Summary: Where was golf invented? And soccer? And polo? Research has revealed that the answer to all three questions is China. In this program, these and other sports-archery, acrobatics, the martial art wushu, dragon boat racing, and 15-pole ball, a form of bowling-are each set securely within the contexts of Chinese history and culture as authentic reenactments bring these ancient games (and some of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: For more than a millennium Western civilization looked to the Church for answers to questions about life’s meaning. But for many, acceptance of ecclesiastical doctrine wasn’t enough. This program traces the roots of modern religious skepticism back over 400 years to examine both the unraveling and the endurance of Christian belief. It explores challenges to established theologies in the ideas...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In Zanzibar they play it at the end of weddings, in Romania at the end of funerals, in Mexico as a protest song, and in Germany as a sailor's lament. Written a century and a half ago by Sebastian Iradier and first performed in Cuba, "La Paloma"-the most frequently played song in the world-has circled the globe like a dove to touch listeners' hearts with longing. Drawing upon insightful expert...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Reaching back across the centuries, this program sheds light on historical attitudes toward human differences. It assesses the significance of Biblical narratives, including the "curse of Ham," in the evolution of European concepts of race, and goes on to examine the basis of institutionalized racism-entwined with fervent capitalism-on which the transatlantic slave trade operated. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: How do archaeologists go about choosing where to dig? What research must be conducted, and what preparations must be made, before the actual excavations begin? This documentary examines the challenges and triumphs of the research team that worked for four years to find the remains of Fort St. Joseph, a structure originally built by 17th-century French colonists in what is now Niles, Michigan....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The forms of punishment a society chooses, and what exactly it deems a crime, tell a great deal about that society's values. How is justice pursued and punishment meted out? This program looks at the history of punishment, beginning with early compensatory forms of justice, Hammurabi's Code, and the Law of Moses. Socrates' execution and Roman and medieval forms of justice are analyzed in a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Presented by sculptor Antony Gormley, this program was created to complement the 2002-3 exhibition of Aztec culture at London's Royal Academy. Many of the incredible works loaned to the exhibit are shown, along with sculptures and artifacts filmed in Mexico City and at important Aztec sites. Leading scholars and curators explore how the nomadic Aztecs drew inspiration from earlier cultures. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: How much truth is there in the Old Testament account of Noah? Enhanced by satellite imagery, declassified intelligence photos, archival footage, and artwork, this program considers the scientific plausibility of the Noah story. Experts including Porcher Taylor III; archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, of the University of Pennsylvania; linguist Peter Machinist, of Harvard Divinity School; geologist...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this Fred Friendly Seminar, Harvard Law School's Charles Ogletree stimulates a vigorous exchange on the tension between artistic expression, freedom of speech, and social responsibility. Presented with scenarios involving antisocial and sometimes violent messages in mass media, Richard Dreyfuss, Def Jam Recordings' David Harleston, the ACLU's Nadine Strossen, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA),...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In animism, good and bad spirits exercise an influence on humans. The shaman communes with the spirits in order to heal his tribal constituency. These and other less traditional beliefs, practices, and rituals are the topics of this program. Millenarianism is discussed as a nostalgic belief in a 1,000-year reign of the saints either before, or immediately after, the return of Christ. Astrology...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: We know evil when we see it-or do we? This program follows three people who confront a particular version of evil every day. Viewers meet Roy Ratcliff, the minister who baptized serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer behind bars and continues the practice with other hardened criminals; Aya Schneerson, a UN aid worker who administers food and medical help in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This final episode describes the Cold War as a continuation of the “war of the world” in which millions died in proxy wars conducted by the two superpowers. World War II may have been the central act of an epic struggle between rival empires, but the Cold War continued the turbulence that marked the entire 20th century as the most violent period in history. The end of the Cold War led to great...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program focuses on the cultural effects of television broadcasting in India. It examines the rapid rise of satellite TV and cable channels and discusses their role in altering Indian perceptions about caste, class, and gender. Interviews with Indian academics and representatives from TV and film are combined with specific information on TV viewing habits in urban and rural locations in India.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: What makes the promise of Camelot still resonate in the 21st century? In this program, Barbara and Alan Lupack, authors of King Arthur in America and Arthurian Literature by Women; Debra Mancoff, author of The Arthurian Revival in Victorian Art; and Kevin J. Harty, author of King Arthur on Film, New Essays on Arthurian Cinema, discuss the enduring fascination with King Arthur in Britain and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Groomed for power by the Dowager Empress, three-year-old Aisin-Gioro Puyi ascended China's imperial throne in 1908. This program illustrates the early years of his sporadic reign, his education under Scottish tutor Reginald Johnston, and the shifting of his political fortunes at the mercy of international events. Puyi's eviction from the Forbidden City during his teenage years, his Westernized...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Did racist atrocities in the 19th and 20th centuries bring Western society to an ethical and ideological turning point? Or has racial oppression simply assumed other, more insidious forms? Pursuing answers, this program focuses on a pattern of segregation and genocide evident in King Leopold's Belgian Congo rampages, South Africa's apartheid rule, the terrorism of Jim Crow, and less obvious...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program portrays the Crusades as a response to the rapid rise of Islam. It looks at various orders of Christian monks and their role in the preservation of religious, artistic, and cultural aspects of civilization. The Inquisition-the Church's response to the rise of heresy and the practice of witchcraft and magic in the Middle Ages-illustrates the ultimate in religious intolerance which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Rome was once the center of Christian persecution, but the martyrdom there of Paul and Peter began the unfolding of a historical epic that ended with the seat of empire becoming the spiritual capital of the Western Latin church. This program charts the development of Roman Catholicism, traveling to the ancient Port of Ostia, churches in Ravenna, and a remote Celtic monastery to show how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Plato's academy was the first formal arena for education, where young men were tutored in the rigors of logic, philosophy, and mathematics. Prior to this, societies transmitted knowledge from one generation to the next orally, and after the advent of writing, through texts. Although education throughout history has been predominantly a privilege of the elite, universal education is currently...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: There can be no society without work. Yet as civilizations prosper and grow, labor historically is shifted onto the less privileged, while the elite either scorn work or only participate in certain types, creating hierarchies and inequalities. This program examines work from the early egalitarian hunter/gatherer and agrarian societies to the modern world-a world of multinationals and child...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: There is an old Japanese adage that "the best food is that which is least prepared." This program looks at Kyoto-style sushi both as a delicacy and as a symbol of Japanese cultural aesthetics. Footage of Kitamura Norio and Kitakura Hiroyuki-two of Japan's foremost sushi chefs-illustrates their specialized approaches to oshi sushi and nigiri sushi while capturing the care they put into every...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Critics of affirmative action say that it pits Americans against each other and elevates the importance of race, gender, and ethnicity at the expense of hard work and merit. Supporters claim that discrimination remains pervasive in the U.S. and that the government must continue to play a role in aiding minorities and women. This program explores the historical roots of affirmative action and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Rhine valley-a treasury of medieval art, and, as this program shows, the cradle of what we now think of as distinctly German imagery. Foremost among Cologne's late-Gothic painters was Stefan Lochner, who injected drama and excitement into familiar biblical scenes. At about the same time, Johannes Gutenberg pioneered a printing revolution in the Rhine town of Mainz, leading to one of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: During the 19th century, racial categorization took on a pseudoscientific stance. This program shows how the academic racism of the period helped to spread imperialist policies across the globe. Sifting through the "science" of eugenics and its link to social Darwinism, the film juxtaposes the racial hygiene theories of Robert Knox, Francis Galton, and Eugen Fischer with racial warfare in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008