Life in Harmony with Nature: Bamboo Forest - Yunnan Province, China #

(2007 / Japan / 49min / Director : Zhang Keming )

<<Japanese>>

Rice paddies, villages, and bamboo groves form Yunnan Province's typical landscape. People there live with bamboo. Images of their culture and animals and plants all come alive in the beautiful seasons of China's countryside.

Poor But Selfless: Tanaka Shozo and the People Who Fought With Him #
(2006 / Japan / 98min / Director : Ikeda Hiroo)

≦≦Japanese with English
subtitle>>

"True civilization does not devastate mountains, or rivers, or villages; nor does it kill humans." The film depicts the life of Tanaka Shozo, showing how he and the peasants confronted the Ashio copper-mine poisoning incident.

Tiger: the Death Chronicles #

(2007 / India / 63min / Director : Krishnendu Bose)

<<English with Japanese subtitle>>

Despite 30 years of protection policy, the tiger population continues to decline rapidly. In a search for answers, the film zeroes in on development projects and international poaching.

Village Submerged #

(2007 / Japan / 92min / Director : Ohnishi Nobuo)

<<Japanese with English subtitle>>

Tokuyama Village in Gifu Prefecture used to have 466 households and 1500 residents. The 1976 approval of the Tokuyama Dam construction forced residents to leave the village. Now the dam construction stalled, and 8 residents in 5 households returned to the village to live out their lives.

Carpa Diem

(2006 / Italy / 2min / Director : Sergio Cannella)

<<No Dialogue>>

A young girl is staring at a carp in the fish tank. Suddenly, the water in the fish tank....

Fantastic Sea Creatures: The Sea Horse

(2003 / Germany / 5min / Director : Tim F?rderer)

<<Japanese voice over>>

The film depicts the mysterious life of the sea horse, which looks nothing like a fish.

For the Masses

(2007 / USA / 5 min / Director : Corrie Francis)

<<No Dialogue>>

Highways are built to give access to a beautiful mountain area. City folks flocked there for a fleeting moment of relaxation....

Budapest Wild

(2006 / Hungary / 34min / Director : Zsolt Marcell Toth)

<<Japanese Narration with English Subtitle>>

A tapestry of Budapest, woven with the lives of diverse living things inhabiting the city.

Man and Whale

(2007 / Japan / 2min / Director : Yamamura Koji)

<<Japanese with English Subtitle>>

At a school facing the ocean, the old principal was lost in thought looking at the picture of a whale he drew when he was a young boy. Then, he saw something in the sea....

The Meatrix

(2006 / USA / 11min / Director : Louis Fox)

<<Japanese Voice Over>>

Leo, the pig, is living in a beautiful farm. One day, Moopheus, the bull, shows up and Leo's adventure to uncover the farm’s truth begins.

Compost May Save the Earth!?: The Recycling Life of a Mother and a Daughter Using Cardboard Boxes for Compost

(2007 / Japan / 24min / Director : Miyakawa Naoko)

<<Japanese>>

Compost containers for recycling raw refuse have not caught on because they are expensive and take up space. The film presents a solution, using cardboard boxes for compost.

Puffing Away

(2006 / Canada / 3min / Director : Isaac King)

<<No Narration>>

The poetic art animation vividly represents mankind feeding its greed, with the consequences expanding to engulf the earth day by day, and also a little hope starting to bud.

A Son of Taiga

(2006 / Germany / 29min / Director : Andreas Voigt)

<<Japanese Voice Over with
English subtitles>>

Following the life of a young boy, the film quietly depicts the life of an indigenous people, Khanty, nurtured in the severe environment of the mid-Ob River area in western Siberia, and traces the influence of oilfield development on these people.

To Live: Save Our Saemankum #

(2006 / Korea / 75min / Director : Lee Kang-Gil)

<<Korean with English subtitle & Japanese subtitle>>

Saemankun is a vast stretch of tidal flat. People had depended on its abundant seafood. Then a reclamation project began. Seeing their source of livelihood being destroyed, the residents' once active opposition movement is gradually declining.

Cradle of the Sea #

(2006 / Japan / 54min / Directors: Morita Kazutoshi, Iwasaki Hirofumi)

<<Japanese>>

The Hachi tidal flat at the offing of Takehara City in Hiroshima Prefecture is threatened by the plan to develop an artificial seaweed bed. A young man stood up to save the Hachi tidal flat.

*** The Talk Session about “Tidal Flat” ***

Animal Factories #

(2007 / Korea / 61min / Director : Koo Jung-Hoi)

<<English with Japanese subtitle>>

As the western diet becomes popular, the demand for pork and chicken rises. But do we know what happens at those production sites? Now, the veil is lifted.

Resume of a Shrimp: the Breeder and the Consumer #

(2004 / Japan / 27min / Director : Suzuki Toshiaki)

<<Japanese>>

The shrimps on our table come from Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries. The film shows us aspects of shrimp production not indicated in their "natural" or "cultured" labels.

Greenbelt Reports: Armed by Nature #

(2006 / India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand / 27min / Manori Wijesekera with TVE Asia)

<<English with Japanese subtitle>>

The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused serious damages. Investigation of the damages shed light on the fact that mangrove forests, sand dunes, and coral reefs were nature's defense against tsunami.

*** The Talk Session about “Mangrove and Shrimp” ***

Crude: the Incredible Journey of Oil #

(2007 / Australia / 90min / Director : Richard Smith)

<<English with Japanese subtitle>>

The world's oil fields are deposits of phytoplankton on the ocean floor from the Jurassic period. Will our mass consumption of oil in the last 150 years thrust us back climatically to the warm primeval age when oil fields were formed?

Heat Island Tokyo: Valley of the Wind and Urban Forests Work a Miracle #

(2006 / Japan / 25min / Directors : Kawada Kaworu, Jo Keisuke)

<<Japanese>>

Waste heat from air-conditioners and radiant heat from buildings and asphalt pavements build up in Tokyo, exacerbating the heat island phenomenon. The film focuses on the effectiveness of using greenery in Shinjuku Gyoen and other areas to keep the city cool, following the recent activities of building "windy roads".

Planet Earth: Ice Worlds #

(2006 / Japan / 59min / Director : Ito Yasuhiko)

<<Japanese>>

The film captured Emperor penguins cradling their eggs in the arctic weather of 60 degrees below zero and polar bears hunting in the icy sea. It is a close look at the nature of the polar region, which is suffering the most severe environmental destruction today.

Inconvenient Truth
(USA / 94 min)
<<English with Japanese Subtitles>>