Social & External
Move over, King Tut: There's a new pharaoh on the scene. A team of top archaeologists and forensics experts revisits the story of Hatshepsut, the woman who snatched the throne dressed as a man and declared herself ruler. Despite her long and prosperous reign, her record was all but eradicated from Egyptian history in a mystery that has long puzzled scholars. But with the latest research effort captured in this program, history is about to change.
On December 21, Nicolas Vanier will set off with his pack on a new expedition called L’Odyssée sauvage (The Wild Odyssey). He will travel nearly 6,000 kilometers to connect the Pacific Ocean to Lake Baikal, crossing Manchuria, Mongolia, and part of southern Siberia. The documentary follows the preparations for this journey.
It was November 12, 2014, at 5:03pm. Humanity had just accomplished a feat that will forever mark its history. Philae, the miniature laboratory integrated into the Rosetta probe, landed softly on comet 67P Chourioumov-Guérassimenko, better known as Tchouri. The culmination of a project decided twenty-one years earlier, in 1993, by the European Space Agency - the first to display the immense ambition of landing on one of these bodies made of ice and dust, archives of the solar system's infancy. To achieve this, it took years of preparation, a decade-long flight, six billion kilometers flown, thousands of scientists and engineers involved... Astrophysicist Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd sums it all up: "From this mission, we hope - and can reasonably expect - to understand the origin of the solar system and how life appeared on Earth.
Navigating the Indian Ocean in a reconstruction of a 1,200-year-old Arab ship, held together by 100km of rope and 127,000 hand-sewn stitches. The Jewel will sail more than five thousand kilometres across the Indian Ocean and do battle with the Monsoon – but for sailors it can spell danger and even death. It took a year to build: the Jewel of Muscat – a reconstruction of a 1200 year old Arab ship, based on an ancient shipwreck. Built from more than 18 tonnes of wood, the ship is held together entirely by 100 km of rope in over 127,000 hand-sewn stitches. Now the Jewel will sail more than five thousand kilometres across the Indian Ocean and do battle with the Monsoon – the mighty rain soaked wind that turns the arid land it touches green. But for sailors it can spell danger and even death.
Wolves have been demonized for centuries, blood thirsty beasts haunting our nightmares. We were determined to dispel this myth and show the true nature of wolves. Compassionate family animals, both playful and affectionate. For six years in a tented camp in the wilderness of Idaho, we lived among a pack of wolves, listening to them, earning their trust.Now in "Living With Wolves," we share more of the story of The Sawtooth Pack, first told in our two-time Emmy Award-winning documentary, Wolves at Our Door. Our own lives, brought together by a devotion to wildlife, were forever changed by these elusive, intelligent animals who accepted us. Overcoming forest fires, marauding mountain lions and sub-zero winters, we share with you a heart-warming and unique partnership of human and predator, built on trust and defying the storm of controversy surrounding the wolf.
The complex engineering challenges that make re-entry into the earth's atmosphere so dangerous. Scientists have labored for years to bring a crew safely home in what is essentially a meteorite, wrapped in a cocoon of fire, hurtling towards earth six times faster than the fastest bullet. Scientific experts from NASA explain the significance of Columbia's events as they unfolded, offer insights into what may have caused them and how those key events contributed to the shuttle’s ultimate destruction.
Actor Errol Flynn takes a group of scientists from the California Institute of Oceanography on an expedition to the South Seas aboard his schooner, The Zaca.
Documentary of an underwater archaeological expedition led by French explorer Franck Goddio that explores the sunken ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt, where Cleopatra made her home over 2,000 years ago. The underwater exploration team uses advanced scientific methods to locate the remains of Cleopatra's sunken palace as well as the entire submerged Royal Quarters in the harbor of modern Alexandria. Also uses re-enactments, computer graphics and animation to present a picture of Cleopatra's life in ancient Alexandria.
The film presents compelling evidence that Altlantis wasn't so far away after all, but what it omits is just as compelling. Although Plato’s account of Atlantian masonry, consisting of red, white and black stones, was a visually perfect match for the modern walls of the Minoan excavation site favored by the film, and his account of a sea made impassable by small islands of mud could, in fact, be a description of the rafts of pumice left by the catastrophic eruption of an ancient volcano there, little mention is made of Plato's specific account of where Atlantis was or the common root that links Atlantis to the Atlantic ocean. Also omitted is Plato's chronology placing the sinking of Atlantis in the same time frame as the end of the last ice age which caused the inundation of huge expanses of once fertile lands. Is "Atlantis: The Evidence" a thinly disguised example of Eurocentrism in the media? Watch Discovery: Atlantis for a more comprehensive view on an age-old debate.
Filmed by Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Al Giddings, this timeless program takes a stirring look at the largest, tallest, longest-living things on the planet: trees. Stunning location footage captures the variety and the grandeur of the Pacific Northwest, the Florida Everglades, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Great Sonoran Desert. Quotations from Sierra Club founder John Muir and others who revere nature are interwoven with information on topics ranging from the function of forest ecosystems, to the effects of deforestation, to the integration of parks into urban landscapes.
Documentary that takes a scientific and historical look at the story of Moses. Uses archaeological evidence from the stables of Ramses II to little-known Egyptian texts to seek answers to questions about Moses and his origins.
A look back at the origins of rocket science and forward to the cutting edge technology of reusable rockets and shuttles. Using computer animation, the program also explores the future of space travel that may some day carry commercial passengers or "tourists" into space.
Vivian Maier's photos were seemingly destined for obscurity, lost among the clutter of the countless objects she'd collected throughout her life. Instead these images have shaken the world of street photography and irrevocably changed the life of the man who brought them to the public eye. This film brings to life the interesting turns and travails of the improbable saga of John Maloof's discovery of Vivian Maier, unravelling this mysterious tale through her documentary films, photographs, odd collections and personal accounts from the people that knew her. What started as a blog to show her work quickly became a viral sensation in the photography world. Photos destined for the trash heap now line gallery exhibitions, a forthcoming book and this documentary film.
Explores the plans for the construction of the monumental dam on China's Yangtze River, the structure that when completed in 2009 will become the Three Gorges Dam. It is slated to be 610 feet high, 1.3 miles across, creating a reservoir 400 miles and the largest power plant in the world.
For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.
