In an abandoned theater, French actress Marina Vlady recites from Borges' "The Immortal"... Japanese research scientist Shin Kubota sings praises to the "immortal jellyfish"... Milan Duomo workers subject the cathedral's exquisite statues to perpetual regeneration... Swiss musician/inventors Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer persistently refine their percussion instrument, the Hang... Native American community leaders Leola One Feather and Moses Brings Plenty preserve the centuries-old spiritual resistance of their tribe...
Filmmakers Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti pay tribute to humankind's aspirations for immortality by showing us a portrait of our efforts to overcome our own limits. They share their discoveries in a visual symphony to the power and harmony of nature's elements: water, earth, air and fire. From Milan to Wounded Knee, USA, from Bern to Shirahama, Japan, the traces of the filmmakers' travels spiral into a symbol of perfection and infinity: Spira Mirabilis.
Chapman and Maclain Way’s energetic telling of one of baseball’s great, unheralded stories is as much about independent spirit as it is about the game. When Portland, Oregon, lost its longtime minor-league affiliate, Bing Russell—who briefly played ball professionally before enjoying a successful Hollywood acting career—bought the territory and formed a single-A team to operate outside the confines of major-league baseball. When they took the field in 1973, the Mavericks—the only independent team in America—started with two strikes against them. What did Deputy Clem from Bonanza know about baseball? Or Portland, for that matter? The only thing uniting his players, recruited at open tryouts, was that no other team wanted them. Skeptics agreed that it could never work.
But Bing understood a ballplayer’s dreams, and he understood an audience. His quirky, unkempt castoffs won games, and they won fans, shattering minor-league attendance records. Their spirit was contagious, and during their short reign, the Mavericks—a restaurant owner turned manager, left-handed catcher, and blackballed pitcher among them—brought independence back to baseball and embodied what it was all about: the love of the game.
- J.N.
In Greek mythology, ancient Greece's most powerful god wages an epic struggle against his father for control of the universe. It's the ultimate power struggle as the Olympians challenge the Titans in mythology's greatest showdown. This is a pivotal battle that experts believe may have been ancient code for a real world event--one of the greatest natural disasters the Earth ever experienced..