Summary: “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.” And so we begin O. Henry’s best-known and timeless story. It’s a wonderful romantic tale of a young married couple who have little money to buy each other Christmas presents - with a charming surprise ending. Starring Rosemary Deleonardis, Kiah Gordon, David A. Silverstein, Linda Stiegler, and Adrienne Storrs.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2001
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why are many of today's spiritual seekers looking beyond the world's mainstream religions for fulfillment? And is technology eclipsing the concept of God? This program goes to the heart of those questions through interviews with Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy, as well as leaders of New Age organizations such as the Naropa Institute, the Krishnamurti Foundation, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Daniel Turnbull has a love of London, an obsession with hygiene, and a compulsion to dance. This program explores his rare personality disorder and describes one psychiatrist's attempt to help him create as normal a life as possible. Viewers will learn about Daniel's previous quests for independence, the behavior that got him blacklisted by most of London's assisted-living facilities, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This video examines THC and the cannabinoids marijuana, hashish, and hash oil. Expert commentary is presented by former NFL player Charles Hunt, a pharmacist, a police officer, addiction counselors, a historian, a pastor, recovering addicts, and others. Together, they explain the history and biological effects of THC, investigating its use, abuse, and hazards, and its reputation as a gateway drug.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the past, there was no such thing as mental illness, only madness. Its treatment was often indistinguishable from torture or murder. This program follows the long, often grim road towards understanding and treating mental illness. Through testimonials, original manuscripts, photos, and extensive footage from medical archives, leading doctors and medical historians trace the history of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: With his 1956 play Look Back in Anger, British dramatist John Osborne renewed the emotional and rhetorical intensity of English theater. Unfortunately, misunderstanding and controversy surrounded most of his career. This program reconstructs Osborne's life and artistic journey using rarely seen archival films and firsthand accounts from the author's inner circle. A veritable who's who of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the world of business, Muslims are striving to remain faithful to Islamic law while accommodating economic changes and technological advances. After providing a concise overview of the Muslim religion, this program explores the third pillar of faith-zakat, or alms-giving-and the Islamic financial system, where usury and speculation are forbidden but profit-sharing and dividends are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program a group of young Hindus define the Bhagavad Gita's Four Paths to God and reflect on which path he or she feels the most affinity with-Bhakti (Devotion), Jnana (Knowledge), Rajah (Contemplation), or Karma (Action). With feedback from experts such as Jay Lakhani, director of the Vivekananda Centre in London, the teens examine the practices and philosophies of the paths, explaining...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In India, religious observances weave countless golden threads into the homespun fabric of daily life. This program provides an overview of four of India's prominent religions: Jainism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Stunning footage from all around the subcontinent displays these jewels of India's religious heritage-along with their monuments, shrines, temples, festivals, and sacred...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: As controversy swirls around the issue of same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian couples in North America and abroad are speaking out for the right to marry. Filmed in British Columbia after the legalization of same-sex unions, this program introduces the victorious litigants, who share their views on marriage, religious and political opposition, child adoption, and, most of all, love. Interviews...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This provocative ABC News program presents laboratory evidence identifying specific locations in the brain that are involved in what people term religious experiences. Can any of this data categorically prove or disprove the existence of a supreme being? Michael Persinger, author of Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs; internist Michael Baime and neuroradiologist Andrew Newberg, both of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Political gridlock in Washington triggered across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, in March 2013. As a result, the Pentagon had to eliminate
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2013
View online at AVOD
Summary: The path Steven Rockefeller has taken on his intellectual and spiritual journey would very likely surprise his great-grandfather, the tycoon John D. Rockefeller, Sr. A convert to Buddhism, Steven Rockefeller has been teaching Religion at Middlebury College in Vermont for almost 20 years. Centering on what he calls "the democratic reconstruction of religion," Rockefeller has steeped himself in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: A shared heritage, a spiritual belief system, a set of rules for living-these are all aspects of Judaism, but the order in which they are emphasized varies greatly within the faith. This program features opinions from four articulate and sometimes controversial adherents to the Jewish religion who share their views on differences and similarities within Judaism. Highlighting the impact of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program takes us on a tour of what has become one of the most popular and prolific beats in television, on both the network and local levels. The depth and range of medical reporting have grown considerably in the last decade, but, with few exceptions, we were tragically late in reporting the scope and severity of the AIDS story. Controversial cures and dubious wonder drugs have always...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: What does it mean to be a "functioning" alcoholic? How does it feel to struggle with substance abuse day after day? What keeps addicts from truly recovering? This program explores such questions from a range of unconventional viewpoints, creating an honest look at addiction that avoids judgmental or strictly clinical approaches. At the center of the film is Jimmy, a 41-year-old surfer who...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Effortlessly making the leap from stage to cinema, the plays of William Shakespeare have enjoyed decades of popularity in theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. This program combines clips from significant movie productions with an eclectic group of interviews to demonstrate the Bard's uncanny ability to fire the modern imagination-especially through the medium of film. Excerpts from Julie...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program profiles Stanley Kunitz, one of America's leading poets. Kunitz reads his poetry and discusses his work in extensive interviews. "You don't choose the subject [of your poetry]," says Kunitz, "it chooses you. He asserts that poets must aim simply to "be as true as we can to the grain of life. Kunitz also stresses the importance of reading poetry aloud: "It is important to test your...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: As in times past, many people today still believe that spirituality provides the deepest level of meaning to life. Profiling Augustine of Hippo, Hildegard von Bingen, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Martin Luther, Waldo, and Mother Teresa, this program explains how devoted seekers of God's truth-saints? reformers? heretics?-have altered the course of Christianity. The inspirational power of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Some say the Spratly Islands, located right in the middle of the South China Sea, could be the site of the world's next major conflict. Eric Campbell takes us on a dangerous journey through these Islands claimed by no fewer than six countries, all fighting over the undersea oil fields.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2014
View online at AVOD
Summary: Beginning at the Gargas Caves, France-humankind's first house of worship?-this program seeks to understand why our ancestors began to believe in one or more divinities and how, through the ages, different cultures have expressed that belief. Great mysteries such as death and nature are considered as factors in the evolution of religious faith as Robert Winston, archaeologist Jean Clottes, The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Greeks worshipped Dionysus and honored him widely and often. In fact, Greek drama was written as part of the great Dionysian celebrations. In this program, we learn about Semele, Dionysus’ mother, and the efforts of Hermes and Apollo to save the baby’s life; the purification of Dionysus; how mortals received the gift of the grape, and the dangers it can cause; and how Dionysus freed Hera...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Poet, essayist, musician, and visionary, Hildegard of Bingen is the most well-known female mystic of the Middle Ages, renowned in Europe for advising popes and bishops, conducting theological debates with Bernard of Clairvaux, and composing Ordo Virtutum. In this program, host Avril Benoit and theology experts Dr. Kathy Garay and Dr. Madeleine Jeay of McMaster University tour the abbey...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program was filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, where poets gather every two years to read and discuss their work with large audiences of students and fellow poets. In this program, poets Robert Bly, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, Octavio Paz, and William Stafford read and discuss their work. As Robert Bly observes: "Suppose you only knew 15 words. You could still make...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009