Life by Design

A jetliner spans the miles, sheering through clouds to open sky and scenic vistas of the provinces below. Glimpses of town and country, of people of many ethnic origins, of a resourceful and industrious nation - impressions it would take days and weeks to gather at first hand - are brought to you in this vivid 1800-kilometer panorama.

Constructing freestone buildings on the cheap, Pouillon made a name for himself at the end of the 1940s in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, shaking up his peers who only dreamed of towers and concrete bars. In Algiers, until Independence, he built in record time thousands of homes for the poorest, real urban projects inspired by traditional forms. In the Paris region, to build comfortable buildings quickly and well, nestled in the greenery, he becomes a promoter: this too adventurous bet leads him to prison and retains his reputation. Not very explicit about this complex affair, but seduced by a contemporary architecture that combines technical inventiveness and ancient references, Christian Meunier films by multiplying the angles of view. Today's lively atmospheres are interspersed with archive footage, while Pouillon's writings are read off. Moved, his collaborators evoke a demanding and generous man, with an infectious passion.

Southern California’s Coachella Valley, including the communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, boasts hundreds of extraordinary midcentury modern homes, public buildings and commercial structures. Modern designers such as William F. Cody, Albert Frey, William Krisel, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams left their collective mark on this desert paradise. Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs traces the history of modern architecture in Palm Springs from the first bold forays into modernist design to the preservation challenges facing the region today. Director Jake Gorst’s film features rare archival images and footage as well as interviews with historians, homeowners and the architects who helped create this mecca of modernism.

"Clean Lines, Open Spaces: A View of Mid-Century Modern Architecture" focuses on the construction boom in the United States after World War II. Sometimes considered cold and unattractive, mid-century modern designs were a by-product of post-war optimism and reflected a nation's dedication to building a new future. This new architecture used modern materials such as reinforced concrete, glass and steel and was defined by clean lines, simple shapes and unornamented facades.

Making a documentary on Le Corbusier is not easy, because he is undoubtedly the architect most familiar to the general public but also the most unknown. If most people know his great achievements, such as the Cité radieuse of Marseille, the pavilions of the Cité universitaire de Paris or the Tourettes convent, many are unaware of his works in Moscow, Rio de Janeiro or Chandigarh. Roy Oppenheim pays a vibrant tribute to Corbusier, dismissing the criticisms and darker facets of the character. It presents the career of this pioneering architect, as well as his thinking, the essential principle of which was aimed at the development of human beings and the balance of society. Light, space and greenery are integrated into his large futuristic cities, because according to him the eyes of the inhabitants should be drawn into the distance and not into their neighbor's bathroom.

Julius Shulman: Desert Modern focuses on Shulman's remarkable 70-year documentation of the renowned Mid-Century Modern architecture of the Palm Springs area/ Shulman, at the age of 97, describes with humor and insight his artistic intentions and the back-story to some of his most legendary photographs. He is joined by noted architectural historian Alan Hess and Michael Stern, co-authors of the book, "Julius Shulman: Palm Springs". Stern is also curator of the "Julius Shulman: Palm Springs" exhibition which originated at the Palm Springs Art Museum in February 2008. The flm showcases Shulman's inspired photography of the architecture of Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, John Lautner, E. Stewart Williams, Palmer and Krisel and William Cody, among others. E. Stewart Williams' Frank Sinatra House is featured, as well as Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House, one of the most famous homes in America, largely due to Shulman's iconic 1947 photograph.

A documentary/extrended commercial for FDB Møblerc (FDB Furniture).

Lily Pierce is sick of being haunted. She decides to reconnect with her estranged father, a disgraced history professor, and learn how to draw upon a time of steel and blade when armor-clad knights rode out and dueled their monsters to the death.

Long blue hours characterise summer nights in the sleepy Norwegian port town of Ålesund. Asta is a young journalist working for the local newspaper, where she is expected to report on local sports, historic preservation, and cruise ships. It is only when she stumbles across the strange story of a refugee’s forced deportation, that she finds new meaning in her work and life.

A husband and wife's weekend in a mid-century modern vacation rental turns deadly when the husband discovers the owner is a psychopath with a backyard of buried secrets and designs on his wife.

Narrated by Academy Award Winner Kevin Costner, and directed by Emmy Award winner Ric Burns, PEOPLE OF STANDING STONE explores the little known, yet crucial history of the extraordinary contributions of one Native American people-the Oneidas-who during the darkest hours of the Revolutionary War became the only member of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy to side with rebelling colonists. This powerful and sweeping film, is a moving and unique cinematic experience that sheds light on an American story that has gone shamefully overlooked in the annals of American history.

Documentary about making of "Three Tears in Borneo".

When American citizens were stranded in Canada on 9/11, their northern neighbors opened their doors.

Volvoreta is a 3-year-old racing filly trained by an Argentine installed in France for more than 30 years. Carlos Lerner, born in Tucumán and raised in Monigotes, Santa Fé province, made a place for himself in the elite French turf with determination and work. When a Spanish owner entrusts him with Volvoreta to run in France, Carlos still does not know that the filly is an unusual competitor. He makes his debut winning, and after three races he is still undefeated. This opens the door for him to run the Prix de Diane, a prestigious Group 1 that would allow Carlos, in the event of victory, to establish himself as a first-line coach. The film closely follows the filly's training during the two weeks leading up to the big race and the stress of those tending to her.

Narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi - star of the landmark television series "I, Claudius" - this documentary explores art and culture around the Bay of Naples before Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. The bay was then the most fashionable destination for vacationing Romans. Julius Caesar, emperors, and senators were among those who owned sumptuous villas along its shores. Artists flocked to the region to create frescoes, sculpture, and luxurious objects in gold, silver, and glass for villa owners as well as residents of Pompeii and other towns in the shadow of Vesuvius. The film concludes with the story of the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum from the 18th century onward.

In 2009, just two minutes into US Airways flight 1549, a flock of birds struck the plane taking out both engines. With no power, the Captain decided to attempt the near impossible - to land it in New York's Hudson River.

Das radikal Böse is a German-Austrian documentary that attempted to explore psychological processes and individual decision latitude "normal young men" in the German Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD, which in 1941 during the Second World War as part of the Holocaust two million Jewish civilians shot dead in Eastern Europe.

Why do human beings get married in almost every society in the world? Why do we cheat? Why is monogamy so important to a relationship and why does infidelity cause so much grief? These are some of the questions acclaimed documentary filmmaker Dhruv Dhawan confronts in his next feature length documentary which explores why human beings evolved cultures of marriage and monogamy that are rife with infidelity. As he attends various lavish weddings occurring within his family, Dhruv is pestered to follow suit but is haunted by his family’s history of infidelity, as well as his own and embarks on a personal quest to discover the origins of marriage, the reasons for monogamy and the pain of infidelity as he tries to mediate an open relationship with the woman he loves. Dhruv’s search takes us on a journey into the biology of sex, the history of patriarchy and the politics of monogamy told through the lives of scientists, swingers, adulterers and Dhruv’s own family.

Documentary about spanish singer and composer Jaume Urrutia.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic remains one of the most enduring and mysterious tragedies of the 20th century. For decades, investigators and amateurs alike have floated theories for why it occurred and who was to blame for the extraordinary loss of life, but no one answer could fully explain what happened. Until now. To mark the 100th anniversary of the infamous disaster, Smithsonian Channel will premiere Titanic's Final Mystery. The two-hour special investigates a century of theories and uncovers astonishing new forensic evidence that proves the most likely theory for the case.