Encounter in Space

In Canada and Alaska, the consequences of global warming are being keenly felt by brown bears - but in different ways by different populations. Their survival depends mainly on the quantity of wild salmon available in the region, as it is the fruit of their catch that enables the bears to accumulate fat reserves for the winter. While salmon populations off Canada's Pacific coast continue to decline year after year, in the immense Bristol Bay in western Alaska, as well as on Kodiak Island, they are increasing considerably. The water temperature in the North Pacific is now ideal for salmon development. From Canada to Alaska, the documentary follows different bear populations over a two-year period.

For 70 years, the population of the wapiti deer in the Yellowstone National Park in the United States increased unchecked. Without natural predators and despite all human attempts to check the increase of the deer population they kept spreading and destroyed vast regions of the park's vegetation. They literally defoliated the National Park. However, a well-directed reintroduction of 41 wolves between 1995 and 1997 worked wonders: The animals restored the natural balance in the National Park.

In May 2014 three men were sent into space for a period of six months: the American astronaut Reid Wiseman, German Alexander Gerst and Russian Maxim Surayev. For Wiseman and Barley, it was their first space trip. They take you on a breathtaking adventure. The film follows them during their last months of training in different locations - the NASA center in Houston, Star City near Moscow and the European Centre in Cologne - and ultimately, the launch from Kazakhstan in May 2014. During their six-month stay, the astronauts also shoot footage, giving the viewer an overall picture of what it means to be an astronaut. Zero Gravity is a unique experience full of inside information, fascinating images of space as well as a beautiful story about friendship and devotion.

For centuries, bears have been relentlessly hunted and exterminated in Europe. In recent years, reintroduction programs, initiated by the European Union in particular, have aimed to re-establish these mammals in their former habitat, such as the Pyrenees or northern Italy. But the return of the bears is not without consequences, and is generating opposition. Breeders fear material damage caused by the reintroduced animals and, although rare, attacks on humans have been recorded in the past. In other European countries, such as Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, people have learned to live with bears over the centuries.

70 years after the last wolves roamed the national park, a total of 41 wolves were reintroduced between 1995 and 1997. A globally unique experiment that had many supporters, but also resolute opponents, then as now.

At 38, Thomas Pesquet is the youngest French astronaut to be selected for a 180 days mission in the ISS. Oleg Novitskiy, the Russian pilot and the American Peggy Whitson, the most experienced astronaut in the world, train alongside him.

Directed by Franco-German duo Pierre-Emmanuel Le Goff and Jürgen Hansen, Through the Eyes of an Astronaut is a 28-minute documentary based on images shot on board (and outside) of the International Space Station (ISS) by Thomas Pesquet, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) youngest astronaut, and the 10th French astronaut to travel into space. Enjoy the highlights of his six-month space odyssey, the Proxima Mission, 400 km above the Earth. Pesquet docked with the ISS in November 2016 for a 196-day, 17-hour, and 49-minute mission. The filmmakers and Pesquet had agreed to a shooting plan before the mission, but the result exceeded their expectations! Pesquet kept a daily visual diary -he brought back more than 600 hours of footage, including 40 in IMAX format, sharing his thoughts and feelings on the beauty and fragile nature of our planet, and man’s place in the universe.

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and his NASA colleague Reid Wiseman are launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Gerst and Wiseman spend six months in humanity's outpost in space and film many of their activities.

The small Italian volcanic island of Linosa, south of Sicily, is home to one of the largest colonies of cuttlefish shearwaters in the Mediterranean. According to legend, the birds, with their distinctive song, provided the inspiration for Homer's epic poem: Odysseus had himself tied to the mast of his ship so he could safely listen to the song of the Sirens.