The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

L'acte de la beauté

November 2021 •French

An Inconvenient Truth

May 2006 •English

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

Unstoppable Solar Cycles

Invalid date •English

Concern over global climate change may be at an all-time high, but climate change is nothing new - the earth's climate always followed natural cycles of warming and cooling. In Unstoppable Solar Cycles, Dr. Willie Soon and Dr. David Legates challenge the popular idea that human-generated CO2, is causing catastrophic global warming. These scientists propose an alterantive theory - that the current warming has more to do with solar activity than with human activity.

Can Science Make Me Perfect? With Alice Roberts

June 2018 •English

Anatomist Alice Roberts embarks on a quest to rebuild her own body from scratch, taking inspiration from the very best designs the natural world has to offer.

Human Nature

March 2019 •English

The biggest tech revolution of the 21st century isn’t digital, it’s biological. A breakthrough called CRISPR gives us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing disease, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. This documentary is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the genetic engineers who are testing its limits.

No Sense Makes Sense

August 1993 •English

Portrait of Charles Manson. Contains various interviews with J.R. Bruun, Boyd Rice, Nikolas Schreck and other persons with an interest in Charles Manson, inter cut with a barrage of weird clips from movies and television.

Coma

July 2007 •English

Four young Americans who've each suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury emerge from their comas at a New Jersey medical facility. Their eyes may be open, but now the real challenge for each of the patients, their families, their doctors and their therapists begins. Brain healing isn't predictable, we're told, and certainly is not guaranteed. So with each 'major' step forward that is observed (opening one's eyes, bending a thumb upon command, vocalizing a word, answering a question correctly) comes a sense of jubilant relief and hope from the families of these patients, but as we soon see, the more a patient progresses, the more difficult things can be for all involved. Moments of faith & hope contrast with disappointments & frustrations, moments of confidence with moments of doubt. It's difficult to watch, and unimaginable to have to ever live through.

Pyramid

October 2002 •English

Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Pyramid is the only one to survive. Many believe that even with our 21st-century technology, we could not build anything like it today. Based on the most up-to-date research and the latest archaeological discoveries, here is how the Pyramid came to be.

Cosmic Voyage

August 1996 •English

The Academy Award® nominee Cosmic Voyage combines live action with state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery to pinpoint where humans fit in our ever-expanding universe. Highlighting this journey is a "cosmic zoom" based on the powers of 10, extending from the Earth to the largest observable structures in the universe, and then back to the subnuclear realm.

The Scorpion's Tale

March 2005 •English

The Scorpions belong to the oldest land-based arachnides with over 1800 different species known to exist. Usually, they do not surpass the size of 10cm in length, but exceptions are know, such as the Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator) which can grow up to become over 20cm in size. Scorpions are mostly active at night and hide away during the day. Take a look into the live of these amazing creatures!

Road to the Stars

November 1957 •Russian

This film consists of three parts. The first dramatizes the life of the founder of Soviet astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky; the second describes the development of rocket technology; and the third visualizes the future with enactments of the first manned spaceflight, spacewalk, space station construction and humans on the moon.

The Violent Universe

April 1969 •English

Thirty distinguished astronomers are visited at their observatories throughout the world in this comprehensive report of astronomical theories, research, and discoveries.

Rapport

February 2007 •German

Shot during an NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) seminar in Berlin, a group fluxuates between guided meditation and discussion on consciousness and self-acceptance. Neuro-linguistic programming is a set of techniques and beliefs that are used primarily towards personal development. NLP is based on the idea that mind, body, and language create an individual's perception of the world, and an individuals behaviors can be changed by "perceiving and feeling yourself". Rapport focuses on the staging of the self that takes place during this kind of group therapy.

Antigone, How Dare We!

October 2020 •Slovenian

Based on motifs from The Triple Life of Antigone by Slavoj Žižek, this film reflects on today’s planet and political “chaos” by placing the politicians, the decision-makers and the influencers of today in the roles of Žižek’s version of the ancient Greek drama Antigone. But what are the politicians roles? Does the Antigone of today represent populists, anti-migrants and fundamentalists, or those who would oppose them?

The Secret Life of Waves

February 2011 •English

Documentary-maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film, he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.

Scotland's Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell - The Man Who Changed the World

December 2015 •English

Professor Iain Stewart reveals the story behind the Scottish physicist who was Einstein's hero; James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell's discoveries not only inspired Einstein, but they helped shape our modern world - allowing the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and much more. Despite this, he is largely unknown in his native land of Scotland. Scientist Iain Stewart sets out to change that, and to celebrate the life, work and legacy of the man dubbed "Scotland's Forgotten Einstein".

The Real Death Star

January 2002 •English

This documentary examines theories behind the creation of gamma ray bursts, destructive explosions in space that can wipe out entire star systems.

Living in a Reversed World

January 1958 •English

Fascinating -- and unintentionally funny -- experiments at Austria's famed Institute for Experimental Psychology involve a subject who for several weeks wears special glasses that reverse right and left and up and down. Unexpectedly, these macabre and somehow surrealist experiments reveal that our perception of these aspects of vision is not of an optical nature and cannot be relied on, while the unfortunate, Kafkaesque subject stubbornly struggles through a morass of continuous failures.

Habermas - Philosoph und Europäer

December 2022 •German

Rätselhafte Welt der Quanten

March 2019 •German