
When a YouTube video of Alexandru Duru's hoverboard flight goes viral, the young engineer sets a Guinness World Record and achieves the recognition he desires. But fame and fortune don't come easily. Often mocked and ostracized (until they achieve their goal), inventors see the world in a distinct way. Duru is no different. The son of Romanian immigrants, he's driven by a desire to achieve the impossible—and to cash in. Exploring the banality of Duru's trial-and-error efforts, director Bogdan Stoica is an artistic risk-taker worthy of his subject. He allows contemplative scenes to develop in real-time with immaculate framing; a natural tension builds as we witness Duru strapping the equivalent of high-speed lawn mower blades to his feet. Avoiding the temptation to sensationalize and thus trivialize his subject, Stoica reveals a rich story about immigration, settlement and the human desire to transcend our physical confines. -Alexander Rogalski (Hot Docs Film Festival)
7.5On June 11th, 1997, Philippe Kahn created the first camera phone solution to share pictures instantly on public networks. The impetus for this invention was the birth of Kahn's daughter, when he jerry-rigged a mobile phone with a digital camera and sent photos in real time. In 2016 Time Magazine included Kahn's first camera phone photo in their list of the 100 most influential photos of all time.
0.0Familiar radio voice Ben Grauer leads the viewer on a behind the scenes tour of the National Broadcasting Company studios -- both radio and television -- in Rockefeller Center and Hollywood. The original 25-minute film previewed by network execs and affiliates in the fall of 1948 was cut down to 20 minutes before its first broadcast, reportedly to excise high-profile stars and programs such as Amos 'n' Andy, Jack Benny, and Edgar Bergen that had since left NBC for other networks.
6.0Color footage of inventor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Dr. Carver is filmed at his apartment, office, laboratory, and garden.
0.0Through an intimate conversation, Steph Jane, age 28, shares the struggles and lessons her second diagnosis of stage-4 cancer has taught her. From being genuinely present and savouring simple moments to thoughts of the future and what really matters, Steph reveals beauty and wisdom which transcend appearance and years.
6.0This short documentary follows the fortunes of iconic car manufacturer Lotus. Once famous for its championship-winning race cars and iconic sports cars, Lotus has struggled to remain in profit. A new investor and managing director set out to build the first new Lotus road cars in over a decade: their final petrol-powered car Emira and their first pure electric British hypercar, the 2000bhp Evija.
7.9Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
7.0In a few years, technology will merge with our bodies in ways that today seem unimaginable, and will redefine the limits of what is a human being. There are already people who, driven by the desire to experiment, have crossed the biological limits by introducing electronic devices that provide them with capabilities that go beyond what is "normal." They are the first hybrids, and they face the reaction of society, which goes from malignancy to enthusiasm. Today they are only a small minority, and many people consider them as disrupted experimenters, but in the near future we may recognize them as pioneers.
0.0Film sponsored by Western Electric (AT&T's equipment manufacturing division), the builder of the United States Air Force's White Alice Communications System in Alaska. Introduces the people and geography of the new state as well as the Western Electric radio-relay system, which links far-flung military sites, alert stations, and missile-warning facilities. Ralph Caplan praised the film's "intrinsically dramatic and highly photogenic" portrayal of communications equipment.
5.0With the most tech startups and venture capital per capita in the world, Israel has long been hailed as The Startup Nation. WIRED’s feature-length documentary looks beyond Tel Aviv’s vibrant, liberal tech epicenter to the wider Holy Land region – the Palestinian territories, where a parallel Startup Nation story is emerging in East Jerusalem, Nazareth, Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank, as well as in the Israeli cybersecurity hub of Be’er Sheva. And we will learn how the fertile innovation ecosystem of Silicon Wadi has evolved as a result of its unique political, geographical and cultural situation and explore the future challenges – and solutions – these nations are facing.
6.8NOTHING TO HIDE is an independent documentary dealing with surveillance and its acceptance by the general public through the "I have nothing to hide" argument. The documentary was produced and directed by a pair of Berlin-based journalists, Mihaela Gladovic and Marc Meillassoux. It was crowdfunded by over 400 backers. NOTHING TO HIDE questions the growing, puzzling and passive public acceptance of massive corporate and governmental incursions into individual and group privacy and rights. After the emotion initially triggered by the Snowden revelations, it seems that the general public has finally accepted to live in a monitored digital world.
7.6At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.
8.0The Chinese company Huawei wants to expand 5G worldwide and is well advanced in the development of the technology. With the help of 5G, entire communities can function wirelessly, self-driving cars become possible and advanced medical care can be performed remotely in real time. However, many are worried that Huawei is incorporating backdoors that allow vast amounts of data to be collected and then used by China for espionage.
6.9REVOLUTION OS tells the inside story of the hackers who rebelled against the proprietary software model and Microsoft to create GNU/Linux and the Open Source movement.
8.0In the first decades of the 20th century, when life was being transformed by scientific innovations, researchers made a thrilling new claim: they could tell whether someone was lying by using a machine. Popularly known as the “lie detector,” the device transformed police work, seized headlines and was extolled in movies, TV and comics as an infallible crime-fighting tool. Husbands and wives tested each other’s fidelity. Corporations routinely tested employees’ honesty and government workers were tested for loyalty and “morals.” But the promise of the polygraph turned dark, and the lie detector too often became an apparatus of fear and intimidation. Written and directed by Rob Rapley and executive produced by Cameo George, The Lie Detector is a tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.
10.0In a culture immersed in technology, Instagram is reviving adventure, face to face community and real relationships. Through sharing the stories of friends old and new, "Instagram Is" sets out to discover the answer to the question "How can something so digital get people out from behind their devices and into the analog world?"
3.0Host Grant Jeffrey discusses how technology and government activities are changing the way our information is handled. How is this shaping our lives?
7.1A documentary about the development and spread of the virtual currency called Bitcoin.
6.6Once upon a time there was a large Finnish company called Nokia that manufactured the world’s best and most innovative mobile phones. Nokia’s annual budget was larger than that of the Government of Finland and their phones spread everywhere and changed the whole culture of communication. But then something changed. Film portrays the rise and fall of Nokia and the Finnish mobile phone industry. Nokia engineers, designers and managers tell their story about the creation, success and downfall of the Finnish mobile phone.
0.0The Cost Of Convenience examines how internet platforms are impacting our mental health, restructuring our communities, threatening our democracy, and violating our human rights.
0.0After the near death of her grandfather, Chinese Canadian filmmaker Michelle Wong embarks on a personal journey back home to her small town of St. Paul, Alberta to speak to her grandparents about their journey from China to Canada.
