FR
An account of the last two centuries of the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. How human beings have progressed so much in such a short time through war and the selfish interests of a few, belligerent politicians and captains of industry, damaging the welfare of the majority of mankind, impoverishing the weakest, greedily devouring the limited resources of the Earth.
Jul 2019
From her birth in Warsaw to her entry into the Pantheon, Marie Curie's work and career is a myth. Honored throughout the world and embodying a model of excellence, its history and life remain unknown in France. An intimate portrait of an exceptional scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 100 years ago.
Oct 2011
Dark matter fills the cosmos, and yet its identity is still unknown. For the first time, a film portrays the wild scientific quest find out what it is. This breath-taking thriller leads us to the dawn of a scientific and metaphysical revolution, akin to Copernic's or Galileo's. It could totally change the way we perceive our world.
Oct 2012
Gombessa Expedition 1 To dive for the Coelacanth is to go back in time. In 1938, when it was known only as a fossil, a Coelacanth was discovered in South Africa in a fisherman's net. This species bears witness to an evolutionary bifurcation 380 million years ago, and bears the marks of a great event: the day the fish left the ocean for the open air. Does it hold the secret to the transition to walking on land? In 2010, a marine biologist and outstanding diver, Laurent Ballesta, took the first photographs of the Coelacanth in its ecosystem. In April 2013, divers and researchers set down their equipment at the Sodwana base camp in South Africa, in the club founded by Peter Timm (who died in 2014). Six weeks of extreme diving at depths of over 120 meters, in an attempt to film the Coelacanth with a double-headed camera, collect its DNA and tag a subject with a satellite-linked beacon...
Nov 2013
This documentary outlines the unique properties and latest studies of "Physarum Polycephalum", also known as Blob.
Oct 2019
Gombessa Expedition 4 Laurent Ballesta went to observe a gathering of thousands of groupers during the full moon of June 2014 (Le mystère mérou) in the southern pass of the Polynesian atoll of Fakarava, where he discovered a pack of over seven hundred grey sharks. How can this unprecedented density be explained? Could it be that social behaviors govern this wild horde? During three years of preparation, he and the other divers on his international scientific team tamed their fear by abandoning the defensive reflexes that provoke shark aggression, with the aim of slipping into the heart of the raging pack to study and film it from the inside. Sharks fitted with microchips, receiving antennas, hydrophones, an ark of 32 synchronized cameras...: a whole technological arsenal is mobilized for the project. As the groupers approach for their annual spawning, what battle plan will the sharks deploy?
Jun 2018
Journey of an african migrant through Europe.
Jul 2006
Close and daily, sometimes comical but often tragic, sleepiness takes an important place in our lives. Suddenly falling asleep, sometimes with their eyes still open, affects more than 10% of the population. The leading cause of fatal accidents on motorways, drowsiness is also prevalent in the world of work. A silent, irrepressible phenomenon... a flaw in a system of performance, speed, reactivity. So what is happening in our brain? Can we control the conditions of sleepiness? By working on sleep and especially on the functioning of wakefulness, researchers are trying to understand the biological and environmental mechanisms that keep humans at the peak of their abilities. After a clear technological improvement, it turns out that man, having become an expert and process controller, finds it very difficult to focus his attention over time.
Jan 2011
In Jean Rouch's cinematic reinterpretation of Julius-Amédée Laou's theatrical work, a freshly appointed nurse steps into the chaotic world of a psychiatric ward. Tasked with nurturing the minds within, she forms a profound connection with a patient from Martinique who has been confined within the institution's walls for half a century. As their relationship deepens, the lines between reality and delusion blur, weaving a complex narrative of human connection and psychological intrigue.
Oct 1986
Over the centuries, Mont Saint-Michel, an extraordinary island located in the delta of the Couesnon River, in Normandy, France, a place floating between the sea and the sky, has been a sanctuary, an abbey, a fortress and a prison. But how was this architectural wonder built?
Dec 2017
When a huge meteorite crashed into the earth 66 million years ago and caused the disappearance of the dinosaurs, some of the planet’s tiniest species survived the cataclysm, and—against all odds—eventually became some of the greatest giants to ever roam the earth. From the poles of the planet to the belly of the equator, this documentary sheds new light on four giant animals that are still a great mystery to science today: the Titanoboa snake, the Megalodon shark, the giant rhinoceros and the giant sloth.
Oct 2018
Based on the latest technological and scientific advances, this documentary explores the palace's architectural past to resurrect Louis XIV's vanished Versailles. Versailles was an ongoing building site at the time of Louis XIV and continued to be transformed by its successive occupants later on. The Versailles we know today only vaguely resembles the Versailles of the Sun King. Most of its original features and apartments no longer exist. Thanks to the digitisation of thousands of plans, a team of scientists takes us back in time to explore this forgotten past in a new way, through a large-scale reconstruction project to bring back the Versailles of Louis XIV as he designed it, according to his requirements and dreams.
Mar 2019
The discovery of an ancient music score in the Louvre sets researchers on a mission to recreate the music as it was originally heard by the Greeks 2,400 years ago.
Jun 2021
Lightning struck the hut of a Fulani shepherd near a village of settled fishermen, Ganghel, in Niger. A yenendi, a purification ceremony to obtain "water from the sky but not fire from the sky", is organized, with Sorko priests, ritual musicians and dancers, and the faithful from Niamey. The musicians call on Dongo, god of storms, and his brother Kirey, god of lightning. To the rhythm of the orchestra, a man goes into a trance, becoming Dongo's horse and at the same time the riding genie. Then a woman is possessed by Kirey. When the riding gods have mastered their horses, the gods visit the men. Dongo purifies the lightning-struck land and the oldest fisherman prepares the purification vessel, addressing Dongo.
Jan 1968
At the dawn of the Christian era, Petra, capital of the rich kingdom of the Nabataeans, bordering the deserts of Arabia, Syria and the Negev, was absorbed by the Roman Empire and, after being sacked by the Bedouins, disappeared from the memory of mankind; but its secrets are gradually being revealed thanks to an enormous excavation work.
Jan 2014
99% of the plastic that should be floating in the oceans is missing. Even accounting for the plastic that washes up on beaches or is trapped in arctic ice, millions of tonnes has simply disappeared. As most plastic never deteriorates, it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that are invisible to the human eye, what happens to this missing ocean plastic is a mystery. In this investigation, scientists embark in search of the micro-plastics. Small, mostly invisible, toxic, they are home to the new ecosystem: the plastisphere. But where are they? Ingested by organisms? Buried under the ocean floor? Degraded by bacteria? And what is the impact of them entering the food chain?
Sep 2016
For the past 20 years, the world has seen an alarming decrease in IQ and a rise of autism and behavioral disorders. This international scientific investigation reveals how chemicals in objects surrounding us affect our brain, and especially those of fetuses.
Nov 2017
Boris and Sandra meet and immediately love each other with a lively passion. Enough to help them fight the best enemy of their love: addiction. That of Boris on drugs, that of Sandra in Boris. Linked, attached to each other, reclusive but alive, they will try to live their love in a closed circuit. In doing so, everyone will discover in themselves an unexpected strength and humanity.
Dec 2008
All over the world, women are shorter than men on average. Even among Northern Europeans, currently the tallest people in the world, men are around 15 centimetres taller than women. However, there are animal species in which the females are taller than the males. Sexual dimorphism - the scientific term - also has some surprises in store: For example, female blue whales are larger than their male counterparts. As blue whales are the largest mammals in the world, this means that the largest animal in the world is female. So why are its human relatives so small? Scientists from France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and the USA have investigated this highly interesting question. They tell a fascinating evolutionary story in which biology, medicine, paleoanthropology, nutritional science, sociology, obstetrics and gynecology interact and in which the female comes out on top.