We live in a world that is both simple and complex at the same time. Popular science films are created precisely in order to tell us about the world that surrounds us, about the people who influenced and influence this world. To tell about the elements that are beyond the control of man, but having studied which, you can avoid many troubles, and, perhaps, move forward in understanding the universe.
It is not for nothing that popular science films are called differently - not fiction films. After all, even if there is an actor in them, then his task is to fascinatingly tell about a phenomenon or event from a scientific point of view, he is interested in conveying the text written by the screenwriter to the viewer.
The best non-fiction films are created by the best authors: directors, screenwriters and cameramen. Those who know how to create a simple film story from a complex scientific topic, accompany it with an interesting visual series. Those who are responsible to their viewer and do not present pseudoscientific facts as truth, knowingly misleading the viewer. And there are such films too, and they are attractive and beautiful, like, for example, the sensational film "Secrets of Water", which, unfortunately, has nothing to do with either science or documentary filmmaking.
"The common task for all documentary films is to tell us about the world in which we live." Hugh Badley
Professionals, enthusiasts, nuts
The guru of popular science cinema of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries was undoubtedly Lev Nikolaev. Now, what he started is being continued by his comrades-in-arms and disciples. Lev Nikolayev himself has created more than 120 films, and under his leadership more than 350 programs have been released, including: “Black holes. White Spots”,“The Seekers”,“Dream Station”,“The Fifth Dimension”,“The Color of Time”,“The Life of Great Ideas”. And also documentary films-cycles: "Geniuses and villains of the passing era", "Brotherhood of the bomb", "Code of life", "Thirteen Plus", "Queen's Empire", "Secret Physics".
Prominent filmmaker Marina Sobe-Panek was one of the screenwriters for most of these programs and films. It is precisely her corrosiveness, the desire to penetrate the very essence, to get to the bottom of the truth, to understand how this or that phenomenon works, the mountains of specialized scientific papers and articles passed through itself, the desire to trace the logical chain of interconnection of this or that historical event, subsequently transferred to the screen, is the basis on which many of the best Russian popular science films have been created.
Tatyana Malova, Sergey Vinogradov, Svetlana Bychenko, Artur Khimchenko, Kallin Bolotsky, Pavel Bragin, Dmitry Zavilgelsky, Daria Khrenova, Elena Novikova - this is just a small part of the ascetic directors, whose works have aroused the greatest interest of the world professional community in the last two years and whose films have won in viewer ratings.
This is impossible, but this is what popular science and its creators do
"Whatever scientists do, the result is a weapon." Lev Nikolaev.
The variety of topics touched upon in the works of the authors included in the short-list of the competition of the Laurel Branch festival is truly impressive.
"XX Congress - Russian Nuremberg" is a film that tells about one day in Moscow - February 25 - the last day of the Stalinist era.
“The Magic Mountain of Vincenzo Bianchi” is about an amazing museum in Italy: a museum dedicated to Yuri Gagarin, created by an amazing artist who seeks to unite, like Leonardo Da Vinci once did, art and space.
“Once We Were Stars” - even the apologists of the big cycle of space films created by the BBC - “Space with Sam Neill” - will find a lot in this film, discover the world of astronomers and professionals and amateurs.
“The First Physicist of Russia” is about an outstanding physicist, whose name is not at all known outside scientific circles, but whose research results are enjoyed by all of mankind.
"The Tale of White Cranes", "Shikotan Crows" - tell about rare birds, and "Planet Baikal" and "The Legend of the Keto People" - about the worlds and secrets that exist with us here and now, but as if in parallel, because they exist outside areas of interest of a modern person, worried by no means the mysteries of the universe.
Among foreign popular science films of recent years, one cannot fail to mention such films as: “House. Travel Story "(France, 2009, directed by Jan Artus Bertrand)," Earthlings "(USA, 2013, directed by Sean Monson)," Journey to the End of the Universe "(Great Britain, USA, 2008, directed by Yavar Abbas), "Oceans" (France, Switzerland, Spain. 2009, directors Jacques Cluseau, Jacques Perrin), "Microcosmos" (France, Switzerland, Italy. 1996, directors Marie Perenou, Claude Nuridzani), "Birds" (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland. 2001, directors: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluseau, Michel Deba)
