Tag Archives: DW Documentary

Archaeology, Documentaries, History, Travel, Videos, Views

Archaeology: Neolithic Village Of Ba’ja In Jordan

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DW Documentary – The Neolithic village of Ba’ja in Jordan

is a famous archaeological site. It was one of the world’s first known settlements, founded some 9,000 years ago. The site has produced magnificent finds including an ancient necklace made of 2,500 beads. What prompted our Neolithic ancestors to settle down? Why did they change their nomadic, hunter-gatherer lives so radically?

As is so often the case in archaeology, it is tombs that tell us the most, while also raising new questions. One of the most magnificent finds at the Ba’ja archaeological site is the richly furnished tomb of a young girl. In 2018, as the excavation team was about to depart, beads emerged from beneath the slab of a nondescript tomb. The team kept working until they finally recovered around 2,500 beads.

Further research showed the beads belonged to an elaborately crafted necklace that had been buried with the girl. The team affectionately christened her Jamila, “the beautiful one.” Jamila’s necklace is a sensation, and has been put on display at the new Petra Museum. There, the entire history of the country is presented, beginning with Ba’ja and humankind’s decision to leave behind the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Along with other finds from Ba’ja, Jamila’s finely wrought necklace calls into question much of what we thought we knew about the Stone Age. In recent decades, the burial site in Jordan has helped us see Neolithic people through different eyes. One thing seems clear: They were able to invest time in aesthetics, jewelry and furnishings because their food supply was secure.

Climate Change, Conservation, Documentaries, Ecosystems, Videos

Droughts: Competing With Nature For Water

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Climate change is causing rising temperatures, extreme weather events and more and more drought. And, in this changing reality, everyone needs more water. Humans are competing with the natural world for water. What does this mean for biodiversity? Fewer and fewer countries still have an abundance of water. The climate crisis, overpopulation and overexploitation are the root of this global problem. And, in a warming world, everyone is using more water: people, agriculture and industry. In Germany, streams and ponds are disappearing, forests and soils are drying out. What does this mean for biodiversity? And how do people cope with drought in countries that have even less water — for example, in the USA or Mexico? What happens when our water dries up?

Analysis, Business, Documentaries, Health, Medicine, Videos

Insights: The Lucrative Business Of Diabetes (2022)

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In our modern consumer society, Type 2 diabetes has become a widespread disease. Companies are developing drugs that are increasingly expensive, but not necessarily more effective. Health authorities are powerless. Diabetes is spreading rapidly, all over the world. The disease destroys lives and puts a strain on public budgets.

The UN is calling on governments to take action. Diabetes is proof that modern societies are incapable of adequately treating chronic disease. It affects around 430 million people worldwide, with two main metabolic disorders falling under the name diabetes. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that must be treated with lifelong doses of insulin, while type 2 can develop when a person’s diet is too high in fat and sugar and they do not engage in enough physical activity.

With turnover of $46 billion, diabetes is a massive and extremely lucrative market. Constantly promised miracle cures have not led to satisfactory treatment, with patients either taking too many drugs or no longer being able to afford them. It’s a desperate situation, and the only ones benefiting seem to be pharmaceutical companies. A medical focus on blood glucose levels has led to an overreliance on medication, sometimes without due concern for dangerous side effects.

Patients become trapped in a cycle of treatment, which in many cases still does not halt the disease’s progression. This can lead to amputations, blindness and heart attacks. And yet there are alternatives that could flatten the curve of the type 2 diabetes epidemic, while reducing health care spending. Improved diet can be a preventative measure, and a strict adherence to diet can also bring about remission in the case of Type 2 diabetes.

But these solutions require effort, as well as a complete rethinking of chronic disease management. Filmed on three continents, this documentary features industry whistleblowers, patients, researchers and medical professionals. It also confronts pharmaceutical companies about their responsibility for the situation.

Climate Change, Technology, Tours, Transportation, Travel, Videos

Tourism & Climate Change: The Future Of Air Travel

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Exotic destinations, or staycations? As we make choices like these, we ask ourselves: Will we ever be able to fly without feeling guilty again? This film examines the tourism business today, and asks how the industry envisages the future.

The pandemic brought the tourist industry to a standstill. But it also highlighted something we have long suspected: Namely, too much travel is bad for the environment.

Not only that, but tourism transforms entire regions – not always for the better. It profoundly impacts communities and often brings benefits for only a very few. But our wanderlust remains. So, do travelers have to decide between the two extremes: exotic destinations (and high carbon footprints) or holidays at home? Given the climate emergency, can we fly without feeling guilty? How environmentally damaging are cruises? And what does it mean to have a sustainable holiday?

This documentary examines an industry that had gotten ahead of itself, even before it was hit by the pandemic. We hear from mayors, tourism managers, a climate expert, an internet activist and a sociologist. The film travels to the European tourist hotspots of Barcelona, Venice and Dubrovnik. The tiny island of Palau in the Pacific Ocean demonstrates how sustainable travel can be sensibly organized, and a Parisian start-up develops a concept for virtual travel experiences.

Business, Culture, Documentaries, Profiles, Travel, Videos, Views

Views: Snowdrops From The Caucasus, Georgia

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Khatuna Jakeli loves snowdrops. Not only because they’re pretty, but because they provide her with an income. Every year in April and May, she treks through the Caucasus mountains of Adjara and collects the wildflower bulbs. The bulbs are then sold to the Netherlands, from where they are shipped to flower stores throughout Europe.

The Caucasus delivers 22 million snowdrops to the Netherlands every year, including 15 million wild snowdrops. A lucrative business, from which little remains for Khatuna Jakeli. Yet it is her most important source of income. A report by Juri Rescheto.

Culture, Documentaries, History, Stories, Travel, Videos, Views

Celebrity Culture: History Of The Côte d’Azur, France

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The Côte d’Azur stands for glamour and luxury, for film festivals and stars, for yachts and villas. The most famous personalities of the last century met here. The Côte owes its unique mythos to their loves and passions.

The Côte d’Azur boasts a breathtakingly gorgeous landscape. But its mythos is more than the sum of it beautiful parts. The whole world associates the narrow coastal strip on the French Mediterranean coast with sun, stars and scandals. In Saint Tropez, a former fishing town, a new and newly sensual art of living was popularized thanks to the young Brigitte Bardot.

On the eastern part of the coast, Oscar winner Grace Kelly conquered the principality of Monaco with her marriage to Prince Rainier. The matchmaker? The Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis, who wanted to burnish the dwarf state’s image. One of the most glamorous film festivals in the world was established in Cannes. After that, it seemed everyone came to the Côte. At the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, the paths of the famous crossed again and again.

For 150 years the hotel has been home to artists, queens and kings, divas and stars. Since 1969, the hotel has been owned by the German industrialist family Oetker. Maja Oetker describes her personal memories of the past 50 years. To this day, the Côte d’Azur has lost none of its appeal. It is more than just a place: it is an entire mythos.

Climate Change, Conservation, Sustainability, Travel, Videos, Views

Views: The Seychelles – Paradise Under Threat

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Dream vacation or destination wedding – where better than Seychelles? The archipelago is especially popular with German tourists. But despite the island nation’s unique approach to nature conservation, this paradise is in danger.

This documentary showcases the archipelago in all its beauty, with rare animal species, white sand beaches… and the conservationists who are working hard to protect it all. Although Seychelles has just 0.13 percent of the land area of Germany, its new protected marine area is larger than the whole country. But climate change has severely impacted the archipelago, as it is often the smallest islands that are first to feel the consequences. Storms and waves damage turtle nests and corals, while further eroding the islands’ coastlines.

The country’s president Wavel Ramkalawan is also concerned. An ordained minister in the Anglican Church, Ramkalawan still preaches to this day. He tells us of the message he draws from the Bible in his fight to save the islands. We also learn about the various initiatives to rescue this tropical paradise. Coral nurseries help to revive damaged reefs. And seagrass plays a major role in combatting rising CO2 levels, as it stores more carbon than a forest of the same area.

Seychelles and Mauritius share an expanse of seagrass larger than Switzerland. The president is calling on the international community to help cover the costs of all this, because revenue from tourism isn’t enough. And many tourists care too little about it. At their wedding photoshoot, a couple from Austria explains how beautiful and easy it is to get married in paradise. But for how much longer will this paradise exist?

Analysis, Conservation, Documentaries, Preservation, Videos

Analysis: Drinking Water – Is The World Drying Up?

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Only 0.3 percent of the Earth’s total water supply is suitable for human consumption. Ominously, this precious resource is beginning to shrink. Natural water reservoirs are drying up due to climate change.

Glaciologist Daniel Farinotti surveys melting glaciers in the Swiss Alps. If glaciers continue to melt at the current rate, he says, there will be no ice left by the end of the century. The disappearance of glacial meltwater would have fatal consequences. From the heights of the Swiss Alpine glaciers, the documentary travels down to the seafloor, off the coast of Malta. Here, the crew of the German expedition ship “Sonne” wants to track down mysterious freshwater deposits in the Mediterranean.

Next up is Peru where, in a bid to counteract the threat of water shortages, work is underway on projects that use ancient Incan methods.

Adventure, Documentaries, Travel, Videos, Views

Africa Views: ‘Safari Train’ From Tanzania To Zambia

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1970 marked the start of construction work on the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, or “Tazara” for short. Some 1,860 km of tracks were laid through thick forest, uninhabited savannah and mountainous terrain as part of one of Africa’s boldest infrastructure projects.

The route was inaugurated in 1976. It links the coastal city of Dar es Salam in northeastern Tanzania with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in central Zambia. Local people have an affectionate nickname for it – “Uhuru” or freedom, symbolizing the people’s hope for a more self-determined life.

But some of the stations along the line have been out of operation for years. Drivers always need to be on the lookout for monkeys, elephants, lions, hippos and giraffes. For passengers, the ticket includes a free safari. Leaving the Selous Game Reserve behind, the Tazara enters the most dangerous and spectacular section of the route.

Drone footage shows dramatic images of a largely unknown area sliced through by the railway line.

Documentaries, Ecosystems, Stories, Travel, Videos, Views

Rainforests: Indigenous People Struggle In Brazil

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“They used to kill us with guns, now they kill us with deforestation and dams.” The Brazilian government’s failure to protect the Amazon forest is forcing the Munduruku indigenous people to take action against land grabs and illegal logging – and try to save the rain forest on their own.

In an unprecedented movement led by Chief Juarez Saw Munduruku, for the last six years indigenous people have been fighting the theft and destruction of their forest home. Since 1970, 20% of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested. Logging and forest fires are threatening a further 20%. Scientists say that at 40% deforestation, we will reach the point of no return. The forest will be lost forever, replaced by savannahs – and the environmental consequences will be catastrophic.

The Amazon is often known as ‘the lungs of the planet,’ producing 6% of the world’s oxygen. It is no secret that the rainforest has been losing a dramatic fight against an array of threats, encouraged by capitalism, consumerism and greed – both legal and illegal.

In today‘s Brazil, some 600,000 square kilometers of land – an area about the size of France — are farmed by farmers who don’t officially own it. The military dictatorship (1964-1985) encouraged them to settle on state-owned land, but the farmers never became legal owners. As a result, speculators now seize the areas, clear the forests, then resell the plots with forged title deeds. This land grab, known as “grilagem” in Portuguese, has led to uncontrolled forest clearing and fierce conflicts.

The documentary was shot from 2014 to 2020, under three different Brazilian governments. It provides deep insights into the drama of the illegal occupation of state land and forest areas by organized crime groups. Several indigenous peoples have united under Juarez Saw Munduruku, leader of the Munduruku people, in a last-ditch bid to save the planet’s most important forest.