Rebuilding Paradise

Spring 2012 the Swedish band La Fleur Fatale embarked on a journey to and through California. During two weeks they played with legendary psych musicians and met people who was part of making the 60's into what it later became both musically and spiritually, connecting the past with the present both musically and politically. What is the difference between then and now? Is the Anonymous movement now what 60's anti war movement was back then? The band themselves only knew about the shows they are supposed to play on the trip through California, they are lead on the journey by their manager that call in the next destination. In The Second Wave we find people and bands like La Fleur Fatale of course, Ebbot Lundberg (TSOOL), Strawberry Alarm Clock, James Lowe(Electric Prunes), Duncan Faure(Bay City Rollers, Rabbit), Patrick Campbell-Lyons (Original Nirvana) and more. The people behind this documentary have been working pro bono, by love to the band and the project itself.

The successes and failures of a couple determined to live in harmony with nature on a farm outside of Los Angeles are lovingly chronicled by filmmaking farmer John Chester, in this inspiring documentary.

A wordless portrait of sculptor Jessica Jackson Hutchins shows us the artist in the process of transforming clay into uncanny forms.

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.

Feel the rush of the breathtakingly beautiful National Parks of California with one deep breath of the summer air.

The Beach Boys - California Surfin

One man, one camera, one goal...to capture the essence of adventure. An experimental, often abstract new type of filmmaking process creating color rich visuals combined with a lush soundtrack that grounds the project. A unique cinematic experience.

High up in the Northern California mountains there is a place, where not too many get to visit. Its called - The Emerald Triangle, real mecca of Americas cannabis game. Follow a ukrainian journalist Luka on a journey that explores lifes of real growers and hustlers and the dangers that come with it.

This Traveltalk series short follows the route laid out by the famous chain of 21 Spanish missions, begun in 1769 and extending northward for over 500 miles, from San Diego to Sonoma, California. We stop briefly at San Luis Rey and San Juan Capistrano (to watch the swallows) as well as San Juan Bautista and other missions.

The inspirational story of Marta Becket: 76-yr old singer, writer, dancer, painter, visionary, and her creation Amargosa.

The Sacramento is one of the greatest rivers in the world, A " River of Life" providing the majority of salmon to the Pacific Ocean, but also a great risk of flooding for its ever growing population living within its watershed. gathering water from an area approximately the size of the state Indiana. The Sacramento and its many tributaries nurture the vast agricultural corridor of the central valley of California, as well as providing water to cities as far south as Los Angeles

This FitzPatrick's Traveltalks series short takes the viewer to various sites around California that resemble the geography, architecture, and culture of other places around the globe.

This Traveltalk series short looks at California, beginning with the diverse types of flowers found in the state. After a look at some popular Hollywood landmarks, we visit Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a famous cemetery.

Explore the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering and human failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, a self-taught engineer who ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing the city water via aqueduct. The catastrophe killed more than 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property.

Follows the deadly Australian bushfires of 2019-2020, known as ‘Black Summer’. Burning is an exploration of what happened as told from the perspective of victims of the fires, activists and scientists.

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.

Narrated by Queen Latifah, this documentary follows Elsie, a black Labrador mix, and her struggled to raise her puppies on the streets of Los Angeles.

On November 4th, 2008, three states - California, Florida and Arizona - voted to amend their constitutions, denying and revoking the rights of same-sex couples to marry. On May 26, 2009, with Canadian allies, gay American families rally at a Vancouver demonstration to protest these amendments that persecute the LGBTQ community. Demonstration organizer Roger Chin relays the California Supreme Court's infamous decision on Prop 8. Subsequent speakers talk about couples living in exile. Weaving elements of public protest and intimate interviews, four families share their stories of how they met, their decision to escape to freedom in Canada, their Canadian experience and their dreams of returning to their home country, family and friends. In the end, the organizer celebrates the freedoms to marry that exists in Canada.

Every Christmas, Bruce Mertz lights up the neighborhood with the 50,000 lights covering his house. For decades he's obsessively added to his display, creating beautiful, towering fixtures that people travel across the country to see. In this offbeat, touching portrait, we learn what drives him, and discover how a kid who grew up on a farm with no electricity became Mr. Christmas.

In 2021, an extreme heatwave gave rise to huge wildfires in the vast subarctic forests of Sakha, a northeastern republic in Siberia. The village of Shologon lies in this taiga landscape, shrouded in orange smoke and black ash. The forest is burning and the flames are approaching fast.