Robin Lehman

Ethiopia

A brief visit to the unique wildlife and peoples of Ethiopia. Expect the unexpected.

Metropolitan Cats

From ancient Chinese sculpture to the modern Broadway stage, cats have long been a source of inspiration for artists. This unusual film juxtaposes famous depictions of cats from the Museum's collection with their contemporary counterparts. Curators and staff muse on our feline friends' legendary stubbornness and implacable curiosity, their endless capacity for mischief, and ultimately how they have held our attention for millennia.

Forever Young

Examines the fear of aging and what post-retirement years are really like by interviewing a group of active, interested people, all over the age of 65. They speak of their enjoyment and appreciation of life, their health, happiness, retirement, sex and death.

The Little Players

We visit a magical repertory company with an absolutely unique group of five actors you’ve never seen before. Uniquely talented, they present a fresh perspective into the worlds of music, literature, and drama. Through the eyes of the actors, the works of William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and others known and unknown are revealed in a stunning new perspective. Brimming full of wit and humor, a visit to the Little Players is guaranteed to bring a well-needed dose of love, humor, and delight.

Manimals

A highly unusual look into the world of exotic pets and their owners in a large city. It is a film of love, comedy, ego and tragedy. The film begins on a humorous note, as the viewer is swept along, enjoying the fun of seeing and listening to people who keep monkeys, ocelots, lion cubs, possums, tarantulas, and every kind of exotic pet imaginable. Along with the careful, concerned people we meet, we also see some who are not quite so responsible. We witness the effects of some of the owners' neglect and lack of sensitivity to the needs of these animals from the wild. Some owners also describe their pets as exhibiting almost human traits, but is it good for animals to lose their own traits and characteristics, and acquire those of human beings?

Don't

The lyric passage of a Monarch butterfly, beginning with its birth, through its delicate metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly and on its journey from country to city. From the first frame, the audience experiences the tension of this perilous flight as numerous adversaries, threaten the butterfly's freedom. A lively sound track, with music composed by Frederic Chopin, allows us to live for a few moments in this fleeting world.

SEE

View up close some of the smaller inhabitants of the Red Sea off the coast of Sudan - a world filled with strange, fascinating, and often comic creatures.

Experimental

We briefly visit a vast array of various flying objects.

Sea Creatures

Depicts the larger sea creatures inhabiting the Red Sea. An imaginative sound track accompanies hermit crabs, jellyfish, parrot fish, sea urchins, crown-of-thorns starfish, sea cucumbers, clown fish, and Manta Rays - to mention only a few - as they parade before the camera in stunning color and movement.

Hotspot

Descend into the crater of the Nyiragongo Volcano (in Zaire, Africa) to witness the terrifying yet spellbinding explosion of molten lava at its very source. Set to the Toccata and Fugue of J.S. Bach, the film is at once stunningly beautiful, yet plunges us into the very depths of hell. The extreme beauty of the visuals, together with the power of the music, creates an unforgettable experience.

Wings and Things

Award-winning film essay exploring the model airplane phenomenon from the clumsy plastic glider of a child to the sophisticated radio-controlled sea plane of a middle-aged devotee. Details the building of a fragile, acetone indoor flying model lighter than a feather.

Undercurrents

In the clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the undulant beauty and violent potential of underwater life are carefully balanced within the reef community. The coral, the fish, the crabs all live within the balance of a delicate web of life connecting all creatures of the deep, from tiny microscopic plankton to the 2000-pound manta ray and the mighty sailfish. This web of life connects all sea creatures and man by his presence beneath the sea, threatens the very existence of life within the oceans.

Colter's Hell

In winter at Yellowstone National Park, the boiling water of the geysers meets 40-below-zero to create a seam of frozen ice crystals.

Flyaway

A concise and poetic story of a man whose model airplane vanishes over the sea.