catalogue
Sleepiness. When your brain has a mind of its own
Sometimes comical but often tragic, Sleepiness takes an important part in our lives. First cause of leathal highway accidents, drowsiness invites itself in our work. What happens with our brain? Can we master sleepiness? By working on the sleep and especially on the functioning of awakening,...
Small is beautiful
The intense industrialisation of agricultural production has led to the desertification of the countryside, the confiscation of crops and the starvation of millions of people around the world. It has poisoned our water and our soil, it has rendered entire lands sterile. How and why did this...
Solar Impulse, Across America
This documentary-film is the story of their incredible American epic.In the footsteps of aviation pioneers like the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg underwent the coast-to-coast challenge, namely 5600 kms, to spread a message. By flying from San...
Something about Species
Do you know that you are an Amniote like the golden eagle, a tetrapod like the rattlesnake with its four limbs for walking? But hold on, a rattlesnake on four legs? From the point of view of evolution, yes indeed! One fine day, the common ancestor of the snakes discovered the knack of slithering...
SON OF A...
Who could boast, without being seen as a “four-flusher”, never having lived a situation when a slew of insults has come to mind (or mouth)?! Because what is more gratifying than a great mouthful of insults, to blow off steam? Could the insult be the “in flagrante delicto of humanity”, the...
Space dive
On 15 October 2012, Austrian Felix Baumgartner threw himself off a space shuttle to beat the world record in free fall and to cross the sound barrier. Behind the 4 minute and 19 second fall are four long years of preparation.
Space Weather, an urgent new science
Space Weather is everyone's concern ! A big solar storm can cause considerable damages to our hyper-connected societies. So, what would be the consequences today if we were to suffer a solar storm like the one that plunged the whole of the Province of Quebec and part of the State of New York into...
Spell of Poincaré Conjecture (the)
What is the shape of our universe? The Poincaré Conjecture, formulated in 1904 by French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré, promised to shed light on that question. Yet it remained unproved for a century, as scores of mathematicians tried and failed to establish a full proof, though...
Sperm Whale, dealing with the unexpected
From the stormy surface to the eternal darkness of the abyss, several generations of these deep-sea divers encounter men and their “toys”: harpoons of yesterday, and fishing lines of today. Once victim of whale hunting, now accused of stealing fish, a sperm whale shares its private life with...
Spring under Surveillance
In this very beginning of the XXIst century we are exploring the remotest parts of the universe, yet do we really know our most familiar environment? What are seasons for instance? Nothing seems more familiar than the return of spring or the arrival of winter. But what precisely controls living...
Sputnik years - Space Pirates
Only few people know the story of these pioneers of space communications, the brothers Achille and Giovanni Battista Judica-Cordiglia. In the early 1960s, these amateurs and tinkerers of genius successfully pick up signals from the first top secret Russian and US space missions. Back on this...
Squatters
Insects and parasites are certainly the most amazing and ubiquitous creatures on Earth. Some are attractive, others repugnant, but all have a more or less direct and immediate impact on our existence. Useful or pests, conquering or timid, dangerous or inoffensive, they meet mankind on all...
Stars and men
On the occasion of the World Year of Astronomy in 2009, this documentary offers to enter the wings of one of the biggest European Services of Astrophysics ( the SAp) and to discover, behind research, those who are in charge of it.
Stone age artists - the magdalenian masters
The inception of art in prehistoric times is a much debated issue. Some believe it coincides with a revolution of the mind, which is thought to have started about 40,000 years ago, others think it is the result of a gradual evolution that began with the very first human beings, some two millions...
Stone Age Atlantis
We believed for a long time that the Stone Age (8,000 to 10,000 years ago), especially the Mesolithic was a period of time when man was limited to the state of hunter-gatherer in the harsh conditions of the era ice. New discoveries reveal that this was a much more successful period, where man...
Stonehenge Empire
French version of the film Stonehenge is one of the world’s most iconic monuments. Yet, despite centuries of intense scrutiny, many of the biggest questions remain unanswered: why, of all places, was it built where it was? What was its true purpose? How did the pre-historic architects...
Storm over China
On a front of more than 150 km, the monsoon winter afflict China. The climate change has accelerated this phenomenon to the point that a "green wall" of trees over 4000 m² seems to be the only solution to stop the sand. This worsening of climatic changes is added to an extraordinary...
Stradivarius Mystery (The)
What makes the famous violins of Antonio Stradivari so valuable and sought after? Of ancient string instruments from Cremona in clinical laboratory environments through the warmth of concert halls, acousticians, chemists, instrument makers, musicians or even climate scientists are all passionate...
Stranded
Survival... Why? How? One of the greatest survival stories of all time is finally told by the survivors themselves, brilliantly crafted by their childhood friend and master filmmaker, Gonzalo Arijon. If this is a story that you think you know, think again. In October 1972, a rugby team from...
Strange Particles
This film will be screened in subtitled original version The young physicist Konstantin investigates quantum effects and teaches at a university. During the summer vacation he goes to a university's sea campus. Every day he teaches for a group of students, and every night he keeps order in the...
Sugar Blues
Also in Student Competition This film will be screened in original version with french subtitles. Sugar can kill! The director, Andrea, is diagnosed with gestational diabetes. She must avoid any form of refined sugar. That soon proves impossible though, because she finds sugar everywhere and in...
Sun on Earth
As reserves of fossil fuels on the planet are almost exhausted, our energy consumption is increasing. Renewable energies alone will not suffice to cover our needs. We only know the dark side of nuclear energy, often associated with fission and its dangers, but beyond political boundaries,...
Super Fungi, can mushrooms help save the world?
Behind the provocative title, the film throws light on the world of mycotechnology, one of the most promising avenues for dealing with the many challenges threatening the modern world.
Super Jellyfish
Jellyfish are incredible animals. Deprived of a head, heart and brain, and composed of 95% of water, they are able to change their identity, regenerate their body or produce some light. Some of them even became immortal...
Super spider
They are said to be poisonous, evil, hairy and treacherous. Whether from their physical appearance or their behaviour, spiders suffer a bad reputation. We know little of their habits and we often fear them. And yet the spider is a creature of many powers and an endless source of amazement. With...
Super Worm
Worms are everywhere: in the ground, in the oceans, in the ice of Alaska and even within us ! Thanks to worms, genetics could decipher our genome...
Superbat
Thanks to their ability to emit and analyze ultrasound, bats can detect objects as thin as a human hair. How they are able to fly and hunt the tiniest prey in total darkness using "echo-location" fascinates researchers. Superbat explores this sixth sense that bats had mastered over the eons, a...
Supermole
Able to swim the breaststroke in the earth, to feel through walls, to carry earth columns ten times heavier than its own weight, to build underground megalopolis thanks to its perfect mastery of aeration, mole dazzles scientists around the world with its "super powers"...
Supernatural Stories - On the Edge of Life
When it comes to "near death experience" (NDE), we think we all know about it: the tunnel, the white light... But what's next? Is it really possible to have an out-of-body existence? How can clinically dead people still perceive their surroundings? And remember them? In terms of traditional...
Sur les traces de la mémoire
Myriam is a cellist. She is rehearsing for a concert held that same night. She is pregnant. Daniel, her husband is a philosophy professor. Irénée, Daniel’s father, suffers from Alzheimer’s. Lucas is growing in his mother’s womb. This film shows us how the memories of Myriam and Daniel...
Surprise on our plates
Artificially added omega-3 fat acids in cooking oil, banana chips with E220 and bread with E200 – additives are found in food we buy every day. Rarely do we make the effort to decipher what’s in the food we eat. But, do we really know what we’re eating? X enius investigates today what’s in...
Surrounded by Waves
As wireless technology keeps expanding, the debate surrounding the health impacts of electromagnetic waves is growing more and more controversial. The international scientific community is called on to take sides and provide solid answers.
Surviving Progress
Ronald Wright’s bestseller "A Short History of Progress" inspired this cinematic requiem to progress-as-usual. Throughout human history, what seemed like progress often backfired. Some of the world's foremost thinkers, activists, bankers, and scientists challenge us to overcome progress traps,...
Surviving:) The Teenage Brain
Surviving:) The Teenage Brain will forever change your perception of what teenagers are all about. Who are they and why do they do what they do? Who knew they had anything in common with some of the world’s greatest thinkers. What do Mozart, Mark Zuckerberg, The Beatles and Einstein all have in...
Sustainable development, the world challenge
This series approaches most important subjects of the millenium defined by the UNO about development. The series is realized in collaboration with the French Agency of Development ( AFD). The 10 episodes: Peace, the prevention of risks and conflict: Chad Water: Senegal Culture and...
Swarms. The Intelligence of the Masses
How does the collective outdo the individual, and what does this mean for science? It is a stunning sight: hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of fish, birds or insects moving as fast as lightning and as if on command. Except that there is no command, no pilot, no mastermind pulling the...
Taboo Intersex: between the genders
One in 3,000 to 5,000 newborn children is neither male nor female. Officially, these "hermaphrodite", "androgynous" or "intersex" babies don't exist at all: the gender of a child has to be registered on its birth certificate in a matter of days, and there are only two boxes to check, male or...
Tales of the universe
The sky has a history of an exceptional wealth. It did not stop, in the course of the centuries, exercising an unlimited fascination on the human being, feeding the fears and the faiths of the big civilizations. It is the domain of the Gods, there where they decide on the future of the humanity....
Tazieff/Allègre, the volcano war
In 1976, the antagonism between two men broke into the media. Their name : Haroun Tazieff, vulcanologist already known from the general public and Claude Allègre, researcher and brand new director of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. The background : the eruption of the Grande...
The (ch)eaters
They are everywhere. Be it in your home, cafeteria or favorite restaurant, processed foods fill your plates. Faced with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and dulled taste buds through flavor enhancers straight out of Soylent Green, the public is left with no choice. Unless it goes on hunger...
The Adventurers of the Island Planete
Santo 2006 is the most ambitious scientific expedition never led on the biodiversity. Its mission: to draw up an inventory of fixtures of the flora and the fauna of the ground and marine circles of a paradisiac island of the South Pacific: Santo ( Espiritu Santo), in Vanuatu.
The Adventures of Tintin: destination moon
At the atomic center of Sbrodi in Syldavia, Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock join Professor Calculus working on an ambitious project aiming: the moon. Thanks to Ellipsanime and Moulinsart SA.
The Astroboy age
According to the Japanese research institute, Seed Planning, by 2015, 13 million robot assistants will be part of Japanese homes to cheer up, comfort and possibly take care of their owners. This documentary blends clips from Japanese cartoons, interviews with fiction writers, sociologists,...
The Boy who loves Numbers
Pierre-Jean Vazel is obsessed with numbers. Since he was born, they are for him a smell, a sound, a movement, a matter, a colour… like the vowels of Rimbaud had. Very young, he has been compulsively recording with emotion all the athletics figures worldwide. Later on, on the Internet, he has...
The City-Dwellers
Julius Caesar named "Gaul" the divided territories which he conquered between 58 and 51 BCE. The Gallo-Roman civilization then flourished during more than two centuries of peace, with a lasting effect on our territory embodied by ancient monuments such as amphitheatres, forums or temples but also...
The Conquerors: The pine processionnary Caterpillar
Sometimes they come at night. Sometimes by day. They eat, they kill, they lay waste to the land. They are not from here. They¹re not even human. Sounds like the plot of a an old horror film? In some ways it is! Who are these invaders?
The cycle of life - How we eat
How does our body work? This documentary explores the scientific mechanisms of food. But beware, appetite can lead to obesity! An epidemic more dangerous than bird flu according to researchers at the University of Tübingen.
The Dali Dimension
All his life, Salvador Dali had a passion for science. Compulsive reader (psychoanalysis, nuclear physics, mathematics, genetics) he met with top researchers, who discovered behind the provocative image an unusually intelligence. The entire work of Dali reflects the great topics of science of the...
The Diaper Dilemma
Every child gets through some 6000 diapers before he’s toilet trained. Every diaper takes hundreds of years to decompose in landfill. Worn for just a few hours, then chucked away to rot forever in the garbage, diapers are a symbol of our modern aspirations and our consumerist society. But...
The Disappearance
Franck Bertrand left Paris one day of August, 1974, when he was 18 year-old. He left the keys of his room at the janitor, he came back to his parent’s house. He left his agenda and some personal stuff, and then, disappeared. Nobody had any news of him since that day. What happened? Where is he?...