Best movies like Raccoons: The New Europeans

The Universal Language is a new documentary from Academy Award-nominated director Sam Green (The Weather Underground). This 30-minute film traces the history of Esperanto, an artificial language that was created in the late 1800s by a Polish eye doctor who believed that if everyone in the world spoke a common tongue, humanity could overcome racism and war. Fittingly, the word “Esperanto” means “one who hopes.” During the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of people around the world spoke Esperanto and believed in its ideals. Today, surprisingly, a vibrant Esperanto movement still exists. In this first-ever documentary about Esperanto, Green creates a portrait of the language and those who speak it today that is at once humorous, poignant, stirring, and ultimately hopeful.

Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog.

Lord John Morgan has returned to civilized life in England, but finds he has nothing but disdain for that life. Yearning to embrace the simplicity of the American West-and the Yellow Hands Sioux tribe he left behind, Morgan returns to the tribe's land only to discover that they've been decimated by ruthless, government-backed fur traders. Led by Horse, they fight to repossess their land.

Revolution is a new movie from internationally-acclaimed filmmaker Rob Stewart. A follow-up to his award-winning documentary Sharkwater, this continues his remarkable journey of discovery to find out that what he thought was a shark problem is actually a people problem. As Stewart's battle to save sharks escalates, he uncovers grave dangers threatening not just sharks, but humanity. In an effort to uncover the truth and find the secret to saving our own species, Stewart embarks on a life-threatening adventure through 15 countries, over four years in the making. In the past four years the backdrop of ocean issues has changed completely. Saving sharks will be a pointless endeavor if we are losing everything else in the ocean, not just sharks. Burning fossil fuels is releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; changing the oceans, changing atmospheric chemistry and altering our climate.

Long, long ago, in a time of magic and dragons, there lived a girl named Rapunzel who had the most beautiful radiant hair the world had ever seen. But Rapunzel's life was far from wonderful. She lived as a servant to Gothel, a jealous, scheming witch who kept her hidden deep in a forbidding forest, guarded by the enormous dragon Hugo and surrounded by an enchanted glass wall. However, in a twist of fate, Rapunzel's discovery of a magic paintbrush leads her on a journey that will unravel a web of deception, bring peace to two feuding kingdoms, and ultimately lead her to love with the help of Penelope(TM), the least intimidating of dragons!

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

A young white man who spent his whole life raised by a Native American tribe is sent to live with his true family and must learn to fit in with the people he was taught to hate.

An eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren are embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes! He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him.

Pocahontas, daughter of a Native American tribe chief, falls in love with an English soldier as colonists invade 17th century Virginia.

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In "Einstein's Big Idea," NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905, including the completion of his special theory of relativity, his identification of proof that atoms exist, and his explanation of the nature of light, which would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among Einstein's ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous. Yet how many people know what it really means? In a thought-provoking and engrossing docudrama, NOVA illuminates this deceptively simple formula by unraveling the story of how it came to be.

Fleeing religious persecution in Germany, a family seeks a new start in uncharted country - America. It is the mid-1700s and British and French forces are struggling for control over the abundant resources of this new territory. Carving out a homestead can be arduous work, but the family labors joyfully. Then the unthinkable: In a terrifying raid, Delaware warriors kidnap the two young daughters and attempt to indoctrinate them into native culture. Through their ordeal they never lose hope and "their faith becomes their freedom.

An Alien Being from another universe lands on earth and is angered at how the human species live in a world of greed, corruption, lies, violence and a disregard for the natural environment. The Being takes it upon itself to eliminate the politicians, lawyers, criminals, corporate leaders, and others who disrespect the planet... That The Being has created as a planetary experiment. This thought provoking supernatural film is filled with surprising mystical metaphors, exciting twists... And a stunning dramatic conclusion.

After fleeing into the mountains after he is wrongly accused of murder, woodsman "Grizzly Adams" discovers an uncanny bond to the indigenous wildlife of the region after rescuing an orphaned grizzly bear cub whom he adopts and calls "Ben".

Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud travel throughout Europe to film brown bears, wild horses, wolves and other animals in their natural habitat.

As the dragons have almost disappeared from the kingdom of Bayala, the magic powers of the fairies are weakening. The fairy princesses Sera and Surah are thrilled when they discover they have the key to save the world in their hands: a dragon egg! Now the sisters must reach the dragon mountains and they embark on an adventurous journey into the unknown...

A biologist has succeeded in growing a particularly energy-rich lettuce and now the whole world wants to get hold of the product.

Inge and Ludwig are full-time farmers in the Black Forest, with dairy cows and a dairy. Everything organic, all the highest quality. Despite the hard work, it is a fulfilling life. Would not it be the financial situation. As much as the two work, the debts devour them, the farm is endangered. Inge decides to look for a part-time job. When the opportunity arises to start with an escort service, she gets involved. And the plan works. But the relationship is put to the test when one of Inge's clients falls in love with her and the situation escalates.

Potato Fritz (Hardy Kruger) and his friends have moved from Germany to the American Wild West, settling eventually in the Rockies. They are besieged by what appear to them to be hostile Native Americans. Before too long, it becomes clear that the hostiles are in fact a gang of gold thieves. This movie is notable among German-made Westerns for its use of authentic period costumes and firearms.

Kiefer Sutherland plays Denver Bayliss, a condemned murderer who has killed three people, including a prison guard. He was brought into the system as a juvenile delinquent and never got out. Now he is awaiting execution. Forest Whitaker stars as Fred Whitmore, a death row prison guard who runs into trouble when he refuses to take part in the brutally abusive tactics of the guards. However, something about Denver haunts Fred Whitmore, and the two men form an unexpected friendship that transforms their lives.

Europe in 1793. For years, England and France have been at war with each other. Now, France sends three men to the British colony of Jamaica to organize a slave revolt. The envoys are Debuisson, the grandson of a Jamaican rum manufacturer, who knows the island very well, his old friend Sasportas, and the sailor Galloudec. After having established contact with the fragmented rebel groups, they receive the surprising news of Napoleon′s takeover in France. Whereas Debuisson, who by now has gotten used to his role as a rich heir, wants to wait for new instructions from home, his companions are determined to press ahead with the revolt. When a slave kills a British guard, the situation escalates.

A pastiche of three episodes from the 1958 TV series Northwest Passage, stitched together as a feature and released theatrically in Europe.

On the eve of his return to Europe after an extended involuntary stay in 16th-century Brazil, the German sailor Hans Staden is captured by a hostile cannibal Indian tribe. In order to survive he tries to convince the Indians that he is not Portuguese (their enemies) but a friend of the French (their allies), and that his God would be very angry if they were to eat him.

In 1818, when Joseph Mohr is assigned to be the new assistant priest in Oberndorf, a small Austrian town near Salzburg, the young man is full of ideas and ideals. His passion to bring the church closer to the common people sets him on a collision course with his new superior, Father Nostler. When Mohr organizes a church choir that includes outcasts from the local tavern and performs in German instead of Latin, Nostler threatens him with disciplinary action. Their relationship further deteriorates when Maria a regular tavern patron, surprisingly joins the performance of the all-male church choir. As Mohr's initial successes start to crumble and his efforts backfire on him, he loses all hope and faces a trial of faith. The night before Christmas, Mohr has to decide if he will accept defeat and leave Oberndorf or embrace the true significance of the Holy Night.

Events in an idyllic African village are shown in detail in the period just before logging trucks come in and cut down the forest around the villagers, forcing them to move into the wretched shantytowns that surround major cities throughout the undeveloped world. Despite the familiar premise, this surprisingly unsentimental film by Georgian director Otar Ioselliani has several things going for it, beginning with the cinematography and including the natural and unaffected (non-professional) performances of the villagers.

There are only about 300 remaining Siberian Tigers in the wild, restricted to a section of far Eastern Russia, near the coast. Wildlife biologists risk life and limb to track the tiger and research its movements and habits. They sedate the animals so the tigers can be measured and collared. One Russian scientist is shown raising two tigers which he found orphaned as cubs. He keeps the tigers in a cage, then allows the beasts into a fenced forest-like enclosure. The efforts of these scientists are in contrast to those of poachers, who kill the tigers for their pelts, as well as for body parts to be marketed in traditional Chinese medicine.

Slovakia lies in the heart of Europe. What natural treasures the small country holds, what spectacular nature and what peculiarities of flora and fauna, it is told in "Wild Slovakia".

Young people are discovering pornography at an increasingly early age. How does this early exposure affect them? Filmed in Europe and the United States, this is a comprehensive and nuanced scientific overview of a massive phenomenon.

The Haywain by John Constable is such a comfortingly familiar image of rural Britain that it is difficult to believe it was ever regarded as a revolutionary painting, but in this film, made in conjunction with a landmark exhibition at the V&A, Alastair Sooke discovers that Constable was painting in a way that was completely new and groundbreaking at the time. Through experimentation and innovation, he managed to make a sublime art from humble things and, though he struggled in his own country during his lifetime, his genius was surprisingly widely admired in France.

In northern Germany, the Teutoburg Forest is home to many Germanic legends. Since the end of the 19th century, the statue of Hermann – known in Latin as Arminius –, hero of the Germanic people of the Cheruscans, has watched over the vast Teutoburg Forest. Did this warlord really allow the Germans to repel the Romans two thousand years ago? A few kilometers from the statue stands an impressive rock formation called Externsteine. Have these steep cliffs kept traces of ancient Germanic civilizations?

A third of Europeans live in economic insecurity: Zero hours contracts, the fear of redundancy and stagnating wages have brought more and more people into poverty and precariousness and provided fertile conditions for the political extremes. This documentary focuses on the new working poor, the precariat.

In 2020, the contraceptive pill will be 60 and has revolutionized the relationship between the sexes. The Pill brought freedom, but today more and more women are seeking freedom from the Pill. And they ask: Why is there no pill for men? Scientists all over the world are doing research on the Pill for Men - and in the end there is a surprising discovery: hormonal and non-hormonal contraception for men has been around for a long time. And it has been used successfully for 50 years.

The history of Europeans in North America, from the arrival of Columbus in 1492 to the business success of German immigrants such as Heinz, Strauss or Friedrich Trumpf, Donald Trump's grandfather. During the 19th century, thirty million people — Germans, Irish, Scots, Russians, Hungarians, Italians and many others — left the old continent, fleeing poverty, racism or political repression, hoping to make a fortune and realize the American dream.

Three British soldiers and their German captive trek through the European countryside.

Two men awaken from a long cryogenic sleep, to do battle in a future as primitive and violent as the remote past. California has become an arid island wasteland of subsistence farming, hunting and scavenging. The air quality is now perfect unlike the bio-contaminated atmosphere of almost a century before.

Two childhood friends, 21 years old, who are trying to create a documentary in Wisconsin, struggle to keep their friendship intact after a string of seemingly paranormal events lead to the staggering conclusion that a group of three strangers are behind the activity. Their quest to discover and convict the culprits via evidence captured on camera becomes the new focus on the documentary, resulting in a cinematic endeavor that could prove to be their last. With real locations, real people, and real relationships, this is the realest found footage film you will ever experience.