The Botany of Desire

Oct 28, 2009

1h 56m

★ 6.4

A plant's-eye view of the world

Overview

Featuring Michael Pollan and based on his best-selling book, this special takes viewers on an exploration of the human relationship with the plant world — seen from the plants' point of view. Narrated by Frances McDormand, the program shows how four familiar species — the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato — evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication.

Genres

Documentary

The Botany of Desire Trailers

Cast

Narrator (voice)

Frances McDormand

Self

Michael Pollan

No other food bridges borders, languages, and tastes more than the humble but delicious fried potato. From three-Michelin-star kitchens in Paris to the street carts of Hong Kong, you can always find a savory fry. Taking the audience on a joyous and mouth-watering journey around the world, best-selling authors Malcolm Gladwell and Chrissy Teigen join an international cast of characters to better understand the globe's obsession with the french fry.

7.3

We Feed the World

Sep 10, 2005

A documentary that exposes the shocking truths behind industrial food production and food wastage, focusing on fishing, livestock and crop farming. A must-see for anyone interested in the true cost of the food on their plate.

7.5

Woodstock

Mar 26, 1970

An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.

10.0

Breaking Bread

Feb 4, 2022

In Breaking Bread, exotic cuisine and a side of politics are on the menu. Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel - the first Muslim Arab to win Israel's MasterChef - is on a quest to make a social change through food. And so, she founded the A-sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa. There, pairs of Arab and Jewish chefs collaborate on mouthwatering dishes like kishek (a Syrian yogurt soup), and qatayef (a dessert typically served during Ramadan), as we savor the taste of hope and discover the food of their region free from political and religious boundaries.

7.6

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret

Jul 1, 2014

Follow the shocking, yet humorous, journey of an aspiring environmentalist, as he daringly seeks to find the real solution to the most pressing environmental issues and true path to sustainability.

7.1

Tesla

Oct 18, 2016

Meet Nikola Tesla, the genius engineer and tireless inventor whose technology revolutionized the electrical age of the 20th century. Although eclipsed in fame by Edison and Marconi, it was Tesla's vision that paved the way for today's wireless world. His fertile but undisciplined imagination was the source of his genius but also his downfall, as the image of Tesla as a mad scientist came to overshadow his reputation as a brilliant innovator.

6.7

Super Size Me

Jan 17, 2004

Morgan Spurlock subjects himself to a diet based only on McDonald's fast food three times a day for thirty days without exercising to try to prove why so many Americans are fat or obese. He submits himself to a complete check-up by three doctors, comparing his weight along the way, resulting in a scary conclusion.

7.6

Microcosmos

Sep 6, 1996

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

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0.0

Jan Evangelista Purkyně

Jan 1, 1952

No overview available.

7.0

An Inconvenient Truth

May 24, 2006

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

6.0

WEED

Jan 23, 1971

This 1971 color anti-drug use and abuse film was produced by Concept Films and directed by Brian Kellman for Encyclopedia Britannica. “Weed: The Story of Marijuana” combines time-lapse, montage, illustrations, animation (by Paul Fierlinger and emigre Pavel Vošický) and dramatized, documentary-style interviews to survey the evolving role of cannabis in U.S. society, with emphasis on the legal risks faced by young people. A unique score of experimental synthesizer music is provided by Tony Luisi on an EMS VCS 3 “Putney”

7.9

Food for Profit

Feb 26, 2024

The film exposes the links between Agrifood and politics. With a pool of international experts it analyses the many problems related to factory farming: water pollution, migrants exploitation, biodiversity loss and antibiotic resistance.

4.5

Soul

Jul 30, 2017

Soul explores the secrets of gastronomy where two cuisines apparently so opposite in their philosophy, conception and experience, have both earned the highest culinary recognition, three Michelin stars.

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0.0

Heston's Marvellous Menu Back to the Noughties

Dec 19, 2019

In this nostalgic documentary, restaurant critic Giles Coren challenges Heston Blumenthal to take his restaurant The Fat Duck back to 2001 for a magical feast.

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0.0

Kůrovec

Jan 1, 1951

No overview available.

0.0

Principles of Curiosity

Jun 14, 2017

Principles of Curiosity presents a general introduction to the foundations of scientific skepticism and critical thinking, focusing on a simple process we call the three Cs.

0.0

Use Your Eyes

Jan 23, 1970

“Use Your Eyes” is a police training film produced by the Alhambra Police Department, California, in 1970. It is intended to demonstrate to police officers how to search a residence for evidence of marijuana use, and what rights they have to search the property once certain prima facia evidence is established.

0.0

Tea War: The Adventures of Robert Fortune

Jul 1, 2016

In the 19th century, China held the monopoly on tea, which was dear and fashionable in the West, and the British Empire exchanged poppies, produced in its Indian colonies and transformed into opium, for Chinese tea. Inundated by the drugs, China was forced to open up its market, and the British consolidated their commercial dominance. In 1839, the Middle Empire introduced prohibition. The Opium War was declared… Great Britain emerged as the winner, but the warning was heeded: it could no longer depend on Chinese tea. The only alternative possible was to produce its own tea. The East India Company therefore entrusted one man with finding the secrets of the precious beverage. His mission was to develop the first plantations in Britain’s Indian colonies. This latter-day James Bond was called Robert Fortune – a botanist. After overcoming innumerable ordeals in the heart of imperial China, he brought back the plants and techniques that gave rise to Darjeeling tea.

The Botany of Desire

Overview

Genres

The Botany of Desire Trailers