SlingShot

An intimate and inspirational portrait of Segway inventor, Dean Kamen, and his 15-year quest to solve the world's safe water crisis. SlingShot focuses on noted Segway inventor Dean Kamen and his work to solve the world's water crisis. An eccentric genius with a provocative world view, Kamen is an inspiration for future scientists. His inventions help people in need and ease suffering.

2014-03-14 | en

Ganz: How I Lost My Beetle

Josef Ganz, editor of trade journal Motor-Kritik, amazed Germany by appearing in a revolutionary tiny car in 1932. It was his dream: a people's car anyone can afford. The idea made its way to new Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler. But in Hitler's dream there was no place for Jewish inventor Ganz. This is the story of the man whose designs led to the invention of the Volkswagen Beetle, and who ultimately lost everything. In the film, Ganz's relatives and admirers bring his lost heritage back to life.

2019-05-02 | en

Becoming Cousteau

Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.

2021-10-22 | en

Reimagining A Buffalo Landmark

The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.

2019-04-12 | en

Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World

Nikola Tesla is considered the father of our modern technological age and one of the most mysterious and controversial scientists in history.

1994-01-01 | en

Big Rig

Big Rig (2008) is a documentary film by Doug Pray about long-haul truck drivers. The film consists of a series of interviews with different drivers, focusing on both their personal life stories and also the life and culture of truck drivers in the United States.

2007-03-10 | en

Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott

His filmmaker son probes the professional and private lives of his remote but fascinating father: bandleader, composer, inventor, and electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott.

2010-09-17 | en

Brizola, Anotações para uma História

2024-10-07 | pt

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

John C. Lilly is the inventor of the isolation tank, as well as pioneer of studies in dolphin intelligence and support of psychedelics as a positive means for expanding consciousness. The storytelling will be supported by interviews with Lilly’s contemporaries and colleagues, as well as extensive archival records.

2025-01-31 | en

Von Schlagrahmdampfern und anderen verlorenen Dingen

Not everyone who nowadays drives on the A73 between Nuremberg and Bamberg knows that they are travelling on a former waterway. Still half a century ago, the old Ludwig-Main-Danube-Canal (in short: Ludwig-Canal) was located here, which represented the last puzzle piece to a navigable connection between the oceans. Build within a remarkable ten years’ time of construction, the canal, which was opened in 1846, was the realization of a small dream of humanity as it finally connected the North Sea with the Black Sea. Unfortunately, the idea could not support itself financially: Too powerful were the railroads, which saw its rise simultaneously, and which soon undermined the ambitious canal project’s future as they were in every regard the faster, more comfortable, and better means of transportation of the hour.

2020-11-29 | de

The Invention of Dr. NakaMats

NakaMats is an unlikely character made for the movies, an eccentric 80-year-old Japanese inventor responsible for 3,357 inventions, including the floppy disk. With his deadpan English and impeccable comic timing, he provides nonstop laughs— utterly nutty, but also a paean to the spirit of human invention.

2009-11-08 | en

The Gutenberg Enigma

A portrait of the inventor of the letterpress, who was a key figure in the history of mankind, but also an enthusiastic inventor, a daring businessman, a tenacious troublemaker: the life of Johannes Gutenberg (circa 1400-68).

2017-09-25 | fr

George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute

Color footage of inventor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Dr. Carver is filmed at his apartment, office, laboratory, and garden.

1937-12-31 | en

The Dawnsayer

For the past 40 years, Bruce Beach has been preparing for a nuclear disaster. A bunker of 42 school buses is buried on his property, designed to save humanity. Curious onlookers and interested preppers regularly visit the site named Ark Two, but it's clear that the creator of this decaying shelter is the only one truly convinced of its practicality in the event of an apocalypse. Now that Bruce is in his 80s, he and his wife Jean need to spend more time taking care of their immediate needs than worrying about the future. What could easily be dismissed as evangelical paranoia becomes a tragic yet uplifting story about a risk-taking inventor who has lived without regrets. Sometimes outside-the-box thinkers become millionaires and are recognized for their genius ability to guide us into the future, while others are pushed to the margins. There’s a lot to be learned from both

2020-01-01 | en

The Story of Alfred Nobel

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite, and later established the Nobel Prize.

1939-02-18 | en

Omni: An Act against Gravity

When a YouTube video of Alexandru Duru's hoverboard flight goes viral, the young engineer sets a Guinness World Record and achieves the recognition he desires. But fame and fortune don't come easily. Often mocked and ostracized (until they achieve their goal), inventors see the world in a distinct way. Duru is no different. The son of Romanian immigrants, he's driven by a desire to achieve the impossible—and to cash in. Exploring the banality of Duru's trial-and-error efforts, director Bogdan Stoica is an artistic risk-taker worthy of his subject. He allows contemplative scenes to develop in real-time with immaculate framing; a natural tension builds as we witness Duru strapping the equivalent of high-speed lawn mower blades to his feet. Avoiding the temptation to sensationalize and thus trivialize his subject, Stoica reveals a rich story about immigration, settlement and the human desire to transcend our physical confines. -Alexander Rogalski (Hot Docs Film Festival)

2018-05-01 | en

The Seabees on Iwo Jima

Narrated by CBS Sports' Jim Nantz. The Seabees on Iwo Jima focuses on the United States Naval Construction Battalions in World War II, which built all the infrastructure for the Allies in Europe and the Pacific in WWII. The Seabees were construction workers by trade but had to fight at times. Their motto was "We Build, We Fight," and their biggest test came in the battle for Iwo Jima in 1945.

2023-05-05 | en

Zvorykin-Muromets

Parfenov's documentary is about a brilliant scientist and engineer, born in Russia, but only known on the other side of the ocean. The invention of modern television changed the history of mankind. The invention has an author, who is almost unknown in his homeland. Vladimir Zworykin, born in Murom, a Russian American, was the person who created distant wireless transmission of images.

2010-03-15 | ru

Silver Memories

Heralded as a palace among minor and major league baseball stadiums, Silver Stadium set a standard of excellence from opening day. From May 1929 through the 1990s Silver Stadium served as home to Rochester's historic baseball team, The Rochester Red Wings, as well as many other sporting teams. When not being used as a baseball stadium, the space served as center stage for a variety of traveling acts. Hear from the people closest to the history of this magnificent facility as they take you on a journey through The Memories of Silver.

2000-04-08 | en

The Space Race

Uncover the little-known stories of the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists seeking to break the bonds of social injustice to reach for the stars, including Guion Bluford, Ed Dwight and Charles Bolden among many others.

2023-06-12 | en