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African American lives Beowulf and the Roots of Anglo-Saxon Poetry Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library Inside the medieval mind New York (New York, N.Y.) Racism: a history Tracing the Arthurian tradition Your government--how it worksFilter By Subjects
British literature History and criticism Christianity English literature Middle English, 1100-1500 Irish literature History and criticism Literature, Medieval Middle ages Europe Music 15th century History and criticism Music 500-1400 History and criticism United States History 18th century United States History Colonial period, ca 1600-1775 BiographyFilter By Series
African American lives Beowulf and the Roots of Anglo-Saxon Poetry Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library Inside the medieval mind New York (New York, N.Y.) Racism: a history Tracing the Arthurian tradition Your government--how it worksSummary: The challenge of genealogical research is even more evident as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. continues back through the Colonial period of American history in this program. The film takes us on a journey to fill in the family trees of each of the series participants, through war service records and various records of property during slavery's apogee—including inventories, sales, or gifts of slaves. In...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This program looks at the fascinating finds at Chaco Canyon: the extraordinary city itself, the strange cult objects, the proofs of their mastery of astronomy; and at the many unanswered questions about the meaning of their depictions of humans, and the possible explanations for the disappearance of the Anasazi-leaving barely a trace of their highly advanced culture.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: When excavation in downtown Manhattan unearthed an 18th-century Negro burial ground, New Yorkers were reminded that slavery was not limited to the South. This program explores an often-overlooked chapter in the history of the city and the colonies in general by examining the oldest slave cemetery ever found in North America. Scholars and leading experts conduct archaeological and forensic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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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
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Summary: Bubonic plague, starvation, maybe even cannibalism-such were the miseries of life in England's Jamestown settlement, circa 1609. Four centuries later, this program explores the colony's story with the help of dramatic reenactments and information on recent historical discoveries. Sophisticated forensics and archaeological methods reveal the contents of Jamestown graves, producing shocking...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: This episode of New York: A Documentary Film begins by identifying the key themes that shaped New York's history: commerce and capitalism, diversity and democracy, transformation and creativity. Filmmaker Ric Burns charts the development of the city founded by the Dutch as a purely commercial enterprise, first as New Amsterdam, a freewheeling enclave of trade and opportunity; then as the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: From the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, this production of Shakespeare's rollicking classic battle of the sexes stars Len Cariou as Petruchio, the strutting male chauvinist suitor who sets out to undermine the spirit of young Katharina. Taped before a live audience, this production is treated in a solidly traditional fashion by British stage director Peter Dews, retaining the integrity of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1982
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Summary: In Andalusia and all around the world, the sensual rhythms of flamenco ignite the blood with joy and sorrow. This program helps make accessible the mysterious, intimate, plaintive form of music known as flamenco, promoting a deeper appreciation of Spanish culture. Background information on Moorish Spain and a chronology of Gypsy history provide the context for generous footage of a juerga-an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Congregational music during worship owes its origin to Martin Luther, who used it to proclaim his bedrock message of the Protestant Reformation: God's grace as the sole ingredient for salvation. This elegant program explains how Luther changed the mode of public worship by integrating music into the divine service so that all Christians-not just the clergy-could express and celebrate their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This episode of New York: A Documentary Film details New York's enormous growth as a booming commercial center and multi-ethnic port, and the mounting tensions that set the stage for the nation's bloodiest riot. Filmmaker Ric Burns examines how New York City swelled into the nation's greatest industrial metropolis as a massive wave of German and Irish immigration turned the city into one of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: Filmed in several of northern Italy's most magnificent churches and beautiful villages, this documentary illuminates the medieval origins of Christian music through vocal and instrumental performances by the Gothic Voices of London, the Ensemble Venance Fortunat of Paris, the Orthodox Chorus of Moscow, and the Giovanna Marini Ensemble Micrologus of Assisi, Italy. The Timna Brauer Ensemble &...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Filmed on location in Stratford-on-Avon, celebrated Shakespearean actor Alan Howard presents some of the Bard’s best-known works. Poems include… “All the world’s a stage” “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow” “Hark, hark! the lark” “O, for a Muse of fire” St. Crispin’s Day speech “Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day” Queen Mab speech “What mean you, Caesar? Think you for walk...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
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Summary: Founded in 1230, Scotland's Pluscarden Abbey still pulses with the prayers and spiritual pursuits of Benedictine monks. Abbot Hugh Gilbert describes their work in reassuringly human terms, framing the Christian battle against Satanic evil as an inner struggle within one's own psyche. But, as this program shows, the culture which brought Pluscarden into existence was rigidly institutional-and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: This production is part of the historic 1998 staging of the Corpus Christi Cycle in York, England, and captures the majesty and color of the original 14th- to 16th-century plays. Sponsored by the Company of Butchers, performed on a story wagon on the streets of York amidst an enraptured crowd, and using medieval materials and techniques, the performance strives for authenticity. The affecting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Imagine having written 38 plays…being an actor who became the most popular playwright of his time…and who’s legacy was to become the most enduring playwright of all time. Imagine writing something some 400 years ago, and having us stand here in a theater today still exploring, enjoying, and marveling at those golden words? Join our troupe of actors in various stages of rehearsal, presenting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2002
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Summary: The Arabian Nights or A Thousand and One Nights has influenced world literature and enthralled readers for centuries. Its legend tells us that the beautiful Sheherezade prevented her own murder at the hands of a sultan by telling him a never-ending tale of adventure. This classic from the Middle East introduced us to Aladdin, Sinbad, and Ali Baba. This absorbing program from Ancient Mysteries...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
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Summary: Although rooted in religious misogyny and crude anatomical knowledge, the sexual mores of the medieval era were surprisingly complex. This program explores the attitudes and behaviors of a sexual culture that was by turns romantic, transactional, and perverse. Documents and historical accounts include the story of Christina of Markyate, who defied marital conventions and maintained a lifelong...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Cultivating an appreciation of the English classics requires studying the mother tongue as it was originally spoken. In this program, Dr. Joseph Gallagher brings language to life by reciting examples of Old, Middle, and Early Modern English in their original dialects. In addition, he discusses the evolution of English syntax and morphology. A dramatization of a portion of Beowulf is also...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Beowulf is the oldest written epic in English literature. In this program, Dr. Robert DiNapoli-teaching fellow in Old and Middle English at the University of Birmingham, England-and Professor John Burrow of Bristol University examine the symbolism and the influence of Christianity in Beowulf and other masterpieces of English and Germanic poetry. The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Dream of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: With the intensity and commitment of an ancient Norse warrior, Benjamin Bagby brings the epic poem Beowulf to incandescent life. This program documents Bagby's brilliant iteration of the saga before a live audience in Helsingborg, Sweden-demonstrating the spellbinding qualities of both the poem and the performer. Reciting the entire 1,062-line Grendel story in the original Old English and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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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
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Summary: Writing in the late 1200s, the Spanish nobleman Ramon Lull listed various duties which no knight could ignore. They included fidelity to the monarch, defense of the Christian faith-and, only slightly lower on the list, maintaining order among the tenants on one's estate. This program examines the means by which such political "ideals" were implemented and enforced during the Middle Ages....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: The richly embroidered story of King Arthur as set down by Sir Thomas Malory during the Middle Ages has unfailingly intrigued generations of readers. P. J. C. Field, one of the world's top authorities on Malory and president of the British branch of the International Arthurian Society; Helen Cooper, editor of the Oxford World's Classics edition of Le Morte Darthur; and medievalist Kevin J....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Recently re-translated by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Beowulf has caused a sensation in both the U.S. and the U.K. In this program, NewsHour correspondent Elizabeth Farnsworth speaks with Heaney about his attraction to that epic poem, the probable background of the bard who created the original, similarities between Old English and bits of Anglo-Saxon that still crop up in rural Ireland, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005