The Once and Future Griffith Observatory

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, from its conception to completion.

The Faraway Nearby follows the tragic life of pioneer physicist Joseph Weber, whose pursuit of gravitational waves takes him on a dizzying journey from the height of acclaim to the depths of despair and disdain when he breaks the cardinal rule of science and clings to his ideas though his results can't be duplicated. Physicists, artists, and other creatives explore the emotional side of discovery and question whether the risk is worth the journey.

CERN and the University of California-Santa Barbara are collaborating in the search for the elusive substance that physicists and astronomers believe holds the universe together -- dark matter. Where is this search now in the realm of particle physics and what comes next?

Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar, spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland?

Cave paintings and lunar calendars exist in the caves and remains of prehistoric hunters studied recently. What if Prehistoric Man were clever enough to develop in depth scientific knowledge? As unlikely as it may seem, new data tend to prove that Prehistoric Man actually invented Astronomy!

An exploration of the territorial complexities of the emerging astro-industry in the Chilean Desert.

For over 100 years, Hollywood cinema has crafted the ultimate "villain"- the Indian, as they were labeled in early Westerns. Confined almost exclusively to this genre, the Western became a vehicle for American racism, obscuring the genocide upon which the United States was built. In this documentary, only Native Americans are given a voice to share their story, one that has been overshadowed by Hollywood's portrayal. Their narrative, part of the larger American story, highlights how cinema has long been used as a powerful propaganda tool, distorting history and perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

For the first time one of Hollywood's greatest stars tells his own story, in his own words. From a childhood of poverty to global fame, Cary Grant, the ultimate self-made star, explores his own screen image and what it took to create it.

Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.

In 1934, Walt Disney set out to do what no one had dared before: transform animation, until then confined to short, rhythmic gags, into a feature-length film. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs forced his studio to reinvent techniques, working methods, and even the art of visual storytelling itself. Amid delays, runaway budgets, and hundreds of artists at work, what seemed like madness turned into an unprecedented challenge. This is the story of making the impossible a reality.

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A giant ball of gas and raw energy with a temperature of up to 15 million degrees, the sun is the origin of life on earth and influences an infinite number of natural phenomena. This documentary is dedicated to the search for the significance of our home star for mankind, science and nature. Researchers at the American Space Agency NASA, the Canary Islands observatories, and the hottest and coldest places on earth share their insights. We can expect an emotional journey through science and history, peppered with human stories, at the end of which the complex bandwidth of life is revealed. Never before in the history of mankind has it been more important to uncover the secrets of the sun. Because for our earth, the sun is not just any star. It is the ultimate star.

This documentary recounts the difficult choice actress Mary Astor had to make after learning her personal, very intimate, diaries had been stolen. The film tells the story of Astor's 1936 child custody case.

Partly adapted from cosmologist Stephen Hawking's popular book about his theories of the universe, this in-depth documentary also presents Hawking's daily life as he deals with the ALS that renders him virtually immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, former classmates and peers are interviewed about not only his theories but the man himself.

A documentary analyzing the social, political and cultural climate of Hollywood in the mid-1960s.

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and his NASA colleague Reid Wiseman are launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Gerst and Wiseman spend six months in humanity's outpost in space and film many of their activities.

Part of the Almost Famous series. Jocelyn Bell was a graduate student at Cambridge in 1967 when she pushed through the skepticism from her superiors to make one of the greatest astrophysical discoveries of the twentieth century. While Jocelyn was belittled and sexually harassed by the media, the Nobel Prize was awarded to her professor and his boss.

214 million years ago a gigantic meteorite broke up and impacted Earth. 65 million years ago, the impact that killed the dinosaurs occurred where the country of Belize stands today. 200 thousand years ago early humans were walking and died when they were hit by a 40 meter wide meteorite hit South Africa creating a 1.4 km wide crater. This meteorite fragment, the largest ever found hit Namibia 80 000 years ago and more recently a major impact occurred in Toungouska, Russia in 1908. Every year 10 000 tons of meteoritic matter fall onto Earth in much smaller but not necessarily less influential pieces. This film will explore how the impact of these meteorites big and small through the ages have changed our world and what they brought from outer space with them that may have been the seed of life itself on Earth.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary year, ESO in 2012 released the documentary Europe to the Stars — ESO's first 50 years of Exploring the Southern Sky. The movie tells the story of ESO — what scientific discoveries it has been making and how it designs, builds and operates some of the most powerful ground-based telescopes.

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