Items13The creator’s order
  1. 1Gunda (2021)Gunda (2021) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 15, 2021Viktor Kossakovsky’s black-and-white film spends long stretches with Gunda, a sow raising piglets. The camera often stays low enough for their movement to fill the frame. The farm’s own sounds carry scenes of feeding and exploring, giving you time to notice each piglet’s place in the litter.0
  2. 2Cow (2022)Cow (2022) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 14, 2022Andrea Arnold follows Luma, a dairy cow whose daily life is set by the work of a farm. Calving and milking give the film its rhythm. Staying close to Luma through those routines makes familiar agricultural work look different from an animal’s side of the gate.0
  3. 3Nénette (2010)Nénette (2010) 6.8/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 31, 2010Nicolas Philibert films Nénette through the glass of her enclosure at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. You see the orangutan and hear keepers and visitors, whose faces remain off camera. The arrangement gives you time to watch her respond while you listen to people trying to interpret what they see.0
  4. 4My Octopus Teacher (2020)My Octopus Teacher (2020) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 4, 2020Craig Foster returns to a South African kelp forest where a wild octopus becomes familiar to him. The film builds its portrait through repeated dives, following her around the kelp and rock. Foster’s account is personal, and much of the pleasure comes from observing the same animal closely as she…0
  5. 5Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (2024)Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (2024) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 9, 2024A wild otter named Molly begins visiting Billy Mail’s home in Shetland. Director Charlie Hamilton James also follows her away from the house, filming her fishing in kelp beds. Those underwater scenes let you see how the animal who visits Billy spends time on her own.0
  6. 6The Last Lions (2011)The Last Lions (2011) 8.2/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 11, 2011Dereck and Beverly Joubert follow the lioness they call Ma di Tau as she raises cubs in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. A change in territory brings her into a different landscape and puts the cubs at risk. The film gives its account of wild lions a particular point of view by returning to this mother…0
  7. 7Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies (2004)Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies (2004)Released Nov 4, 2004In her first PBS film about Cloud, aired in 2001, Ginger Kathrens follows a pale wild horse in Montana’s Pryor Mountains from the time he is a foal. Returning over several years lets her show him change from a youngster in a family band into a stallion.0
  8. 8The Whale (2011)The Whale (2011) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 9, 2011A young orca called Luna becomes separated from his pod and begins seeking contact with boats and people in British Columbia’s Nootka Sound. The documentary makes his familiar appearances around the docks the basis for an argument over how to help him. This is the revised film by the makers of…0
  9. 9Naledi: A Baby Elephant's Tale (2016)Naledi: A Baby Elephant's Tale (2016) 7.6/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 5, 2016After Naledi’s mother dies, the people caring for her have to keep a young elephant feeding and growing. The film follows that work at close range in Botswana. Watching the caregivers solve ordinary problems, such as getting a calf to accept milk, gives the larger story of elephant conservation a…0
  10. 10Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978)Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978) 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased Oct 11, 1978Barbet Schroeder and cinematographer Nestor Almendros observe Koko in a study led by Penny Patterson, who teaches her signs. The interest lies in seeing how the gorilla and the humans work together from one encounter to the next. The film leaves room to ask how much of what we see depends on how…0