Breaking the Sound Barrier

Road to the Stars

November 1957 •Russian

This film consists of three parts. The first dramatizes the life of the founder of Soviet astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky; the second describes the development of rocket technology; and the third visualizes the future with enactments of the first manned spaceflight, spacewalk, space station construction and humans on the moon.

Kourou et l'épopée spatiale française

June 2019 •French

Military Strongholds: Megastructures of Genius

May 2021 •French

In the heart of central Europe are some of the world’s most impenetrable military strongholds. In France, 160 megastructure fortresses still line the country’s borders 3 centuries after they were constructed. As solid as ever, how did they withstand attack after attack? Was the secret in their materials? Their shape? In fact, the strength and resilience of these megastructures is due to the genius of one man: Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban.

Cinema's First Colors

October 2021 •French

Art and science have worked together to allow cinema to switch to color. Numerous processes have succeeded one another to try to solve this difficulty.

Magellan sur la route des épices

December 2021 •French

In 1519, Portuguese explorer Fernand de Magellan and his men embarked on an expedition that would forever change the way we see the world. Like Christopher Columbus before him, he set out in search of a western sea route to Asia's legendary Moluccan archipelago.

La capitale gauloise disparue

December 2020 •French

Boulogne-Billancourt - Le temps des studios

December 2020 •French

Since 1922, Boulogne-Billancourt cinema studios have welcomed the greatest actors, directors and technicians of French cinema and have given birth to many masterpieces.

Le dernier guillotiné

February 2011 •French

Moka Malo, des corsaires à la conquête du café

October 2016 •French

On a volé le Maréchal !

April 2012 •French

The Glass Bottom Boat

June 1966 •English

Bruce, the owner of an aerospace company, is infatuated with Jennifer and hires her to be his biographer so that he can be near her and win her affections. Is she actually a Russian spy trying to obtain aerospace secrets?

No Highway in the Sky

June 1951 •English

James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.

Spaceways

August 1953 •English

A rocket engineer, responsible for sending a satellite into space, is accused of committing the most extraordinary crime.

Residente

March 2017 •English

After taking a DNA test, Latin America's most decorated artist – René Pérez (AKA Residente) – embarks on a global adventure to trace the footsteps of his ancestors and record his latest album.

Spettacolo

September 2017 •English

Once upon a time, villagers in a tiny hill town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: they turned their lives into a play. Every summer, their piazza became their stage and residents of all ages played a part – the role of themselves. Monticchiello’s annual tradition has attracted worldwide attention and kept the town together for 50 years, but with an aging population and a future generation more interested in Facebook than farming, the town’s 50th–anniversary performance just might be its last. SPETTACOLO tells the story of Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, interweaving episodes from its past with its modern-day process as the villagers turn a series of devastating blows into a new play about the end of their world.

H*art On

October 2017 •Czech

H*ART ON dives off the deep end of modern art. A film about the yearning to create, to mould everyday emotions into a meaningful life and, most of all, to live beyond one's death. A struggle that gets to the existential core of each of us. How do you find meaning in everyday fear, love, sex and loneliness?

Germany: A Summer's Fairytale

October 2006 •German

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

Riding Giants

July 2004 •English

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

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

September 2005 •English

The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

June 1896 •French

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.