Summary: In the first decades of the 20th century, Brazilian avant-garde literature came into its own. This program examines the awakening of Modernismo and subsequent movements in Brazilian letters, from Sao Paulo's Week of Modern Art in 1922 to the politically focused milieu of the 1970s. Outlining historical events that helped shape the country's multifaceted culture, the program explores the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Characterized by expressions of individuality, popularismo, criticism, stoicism, humor, piety, and dignity, the literature of Spain spans ten centuries, includes some of history's most significant writers, and contains landmark works of every major literary genre. This program provides an overview of Iberian history as it relates to Spanish literature. The formation of regional tongues and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the first decades of the 20th century, Brazilian avant-garde literature came into its own. This program examines the awakening of Modernismo and subsequent movements in Brazilian letters, from Sao Paulo's Week of Modern Art in 1922 to the politically focused milieu of the 1970s. Outlining historical events that helped shape the country's multifaceted culture, the program explores the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Complacency has never been a hallmark of Latin American literature. As the 21st century dawned, many young writers-and even some who had fueled the Latin American Boom-grew disenchanted with the status quo. This program profiles the careers and the potential of literary artists at the forefront of the region's emerging narrative trends. Addressing the influence of the Crack Movement and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Complacency has never been a hallmark of Latin American literature. As the 21st century dawned, many young writers-and even some who had fueled the Latin American Boom-grew disenchanted with the status quo. This program profiles the careers and the potential of literary artists at the forefront of the region's emerging narrative trends. Addressing the influence of the Crack Movement and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Russia had its intelligentsia, the U.S. its cultural elite (a pejorative term), but "intellectuals" emerged in France with the Dreyfus affair. When 30,000 people reverently accompanied Jean-Paul Sartre's funeral cortege in 1980, the event marked the demise of the breed of intellectuals. This documentary series by Bernard-Henri Levy retraces the concepts and ideals that motivated France's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Despite the political and economic chaos of the 19th century-or perhaps because of it-this period produced brilliant literature while setting the stage for the Generation of '98. In this program, respected authorities elaborate on the lives and works of the masters of Romanticism and Realism. Dramatic readings include excerpts from Jose Espronceda's Cancion del Pirata, Jose Zorrilla's Romances...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Unified by the Portuguese language, the literature of Brazil represents the cultural synthesis of three distinct influences: indigenous peoples, European emigres, and Africans brought to the New World as slaves. This program reflects on those influences as it examines the first five centuries of recorded Brazilian writing. With an overview of ancient folklore and verse, the program highlights...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Unified by the Portuguese language, the literature of Brazil represents the cultural synthesis of three distinct influences: indigenous peoples, European emigres, and Africans brought to the New World as slaves. This program reflects on those influences as it examines the first five centuries of recorded Brazilian writing. With an overview of ancient folklore and verse, the program highlights...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Songs about a certain time and place are more than sentimental musings-they also serve as departure points for cultural and sociological studies. This program uses popular 20th-century French music to explore the rich character and modern-era development of Paris. Juxtaposing commentary from French scholars, performers, and business leaders with classic recordings by Edith Piaf, Brigitte...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Relatives, friends, and professional associates examine the life and works of the Russian-born novelist and critic. Nabokov, who began his literary career as a poet, is perhaps best known for his controversial novel, Lolita, and an irreverent critical work on Nikolai Gogol. Writing extensively in both Russian and English, his intricate, stylish literary effects and unorthodox structure are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The history and social structures of Latin America's native peoples were neither simple nor peaceful before the arrival of Europeans. Wars were fought, empires were created and destroyed, and-as this program illustrates-narrative tapestries of fact and fiction were woven in the process. Underscoring the linguistic sophistication that flourished for thousands of years in the region, the program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: How did life in post-civil war Spain-a time of uncertainty and oppression-influence the writings of the period? In this program, renowned experts explore the literature of the Franco era through the experiences of Ana Maria Matute and other writers who chose to stay in Spain after the Nationalist victory in 1939. Dramatic readings include excerpts from Camilo Jose Cela's La Colmena, Luis...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The history and social structures of Latin America's native peoples were neither simple nor peaceful before the arrival of Europeans. Wars were fought, empires were created and destroyed, and-as this program illustrates-narrative tapestries of fact and fiction were woven in the process. Underscoring the linguistic sophistication that flourished for thousands of years in the region, the program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: With the death of Franco came a loosening of political restrictions and a restoration of many civil liberties. In this program, respected authorities look at the past 25 years of literature in post-Franco Spain and the literary inclinations of the next up-and-coming generation of poets, authors, and playwrights. Dramatic readings include excerpts from Manuel Vazquez Montalban's "Sin Memoria,"...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program spotlights the language of leisure. Topics of discussion include favorite athletic activities, such as hiking and the immensely popular petanque; landscape painting around Mount St. Victoire, immortalized by Cezanne; recreational shopping; and nightlife in Marseille, where outdoor restaurants and discotheques are always in vogue.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program travels from Lyon and its surrounding region to Belgium, Switzerland, Senegal, and Quebec to savor some of the various flavors of French that have flourished on the Continent and abroad. Native speakers sing the language's praises and in doing so offer interesting insights into the cultures they represent-places where French must compete with other languages for prominence.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The areas in which philosophy and literature overlap are examined in this program by world-renowned author and professor Bryan Magee and Oxford novelist Iris Murdoch. Style and structure in philosophical writing are compared and contrasted with those in literature. The narrative abilities of Plato, Schopenhauer, and Kant are examined. Philosophy's predilection for accepting only literature that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program talks about the origins of French orthography and the 1990 attempt at spelling rectification, which, inaccurately presented as spelling reform, ended in a public furor. Key figures in the case-reform promoters and their opponents, including former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard-all have a say.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Section one of this program features probably the most celebrated American package of all time: the Coca-Cola bottle, which has retained its essential shape-as easily recognizable to the touch as to the eye-since 1916. In section two, artisan Gerrit Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair, a furniture style debuted in 1919 in the pages of the influential Dutch magazine De Stijl and symbolic of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: In section one of this program, London's massive subway system is described in conjunction with the stylized map-the brainchild of an electric circuit diagram designer-that since 1933 has made sense of it. Section two focuses on Ferdinand Porsche's people's automobile: the Volkswagen Beetle, an emblem of industrial Modernism supported by Adolf Hitler and adored by drivers on both sides of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: For children learning their mother tongue, class is always in session. Drawing on the knowledge of linguist Marc Wimet, the Sorbonne's Jean Pierre Goudailler, and Benedicte de Boysson-Bardies, author of How Language Comes to Children, this program looks at the process of language acquisition at home, at school, and among peers in both city and suburban settings. Standard French and slang are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: World War II - French artillery in action
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1940
View online at AVOD
Summary: Section one of this program examines the prodigious volume of products created by Tapio Wirkkala, including the 1963 cutlery set called Composition-a testimonial to the artist's love of nature, knowledge of ergonomics, and refined sense of taste. In section two, the sensational Swatch-a pop culture phenomenon-is featured, showing how its styling has helped the Swiss watch industry fight...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010