Screenings

IMAX DIGITAL 3D SCREENINGS:

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science is among the first three U.S. museums to undergo digital upgrades to the latest IM AX technology to deliver the world’s most immersive movie experience.

AFRICAN ADVENTURE: SAFARI IN THE OKAVANGO
National Geographic Cinema Ventures and nWave Pictures
Described as the “river that never finds the sea,” the Okavango originates in the highlands of Angola and eventually spills into one of the most arid places on earth, the Kalahari Desert, in the northwestern part of Botswana. The Delta created by the flood waters of the Okavanga is so large it can be spotted from deep space like a giant hand bringing relief to this desolate region. Little-known to the outside world until a few decades ago, this secluded 20,000 square kilometer maze of lagoons, channels and islands form one of the most beautiful and pristine wildlife reserves on earth. Join South African zoologist Liesl Eichenberger and world-renowned wildlife filmmaker Tim Liversedge, on a thrilling adventure and come face to face with hippos, crocodiles, elephants, lions and many types of antelope and bird species.

GRAND CANYON ADVENTURE: RIVER AT RISK
MacGillivray Freeman Films
Set against the immense backdrop of the majestic Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Adventure takes audiences on an exhilarating river-rafting adventure down the Colorado River in the company of a team of explorers who are committed to bringing awareness to global water issues. One of the world’s mightiest rivers, the Colorado no longer reaches the sea. Every drop of river water is allocated to agriculture and populations along the way, many of whom don’t even realize their connection to the river. No water remains for the river’s end—the Colorado Delta—once a thriving estuary that supported the most diverse biosphere in North America. How do we balance our needs with nature’s? How do we provide enough freshwater for everyone who needs it, not only along the Colorado River, but everywhere on our planet? As the expedition journeys down river, audiences learn about the challenges we face and the many opportunities that exist for conserving and restoring our watersheds. There is much to be done if future generations are going to look back at this moment, not as a time of crisis, but as the turning point, when we became true stewards of the water planet we all share. We can all play a part. Combining science and adventure with some of giant screen cinema’s most compelling imagery and locations, Grand Canyon Adventure delivers a message of hope and inspiration for all people of the world.

HUBBLE
Produced by IM AX and Warner Brothers Pictures, in cooperation with NASA
Hubble 3D takes audiences on a journey through distant galaxies to explore the grandeur and mysteries of our celestial surroundings, and accompany space-walking astronauts as they attempt the most difficult and important tasks in NASA’s history. The film offers an inspiring and unique look into the Hubble Space Telescope’s legacy and highlights its profound impact on the way we view the universe and ourselves.

SEA REX: JOURNEY TO A PREHISTORIC WORLD
3D Entertainment Distribution
Experience a wondrous adventure from the dinosaur age with Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World. Join Julie, an imaginative young woman, as she travels from a modern-day aquarium to the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Explore an amazing underwater universe inhabited by larger-than-life creatures– including the powerful Liopleurodon, long-necked Elasmosaurus and gigantic Shonisaurus–which were ruling the seas before dinosaurs conquered the earth. See science come alive in a unique and entertaining manner. Immerse yourself in a lost age, 200 million years back in time, and get ready for a face-to-face encounter with the T-Rex of the seas!

SHARKS!
3D Entertainment Distribution
3D Entertainment and Gavin McKinney Productions
Presented by Jean-Michel Cousteau, Sharks 3D is a breathtaking experience that offers audiences an astonishing up-close encounter with the Lions and Tigers of the Ocean. Come face-to-face with a multitude of shark species, including the Great White, Hammerhead, and Whale Shark. Witness them as they really are: not wicked man-eating creatures, but wild, fascinating and endangered animals that have been in existence since a million years before dinosaurs roamed the earth. Join the expert team of ocean explorers that brought you Ocean Wonderland 3D on this unique round-the-globe expedition documenting the life of the ultimate predator. www.sharks3d.com

THE ULTIMATE WAVE TAHITI
K2 Communications
Featuring nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, The Ultimate Wave follows a quest to find the perfect wave-riding experience. The film’s action focuses on Tahiti and the volcanic islands of French Polynesia, home to some of the world’s most challenging surfing and to astounding coral reef ecosystems at the turbulent interface between island and ocean. The islands are also a homeland of traditional Polynesian seafaring culture and the art of surfing. With their host, Tahitian surfer Raimana Van Bastolear, Kelly Slater and a group of friends seek out the best waves breaking on the reef at Tahiti’s famed surf site Teahupoo. Kelly and Raimana share a passion for the waves, but different ideas about what surfing means to them: is it a modern competitive sport or an ancient Polynesian wave-riding art? As the surf quest unfolds, the film explores the hidden forces at work shaping the waves and the islands that lie in their path. The great waves arrive and surfing play becomes surfing survival as the riders tackle some of the biggest, heaviest surf on the planet.

UNDER THE SEA
Howard Hall Productions and IMAX
Under the Sea 3D transports moviegoers to some of the most exotic and isolated undersea locations on Earth, including Southern Australia, New Guinea and others in the Indo-Pacific region, allowing them to experience face-to-face encounters with some of the most mysterious and stunning creatures of the sea and offering a uniquely inspirational and entertaining way to explore the impact that global climate change has had on ocean wilderness.

DIGITAL 3D SCREENINGS IN THE RICKETSON THEATER

We have converted the DMNS Ricketson Theater into a state of the art 3D Digital Cinema with a NEC digital projector and Dolby 5.1 surround sound. Special thanks to the 3D Sponsors who made this possible: Dolby Laboratories, Global Immersion, Hughes Production Company, JVC, Panasonic Solutions, Sony Electronics, Strong Digital Cinema and WHOI

A Park For All Seasons: Gwa ii Haanas
Oasis HD and 3Reedom Digital
Standing in silence before the mortuary poles in SGang Gwaay, is an otherworldly experience. The totems, some holding the bones of long dead chiefs, have stood unchanged for more than a century. Soon they will return to the earth, according to the tradition of the Haida people who have lived here for more than ten thousand years. This is Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, on a group of islands off the coast of British Columbia. A Park for All Seasons explores this remarkable landscape and rich heritage in an unforgettable 3D immersion.

BUGS!
Principal Large Format and SK Films
BUGS! follows the journey of a mantis and a butterfly from their birth to their inevitable encounter in the rainforests of Borneo, where predator meets his prey. BUGS! stars Papilio, a butterfly, and Hierodula, a praying mantis who live in an abandoned hut by a river, surrounded by lush tropical foliage and a supporting cast of other intriguing insects.

CANE TOADS: THE CONQUEST
Mark Lewis and the Discovery Channel
Cane Toads: the Conquest is a comic yet provocative account of Australia’s most notorious environmental blunder. Heralded at Sundance as “Avatoads,” the “Avatar” of groundbreaking amphibian filmmaking—the 3D film features Lewis’ trademark irreverence and humor as he chronicles the unstoppable journey and uncontrollable population explosion of cane toads in Australia.

DINOSAURS
nWAVE Pictures
If it weren’t for a series of cataclysmic events; a comet impact being first on the list, our planet could still be the domain of dinosaurs. Deeply rooted in science, Dinosaurs 3D carries the audience back in time to witness these amazing beasts come to life. Dinosaurs 3D is 20 minute film combining CGI and live action with Dr. Rodolfo Coria, a world-renowned Argentinean paleontologist, visiting sites of major discoveries.

DISTANT THUNDER
A Deeble and Stone Film
This ten-minute film is a pilot for Deeble & Stone’s forthcoming theatrical 3D film. Set against spectacular Kenyan landscapes, the film follows a family of African elephants as they struggle to survive when drought strikes their homeland. Filming took place in Kenya’s Tsavo East and Amboseli National Parks and features a wide variety of stereoscopic filming techniques, from macro to hand-held gyro-stabilized to scenic time-lapses whilst following the elephant family on their epic journey.

Lang Lang: The Third Dimension
Context TV and EuroArts International with Sony Classical & Studio Hamburg
A live performance by renowned classical pianist Lang Lang, shot on location at Berghain in Berlin features compositions by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Albeniz and Chopin and will be made available on the new “Lang Lang live in Vienna” Blu-Ray Disc being launched internationally, this fall. The screening is paired with a nine-minute “making of” film documenting the complex 3D production process.

TURTLEVISION
nWAVE Pictures
The long-awaited follow-up to PandaVision and SOS Planet is here. Experience the ups and downs of life on land and sea in this coming of age story starring the cutest sea turtle on the big screen. From the warm waters of the tropics to the icy Antarctic, join Sammy and his friends on an exciting journey through truly immersive environments. Wind your way around spectacular coral reefs and enjoy a wild ride on a fun-loving octopus. Are you ready to face the dangers you may encounter with humans? 14 minutes.

FULL DOME PLANETARIUM SCREENINGS

BLACK HOLES: THE OTHER SIDE OF INFINITY
Thomas Lucas Productions, DMNS, NOVA and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Narrated by Liam Neeson, audiences will be dazzled with visualizations of the formation of the early universe, star birth and death, the collision of giant galaxies, and a simulated flight to a super-massive black hole lurking at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

COSMIC DANCE
LivinGlobe for the Canadian Museum ofHindu Civilization
Cosmic Dance shows the parallels between Hinduism and modern science. Leela, a young Indian woman who is a student of physics in Toronto, discovers analogies between modern quantum and astrophysics on one side and Hindu knowledge and ancient Indian Vedic cosmology on the other side. Matter and spirit are not separated, love connects the entire universe, divine energy reigns in each one of us. Hinduism, modern science and universal thinking are no contradiction but one reality.

COSMIC JOURNEY; A SOLAR SYSTEM ADVENTURE
Volcanoes tower 80,000 feet above a barren surface. Monstrous hurricanes rage for 400 years. And multicolored rings sit suspended in space. In Cosmic Journey: A Solar System Adventure, you’ll travel through our solar system faster than the speed of light, taking in the wonders of the planets and their moons.

CROSSING WORLDS
xRez Studio
A visual tone poem designed for the Fulldome format but encompassing terrestrial subject matter, Crossing Worlds utilizes spherical photography from the American desert west to immerse the viewer in a transcendent spectrum of austere landscapes.

FRAGILE PLANET
Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences, NCSA and SCISS AB.
Earth, our only known haven for life, inhabits a special place in the cosmos. Sigourney Weaver guides audiences
on an excursion that will inspire a new perspectiveon our world. After a close look at Earth, Fragile Planet visits the planets and moons in our solar system in search of hide-outs for life using latest visualizationtechnique, including high-resolution satellite and spacecraft imagery, terrain maps, and pinpoint positioning of stars, exoplanets, and galaxies. Weaver’s sensitive narration and renowned giant screen composer Michael Stearns provides a poetic counterpoint to the rich visuals.

FULLDOME SHOWCASE 2010
A selection of the best of the best recent short films selected by curators as a sampling of the state of the art. These 3 to 5 minute clips span a wide range of styles and subjects, from pioneering student art films to the finest work of the pros.

INTERNATIONAL FULLDOME FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
If you were unable to travel and see these Fulldome Festival winners, here is your chance! Works include experimental films, original student works and submissions from independent artists from around the world. Be prepared for a wild and unexpected journey!

IN THE REALM OF LIGHT
Softmachine
With breathtaking images, this is the story of the genesis and the evolution of our universe, from the Big Bang until today. A philosophical approach to the origins of space and our life. Winner at Domefest, 2009.

JOURNEY TO THE STARS
American Museum of Natural History
Our journey to the stars spans billions of years. Beginning more than 13 billion years ago there was only dark matter, helium and gas. Moving forward to about 4.5 billion years ago, we see a tightly packed group of stars, including our Sun. We move on our present day Sun to see how stars work, then jump to the future, five billion years from now, our Sun at the end of its life expands into a red giant and sheds its outer layers, leaving a white dwarf, the remnant of the Sun’s core. A short trip back home to Earth shows us the familiar night sky, and the morning light of the rising sun reveals what stars have made possible.

NATURAL SELECTION
Mirage
Join the young Charles Darwin on an adventurous voyage of exploration circumnavigating the world with the HMS Beagle. Witness the thrill of scientific discovery by seeing the world through Darwin’s eyes. Allow Darwin himself to reveal this simple and most beautiful mechanism that explains the evolution of all life on Earth: natural selection. Winner of the Award of Excellence and audience favorite, Jena Fulldome Festival, 2010.

SEA MONSTERS: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE
National Geographic Cinema Ventures
Stunning photo-realistic computer-generated animation transports audiences back to the Late Cretaceous, when a great inland sea divided North America in two. The film follows a curious and adventurous dolichorhynchops– familiarly known as a ‘dolly’ –as she travel sthrough the most dangerous oceans in history. Along the way, she encounters long-necked plesiosaurs, giant turtles, enormous fish, fierce sharks, and the most dangerous sea monster of all, the mosasaur.

SEVEN WONDERS
E&S Digital Theater Productions
Turn back the pages of time and witness the ancient wonders of the world as they appeared thousands of years ago. Explore the great pyramid, stand in the shadow of the towering Colossus and experience the rest of the world’s Seven Wonders. Winner of four Telly Awards and two Communicator Awards.

SOLAR STORMS: A TALE OF TWIN SPACECRAFT
Melrae Pictures in association with K2 Communications Developed with the assistance of NASA and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
From Earth, the Sun cannot be looked at with human eyes. Solar Storms gives the audience the opportunity to see the Sun up close. Stand above the arctic circle and witness the most brilliant auroras on Earth; take a ride on a solar blast from Sun’s surface to Earth Magnetosphere, and come to a deeper understanding of what this vast sea of fire means to life here on Earth. For Sky-Skan’s exclusive Fulldome version, the original 3D animation files have been accessed, adding spherical stereo cameras and re-rendering each scene to take full advantage of the Fulldome environment.

TALES OF THE MAYA SKIES
Chabot Space & Science Center
Immerse yourself in ancient Mayan science, art, mythology and astronomy, and the beauty of Chichén Itzá, the “seventh wonder of the modern world”.

THE LITTLE STAR THAT COULD
The Saint Louis Science Center with Audio Visual
Imagineering, Inc.
This well-loved story has been updated with accurate astronomical information, and reproduced for the digital full dome era with computer graphic animation. Little Star is an average yellow star in search for planets of his own to protect and warm. Along the way, he learns what makes each star special and discovers that stars combine to form star clusters and galaxies. As Little Star finds his planets, each is introduced with basic information about our solar system.

WE ARE ASTRONOMERS
NSC Creative
We Are Astronomers reveals the global collaboration, technology, and dedication required to answer the unresolved questions of the Universe, demonstrating the complex astronomy and physics in a modern and visually compelling style.

SCIENCE ON A SPHERE SCREENINGS

ENERGY PLANET
1AU Global Media
Energy Planet provides viewers with a brisk overview of the energy challenges facing our planet and how renewable energy technologies can help meet them. Using data sets from NOAA, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the movie provides an overview of the economic, security and climate challenges that fossil fuels create as the industrial world’s dominant energy source. And it suggests how scientific research has expanded and accelerated the generation of electricity from solar and wind resources on a large scale, as well as vehicle fuels made from biological sources, in order to provide the world with more clean, sustainable energy.

ENERGY REVOLUTION
1AU Global Media
Part of finding solutions to today’s challenges can be found by imagining bold futures. That’s the genesis of Energy Revolution, an exciting new film designed exclusively for performance on spherical movie screens. As a cornerstone of US outreach efforts at the recent UN Climate Change talks in Copenhagen, Energy Revolution examines a variety of strategies and techniques for dramatically improving our renewable energy infrastructure.

FOOTPRINTS:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
This movie essentially wrote the first chapter in the area of spherical film making. The first fully produced movie for a spherical screen, FOOTPRINTS explores humanity’s need to ask vital questions of all sorts, from important climatological research initiatives to philosophical considerations about our place in the universe. Footprints draws from a diverse, deep well of state of the art satellite data to paint the Earth, draping the sphere in color, meaning, and metaphor.

FORECAST: TROPICAL CYCLONE
American Museum of Natural History
Forecast: Tropical Cyclone takes sphere-watchers on a journey through time and technology, beginning with early storm observations from Caribbean shores and the decks of schooners through the modern age of computer modeling. Along the way, dynamic narration, visualized data, and animation explain how people came to observe and understand the patterns of hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones—collectively known as tropical cyclones. The movie also reveals the inner workings of these storms and deconstructs how computer models help scientists predict their paths and strength.

FROZEN
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Frozen features the global cryosphere, those places on Earth where the temperature doesn’t generally rise above water’s freezing point. As one of the most directly observable climate gauges, the changing cryosphere serves as a proxy for larger themes. The movie brings the earth alive, projected onto spherical movie screens hanging in the center of darkened theaters. Turning in space, the sphere becomes a portal onto a virtual planet, complete with churning, swirling depictions of huge natural forces moving below.

LARGEST
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
This is big. Three hundred and eighty million miles from Earth, the solar system’s largest planet spins like a sizzling top in the night, massive and powerful beyond all comparison short of the sun itself. It’s therefore only fitting—and certainly about time—that the fifth planet receive its proper cinematic due, set naturally on the most appropriate cinematic platform. With the movie LARGEST, Jupiter comes to Science on a Sphere.

RETURN TO THE MOON
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
With the advent of the NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), humanity makes a return to the moon like a herald announcing a new age. To commemorate the mission and champion the value of future planned lunar expeditions, the Space Agency is pleased to present Return to the Moon. Starting with a brief historical look back at the legacy of human achievement in lunar exploration, Return to the Moon presses audiences to take stock in their own relationship to the moon. Then it takes them on a journey. Viewers follow LRO as it makes orbits around the moon, gathering data about the surface and what may lie beneath. And then, in a dramatic demonstration of a daring mission goal, moviegoers will witness a moment of inventive drama when NASA engineers intentionally crash a research probe into the surface of the moon to dig beneath the top layer.