Documentaries of the Natural Kind is a celebration of screen culture with a knock-out program of some of the very best blue-chip science and natural history documentaries of recent years.

ACMI has collaborated with Free Range Science, a Victorian Government initiative to bring science to regional Victorians, to program a series of natural documentaries which will be the focal point of community events also featuring free barbecues and school screenings.

The season includes such documentaries as Werner Herzogs Encounters at the End of the World (2009) a remarkable look at the men and women who have dedicated and risked their lives for the cause of science in the far reaches of Antarctica. Encounters at the End of the World was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2009 Academy Awards.

A treat for lovers of astronomy, In the Shadow of the Moon (2007), is a visually stunning film reuniting the surviving crew members from every Apollo mission as well as incorporating never-before-seen archival footage direct from NASA. The Marysville screening is followed by a Q&A with director David Sington. Also screening in the season is acclaimed BBC documentary Earth (2007) and The Fox and the Child (2007), the true story of a young girl who befriends a fox and attempts to tame it, narrated by Kate Winslet and directed by Luc Jacquet, the award-winning director of March of the Penguins (which took out the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary).

ACMI Head of Film Programs, Richard Sowada says it is enormously pleasing to be bringing these excellent big screen works to regional audiences.

``Films like these are usually the domain of the film festival circuit and its always such a shame when that's the limit of their big screen outing. It's a great pleasure working with Free Range Science along with government and science agencies in bringing these excellent big screen works to regional audiences in such an interesting context. It's something new for me and I hope something new for the audience,'' he said.