Ushuaïa TV

Man has always sought to seek further afield. After the seafaring explorers of the 16th century, 21st century cosmologists today navigate more celestial oceans, with each mission providing an ever-broader and more impressive cartography of our surroundings. At the avant garde of modern technology, these strange travellers are actually immobile, and their vessels are powerful and spectacular telescopes, on the Earth or in space, constantly widening the limits of our knowledge and giving form to our dreams of infinity. From Hawaii to Australia, via South Africa and China, we set out on an incredible scientific and human adventure to visit the planet's greatest cosmic exploration centres to discover the new challenges involved in understanding the universe. A journey on Earth and in the heavens that will take your breath away!

French actress Marion Cotillard travelled to the Philippines to meet with children and young people on climate change and what they want big-polluting governments to do about it. One of the girls she met is Marinel, a survivor of the Super Typhoon disaster in the Philippines in 2013, who is taking action on climate change in her own community. She participates in Plan International’s climate change adaptation projects and now teaches at youth camps to pass on everything she has learnt to the younger children. Marinel travelled to Paris with Plan International for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in December 2015.

In the Southern Andes, a living being survives since 200 million years: the "Araucaria Araucana" with its incredible history, little known and forever linked to an Amerindian people of Chile: Pehuenches. This isolated community survived during centuries thanks to the Araucarias. A perfect harmony between man and nature, forever upset by the invasion of the Spanish colonists, the conflicts of territories and the increase of logging. Protected today, this sacred forests are the refuge of a unique and wild nature; but fires threaten this balance. What remain of these people and the link with this tree? What can they teach us about our environmental problems?

It was long believed that animals only played to learn, only mated to reproduce and only took drugs by accident. But sometimes, they just do it for fun! Research has revealed that animals seek for pleasure just like humans do, and that there are many ways in which they enjoy themselves. Did you know that rats loved to play hide-and-seek? That primates played erotic games to ease tensions within their groups? Or that reindeers were quite fond of hallucinogenic mushrooms? Scientists show that this quest for pleasure – as wild as it can get – might even be a key of evolution and biodiversity! Combining the testimonies of international ethologists, scientific archives and sequences showing the animals in their natural habitats, this unusual documentary reveals the complexity of animal pleasure.

The "gravity" nightmare is becoming a reality: tons of rocket and satellite parts have been scattered into space over the past 60 years. The fragments collide with other objects, producing more and more scrap - a proliferation that has long since gotten out of control and poses an acute danger to rocket launches and space stations.

For the animal and plant world that lives there, the Kalahari is a region as grandiose as it is unforgiving. For a long time it was thought that only the law of the strongest could survive here. But a completely different strategy is needed: cooperation.

This investigation by Marie-Monique Robin makes the link between the proliferation of new viruses and the destruction of biodiversity and probes the scientists gathered around the issue of global health. To counter the multiplication of health crises, these specialists advocate the preservation of biodiversity as an antidote.

Kenya, 2050. The reserve has dwindled to half its size, under pressure from farmers who have enlarged their territory at the expense of the animals. Among the latter, the last giraffe just died. To be able to admire this fabulous beast again, you’d have to go back to 2016, when it became clear that the biggest living land animal was threatened with extinction due to poaching and loss of habitat. Thanks to some spectacular images of this enchanted place with its abundant biodiversity, this film offers a new type of documentary experience, to understand how this symbol of the African continent could end up disappearing from the planet. By imagining its future, it reveals to us the reality of life in the wild and the daily life of this animal, few of which reach adulthood. We follow in the footsteps of Twiga's family, one of the last baby giraffes, who attends helplessly at the death of his mother. A heartfelt tribute to this mammal whose unique anatomy continues to fascinate.

For more than a decade, wildfires of unprecedented force have been devouring our lives, homes and forests at a steady pace. Each year, 350 million hectares of forest go up in smoke, the equivalent of six times the size of France. In the US, the fire season now lasts up to two months longer than a generation ago, and the surface burnt annually has multiplied by three. This film sets out on a gripping journey of investigation from Europe to the US, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia to follow the work of a global team of dedicated firefighters, scientists and fire experts as they investigate why our forests are going up in flames, and act on an unexpected discovery: if we want to save our forests, homes, health and our climate, we need to radically change our attitude towards fire and the way we fight wildfires.

Rather than learning France's history through its people, we explore its natural history. A two billion-year journey back in time to look at the country's geological heritage: a mountain chain becomes Brittany, lagoons where Paris now stands, ice from the Aiguille du Midi maps the routes of rivers flowing seawards.

Does Europe also have its own animistic heritage, like Pachamama in South America and Shinto in Japan? If so, which one? In the Misty Lands, i.e. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, a sacred fire is lit on the winter solstice to celebrate the return of the sun and ancient beliefs that have been forgotten in the rest of Europe for thousands of years. Sophie Planque and Jérémy Vaugeois decided to take a journey on bicycles to experience the Baltic winter and meet the people who keep their ancestral culture alive. A unique heritage that reinforces a deep relationship with nature.

In the Darhat valley in northern Mongolia, the horses of nomadic tribes are stolen by bandits who then sell them to Russian slaughterhouses. Shukhert, a brave horseman, relentlessly pursues them through the Mongolian taiga, bordering Siberia.

In October 2010, two of France's top mountaineers, Christophe Dumarest and Yann Borgnet, fulfilled a mountaineer's dream: a six-day alpine-style ascent of Walter Bonatti's great routes through the Mont Blanc massif. Dumarest and Borgnet first climbed the north face of the Grandes Jorasses; they then climbed the Grand Capucin and the Pilier Rouge du Brouillard, completing their feat with the ascent of Mont Blanc. Their paragliding descent in Chamonix completes their feat with a touch of fun. The climbers and the director made the ethical choice not to use helicopters to shoot the film.