Summary: The story of the trumpet begins with the trumpeters' guilds of the Renaissance. We see how improvements in its construction led to its use in the Baroque period, and how Vivaldi began to use a more refined version in his compositions. Later flexibility made it popular with dance bands and jazz musicians. Combining computer graphics with music, a trumpeter demonstrates how the sound of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Media executive Lauren Zalaznick believes that television has a conscience, in that it reflects a culture's morals, political leanings, and emotional states. Sharing the results of a study that tracked societal attitudes against the most popular shows over five decades, she makes a case in this TEDTalk that television mirrors who we truly are. Zalaznick looks at why Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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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
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Summary: Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenberg hoping to open a theological dialogue. Instead, he sparked the Reformation. This definitive documentary chronicles Luther's life and lasting impact on religion and society through a wealth of location footage, original manuscripts, period paintings, and expert commentary from Dr. Timothy George, Dean of Beeson Divinity School,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about the United Church of Christ with Hans Holznagel of the UCC Church House in Cleveland, Ohio. Topics of discussion include how the UCC came to be, the importance of social justice in UCC philosophy, and the "God Is Still Speaking" outreach campaign and "You're Welcome Here" television advertisements. In addition, the Reverend Felix Carrion...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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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
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Summary: Despite its title, this program actually covers all the wind instruments, including the pipe organ. It considers the way in which the technology of making instruments has affected the course of musical development, particularly the development of valves for trumpets and Boehm's system of woodwind keys. The program examines the subject of vibrations in tubes, the role of finger holes, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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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
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Summary: Before detectives set foot on a crime scene, forensic scientists must first painstakingly glean every bit of evidence. In this program, Professor Margot of the Forensic Science Institute of Lausanne describes advances in criminal science. New technology has made it possible to capture footprints with Mylar and static electricity rather than plaster; to cause fingerprints on a shell casing to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Longevity may or may not come from one's family tree-but with the help of science, could it one day be "inserted" into our genes? This program looks at research in genetic modification that might help extend human life spans. Spotlighting recent DNA experiments on the C. elegans worm, the program also describes longevity studies in mice, mollusks, and fungi-all of which shed light on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This program describes a great musical culture in decline in turn-of-the-century Vienna, and discusses how that decline led to the musical revolution whose reverberations are still felt today. Names like Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg still strike terror in the hearts of many concert-goers. With the help of Simon Rattle, however, we hear in their powerful, brooding music the collapse of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Galileo's recantation in 1633 opened a gap between Christianity and science, a separation that widened as the first great age of European exploration came to a close. This program studies the second great age ushered in during the latter half of the 18th century amidst a thickening web of French and British colonialism-an age in which maps and charts facilitated political and economic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The late Susan Sontag was not a photographer, yet her famous book On Photography is required reading in almost every serious photography course in the world. Her novels and nonfiction books such as Illness as a Metaphor have been translated into a score of languages. And she also wrote and directed films and plays. In this program, the renowned writer and human rights activist talks with Bill...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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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
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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: How well do we understand the neurology of learning? Why does the brain's ability to learn diminish as we age? Can science find a way to extend brain "fitness," even for the very old? This program addresses those questions as it describes important medical experiments and studies. Topics include the central role of nerve cell connections in learning and cognitive development; cerebral...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Transporting viewers to the year 2016, this program paints a disturbing picture of an oil-starved America and the socioeconomic upheaval that may accompany the death of the Oil Age. The film follows a middle-aged, Midwestern couple through violence at gas stations, conflicts with neighbors, and the loss of their livelihood; it also focuses on their daughter, an oil prospector determined to find...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Written around 1400 in Middle English by an unknown hand, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a mysterious poem about an uncanny event that takes place in the legendary realm of King Arthur. In this program, renowned Gawain translator Simon Armitage seeks a richer understanding of the poem by walking the fading trail that ends at the Green Chapel, the climax point of the famously alliterative...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: When asked to describe birth from a baby's perspective, a group of women talk about fear, elation, and other feelings-while their male counterparts summon only physical sensations. What causes such a contrast? This program explores the divergent emotional tendencies of men and women, throwing gender differences into bold relief through spontaneous theatrical exercises and expert commentary....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why do girls demonstrate greater reading and writing ability than boys? Is the female brain hardwired for faster verbal development? Should men let women do the talking? This program studies language differences between the sexes and explores the possibility that many communication skills are gender-specific. Following two teams of well-educated adults as they undergo a crash course in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Apart from their outward differences in ritual and doctrine, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam share an inward-pointing imperative to know God. In this program, clergy, theologians, and others with religious vocations delve into the esoteric aspects of three of the world's great religions. The use of meditation and contemplation as vehicles for transcending the mundane and drawing closer to the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the beginning was Chaos. And Eurynome divided the seas from the sky, set the wind in motion, and released the forces of nature. Out of the Universal Egg emerged the sun and moon, the planets, the stars, the earth, and all living things. This program tells that story, and that of the first family: Gaea, Uranus, and Cronus. It then moves on to Zeus: his birth on Crete, the trick by which he...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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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: This first episode posits that economic volatility, ethnic conflict and empires in crisis combined to spawn the 20th century’s bloodiest conflicts. This led to the rise of the brutal regimes of Germany, Japan and Russia, the “age of genocide” and a preoccupation with racial purity. It gives an excellent work up to the 20th century in conflict. Spanning Asia and Europe, it portrays the human...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008