Footage shot in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the destructive bushfires of Australia’s Black Sunday in 2009 combine with beautiful imagery of African wildlife in The Earth Wins, the only IMAX film to be shot entirely from the air.

Described as a tribute to mother earth, the large format film was created over seven years by husband and wife team Jerry Grayson, a former search and rescue pilot in the Royal Navy and producer Sara Hine through their company Heli Films, which is based in Australia.

The 40-minute film starts a 12-month run at the Melbourne Museum on the 29th August and opens at both The Putnam Museum in Davenport, USA and Sydney’s IMAX – the biggest IMAX in the world – in September. As well as giant flat screens, a version of the film has been created for planetaria and domes.

A total of 24 venues have signed up for the film, including planetaria throughout Australasia and Europe and Hine hopes to secure more sites. “I hope that over the life of the film we’ll get 36 flat screens and 100 planetaria around the world,” she says. “Our aim at the beginning of the year was six and we’re already up to 24. I’m told that there isn’t another film like this in IMAX.”

An interview with Grayson and Hine will be published in issue 4 of Leisure Management magazine.