Best movies like David Attenborough: The Early Years

Award-winning musician Björk and legendary broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough have admired each other's work for years but this is the first time they have discussed their mutual love of music and the natural world on screen. In this remarkable documentary, Björk explores our unique relationship with music and discovers how technology might transform the way we engage with it in the future.

Nelly the Giraffe is discovered in Africa and leaves to begin a singing career, but finds that chasing fame brings her nothing but unhappiness.

"Nora" is based on true stories of the dancer Nora Chipaumire, who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965. In the film, Nora returns to the landscape of her childhood and takes a journey through some vivid memories of her youth. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly-moving poem of sound and image. A girl who is constantly embattled - struggling against all kinds of intimidation and violence - but who slowly gathers strength, pride and independence.

For Jane White, life itself is a television program, and she dreams of becoming a star on the small screen. Convincing herself that Gerry King, a popular talk show host, is her birth father, she sets out on an adventurous road trip — aided by her equally looney boyfriend, Dick — to confront her "father" on the air, and, just maybe, make a splash on reality television.

With archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record. It features interviews with some of the genre's biggest stars, like Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Richard Roundtree. Director Melvin Van Peebles discusses the historical importance of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. For a contemporary perspective, the excitable Quentin Tarantino offers his spirited commentary and author/critic bell hooks provides some scholarly social analysis.

The Cursed Ones tells the story of a disillusioned reporter and an idealistic young pastor, who fight to free a girl accused of witchcraft from the clutches of a system of corruption and superstition in the heart of West Africa.

Alex, Marty, and other zoo animals find a way to escape from Madagascar when the penguins reassemble a wrecked airplane. The precariously repaired craft stays airborne just long enough to make it to the African continent. There the New Yorkers encounter members of their own species for the first time. Africa proves to be a wild place, but Alex and company wonder if it is better than their Central Park home.

The story of Peter McGowan, a chain-smoking, impotent, insomniac playwright who lives in Los Angeles. Once very successful, he is now in the tenth year of a decade-long string of production failures. He finds himself bonding with a new neighbor's lonely young daughter who has mild cerebral palsy; and during one of his middle-of-the-night strolls, he encounters his oddball doppelgänger.

Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez. The film won Best Documentary at the 85th Academy Awards.

A seamstress recalls events leading to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

A look at Fellini's creative process. In extensive interviews, Fellini talks a bit about his background and then discusses how he works and how he creates. Several actors, a producer, a writer, and a production manager talk about working with Fellini. Archive footage of Fellini and others on the set plus clips from his films provide commentary and illustration for the points interviewees make. Fellini is fully in charge; actors call themselves puppets. He dismisses improvisation and calls for "availability." His sets and his films create images that look like reality but are not; we see the differences and the results.

Rise, fall and execution of John Brown, fanatic abolitionist.

An Irish filmmaker grapples with the legacy of his estranged father, the late documentarian Arthur MacCaig, through MacCaig's decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Drawing on over 30 years of unique and never-seen-before footage, 'The Image You Missed' is an experimental essay film that weaves together a history of the Northern Irish 'Troubles' with the story of a son's search for his father. In the process, the film creates a candid encounter between two filmmakers born into different political moments, revealing their contrasting experiences of Irish nationalism, the role of images in social struggle, and the competing claims of personal and political responsibility.

In late 1955 and early 1956, the citizens of Boise, Idaho believed there was a menace in their midst. On Halloween, investigators arrested three men on charges of having sex with teenage boys. The investigators claimed the arrests were just the tip of the iceberg-they said hundreds of boys were being abused as part of a child sex ring. There was no such ring, but the result was a widespread investigation which some people consider a witch hunt. By the time the investigation ended, 16 men were charged. Countless other lives were also touched.In some cases, men implicated fled the area. At least one actually left the country. The investigation attracted attention in newspapers across the nation, including Time Magazine. The "Morals Drive" left scars which remain to this day.

When miner Charley 'Boomer' Baxter sets off a series of massive mining detonations in West Virginia, a gigantic earthquake is soon rocking the North Atlantic, exposing a deep seismic fault that runs the length of the North American continent. Joining forces with government seismology expert Dr Amy Lane, Boomer must now race against time to stop the chasm that is threatening to tear America - and the entire world - in half.

220 million years ago dinosaurs were beginning their domination of Earth. But another group of reptiles was about to make an extraordinary leap: pterosaurs were taking control of the skies. The story of how and why these mysterious creatures took to the air is more fantastical than any fiction. In Flying Monsters 3D, Sir David Attenborough the world’s leading naturalist, sets out to uncover the truth about the enigmatic pterosaurs, whose wingspans of up to 40 feet were equal to that of a modern day jet plane.

Washed-up history professor Lewis Birch takes his begrudging teenagers Zoe and Jack on a road trip to a conference in hopes of jumpstarting his career and reconnecting with his kids. But, when Lewis’s estranged father Stanley goes missing on a Lewis and Clark historical reenactment trek, Lewis is forced to make a family detour. The Birch family find themselves on a journey of discovery and connection as they make their own passage west.

Join Peppa in this exciting new preschool cinema experience, with plenty of snorts, giggles and jumping up and down in muddy puddles! Leading with "Peppa Visits London," the first of the never-before-seen episodes, Peppa and her friends hop on board a double-decker red bus as the Queen takes them on an unforgettable tour of iconic London landmarks including Big Ben, Tower Bridge and Trafalgar Square. The other new ‘oink-tastic episodes include "The Police," "Canal Boat,""‘The Zoo," "Move to the Music" and a four-part story in which viewers will join Peppa on an Australian holiday to visit her old friend, Kylie Kangaroo.

Another thrilling adventure for Elsa the lioness as she works her magic on two teenagers struggling with changes in their life.

The young daughter of a park ranger in Tanzania is distressed to learn that she and her father must permanently return to England, thus separating her from the one thing she loves most, a pet Bushbaby. Fearing what the future holds she decides to set the pet free but while doing so misses the boat back to England. After meeting up with a friendly native they try to resolve the situation together. Things take a turn for the worse when it is falsely reported that the native has kidnapped her, thus putting a price on his head

Regular opening times do not apply as we accompany Sir David Attenborough on an after-hours journey around London’s Natural History Museum, one of his favourite haunts. The museum's various exhibits coming to life, including dinosaurs, reptiles and creatures from the ice age. Shot by the same 3D team that worked on Gravity, examines how the animals and creatures at the London museum once roamed the earth.

Most of us know Billy Graham as the self-assured and charismatic preacher who became one of the most important figures of 20th Century Christianity. Now, with the release of Billy: The Early Years, we meet Billy as the earnest and promising young man at the crossroads of faith and doubt, ultimately facing the moment of decision that launched one of history’s most powerful evangelistic careers.

Sir Michael Parkinson looks back over his 50 years as a broadcaster, revealing some tricks of the interview trade and remembering some of his favourite encounters.

As Sir David Attenborough turns 90, this intimate film presents new interviews, eye-opening behind-the-scenes footage and extraordinary clips from some of his most recent films. The doc, which was made for the occasion of Attenborough’s 90th birthday, was shot over seven years and follows him as he travels to Borneo, Morocco and the Galapagos to shoot wildlife specials. Anthony Geffen, the CEO of Atlantic Productions, commented, “This is such a special Attenborough film because unusually he is the subject. As I look back over the last seven years, I never fail to be amazed by his extraordinary ambition and drive to use the very latest technology to communicate the natural world to audiences around the globe. This film gives audiences the chance to see what it’s like to be on the road with David.”

Not only did Mary Tyler Moore “turn the world on with her smile,” as her show’s theme song declared, she also influenced a generation of women to become more independent and to pursue successful and fulfilling careers. Moore’s own 50-plus-year career has spanned award-winning films and Broadway shows, as well as two beloved television series that broke ground and continue to entertain viewers. ​ This one-hour special includes highlights from a recent interview with Mary Tyler Moore, tributes from her co-stars and clips from iconic moments throughout her career. The program looks at her breakthrough role on The Dick Van Dyke Show, her iconic turn as TV's first independent career woman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her Academy Award-nominated work on Ordinary People.

Life on Air: David Attenborough's 50 Years in Television is a BBC documentary film that recounts David Attenborough's television career. It is presented by Michael Palin and produced by Brian Leith. The BBC first transmitted the documentary in 2002 and is part of the Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages collection of 7 documentaries. It includes interviews with Attenborough and several of his former colleagues, along with archival footage.

Sir David Attenborough chooses his favourite recordings from the natural world that have revolutionised our understanding of song. Each one - from the song of the largest lemur to the song of the humpback whale to the song of the lyrebird - was recorded in his lifetime. When Sir David was born, the science of song had already been transformed by Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection: singing is dangerous as it reveals the singer’s location to predators, but it also offers the male a huge reward, the chance to attract a female and pass on genes to the next generation. Hence males sing and females don't.

Darwin's great insight – that life has evolved over millions of years by natural selection – has been the cornerstone of all David Attenborough’s natural history series. In this documentary, he takes us on a deeply personal journey which reflects his own life and the way he came to understand Darwin’s theory.

Luminous beings, creatures with their own internal light, enchant and astonish us. Anyone who has seen a firefly or a glow-worm cannot help but fall under their spell. The sea at night sparkles as millions of luminous plankton reveal the shapes of dolphins in a truly magical light show. Join Sir David Attenborough and a team of the world's leading scientists and deep sea explorers on a quest to reveal the secrets of living lights.

Featuring a unique conversation between The Queen and Sir David Attenborough as they walked in the garden at Buckingham Palace last summer, a landmark documentary will explore the ambition of a remarkable new initiative - a vast network of native forests across Britain and the Commonwealth, protected forever in The Queen's name.

A documentary about the history of the Free Cinema movement, made by one of it's greatest proponents, Lindsay Anderson, to commemorate British Film Year in 1985. Produced by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Unlike Richard Attenborough's celebratory episode of the same series, or Alan Parker's more aggressive show, which was balanced between celebrating the greats and attacking Parker's bugbears, Greenaway and Jarman and the BFI, Anderson's show accentuates the negative, painting an image of a British cinema in terminal artistic decline and trashing the ambitions and approach of British Film Year itself. It's mordantly funny and very savage.

This is the story of how a prince became a king, a revealing portrait of our new monarch across the seven decades he spent as heir to the throne. It’s a journey from cradle to crown told almost solely in his own words, from film and television recordings to private home movies and featuring a wealth of material, some of which has never been seen before. As well as drawing on home movies from the Royal Collection, the film-makers were given exclusive access to sequences featuring the prince, shot for the landmark 1969 film Royal Family, including private unseen moments.

Sir David Attenborough investigates the discovery of a 200 million year old Ichthyosaur on the Jurassic Coast in southern England. Using state of the art technology and CGI David brings the story of the fossilised ichthyosaur out of the rock and shows us what this creature was really like as it lived during the Jurassic time period.

Thanks to a remarkable discovery in the BBC's film vaults, the best of David Attenborough's early Zoo Quest adventures can now be seen as never before - in colour - and with it the remarkable story of how this pioneering television series was made. First broadcast in December 1954, Zoo Quest was one of the most popular television series of its time and launched the career of the young David Attenborough as a wildlife presenter. Zoo Quest completely changed how viewers saw the world - revealing wildlife and tribal communities that had never been filmed or even seen before. Broadcast 10 years before colour television was seen in the UK, Zoo Quest was thought to have been filmed in black and white, until now. Using this extraordinary new-found colour film, together with new behind-the-scenes stories from David Attenborough and cameraman Charles Lagus, this special showcases the very best of Zoo Quest to West Africa, Zoo Quest to Guiana and Zoo Quest for a Dragon in stunning HD colour.

Sir David Attenborough unveils the two stunning underwater realms of Saudi Arabia - the flamboyant Red Sea and the contrasting hot muddy Gulf, capturing for the first time the rare event of Palolo worms spawning at night.

David Attenborough sets out on a journey across the seven continents in search of the most impressive and inspiring natural wonders of our planet.

David Attenborough investigates the remarkable life and death of Jumbo the elephant - a celebrity animal superstar whose story is said to have inspired the movie Dumbo. Attenborough joins a team of scientists and conservationists to unravel the complex and mysterious story of this large African elephant - an elephant many believed to be the biggest in the world. With unique access to Jumbo's skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History, the team work together to separate myth from reality. How big was Jumbo really? How was he treated in captivity? And how did he die? Jumbo's bones may offer vital clues.

Explores the story behind the discovery of an early primate fossil, Darwinius masillae, nicknamed Ida, in a shale quarry in Germany. The fossil is believed to be around 47 million years old, and is extraordinarily well-preserved. Originally unearthed in 1983, Ida lay in the hands of a private collector for 20 years before it was shown to a Norwegian paleontologist, Dr Jørn Hurum. Realising that Ida could turn out to be a significant missing link between modern primates, lemurs and lower mammals, he persuaded the Natural History Museum in Oslo to purchase the fossil and assembled an international team of experts to study it. Their findings were announced in a press conference and the online publication of a scientific paper on 19 May 2009.

Follow the path of the sun on its annual cycle, from the Equator, across the northern hemisphere and into the South. Witness a world bursting with life, as spring and summer follow the passage of the sun. Revealed in all their glory are the natural rhythms of life - the urge to breed, to feed and to raise young - all driven by the sun, the moon and the seasons, across the world.

Following David Attenborough as he travels the globe to film his series, David Attenborough's First Life, in which he explores the very origins of life on Earth. David journeys to the parts of the world which have had special meaning to him during his 50 years of broadcasting. Beginning near his boyhood Leicestershire home, where he first collected fossils, he then travels to Morocco's arid deserts, the glaciers of Canada and crystal clear waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. As a prelude to the First Life series, Attenborough's Journey provides a unique insight into the mind and character of one of the world's most iconic broadcasters as he shares his passions for the natural world. Combining his global journey for First Life and archive material looking back at his illustrious career both as a programme maker and a controller of the BBC, the film reveals what makes him tick.

Legends of lost continents and civilizations have captivated people throughout time. Philosophers and astronomers like Aristotle and Ptolemy believed that an unknown continent existed in the Southern hemisphere. In the Age of Discovery, renowned explorers like Magellan and Cook searched the Pacific Ocean in vain for a mysterious land they called "Terra Incognita." To this day, ancestral legends throughout Polynesia speak of a lost homeland and a great civilization that disappeared into the sea. Modern science disputes the existence of unknown continents and often dismisses creation myths. But on Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, elders fiercely believe they originate from a continent that sank following a catastrophic upheaval.

On his 89th birthday, renowned English broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough pays his first ever visit to the White House to be interviewed by one of his biggest fans, United States President Barack Obama.

A special highlighting fifty years in the history of television. Includes tributes to Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Walter Cronkite, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope and Ed Sullivan. Clips of classic television moments are presented.

The saga of legendary African warrior Shaka Zulu comes to the screen in this continuation of the timeless tale from original miniseries creator Joshua Sinclair. From the moment he was born, Shaka Zulu was bound for greatness. When his homeland of Africa begins to fall prey to England's rapidly expanding empire, Shaka Zulu leads a bloody struggle to keep his people free. Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Drama about how the Statue of Liberty came to be erected in New York Harbor in the early 1880s and the people responsible for its creation.

At her father's funeral, Junior Talmadge remembers back 30 years to the last time she saw her Dad: the summer of 1979. Junior was graduating from college and had just gotten engaged. Her dad surprises the family when he arrives with a brand new motor home. He entices his kids into a final "family summer vacation," the only way he knows how: he tells them he has cancer. Thus begins the family's road trip to California, and their quest to become a real American family, the old-fashioned way, by being on a real American TV game show. As the family arrives in LA to audition for the show, secret after secret is revealed about their dad, forcing Junior and her brothers to confront the reality of who their Dad really is.

Bennett again recorded his greatest hits with a celebrated list of artists and Duets II made music history by debuting top of the Billboard chart. Duets II: The Great Performances is a visually stunning accompaniment to the album, featuring full song performances as they were recorded live in the studio. Tony Bennett and his duet partners provide their insights along the way, offering an inside look into the making of a landmark album.

The story of life on our planet by the man who has seen more of the natural world than any other. In more than 90 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Addressing the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, the film offers a powerful message of hope for future generations.

Sir David Attenborough investigates the discovery of a lifetime: the giant skull of a prehistoric sea monster, known as a pliosaur – the Tyrannosaurus rex of the seas!

With a narrative running deeper than a catchy tune and cryptic verses, “American Pie” is a musical phenomenon woven deep into the history of American culture, entertaining audiences around the world for over 50 years. This documentary tells the stories of the people who were a part of this moment from the beginning, shows the point of view of a new generation of artists who are motivated by the same values and ideas that inspired the song’s creation, and highlights cultural moments in America’s history that are as relevant now as they were in 1971, when the song was released.