Michael Madsen

Every day, the world over, large amounts of high-level radioactive waste created by nuclear power plants is placed in interim storage, which is vulnerable to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and to societal changes. In Finland the world’s first permanent repository is being hewn out of solid rock – a huge system of underground tunnels - that must last 100,000 years as this is how long the waste remains hazardous.

"If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?" CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE offers six startling responses. This 3D film project about the soul of buildings allows six iconic and very different buildings to speak for themselves, examining human life from the unblinking perspective of a manmade structure. Six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project. Buildings, they show us, are material manifestations of human thought and action: the Berlin Philharmonic, an icon of modernity; the National Library of Russia, a kingdom of thoughts; Halden Prison, the world's most humane prison; the Salk Institute, an institute for breakthrough science; the Oslo Opera House, a futuristic symbiosis of art and life; and the Centre Pompidou, a modern culture machine. CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE explores how each of these landmarks reflects our culture and guards our collective memory.

“This film documents an event that has never taken place…” With unprecedented access to the United Nations’ Office for Outer Space Affairs, leading space scientists and space agencies, The Visit explores humans’ first encounter with alien intelligent life and thereby humanity itself. “Our scenario begins with the arrival. Your arrival.”

Location: The Central Copenhagen Statistics Office "From the information in your database, can you then for certain say that Copenhagen exists for real? Can you from the information in your database say for sure that the data could not be from another city? Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen!"

Celestial Night is a film on visibility and questions what it means to see. It is a film about what is invisible apart from the imagination: Celestial Night is a film dealing with this vital power, the ability to envision. It is a search in present day Japan for the mythical Japanese Emperor Amayonomikoto who was blind, and the story of a time when seeing was not believing.

Part of a 3-D project on the soul of architecture initiated by Wim Wenders, Madsen’s film considers the impact of Norway’s Halden Prison, called “the world’s most humane prison.”