AFO 59th Edition - 2024

<p>Exploring the Anthropocene epoch characterized by human impact on the planet, 21-22 CHINA is an eye-opening VR film for examining a rising superpower where mass urbanization, industrial development and topographical changes are underway. Today we live in a new epoch known as the Anthropocene, characterized by mass human influence on the planet. Exclusively shot from Earth skies in VR, 21-22 CHINA takes us on an immersive meditative journey across the World&#39;s largest rising superpower to offer a rare inside look revealing the Anthropocenic reality in these parts of the World where rapid urbanization, major industrial development and massive topographical changes are taking place.</p>

<p>Hypha is an engrossing story set in virtual reality that takes viewers on a journey to rid the Earth of man-made disasters. Viewers will become Stephanopus azureus, experience its development from spore to fungus, and understand the importance of the fungal kingdom as Earth&#39;s essential means of breaking down pollution. The Hypha Project educates people about the growth process and healing properties of hypha, thereby encouraging further research and raising awareness of its ecological importance.</p>

<p>An Aboriginal elder from the Martu tribe first came into contact with Western culture when he witnessed an atomic test in the South Australian desert. Today, with the help of another technology, it can show you the world that has been lost. The Emmy-winning documentary created an immersive VR experience that transports you to the epicenter of the story being told. From the songs of the oldest living culture on the planet to drones hovering over the red desert, from car battery projectors to earth-poisoning bombs, this is a world that is &ndash; once again &ndash; on the edge of technological change and doubts about how we will manage it in the future.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Some days go very fast, and some weeks go very slow,&rdquo; says a worker in the quarries of the Canadian island of Texada. The human experience of time is relative, but it is nothing compared to the timescale of the limestone being excavated. This stone carries history &mdash;not just of humanity, but of the earth itself. And we dig it up, crush it, and use it to make things like toothpaste.</p> <p>The virtual reality documentary Texada contrasts these two experiences of time: the human and the geological. The images alternate between shots of the island and more abstract animations. Meanwhile, island residents talk in voice-over about their lives, and someone else tries to impress upon us the incomprehensible immensity of time and the insignificant role of humanity within it: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just a little twig on the great big tree of life, out there on a limb somewhere.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Participants are given headphones and a handbook and set off to explore the city, choosing their own path and perceiving the intricate environment through sounds. Raging wildfires in the United States, crumbling cliffs on the east coast of England, rising seas off Norway and eroding dunes in North Africa will be heard from the headphones. The walk, which takes in the sounds of the surroundings and creates its own sound track, prompts participants to observe their environment in both contemporary and geological time, and to focus their attention on how the landscape may be transformed by climate collapse. - Reservation required! -</p>

<p>A strong opponent is a dream come true for every sports champion. It&#39;s a chance to take your art even further and face off against a never-before-seen threat. But what if your opponent isn&#39;t someone you can look in the eye, shake hands or watch their reactions? In March 2016, multiple world champion and current top Go player Lee Sedol faced such a challenge. He took on Google&#39;s DeepMind invention, the AlphaGo computer, in five matches. What was supposed to be a celebration of human intuition beyond the reach of machines turned into an alarming statement about the potential power and creativity of artificial intelligence. The match Sedol vs. AlphaGo soon turned into a game of humans vs. machine, whose documentary processing evokes strong emotions.</p>

<p>A couple of divers open a beer on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They have a successful dive behind them - they found another proof of the achievements of a Czech officer on board an Austrian war submarine. That the landlocked country has a maritime history might sound like an oxymoron, but it&#39;s not. A group of enthusiasts in cooperation with the Czech diving team has been mapping the traces of Czechs in the Austro-Hungarian naval fleet for a long time. They look for evidence not only in books, but also directly in the submarines that they find under the surface. They specialize in World War I, but they don&#39;t see the subjects of the study as just members of the military. They are interested in their whole stories, their relationship to the home and what they left in it. Together with hundred-ton machines, they uncover evidence of human courage, self-sacrifice and national pride.</p>

<p>A whale existed 5 million years ago. Mark found her skeleton and decided to reassemble the pieces in a dusty basement of the Science Museum in Brussels. A filmmaker found Mark and decided to film him, the whale, and the dust. While these bones are put back together, like pieces from a puzzle, we try to imagine how life was 5 million years ago, a time before humans existed, but the sea and the sun were already here.</p>

<p>Everyone is welcome to collect mussels! This short film showcases an unusually fun and inclusive activity that is essential to the health of the natural environment, as well as all of the little creatures involved.</p>

<p>A little scientist living with his family in the countryside near the Baltic Sea ponders on geology, the future of planet Earth, the universe, and mortality. The poetic film uses shaky cam to show intimacy and delicate beauty and evokes a multitude of emotions related to the most pressing topics of our time.</p>

<p>In 1925 a young physicist glimpsed the seed of this science, now known as quantum mechanics, on Helgoland island, and the world has never been the same. True Places Never Are follows three journeys into the unknown as they all converge on one lonely corner of the planet. Everyone comes to Helgoland to find something. What are you looking for?</p>

<p>A journey through the world of flavors and foods, their meanings in the context of evolution - from the Big Bang to Michelin restaurants. Human food is not only a source of necessary sustenance or pleasure, but has deep connections. Ever since life emerged from the sea onto land, it has faced the challenge of staying hydrated without the omnipresence of water. We thus began to draw on various nutrients, the individual flavors of which send signals to our brain - saltiness reminds us of the sea and brings a sense of satisfaction, bitterness indicates danger, sweetness awakens energy in us. The process of consumption balances the scales between the content of individual organisms and the environment from which we draw. We long for what we need, which does not differentiate us much from other animals.</p>

<p>Can you imagine a world without antibiotics? We are currently threatened by deadly infections that can resist antibiotics. But scientists have found an unconventional way to fight them - viruses. Three patients, three diseases, but only one last chance for salvation. Phage therapy uses viruses that find dangerous bacteria in the body and kill them. For now, this is only an experimental process and carries many risks, but in the future it could stop the threat that resistant bacteria pose to humanity. In the thrilling documentary, we follow patients, scientists and doctors on their journey to uncover the secrets of a 100-year-old treatment. Can human life save an organism that lives in polluted water?</p>

<p>The documentary film presents the personality of the philosopher, biologist and mystic Zdenek Neubauer, whom V&aacute;clav Havel once described as the most special thing he had ever seen in his life. Zdeněk Neubauer had peculiar views on science, he walked everywhere barefoot and often in a hermit&#39;s hood. A radical thinker worthy of being addressed as &quot;master&quot;, a controversial personality, for some a dilettante and a fool. It&#39;s all kind of true. The film contains memories and, above all, materials that documentarian Tom&aacute;&scaron; &Scaron;krdlant together with Zdenek Neubauer filmed for fifteen years. This is how the life story of an unusual person unfolds, who honestly managed to enjoy learning about the world. This was a really unmissable personality, which this picture allows us to get to know more closely.</p>

<p>Unique archaeological research from the summer of 2021 revealed 6,000-year-old mounds near Mount Ř&iacute;p. What can these mounds tell us about the culture of our ancestors? Together with specialists from several fields, we will uncover the reasons for the construction of mounds and the significance of their location. The documentary brings viewers closer to the life of the first farmers who settled our landscape. How did the mounds affect the lives of people in this area and why did they choose the area around Ř&iacute;p for construction? Why were some of the mounds up to 130 meters long and what was their significance for burial rituals? These are just some of the questions that the documentary will try to answer. You will get an unusual view of the culture and traditions of our ancestors and become a part of uncovering the secrets of our country.</p>

<p>A documentary film that shows the difficult life of coffee farmers in Latin America. Their work is severely financially undervalued and, in recent years, also made more difficult by climate changes. The future of coffee is uncertain, with many growers at risk of having to quit due to the price and climate crisis. However, there is a way to at least alleviate the situation, such as the Fairtrade system, which sets a minimum purchase price for coffee and adds a surcharge to growers. Over 800,000 coffee growers worldwide are involved in this system. The film therefore not only points to the problems of the coffee industry, but also to the paths leading to a dignified life for growers and nature protection.</p>

<p>A group of friends go out on the water in the middle of summer. They float slowly, with the curiosity of a scientist and the sensitivity of an artist. And during their raft trip, the truth about the state of rivers and their relationship with man comes to the surface. We depend on water and need it to live, but what is the nature of the connection between us and the sources of this life-giving fluid? What do we really know about rivers, how we approach them and how we change them? Our approach to nature is influenced by a number of factors and in many places we have irreversibly damaged rivers. But just as people can change themselves by reflecting, so can rivers. And so, thanks to the restored meanders, colonies of crustaceans, small insects and many other organisms can return to the rivers where they could not live due to human intervention in the form of river bed modifications.</p>

<p>Breathtaking shots of the beauties of Slovak nature, flora and fauna. Flowers that you won&#39;t find anywhere else in the world, bears rubbing against trees accompanied by disco music, cute ground squirrels and most of all mountain slopes, forests and lakes.<br /> Velk&aacute; Fatra, Slovak Karst, Poloniny, Mal&aacute; Fatra, Tatra National Park, Pieniny, Slovak Paradise, Mur&aacute;ňsk&aacute; Planina and Low Tatras National Park... Nine national parks and nine roughly quarter-hour medallions. The film accompanies us with a relaxed description of the individual parks, their specifics, residents and important points. One of the wildest places in Europe can also be observed through aerial and night shots, which fill a person with healing peace and gratitude. And they also inspire to plan trips to our neighbors. On Tuesday we show the following parts: Veľk&aacute; Fatra (E01) Slovak Karst (E02) Poloniny (E03) Mal&aacute; Fatra (E04) TANAP (E05)</p>

<p>The national flag or the Czech lion - symbols that we don&#39;t think much about, but in reality they have a long history of trial and error. The third part of the Identity series introduces the audience to the visual appearance of key moments in our history. Graphic design accompanies us in all aspects of everyday life, and state symbols are no exception. The cycle takes us through the history of their creation from communist propaganda, through the Velvet Revolution to the presidential campaign of General Pavel. We will look at banknotes, movie posters and contemporary digital and motion graphics for television and internet projects. We will not only explore together the development of the visual face of the Czechoslovak Republic, but we will reveal what is hidden behind the symbols, signs and colors that represent it.</p>

<p>In the eyes of an artificial mind, the last thirty years of David Rumsey, spent amassing one of the biggest historical maps collection in the world he secretly calls his poem, seem like an unexplainable quest. It will follow him on a road trip confronting with the ghosts of his past and the end inching closer.</p>

<p>Using a trove of never-before-seen footage, the film tells the story of Jane&#39;s early explorations and research in Tanzania, focusing on her groundbreaking field work, her relationship with her cameraman and husband Hugo van Lawick, and the chimpanzees that were the subject of her study.</p>

<p>Management in Czech forests is constantly changing. The forest can be managed using nature itself and in a sustainable way. How to approach Czech forests in such a way as to preserve their diversity and at the same time make maximum economic use of them? Milan Hron is one of those who have been trying to do something like this for a long time. Together with other experts, they take care of forests not only with the help of persistent work, but also with important changes in legislation. It is necessary for as many people as possible to listen to the forest.</p>

<p>Four friends Hedgehog, Hare, Owl and Mole explore an old rocket base, where they meet Mouse, who introduces them to the world of astronomy and space exploration.<br /> The Brno project With animals about the universe creates a special performance in the so-called all-sky projection, which, thanks to the huge spherical surface, will allow the audience to fully immerse themselves in the fairy-tale world. Children will learn in a fun way what our Solar System looks like, why astronauts have to wear a space suit in space, what stars are and what constellations make up, and they will live an unforgettable experience full of many other knowledge.</p>

<p>A surreal vision of the digitized, quantified world, drifting from internet innovators to sterile data centers, as poetically narrated by the internet itself.</p>

<p>At the Natural History Museum in Vienna, everything that is found on earth and in outer space and that humans can get their hands on, is collected, archived, and studied in the name of evolutionary research. Archiv der Zukunft captures the aesthetic appeal of the natural-history collection and its working process, illuminating the mammoth project of knowledge preservation and production hidden behind the building&rsquo;s imperial fa&ccedil;ade.</p>

<p>In the planetarium, we are used to watching films that show us the universe up close. What we don&#39;t see are the complications that scientists encounter in trying to leave Earth and approach its far reaches. Elon the hamster and his robotic companion guide the audience through this process. The Krutart studio film combines a planetarium experience with an exciting animated story. It is also unique in its emphasis on explaining physical phenomena in collaboration with experts. So it is a film full of love for science and ingenuity of an unusual duo.</p>

<p>What does pure human generosity look like? Good health is a privilege; can we help others less fortunate to get there? New York filmmaker Penny Lane dives into these altruistic waters when she makes a kidney donation to a stranger. As she navigates the social, medical, and personal complexities of that choice, she probes some of humanity&rsquo;s biggest mysteries in this expansive, whimsical, and revelatory film. &ndash;&nbsp;<em>Jaie Laplante</em></p>

<p>In a philosophically tuned documentary, the legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog subjects a part of our everyday life - the Internet, to a thorough examination. It presents it in its various forms and stages of development. It places the bright beginnings of the &quot;creators&quot; of the Internet into a holistic context, to which he then ties the darker aspects of network progress. As is the director&#39;s custom, alongside leading scientists, philosophers are also given space. Through the questions asked, they mainly focus on the future of people living together with artificial intelligence in the form of humanized robots. All questions on the topic of a perfect digital mycelium, a connected world, or even a galaxy remain in the field of provocative considerations in this film. Definitive answers are still hanging somewhere on the net.</p>

<p>The short documentary captures efforts to preserve the nearly extinct northern white rhinoceros. The question of its existence thus fully moves from the environment of the African savannah to the Czech ZOO in Dvůr Kr&aacute;lov&eacute;. For the northern white rhinoceros, hope lies only in the female Fatu, who is the only representative of her species capable of reproduction. However, some nurses do not approve of the fertilization processes she is forced to undergo. The documentary also opens up the moral question of whether the circumstance, when there is the last chance to preserve an endangered species, alleviates the fact that the animal is subjected to such an unnatural and at the same time painful experiment. Opinions differ - do the ends justify the means in this case?</p>

<p>More than 40 years ago, we sent Vladim&iacute;r Remek into space. He thus became the first astronaut of non-American or Russian origin to do so. And it&#39;s not the only thing we&#39;ve succeeded in space research. The six-part documentary series is dedicated to the achievements we have experienced in the field of space exploration in our history. It shows well-known stories, but also those that have not been given such attention. It places everything in an important societal context influenced, for example, by the Star Wars between the West and the East. As part of the program block, we will screen the third and sixth parts. The sixth episode will bring us back to our present day and explore what questions and topics are relevant in today&#39;s space research.</p>

<p>To find the truth in the crumbling walls of a former Gestapo prison, record it&hellip; and let it out. This is what the film Prison of History attempts to do through interviews not only with witnesses, creators and artists, but also with representatives of generations who walked by unnoticed. In more than 130 years of its history, the building in Uhersk&eacute; Hradi&scaron;tě experienced several regimes, few of which were happy for it (and the people associated with it). In the documentary, it becomes a living museum of stories that should have been forgotten, and every visitor is a guide in it. It is thanks to the fusion of opinions and experiences of different groups of people that an image is created not only of a specific place and time, but of us as such. The observational mode connects testimonies and poetic passages that capture not only the facts, but also the burdensome atmosphere of the place.</p>

<p>Led by star scientist Eske Willerslev, a team of researchers are sequencing DNA from before the Ice Age for the first time in history. A project that could revolutionise our understanding of the history of life itself.</p>

<p>Does drug use only have negative effects? Although politicians and a large part of society fight against narcotic substances, these substances are as old as humanity itself and it is impossible to completely get rid of them... Leading addictologists and psychiatrists explain the situation in the Czech drug world in six fifteen-minute episodes. How and why a person becomes addicted, which specific substances are most prevalent in the Czech Republic, what are their negative and positive effects or risks, how to prevent children from falling into the trap of drugs... Another of the works of director Ivo Bystřičan soberly clarifies the complex topic of drugs, without big emotions, from different points of view and with regard to the societal impact. The film is also full of humor in the form of archival footage illustrating substances so well known to Czechs.</p>

<p>Communication skills as an important part of the medical profession. In addition to knowing the correct treatment procedures and diagnoses, doctors must manage situations full of difficult decisions on a daily basis. The film Body-Soul-Patient is an example of scenarios that doctors experience in simulated or real situations. Through observation, it captures the teaching method of the 2nd Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and the preparation of their students for the medical profession. How to proceed correctly when communicating the diagnosis? What if I need to find out important information from the patient? Mutual communication turns out to be the key to solving many situations and the basis for a future demanding profession. Mastering the patient&#39;s psyche and one&#39;s own can make a difference in saving a life.</p>

<p>Soil contains 25% of the world&#39;s biodiversity. The underground community of roots, arthropods, fungi, bacteria and other organisms ensures that the soil is full of nutrients and healthy. It is cared for by farmers practicing regenerative agriculture, community garden owners, university researchers and children in kindergarten. Everyone is trying to use and support the natural diversity of the soil, which is presented in the documentary with unique shots from below the surface, time-lapse photographs and simple &quot;digging&quot; in the dirt and looking for earthworms.</p>

<p>Google is one of the biggest technology players in the world. The Internet seems invisible to us, but a complex technological background is hidden behind it. However, some can have a negative impact on the environment. Google&#39;s huge data center collects information, but its operation requires a large amount of energy from power plants, which are often built at the expense of the environment in the given location. As we have accelerated our human world, we are dampening the natural one. Animals accustomed for generations to use the Columbia River in the cycle of their lives are now threatened as the dam&#39;s power generation disrupts their existence. Is the solution to tear down the dam?</p>

<p>There are almost 13,000 kilometers of streets and roads in New York, and Matt Green tries to walk them all over the course of several years - each block, park, cemetery or overgrown brownfield only slightly revealing the memory of the place. This gives him the possibility of unexpected human reunions, finding surprising connections and revealing historical and contemporary insights. Walking is both freedom and a form of urban transport that allows you to pay attention to seemingly unimportant urban aspects that together create the character of a megalopolis. The &quot;Thoreau&quot;-tuned story about the unusual personal search of one person and the journey to knowledge and humanity is also a confession of bipedal movement in the city.</p>

<p>The vast Gran Chaco natural region in Paraguay is under serious threat from large-scale deforestation and wildfires. Filmmaker Sebastian Pe&ntilde;a Escobar travels with the German entomologist Ulf Drechsel and the Paraguayan ornithologist Jota Escobar to this vulnerable, flammable area, which looks like an apocalyptic landscape with red dirt roads and dry thorny trees.</p> <p>Along the way, the men philosophize and discuss the state of the region, humanity and the earth in general. Almost cheerfully and with heavy irony, the three men in this buddy movie come to the harsh conclusion that we are doomed. The black humor and dynamics between the scientist friends and the curious filmmaker are positively infectious.</p> <p>The journey becomes increasingly feverish, partly because of the rugged landscape and the conversations themselves, but also due to the progressively reddening images and intense, at times nightmarish, sound design. But at the same time, this film about climate change is an adventurous declaration of love for nature, which is as fragile as it is resilient.</p>

<p>Life has become lonely for the human species in the Eremocene. The age of loneliness is characterised by natural destruction, a global loss of biodiversity and the dominance of the technosphere over the biosphere. This is where this playfully dystopian sci-fi essay starts out: digital technologies have conquered the world; the realm of data, from blockchain, to Bitcoin to DAO democracy, is huge and uncontrollable. Two accounts can be heard in voiceover &ndash; one generated by AI (artificial intelligence) and one belonging to a post-human virtual being searching for its earlier self, that of the filmmaker herself. Diary-like images of yesteryear appear on the planetary grid, beach scenes, people wearing masks in public places, Christmas lights and climate activists. The Super-8 and 16mm footage competes with raster graphics, coloured pixels and spectacular clouds of points in 3D, which are overlaid with keyword matrices in turn. There is interference. And questions regarding non-human actors and mortality are posed. Back in time, Nick Cave sings a blues song. Who cares what the future brings? The Eremocene is the present.</p>

<p>Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr (<em>Ziegfeld Girl, Samson and Delilah</em>) was known as the world&rsquo;s most beautiful woman&ndash;Snow White and Cat Woman were both based on her iconic look. However, her arresting appearance and glamorous life stood in the way of her being given the credit she deserved as an ingenious inventor whose pioneering work helped revolutionize modern communication technology. An Austrian Jewish emigrant who invented a covert communication system to try to help defeat the Nazis during World War II, Lamarr was ignored by the scientific community at the time. It was only toward the very end of her life that it was discovered that her invention is the basis for secure WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth technologies.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A contemplative film about the boundaryies between natural and technological beauty. Can an AI-generated image recreate the beauty of a flower?</p> <p dir="ltr">In 1772, artist Mary Delany imitated flowers through decoupage. By pasting together hundreds of paper cuttings, she managed to depict flowers with exquisite botanical precision. Centuries later, a programmer is working to invent an algorithm that can also replicate the patterns and radiance of fauna. With the help of an artificial intelligence, the beauty of plants is recreated down to the smallest detail. The technology is groundbreaking, even though reproducing nature is not new. &lsquo;Algorithms of Beauty&rsquo; moves across science and beauty, technology and emotion in its examination of the AI inventions of our time, questioning the limits of our vision. Can we tell the difference between a computer-generated image of a flower and the real thing?</p> <p dir="ltr">Can a picture contain all the beauty of a flower? This is what the narrator is looking for. To try to make it, she takes a revolutionary tool, an Artificial Intelligence. Through the film, she creates a link with Mary Delany. Indeed, the flowers created 300 years ago by the English botanist are strangely in resonance with those created by the algorithms. Between technology and emotions, Algorithms of Beauty questions the limits of our gaze when faced with AI images.</p> <p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>Chemical Somnia is a visual exploration of phase transition, fluid dynamics, and chemical reactions. Timelapse and high speed photography were used to capture these elemental relationships in less then a square inch of a petri dish.</p>

<p>Animated colleagues help demonstrate complex processes on a miniature scale in a short film where The Lego Movie meets the aesthetics of Wes Anderson. All of that in this scientific quest for imaging the deep cold.</p>

<p>Earth. The only known place in the universe where you can bake a fruit pie and from which you can embark on an adventure into distant interstellar space surrounded by cosmic bodies, planets, and new knowledge.</p>

<p>Red is all around us. We like it, are attracted to it, and it even tastes good. But how does a painter or a physicist who study color in detail see it? They show a new perspective on this dominant color and how it is created in our minds.</p>

<p>For her entire professional life, renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni pioneered climbing techniques to study &quot;what grows back&rdquo; after an ecological disturbance in the rainforest canopy. Now, after surviving a life-threatening fall from a tree, she must turn her research question onto herself in order to understand the effects of disturbance and recovery throughout her life.</p>

<p>Being a farmer is not for everyone, as it involves many worries. How do you grow produce on infertile soil? The film follows the story of farmers in Colorado, which is plagued by deteriorating soil quality.</p>

<p>An expedition into the micro world of insects with a passionate beetle collector and a Uruguayan film director who has an ingrained phobia of anything that crawls.</p> <p>An exoskeleton is a kind of external shield that protects creatures like beetles, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, ants and ladybirds. And Uruguayan director Mariana Casti&ntilde;eras has an ingrained phobia of all of them, which she decides to confront once and for all. Together with a passionate beetle collector, she goes on an expedition deep into the forest to capture the micro world of insects with her camera, before the beetle collector catches them in his net. In doing so, Casti&ntilde;eras confronts her own fear of insects in a series of beautiful and colourful close-ups, in which she uses her phobia of the little bug as an opportunity to reflect on life, death and the limits of knowledge.</p>

<p>Finland has the most forest in Europe, but primeval forest has become so rare that it almost feels fictional. Is it now the enchanted forest? And is a commercial forest real? As nature documentaries are manufactured, are they fiction? A nature film about how we look at a forest landscape and also how we look at the reality.</p>

<p>Strangers in the dark is an experimental film showing how light pollution makes a glow-worm&#39;s love life a living hell. Combining different techniques from animation to archive material the film follows glow worm&#39;s attempts to find a partner in an environment that is no longer dark at night. The story about light and darkness moves from the scale of planetary to microscopic, from the calmness of nature to a hectic city and from artificial light to the green shimmer of glow-worm&#39;s behind.</p>

<p>For a long time, the brain coral was considered an extinct species, but in 2020, a group of marine biologists managed to discover one specimen in the Indian Ocean. Then came the pandemic, which interrupted the research. However, after a year they return to the same place and have to find the rare coral again.</p>

<p>The paper examines the impact of AI on the labor market. It represents the amazing capabilities of AI, but also concerns about the future of employment and human-machine collaboration. Did you recognize that these two sentences were written by ChatGPT? Academics from Oxford show that we can collaborate with AI, not just compete.</p>

<p>&ldquo;We can think of singers in a choir as neurons in the brain. Like these singers, neurons have to work together to create harmony, and once they do, the results are magnificent!&rdquo;</p> <p>When neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain communicate with each other, they generate synchronised electrical activities known as brain waves. But what is the function of these brain waves? Can we &lsquo;see&rsquo; them? What happens if these collective activities go &lsquo;out of sync&rsquo;? In this video, Demi Brizee, a PhD student in the Medical Research Council Brain Network Dynamics Unit at the University of Oxford, introduces us to the fascinating world of brain waves, and explains how a better understanding of them could lead to new therapies for neurological conditions.</p>

<p>The Night Visitors is a movie about moths. In large and small fragments, looking both inward and out, through a critical lens that is by turns social and personal, the film closely examines these underknown creatures. While The Night Visitors is interested in moths as organisms, with fascinating life histories, staggering biodiversity, and a functional importance as indicators of climate change and habitat degradation, its engagement with them is not primarily entomological. Instead, the film looks at moths as aesthetic beings and as carriers of meaning, aiming for a deep encounter with the beauty and incommensurability of the profoundly other.</p> <p>The small hours of the night are threaded through with a sense of mortality and loss. Moths, with their trembling and exquisite impermanence, provide both a kind of solace and, in their diversity and difference, a focal point around which the desire to know can be organized.</p>

<p>Today, hundreds of kilometers above our heads, millions of pieces of trash are orbiting randomly at breakneck speed. Scientists are now warning that, if nothing is done, the exploration outside our planet, and communications systems within, will be almost impossible within 30 years. How can we collect the space trash and avoid future disasters?</p>

<p>Father and son travel through a bleak landscape in search of a hazy vision of a better life in a dying world and are repeatedly confronted with the transformations of human morality. An unnamed global event has turned the earth into a gray hell filled with random earthquakes and collapsing forests, and a boy is born into this new reality. A few years later, the same boy struggles - along with his father - for survival on the way south, coping with a radically changed state of society. Their effort not to succumb to moral decay is put to the test in every confrontation with a stranger. In the shadow of rampant cannibalism, both survive on precious canned goods and the fragile certainty that they retain their humanity despite the circumstances.</p>

<p>When the word &quot;path&quot; comes to mind, you probably think of a fairly straightforward image. Director Petruzelov&aacute; captures a much more complicated reality thanks to a varied range of respondents. Wheelbarrows, tourists, hunters, workers, homeless people, land owners and those who once walked on those lands. People without a goal, because a goal means the end, or those who can&#39;t wait for it. They all have a completely different idea of ​​what the journey means to them. This variety and the impossibility of finding one way for everyone and everything is supported by the format of the documentary, which alternates analog and digital footage, passages filmed on the phone and experimental work with editing.</p>

<p>There are 41 assisted reproduction clinics in the Czech Republic. They helped many couples to have the desired child. At the same time, it is appropriate to ask ethical questions sensitively. Where does interest in the health of the fetus end and does business without ethical rules begin? The topic of artificial insemination raises emotions as well as rationally justified concerns. Doctors, ethicists and sociologists talk about them in the documentary. Is it always primarily a biological need of the parents? Which goes hand in hand with interest in the health of the fetus and the mother? Isn&#39;t this a gamble with life and health, especially if the age of IVF embryo recipients is increasing worldwide? In addition, the clinics&#39; annual turnover reaches billions - where is the line between medicine and business?</p>

<p>Shot entirely in a virtual environment, Knit&rsquo;s Island is an exceptionally cinematic and contemplative documentary. The film is set in a rural game world that is both impressively realistic and uncannily not quite right. What is still &ldquo;real&rdquo; in this virtual existence, which will probably play an important role in the lives of more and more people in the future? With this question, the filmmakers set out to explore the sparsely populated 250 square kilometers of the game.</p> <p>They encounter zombies, dodge shootings, and speak to a disconcerting group who set out simply to kill as many other participants as possible. Above all, they meet players who spend hundreds or thousands of hours here, roaming, growing food, forming communities.</p> <p>&ldquo;Sometimes I confuse my digital memories with those in real life,&rdquo; a player says. &ldquo;This virtual nature reminds me of my homeland, Australia,&rdquo; says another in Berlin. The boundaries between role-play and reality gradually fade &ndash; all the more so during Covid lockdowns, when for many players, the video game became their most important &ldquo;outside world.&rdquo;</p>

<p>We all know our blood type, few know the name of the Czech who participated in their discovery. The story of Jan Jansk&yacute; is the subject of an unlikely hero of science, but at the same time it is worth considering the context of the creation of the film. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, doctors did not understand why blood transfusions sometimes helped and sometimes harmed recipients, while the devastating First World War was on the horizon. Through research on the connection between mental health and blood, Jansk&yacute; came to the discovery that there are multiple blood groups. How was the story of a distinguished Czech scientist directed by Martin Frič and portrayed by Vladim&iacute;r R&aacute;ž perceived by the cinematography of the 1950s, which belonged to the sphere of influence of the reigning totalitarian regime? And was she willing to admit that primacy is quite questionable in many scientific discoveries?</p>

<p>Everything you wanted to know about woodpeckers but were afraid to ask! The film presents the well-known bird and its numerous relatives in a global context. The familiar image of a feathered bird with a red cap and an unforgettable musical accompaniment is undoubtedly associated with childhood wanderings in the forest for many of us. Seeing him on a tree while working is a small reward for attentively listening to the nature around us. But how well do we really know woodpeckers? The film takes us to all corners of the world and introduces us to their extended family and its extraordinary diversity of colors, sizes and lifestyles. Thanks to its specific skills, even the smallest woodpecker plays an indispensable role.</p>

<p>Boat trip on the Vltava St. John&#39;s Currents</p>

<p>Documentary film about the old Vltava River and the changes brought about by the construction of the Slapsk&aacute; dam.</p>

<p>Documentary film from the Ore Mountains, dedicated to the natural beauty and life in the nearby towns.</p>

<p>Recruitment of settlers to the borderlands after the removal of the German population.</p>

<p>Documentary film about plowing boundaries.</p>

<p>Documentary film about forest reserves on the Moravian-Slovak border and the importance of forests for life on Earth.</p>

<p>Despite the fact that the universe has always been with us, we still know very little about it. Space research is not that simple at all. This year you will have the opportunity to look at him up close, as if he were directly above you. For example, we know that space is extremely cold and completely dark, or that it is incredibly vast, perhaps infinite. Space exploration is constantly bringing us new knowledge and discovering something so amazing that it never ceases to amaze us. The film produced by the observatory of the Brno planetarium accompanies the educational information with breathtaking shots of the universe in the so-called full-dome format, which surround the viewer during the projection. Join us on a discovery and immersive journey through space.</p>

<p>We have known about malaria for over 100 years. So far, however, it has not been possible to develop a vaccine that would be sufficiently effective against it and thus save the lives of both adults and children. A team of scientists from all over the world will guide us through the research. Every year, 200,000,000 people become infected with malaria and nearly 600,000 of them die, with 80% of the victims being children. Prevention exists, but it&#39;s not miraculous - mosquito nets get punctured quickly and long sleeves don&#39;t cover everything a person needs. However, Dr. Okumu believes that the most effective prevention is a reliable vaccine. What is a matter of course for the Western world is a dream come true for countries not only on the African continent. After 30 years of effort, will the Oxford University team finally develop a vaccine that succeeds?</p>

<p>Motor fish, wallpaper with a forest print or a digital fireplace. The influence of nature on our organism is much greater than we think. The bar is being raised with virtual reality. How far does the imitation of nature go? All around us we create a false impression that we are surrounded by nature. Imitation, whose imperfection we are fully aware of, can still bring a certain satisfaction to people. Even if we don&#39;t touch the real trees through the wallpaper, something still compels us to surround ourselves with them. There is something about nature that fascinates us. However, the line between kitsch and nice decoration is very thin. Will we gradually get to a stage where the experience of forest growth in the virtual world will be able to compete with the real one?</p>

<p>Over the course of a month at sea, an international team of scientists attempt to gain insights into the Earth&rsquo;s last deglaciation period. Around 15,000 years ago, the western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet destabilized and then retreated at an accelerated rate, but the reasons for this rapid deglaciation remain unclear. The Baffin Bay Deglacial Experiment (BADEX) seeks a greater understanding of this paleoclimate event, in the hopes of gaining deeper insights into climate change today.</p>

<p>Anyone who went through the &quot;dinosaur period&quot; as a child probably wanted a dinosaur of their own at some point. This dream may come true for some - at least in a sense.<br /> <br /> The film offers a layered insight into the controversial practice of auctioning dinosaur bones. It speaks to collectors, excited about the skeleton of an exclusive sauropod in their living room, but also to scientists, concerned about the market, which makes it difficult for museums and laboratories to access the finds. A triceratops named Big John becomes the subject of their common interest.</p>

<p>Do you feel like the world has gone mad? The events of recent months may have intensified the feeling in many people that reality is outstripping the possibilities of fiction, but that is no reason for resignation. Social upheavals bring us new perspectives on what we have taken for granted. Czech Television&#39;s six-part series based on the book of the same name by sociologist Pavel Pospěch looks at Czech society through apparent banalities. What does the way we wait in line reveal about us? How can townspeople versus country people be defined? And who are those who parasitize our society? When will the inevitable collapse come? Unknown Society will teach you to question indisputable certainties and instead look for meaning in apparent historical contingencies and anomalies.</p>

<p>THE MUSHROOM SPEAKS&nbsp;explores the healing qualities of fungi and their ability to regenerate. This personal journey takes us on a walk alongside parasites, symbionts and decomposers offering ideas of both interconnectedness and collaboration. Driven by a vision of resistance, the encounters seek possibilities of renewal and question what connects us when the world seems to be falling apart. With mushrooms and their allies, the film invites us to imagine a myco-cultural (r)evolution. What if the fungus could help us address and radically change our relationship to this world?</p>

<p>It dictates our routine, structures social rules. We hope for its healing powers as much as we fear its abrasive touch. The human effort to capture time is a wide spectrum - from stone circles, through alarm clocks and cuckoo clocks, to the Prague Astronomical Clock. We measure it in notches and inverted sheets. We carry it in our pockets or on our wrists as products of the incredibly detailed and delicate work of watchmakers. The film introduces the field, enjoying its deserved admiration, with the help of the insight of craftsmen, collectors, physicists and philosophers.</p>

<p>The Orbis Pictus probe is about to carry a golden plate with information about planet Earth to extraterrestrial civilizations. The film, based on a fictitious situation, captures the modern problems of today, but above all the issue of humanity. Thanks to the space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1977, the golden plate carried the records of human life into space. Its task was to inform possible extraterrestrial civilizations about our existence. But the mission failed. Now it&#39;s the turn of the Orbis Pictus probe and the new gold plate. But what to record on it? Do we need to present an objective picture of humanity? What is the world really like, what should the message be to the space population? Positive or negative, we ask for help or attract them to us. Who are we as humans?</p>

<p>The most contemporary film about time. A film experience completely generated by artificial intelligence shows the accelerating processes of biological, cultural and technological evolution in a unique perspective. The slide goes through the entire history of time, from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to the present moment. The trick is that every 100 seconds the narrative scale slows down by one order of magnitude. Parallels between different processes of different scales that we do not normally see will then become more visible and accessible to intuition. Individual shots in the film are created by generative artificial intelligence. They were created on the basis of textual descriptions from the latent space of diffuse models: this can be imagined as an imprecise memory of the publicly available visual memory of humanity, on which the models were trained. The images that AI generates are not a historical reconstruction, but rather a reflection of how we imagine, paint or film the world around us.</p>

<p>Opening Night Film of the <a href="https://www.imaginesciencefilms.org/snw17/opening"><strong>Science New Wave Festival XVII</strong></a> / October 18 - 7pm - Museum of the Moving Image</p> <p>A meditation by the award-winning filmmaker/physicist Mark Levinson (PARTICLE FEVER) on how we make sense of the world around us. Using the works of artists instead of explanatory animations, the visually rich film explores how both scientists and artists use their understanding of nature to create new tools and representations to probe the deepest mysteries of the universe.</p>

<p>Global warming, the desire to change the rules of the system and George the unbeliever with his own eyes. How to defend a visionary plan to solve the climate crisis in the face of political and economic chaos? Father, material physicist, dealing with (not only) global problems; the daughter of a documentary filmmaker, but also a teacher, singer or artist. An idealistic idea of ​​a genius gentleman, an effort to spread his vision, to open the eyes of more people. A documentary shot at home and with the honest reality of an ordinary, extraordinary family. Jiř&iacute; Svoboda presents a plan for the introduction of a global carbon tax, he thinks that he could improve the ecological situation with his solution, but how to get the environment to listen?</p>

<p>Although the names fall into oblivion, the souls of their bearers remain... In the old images of restored photographs, the world in the German-speaking villages of Jesenice from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is colored. The show of nostalgic shots of ordinary life is accompanied by the narration of a local resident and friend of the author of the photographs. Dreamily, with small-town modesty and humor, he comments on memories of his friend Rudy and places associated with specific photographs. The picturesque &quot;stereo camera&quot; shots are the work of artist Rudy Klein, where the so-called stereo camera refers to the technique of shooting through two lenses as far apart as the human eye. Ordinary, yet unrepeatable moments from the distant past can speak to us with vivid urgency thanks to Rudy&#39;s work...</p>

<p>The world is in danger and the only ones who can save it are a bunch of outcasts and thieves. The cult game Dungeons and Dragons comes in a new comedic movie form! In addition, the screening will be combined with a lecture on the history of this gaming phenomenon. The wandering bard Edgin makes a living by stealing rare artifacts. But when one of them falls into the wrong hands and threatens the fate of the entire world, Edgin must gather a group of heroes and fix what he messed up. Just like in the game, the team must not lack a tough warrior, a noble knight, a mage or a druid, all of them together will face an army of ruthless killers and powerful sorcerers. What looks like an archetypal story functions as a unique set of rules that is accessible to new adventurers and seasoned players alike.</p>

<p>&quot;The Arc of Oblivion&quot; explores a quirk of humankind: in a universe that erases its tracks, we humans are hellbent on leaving a trace. Set against the backdrop of the filmmaker&#39;s quixotic quest to build an ark in a field in Maine, the film heads far afield - to salt mines in the Alps, fjords in the Arctic, and ancient libraries in the Sahara - to illuminate the strange world of archives, record-keeping, and memory.</p>

<p>Banned substances such as LSD and psilocybin from magic mushrooms are seen as hope in the treatment of depression and addiction. Scientists all over the world are currently researching their healing potential as part of a therapy.</p> <p>After their discovery by the hippie movement in the 1960s and 70s, the substances disappeared from research. But in the meantime, their potential is being explored again in numerous studies. One of the largest worldwide, with 144 patients, is currently taking place at the Charit&eacute; in Berlin and the Central Institute for Mental Health in Mannheim.</p> <p>The search for new treatment approaches for depression is desperate, because more than a third of the people suffering from depression cannot be helped with either antidepressants or standard therapies; they are considered therapy-resistant. Lia and Andreas, for example, are among them, and they have high hopes for the new treatment method.</p> <p>Psychedelics are known to reduce defence mechanisms of the psyche and can thus act as a door-opener to deeply hidden traumas, allow access to repressed feelings and thus initiate a healing process. This is the approach of psychiatrist Peter Gasser in Switzerland, who has been allowed to administer psychedelics with an exemption since 2014. At the University of Amiens, a team of researchers is investigating their potential in alcohol addiction.</p> <p>However, it is important not to lose sight of the possible risks and side effects of the substances in the midst of all this hope. Further studies still need to be conducted.</p>

<p>The stories of three women from Latin America bear witness to modern colonialism, the tireless struggle for justice, courage and hope. Three women, three countries, three struggles: Bertha, Carolina and Maxima tirelessly strive for the rights of nature and the people dependent on it. Despite a deeply unbalanced game, they steadily build resistance against modern day conquerors, resource hunters, multinational corporations, and businesses that will stop at little in the name of &quot;endless progress.&quot; But how to continue the fight when your lives or the lives of your loved ones are at stake?</p>

<p>A nuclear power plant worker obsessed with counting has set a maximum limit on how much electricity he wants to consume until the end of his life. In this grim but masterful 35mm film-poem with strong mathematical undercurrents, Marie-Magdalena Kochov&aacute; presents to us a story of a man whose life is moving towards transformation. A loving acceptance of the fact that we are not just our bodies, but energy too.</p> <p><em>&ndash; Ivan Ramljak</em></p>

<p>The old truths need to be remembered especially at a time when people often spend most of their active time sitting down. This can lead to various health problems, and the remedy is relatively simple&hellip;<br /> <br /> Brisk walking increases oxygen transport in the body, pumps the heart, trains muscles, joints and blood vessels, but also benefits our brain. It therefore improves not only physical but also mental condition. According to scientists, walking increases awareness and releases hormones that help with everyday stress, which is why it has long been a form of therapy for mental illnesses. The latest scientific studies prove the great health benefits of walking as medicine for the body and mind without any side effects.</p>

<p>How many hours a day do you sit? For how many years have you been doing that? Why?<br /> What effect is this much sitting having on your body?<br /> Widespread and culturally enforced sedentarism is a relatively recent phenomenon, at the evolutionary scale, and a mounting volume of research since the 1950s consistently shows that &quot;too much sitting&quot; is &ndash; big surprise &ndash; bad for our health.<br /> How so? First time filmmaker E.J. Rosen explores this question in interviews with sedentary behavior researchers, endocrinologists, ergonomic specialists, chair designers, and school teachers. She adds another thesis to be explored in the arena; does excessive, school-enforced sitting train kids into a state of dulled awareness against important physiological signals? Are we training ourselves into ill-health? In a harm reduction model in the current cultural system, what can we do differently? How many hours a day do you sit?</p>

<p>Each of us longs for recognition and respect from others. But the stories of the four heroes show what happens when it becomes the main essence of a happy and fulfilled life. Where does the motivation come from to pursue ideals that often have little to do with reality? The main theme of the documentary is our own self-worth, which we form over the course of our lives. It is influenced by a number of factors, the most critical period being our childhood and adolescence. The relationships between parents and children and the demands that parents have on children are one of the important topics of the document. The documentary chronicles the treacherous path to achieving ideals, on which it is very easy to get lost. At what cost are we able to fulfill our ideals? What are we willing to sacrifice for it?</p>

<p>The documentary from a German-French co-production addresses uncompromising questions regarding the backup of our existence and memory, from which we will be able to hunt for memories even after at least another 300 years. If we stacked individual DVD discs with the encoded history of our existence, we would at least reach the surface of the moon. However, DVD is no longer the most reliable medium on which to back up company data for future generations. Some of the backup technologies haven&#39;t existed for a few years, or we don&#39;t have up-to-date devices to read them. Who remembers floppy disk or VHS nowadays? Some organizations therefore prefer to bet on the safe side and back up indispensable information as in the &quot;old days&quot;, on a sheet of paper with long-lasting ink.</p>

<p>A cute bug runs rampant in a FAMU student&#39;s visual poem. However, his apparent innocence brings destruction, which has come to the fore not only for ecological interests.<br /> <br /> The &Scaron;umava bark beetle is no longer only a topic for nature lovers. It is a political topic that receives space in the media, causing endless debates and concerns about the future of Czech forests. The film explores the dimensions of one of the biggest modern-day natural disasters in the Czech Republic in a playful way with elements of animation, while trying to maintain a balance between cynical humor and a touch of fatality.</p>

<p>The green lungs of Central Europe &ndash; that is &Scaron;umava. However, the vast territory on the border of the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria has long been subjected to a severe test in the form of the spruce blight.<br /> <br /> Lykozroutu puts everything in his pockets. Spruce monocultures are widespread in &Scaron;umava and, together with the drought and warmer climate of the forests in lower areas, provide ideal conditions for reproduction. Healthy trees are important for the functioning of the entire mountain area and the surrounding area, but their restoration takes decades. Foresters and conservationists must therefore find a common language. Should the non-interference in the ecosystem increase, or is the help of the human hand necessary? Finding a way is not always easy, especially when some disputes end up in court.</p>

<p>The footage from the found video camera transports the heroine to memories, which, however, differ from reality. The film discusses what they look like, how we store them in our memory and what can bring them to life.</p>

<p>A young man returns to his hometown to face the past. Reality freezes in time as memories come alive and the hero observes snippets of a past life&hellip;</p>

<p>Grandpa gives a kite to his grandchild, they play with it together. One day, the wind picks Grandpa up and takes him away.</p>

<p>The subjective perception of reality is also transformed into cultural artifacts that help preserve cultural memory in museum collections. What can an African mask on display in a museum or gallery reveal to us?</p>

<p>The war must not be! A screen adaptation of Karel Čapek&rsquo;s novel on the invention of an explosive escaping the inventor&rsquo;s control. What if your scientific discovery turns into a terrifying tool of war in the hands of the power-hungry?<br /> While Čapek wrote the story after the First World War, Otakar V&aacute;vra shot it with the knowledge of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by an atomic bomb. The story of MSc Prokop, who loses control over his invention of a highly explosive substance and watches it turn into a weapon of war threatening to wipe out the entire world, reflects the reality of scientific progress blooming in times of war and turning into a weapon. What is the inventor&#39;s relationship to their invention once it is used as a weapon?</p>

<p>In an entertaining documentary series produced by ViceTV, American chemist and documentary filmmaker Hamilton Morris travels across cultures around the world to experience and describe the effects of psychoactive substances first hand. The city of Huautla de Jim&eacute;nez in southern Mexico is associated with the organization of spiritual sessions based on the use of psychoactive mushrooms. In the 1950s, the ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson made it famous by introducing ceremonies led by the shaman Maria Sabina. The relationship of Western society to the use of psychoactive mushrooms has thus changed drastically. Morris introduces us to the sacrament of mushrooms not only from the point of view of cultural and historical ties to the original population, but also to communities beyond the borders of the state, who are fascinated by the miraculous world of mushrooms.</p>

<p>Before a child learns anything about mushrooms, he can already recognize the most iconic of them. The red toadstool is a symbol found in many cultures, and its allure has inspired artists since time immemorial. In addition to the well-known psychoactive substance psilocybin found in mushrooms, the alkaloid muscimol also causes hallucinogenic states in the red toadstool. Its effect on the organism is dampening and sedative, and the original shamans using this mushroom, usually in Slavic countries, liken it to fairy-tale mystical trips. Program guide Hamilton Morris follows the journey of research into its derivatives in medical laboratories and homeopathy, to symbolically end it in the Ukrainian Carpathians and experience the power of toadstool with his own senses.</p>

<p>How do Czech scientists view the availability and quality of water? How good is our drinking water, and will it continue to be drinkable? Water for Life seeks answers to these questions and shows water as we may not know it with the help of Czech experts. According to the current limits, our drinking water is good, potable, and meets all the required parameters. But due to our consumption and lifestyle, water becomes mixed with substances that we do not know well, although we can identify them with modern analytical methods. Yet, their presence in water raises concerns. Science is thus an integral part of the journey from the water source to a glass of drinking water and reveals the system&rsquo;s weak spots to be addressed to keep our water drinkable.</p>

<p>The audiovisual performance by sound artist Franti&scaron;ek Hru&scaron;ka promises an unusual experience of the author&rsquo;s iteration of the &ldquo;mushroom instrument&rdquo; and a reflection on the sonification of non-musical data.<br /> <br /> A diode pinned to a fly agaric hat and cables connected to the musician&rsquo;s mixing box. Pleasant sounds oscillating on the edge of meditative electronic music let the fungi and lichens speak. It&rsquo;s likely to have come across similar content and maybe even been captivated by it while scrolling through social media. However, the presentation of a &ldquo;sound&rdquo; mushroom and the catchy &ldquo;singing nature&rdquo; headline go with a well-thought-out clickbait. The reflection on the pitfalls and benefits of the trend of resonating natural organisms are accompanied by a live concert with an audiovisual performance.</p>

<p>It is nothing new that our planet is getting warmer. A lesser-known fact is that Alpine plants and animals represent a substantial portion of European species. They are now endangered by the rapidly rising temperatures in the Alpine tundra.<br /> <br /> In 2023, part of Mt. Fluchthorn collapsed just a few hundred meters from a chalet. This is a consequence of long-term warming, which leads to the thawing of permafrost. But that is no end of the consequences&mdash;parasite outbreaks, forest fires, loss of glaciers, and more. Natural ecosystems, as well as locals and tourists, feel the brunt of the change. The Austrian documentary, accompanied by enthralling footage of pristine nature, presents the issues that the Alps face and the mitigating measures. Only future generations can save us.</p>

<p>An instructional film presenting a navigation system for guiding military aircraft in poor lighting conditions. Tricks and action sequences from the world of dark blue uniforms alternate with an instructional film.<br /> <br /> Flying without sight using the OSP system is one of the unique documentary films created by Franti&scaron;ek Vl&aacute;čil. As in his later valuable films, here we find many parts narrated only by the image and his distinctive directorial handwriting. For instruction, it uses a combination of staged sequences and instructional passages, together with trick animation. This is a brisk popular-scientific and educational film that does not shy away from dramatic sequences reminiscent of famous Hollywood action films.</p>

<p>Deep inside a mountain in Japan, international physicists are researching the so-called ghost particle. On that mountain lives a small village community with its very own view of nature. Neutrino is a poetic-philosophical documentary about the interwovenness of elementary particles, countless gods, picking chestnuts, pixels on a computer screen and the art of making tofu.</p>

<p>A travelog through the familiar and unfamiliar terrain of digital landscapes. Pairing 16mm footage of computer desktop backgrounds with soundscapes of sites of technological extraction - precious metal mining, smelting foundries, microprocessing plants, and data farms - Bliss.jpg excavates and examines the geological and geographical sites that produce our virtual worlds.</p>

<p>An ethnographic exploration of the work and daily life of non-player characters, the digital extras in video games. Their labor loops, activity patterns as well as bugs and malfunctions paint a vivid analogy for work under capitalism.</p>

<p>How are people who have experienced abortion portrayed in the media? The author of the documentary reflects on the social attitude towards abortions with an insight, using for example old Brav&iacute;čko magazines or a book about manifestations of hysteria from the 19th century.</p>

<p>An intricate interplay between urbanism, architecture, and nationalistic reconstruction discovering how social media and Midjourney show how the internet perceives the infamous Skopje 2014 project.</p>

<p>TerraForma is the story of the remote desert island of Ascension: for a million years entirely devoid of life, but which was engineered by process of &#39;terraforming&#39; into a tropical paradise. It is also the story of what that transformation may mean for the fate of our planet, in a future when terraformed landscapes and human-engineered environments may come to warp our understanding of nature itself.</p>

<p>In 2022 robotics engineers, geologists and cave divers joined forces for one reason: to explore and map the lower parts of Hranice Abyss, the deepest underwater cave on Earth. To achieve that they had to dive deeper than 404 metres and by doing so set a new world record.</p>

<p>Revising and rewriting history is not uncommon. New research often shows us that we could be wrong. It is no different with dinosaurs and their extinction. What if some of them survived the asteroid impact and continued to walk the prehistoric earth?<br /> <br /> New findings suggest that some dinosaurs may have survived the harsh winter in Antarctica for generations. Through a modern representation of dinosaurs, with the help of CGI and with regard to their current depiction, we will dive into the story of several surviving dinosaurs. The animated prehistoric creatures are accompanied by the expert commentary of paleontologists from around the world who try to figure out how it all really was.</p>

<p>During World War II, mathematician Alan Turing tries to crack the enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.</p>

<p>Summary of information about sex education and the way sex is taught in the 20th century. The state, schools and sexuality education have historically not been very good friends. To this day, some basic knowledge about our bodies remains unknown or overturned.<br /> <br /> In the societies of the last century, when discussing &quot;it&quot;, shame or aloofness typically prevailed, instead of openness and a positive recognition of sensuality, the fear of pregnancy or remorse remained. Important personalities such as Magnus Hirschfeld tried to change this through public education. Thanks to scientific findings, there was literally a sexual revolution and a complete change in the perception of one&#39;s own intimacy, which is still ongoing.</p>

<p>As technology evolves, the way we obtain food is changing. We are already used to milking cows with machines and cleaning robots. But how do you respond to mobile robots that will also replace restaurant staff?</p>

<p>One meadow, one solar panel and several canola lines. An electric car from Tesla and an old Seat Arosa with a self-modified engine. Is it possible to find out which of the non-fossil fuels is best for consumers and the future of the planet?<br /> <br /> The pair of &quot;caf&eacute; intellectuals&quot; David and Vojta thus contribute to a long-standing conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of various fuels that drive the rocket growth of our company. Their goal is to reach Germany, in front of the gates of the Tesla branch there. But they carefully map what precedes the ride itself and why such an experiment actually occurred to them. They try to convey to the viewers not only their impressions, but also information from the mouths of professionals in agriculture, the automotive industry and ecology.</p>

<p>The Camembert cheese is going to disappear soon. How can it be ?<br />A story of molds that gives us a lesson about biodiversity preservation.</p> <p>A film with Tatiana Giraud (CNRS, France), Jeanne Ropars (CNRS, France) and Jo&euml;lle Dupont (MNHN, France).</p>

<p>BATSIES is a short, experimental doc that examines a woman&rsquo;s tender relationship with an animal that&rsquo;s quintessentially feared and loathed &ndash; the bat.</p> <p>Our protagonists, Sara Weaver and Sarah Fritts, are best friends and high-level bat researchers at Texas State University. These ladies have a wicked sense of humor, they curse like sailors, they&rsquo;re covered in tattoos, and consider themselves outliers within a male-dominated field.</p> <p>We follow their journey as they conduct cutting-edge bat research throughout rural Texas. Wind turbines are killing off bats at alarming rates, and Weaver and Fritts are working on the front lines to figure out why.</p> <p>The scientific community understands just how critical this research is: Bats save billions of dollars in agriculture costs by consuming insects that feed on crops. Regardless of their economic value, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in deep public stigma towards bats that is now worse than ever.</p> <p>We will interweave these ladies&rsquo; research efforts, quirky friendship, and shared bat obsession throughout the film. BATSIES will serve a fresh take on saving a creature that&rsquo;s considered the ultimate outcast.</p>

<p>Scientists are on a mission to save parasites&mdash;not to kill them. Climate change is already doing an increasingly good job at the latter, and that could be a big problem for the world.</p>

<p>An inspired collaboration between filmmakers Peter Mettler (The End of Time) and Emma Davie (I Am Breathing) and radical writer and philosopher David Abram (The Spell of the Sensuous), Becoming Animal is an urgent and immersive audiovisual quest, forging a path into the places where humans and other animals meet, where we pry open our senses to witness the so-called natural world&mdash;which in turn witnesses us, prompting us to reflect on the very essence of what it means to inhabit our animal bodies.</p>

<p>&quot;A Demonstration&rdquo; is a monster film with no monsters. Inspired by the existence of taxonomies of monsters at the heart of Early Modern European science, the film explores and reinterprets a way of seeing the natural world that is almost impossible to imagine from today&rsquo;s vantage point. Early Modern naturalists were guided by a logic in which scientific truths were discovered through visual analogy. The word &lsquo;monster&rsquo; comes from the latin &lsquo;monstrare&rsquo;, meaning to show, to reveal, to demonstrate. &ldquo;A Demonstration&rdquo; picks up on these themes in a poetic exploration of the boundaries of sight and the metamorphosis of form.</p>

<p>&quot;Constant&quot; is a journey through the social and political histories of measurement. For most of recorded history, the human body was the measure of all things. &ldquo;Constant&rdquo; asks what led measurement to depart from the body and become a science unto itself. The film explores three shifts in the history of measurement standardization, from the land surveying that drove Early Modern European land privatization, to the French Revolution that drove the Metric Revolution, to the conceptual dematerialisation of measurement in the contemporary era of Big Science. Each chapter traces the relationship of measurement standardization to ideas of egalitarianism, agency, justice, and power. Cinematic and technical images that begin as products of measurement systems are stretched beyond their functions to describe the resistance of lived experience to symbolic abstractions.</p>

<p>DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN takes us on a journey of mystical revelations, experienced through meditation and psilocybin. To understand how psychedelics reveal the nature of consciousness, psychiatrist Franz and Zen master Vanja guide experienced meditators &ndash; who have never used psychedelics before &ndash; through a ground-breaking scientific experiment on the majestic Swiss Mount Rigi. The doc blends visual art, spiritual understanding, and scientific research. Fairylike animation and A.I. art visualize the mystical experience that reminds us of how much our consciousness and the nature that surrounds us, are interconnected.</p>

<p>Clara Immerwahr &ndash; a scientist who was the first woman in Germany to receive a doctorate in chemistry. However, pressure to adhere to traditional gender roles and the outbreak of World War I did not allow her to fully develop her potential.<br /> <br /> Together with her husband Fritz Haber, who won the Nobel Prize in 1918, she worked on the abstraction of ammonia. Unlike another scientific couple &ndash; Marie Curie Skłodowska and Pierre Curie &ndash; Clara and Fritz&#39;s cooperation and coexistence gradually became problematic. The main themes of the TV movie include not only the position of women in science and society, but also the use of scientific research for war purposes. Indeed, Haber is called the father of chemical warfare, which Clara publicly disagreed with.</p>

<p>Millions of years ago, the largest creatures that ever lived walked the earth, but paleontologists discovered during excavations that in one place the dinosaurs were different and much larger than in others, literally gigantic. Why was that?<br /> <br /> The largest number of gigantic dinosaurs once lived on the territory of the supercontinent Gondwana, in today&#39;s Argentina. Their species and physical diversity knew no boundaries and served for protection, combat or speed. Spinosaurus had a large spinal sail, and Maip, which was only discovered in 2022, was equipped with unusually long curved claws. Compared to other excavations, these dinosaurs stand out with their markings and size. Is this due to effective adaptation, or has one of the starting points of the prehistoric titans been found?</p>

<p>Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birut&eacute; Galdikas, nicknamed the &ldquo;Trimates&rdquo;, are the authors of essential research on gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. Three young scientists follow in their footsteps.<br /> <br /> The findings and determination of the three primatologists are remarkable. It is no wonder these women have become a great inspiration for future generations. The film follows Julia, Nadia, and Ruth to Indonesia, Rwanda, and Uganda. The field footage explores the world of apes and shows how the primatologists conduct their research. The commentary of Goodall and Galdikas themselves accompanies the film. It is not just a portrait of a scientific expedition, but a testimony to the work of strong women scientists.</p>

<p>Four episodes of the iconic animated series demonstrate how to introduce prominent figures in science to children comprehensively. This is also for adults as they can reminisce about their first encounter with the stories.<br /> <br /> The series, marking its 30th anniversary this year, presents this historical context in an engaging manner. The Chinese, our Ancestors reminds us that Europe had a lot of catching up to do with China. Archimedes and the Greek cements that without antiquity, there would be no modern science. The topic of the influence of the Church over science is prominent in the story of Galileo Galilei, and the program concludes on a high note&mdash;Albert Einstein. Remember too that the creator of the series, Albert Barill&eacute;, received the Award for Contribution to the Popularization of Science at AFO42.</p>

<p>Mingling nature, post-apocalyptic novels, and infinity in mathematical and human isolation. An auteurist cut with a man who found the most when surrounded by nothing.<br /> <br /> In 2017, Karol Jalochowski recorded more than an hour of a conversation between Cormac McCarthy and his friend and colleague at the Santa Fe Institute, David Krakauer. The result included the nature of the Wild West, humans&lsquo; relationship to animals and themselves, the conscious and unconscious, math, and isolation of human beings. The author later shortened the piece and through sensitive editing and illustrative shots facilitated the audiovisual connection with the giant of the Western novel, who wrote his best work alone on top of a mountain in Santa Fe.</p>

<p>The film Animal Kingdom leads you through the snow-covered forests, under the scorching African sun, or into the darkest depths of the ocean to explain how the natural world works.<br /> <br /> Fascinating 3D footage introduces you to animals from all around the globe and answers simple yet important questions that make up the foundations of our knowledge about the animal kingdom. Learn why some animals occupy specific habitats on our planet, what is their role in nature, or how to help protect them. Slow-paced narration and medium duration allow the whole family to embark on a spectacular adventure into the animal world.</p>

<p>The sun rises happily over the horizon, and it is welcomed by the most beautiful landscape. The humans also wake up and do what they always do: cut down trees, construct aimlessly, and pollute without shame. Their ideas and actions, usually very disrespectful to the planet, are putting the whole environment in jeopardy. What they do not realise, is that whatever they do, it will affect them sooner or later. However, the cosmos is not that patient&hellip;</p>

<p>A brief reflection on the amounts of plastic waste that overwhelms our nature. How can we manage it responsibly as individuals?</p>

<p>The story of two birds: one living in the forest, the other in a town flower shop. Once they meet, they realize they want to be together.</p>

<p>The word crisis appears in various contexts today. Environmental, energy, housing&mdash;how do these crises relate to each other and how to face them?<br /> <br /> In the context of multilayered crises we go through, the term social resilience becomes increasingly relevant&mdash;it urges us to think about the current state of society and its abilities to defend itself against crises. The screening of Let Us Connect Yesterday and panel discussion presents the essence of current crises and introduces the contexts of social resilience in the 21st century. Join Anna Bromov&aacute;, researcher of socio-economic resilience, and Anna K&aacute;rn&iacute;kov&aacute;, director of The Rainbow Movement.</p>

<p>The successful development of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines was the result of 60 years of research. &ldquo;The Pioneers of mRNA&rdquo; tells the story of the decades of quiet progress in science and medicine that made the revolution possible. The film looks at the main developments and breakthroughs in mRNA technologies, but also, and perhaps more importantly, at the personal stories of the pioneering scientists behind the research.<br /> Though they are now widely celebrated for their groundbreaking contributions, their careers were fraught with obstacles, disappointments, and failures, not to mention the angst that comes with unrecognized victories. On several occasions, major pharmaceutical companies walked away from the revolutionary technology that, by 2021, would bring in billions.<br /> Rapha&euml;l Hitier met with leading pioneers of mRNA research in Europe and North America, who shared their stories of doubt, setbacks, and serendipity &ndash; including critical encounters at the photocopier and breakthroughs in the lab.<br /> He interviewed an impressive of men and women committed to the advancement of science and medicine, whose passion and single-minded focus overcame skepticism and funding challenges to fulfill their scientific mission.<br /> Their accounts shed light on the daily realities of scientific research, the role played by chance, and the reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to invest in groundbreaking ideas, while revealing how successful researchers work with peers to come up with innovative solutions.<br /> Outstanding animations elucidating the mechanisms of mRNA, major scientific breakthroughs, and the protagonists&rsquo; psychological motivations bring a surprising note of whimsy to the science film genre.<br /> The mRNA success story reveals the critical link between fundamental research and technological innovations &ndash; and hence the need for continued funding. It also provides essential information to help us form an educated opinion on today&rsquo;s medical revolution.<br /> This ARTE television event will be aired in a primetime window on Saturday October 7, 2023, to coincide with the start of Science Week.</p>

<p>The fantasy-adventure film is more than only an exciting trip to prehistoric times and an animation masterpiece but also a showcase of 20th-century paleontological research.<br /> <br /> Journey to the Beginning of Time is an acclaimed work by Czech director and animator Karel Zeman and has also become a pioneering work of cinematography worldwide. Great animation techniques and a thrilling plot make it a fun family film for all ages. Entire generations learn about prehistoric animals and plants thanks to its educational and entertaining approach. The fascination with this work continues to this day, as it is still one of the most popular Czechoslovak films.</p>

<p>Nature at the center&mdash;how does one design the world following natural principles and within its natural limits?<br /> <br /> Biocentricos travels to different corners of the planet to reveal the origins and principles of biomimetics, a transdisciplinary methodology of design and technological innovation inspired by the natural world. Together with Janine Benyus, the leading expert in the field, we venture into the world of natural patterns and elaborate and elegant solutions that science can take as a model to address today&rsquo;s global challenges.</p>

<p>The odyssey of a hard disk, the symbol of technological progress in data archiving, is captured exclusively on a traditional 16mm analog camera.<br /> <br /> The experimental documentary by the Scottish artist Myles Painter is part of the multidisciplinary project focused on issues with long-term data storage, digital archives, and technology in the post-human era. An existential journey of the hard disk through the diverse English countryside is accompanied by the director&rsquo;s interviews with biotechnologists, data scientists, developers, philosophers, and even his own partner. The film is completed by a website with the same name that provides further materials and gives it context through a vast archive of interviews, links, and new research.</p>

<p>Everyone who has ever driven in Czechia has been there. Our oldest and longest highway is not just a road but a slice of life where the spiritual dimension of stories offers deep existential reflections.<br /> <br /> The mycelia of Physarum polycephalum can find the most efficient routes between obstacles and form networks nearly identical to highways connecting large cities. Can we find a logical parallel on the route between Prague and Brno? A manager at McDonald&rsquo;s, locals under the &ldquo;suicide bridge,&rdquo; and random drivers muse at the rest stops and highway exits on life, time, death and the universe itself. Nonstop, a metaphorical web of ideas, mutual interactions, and asynchronous digressions to endless contemplation presents a legendary probe into Czech society in the 1990s.</p>

<p>Are we willing to listen to the stories of those who remember the last time oceans rose?<br /> <br /> The indigenous population of Western Australia keep the memories and stories of the last climatic change, similar to contemporary reality in its scope, alive to this day. These stories, going back ten thousand years, illustrate how indigenous people dealt with the loss of land due to the rise of the oceans. How do we grasp this experience today, and are we willing to learn from it?</p>

<p>In the dense forests of the Eastern Himalayas, moths are whispering something to us. In the dark of night, two curious observers shine a light on this secret universe.</p> <p>Deep in the pitch-black forest, a few hundred moths are drawn by a single source of illumination to a piece of hung canvas. Only through this intimate examination can their existence, and the happenings of their world, be made visible. Though moth life spans are measured in hours and represent only a small amount of the immense biodiversity of their species, in these small beings lies a history of our planet. With a transportive and experiential visual style and immersive sound that brings you to a place few people can travel, co-directors Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan&rsquo;s <em>Nocturnes </em>gives us a multi-millennia vision of time nearly beyond our human-scale perception.&mdash;SS</p>

<p>A powerful man, who is also the former prime minister of Georgia, has developed an exquisite hobby. He collects century old trees along Georgia&#39;s coastline. He commissions his men to uproot them and bring them to his private garden. Some of these trees are as tall as 15-floor-buildings.</p>

<p>Since ancient times, when the ancestor of modern man stood upright and began to walk on two legs, people have explored almost the entire planet Earth. As one of the last, the peaks of the world&#39;s highest mountains remained unvisited.<br /> <br /> The two-man expedition of the legendary R. Messner and his colleague H. Kammerlander to the 8,000-meter Ga&scaron;erbrum I and II peaks recorded in Herzog&#39;s now classic austere, uncompromising, psychologizing style, in the creation of which Herzog made use of his earlier expedition film experience. With his small crew, he is not so much trying to film the ascent itself, led in alpine style and traversing both mountains without descending to the base camp, but rather to reveal the inner motivations of both climbers to undertake these extreme feats.</p>

<p>What do the ways in which a relationship with nature is cultivated in young people tell us about the society and lifestyle of past times? This is the question that led us to compile a band of short films from 1938-1969.<br /> <br /> Children and Nature (dir. Oldřich Mirad, 1953) About the work of kindergarten teachers and the importance of leading children to observe nature. Heroes in nature (dir. Jan Svoboda, 1938) About the skills of scout groups developed in nature. Life in the Forest (dir. V&aacute;clav Jan Staněk, 1949) About life in the forest and its inhabitants, from naughty leaves to a mysterious microcosm. Kidnapping (dir. Milada Cm&iacute;ralov&aacute;, late 1940s) Family drama of a father, preoccupied with writing a screenplay, and his son, who in the meantime goes on an adventure through the forest. Medicinal Plants (dir. Jindřich Ferenc, 1950) About children who collect medicinal herbs and thereby contribute to the prosperity of the national economy. Maybe it&#39;s that time (dir. Pavel Brezina, 1969) Documentary about a summer camp and outdoor training, filmed in cooperation with the organization Z&aacute;les&aacute;k.</p>

<p>Marie Curie-Skłodowska is perhaps the most famous scientist. Her status was influenced not only by discoveries in the field of chemistry and physics, but also (and perhaps mainly) by several biographies, biographical films and shows where she is the main character.<br /> <br /> Madam Curie offers a version of her story filmed in the period of World War II, and at the same time in the period of classic Hollywood. It can boast an elaborate set, typical of the MGM studio at the time, and a star-studded cast. This is the third of eight joint films by Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Both were nominated for an Oscar for their performances, among the seven other nominations was for best film, which supports the perception of the biographical film as a prestigious genre.</p>

<p>A documentary that looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change.</p> <p>Merchants of Doubt is a 2014 American documentary film directed by Robert Kenner and inspired by the 2010 book of the same name by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.&nbsp;The film traces the use of public relations tactics that were originally developed by the tobacco industry to protect their business from research indicating health risks from smoking. The most prominent of these tactics is the cultivation of scientists and others who successfully cast doubt on scientific results. Using a professional magician, the film explores the analogy between these tactics and the methods used by magicians to distract their audiences from observing how illusions are performed. For the tobacco industry, the tactics successfully delayed government regulation until long after the establishment of scientific consensus about the health risks from smoking. As its second example, the film describes how manufacturers of flame retardants worked to protect their sales after toxic effects of the retardants were reported in the scientific literature. The central concern of the film is the ongoing use of these tactics to forestall governmental action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in response to the risks of global climate change.</p>