Films celebrating our human passion for learning and discovery.
Eleven year-old Akeelah Anderson's life is not easy: her father is dead, her mom ignores her, her brother runs with the local gangbangers. She is a smart girl, but her environment threatens to strangle her aspirations. Responding to a threat by her school's principal, Akeelah decides to participate in a spelling bee to avoid detention for her many absences.
When mysterious spacecraft touch down around the world, a team, including linguist Louise Banks, is brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers, and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.
What does it take to make the perfect cup of coffee? Four passionate National Barista Champions from the United States, Ireland, Germany, and Japan represent their countries and their craft in an attempt to win the World Barista Championship in Seoul, South Korea.
The dramatic biography of John Nash, a mathematical genius, who made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Told from a wildly original, fresh, and modern perspective, this is an unfiltered comedy about high school best friends and the bonds they create that last a lifetime. Capturing the spirit of the times, it is a coming-of-age story for a new generation.
A famous Italian filmmaker, haunted by the memories of his first love, returns to his hometown after an absence of 30 years. Upon his return, he reconnects with the community and remembers the highlights and tragedies that shaped his life and inspired him to follow his dream of becoming a filmmaker.
Robin Williams portrays English professor John Keating, who, in an age of crew cuts, sport coats and cheerless conformity, inspires his students to live life to the fullest, exclaiming "Carpe Diem, lads! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!" The charismatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm--changing their lives forever.
How were the giant stone heads of Rapa Nui - also known as Easter Island - carved and raised, and why? Since Europeans arrived on this remote Pacific island over 300 years ago, controversy has swirled around the iconic ancient statues and the history of the people who created them.
The show offers an extraordinary look into the life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein. Beyond his groundbreaking theories of relativity, witness Einstein's struggles to be a good husband and father, and a man of principle during a time of global unrest.
This is groundbreaking film, which tells the stories of nine extraordinary girls from nine countries, written by nine celebrated writers and narrated by nine renowned actors. Viewers will see a showcase of strength from the human spirit and the power of education to change the world. Featuring Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Liam Neeson, Priyanka Chopra, Chloe Moretz, Freida Pinto, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Alicia Keys, and Kerry Washington.
A young working-class genius is hauled back from the brink of self-destruction by a gifted counselor.
Melvin B. Tolson is a professor at Wiley College in Texas. Wiley is a small African-American college. In 1935, Tolson inspired students to form the school's first debate team. Tolson turns a group of underdog students into a historically elite debate team which goes on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.
In 1962 Baltimore, all the kids watch the Corny Collins Show. Every day after school Tracy Turnblad, a teenager with all the right moves, and her best friend Penny run home to watch and drool over teenage heartthrob Link Larkin. When one of the "Council Kids" goes on a leave of absence, Tracy auditions to be the replacement, is sent to detention for skipping school, and thereby meets Seaweed--who shows her how to really shake 'em down.
An intimate portrait of Malala Yousafzai, who was wounded when Taliban gunmen opened fire on her in Pakistan's Swat Valley. The shooting of the then fifteen-year-old teenager sparked international media outrage. An educational activist in Pakistan, Yousafzai has since emerged as a leading campaigner for the rights of children worldwide and in December 2014, became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.
During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst, and war hero Alan Turing to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of gross indecency, an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality. Little did officials know they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing.
The life, contributions, and erasure of America's culinary founding father are explored by food historians, celebrated chefs, experts on race and the African American diaspora. Through their words and the persistence of a curious chef, Ashbell McElveen, the life of America's missing icon comes into focus. Mac & Cheese, French fries, whipped cream, and many other foodie favorites disseminated from a slave kitchen in Charlottesville from the hands of America's first master chef, James Hemings.
An interview with Jane Goodall, who spent several decades studying chimpanzees in their natural habitat in Tanzania's Gombe National Park, and a look back over her life and career as a primatologist, animal rights advocate, and environmental activist.
When a blonde sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend, she decides to follow him to law school to get him back and, once there, learns she has more legal savvy than she ever imagined.
Mighty, elemental forces, fiery eruptions, titanic floods, the grinding of great ice sheets, and massive impacts from space molded North America. This spectacular road trip through our nation's tumultuous past sets out to answer three fundamental questions: How was the continent built? How did life evolve here? And how has its spectacular landscape shaped human lives and destinies?
Growing up poor in Madras, India, Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar earns admittance to Cambridge University during WWI, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G.H. Hardy.
The skill of wildlife tracking offers an extraordinary window into our natural environments. In this course, you'll learn the core elements of tracking, such as identifying and interpreting animal tracks; tracking the amazing world of birds; the language of animal marking; going invisible; bedding, nesting, and mating in the wild; and the art of trailing, as you discover a richly rewarding way of knowing the world.
Chris Gardner is an intelligent, energetic guy who can't catch a break. In the sluggish Bay Area economy of 1981, he's losing ground, by investing all his family's money in high cost bone-density scanners. His wife leaves him, he loses his apartment, and with his 5-year-old son in tow joins the ranks of the homeless, if not the hopeless. Bounced from shelter to shelter, he finds himself a single dad who has to support and care for a young child. Impressing a Dean Witter higher-up by solving a Rubik's cube during a taxi ride, Chris gets a place in a stockbroker-training program. But internships don't pay, and there's no guarantee he'll be offered a job at the end of it. Against all odds, he pushes toward success, and eventually turns his life around.
A major discovery shows how life came back after an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. With exclusive access to a fossil trove from the key first million years after impact, the film charts the rise of a new living world from the ashes.
When his band votes him out due to his embarrasing musical antics, Dewey has to make the rent somehow. After intercepting a call for his substitute-teacher roomie Ned, Dewey finds himself in front of a class of elite elementary school students. Dewey decides to take on the music program and makes it his goal to teach them the gospel of rock and roll.