Before the year’s out you can watch LEOPARD LEGACY, the story of Fumukazi, a Leopardess in Uganda’s Luangwa Valley, coping with extreme elements, predators, and not least her own family! Will and Lianne Steenkamp (Vanishing Kings I & II) spent three years on this, the ultimate Leopard film. Switch locations to Europe (no, this is NOT Alaska and these are European brown bears, not Grizzlies!). BEARS OF THE KARAWANK MOUNTAINS visit the famous “Three-Country-Corner” between the Alps and the azure Adriatic, where Austria, Italy and Slovenia (and the German, Latin and Slav languages) meet. Thanks to the EU there are no border fences for these Bears in Eva Gressel’s first film for UNIVERSUM! Another continental shift, to North America and John Murray’s (Wild Ireland, Cuba’s Wild Revolution) stunning portrait of BIG BEND – AMERICA’S WILDEST FRONTIER, the Texan National Park on the Rio Grande. There’s no sign of a Wall, but all the more amazing animal behavior in starkly dramatic, painted landscapes. Still in the US, moving north to somewhere really cool - in both senses: filmmaker John Dutton and ace cameraman Jacob Steinberg reveal totally unexpected natural treasures, in winter and summer, on New York’s HUDSON RIVER – JOURNEY INTO THE WILD - up to 250 kilometers upstream from the waterway’s secondary role, for emergency landings next to the Big Apple!
And right now we’re thrilled to bring you our great celebration of Europe today: EMPIRE OF THE VINEYARD – watch Franz Hafner’s film and your wine will taste twice as good! It’s a cheeky little film with lingering floral notes, featuring the unexpected wildlife of Europe’s top vineyards, in France, Germany and Austria. Mario Kreuzer’s FEATHERED FRIENDS is a no-brainer - why hasn’t anybody thought of it before? - the drama, surprises and beauty of bird life in your garden, where a Cat is as deadly a predator as a Leopard! CORSICA – MOUNTAINS IN THE SEA is Heike Grebe’s love song to a top holiday destination, one of Europe’s wildest places, where pigs really do know how to fly! HORSES IN THE STORM – SARDINIA’S ROCKY SANCTUARY transports us to another Mediterranean island for a truly wonderful film. Rolando Menardi’s UNIVERSUM debut is blessed with powerful landscapes and unforgettable characters: Nero the stallion with his wild young family, and the craggy, stoic shepherd Porfirio, who watches over the free-running horses’ lives. And last not least, Europe’s westernmost point: PORTUGAL – WILD LAND ON THE EDGE. This country faces the Atlantic, not the Mediterranean, and in Gernot Lercher’s portrait, that makes all the difference! Portugal’s coasts are a launching pad for exploration, sanctuary for sensitive species, and a meeting-point of titanic natural forces. Inland, cork oaks withstand blazing Eucalyptus forests, royal hunting grounds turn into places of protected serenity; while on distant islands, endangered monk seals and giant wolf spiders truly live ‘on the edge’.
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