hollywood Reporter). Celebrated director Godfrey Reggio, innovative cinematographer Ron Fricke and Golden Globe-winning composer Philip Glass have created a spellbinding film so rich in beauty and detail that with each viewing it becomes a new and different film (Leonard Maltin). Unique profound mesmerizing and thought-provoking (Boxoffice), Koyaanisqatsi contrasts the tranquil beauty of nature with the frenzied hum of contemporary urban society. Uniting breathtaking imagery with a hauntingly evocative, award-winning score, it is original and fascinating one of the greatest (cult)films of all time.

She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for

This is a non-commercial attempt to highlight the fact that world leaders, irresponsible corporates and mindless 'consumers' are combining to destroy life on earth. It is dedicated to all who died fighting for the planet and those whose lives are on the line today.

George Carlin - Saving The Planet

Comedian George Carlin on saving the planet.