STIRR

Documentary Movies

The Meteor Menace

The Meteor Menace

February 15th, 2013 already is a historic date: out of the blue, a meteorite exploded in the earth’s atmosphere above the Russian region of Chelyabinsk. The massive shockwave destroyed countless windows and buildings. About 1,500 people were injured. The same day, the 40-meter Asteroid 2012 DA 14 passed the earth in a distance of only about 26,000 kilometers – the closest fly-by scientists ever recorded. In \'Meteor Menace\' we put that threat into perspective.

Duration : 52m
Maturity Level : all

The Quiet American Gardener: Hidcote Manor Gardens

The Quiet American Gardener: Hidcote Manor Gardens

Hidcote Manor garden in Gloucestershire is a celebration of Lawrence Johnston’s creative and artistic mind. Johnston was passionate about design, architecture and plants. He was constantly striving to get a new plant into cultivation before anyone else. And although he was American, Laurence Johnston created a seminally English garden.

Duration : 52m
Maturity Level : all

The Quiet American Gardener: Jardin Serre De La Madone

The Quiet American Gardener: Jardin Serre De La Madone

Lawrence Johnston embarked on creating a second garden at Menton in the South of France. Like Hidcote, Jardin Serre de la Madone was a farm that Johnston turned into a magnificent garden. After Johnston’s death in the 1950s, Serre passed through the hands of a series of different owners and was nearly lost, but its reputation was kept alive by a handful of enthusiastic garden connoisseurs.

Duration : 52m
Maturity Level : all

The Kalahari

The Kalahari

The Kalahari is a vast stretch of wilderness, a place of sun-drenched landscapes, a place of extremes. For the majority of the time, the Kalahari is a pale and dusty landscape. But there comes a period when the rain transforms it into a green paradise, adding colour and a sudden burst of life. For the wildlife population it\'s a daily struggle, for the audience a fascinating demonstration of nature\'s immense capacity to survive.

Duration : 24m
Maturity Level : all

The Story Of The Great Desert Wanderers

The Story Of The Great Desert Wanderers

About 80 million years old, almost completely barren with less than 10mm of rainfall annually, measuring about 50 000 sq km; this is the Namib desert, an arid and hostile land – yet it is home to many unique creatures and those who inhabit her must adapt to her rules. Located in the Kaokoland region of the Namib Desert, the elephant has become a master of desert survival, adapting its behaviors, feeding patterns.

Duration : 48m
Maturity Level : all

The Monster Among Us

The Monster Among Us

Tholeni, a normal, quiet rural village in the Eastern Cape, was turned into a hunting ground for a serial killer in 2008. Villagers were gripped for three years as the killer preyed on women and children. We retrace the story of the attacker and the attacks, using police records and expert investigators. Sometimes the chase for justice is as fascinating in real life as it is in a thriller.

Duration : 48m
Maturity Level : all

Touching The Dragon

Touching The Dragon

Roger Horrocks knows what it feels like to look into the eyes of a man-killer. He is one of a handful of men that have survived close encounters with Africa’s last great predator, the Nile crocodile. Roger wants to film the ultimate spectacle of crocodile behaviour and survive. But he will need to conquer his fear to get closer than ever before.

Duration : 52m
Maturity Level : all

The Final Curtain

The Final Curtain

The Final Curtain tells the story of the tragic and untimely death of legendary South African theatre personality, musician and playwright Taliep Petersen, a beloved Capetonian renowned on the international stage for musicals like District 6, Kat and the Kings and Ghoema.

Duration : 24m
Maturity Level : all

The Last White President: Interviews With South Africa\'s FW De Klerk - Part 1

The Last White President: Interviews With South Africa\'s FW De Klerk - Part 1

Touted as a conservative when he took over from P.W. Botha, former president F.W. de Klerk shocked his supporters and stunned the world by unbanning political parties and freeing Nelson Mandela. This biographical documentary tells the story of how de Klerk made such a surprise decision but how he may have squandered his political legacy by leaving the political stage prematurely.

Duration : 49m
Maturity Level : all

The Best Of Worlds: Life At Its Alpine Limits

The Best Of Worlds: Life At Its Alpine Limits

In the high zones of the Alps, there exists a world parallel to ours. Species have survived dramatic climatic upheavals, human exploitation of the land and now the pressures of mass tourism. The Alps are home to plants and animals that owe their success to an amazing capacity to live in conditions that for other species, humans included, would be barely tolerable.

Duration : 51m
Maturity Level : all

The Last Lion Of Liuwa

The Last Lion Of Liuwa

The Liuwa plain is spectacular and remote, and the source of the mighty Zambezi river. Rich golden grasslands dominate the landscape, but each year violent storms hit the Liuwa and the Zambezi bursts its banks, dramatically transforming this savannah into a vast shallow lake. Our story is told through the eyes of a permanent predator of the Liuwa plain, the last remaining lioness of Liuwa.

Duration : 50m
Maturity Level : all

Tessa Beetge: A Life Interrupted

Tessa Beetge: A Life Interrupted

Tessa Beetge A Life Interrupted follows the story of South African convicted drug mule Tessa Beetge, who was arrested at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport for attempting to smuggle 10 kgs of cocaine out of the country. It was her mothers determination and fight that exposed South Africa’s dark underworld of drug trafficking and lead to the arrest of two key role players who were responsible for recruiting Tessa Bettge.

Duration : 48m
Maturity Level : all

The Blackheart Diaries

The Blackheart Diaries

Alive and incarcerated at Leeuwkop Maximum Security Prison, Lazarus Mazingane has spent the last ten years behind bars after a 5 year reign of terror on Johannesburg’s ethnic women. Posing as a taxi driver, he raped and strangled over 20 women in the 1990’s and was eventually caught at the age of 25.

Duration : 48m
Maturity Level : all

The Last White President: Interviews With South Africa\'s FW De Klerk - Part 2

The Last White President: Interviews With South Africa\'s FW De Klerk - Part 2

Touted as a conservative when he took over from P.W. Botha, former president F.W. de Klerk shocked his supporters and stunned the world by unbanning political parties and freeing Nelson Mandela. This biographical documentary tells the story of how de Klerk made such a surprise decision but how he may have squandered his political legacy by leaving the political stage prematurely.

Duration : 50m
Maturity Level : all

Catatumbo Stories

Catatumbo Stories

The guerrilla war in Colombia is over, but Carolina who lives in a remote rural region of Catatumbo hasn\'t seen much change. As for the past 20 years, her only viable subsistence comes from the illegal growing of coca and selling coca paste for just enough money to buy food and basic supplies. On paper, the government promises help with crop substitution so traditional coca growers could grow legal crops like bananas or cacao. In reality.

Duration : 22m
Maturity Level : all

Game Show Dynamos

Game Show Dynamos

Bernard and Claire Boiko earned enough money on TV shows to escape debt and rebuild their lives. From Tic-Tac-Dough in 1956 to Jeopardy in 1967 and Trivial Pursuit in 1993, they competed on national television 28 times, probably the longest record for individual appearances on husband-and-wife television shows in the world.

Duration : 57m
Maturity Level : all

Crossroads

Crossroads

Valery Liashkevich is now considered an important Belarus artist - but just one year ago, he was living in the railway station and for over twenty years has painted pictures in the streets of the town of Gomel. For the natives he is no more than a local attraction, but the filmmakers set out to show that this eccentric artist and philosopher has many impor-tant truths to tell us about the meaning of life, that his work and attitude to the world make deep sense.

Duration : 1h 1m
Maturity Level : all

Running for Freedom

Running for Freedom

Gerald Tabios, Filipino Ultra Runner, runs his 5th Badwater 135, considered as the world\'s toughest footrace.

Duration : 1h 33m
Maturity Level : all

A Man Returned

A Man Returned

Love in the midst of chaos.

Duration : 29m
Maturity Level : all

Behind Him

Behind Him

A.J.s family tells their story of how they handled his deployment to Iraq in 2003.

Duration : 11m
Maturity Level : all

Jaguar, Closer Than Ever Thought Possible

Jaguar, Closer Than Ever Thought Possible

In an effort of accomplishing a childhood dream a former race car driver and nature lover, Mario Haberfeld, spearheads of one of the biggest and boldest environmental conservation projects in Brazil: Project Oncafari. This documentary closely follows Haberfeld and his team on the challenges they face in order to habituate Jaguars, the largest cat in the Americas, to the presence of man.

Duration : 50m
Maturity Level : all

Father

Father

When did you last talk with your father? Will you ever ask him about those things that hurt you? \n In Father the reality of life is turned upside down to create an impossible dialogue - the dialogue between a child and a father that never happens.

Duration : 15m
Maturity Level : all

New Voices in an Old Flower

New Voices in an Old Flower

\"It was an era, it was the beginning of a new vision,\" says Amha Eshete, the first Ethiopian music producer in the Golden Age, Swingin\' Addis days. The album releases that have crossed the borders of Ethiopia are mainly recordings from the 1950s to the 1980s, yet the contemporary Addis music scene remains, with a few exceptions, unknown to the rest of the world. Is Addis still moving like before?

Duration : 1h 8m
Maturity Level : all

Horse Tales

Horse Tales

Horse Tales tells the story of stable boys, adolescents making a living by taking care of horses. In order to do so, it focuses on their job and their relationships with the animals they care for.

Duration : 17m
Maturity Level : all