The News on Merit Street

Africa's elephants are hurtling towards extinction to fuel the worldwide ivory trade. While conservationists howl and corrupt governments fail to address the ongoing slaughter, one brave family has been working for decades to stem the tide, one elephant at a time. Gardeners of Eden is a gripping, first-person experience inside the operations of Kenya's David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From the front lines of the crisis, we witness their heroic efforts to stop the poachers in the bush, rescue the orphans of slain elephants and raise them by hand, until one day, returning them to their home in the wild.

Filming Africa both from the ground and from their two small airplanes, Martin and Osa Johnson document the "Dark Continent." Martin's airplane, which is painted like a giraffe and named "The Spirit of Africa," accompanies Osa's airplane, which is painted like a zebra and is named "Osa's Ark." Together, they travel through Africa, capturing glimpses of the continent's natives, wildlife and geography on film. Aerial photography of Mt. Kenya is included in the film, as are scenes of a Masai village burial of two villagers killed by rhinoceroses. Also included is a scene in which Mrs. Johnson shoots down a charging rhinoceros. A bird's-eye view of Mt. Kilimanjaro is followed by a visit to a Pygmy camp and a trip to what is claimed to be the largest baboon colony ever found by an explorer. The film also includes footage of thousands of flamingos taking to the air. Alligators, hippopotamuses, wildebeests, impalas, zebras, jackasses, giraffes, lions and many other African wild animals are shown in their natural habitat.

A documentary, with the indigenous Hawaiians,about the survival of their culture after the takeover of Hawaii by U.S. businessmen and military in 189orld are experienced. Rare interviews throughout the islands, 2005-2009, reveal their economic, cultural, and social future depends on the resurgence of indigenous rights, sovereignty, and access to their land. While bridging past knowledge with tools of the future, they reveal our own future depends on our connection with the natural world and responsible decisions for the care of the planet and the sustainability of all people.

A cinematic feature documentary about China's foray into Africa told through the lives of Chinese adventurers & Zambian power brokers as they negotiate the tricky waters of this rapidly expanding and vital relationship.

Caffeinated tells the story of coffee through the perspectives of people who have dedicated their lives to it. At every step of the process, it's the hands that planted the seed, that roasted the beans, that crafted the drink that makes every cup of coffee a story worth telling.

There's a lot at stake on a few big, slow, brown rivers in the Deep South. The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin (ACF) is becoming the canary-in-the-coal mine for a looming East Coast water crisis. The Hanson brothers grew up in Atlanta beside the Chattahoochee River. In March 2013, they returned and paddled, together and separately, the 542 miles of the basin from its source in the Appalachian Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. Their journey and the people they meet along the way tell the story of an endangered and essential natural resource.