71-506: Future Fantastic was a British documentary television series which premiered in 1996. This show looked at the how science and science fiction complement each other, and how ideas and technologies from the past are helping to shape our future. The series was narrated by Gillian Anderson and co-produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation , The Learning Channel and Pro Sieben . Alien : Discusses
142-564: A historical record ". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Early documentary films, originally called " actuality films ", briefly lasted for one minute or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length and to include more categories. Some examples are educational , observational and docufiction . Documentaries are very informative , and are often used within schools as
213-591: A Metropolis (dir. Walter Ruttmann , 1927); Man with a Movie Camera (dir. Dziga Vertov , 1929); Douro, Faina Fluvial (dir. Manoel de Oliveira , 1931); and Rhapsody in Two Languages (dir. Gordon Sparling , 1934). A city symphony film, as the name suggests, is most often based around a major metropolitan city area and seeks to capture the life, events and activities of the city. It can use abstract cinematography (Walter Ruttman's Berlin ) or may use Soviet montage theory (Dziga Vertov's, Man with
284-421: A Movie Camera ). Most importantly, a city symphony film is a form of cinepoetry , shot and edited in the style of a " symphony ". The European continental tradition ( See: Realism ) focused on humans within human-made environments, and included the so-called city symphony films such as Walter Ruttmann's, Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (of which Grierson noted in an article that Berlin, represented what
355-429: A Summer ( Jean Rouch ), Dont Look Back ( D. A. Pennebaker ), Grey Gardens ( Albert and David Maysles ), Titicut Follies ( Frederick Wiseman ), Primary and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (both produced by Robert Drew ), Harlan County, USA (directed by Barbara Kopple ), Lonely Boy ( Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor ) are all frequently deemed cinéma vérité films. The fundamentals of
426-527: A broader perspective, as a reaction against studio-based film production constraints. Shooting on location, with smaller crews, would also happen in the French New Wave , the filmmakers taking advantage of advances in technology allowing smaller, handheld cameras and synchronized sound to film events on location as they unfolded. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are important differences between cinéma vérité ( Jean Rouch ) and
497-630: A documentary should not be); Alberto Cavalcanti's, Rien que les heures; and Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera . These films tend to feature people as products of their environment, and lean towards the avant-garde. Dziga Vertov was central to the Soviet Kino-Pravda (literally, "cinematic truth") newsreel series of the 1920s. Vertov believed the camera – with its varied lenses, shot-counter shot editing, time-lapse, ability to slow motion, stop motion and fast-motion – could render reality more accurately than
568-437: A form of journalism, advocacy, or personal expression. Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. Single-shot moments were captured on film, such as a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work. These short films were called "actuality" films; the term "documentary" was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as those made by Auguste and Louis Lumière , were
639-515: A major battle and re-enact scenes to film them. The propagandist tradition consists of films made with the explicit purpose of persuading an audience of a point. One of the most celebrated and controversial propaganda films is Leni Riefenstahl 's film Triumph of the Will (1935), which chronicled the 1934 Nazi Party Congress and was commissioned by Adolf Hitler . Leftist filmmakers Joris Ivens and Henri Storck directed Borinage (1931) about
710-437: A minute or less in length, due to technological limitations. Examples can be viewed on YouTube. Films showing many people (for example, leaving a factory) were often made for commercial reasons: the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment, the film showing them. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight . Using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented
781-506: A more poetic aesthetic approach to documentary. Examples of their work include Drifters (John Grierson), Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright), Fires Were Started , and A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings). Their work involved poets such as W. H. Auden , composers such as Benjamin Britten , and writers such as J. B. Priestley . Among the best known films of the movement are Night Mail and Coal Face . Calling Mr. Smith (1943)
SECTION 10
#1732797990630852-577: A new art form; that the "original" actor and "original" scene are better guides than their fiction counterparts for interpreting the modern world; and that materials "thus taken from the raw" can be more real than the acted article. In this regard, Grierson's definition of documentary as "creative treatment of actuality" has gained some acceptance; however, this position is at variance with Soviet film-maker Dziga Vertov 's credos of provocation to present "life as it is" (that is, life filmed surreptitiously), and "life caught unawares" (life provoked or surprised by
923-428: A resource to teach various principles . Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic. Social media platforms (such as YouTube ) have provided an avenue for the growth of the documentary- film genre . These platforms have increased the distribution area and ease-of-accessibility. Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski
994-514: A wordless meditation on wartime Britain. From 1982, the Qatsi trilogy and the similar Baraka could be described as visual tone poems, with music related to the images, but no spoken content. Koyaanisqatsi (part of the Qatsi trilogy ) consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. Baraka tries to capture
1065-517: A world record. He was one of a small number of pilots to have successfully taken off a Junkers Ju 52 in less than 400 feet (120 meters). After touring extensively among shows of vintage military aircraft, or warbirds , Iron Annie was sold to Lufthansa during 1984. The airline renamed it Tempelhof , and continues to use it today, for charter and VIP flights. Caidin chronicled the warbird restoration movement generally in Ragwings and Heavy Iron , and
1136-449: Is Cyborg , which was the basis for The Six Million Dollar Man franchise. He also wrote numerous works of military history , especially concerning aviation. Caidin was also an airplane pilot. He bought and restored a 1936 Junkers Ju 52 airplane. Caidin's fiction incorporated future technological advances that were projected to occur, and examined the political and social repercussions of these innovations. In this respect, his work
1207-474: Is a separate area. Pathé was the best-known global manufacturer of such films in the early 20th century. A vivid example is Moscow Clad in Snow (1909). Biographical documentaries appeared during this time, such as the feature Eminescu-Veronica-Creangă (1914) on the relationship between the writers Mihai Eminescu , Veronica Micle and Ion Creangă (all deceased at the time of the production), released by
1278-419: Is an anti-Nazi color film created by Stefan Themerson which is both a documentary and an avant-garde film against war. It was one of the first anti-Nazi films in history. Cinéma vérité (or the closely related direct cinema ) was dependent on some technical advances to exist: light, quiet and reliable cameras, and portable sync sound. Cinéma vérité and similar documentary traditions can thus be seen, in
1349-417: Is based on Project Mercury . The book was adapted into a 1969 movie of the same name starring Gregory Peck , Richard Crenna , David Janssen , James Franciscus and Gene Hackman , with Caidin making a brief appearance as a reporter describing the arrival of the rescue vehicle at Cape Canaveral. The movie was based on Project Apollo and Caidin revised his novel in 1969, as a movie novelization, to reflect
1420-413: Is similar to that of Michael Crichton . One recurring theme is that of cyborgs , meldings of man and machine, using replacement body parts known as bionics . Caidin references bionics in his novel The God Machine (1968) and in his most famous novel, Cyborg (1972). Cyborg was adapted somewhat vaguely as the 1973 television movie The Six Million Dollar Man , the precursor of a television series of
1491-670: The Bucharest chapter of Pathé . Early color motion picture processes such as Kinemacolor (known for the feature With Our King and Queen Through India (1912)) and Prizma Color (known for Everywhere With Prizma (1919) and the five-reel feature Bali the Unknown (1921)) used travelogues to promote the new color processes. In contrast, Technicolor concentrated primarily on getting their process adopted by Hollywood studios for fiction feature films. Also during this period, Frank Hurley 's feature documentary film, South (1919) about
SECTION 20
#17327979906301562-666: The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was released. The film documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914. With Robert J. Flaherty 's Nanook of the North in 1922, documentary film embraced romanticism . Flaherty filmed a number of heavily staged romantic documentary films during this time period, often showing how his subjects would have lived 100 years earlier and not how they lived right then. For instance, in Nanook of
1633-622: The John Birch Society . Caidin was a friend of 1960s talk show host Joe Pyne , and used the same confrontational interview style, combined with research. Caidin also taught a progressive journalism course at the University of Florida in Gainesville, titled Caidin's Law. Caidin, known as a stickler for technical detail, incorporated supernatural elements in his Bermuda Triangle novel Three Corners To Nowhere (1975). During
1704-848: The Messerschmitt Bf 108 , which has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration as the standard manual for the plane, and twice won the Aviation/Space Writers Association award for the outstanding author on aviation. Caidin also established a company with the purpose of promoting aeronautics to young people. During the mid-1980s, Caidin hosted Face to Face , a confrontational television talk show in which he challenged representatives of many prominent American far-right organizations and hate groups. The one-hour broadcasts were co-written and produced by Bob Judson, and taped at
1775-884: The 1920s and 1930s. These films were particularly influenced by modern art , namely Cubism , Constructivism , and Impressionism . According to art historian and author Scott MacDonald , city symphony films can be described as, "An intersection between documentary and avant-garde film: an avant-doc "; however, A.L. Rees suggests regarding them as avant-garde films. Early titles produced within this genre include: Manhatta (New York; dir. Paul Strand , 1921); Rien que les heures /Nothing But The Hours ( France ; dir. Alberto Cavalcanti , 1926); Twenty Four Dollar Island (dir. Robert J. Flaherty , 1927); Moscow (dir. Mikhail Kaufman , 1927); Études sur Paris (dir. André Sauvage , 1928); The Bridge (1928) and Rain (1929), both by Joris Ivens ; São Paulo, Sinfonia da Metrópole (dir. Adalberto Kemeny , 1929), Berlin: Symphony of
1846-636: The 3D Fax Project), Anton Zeilinger (physicist) This episode was first broadcast on 12 July 1996. Brave New Body : Looks into how body modification will shape our lives in the future. Interviewed Joseph M. Rosen (plastic surgeon), Charles Vacanti (biologist), Mark Pauline (roboticist), Martin Caidin (writer), Donald Humphrey (surgeon), Max More (futurist), Natasha Vita-More (author), Dr Eugene Dejuan (eye surgeon), Bruce Sterling (author), Greg Bear (author), Walter Gehring (biologist), Dr. Richard Ellenbogen (plastic surgeon) This episode
1917-553: The Belgian coal mining region. Luis Buñuel directed a " surrealist " documentary Las Hurdes (1933). Pare Lorentz 's The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1938) and Willard Van Dyke 's The City (1939) are notable New Deal productions, each presenting complex combinations of social and ecological awareness, government propaganda, and leftist viewpoints. Frank Capra 's Why We Fight (1942–1944) series
1988-810: The Furnaces , from 1968), directed by Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas , influenced a whole generation of filmmakers. Among the many political documentaries produced in the early 1970s was "Chile: A Special Report", public television's first in-depth expository look at the September 1973 overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in Chile by military leaders under Augusto Pinochet , produced by documentarians Ari Martinez and José Garcia. A June 2020 article in The New York Times reviewed
2059-634: The Nautilus Television Studios outside of Orlando, Florida. Among those whom Caidin confronted on Face to Face were Rabbi Meir Kahane , head of the Jewish Defense League (who would be assassinated a year later in a New York hotel lobby), Matt Koehl , successor to George Lincoln Rockwell as head of the American Nazi Party , Dick Butler of Aryan Nations , journalist Charlie Reese, and John McMann of
2130-574: The North , Flaherty did not allow his subjects to shoot a walrus with a nearby shotgun, but had them use a harpoon instead. Some of Flaherty's staging, such as building a roofless igloo for interior shots, was done to accommodate the filming technology of the time. Paramount Pictures tried to repeat the success of Flaherty's Nanook and Moana with two romanticized documentaries, Grass (1925) and Chang (1927), both directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack . The " city symphony " sub film genre consisted of avant-garde films during
2201-680: The North American " direct cinema " (or more accurately " cinéma direct "), pioneered by, among others, Canadians Michel Brault , Pierre Perrault and Allan King , and Americans Robert Drew , Richard Leacock , Frederick Wiseman and Albert and David Maysles . The directors of the movement take different viewpoints on their degree of involvement with their subjects. Kopple and Pennebaker, for instance, choose non-involvement (or at least no overt involvement), and Perrault, Rouch, Koenig, and Kroitor favor direct involvement or even provocation when they deem it necessary. The films Chronicle of
Future Fantastic - Misplaced Pages Continue
2272-465: The Penguins , and An Inconvenient Truth among the most prominent examples. Compared to dramatic narrative films, documentaries typically have far lower budgets which makes them attractive to film companies because even a limited theatrical release can be highly profitable. The nature of documentary films has expanded in the past 30 years from the cinéma vérité style introduced in the 1960s in which
2343-581: The Romanian professor Gheorghe Marinescu made several science films in his neurology clinic in Bucharest : Walking Troubles of Organic Hemiplegy (1898), The Walking Troubles of Organic Paraplegies (1899), A Case of Hysteric Hemiplegy Healed Through Hypnosis (1899), The Walking Troubles of Progressive Locomotion Ataxy (1900), and Illnesses of the Muscles (1901). All these short films have been preserved. The professor called his works "studies with
2414-485: The advantage of documentaries lies in introducing new perspectives which may not be prevalent in traditional media such as written publications and school curricula. Documentary practice is the complex process of creating documentary projects. It refers to what people do with media devices, content, form, and production strategies to address the creative, ethical, and conceptual problems and choices that arise as they make documentaries. Documentary filmmaking can be used as
2485-427: The book Exit Earth , which was a Noah's Ark in space story; he said it was one of his favorite books and he always felt it would be an amazing motion picture. Caidin bought and restored to full airworthiness the oldest surviving Junkers Ju 52 aircraft, a Ju 52/3m, Serial № 5489, which he named Iron Annie . Caidin was pilot-in-command of Iron Annie on November 14, 1981, when 19 people walked on one of its wings ,
2556-474: The camera). The American film critic Pare Lorentz defines a documentary film as "a factual film which is dramatic." Others further state that a documentary stands out from the other types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion, and a specific message, along with the facts it presents. Scholar Betsy McLane asserted that documentaries are for filmmakers to convey their views about historical events, people, and places which they find significant. Therefore,
2627-750: The change. World War Two books written by Caidin include Samurai! ; Black Thursday ; Thunderbolt! ; Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38 ; Flying Forts ; Zero! ; The Ragged, Rugged Warriors ; A Torch to the Enemy ; and The Last Dogfight . Caidin's books about space travel include No Man's World , in which the Soviets beat the Americans to the moon, and Four Came Back , about an ill-fated space station for eight crew members. Caidin's other books with movie tie-ins include The Final Countdown and novels featuring adventurer-archaeologist Indiana Jones . He also wrote
2698-498: The creation of a Film Archive to collect and keep safe visual materials. The word "documentary" was coined by Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson in his review of Robert Flaherty 's film Moana (1926), published in the New York Sun on 8 February 1926, written by "The Moviegoer" (a pen name for Grierson). Grierson's principles of documentary were that cinema's potential for observing life could be exploited in
2769-429: The development of "reality television" that occasionally verges on the documentary but more often veers to the fictional or staged. The "making-of" documentary shows how a movie or a computer game was produced. Usually made for promotional purposes, it is closer to an advertisement than a classic documentary. Modern lightweight digital video cameras and computer-based editing have greatly aided documentary makers, as has
2840-407: The director. The commercial success of these documentaries may derive from this narrative shift in the documentary form, leading some critics to question whether such films can truly be called documentaries; critics sometimes refer to these works as " mondo films " or "docu-ganda." However, directorial manipulation of documentary subjects has been noted since the work of Flaherty, and may be endemic to
2911-452: The dramatic drop in equipment prices. The first film to take full advantage of this change was Martin Kunert and Eric Manes ' Voices of Iraq , where 150 DV cameras were sent to Iraq during the war and passed out to Iraqis to record themselves. Films in the documentary form without words have been made. Listen to Britain , directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stuart McAllister in 1942, is
Future Fantastic - Misplaced Pages Continue
2982-536: The early part of the 20th century. They were often referred to by distributors as "scenics". Scenics were among the most popular sort of films at the time. An important early film which moved beyond the concept of the scenic was In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), which embraced primitivism and exoticism in a staged story presented as truthful re-enactments of the life of Native Americans . Contemplation
3053-527: The entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States. In May 1896, Bolesław Matuszewski recorded on film a few surgical operations in Warsaw and Saint Petersburg hospitals. In 1898, French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen invited Matuszewski and Clément Maurice to record his surgical operations. They started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906,
3124-520: The films was so vital that they were often given co-director credits. Famous cinéma vérité/direct cinema films include Les Raquetteurs , Showman , Salesman , Near Death , and The Children Were Watching . In the 1960s and 1970s, documentary film was often regarded as a political weapon against neocolonialism and capitalism in general, especially in Latin America, but also in a changing society. La Hora de los hornos ( The Hour of
3195-533: The form due to problematic ontological foundations. Documentary filmmakers are increasingly using social impact campaigns with their films. Social impact campaigns seek to leverage media projects by converting public awareness of social issues and causes into engagement and action, largely by offering the audience a way to get involved. Examples of such documentaries include Kony 2012 , Salam Neighbor , Gasland , Living on One Dollar , and Girl Rising . Although documentaries are financially more viable with
3266-613: The great pulse of humanity as it flocks and swarms in daily activity and religious ceremonies. Bodysong was made in 2003 and won a British Independent Film Award for "Best British Documentary." Martin Caidin Martin Caidin (September 14, 1927 – March 24, 1997) was an American author, screenwriter, and an authority on aeronautics and aviation. Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books as well as more than 1,000 magazine articles. His best-known novel
3337-694: The help of the cinematograph," and published the results, along with several consecutive frames, in issues of La Semaine Médicale magazine from Paris, between 1899 and 1902. In 1924, Auguste Lumière recognized the merits of Marinescu's science films: "I've seen your scientific reports about the usage of the cinematograph in studies of nervous illnesses, when I was still receiving La Semaine Médicale , but back then I had other concerns, which left me no spare time to begin biological studies. I must say I forgot those works and I am thankful to you that you reminded them to me. Unfortunately, not many scientists have followed your way." Travelogue films were very popular in
3408-428: The human eye, and created a film philosophy from it. The newsreel tradition is important in documentary film. Newsreels at this time were sometimes staged but were usually re-enactments of events that had already happened, not attempts to steer events as they were in the process of happening. For instance, much of the battle footage from the early 20th century was staged; the cameramen would usually arrive on site after
3479-471: The increasing popularity of the genre and the advent of the DVD, funding for documentary film production remains elusive. Within the past decade, the largest exhibition opportunities have emerged from within the broadcast market, making filmmakers beholden to the tastes and influences of the broadcasters who have become their largest funding source. Modern documentaries have some overlap with television forms, with
3550-665: The landmark 14-hour Eyes on the Prize : America's Civil Rights Years (1986 – Part 1 and 1989 – Part 2) by Henry Hampton, 4 Little Girls (1997) by Spike Lee , The Civil War by Ken Burns , and UNESCO-awarded independent film on slavery 500 Years Later , express not only a distinctive voice but also a perspective and point of views. Some films such as The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris incorporate stylized re-enactments, and Michael Moore 's Roger & Me place far more interpretive control with
3621-567: The mid-1980s, Caidin began claiming to have the power of telekinesis , specifically, to be able to move one or more small devices called energy wheels or psi wheels . Parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach , a friend of Caidin's who sometimes appeared with him in demonstrations and workshops, reiterated a strong endorsement of him in his June 2004 Fate magazine column. The magician James Randi offered to test Caidin's claimed abilities during 1994. During September 2004, Randi wrote: "He frantically avoided accepting my challenge by refusing even
SECTION 50
#17327979906303692-415: The pilots had a near-miss with a submarine. Caidin recounted this journey in his book Everything But The Flak . Caidin also worked as a pilot for the movie The War Lover , flew with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron for several months, and was made an honorary member of the U.S. Army's Golden Knights parachute demonstration team . Additionally, Caidin wrote an aircraft manual for
3763-513: The political documentary And She Could Be Next , directed by Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia. The Times described the documentary not only as focusing on women in politics, but more specifically on women of color, their communities, and the significant changes they have wrought upon America. Box office analysts have noted that the documentary film genre has become increasingly successful in theatrical release with films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 , Super Size Me , Food, Inc. , Earth , March of
3834-454: The possibility of encountering intelligent life on other planets. Interviewed Story Musgrave (astronaught), Seth Shostak (astronomer), Frank Drake (astronomer), Jill Tarter (astronomer), Arthur C. Clarke (author), Richard F. Haines (scientist), Robert Sheaffer (UFO investigator), Jack Cohen (biologist), John Clute (author), David Bischoff (author), Glenn Campbell (Area 51 Investigator), Bob Lazar (engineer) This episode
3905-577: The restoration and further adventures of Iron Annie specifically in The Saga of Iron Annie . His novel Jericho 52 also incorporates many of his experiences with Iron Annie . During 1961, Caidin was one of the pilots of a formation flight of B-17s across the Atlantic Ocean, likely the last such flight, from the United States to England via Canada, the Azores, and Portugal. During the voyage,
3976-498: The same name. Caidin wrote three sequels to Cyborg : Operation Nuke , High Crystal , and Cyborg IV . These novels constitute a different continuity from that of The Six Million Dollar Man . ( Novelizations of several of the television episodes were written by other authors; these tend to imitate more closely Caidin's original version of the Steve Austin character than the less violent television series does.) Caidin
4047-530: The style include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. There are no sit-down interviews, and the shooting ratio (the amount of film shot to the finished product) is very high, often reaching 80 to one. From there, editors find and sculpt the work into a film. The editors of the movement – such as Werner Nold , Charlotte Zwerin , Muffie Meyer , Susan Froemke , and Ellen Hovde – are often overlooked, but their input to
4118-432: The use of portable camera and sound equipment allowed an intimate relationship between filmmaker and subject. The line blurs between documentary and narrative and some works are very personal, such as Marlon Riggs 's Tongues Untied (1989) and Black Is...Black Ain't (1995), which mix expressive, poetic, and rhetorical elements and stresses subjectivities rather than historical materials. Historical documentaries, such as
4189-494: The year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations. Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. For scientific purposes, after 1906, Doyen combined 15 of his films into three compilations, two of which survive, the six-film series Extirpation des tumeurs encapsulées (1906), and the four-film Les Opérations sur la cavité crânienne (1911). These and five other of Doyen's films survive. Between July 1898 and 1901,
4260-687: Was a newsreel series in the United States, commissioned by the government to convince the U.S. public that it was time to go to war. Constance Bennett and her husband Henri de la Falaise produced two feature-length documentaries, Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935) filmed in Bali , and Kilou the Killer Tiger (1936) filmed in Indochina . In Canada, the Film Board , set up by John Grierson,
4331-479: Was among those who identified the mode of documentary film. He wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema, Une nouvelle source de l'histoire ("A New Source of History") and La photographie animée ("Animated photography"). Both were published in 1898 in French and were among the earliest written works to consider the historical and documentary value of the film. Matuszewski is also among the first filmmakers to propose
SECTION 60
#17327979906304402-625: Was credited in episodes of the original Bionic Woman series, a Six Million Dollar Man spinoff, but not in the 2007 remake of The Bionic Woman . Years later, Caidin would reference bionics in a satirical manner in his novel Buck Rogers: A Life in the Future , an adaptation of the pulp fiction and comic strip character Buck Rogers in which Rogers is given bionic parts after being revived from his centuries-long coma. Caidin's 1964 novel Marooned , about American astronauts who become stranded in space and NASA's subsequent attempt to rescue them,
4473-579: Was first broadcast on 16 August 1996. Underneath a purple sky : Looks at the future of space tourism . Interviewed Ray Bradbury (author), John Clute (author), Wendell Mendell (Planetary Scientist), Patrick Collins (professor of economics at Azabu University in Japan), Story Musgrave (astronaut), Greg Bennett (writer), Marshall Savage (author), Christopher McKay (planetary scientist), Kim Stanley Robinson (author), Jane Poynter (author), Taber MacCallum (Chief Technology Officer) This episode
4544-692: Was first broadcast on 19 July 1996. Weird Science : Shows how we have come close to defying gravity , and achieving invisibility and perpetual energy . Interviewed John Clute (author), Michael Burns (physicist and military systems designer), Richard A. Hull (inventor), Peter Graneau (inventor), Jim Greggs (inventor), Franklin Mead (Senior. Scientist at the Advanced Concepts Office), Frank Close (physicist), Edwin May (nuclear physicist), Richard Wiseman (psychologist) This episode
4615-531: Was first broadcast on 21 June 1996. I, Robot : Discusses the evolving and growing role of artificial intelligence , computers , and robots in our everyday life. Interviewed Joe Engelberger (roboticist), Red Whittaker (roboticist), Marvin Minsky (cognitive scientist), Hans Moravec (computer scientist), Takeo Kanade (roboticist), Kevin Warwick (roboticist), Rodney Brooks (roboticist) This episode
4686-634: Was first broadcast on 23 August 1996. Immortal : Questions whether we may ever achieve immortality . Interviewed Marvin Minsky (cognitive scientist), Max More (futurist), Natasha Vita-More (author), Rima Greenhill , Malcolm Greenhill , Michael R. Rose (evolutionary biologist), Siegfried Hekimi (biologist), François Schächter (biologist), Robert Ettinger (academic), Steve Bridge (President of Alcor), Michael Taylor (cryobiologist), Ralph C. Merkle (nanotechnologist), Brian Stableford (author), John Clute (author), Frank Tipler (mathematical physicist), Gregory Benford (author) This episode
4757-435: Was first broadcast on 28 June 1996. Starman : Looks at how we might eventually reach the stars . Interviewed Nick Argento (historian), Arthur C. Clarke (author), Frederik Pohl (author), Yoji Kondo (author), Alan Bond (rocket engineer), Gerald A. Smith (scientist), Jack Williamson (author), Robert L. Forward (author), Michio Kaku (physicist), Patrick Moore (astronomer), Ron Miller (artist) This episode
4828-601: Was first broadcast on 30 August 1996. The theme music to Future Fantastic was by HAL who later collaborated with Gillian Anderson on the track "Extremis" which was released by Virgin Records in 1997. Future Fantastic was broadcast in the United States on the Learning Channel in 1997. Documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining
4899-474: Was first broadcast on 5 July 1996. Incredible Shrinking Planet : Looks at the future of transport , including teleportation and time travel . Interviewed John Clute (author), Paul Moller (engineer), James R. Powers (Designer), Dennis Bushnell (NASA scientist), Brian Motts (inventor), Robert L. Forward (author), Leik Myrabo (engineer), John C. Mankins (NASA scientist), John Anderson (NASA scientist), Larry Niven (author), Marc Levoy (head of
4970-580: Was first broadcast on 9 August 1996. Brainstorm : Looks at technology being put into and onto people's heads to create artificial experiences. Interviewed John Clute (author), Jonathan Walden (virtual reality engineer), Neal Stephenson (science fiction author), Richard Johnston (Human Interface Technology Lab), Andrew Junker (founder of Brainfingers), Grant McMillan (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base), Christopher Gallen (neurologist), Pat Cadigan (science fiction author), Richard A. Normann (bioengineer), Theodore Berger (bioengineer) This episode
5041-610: Was set up for the same propaganda reasons. It also created newsreels that were seen by their national governments as legitimate counter-propaganda to the psychological warfare of Nazi Germany orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels . In Britain, a number of different filmmakers came together under John Grierson. They became known as the Documentary Film Movement . Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti , Harry Watt , Basil Wright , and Humphrey Jennings amongst others succeeded in blending propaganda, information, and education with
#629370