Commentary (voice)
Commentary (voice)
03 May 2022
Explore the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering and human failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, a self-taught engineer who ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing the city water via aqueduct. The catastrophe killed more than 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property.
01 Jul 2021
With building collapses happening around the country, activists band together to confront the real estate developers and hold them accountable for the construction destruction, lives they have destroyed, and deaths they have caused.
01 Dec 1981
Five Japanese carpenters came to Boston that summer to reconstruct a Kyoto silkweaver's 150 year old townhouse that had been packed in crates and shipped to Boston Children's Museum. This first-hand observation of traditional tools and woodworking techniques chronicles the assembly process. In the progress of construction the contractor performed three Shinto housebuilding ceremonies.
09 Sep 2006
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.
09 Oct 1997
No overview found
01 Jan 1953
No overview found
17 Jun 2007
An expedition looks into whether Titanic's hull had a construction design flaw that caused her to break apart. Featuring advanced CGI technology, archive documents and photographs, as well as footage from the modern-day History(R) expeditions, "Titanic's Achilles Heel" is a remarkable journey into the ongoing legacy of a ship that continues to capture the world's attention.
08 Nov 1981
Today it's a symbol of strength and vitality. 135 years ago, it was a source of controversy. This documentary examines the great problems and ingenious solutions that marked the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. From conception to construction, it traces the bridge's transformation from a spectacular feat of heroic engineering to an honored symbol in American culture.
05 Dec 2019
No overview found
13 Nov 2011
For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.
26 Apr 1960
A short, impressionistic documentary about the extremely precise process behind the creation of an autoclave (a reaction container) for a nuclear power plant. Otherworldly electroacoustic soundtrack by Oskar Sala.
02 Dec 2021
An inside look at the creation of Universal Orlando Resort's new Jurassic World VelociCoaster.
24 Jun 1997
Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.
18 Apr 2017
During the darkest days of the Depression when construction was started on Grand Coulee Dam, everything about it was described in superlatives. It would be the "Biggest Thing on Earth," the salvation of the common man, a dam and irrigation project that would make the desert bloom, a source of cheap power that would boost an entire region of the country. Of the many public works projects of the New Deal, Grand Coulee Dam loomed largest in America's imagination, promising to fulfill President Franklin Roosevelt's vision for a "planned promised land" where hard-working farm families would finally be free from the drought and dislocation caused by the elements.
01 Jan 1989
A 36-minute overview of one of mankind's greatest achievements. In the early 1930s, America was in the depths of a tragic economic depression. Yet the people of that troubled era constructed Hoover Dam, still one of the great wonders of the world.
22 Oct 2020
In the 70s, a dam and a hydroelectric plant were built in Sobradinho. The government at the time, which was commanded by the military regime, thought that that small town, in the northeast hinterland, would be ideal for the construction, because there would be no resistance from the locals. So, 73.000 people were displaced - it is one of the biggest forced migrations in the history of Brazil. Four cities and dozens of villages submerged. Mrs. Pequenita was the only inhabitant to ever return; there, she lives in a ghost town. She receives the visit of three social agents, who own old videos and photos of the region.
04 Feb 2012
In-depth look at the twilight years, spent training apprentices, of temple builder Nishioka Tsunekazu, who was called the "devil" as he devoted his life to temple architecture. His insistence on the gargantuan timescale of linking life to the next millennium emerges from people who knew him. Remarkable as well for showing the unknown backstage of temple architecture. Nishioka, known as "the last temple carpenter," handled the major Showa-era repairs of Horyuji temple, and in 1990 was at the scene of the reconstruction work for Yakushi temple.
24 Oct 2013
A documentary film about Seoul City Hall Construction. The construction project has a hard going in every way. A city plan, excessive administrative notions, a design and all got mingled up. Can the project sail, yes?
01 Jan 1965
A dizzying view of Manhattan in the 1960s, the tallest town in the world, and the men who work cloud-high to keep it growing. They are the Mohawk Indians from Kahnawake, near Montréal, famed for their skill in erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers. The film shows their nimble work, high above the pavement, but there are also glimpses of the quieter community life of the old Kahnawake Reserve.
06 Apr 2013
A year in the life of one of America's most innovative classrooms where students design & build to transform their hometown community. The film follows Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller as they teach the fundamentals of design, architecture and construction to a class of high school juniors in rural North Carolina.