Splendour of the Heavens

A unique behind-the-scenes access to NASA’s ambitious mission to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, following a team of engineers and scientists as they take the next giant leap in our quest to understand the universe.

A portrait of a recently vacated home, the film evokes both memory and the lingering presence of past inhabitants. Through precise, enigmatic sound–image construction, Beavers crafts an intimate meditation on art, existence, and the search for meaning.

This is the story of a vegetable garden, from the first seeds to the harvest. But this garden is different, because here the gardener has decided to banish pesticides and other chemicals, and to be helped only by discreet workers, the insects. As we dive into the heart of this plant kingdom, we discover thousands of tiny lives that organize themselves as in a micro-society: decomposing insects, recyclers, pollinators, the workers of the garden work to maintain a fragile balance within the vegetable garden. As the plants grow and begin to produce their first vegetables, the incredible interactions between insects and plants help protect the future harvest. But it is also their personal stories that punctuate the life of the garden. Between parades, mutual aid and attempted putsch, the story of the vegetable garden thus takes the form of a true nature tale.

In the past, the now 82-year-old Leo happily traveled with his wife Riet to faraway lands. But since the first signs of Alzheimer’s, the father-in-law of filmmaker Marco Niemeijer prefers his own backyard above anywhere else. There, surrounded by his beloved trees and plants, Leo tries to keep hold of his increasingly confusing existence. Over the course of a year, Niemeijer films Leo every month, from season to season. Whether rain or shine, Leo can always be found in his trouble-free refuge. At first his words and actions are coherent, but as time passes, these become increasingly illogical. Leo begins to wander more aimlessly, playing with a thought and then losing it. Various mantras help him deal with his situation, such as "What I’m not looking for, I will not miss." The intimate yard scenes alternate with old home videos made by Leo during his wanderlust years.

ITV Naturalist Nigel Marven stars in this drama-documentary in which he explores his own back garden, in all its intricate detail. Shrunk to the size of an ant, he and his two companions - technical assistant Laura Green (Sarah Matravers) and driver Doug Kruger (Robin Lawrence) - embark on a mission to cross Nigel's back garden in just 24 hours. Along the way they meet some of the many thousands of creatures that fight for survival every day in these urban jungles .

Since the end of World War II, one of kind of urban residential development has dominate how cities in North America have grown, the suburbs. In these artificial neighborhoods, there is a sense of careless sprawl in an car dominated culture that ineffectually tries to create the more organically grown older communities. Interspersed with the comments of various experts about the nature of suburbia

Sheffield stands in as 'Smokedale', an industrial Everytown, in this stirring call for "new schools, new hospitals, new roads, new life", after WWII.

An exploration of Rodez Cathedral and its stained glass windows: praying figures and scientific imagery. A study on color, repetition and flickering consisting of 292 photographs.

Pescenica is an old industrial suburb of Zagreb. As a satirical depiction of Croatia's recent politics, it has been declared independent republic. What's it like there today? Over a year, the film crew was combing streets, avenues, parks and backyards, focusing on the lives of four Pescenica inhabitants: its self-proclaimed president, a teacher in a Roma school, a cleaning lady in a film distribution company and a young stage director. All that in order to portray Pescenopolis, the film's protagonist that floats between mud and clouds.

For more than 50 years, we’ve been unsuccessfully searching for any evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. But, the discovery of thousands of exoplanets has meant the hope of finding them is higher than ever. If any messages could eventually be decoded and answered in any far, far away star, it could radically transform our consciousness as species and our place in the universe. A message from the stars changes life on Earth… forever.

The film takes place in a Parisian suburb and brings us into the closest possible contact with the people who live here and takes us into the privacy of their lives. A series of personal accounts and shots of the decorated interiors of apartments and houses with no hint as to where we are, no names. No stigma attached, no label given. For these are not the subject of the film, which seeks instead to give a face and a voice – a sort of private landscape – to a space that has come to represent all that is standardized and anonymous.

BLACK SUNS: AN ASTROPHYSICS ADVENTURE is a documentary about chasing eclipses and science dreams. It chronicles the lives of two globetrotting African American astrophysicists, Dr. Alphonse Sterling and Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, as they follow the two solar eclipses that occurred in 2012. Dr. Alphonse Sterling of NASA, stationed in Japan, had early success in the US, but left his home country to further cultivate his wide-ranging interests. Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi of the Florida Institute of Technology, is a scientist who beat the odds of poverty, and a poor early education, to get where he is today. The film is hosted by award-winning cultural astronomer Dr. Jarita Holbrook.

The earliest surviving celluloid film, and believed to be the second moving picture ever created, was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the LPCCP Type-1 MkII single-lens camera. It was taken in the garden of Oakwood Grange, the Whitley family house in Roundhay, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire (UK), possibly on 14 October 1888. The film shows Adolphe Le Prince (Le Prince's son), Mrs. Sarah Whitley (Le Prince's mother-in-law), Joseph Whitley, and Miss Harriet Hartley walking around in circles, laughing to themselves, and staying within the area framed by the camera. The Roundhay Garden Scene was recorded at 12 frames per second and runs for 2.11 seconds.

Les Enfants de l’ovale... Un essai qui transforme !

Orson Welles — with contributions from scientists George Wald, Carl Sagan, and others — examines the possibility and implications of extraterrestrial life. In examining our perceptions of alien 'martians' from his "War of the Worlds" broadcast, to then-modern explorations of Mars, this film from NASA provides a unique glimpse at life on earth, and elsewhere in the universe.

The Sun was born way before Man existed. What exact role did the Sun play in the emergence of life and Mankind? When did Humanity identify it? Then deify it? At what point did Man want to understand it? When and how was the Sun used by Man? The Sun is everywhere and is the origin of everything. We are going to show that our culture, our daily lives, our society, our bodies and our lifestyles are all derived from the Sun and are dependent on the Sun. We will go back in time, go back in history to understand the relationship between Man and the Sun.

Bournemouth offers a variety of sports, pastimes, steamer trips, and fine dining for holidaymakers, competing with cheaper foreign holidays and offering a variety of transportation options.

Wylie carries a telescope through the streets of Los Angeles to offer passersby a new and closer look at a familiar object: the moon. Because everyone needs to keep looking up. Because it is a beautiful and wondrous sight to behold the body of the moon.

A series of programs designed for the adult layman who has a curiosity about the skies and the makeup of the universe in which we live. The terms used during the series are fully explained and materials from a number of great observatories and institutions of learning are used for visual illustration. It begins with the solar system and works outward, stimulating interest in this area and awakening a desire for further study and investigation.

A history of the telescope and a look at the James Webb telescope, and at the universe through the eyes of scientists and telescopes since the beginning.