D Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. He was a star of the scientific world. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. His adoptions were hailed as wonderful fatherly beneficence. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile. Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind like Gajdusek's lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations? (Storyville)
In a studio setting, Stephen Hawking, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan (who joins them via satellite) discuss the Big Bang theory, God, our existence as well as the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
As Russian writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) thinks it is impossible that his novel Doctor Zhivago is published in the Soviet Union, because it supposedly shows a critical view of the October Revolution, he decides to smuggle several copies of the manuscript out of the country. It is first published in 1957 in Italia and the author receives the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, which has consequences.
This shows physicist Stephen Hawking's life as he deals with the ALS that renders him immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, classmates, and peers are interviewed not only about his theories but the man himself.
A team of international scientists attempt to document the first-ever image of a black hole.
Voyage vers l’infini Avec Christophe Galfard
Albert Camus died at 46 years old on January 4, 1960, two years after his Nobel Prize in literature. Author of “L'Etranger”, one of the most widely read novels in the world, philosopher of the absurd and of revolt, resistant, journalist, playwright, Albert Camus had an extraordinary destiny. Child of the poor districts of Algiers, tuberculosis patient, orphan of father, son of an illiterate and deaf mother, he tore himself away from his condition thanks to his teacher. French from Algeria, he never ceased to fight for equality with the Arabs and the Kabyle, while fearing the Independence of the FLN. Founded on restored and colorized archives, and first-hand accounts, this documentary attempts to paint the portrait of Camus as he was.
Albert Camus, who died 60 years ago, continues to inspire defenders of freedom and human rights activists around the world today. The Nobel Prize winner for literature is one of the most widely read French-language writers in the world. He continues to embody the rebellious man who opposes all forms of oppression and tyranny while refusing to compromise his human values.
The memory of the poet Vicente Aleixandre remains silent at No. 3 Velintonia Street. Home of a Nobel Prize in Literature 1977, it also recalls the joy of Lorca and other members of Generation´27, the pain of civil war and post-war, and became a meeting point for most writers in 20th century Spanish Literature, now is abandoned and for sale. This documentary recreates its story and spirit.
Black holes stand at the limit of what we can know. To explore that edge of knowledge, the Event Horizon Telescope links observatories across the world to simulate an earth-sized instrument. With this tool the team pursues the first-ever picture of a black hole, resulting in an image seen by billions of people in April 2019. Meanwhile, Hawking and his team attack the black hole paradox at the heart of theoretical physics—Do predictive laws still function, even in these massive distortions of space and time? Weaving them together is a third strand, philosophical and exploratory using expressive animation. “Edge” is about practicing science at the highest level, a film where observation, theory, and philosophy combine to grasp these most mysterious objects.
Jaroslav Seifert
About the Portuguese author José Saramago, based on a long interview with the writer at his home on the island of Lanzarote, in which he analyzes his work and shares his reflection on some aspects of his personal life.
"In Search of Memory" is a very personal portrait of Eric Kandel, the "rock star" of neuroscience and the most important brain researcher of the 20th century. A fascinating documentary about the exciting mystery of the brain which arouses a curiosity in life and learning.
To historians, physicist Lise Meitner deserves to be placed on a par with Einstein, Heisenberg and Otto Hahn. In the 1930s on the verge of World War II, she led a small group of scientists who discovered that splitting the atomic nucleus of uranium releases enormous energy. This extraordinary film tells the story of a woman who was far ahead of her time as a scientist and a pioneer of feminism.
Albert Einstein - Comment je vois le Monde
A long time ago, years before Elon Musk reached for the stars with his Space X project, a young man had his own childhood dream about a journey into space. This documentary tells the fantastic story of German astrophysicist Lutz Kayser who developed the world's first private space company. He did this under the curious and concerned eyes of secret services around the world.
Made in the form of a faux documentary, these are four possibilities - set within the circumstances of a single day replayed over four separate times - that civilization could be brought to an abrupt end...
Travel to the edge of space and beyond to discover natures ultimate abyss black holes. Explore where they are found, how they begin, and how it may be possible to harness and use the power they produce. In Monster Black Holes, scientists steadily piece together the complex dynamics of a black holes birth and are also examine the growth of a select few black holes to super massive proportions that dominate the centers of galaxies. As a monster black hole swallows everything in its path, it generates energy that shapes the universe around it in powerful ways. Journey into the heart of a black hole and explore what happens to matter when it falls into a black hole, and whether the Milky Way galaxy will one day come to an end when the black hole at the galaxy's center explodes.
Focuses on 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchu, as she discusses the lack of human rights for the indigenous people of Guatemala and her commitment to the struggle for a more egalitarian society.
How would natural habitats develop without human interference? In this documentary we follow an international team of scientists and explorers on an extraordinary mission in Mozambique to reach a forest that no human has set foot in. The team aims to collect data from the forest to help our understanding of how climate change is affecting our planet. But the forest sits atop a mountain, and to reach it, the team must first climb a sheer 100m wall of rock.