In the summer of 1928, the Scottish physician Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident, but it would take two more decades and a world war before he and others succeeded in producing the antibiotic in such large quantities as to eradicate the epidemics of the time: typhus, syphilis, gangrene and tuberculosis.
A chronicle of Nobel Prize winning physicist Marie Curie's little known yet invaluable contribution to wounded soldiers' treatment during World War I, and her professional partnership with radiotherapy pioneer Claudius Regaud.
Between 1950 and 1958, John Marshall made four expeditions to film the Ju/'hoansi (a group of !Kung Bushmen) of the Nyae Nyae region of Namibia (then South West Africa). During this time, Marshall shot over 300,000 feet of 16mm film (157 hours). He later produced a total of 23 films exclusively from this footage. In this short film, children tempt fate by playing with scorpions.
In this educational film about personal hygiene, Harv and Marv are animated characters in the real world. When Marv says he wants to become human, Harv shows him that real people have to bathe, wash their hands and teeth, and mind their appearance.
A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.
A rampant, street level story of mentorship and everyday heroism in tough circumstances. An inner city coach's son, estranged in his youth from his father, spends five years on ball fields in inner city Oakland and Havana, following the lives of two extraordinary youth baseball coaches, Roscoe in Oakland and Nicolas in Havana. The coaches meet on videotape and two years of red tape later, Coach Roscoe and nine Oakland players travel to Havana to play Coach Nicolas' team. For one week, the players and coaches eat, dance, swim, argue and play baseball together. But when the parent of an Oakland player is murdered back home, it brings back the inescapable reality and challenges of life in an American inner city.
Documentary film by the Danish TV channel DR about sexual abuse and suicide in Tasiilaq, Southeastern Greenland.
A lost chapter in black British film: extraordinary rushes from a documentary showcasing talented members of the black community.
Tippi is no ordinary child. She believes that she has the gift of talking to animals and that they are like brothers to her. 'I speak to them with my mind, or through my eyes, my heart or my soul, and I see that they understand and answer me.' Tippi is the daughter of French filmmakers and wildlife photographers, Alain Degre and Sylvie Robert, who have captured her on film with some of Africa's most beautiful and dangerous animals. Tippi shares her thoughts and wisdom on Africa, its people and the animals she has come to know and love. Often her wisdom is beyond her years, and her innocence and obvious rapport with the animals is both fascinating and charming.
The film explores the daily lives of three children with Congenital insensitivity to pain, a rare genetic disorder shared by just a hundred people in the world. Three-year-old Gabby from Minnesota, 7-year-old Miriam from Norway and 10-year-old Jamilah from Germany have to be carefully guarded by their parents so they don't suffer serious, life-altering injuries.
Special following four families who are raising teenagers, and capturing candid, often disturbing situations which reveal the direct connection between parents' behavior and the ways their kids are mirroring or reacting to that behavior.
Short Croatian documentary from the former Yugoslavia by Ante Babaja that captures the different faces in a waiting room.
This bicycle-safety film shows children what can happen when bicycles are driven carelessly and recklessly.
A sequence of nine individual biographical sketches with a prologue and epilogue on Golzow and the long-term observation. Deepening of the preceding chronicle. The Golzow people in the present, from which retrospective views of the previous life and the life conflicts of the individual are given.
The daily workins of Austria's Danube Hospital.
Short, evocative documentary on the education of blind and partially sighted children.
A document on a new method of treating scarlet fever with penicillin.
Die Kunst des Heilens
An elementary school in Japan begins an experimental program that frames the students' curriculum around one single project: the raising of a calf from adolescence to adulthood. Through their work with the calf, the students learn about math, biology, nutrition and numerous other subjects. But after multiple years of investing energy and emotion into their beloved pet, the students begin to realize that the final days of their project may provide them with the hardest and most important lesson of all.
Errol Morris' "Demon in the Freezer" is a short 17-minute documentary about the stockpiles of the smallpox virus that remain stored for research purposes.