By cracking the ancient hieroglyphic code, Jean-François Champollion gave words to a thousand-year-old, mysterious civilization - but behind his legendary feat was a mysterious brother who made it all possible. New correspondence discovered between Jean-François Champollion and his brother Jacques-Joseph now allows us to fully understand how a young, self-taught genius was able to make one of the most important discoveries of the 19th century. Without the tireless support and cleverness of his older brother, Jean-François would never have managed to solve this burning, international enigma. Through animated sequences, using their private correspondence, archives and with the help of experts, this film will go back on this one-in-a lifetime scientific, human and intellectual adventure to celebrate the bicentenary of the decoding of hieroglyphs.
Step into a time when the boundary between life and death was guided by magic, faith, and the written word. This documentary unearths an extraordinary artifact dating back to about 1880 BCE—a scroll known as potentially the oldest document in human history, lost for centuries and rediscovered in 1887. Through expert interviews, archeological evidence, and stunning visuals, viewers are taken on a journey across ancient Egypt: exploring how this manuscript shaped funerary beliefs, mortuary rituals, and the very concept of the afterlife. Witness the power of this papyrus as it reveals secrets of gods and judgment, spells to navigate dangerous gates, and the yearning for immortality. For anyone fascinated by history, spirituality, or mysteries from the distant past, this film brings alive a document that influenced civilization itself.
Cursed Films is a five part documentary series which explores the myths and legends behind some of Hollywood's notoriously cursed horror film productions. Filmmaker Jay Cheel explores the facts, myths and mysterious surrounding iconic films and franchises whose casts and crews have been struck by misfortune and tragedy. The release of The Exorcist was surrounded by controversy, as reports of fainting theatre-goers and mysterious on-set accidents raised questions as to whether or not the film itself was evil.
To recruit actors for his rehearsals, Nathan opens an acting studio in Los Angeles, teaching 'the Fielder Method', which involves covertly observing and imitating unaware subjects. Feeling insecure about his own performance, Nathan reenacts the class with actors and a fake Nathan as the teacher while the real Nathan plays the role of Thomas, a student. Nathan makes his students immerse themselves in other people's lives while he immerses himself in Thomas's life, even living in Thomas's home. Nathan returns to Oregon, where his 'son', Adam, is now a teenager. Nathan and Joshua, the actor playing Adam, decide that Adam should lash out due to resentment of his absentee father and develop a drug problem, a situation that mirrors Angela's own past. Adam suffers an overdose and is tended to by emergency responders played by Thomas and another Fielder Method graduate. After he runs away from home, the 15-year-old Adam reverts to a 6-year-old since Nathan plans to relive his son's earlier years.
At a powderkeg moment in American policing, 'The Force' goes deep inside the embattled Oakland Police Department as it struggles to reform itself amid growing local controversy. Filmmaker Peter Nicks embedded with the department over the course of two years to follow its serial efforts to recast itself. The film focuses on the new chief brought in to effect reform at the very moment the Black Lives Matter movement emerges to demand police accountability and racial justice both in Oakland and across the nation. 'The Force' goes inside an embattled urban police department struggling to rebuild trust in one of America's most violent yet promising cities.
The film follows the story of Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee subjected to the CIA's program, of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs), later identified as torture by those outside the agency. Having never been charged with a crime or allowed to challenge his detention, Zubaydah remains imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay in Kafkaesque limbo, in direct contravention of America’s own ideals of justice and due process. Twenty years on, The Forever Prisoner reveals the origins of the clandestine operations that led the United States, in the 'War on Terror,' on a path of cruelty, deceit, and self-deception. With first-hand accounts from the two interrogators to question Abu Zubaydah, a shocking interview with the chief architect of EITs, and an interview with Daniel Jones, former Senate Investigator, the film uncovers the incompetent and deceptive practices that the U.S. government followed in order to expedite and legalize EITs in the aftermath of 9/11. As a result, torture as a government policy was authorized by the United States for the first time in history.
Through animated sequences, using their private correspondence, archives and with the help of experts, this film will go back on this one-in-a lifetime scientific, human and intellectual adventure to celebrate the bicentenary of the decoding of hieroglyphs.