OUR HISTORY

SD CINEMATOGRAFICA was formed in 1961 as a production company. Since its founding, the company has produced Films, Variety Programmes, and Science and Cultural documentaries for the Italian public broadcaster RAI and other leading international television companies. In recent years the company has focused on wildlife, Science and History documentaries with such success that it now counts National Geographic Channels, Discovery Channels, TF1, ARTE, NHK, TSR, ARD/BR, PBS and ZDF, as well as RAI and Mediaset, among its clients. Many SD documentaries have won major international prizes at the world’s leading festivals, including Academy Award, Emmy and Banff nominations. Today SD Cinematografica has over 800 hours of programming to its name. [abs]

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M. Maggioni, R. Meddi, A. D'Onofrio

SD Cinematografica

13'

HD

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The social organization of the hymenopterons, including bees and ants, is incredibly complex. For almost a century, from Darwin onward, zoologists have sought to discover the intermediate stages that lead to such perfection. Studies recently conducted on wasps of the Polistes genus are beginning to supply the answers. We filmed the organization of the gallicus and dominulus wasps and observed the strategy these two species employ in founding their honeycomb. The gallicus is strictly a loner, while the dominulus is very social, even during the period when it is constructing the colonies. The film illustrates, among other things, the battle the female founder engages in to decide who will play the role of queen and consequently inhibit the reproductive capacities of its sisters.

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