What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.
Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Modern Masterpiece (2022)
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Modern Masterpiece, Unity Temple is an homage to America’s most renowned architect. The film pulls back the curtain on Wright’s first public commission in the early 1900’s to the painstaking efforts to restore the 100 year old building back to its original beauty. The dedicated team of historians, craftspeople, members of the Unitarian congregation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation reveal the history of one of Wright’s most innovative buildings that merged his love of architecture with his own spiritual values. The film intersperses the architect’s philosophies with quotes narrated by Brad Pitt.
Grizzly Man (2005)
Werner Herzog's documentary film about the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in one man's attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
Electronic Poem (1958)
Poème Électronique is an 8-minute piece of electronic music by composer Edgard Varèse, written for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. The Philips corporation commissioned Le Corbusier to design the pavilion, which was intended as a showcase of their engineering progress. The pavilion was shaped like a stomach, with a narrow entrance and exit on either side of a large central space. As the audience entered and exited the pavilion, the electronic composition Concret PH by Iannis Xenakis (who also acted as Le Corbusier's architectural assistant for the pavilion's design) was heard. Poème électronique was synchronized to a film of black and white photographs selected by Le Corbusier which touched on vague themes of human existence.
Another Side of the Forest (1974)
Developments in the Canadian forestry industry during the 1970s are shown being carried out both as lab experiments and in the field to protect and conserve the country's vast forests. These include turning a Newfoundland bog into woodland, fostering British Columbia seedlings that withstand mechanical planting, inoculating Ontario elms against the bark beetle, devising ways of controlling fire, and more.
Inhabitants (2021)
For millennia, Native Americans successfully stewarded and shaped their landscapes, but centuries of colonization have disrupted their ability to maintain their traditional land management practices. From deserts, coastlines, forests, mountains, and prairies, Native communities across the US are restoring their ancient relationships with the land. As the climate crisis escalates these time-tested practices of North America's original inhabitants are becoming increasingly essential in a rapidly changing world.
The Man Who Wanted to Change the World (2016)
Peter Westerveld, artist and visionary, doesn’t want institutions to resolve the problems linked to earth’s problems. Growing up in Africa, he witnessed the advance of the desert and dedicated himself to finding solutions for the ongoing erosion and desertification of the land. The film follows Peter and the NGO working with him to realise his project; to build contour trenches that capture and store rain water under the surface and replenish the desert land.
Black Hole Hunters (2019)
A team of international scientists attempt to document the first-ever image of a black hole.
L'odyssée d'Hubble, un œil dans les étoiles (2022)
The Hubble Space Telescope has spent more than 30 years scrutinizing the cosmos in an attempt to unravel the secrets of the Universe and go as close as possible to its origin. But Hubble has also become the superstar of space, offering us magnificent paintings of the Universe.
Bauhaus 100 (2019)
In 1919 an art school opened in Germany that would change the world forever. It was called the Bauhaus. A century later, its radical thinking still shapes our lives today. Bauhaus 100 is the story of Walter Gropius, architect and founder of the Bauhaus, and the teachers and students he gathered to form this influential school. Traumatised by his experiences during the Great War, and determined that technology should never again be used for destruction, Gropius decided to reinvent the way art and design were taught. At the Bauhaus, all the disciplines would come together to create the buildings of the future, and define a new way of living in the modern world.
Amancio Williams (2013)
A biography documentary of the Argentine modernist architect Amancio Williams.
Ribnitz-Damgarten (1989)
Ribnitz-Damgarten, the jewel at the coast of the Baltic Sea, is located directly at the Saaler Bodden, between Stralsund and Rostock. The town and its surrounding area are made for vacationing. This documentary from 1989 also shows the other side, like, for example, how the increasing population density and the industrial production influence the ecological balance of the region. A community for the protection of the Bodden landscape is actively making an effort for conservation. At the institute for deep-sea fishery, research about the fish population is conducted, and agriculture as well is looking for solutions to preserve an intact environment.
Riverwoods: An Untold Story (2022)
Three years in the making, this feature-length documentary shines a light on the perilous state of Scotland’s salmon, and tells the compelling story of a fish that once lived in the forest.
Deep Sky (2023)
Explores the $10 billion JWST's engineering and construction process, historic Dec. 25, 2021 launch, and the release of its first full-color, galaxy-sprinkled images on July 12, 2022 witnessed by the entire planet.
The Shaman's Apprentice (2001)
Scientist Mark Plotkin races against time to save the ancient healing knowledge of Indian tribes from extinction.
iHuman (2019)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is possibly the most powerful technology of our time. It has the potential to solve humanity’s biggest challenges yet some fear AI will be our downfall. iHUMAN follows pioneers at the frontline of the race to develop the ever more sophisticated AI to find the questions we need to ask at this crucial point in history.
Space Station 3D (2002)
Some 220 miles above Earth lies the International Space Station, a one-of-a-kind outer space laboratory that 16 nations came together to build. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this extraordinary structure in this spectacular IMAX film. Viewers will blast off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia for this incredible journey -- IMAX's first-ever space film. Tom Cruise narrates.
Zelené priehrady (1950)
A document on the importance of forests to the national economy. It represents forests not only as a rich storehouse of wood, but also as an important factor for continuous water supply, as they regulate the water cycle and prevent both droughts and floods.