Do Rocks Dream of Flying ?

In this retrospective tribute, acclaimed filmmaker Jean Walkinshaw hails the 100th anniversary of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington by talking to those who know it best: the scientists, naturalists, mountain climbers and artists whose lives have been touched by the peak's far-reaching shadow. The result is a harmonious blend of archival material and high-definition footage celebrating an icon of the Pacific Northwest.

The Rock Touring Around Great Britain is a performance piece by Chinese artist He Yunchang that involved a walking circumambulation of Great Britain from September 23, 2006 to June 14, 2007. Starting from the hamlet of Rock, Northumberland, the artist walked to the nearby town of Boulmer where he selected a rock which he then carried counterclockwise until he returned it to the precise location from which it was taken. As the artist commented, the work was primarily "an attempt to represent the iron will of an individual and the living conditions of his being with simple and pure methods."

The Grand Canyon is a breathtaking natural monument. It's one of the planet’s best-known landscapes, yet we often forget that it tells two billion years of the Earth's history. Geologists Karl Karlström and Laurie Crossey are the leading experts on this. Over the course of 8 days, they descend the Colorado river and tackle hundreds of rapids to unveil the mysteries held in the Grand Canyon, and the place that humans occupy within it.

RECONQUEST OF THE USELESS, a documentary film which follows the adventures of three young men as they journey nearly 5000 miles through the Peruvian Amazon, searching for inspiration and the legacy of Werner Herzog's classic film Fitzcarraldo & Les Blank's Burden of Dreams thirty years after they were made.

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.

Follows Don as he sees different kinds of rocks at a granite quarry, sandstone cliff and museum. Demonstrates the effects of water, heat and pressure in the formation of rocks.

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Rocks from a meteor which grow when in contact with water threaten a sleepy Southwestern desert community.

Through the Fondren Fellows program, the Rice Media Center Archive Project has spent the past few months sifting through material stored at the now-defunct Rice Media Center. The team has identified several films as especially notable and will be presenting them in conjunction with documentary footage the team shot of people involved with the films. From lectures featuring Roberto Rossellini and Werner Herzog to films from former Rice students and faculty, the film presentation will tell the narrative of the Rice Media Center through the films and filmmakers that passed through its corridors.

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Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth who wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City.

Footage shot in and around North Bergen, New Jersey presented in a minimalist series of fixed camera angles and long-takes accompanied by the ambient noise of city streets.

At 7:14 am on 30 June 1908, the largest explosion recorded in human history to date reverberated throughout our planet. The force of the explosion was two thousand times that of the Hiroshima bomb. A woodland area the size of Luxembourg was eradicated in the Siberian taiga. This incident is recorded in history books as the Tunguska catastrophe. To this day, internationally renowned scientists of various disciplines argue about the causes of this disastrous explosion. The documentary discusses the latest and most controversial insights of these leading scientists. It identifies the reasons why Tunguska has evolved into a phenomenon and points out the curious results produced by this mythical event in culture and economy.

Scientists discover a giant creature under the Earth that is wrapped around the entire planet. When the creature wakes all grumpy, it causes worldwide destruction.

The idea is a simple one: three alpinists climb in the Mont Blanc Massif. This situation brings one face to face with the dangers of the mountain: avalanches, crevasses, fog, the climbing of the rocks, roping up, etc. All of this is magnified, transcended by a remarkable and strong use of the language of cinema. One of the first films about high mountains with Roger Frison-Roche and magnificent music by Maurice Jaubert

Sound version of the silent picture 'Climbing Mount Tupper.' William J. Oliver filmed the ascent of Mount Tupper in the Glacier National Park by the famous Swiss mountain guide Edward Feuz accompanied by his daughter and another man. The party of three climb roped up to a height of 7000 feet.From there, the two men continue without the women to face the final part of the climb, 'a naked shaft of rock rising sheer and high'. The two men finally reach the summit and later, on the descent, they meet the woman, who is waiting for them. The film was produced by the National Parks of Canada to promote tourism travel to the Canadian Rockies.

Tattooed hands gently glide over a rock face, probing it with the tips of the fingers. Three women, arms raised to a high boulder, appear to be in prayer. Hidden in a cave, two others stare at their bloody palms. Touching Rocks depicts bouldering as a pagan ritual.

Sacsayhuamán, an ancient citadel amidst the Peruvian Andes, is an architectural marvel. It was built more than 900 years ago, and no living person knows how such large rocks were fitted so perfectly into walls. This documentary takes us on a tour of Sacsayhuamán, offering a brief history of the site, and clues that may help to its understand how it was made. It was edited from photos and video taken in July 2012, when Russian geophysicists conducted soil research there, at the request of Peru's Ministry of Culture.

Distributed under the title of ‘Switzerland’ or ‘Playground of Europe’, the film consists of a collection of scenes filmed in the Alps by Frank Ormiston-Smith between 1903 and 1905. The scenes belong to concrete moments in different ascents and treks in the Alps and are presented together without the intention to narrate a concrete ascent. These are some of the scenes: Snow avalanche on the Shreckhorn, Difficult ascent of a Rock Peak, A close call - Dangerous climbing, Descent of steep snow drift, Crossing a dangerous snow bridge, Fusillade of rocks on the Alps, Descending a steep rock-faced mountain side, Capt. Spelterini's balloon trip across the Jungfrau, Surmounting the summit of the Finsteraar-joch.

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