(Click CC for subtitles) Four female climbers face the sporting challenge of a lifetime as they attempt to compete in the first ever Olympic climbing competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Follow elite climbers Janja Garnbret, Shauna Coxsey, Brooke Raboutou, and Miho Nonaka over an extraordinary two years: They battle through Olympic qualifying events to earn their place at Tokyo, then face a gruelling season of competition and training that sees everything put on hold when the Covid-19 pandemic forces the Games to be postponed. As the young women confront their own mental and physical demons en-route to Tokyo, the film reveals an astonishing and inspiring insight into what it takes to be an Olympian and ultimately what it means to be human. A uniquely emotional documentary feature film that will touch the heart of audiences around the world.
In households across the world, pets are at the heart of family life. They share our homes, but how well do we really know them? In this series we'll dig deep into our pets' inner lives to discover the secrets they've kept hidden until now. From spectacular feats of communication to extreme athleticism, extraordinary intelligence and incredible super senses. We'll meet remarkable pets from across the globe whose owners have harnessed their hidden skills and shared them with the world and will use groundbreaking technology to reveal how amazing their brains and bodies really are. In the first episode, a base-jumping border collie, a bopping cockatoo, and racing rats show that animal intelligence can get a big boost in the right enriched environment.
Antarctica is the most hostile of all earth’s frozen worlds. Yet even here, amongst some of the most challenging conditions on the planet, life finds a way not just to survive, but thrive. Our journey begins at the far edge of the continent, on its far-flung sub-Antarctic islands. Here we meet king penguins that, to feed at sea, must face the danger of ferocious leopard seals lurking in the shallows. On another island, we witness for the first time male Antipodean wandering albatross partnering up with each other as the females in their population are disappearing due to fishing activity. Heading towards the continent of Antarctica, we traverse the roughest seas on earth - the Southern Ocean - where we find the rarely filmed Antarctic blue whale, the largest animal to have ever lived. At the edge of Antarctica, the sea is so cold that it freezes over, creating a vital ice platform for a mother Weddell seal to raise her precious pup. Still, she needs to protect him from aggressive males. In spring, the coast of Antarctica is free of snow, drawing in thousands of breeding chinstrap penguins. Stones are at a premium to build their elevated nests and protect chicks from meltwater. But stealing is commonplace, and to make matters worse, with climate change we find chicks today shivering with hypothermia – a warming Antarctica means increased meltwater. Other residents are facing an uncertain future too, including wave-washing killer whales. We discover that their favourite prey, Weddell seals, are now harder to reach, so instead they are resorting to targeting much more feisty prey, including leopard seals, an apex predator in its own right. This dramatic encounter has never been filmed before. Travelling into the interior of the continent - into the frozen heart of Antarctica - we find great surprises. This is one of the most volcanic regions on earth, and one of the driest. We reveal unexpected sand dunes, hidden in a rare ice-free valley. Then, on the exposed mountain tops, sticking out from the otherwise ice-covered interior, we find tiny snow petrels, which raise their chicks further south than any other bird, and defend their territory by projectile vomiting! The greatest revelation lies deep in the interior, beneath the surface of an ice-covered lake, where we discover ancient alien-like structures - giant stromatolites - built by primitive lifeforms. If life can make it here, in the extremes of Antarctica, it raises the possibility that life can exist elsewhere, including in the frozen lakes of distant planets.
Experts explore the elusive endeavor of determining the age of the cosmos. Understanding the age of the universe is fundamental to understanding the universe at all. It's at the heart of everything. We want to know how much mass is in it, how much energy is in it, how it behaves. We have to have this number nailed down. The age of the universe enables us to not only understand where we came from, but potentially, the fate of the universe, what will happen millions and billions of years from now. The idea that the universe grew from a ball smaller than a pinhead is hard to understand, but figuring out when it happened sounds like it should be more straightforward. But it turns out, getting the age of the universe is pretty tricky.
In southern Jordan lies the spectacular city of Petra. Built over 2,000 years ago, it contains innumerable architectural treasures: colossal buildings carved into cliffs and hundreds of tombs, temples, and baths. Petra was a rich and prosperous city, and yet, it resides in the heart of an inhospitable region. How did the Nabataeans manage to transform this desert area into a luxurious city?
For more than 90 years, Abbey Road Studios has been at the heart of the music industry. In this personal film of memory and discovery, Mary McCartney guides us through nine decades to see and experience the creative magic that makes it the most famous and longest-running studio in the world. From classical to pop, film scores to hip-hop, ‘If These Walls Could Sing’ explores the breadth, diversity and ingenuity of Abbey Road Studios. The doc marks the first time Abbey Road has opened its doors to a feature doc, and will be the centrepiece of the legendary studio’s 90th anniversary celebrations. Billed as the untold story of the studio, the film will feature an all-star cast of interviews, and intimate access to the premises.
As the young women confront their own mental and physical demons en-route to Tokyo, the film reveals an astonishing and inspiring insight into what it takes to be an Olympian and ultimately what it means to be human. A uniquely emotional documentary feature film that will touch the heart of audiences around the world.