It was one of humankind's most epic quests - a technical problem so complex that it challenged the best minds of its time, a problem so important that the nation that solved it would rule the economy of the world. The problem was navigation by sea—how to know where you were when you sailed beyond the sight of land - establishing your longitude. While the gentry of the 18th Century looked to the stars for the answer, an English clockmaker, John Harrison, toiled for decades to solve the problem. His elegant solution made him an unlikely hero and remains the basis for the most modern forms of navigation in the world today. This film will be both a celebration of Harrison's invention and an adventure story. An expedition on a period sailing vessel as it sails the open sea will demonstrate the life and death importance of finding your longitude at sea.
"Journey to the West" is an embedded documentary film into a bus full of Chinese tourists visiting Europe (6 countries in 10 days!) for the very first time. This road movie captures with humor, poetry and spirit the cultural differences between China and Europe in a play of mirrors and contrasts. It also destroys the stereotypes about the emerging Chinese middle class and reveals what they think about the "others" who are "us", the Westerners.
Citizens across Europe who used to belong to the lower middle class have fallen into poverty. An in-depth investigation into the precariat, a new social class of financially insecure citizens who, although they are employed, find it very difficult to make ends meet.
A photojournalist turns her lens on the decades of sexual abuse her family and community experienced at the hands of her grandfather in this unflinching portrait of intergenerational trauma, family secrets, and redemption.
The explosion at Chernobyl was ten times worse than the Hiroshima bomb and was due to a combination of human error and imperfect technology. An account of the sixty critical minutes prior to the explosion of the nuclear power plant on the night of April 26, 1986.
Markus Becker is hit by a car, dragged along, his head bashed on a curb and he falls into a coma. The doctors don’t believe that the 45-year-old will survive the next five to ten days. His father makes preparations for the funeral. Markus’ brother Michael refuses to accept this fate and begins an extraordinary battle. In his brother’s apartment he seals Markus’ clothes to preserve the smell. He records the neighbors’ voices. Every day, Michael exposes his brother to things that are familiar and films everything that is part of Markus’ life with a DV camera. He wants to keep him in his world and to bring this world to his bedside. He documents every step of Markus’ development, risking his own life in the process, wishing that his brother will one day regain the ability to lead a normal life. This full-length documentary accompanies Michael Becker for 10 years on his unwavering and creative mission to bring his brother Markus back to life.
The traveler who never leaves his cabinet – that’s what his contemporaries used to call Jules Verne. He was a person with an extraordinary lust for life whose fantasy had no limits, he literally taught us how to dream. Which of us did not aspire of circling the world with Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout? Who hasn’t dreamt of roaming the sea with captain Nemo on his quest for vengeance? This film is yet another piece from the series “Great Dreamers” which already includes some of the most well-known visionaries such as Nicola Tesla (“Free Energy of Tesla”) and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (“Tsiolkovsky’s Worlds of Miracle”). By having utilized advanced CGI technologies we were able to recreate the life of outstanding persons, pioneers and path breakers in science and research.
Explores the Pyramids of Giza as Egyptologists try to unravel the mysteries and decipher the clues behind these stone giants built over 4,500 years ago.
A figure skater seeks wisdom from a local sage to cure her diabetes.
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months and an endless reservoir of bitterness later, Porter's partners and the crooked cops on his tail learn how bad payback can be.
Egypt, 11th century. When a famine ravages the country, the prosperous Andalusian kingdom of Denia comes to the aid of the sultan, who, in gratitude, gives Denia the most sought-after and coveted object in all of Christendom.
The life and works of Ecuadorian writer Marcelo Chiriboga, a key figure of the Latin American literature and member of the “boom” generation. Through interviews, visits to different cities, archival footage and his most important book, a puzzle is woven that blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction.
Year 1763, the Seven Years' War is about to end. August III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, has died, leaving empty the royal treasury and an extraordinary collection of paintings, sculptures, jewelry and goldsmith masterpieces, which he considered a symbol of his greatness, and that of Dresden, one of the European capitals of Baroque art.
Male stripping is booming in the UK. Every weekend in most major cities, women are paying to see men get naked. The Dreamboys is the biggest male stripping agency of them all and ex-stripper David Richards is in charge. He claims to know what women want, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to give it to them. David is on the search for some 'fresh meat' to join his London troupe and meets the men that come forward to auditions. Who are they, why are they doing it and what impact is it having on their lives? Like never before, this First Cut film lifts the lid on this exotic world of sex, fantasy and temptation and shines a light on the private lives of the men whose job it is to bare all. First Cut is the critically acclaimed, eclectic documentary strand that showcases distinctive new films by up and coming directors.
A documentary focused on the proliferation of bedbugs in Marseille.