Films by Jan Tenhaven

Germany, Austria 2010, 90 min
by Jan Tenhaven

The film tells the life-affirming stories of five senior athletes across the world who all have one goal – to take part in the track and field World Masters Championships in Finland. The biggest challenge is their age as all athletes are between 77 and 100 years old - a race against time and personal degeneration as they jump, run and throw the discus. In their long lives, they have fought many personal crises and losses, they have survived wars and other tragedies, some of them have won the battle against terminal diseases. Now they are united in one common goal: to take part in the Championships. No matter what it takes. If they only do not die before. Life will end soon – so what? As everybody is quite aware of that biological fact, there is plenty of space for a good portion of humour. Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion Köln GmbH + Co KG

Germany 2010, 208 min
by André Rehse

Humanity is facing huge challenges today: Climate change, ocean pollution and non-renewable energy sources are all pressing environmental problems. But nature provides some sustainable answers. The four-part series ‘Inspired by Nature’ deals with the selected biomimicry topics locomotion, construc- tion, apperception and processing. It shows how scientists analyse complex biological processes, how these results are applied to solutions of technical problems and finally evolve to everyday objects for the consumer. Our host – Janine Benyus, the so-called ‘mother of biomimicry’ – guides us through the series and explains e.g. how the railway system of the UK can be inspired by a slime mould or how lobsters could help finding leaks in underwater pipelines.