Cutting Corners

Documentary made as part of the exhibition “Materiais de Construção” (FCG, 1998). The exhibition's curator, Jorge Molder, and the participating artists, Markus Raetz and Pieter Laurens Mol, are interviewed. Topics such as the artists' biography and the works presented are covered. Includes images from the exhibition (CAM Gallery and Hall).

Nearly 200 years ago, the train revolutionized our lives. It redrew the maps of states and nations, and changed concepts of distance and time like no other invention before. What visionaries imagined the development of the railroad? How did we get from the first chugging locomotives to the smooth giants of speed we see today? How does France's extensive rail network keep running smoothly, 24/7?

The mavericks who pioneered the modern pit stop made it a raceday staple that takes less than two seconds.

Nominated for an Academy Award, this live-action short film playfully chronicles the construction of the Tishman Building at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Documents the evolution of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Arch from concept drawings, to fabrication of its stainless steel sections, to assembly and completion. Innovative structural techniques and brilliant design show why this avant-garde monument is among the greatest civil engineering achievements of the twentieth century. Oscar Nominee: Best Documentary Short

What caused Building 7 to collapse on 9/11? Dr. Leroy Hulsey from the University of Alaska Fairbanks may have the answer, following an exhausting four year engineering study.

The Estonian national team is the first Baltic team to participate in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, the solar car world championship in Australia. This is a competition with a 35-year history, which has been launched to push the boundaries of both green technology and the capabilities of young talents. The documentary follows young Estonian engineers and software developers and tells the story through their eyes of how the solar car is developed, built and prepared for the challenge in one of the most complex competitions in the world. Young people have to face tough competition conditions, technical and mental challenges and competitors from the world's top universities.

A dizzying view of Manhattan in the 1960s, the tallest town in the world, and the men who work cloud-high to keep it growing. They are the Mohawk Indians from Kahnawake, near Montréal, famed for their skill in erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers. The film shows their nimble work, high above the pavement, but there are also glimpses of the quieter community life of the old Kahnawake Reserve.

A year in the life of one of America's most innovative classrooms where students design & build to transform their hometown community. The film follows Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller as they teach the fundamentals of design, architecture and construction to a class of high school juniors in rural North Carolina.

For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.

A day-to-day record of the construction of the Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island to the mainland, Abegweit reveals some of the innovations that made this mammoth project one of the most impressive engineering feats in Canadian history.

Les arpenteurs de l'espace

A parallel montage of the construction of a dam in Galicia and the architecture of a small Roman-style church.

A promotional film for the Ford Company detailing the introduction of the Cosworth engine into Formula 1 in conjunction with Lotus.

Chronicling the reconstruction of the World Trade Center and restoration of the New York City skyline, with a focus on the construction workers who made it happen. Thirteen cameras placed throughout the site document eight years of progress with stunning time-lapse imagery, and shadow workers every step of the way as they turn a pile of ashes into a towering testament to imagination and resilience.

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.

Since 1926 the Philadelphia Toboggan Company #36, (PTC 36) has occupied a place in the hearts and minds of children of all ages who visit Seabreeze Amusement Park. In March of 1994, a tragic fire took the beloved carousel from this Rochester, NY community. This is the story of the aftermath and the determination of the owners of Seabreeze Amusement Park to build a new carousel in the grand tradition of PTC 36

THE STRAIT GUYS follows Czech-born mining engineer, George, and his fast-talking protégé, Scott, along the proposed route of the InterContinental Railway through Alaska, to the Bering Strait and onward to Russia. The “Strait Guys” endeavor to convince international governments, corporations, and indigenous tribes to green-light their $100 billion railway project, which would provide ground-based infrastructure across the continents, relieve overcrowded Pacific ports, improve global supply chains, and ease tensions between the superpowers. The US and Russia have been successfully collaborating in space for decades. Now the Strait Guys are out to prove it is also possible down here on earth.

Looks at the engineering of the Knights Templar, the religious order that marked the rise of the Middle Ages, and their amazing buildings in the west of Europe.

Narratives of ecologists and conservationists are pitted against the human tendency to engineer and control in this probing documentary on the lucrative salmon-hatchery industry.