Beautiful, delicate yet unbelievably resilient, the butterfly is one of nature’s most enigmatic creatures. A story of adaptation and survival, we follow the vast migrations of the Blue Tigers of Australia and the Monarchs of North America and Mexico.
With the help of cutting edge slow-motion, drone and macro filming techniques, we see the butterflies’ tiny world in immaculate detail as they overcome the challenges of metamorphosis and migration, fly thousands of kilometers and as high as 3300 meters. Butterfly Journey reveals our interconnected and awe-inspiring world on the giant screen, through the eyes of the butterflies. Yet what fate awaits them when the fine-tuned climates they intimately know suddenly shift?
Craftsmen, helpers and volunteers are busy building a monastery in town without the modern tools of the 21st century. Rather than tractors with easy loading and unloading mechanisms, oxen are being used to carry heavy loads of stones. The woods are being chopped with an axe instead of a wood chipper and from the smithy you can hear the sound of an anvil.
Building a living historical site with the aid of staff dressed in period costumes is a totally new and ambitious project. By portraying construction, everyday life and the monastic culture of the Carolingian times – a period setting stage for our common medieval heritage – in the microcosm of an almost autonomous abbey, the inhabitants of Meßkirch will have the prestige of bringing the medieval times into the 21st century.
For centuries, the Plan of Saint Gall has inspired a vast number of architects and even more historians. Yet, it had never before been realised – until today. Welcome back to the Dark Ages!
The love story between chickens and men has lasted for over 5000 years. How has this humble forest animal managed to conquer all continents, all territories and become the most abundant and diversified feathered species on our planet?
Today there are over 19 billion on earth, three times more than human beings, and many more than any other species of wild birds.
How did this darkly plumed forest species become so diverse in colour, form and behaviour? What is the everyday life of the hens and roosters that surround us?
Battery-farmed in Brazilian hangars, raised outdoors in the English countryside, in Filipino combat training centers, in survivalists’ bunkers or on New York’s roofs, chickens can live many different lives.
This documentary will explore the world of mankind and chickens in order to unveil the mysteries of the unprecedented success of this unassuming bird.
The ability to fly is one of the greatest wonders in the natural world. Millions of creatures soar above our heads today, using a fabulous variety of techniques to defy gravity and master their aerial environment. But how did animals make the incredible transition from land to air?
Conquest of the Skies uses the very latest science and stunning special effects to uncover the 300-million-year story of flight—and it’s not simply about birds. Using advanced 3D filming technology we capture the beauty and excitement of the whole world of flying creatures, from the fastest predatory falcons to the most acrobatic of insects, night flyers like owls and bats, and the soaring and gliding specialists capable of traveling huge distances. Audiences will enter the truly amazing world of these remarkable animal aviators, and leave the theater both stunned by the spectacle and thrilled by the story of how animals rose up and conquered the skies.
Coral Reef Adventure follows the real-life expedition of ocean explorers and underwater filmmakers Howard and Michele Hall. The Halls guide us to the islands and sun-drenched waters of the South Pacific, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Fiji, Tahiti and the mysterious depths of Rangiroa Atoll, to document the health and beauty of coral reefs. On the giant screen, you’ll feel like you’re diving and exploring right alongside them! Narrated by Liam Neeson.
Cuba tells the powerful story of a land preserved in time, yet poised on the cusp of dramatic change. The nation’s vibrant culture, meticulously maintained colonial architecture, and pristine ecosystems provide a vivid window into the island’s history and spirit. Cuba will transport audiences across breathtaking landscapes, under the ocean surface to iridescent reefs, and into streets throbbing with music and dance in the heart of Havana.
Through the eyes of Cuban artists, historians, and scientists, the film provides an intimate look this vivacious island nation. Filmed exclusively for the giant screen format, Cuba reveals why Cuba continues to stir the imagination of the world. Cuba is produced by Golden Gate 3D, in association with BBC Earth, Giant Screen Films and the Giant Dome Theater Consortium.
June 6, 1944: The largest Allied operation of World War II began in Normandy, France. Yet, few know in detail exactly why and how, from the end of 1943 through August 1944, this region became the most important location in the world. Blending multiple cinematographic techniques, including animation, CGI and stunning live-action images, D-Day: Normandy 1944 brings this monumental event to the world’s largest screens for the first time ever. Audiences of all ages, including new generations, will discover from a new perspective how this landing changed the world. Exploring history, military strategy, science, technology and human values, the film will educate and appeal to all. Narrated by Tom Brokaw, D-Day: Normandy 1944 pays tribute to those who gave their lives for our freedom … A duty of memory, a duty of gratitude.
The island of New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean sits on the equator, where immediately next to a richly-colored coral reef, a sharp underwater cliff drops down to 1,000 meters. A long-awaited exploration down the little known depths of this tropical sea is finally about to start. NHK has teamed up with eminent marine biologist Mark Erdmann, discoverer of the coelacanth in Indonesia. The spherical transparent submarine, which successfully captured the world’s first moving images of a giant squid in its natural habitat, is used as the team encounters true living fossil species one after another. During their last dive, in the darkest depths of caves in the deep-sea cliff, the crew encounters a huge, unknown exotic fish …
For this shoot, the submarine was equipped with a cutting-edge 4K camera for pristine images. Join the film crew on an exciting adventure into a deep sea never before seen by humans, captured on six cameras shooting multi-angles, creating a breath-taking underwater documentary.
Denali, which was once called Mount McKinley, is North America’s highest peak. At its towering glacier-clad summit elevation of 6,190 meters above sea level, the temperature is 30 degrees below zero Celsius even in the middle of summer. The condition there is so extreme that it has claimed some lives of explorers.
In 2016 Daisuke Sasaki, a Japanese climber and skier, embarked on an extraordinary undertaking – a one-push ski descent down the hill of the Cassin Ridge on the Southwest Face of Denali. The steep slope that drops directly down to a valley looks as if soaring almost vertically to climbers.
NHK closely followed and captured Sasaki’s great adventure in 4K using eight UHD cameras. The huge precipitous slope plumbing down at inclines of up to 55 degrees, dozens of meters deep crevasses silently gaping in the gentle-white snow cap, and avalanches tumbling rapidly down the slopes that are caused by unusual weather – all the spectacles Sasaki met at the most beautiful but the most precarious mountain in North America were filmed in a stunning quality.
Denali, however, did not so easily allow the daredevil skier to accomplish his ambitious attempt. A slip fall of a team member, who was injured in the accident, nearly discouraged him to continue his bid on the unprecedented decent, but instigated by warm supports from his team members and his profound adoration for Naomi Uemura, a great predecessor and his countryman, Sasaki decided to resume his adventure. And at last in 38 days Sasaki pulled off the stunning feat.
This is a story about a man who made a record success in the world of big-mountain skiing. In a series of suspenseful scenes of his perilous adventure into the magnificent mountain and the breathtaking decent from its ridge, it will get across the viewers how deeply the impulse for exploration dwells in our human species. His adventurous spirit will spark their sporting blood …
Elephants are symbols of strength, power and wisdom, and they have captured our imaginations for centuries. Desert Elephants is an epic journey across Africa’s Namib Desert, getting up close and personal with the largest land mammals on the planet. Making one of the world’s oldest desert home, the desert elephants are one of nature’s most inspiring examples of survival and adaptation. Follow the journey of an elephant baby, Little Foot, as she learns how to elephant from her elephant family, led by a wise Matriarch. Brave the desert’s elements and use some elephant superpowers, from finding underground aquifers to foreseeing sand storms. The film will reveal the hidden magic of a seemingly otherworldly and formidable landscape, where a cast of iconic animals from giraffes, monkeys to lions form a unique canvas of life.
Without rain for six months each year and with temperatures reaching nearly 50 degrees Celsius, the Negev Desert in Israel is an inhospitable place to live. The Arabian wolf, the smallest member of the wolf family, is unique in that it does not hunt like other wolves that follow their prey for extended periods in packs. Due to a small population, researchers have attached transmitters to a mated pair to understand more about their behavior. This program closely follows the pair as they busily raise their offspring.
Dinosaurs Alive is a global adventure of science and discovery – featuring the earliest dinosaurs of the Triassic Period to the monsters of the Cretaceous “reincarnated” life-sized for the giant IMAX ® screen. Audiences will journey with some of the world’s preeminent paleontologists as they uncover evidence that the descendants of dinosaurs still walk (or fly) among us. From the exotic, trackless expanses and sand dunes of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert to the dramatic sandstone buttes of New Mexico, the film will follow American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) paleontologists as they explore some of the greatest dinosaur finds in history. Through the magic of scientifically accurate computer-generated animation, these newly discovered creatures, and some familiar favorites, will come alive … in a big way!
Beginning in the 1920s, AMNH scientist and adventurer Roy Chapman Andrews, who is believed to be the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character, led five expeditions to the Gobi Desert. Andrews and his team found hundreds of dinosaur remains, many new to science, including the first Velociraptor, the first dinosaur nests with eggs, and fossils of early mammals that lived alongside dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous Period. Andrews also happened to take along a Hollywood cameraman with him to film the expedition’s discovery. This rare and beautifully preserved footage, juxtaposed against the large-format footage of today’s expeditions, provides audiences with a unique perspective into field paleontology over time.
Following in the footsteps of Andrews, AMNH paleontologists, Mike Novacek and Mark Norell, have been making annual expeditions to the Gobi every summer since 1990. Some of the greatest dinosaur fossils ever found have come from the Gobi. Collapsing sand dunes quickly and completely covered whole communities of animals, preserving them until the skeletons are exposed today by erosion. One of the most dramatic sequences in the film features a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops locked in mortal combat as a sand dune sweeps over them and kills them. The famous fossil of these fighting dinosaurs shows that they died in a deadly embrace, claws and jaws still grasping at each other. Great dinosaur moments like these, actual fossilized stories, are brought back to life through state-of-the-art CGI.
Dinosaurs Alive will also introduce audiences to the breakthrough discoveries taking place under the towering red sandstone buttes and rock chimneys in northern New Mexico. Since the 1940s, AMNH scientists have uncovered excellent specimens at the mysterious Ghost Ranch, where erosion has cut down through the many levels of sediment to expose fossils of the earliest dinosaurs from the Triassic Period, some 230 million years ago. At that time reptiles still ruled the earth and dinosaurs were actually modest in size—no larger than a cat, dog, or human. Dinosaurs exploded in diversity and size during the later Jurassic Period. Scientists have recently discovered a “monster” buried near Ghost Ranch. It was a long-necked sauropod called Seismosaurus—meaning ‘thunder lizard’—that was a massive 121 feet long. In the film, audiences will witness this behemoth thundering about on screen, in stark contrast to the more diminutive Triassic dinosaurs.
Finally, in an exciting development captured by our cameras, Novacek and Norell, travel to the site and inspect an extraordinary discovery made by AMNH graduate students — one of the oldest dinosaurs ever found in North America. The film will show how the fossil was discovered, protected in a plaster jacket, carefully removed from the rock, and studied at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Dinosaurs Alive shows how new scientific insights are sometimes built from previous discoveries, and each new generation of paleontologists continues the legacy of people like Roy Chapman Andrews.
If it weren’t for a series of cataclysmic events; a comet impact being first on the list, our planet could still be the domain of dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs fascinate us so much, that many people wish they were among us. Fortunately, Dinosaurs 3D will be the closest thing to actually being in the presence of these extraordinary creatures. Deeply rooted in science, the film carries the audience back in time to witness these amazing beasts come to life.
Meet the largest living animals to have ever walked the Earth: the titanesque plant-eating Argentinosaur, and its nemesis, the Giganotosaur, a bipedal carnivore, that could easily challenge the famous T-Rex!
From the dazzling coral reefs of the Bahamas to the wind-swept seas of Patagonia, Dolphins takes audiences under the water’s surface for a romp with inquisitive Atlantic spotted dolphins, acrobatic dusky dolphins, and the familiar bottlenose dolphin of Flipper fame. From rarely seen fish-herding behavior to a close-up look at complex communication activities, Dolphins will give audiences a fascinating new perspective on the lives of dolphins and their remarkable intelligence.
A major eight-part series following experts using the latest research and modern techniques to unravel Egypt’s greatest mysteries. With special access to sites across the country, the series travels from the pyramids and Sphinx in Giza and Saqqara down to the Valley of the Kings near Luxor and the great rock temples of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt. The series investigates the origins of Egyptian civilisation and the real history behind the legend of the Scorpion King, uses CT scans and facial reconstruction to try to identify the Screaming Man mummy, and reveals new insights into Egypt’s great figures including Ramses II, Alexander The Great, and Cleopatra.
The Galapagos Islands are home to a treasure trove of creatures that have gone through unique evolutionary adaptations. One of the most extraordinary is the flightless cormorant, an endangered species. These birds can swim and hunt on water, but because their wings are so small, they are the only cormorants among 30 or so species in the world that cannot fly. Life on land is a series of challenges for them. The parents use their small wings to protect their young against the scorching sun and predators. However, once in the water, they are unbeatable. Using intricate moves, they display impeccable hunting skills. For the first time ever, cameras capture their tireless efforts to survive on a desolate, lava covered island.
If you think that people with ‘extraordinary’ abilities are only in comic books or in Hollywood movies — then think again. Living amongst us are people who have amazing abilities that seemingly defy explanation.
In each episode we meet 2 real life super humans — we explore their world: their family, their friends, how they discovered their amazing powers, and we build up to them pushing their abilities to the very limits of what they are able to achieve.
We also put our characters under the microscope by challenging them to a variety of revealing, scientific tests in order to discover whether or not they are for real, highly trained or mutant individuals.
Extreme combines incredible extreme sport action with narration by the athletes and an eclectic, contemporary soundtrack. Extreme features 6 nature based sports; Big Wave Surfing, Ice Climbing, Skiing, Snowboarding, Windsurfing, and Rock Climbing. The best extreme sport athletes in the world facing the most intimidating elements of nature provide a unique glimpse into the relationship between nature and humanity.
A fascinating journey to the motherland of spirituality: India – an ancient civilization, mythical and mysterious, infinitely rich in tradition, architecture, culture, and religion.
Fascinating India spreads an impressive panorama of India’s historical and contemporary world. The film presents the most important cities, royal residences, and temple precincts. It follows the trail of different religious denominations which have influenced India up to the present day.
The film deals with the highlights of everyday life in India. In Varanasi, people burn their dead to ashes. At the Kumbh Mela, the biggest religious gathering of the world, 35 million pilgrims bathe in holy River Ganges. This is the first time India is presented in such an alluring and engaging manner on screen.