Ancient Skies

A look at the great wolf debate with comments and views from people on both sides. It also contains footage of Natives dressing up & doing tribal dances. The link between wolves, bison, and Native Americans; as well as white man's reasoning behind their determination to eliminate bison and wolves from the landscape.

As a young boy, future emperor Nero witnesses the mad Emperor Caligula kill his father and exile his mother. While in exile in the pontine islands, Agrippina, his mother, sees a vision telling her that her son can become emperor, but she will have to die first. She accepts the proposal. Back in Rome, Nero, now being raised by emperor Claudius after Caligula's death, Agrippina returns. She poisons Claudius' food and Nero becomes emperor. At first, Nero cuts taxes and introduces successful programs and invades Brittania. Soon he meets a beautiful slave named Claudia Acte, and marries her, throwing off his engagement with Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, telling her she can marry someone she will be happy with. Heartbroken, she arrives at an island and kills herself. Nero enjoys being married to Claudia Acte, but soon he gradually goes mad with power and sets fire to Rome.

In Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime.

In order to flee from powerful enemies, young Mayan king Balam leads his people north across the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of what will become the United States. They build a home in the new land but come into conflict with a tribe of Native Americans led by their chief, Black Eagle, while both Balam and Black Eagle fall in love the beautiful Mayan princess Ixchel.

In his delirium from his return from war, Francesco Bernardone goes back in his memories to the days when he lived for parties and carnal pleasures. He slowly recovers, but after the illness he is no longer the Francesco that everybody knew. Instead of spending hours in taverns, he meditates on the beauty of God's creatures, soon renouncing his riches and his family with plans to rebuild an abandoned church and his life.

Four fearless adventurers mount their vintage motorcycles and set off on a challenging ride through America's most beautiful landscapes

Confucius was one of history's most influential thinkers. He was a sage, philosopher and teacher who, with Socrates and Buddha, lived at an extraordinary time in the evolution of human civilization. This stunningly beautiful drama-documentary explores the life and times of Confucius, while reflecting on his influence on modern justice and morality. Today, Confucius is a window into China's rise.

In the mountains of Peru, an environmental scientist discovers ancient artifacts submerged beneath the headwaters of the Amazon; his findings could save this sacred landscape from mining devastation.

Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.

The Pit of Death is what some scientists are calling it, others "Dinosaur Pompeii". Envision dinosaur corpses stacked one on top of each other, piled four and five high. But not just any old dinosaurs, new, well-preserved skeletons - many that have never been seen before. A bizarre T. rex ancestor, a triceratops ancestor, an ancient crocodilian and nearly 40 different species dating back 160 million years, a time in dinosaur history of which little is known. The graves of these new species are uncovered deep in the dry and desolate Junggar Basin of western China and a team of palaeontologists unearth answers to this virtual black hole in dinosaur evolution. Watch as the bones are examined, reconstructed and brought back to life, using high resolution CGI, and slowly probe the mystery of who these dinosaurs were, how they died and what they can tell us about the Lost Age of the Dinosaurs.

Get rare views of Ireland in this unique video tour of the Emerald Isle featuring expert cinematography from an accomplished aerial production team and an original musical score. See the Cliffs of Moher, Dubline, Kilkenny Castle, Trinity College and more!

Documentary about the life of Sergei Parajanov, a prominent Soviet-era filmmaker who was active in Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia and was persecuted by the communist government for his views on the pretext of his homosexuality, which was a crime in the USSR. The centerpiece of this documentary is Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, a 1965 movie directed by Parajanov, that awakened the Ukrainian national consciousness which had been suppressed by decades of Soviet rule.

Shooting against the staggering beauty of the Moroccan landscape, from the rugged terrain of the Atlas Mountains to the stark and surreal emptiness of the desert, with its encroaching sands and abandoned film sets, a director abandons his own film set and descends into a hallucinatory, perilous adventure of cruelty, madness and malevolence. A Paul Bowles story combined with observational footage forms a multi-layered excavation into the illusion of cinema itself.

Two epic stories of an incredible saga. In 1836, Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes, gets kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier. She then grows to love her captors and becomes infamous as the "White Squaw", a pioneer woman who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. Her mixed-blood son, Quanah, succeeds her and becomes the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. Their legacy is wrapped around the rise, and ultimately, the fall of the most powerful Indian tribe in American history, battling a war spanning four decades, holding up the development of the new American nation. In a beautiful tale encompassing Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads, is the war of the Comanches.

A debate rages over the credibility of the Bible. Most archaeologists today have concluded that there's no evidence that the Exodus of Israelite slaves from Egypt ever happened. Filmmaker Timothy Mahoney faces a crisis of faith: "Is this foundation event of the Bible really just a myth?" He embarks on a 12-year journey around the world to search for answers. Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus unlocks the mystery of this ancient saga, combining a scientific investigation with a retelling of the Exodus story to reveal an amazing pattern of evidence matching the biblical account that may challenge our understanding of history. It features stunning animations, narration by Kevin Sorbo (God's not dead, Hercules: The Legendary Journey), interviews with leading archaeologists such as Israel Finkelstein, Kent Weeks, and David Rohl, and guest appearances by Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Shimon Peres.

From the planets to the stars and out to the edge of the unknown, history and science collide in a wondrous yet deadly adventure through space and time.

In this spellbinding series, Professor Brian Cox visits the most extreme locations on Earth to explain how the laws of physics carved natural wonders across the solar system.

Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain are at Jodrell Bank Observatory, and joined by special guests to bring you the latest news and the best views of the night sky.

Series which gives a definitive guide to the history of performance magic from Ancient Egypt to 21st century Las Vegas, and why it has played such an important role in our social and cultural history.

Archaeologist Julian Richards returns to some of his most important digs to discover how science, conservation and new finds have changed our understanding of entire eras of ancient history.

In this set of three videotapes, writer Graham Hancock traverses the world and explains his controversial theory that an ancient civilization, highly intelligent people who sailed the planet as early as 10,500 B.C., spread advanced astronomical knowledge and built ancient observatories.

Jamie Theakston uncovers the startling truth behind great myths, historical legends, conspiracy theories, ancient treasures, lost civilisations and war time secrets.

Take a journey back in time and immerse yourself in a 150-year-old battle that nearly split our nation in two. This three-part series explores famous and little known aspects of the Civil War, from the perspectives of the Union, the Confederacy and the millions of enslaved people struggling for freedom. Hosted by Ashley Judd, Trace Adkins, and Dennis Haysbert, all of whom had ancestors greatly affected by the war, this series delivers fresh insights and untold tales, brought to life through dramatic recreations and the Smithsonian Institution's vast collection of artifacts.

This series reveals worlds never seen before; stunning CGI animation peels back the layers, revealing alien landscapes of fragile lava caves, roiling plasma seas, cosmic platinum mines, and the hungry black hole at the center of our galaxy – cosmological wonders that play a surprising role defining our place in the universe.

Forty years after the Great War on Earth, the Autobots and Decepticons are no more and Optimus Prime and Megatron are relics of the past. Cybertron is at last at peace, ruled by the triumvirate of Starscream, Rodimus Prime, and the Mistress of Flame. However, the Enigma of Combination, an ancient artifact of Primus, has triggered new conflict through the creation of huge, dangerous Combiners, and now Cybertron's fragile peace is in danger of collapse.

This six part documentary draws attention to the most extraordinary — almost supernatural — accounts of animals that have adapted to the cruelest evolutionary curveballs.

This three-part series illuminates the rise and fall of the ancient American empires of Maya, Inca and Aztecs. These high cultures brought about astonishing civilizational achievements in agriculture, architecture and astronomy to this day and dominated the Mesoamerican continent for over a millennium.

Take a breathtaking visual journey through some of the world's most beautiful and extraordinary landscapes, to admire the wonders and encounter the wildlife, geology and the rich history of its people.

Thalia takes audiences on a musical journey, uncovering the classics that inspired generations of artists and created the current Latin music landscape seen today. Through a combination of interviews, found footage and modern renditions of classic hits by today’s biggest stars, the series revisits the history of Latin music and uncovers the future of the genre in an intimate way not yet seen before.

The Vanderhouvens are a typical family…except a curse recently turned Alex—their loving husband and father—to stone. In order to save him, his wife and kids set out on spine-tingling adventures to return ancient artifacts stolen by an ancestor.