Summary: An ideal discussion-launcher for sociology courses, this program examines cultural and psychological aspects of what is now an archetypal suburban experience: shopping at the mall. Visiting "cathedrals of consumerism" throughout North America-from the Southdale, Minnesota, progenitor of the enclosed retail mall to the absurdly spectacular Grand Canal Shoppes and Desert Passage in Las Vegas-the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Even today, the majority of African women in both city and country still aspire to get a good husband and have many children. This program sheds light on the pros and cons of marriage customs in sub-Saharan Africa as it relates the story of an Ethiopian woman who fled her home in Harar as a teen to avoid an arranged marriage to an uncle; two happily wedded women of Mali who are wives in a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Will environmental changes brought about by humans eventually destroy the potential for males of all species to reproduce? This Emmy Award-winning documentary explores that frightening possibility. Using sophisticated investigative techniques, scientists trace the ripple effect of estrogenic compounds in the environment. At first, we observe slight changes in the natural order, then witness the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Historically, the arts in Africa were largely communal and unrecorded. But much has changed over the past century, and this program takes a look at art in sub-Saharan Africa as it exists today through profiles of Senegalese rap groups Alif and Wageble and the rap collective Fight and Forget, who use their music as a form of political activism; Senegalese sculptor Babacar Niang, whose workshop...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Women form the backbone of sub-Saharan Africa and consistently exert some measure of control alongside men, whether it is as a local ruler, a witch, an activist, a wage earner, a laborer, or a caregiver. This program examines female, male, and mixed power structures, with a focus on the Bijagos Islands, where three queens and a king still rule autonomously even as the state government in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: In Calls of the Wild, an episode of PBS Scientific American Frontiers, host Alan Alda takes us behind the scenes for a fascinating journey into the science of sound as he introduces viewers to the team of scientists using sound to study animals - also known as the field of bioacoustics. This close look at animal sound is not only being used to study - but even to save species - as common as the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: The last few decades have seen a dramatic increase in cases of low sperm count, sperm abnormalities, and testicular cancer—while, in more than 20 industrialized nations, the male birth rate has steadily declined. This program examines the phenomenon and its likely cause: synthetic chemicals found in everything from common plastics to meat and dairy products. Investigating these so-called...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Taking a grassroots approach to dealing with the physical and societal ills plaguing their countries, individuals and small groups in sub-Saharan Africa are creating success amidst widespread civil and economic instability. This program illustrates five empowering instances of solidarity and self-help: the Yeredeme project, run by single mothers in Mali; the Janjigui So association, for Malian...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Speaking in broad sociocultural terms, the overall Western attitude toward Africans has been one of race-based condescension. This program addresses that historically conflicted relationship and ways in which it is changing in sub-Saharan Africa through the stories of an idealistic young French-born woman involved with the Yeredeme project, which supports and educates single mothers in Mali; a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: In sub-Saharan Africa, water is the focus of daily life. This program seeks to understand its centrality by investigating the situation at Lake Ganvie, Benin, an "African Venice" where survival is threatened by environmental changes, improper sanitation, and water-related illnesses; a perceived correlation among Dogon elders between their people's shift away from the worship of Nommo and an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: As Africa continues to modernize, the influence of the media in daily life is growing ever larger. This program examines the importance of the press, radio, the Internet, and TV via segments involving the Sowetan, a widely circulated South African newspaper that has its roots in the anti-apartheid struggle; KKC Kagadi, a rural community radio station in Uganda; Kenya-based Africa Online, an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In Africa, views on sex vary widely from conservative to liberal and from traditional to progressive. Topics covered in this program include gay rights, protected under the law only in post-apartheid South Africa; the practices of female genital excision and "dry sexual intercourse"-each described in detail-as they relate to severe female health issues and the violation of a woman's right to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: In Africa-where infant mortality is sky-high, tens of millions have AIDS, and life expectancies can be as meager as 39 years-death is an all-too-frequent presence. This program presents sub-Saharan perspectives on the end of life: lavish Ghanaian funerals involving caskets shaped into whatever is most emblematic of the deceased; funeral rites of the Dogon, in Mali, where alcohol fermentation is...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Christianity, Islam, and a broad range of indigenous religions coexist side by side in Africa, in many cases blending into unique hybrids. This program-an inquiry into the nature of the continent's spiritual practices-spotlights the Reverend Pastor Benoit D. Agbaossi, supreme head of the Celestial Church of Christ, in Benin, and footage of an exorcism and The Ceremony of the Infertile Woman;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This video program combines real-world workplace scenarios with up-to-date "how to" narratives to illustrate key concepts and skills for proper telephone techniques. A strong base of communication etiquette is developed through a series of telephone Dos and Don'ts. Students will learn how to deliver the perfect greeting, screen calls, handle irate callers, transfer callers, and use voicemail....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Air mail carried to British soldiers in Germany.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1918
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Summary: Although previous episodes of Ken Burns' Baseball series also deal with African-American contributions to the game, much of this program is devoted to the Negro Leagues and the vast number of talented black players barred from competing in the Majors. The film's title refers to a common pre-game feature in which players staged a mock game with an imaginary ball-an unintended yet apt metaphor...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Inviting viewers into a rarely seen underground world, this program illustrates recent developments in the study of Africa's naked mole rat and its system of subterranean colonization. With an overview of the species' eusocial behavior-which includes allegiance to a queen, drawing comparisons to many insect communities-the video describes an innovative approach to capturing the naked mole rat...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines three main activities of the cell: energy storage and release, protein synthesis, and cell reproduction. Students take a closer look at important organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts, and the roles they play in cell metabolism. Also examined are proteins, amino acids, ribosomes, DNA, RNA, genes, chromosomes, transcription, and translation. Mitosis is clearly...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the mid-1990s, Liz Coleman remade Bennington College in the pursuit of a new vision: she believed that higher education could be conducted in the same manner as a performing art. In this TEDTalk, Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical higher education reform. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Mental images of storybook adventures and stereotyped people, on the one hand, and genocides and pandemics, on the other, make it practically impossible for Westerners to see Africa as it really is: a place with generational conflicts, cultural misunderstandings, and power struggles-just like anywhere else-plus the added dilemma of how to deal with the tension between tradition and modernity as...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: With all the activities inside and outside the cell, how does the cell membrane hold it all together? This program closely examines the structure and function of cell membranes, including compartmentalization, intercellular interaction, regulation of the movement of materials, and as a location for biochemical activities. Using a combination of narration, film footage, and engaging graphics,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Recent innovations are enabling more effective management of the circulatory problems associated with sickle cell anemia, a genetic disorder that affects people of African, Mediterranean, and Asian descent. Research into the disease points the way toward an ultimate cure. This program from The Doctor Is In features sickle cell clinics in Atlanta and Seattle and interviews with two teenagers and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The execution of the Romanovs, in 1918, marked Russia's irrevocable shift from a monarchy to a communist state. The destruction of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, signified the collapse of that state and its Marxist ideology. This gripping, highly realistic program cinematically dramatizes the events of these two historic watersheds: indelible emblems of the birth pains and death throes of the Soviet...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006