SELANDIA: The ship That Changed the World

SlingShot

March 2014 •English

An intimate and inspirational portrait of Segway inventor, Dean Kamen, and his 15-year quest to solve the world's safe water crisis. SlingShot focuses on noted Segway inventor Dean Kamen and his work to solve the world's water crisis. An eccentric genius with a provocative world view, Kamen is an inspiration for future scientists. His inventions help people in need and ease suffering.

Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World

January 1994 •English

Nikola Tesla is considered the father of our modern technological age and one of the most mysterious and controversial scientists in history.

Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott

September 2010 •English

His filmmaker son probes the professional and private lives of his remote but fascinating father: bandleader, composer, inventor, and electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott.

The Gutenberg Enigma

September 2017 •French

A portrait of the inventor of the letterpress, who was a key figure in the history of mankind, but also an enthusiastic inventor, a daring businessman, a tenacious troublemaker: the life of Johannes Gutenberg (circa 1400-68).

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

January 2025 •English

John C. Lilly is the inventor of the isolation tank, as well as pioneer of studies in dolphin intelligence and support of psychedelics as a positive means for expanding consciousness. The storytelling will be supported by interviews with Lilly’s contemporaries and colleagues, as well as extensive archival records.

The Story of Alfred Nobel

February 1939 •English

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite, and later established the Nobel Prize.

An Engineer Imagines

March 2019 •English

Peter Rice...An Engineer imagines is a cinematic homage to the life and ideas of Peter Rice widely regarded as the most distinguished structural engineer of the late twentieth century. Without Rices’s innovations and collaborations with the leading architects of his time, some of the most recognizable buildings in the world would not have been possible. The film traces Rice’s extraordinary work, from his native Ireland through, London, Sydney and Paris, to his untimely and tragic death in 1992. Through a series of interviews with former colleagues, family and friends, interwoven with stunning time-lapse photography, we unfold the remarkable story of one of the great minds of the twentieth century; how man who pushed the boundaries of art and science to achieve the unimaginable. A genius who stood in the shadow of architectural icons. Until now.

Becoming Cousteau

October 2021 •English

Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.

Tim's Vermeer

December 2013 •English

Tim Jenison, a Texas based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? Spanning a decade, Jenison's adventure takes him to Holland, on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artista David Hockney, and eventually even to Buckingham Palace. The epic research project Jenison embarques on is as extraordinary as what he discovers.

The Space Race

June 2023 •English

Uncover the little-known stories of the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists seeking to break the bonds of social injustice to reach for the stars, including Guion Bluford, Ed Dwight and Charles Bolden among many others.

Ship Happens

April 2023 •English

Residents of an idyllic island town off the coast of Georgia demand answers after the largest shipwreck removal in US History doesn't go as planned.

The World of Buckminster Fuller

June 1974 •English

Architect, engineer, geometrician, cartographer, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. Fuller was renowned for his comprehensive perspective on the world's problems. For more than five decades he developed pioneering solutions reflecting his commitment to the potential of innovative design to create technology that does "more with less" and thereby improve human lives. He spent much of his life traveling the world lecturing and discussing his ideas with thousands of audiences. Now more relevant than ever, this film captures Fuller's ideas and thinking told in his own words.

Leonardo: The Mystery of the Lost Portrait

January 2018 •French

Leonardo da Vinci is not just the most famous and most admired of all painters - he is an icon, a superstar. Yet, the man himself remains elusive. Accounts during his lifetime describe a man too handsome, too strong, too perfect to be accurate. But in 2009, the chance discovery in the South of Italy of an ancient portrait with strangely familiar features takes the art world by storm. Could this be an unknown self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci? Controversy erupts among the experts. The implications of such a discovery have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of the work of this great Renaissance master.

Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory

May 1897 •English

“This film is remarkable in several respects. In the first place, it is full life-size. Secondly, it is the only accurate recent portrait of the great inventor. The scene is an actual one, showing Mr. Edison in working dress engaged in an interesting chemical experiment in his great Laboratory. There is sufficient movement to lead the spectator through the several processes of mixing, pouring, testing, etc. as if he were side by side with the principal. The lights and shadows are vivid, and the apparatus and other accessories complete a startling picture that will appeal to every beholder.” (Edison Catalog)

The Story of Doctor Carver

June 1938 •English

The story of Dr. George Washington Carver (1864-1943), black educator and horticulturist. He is perhaps most well known for developing over 140 products from all parts of the peanut plant, including the shells and husks. He also developed products based on sweet potatoes and soybeans, and developed a cotton hybrid that was named after him.

Ganz: How I Lost My Beetle

May 2019 •English

Josef Ganz, editor of trade journal Motor-Kritik, amazed Germany by appearing in a revolutionary tiny car in 1932. It was his dream: a people's car anyone can afford. The idea made its way to new Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler. But in Hitler's dream there was no place for Jewish inventor Ganz. This is the story of the man whose designs led to the invention of the Volkswagen Beetle, and who ultimately lost everything. In the film, Ganz's relatives and admirers bring his lost heritage back to life.

Logistics

January 2012 •

Logistics or Logistics Art Project is an experimental art film. At 51,420 minutes (857 hours or 35 days and 17 hours), it is the longest movie ever made. A 37 day-long road movie in the true sense of the meaning. The work is about Time and Consumption. It brings to the fore what is often forgotten in our digital, ostensibly fast-paced world: the slow, physical freight transportation that underpins our economic reality.

The Dawnsayer

January 2020 •English

For the past 40 years, Bruce Beach has been preparing for a nuclear disaster. A bunker of 42 school buses is buried on his property, designed to save humanity. Curious onlookers and interested preppers regularly visit the site named Ark Two, but it's clear that the creator of this decaying shelter is the only one truly convinced of its practicality in the event of an apocalypse. Now that Bruce is in his 80s, he and his wife Jean need to spend more time taking care of their immediate needs than worrying about the future. What could easily be dismissed as evangelical paranoia becomes a tragic yet uplifting story about a risk-taking inventor who has lived without regrets. Sometimes outside-the-box thinkers become millionaires and are recognized for their genius ability to guide us into the future, while others are pushed to the margins. There’s a lot to be learned from both

The Invention of Dr. NakaMats

November 2009 •English

NakaMats is an unlikely character made for the movies, an eccentric 80-year-old Japanese inventor responsible for 3,357 inventions, including the floppy disk. With his deadpan English and impeccable comic timing, he provides nonstop laughs— utterly nutty, but also a paean to the spirit of human invention.

L'Odyssée Rosetta, 900 jours sur une comète

March 2017 •French