There is no dearth of historical documentaries on Netflix. The numbers are staggering, and it is interesting how the platform is bringing forward never-before-heard or seen stories of kings and queens from around the world. They also cover stories of other figures from the ancient world, which helps the audience receive a different perspective on the lives they led. It allows us to understand the politics of the world and the contribution of a respective figure in world history. It could be a cultural or political impact that survived all this time for historians to speak about and educate people about. History cannot be restricted to school textbooks anymore. It is interesting that this subject is being presented through Ott platforms in a way that is very different from classroom lessons.
World War II: From the Frontlines, Greatest Events of WWII in Color, Spy Ops, Queen Cleopatra, Roman Empire, The Last Czars,...
World War II: From the Frontlines, Greatest Events of WWII in Color, Spy Ops, Queen Cleopatra, Roman Empire, The Last Czars,...
- 2/1/2024
- by Smriti Kannan
- Film Fugitives
Following the true story of scientist Henry Bates in the 1840s, this satisfying film uses Imax tech to provide astonishing wildlife detail
In places, this satisfying Imax edutainment brings forth happy memories of James Gray’s excellent The Lost City of Z. It’s a tribute to another overshadowed historical figure, that of Henry Walter Bates, the Leicester-born amateur scientist – and Alfred Wallace associate – who struck out for the Amazon in 1848, charged with collecting insects at threepence per bug, and in so doing indirectly gathered the evolutionary proofs that backed up Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. What Bates (embodied here by an engaging Calum Finlay) observed in these parts – when he wasn’t bleary-eyed from malaria – were “leaves that could fly, bird droppings that could walk”: ie those craftier critters whose predator-bamboozling camouflage was so well-developed they hadn’t previously been spotted. This is what scientists call...
In places, this satisfying Imax edutainment brings forth happy memories of James Gray’s excellent The Lost City of Z. It’s a tribute to another overshadowed historical figure, that of Henry Walter Bates, the Leicester-born amateur scientist – and Alfred Wallace associate – who struck out for the Amazon in 1848, charged with collecting insects at threepence per bug, and in so doing indirectly gathered the evolutionary proofs that backed up Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. What Bates (embodied here by an engaging Calum Finlay) observed in these parts – when he wasn’t bleary-eyed from malaria – were “leaves that could fly, bird droppings that could walk”: ie those craftier critters whose predator-bamboozling camouflage was so well-developed they hadn’t previously been spotted. This is what scientists call...
- 4/12/2019
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
Keshet International has sold Prisoners Of War, the Israeli format upon which Showtime’s Homeland is based, to Televisa in Mexico. The deal will see a Spanish-language version of the show broadcast in Mexico (Televisa) and Colombia. while Univision also will hold rights for the U.S. Hispanic market to air the show on its sister channel, Unimas. A big order for 70 episodes based on Prisoners Of War (original title: Hatufim) Seasons 1 and 2 will be produced and adapted by Productions Rti Colombia. This adds to Keshet format sales of Prisoners Of War in such markets as South Korea, Russia, Turkey and the States. The finished show also has sold to more than 20 territories. Prisoners Of War was created, written and directed by Gideon Raff. The original show follows two soldiers as they attempt to re-adjust to their lives after returning home from 17 years of captivity. In addition to their personal struggles,...
- 10/2/2014
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline
A documentary that captures in minute detail the insect's 2,000-mile trek across North America to Mexico premieres this week – and is tipped to be nature's next screen success
The extraordinary 2,000-mile journey made by millions of butterflies each autumn from Canada, through the USA to Mexico is revealed in minute detail for the first time in a multimillion-pound 3D film. The insects' hair, scales and body movements in flight can be seen with a clarity that moved scientists at a preview screening to tears.
Filming the migration of the monarch butterfly took five years and was made possible by the development of new technology. The film's British director, Mike Slee, used the pioneering 3D "snorkel system" which can film insects in 3D "like nobody else before".
Micro Ct and Mri scans for medical purposes have also been adapted to view inside a chrysalis, showing a caterpillar transform into a butterfly...
The extraordinary 2,000-mile journey made by millions of butterflies each autumn from Canada, through the USA to Mexico is revealed in minute detail for the first time in a multimillion-pound 3D film. The insects' hair, scales and body movements in flight can be seen with a clarity that moved scientists at a preview screening to tears.
Filming the migration of the monarch butterfly took five years and was made possible by the development of new technology. The film's British director, Mike Slee, used the pioneering 3D "snorkel system" which can film insects in 3D "like nobody else before".
Micro Ct and Mri scans for medical purposes have also been adapted to view inside a chrysalis, showing a caterpillar transform into a butterfly...
- 9/22/2012
- by Dalya Alberge
- The Guardian - Film News
Lately IMAX screens have been dominated by blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man (or the current re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark), but awhile back, nature documentaries with stunning cinematography used to dominate the giant screen. Now nature is making a bit of a resurgence as Flight of the Butterflies in 3D is making its way to theaters this October. A simple trailer is here, and let's the images speak for themselves as director Mike Slee filmed hundreds of millions of monarchs in their remote overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico and cross-continent migratory routes. Here's the trailer for Mike Slee's Flight of the Butterflies in 3D from Yahoo: Following the year-long annual migration cycle of the butterflies, the award-winning production team filmed hundreds of millions of monarchs in their remote overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico in 2011 and again in 2012 and also along their migratory routes from Canada,...
- 9/11/2012
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
Opens
March 23
California Science Center, Los Angeles
That hulking gorilla in "King Kong" and those rampaging dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" have nothing on the amazing monsters in "Bugs! in 3-D." Filmed with wide-angle lenses that can magnify subjects up to 250,000 times onscreen, "Bugs!" gets audiences up close and personal in the world of insects. Shot in a rain forest on the equatorial island of Borneo and in a studio in England for the many close-ups, this 3-D Imax film puts you at eye level with awesome creatures that look like alien beasts from deep space.
Director Mike Slee and the producers aim the 40-minute film at young people by personalizing the insects and staging their mating rituals and predatory hunts for maximum drama. However, adults also will marvel at the varied hues, body structure and evolutionary traits that only become clear when bugs get magnified to this size.
In an abandoned hut sliding into a lagoon, which the jungle is swiftly reclaiming, the camera prowls the foliage in search of startling insects magnificently camouflaged by nature to escape (not always successfully) the danger of becoming another insect's dinner. There are all kinds of beetles, ants and carnivorous crickets in addition to predators such as scorpions, spiders, frogs, lizards and millions of bats. Mostly, the film focuses on two protagonists: a butterfly and a praying mantis who, with a little poetic license, are "born on the same day" in the same rain forest. The film follows their life cycle.
Papilio undergoes her metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a Great Mormon butterfly, its wings patterned with red, black and white. Hierodula, a green mantis, is a very cool predatory male with compound eyes, molting exoskeleton and forelegs that spear his food. His assault and consumption of a poor fruit fly is equal to any attack by the CG creatures in "Jurassic Park".
Slee oversees a terrific team headed by specialist photographer Peter Parks, who designed and built new systems equipment to shoot insects in extreme close-up, and Sean Phillips, a leading 3-D cinematographer.
Composer John Lunn plays up the drama with hot jazz licks for bugs in jittery motion, strings and horns swooning in awe at a butterfly emerging from her cocoon and Hitchcockian tension for bugs waiting in ambush for their prey. Judi Dench goes for elegant simplicity in her narration of Slee and Abby Aron's script.
BUGS! IN 3-D
SK Films
Terminix presents a Principal Large Format Film productionin association with Image Quest 3-D & U.K. Film and TV Production Co.
Credits:
Director: Mike Slee
Writers: Mike Slee, Abby Aron
Producers: Phil Streather, Alexandra Ferguson
Executive producers: Simon Relph, Peter Fudakowski
Director of photography: Sean Phillips
Music: John Lunn
Systems designer, specialist photography: Peter Parks
Editor: Peter Beston
Insect researcher: Gillian Burke
Narrator: Judi Dench
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
March 23
California Science Center, Los Angeles
That hulking gorilla in "King Kong" and those rampaging dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" have nothing on the amazing monsters in "Bugs! in 3-D." Filmed with wide-angle lenses that can magnify subjects up to 250,000 times onscreen, "Bugs!" gets audiences up close and personal in the world of insects. Shot in a rain forest on the equatorial island of Borneo and in a studio in England for the many close-ups, this 3-D Imax film puts you at eye level with awesome creatures that look like alien beasts from deep space.
Director Mike Slee and the producers aim the 40-minute film at young people by personalizing the insects and staging their mating rituals and predatory hunts for maximum drama. However, adults also will marvel at the varied hues, body structure and evolutionary traits that only become clear when bugs get magnified to this size.
In an abandoned hut sliding into a lagoon, which the jungle is swiftly reclaiming, the camera prowls the foliage in search of startling insects magnificently camouflaged by nature to escape (not always successfully) the danger of becoming another insect's dinner. There are all kinds of beetles, ants and carnivorous crickets in addition to predators such as scorpions, spiders, frogs, lizards and millions of bats. Mostly, the film focuses on two protagonists: a butterfly and a praying mantis who, with a little poetic license, are "born on the same day" in the same rain forest. The film follows their life cycle.
Papilio undergoes her metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a Great Mormon butterfly, its wings patterned with red, black and white. Hierodula, a green mantis, is a very cool predatory male with compound eyes, molting exoskeleton and forelegs that spear his food. His assault and consumption of a poor fruit fly is equal to any attack by the CG creatures in "Jurassic Park".
Slee oversees a terrific team headed by specialist photographer Peter Parks, who designed and built new systems equipment to shoot insects in extreme close-up, and Sean Phillips, a leading 3-D cinematographer.
Composer John Lunn plays up the drama with hot jazz licks for bugs in jittery motion, strings and horns swooning in awe at a butterfly emerging from her cocoon and Hitchcockian tension for bugs waiting in ambush for their prey. Judi Dench goes for elegant simplicity in her narration of Slee and Abby Aron's script.
BUGS! IN 3-D
SK Films
Terminix presents a Principal Large Format Film productionin association with Image Quest 3-D & U.K. Film and TV Production Co.
Credits:
Director: Mike Slee
Writers: Mike Slee, Abby Aron
Producers: Phil Streather, Alexandra Ferguson
Executive producers: Simon Relph, Peter Fudakowski
Director of photography: Sean Phillips
Music: John Lunn
Systems designer, specialist photography: Peter Parks
Editor: Peter Beston
Insect researcher: Gillian Burke
Narrator: Judi Dench
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Opens
March 23
California Science Center, Los Angeles
That hulking gorilla in "King Kong" and those rampaging dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" have nothing on the amazing monsters in "Bugs! in 3-D." Filmed with wide-angle lenses that can magnify subjects up to 250,000 times onscreen, "Bugs!" gets audiences up close and personal in the world of insects. Shot in a rain forest on the equatorial island of Borneo and in a studio in England for the many close-ups, this 3-D Imax film puts you at eye level with awesome creatures that look like alien beasts from deep space.
Director Mike Slee and the producers aim the 40-minute film at young people by personalizing the insects and staging their mating rituals and predatory hunts for maximum drama. However, adults also will marvel at the varied hues, body structure and evolutionary traits that only become clear when bugs get magnified to this size.
In an abandoned hut sliding into a lagoon, which the jungle is swiftly reclaiming, the camera prowls the foliage in search of startling insects magnificently camouflaged by nature to escape (not always successfully) the danger of becoming another insect's dinner. There are all kinds of beetles, ants and carnivorous crickets in addition to predators such as scorpions, spiders, frogs, lizards and millions of bats. Mostly, the film focuses on two protagonists: a butterfly and a praying mantis who, with a little poetic license, are "born on the same day" in the same rain forest. The film follows their life cycle.
Papilio undergoes her metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a Great Mormon butterfly, its wings patterned with red, black and white. Hierodula, a green mantis, is a very cool predatory male with compound eyes, molting exoskeleton and forelegs that spear his food. His assault and consumption of a poor fruit fly is equal to any attack by the CG creatures in "Jurassic Park".
Slee oversees a terrific team headed by specialist photographer Peter Parks, who designed and built new systems equipment to shoot insects in extreme close-up, and Sean Phillips, a leading 3-D cinematographer.
Composer John Lunn plays up the drama with hot jazz licks for bugs in jittery motion, strings and horns swooning in awe at a butterfly emerging from her cocoon and Hitchcockian tension for bugs waiting in ambush for their prey. Judi Dench goes for elegant simplicity in her narration of Slee and Abby Aron's script.
BUGS! IN 3-D
SK Films
Terminix presents a Principal Large Format Film productionin association with Image Quest 3-D & U.K. Film and TV Production Co.
Credits:
Director: Mike Slee
Writers: Mike Slee, Abby Aron
Producers: Phil Streather, Alexandra Ferguson
Executive producers: Simon Relph, Peter Fudakowski
Director of photography: Sean Phillips
Music: John Lunn
Systems designer, specialist photography: Peter Parks
Editor: Peter Beston
Insect researcher: Gillian Burke
Narrator: Judi Dench
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
March 23
California Science Center, Los Angeles
That hulking gorilla in "King Kong" and those rampaging dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" have nothing on the amazing monsters in "Bugs! in 3-D." Filmed with wide-angle lenses that can magnify subjects up to 250,000 times onscreen, "Bugs!" gets audiences up close and personal in the world of insects. Shot in a rain forest on the equatorial island of Borneo and in a studio in England for the many close-ups, this 3-D Imax film puts you at eye level with awesome creatures that look like alien beasts from deep space.
Director Mike Slee and the producers aim the 40-minute film at young people by personalizing the insects and staging their mating rituals and predatory hunts for maximum drama. However, adults also will marvel at the varied hues, body structure and evolutionary traits that only become clear when bugs get magnified to this size.
In an abandoned hut sliding into a lagoon, which the jungle is swiftly reclaiming, the camera prowls the foliage in search of startling insects magnificently camouflaged by nature to escape (not always successfully) the danger of becoming another insect's dinner. There are all kinds of beetles, ants and carnivorous crickets in addition to predators such as scorpions, spiders, frogs, lizards and millions of bats. Mostly, the film focuses on two protagonists: a butterfly and a praying mantis who, with a little poetic license, are "born on the same day" in the same rain forest. The film follows their life cycle.
Papilio undergoes her metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a Great Mormon butterfly, its wings patterned with red, black and white. Hierodula, a green mantis, is a very cool predatory male with compound eyes, molting exoskeleton and forelegs that spear his food. His assault and consumption of a poor fruit fly is equal to any attack by the CG creatures in "Jurassic Park".
Slee oversees a terrific team headed by specialist photographer Peter Parks, who designed and built new systems equipment to shoot insects in extreme close-up, and Sean Phillips, a leading 3-D cinematographer.
Composer John Lunn plays up the drama with hot jazz licks for bugs in jittery motion, strings and horns swooning in awe at a butterfly emerging from her cocoon and Hitchcockian tension for bugs waiting in ambush for their prey. Judi Dench goes for elegant simplicity in her narration of Slee and Abby Aron's script.
BUGS! IN 3-D
SK Films
Terminix presents a Principal Large Format Film productionin association with Image Quest 3-D & U.K. Film and TV Production Co.
Credits:
Director: Mike Slee
Writers: Mike Slee, Abby Aron
Producers: Phil Streather, Alexandra Ferguson
Executive producers: Simon Relph, Peter Fudakowski
Director of photography: Sean Phillips
Music: John Lunn
Systems designer, specialist photography: Peter Parks
Editor: Peter Beston
Insect researcher: Gillian Burke
Narrator: Judi Dench
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/26/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's high-risk season for the shivers and sweats at the movies. What could be scarier than sharks, witches and haunted houses?
Raging infernos of flame come to mind, but "Wildfire: Feel the Heat" -- the second large-format production from Discovery Pictures, the theatrical film division of the Discovery Channel -- is not quite the hair-raising (or hair-singeing) experience it might have been.
Opening locally at the California Science Center IMAX Theater, "Wildfire" was filmed in 1997 and first released in March at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The director is Mike Slee, an experienced English documentarian, and the subject matter should draw in crowds that won't go away disappointed.
Clocking in at the standard 40 minutes for an IMAX film, "Wildfire" puts the viewer in the middle of firefighting crews in Southern California, Oregon, Idaho and Southern Australia. There are many thrilling shots, including one underneath a helicopter with a long hose dangling, used to suck up water from any source and then soak the fire from above.
While the filmmakers make good use of the format, the approach is tinder dry. The firefighters make impressive figures in training and in action, but one really doesn't get to know any of these courageous "smokejumpers" who parachute into blazes. However, these hotshots, rapellers and lookouts have some of their observations included as sound bites.
"Wildfire" successfully imparts useful information about the nature of fire and the strategies and dangers of wild-land firefighting, with a big assist from narrator Andre Braugher.
From a crew igniting small backfires with flamethrowers, hoping to prevent larger blazes, to firemen dowsing a home with protective foam, it's the visually interesting details of this most primal of struggles that make the biggest impression -- and not so much the sweeping panoramas of flaming hillsides and apocalyptic TV footage blown up to Titanic proportions.
WILDFIRE: FEEL THE HEAT
Discovery Pictures
Director:Mike Slee
Producers:Richard Sattin, Phil Streather, Mick Kaczorowski
Executive producers:Mick Kaczorowski, Patrice Andrews
Writer:Michael Olmert
Director of photography:Rodney Taylor
Editor:Bernard Gribble
Music:Richard Fiocca
Narrator:Andre Braugher
Color/stereo
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Raging infernos of flame come to mind, but "Wildfire: Feel the Heat" -- the second large-format production from Discovery Pictures, the theatrical film division of the Discovery Channel -- is not quite the hair-raising (or hair-singeing) experience it might have been.
Opening locally at the California Science Center IMAX Theater, "Wildfire" was filmed in 1997 and first released in March at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The director is Mike Slee, an experienced English documentarian, and the subject matter should draw in crowds that won't go away disappointed.
Clocking in at the standard 40 minutes for an IMAX film, "Wildfire" puts the viewer in the middle of firefighting crews in Southern California, Oregon, Idaho and Southern Australia. There are many thrilling shots, including one underneath a helicopter with a long hose dangling, used to suck up water from any source and then soak the fire from above.
While the filmmakers make good use of the format, the approach is tinder dry. The firefighters make impressive figures in training and in action, but one really doesn't get to know any of these courageous "smokejumpers" who parachute into blazes. However, these hotshots, rapellers and lookouts have some of their observations included as sound bites.
"Wildfire" successfully imparts useful information about the nature of fire and the strategies and dangers of wild-land firefighting, with a big assist from narrator Andre Braugher.
From a crew igniting small backfires with flamethrowers, hoping to prevent larger blazes, to firemen dowsing a home with protective foam, it's the visually interesting details of this most primal of struggles that make the biggest impression -- and not so much the sweeping panoramas of flaming hillsides and apocalyptic TV footage blown up to Titanic proportions.
WILDFIRE: FEEL THE HEAT
Discovery Pictures
Director:Mike Slee
Producers:Richard Sattin, Phil Streather, Mick Kaczorowski
Executive producers:Mick Kaczorowski, Patrice Andrews
Writer:Michael Olmert
Director of photography:Rodney Taylor
Editor:Bernard Gribble
Music:Richard Fiocca
Narrator:Andre Braugher
Color/stereo
Running time -- 40 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/29/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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