Metamorphosis: The Design and Beauty of Butterflies

Throughout history, butterflies have fascinated artists and philosophers, scientists and schoolchildren with their profound mystery and beauty. In Metamorphosis you will explore their remarkable world as few ever have before. Spectacular photography, computer animation and magnetic resonance imaging open once hidden doors to every stage of a butterfly's life-cycle. From an egg the size of a pinhead to a magnificent flying insect. It is a transformation so incredible biologists have called it "butterfly magic." How did these extraordinary creatures come into being? Are they the products of a blind, undirected process? Or were they designed by an intelligent cause? Filmed in North, Central, and South America, Metamorphosis is an unforgettable documentary filled with the joys of discovery and wonder.

2011-06-01 | en

Wings of Life

A beautiful love story in danger. Our future depends on an amazing love story between the flowers and fauna consisting of bees, butterflies, birds and bats, which allow these species to reproduce. Delicate and graceful, the flowers are not content to be the ultimate symbol of beauty. On the contrary, their vibrant colors and their exotic flavors are so many wonders that attract pollinators and drunk with desire. All these animals are involved in a complex dance of seduction on which one third of our crops, a dance without which we could survive ... Pollen presents the unsung heroes of the global food chain. Their fantastic worlds are full of stories, drama and beauty. While a fragile and threatened, essential for the balance of the planet, it should now actively protect ...

2011-03-16 | en

Flight of the Butterflies

It takes two or three generations for the monarch butterfly to reach the Canadian breeding grounds, but it is one "supergeneration" that makes the 2,000 mile return trip back south into central Mexico. The documentary film covers Dr Fred Urquhart's interest in monarch butterflies, with perspectives of Urquhart as a child wondering where the butterflies went, his years of research and study into their life and migration, to his time decades-later as a senior scientist looking back at his investigations and discoveries about the insect's life pattern.

2012-10-01 | en

Secrets of Stonehenge

Dated to the late Stone Age, Stonehenge may be the best-known and most mysterious relic of prehistory. Every year, a million visitors are drawn to England to gaze upon the famous circle of stones, but the monument's meaning has continued to elude us. Now investigations inside and around Stonehenge have kicked off a dramatic new era of discovery and debate over who built Stonehenge and for what purpose. How did prehistoric people quarry, transport, sculpt, and erect these giant stones? Granted exclusive access to the dig site at Bluestonehenge, a prehistoric stone-circle monument recently discovered about a mile from Stonehenge, NOVA cameras join a new generation of researchers finding important clues to this enduring mystery.

2010-01-02 | en

Sex, Lies and Butterflies

An exploration of the diversity of moths and butterflies from caterpillars to larvae to chrysalis to winged flight. The documentary covers camouflage and other anti-predatory tactics along with uniqueness of different species and amazing feats and colors.

2018-04-04 | en

Nazca Desert Mystery

One of the world’s greatest ancient enigmas, the Nazca lines are a dense network of criss-crossing lines, geometric shapes, and animal figures etched across 200 square miles of Peruvian desert. Who created them and why? Ever since they were discovered in the 1920s, scholars and enthusiasts have raised countless theories about their purpose. Now, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of long-hidden lines and figures as well as evidence of ancient rituals, offering new clues to the origins and motivations behind the giant desert symbols.

2022-11-02 | en

Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly

Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly is a 56-minute narrated film that unfolds along the shores of Cape Ann and in the heart of Mexico’s forested volcanic mountains. Every stage of the butterfly’s life cycle is experienced in vibrant close-up, from mating to egg to caterpillar to adult, and set against the backdrop of sea and forest, sun and wind.

2020-08-08 | en

Muerte es Vida (Death is Life)

Monarch butterflies have brought hope to the darkest times of people's lives. In Mexico, when they arrive for Day of the Dead, they are thought to be souls of the departed. Coincidence?

2016-10-08 | en

Beijo de Borboleta

2024-04-02 | pt

Oh butterfly, what dou you dream of when you flap your wings?

The work of taxonomists hides more secrets than can be perceived.

2020-10-29 | es

Where The Butterflies Go

In a pathetic attempt to host his own children’s nature show, a failing filmmaker travels 3,000 miles asking North Americans how to save the endangered monarch butterfly, and ourselves, from extinction.

2022-12-01 | en

The Guardians

Interweaves the lives of the threatened monarch butterfly with an indigenous community in Mexico fighting to restore the forest they nearly destroyed.

2018-03-18 | en

12th Warrior

A documentary that tries to explain the reason for the passion of the Mexican football fandom.

2011-06-17 | es

The Incredible Journey of the Monarch Butterfly

Known for their stunningly beautiful colours and mystical powers of transformation, the humble butterfly is revered by many. In one small creature lays the mystery of creation as in a short lifetime a full evolution occurs. Amongst the most captivating is the Monarch Butterfly. Known as the wandered , this striking orange insect undertakes a mammoth voyage that many of its larger counterparts could not even fathom. Follow this incredible creature and allow yourself to be lost in its magic as this 3D feature allows you to have a firsthand experience of the glorious Monarch Butterfly. A captivating journey for the whole family!

2012-10-22 | en

biopixels

Shot at two cutting-edge research labs which specialize in the evolution of butterflies and moths, BIopixels is an animated short film exploring the world of evolutionary biology on the microscopic scale. The images - rendered from collections containing over 50,000 specimens - were take by microscopists over three years to create the animated shorts Nanoscapes and Biopixels. Both the animation and the score play with concepts of pattern, time, density and other means of development common to biological evolution.

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Pursuing the Monarchs

The story of the Monarch butterfly: a symbol of American pride and the embodiment of the returning dead in Mexico. It would be a happy story, only, today they are dying. The monarch butterflies population has declined by up to 80% in the last decade. Who is to blame?

2017-09-15 | en

Metamorphose

Documentary on the different stages in the development from caterpillar to butterfly.

1946-04-21 | nl

Like a Butterfly

Maria José's life story reveals not only the harsh reality she and her family faced, but also a portrait of the real Brazil. Like a butterfly that is born crawling, she finds her beauty where it is not convenient to be found and sets her flight free to the sky.

2025-01-15 | pt

Metamorphosis: The Science of Change

Metamorphosis seems like the ultimate evolutionary magic trick - the amazing transformation of one creature into a totally different being: one life, two bodies.

2013-03-13 | en

The History of a Butterfly: A Romance of Insect Life

Directed by one of the pioneers of the cinematic industry, James Williamson, The History of a Butterfly - A Romance of Insect Life is an intriguing look at the life cycles of butterflies and moths. Caterpillars are seen hatching, feeding and ready for pupation and with three caterpillars changing into chrysalis and the birth of a peacock butterfly, this black and white silent film is an early example of British natural history filmmaking.

1910-06-03 | en