Summary: No sooner had Europe declared an end to its Great War than the seeds of new conflict were sewn-in the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. With typical global awareness, photography patron and archivist Albert Kahn chose to document the historic changes occurring in the colonial Middle East. This program traces his team's expeditions into Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine as Western powers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: As they built an unsurpassed visual archive of world culture, Albert Kahn and his photographers turned their attention to widely divergent locations. This program follows the maritime odyssey of Lucien Le Saint, circa 1922, as he captured on film the daily lives of Newfoundland cod fishermen, as well as expeditions into northwestern Africa. Images from Morocco and Tunisia focus on occupying...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In 1908, Albert Kahn and his chauffeur embarked on a global trek to observe and absorb other cultures-an early "prototype" of the many photography missions Kahn would fund over the years. This program illustrates that formative round-the-world trip as well as the 1913 journey undertaken by photographer Stephane Passet to China, Mongolia, and India. Viewers will encounter startling images of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Versailles, 1919: French banker Albert Kahn and his camera team are among the few photographers allowed inside the Hall of Mirrors for the treaty signing-an example of Kahn's uncanny talent for documenting change. This program focuses on Kahn's pictorial record of the war's aftermath and the challenges of securing a true peace across Europe. Zeppelin-borne aerial footage conveys the scope of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: As World War I engulfed his country, Albert Kahn struck a deal with the French army: his team of photographers would capture images and footage that helped the war effort in exchange for direct access to militarized zones. A century later, this program presents the results-revealing the life and environment of the French soldier as recorded in Kahn's Archive of the Planet. The visual details of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: From 1914 through much of the 1920s, Albert Kahn's photographic team was hard at work in Asia, amassing culturally and historically vital images for the Archive of the Planet. This program recounts journeys through Indochina and greater Asia in which the Kahn team opened up a world most Europeans had never dreamed of. Viewers discover Vietnam through its beggars, Tet celebrants, and elegantly...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: A peace-loving man with a decidedly global perspective, Albert Kahn spent most of his life and wealth trying to expand Western understanding of other cultures-largely through film and photography. This program delves into Kahn's origins and formative years and the launch of his Archive of the Planet project. Topics include Kahn's Jewish ancestry and Alsacian upbringing; his early success in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In addition to documenting the Great War itself, Albert Kahn's team of photographers recorded the impact of the conflict on French civilian life. This program examines offerings from Kahn's Archive of the Planet, exploring both the propaganda value and the genuine emotional power in images of the war-torn French populace. French and Belgian refugees, ruined churches, and farms tended by women...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Poverty, emigration, declining birth rates, and ethnic divisions weakened many European countries as the 20th century began. From France to the Balkans, leaders prescribed nationalism and military buildup as the only solutions. This program studies the continent's march to war as depicted in the photographic record commissioned by French banker Albert Kahn. Early color images and film footage...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is pain, and what is its purpose? This program explores various aspects of pain, including how the mind perceives the body's warning messages, whether from a stomach-ache or a chronic condition; the body's ability to control or ignore pain; the effects of nerve damage on the body's early-warning system; and pain caused not by the body, but by the mind.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Pain can be totally debilitating to those who suffer. But painkillers, although they merely mask physical discomfort, can make life livable again. This program looks at the three primary types of painkillers, their origins, and their actions. Alternative treatments, such as massage, acupuncture, and relaxation, are also presented as viable alternatives to traditional medications.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Wracked by emotions, the mind will often increase pain, while control of feelings such as fear, loneliness, and stress will generally reduce pain. This program presents the psychology of pain, along with ways to manage physical discomfort through therapy, various relaxation techniques, and coming to terms with physical limitations.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A landmark study of the facial expressions of native Papua New Guineans suggests that all human beings share six basic emotions. But what happens in the brain to trigger those emotions, and how do emotional responses differ according to age and experience? In this program, Dr. Susan Greenfield considers past attempts to explain emotions in terms of brain areas-and then asserts that the answers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: From prenatal Mozart to hothousing, the debate surrounding intelligence and how it is best cultivated is a controversial one. But is there really an optimal window of opportunity for neural development? This program invites John T. Bruer, author of The Myth of the First Three Years; Colin Blakemore, of Oxford University; UCLA's Paul Thompson; Bill Greenough, of the University of Illinois; and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Even during the first moments of life, baby girls and boys already behave differently. Combining case histories and scientific analysis, this program argues that the mixture of hormones in the womb "hardwires" the brain with a sex-aligned signature before birth, causing it to become distinctly female or male-or a mixture of both.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: IQ used to be the standard by which all were judged. Today, EQ allows for a broader understanding that encompasses attributes such as logical, linguistic, musical, kinetic, and emotional intelligences. This program provides an in-depth analysis of intelligence, including how it is defined and its neural components. Leading experts such as Harvard's Howard Gardner; Daniel Goleman, author of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: As far as Dr. Susan Greenfield is concerned, learning, memory, and even the process of individuation should be understood as a restless brain adapting moment by moment to the environment it encounters. This program charts the changes in the human brain as it develops from infancy to adulthood. The brain's extraordinary adaptability, as demonstrated by its ability to reorganize its neural...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: How might acknowledging the brain's sex make interpersonal relationships run more smoothly? Using images from popular art, television drama, and hidden-camera footage to illustrate both predictable and unexpected conflicts, this program presents the way sex-related differences in brain architecture may influence love, marriage, reproduction, and parenthood.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Dr. Jonathan Miller investigates both the predictable and the unexpected effects of damage to Broca's and Wernicke's areas on patients' abilities to communicate verbally and through sign language. In his efforts to expose the physiological roots of language expression, Dr. Miller traces the evolution of brain research, from the scientific blind alley of phrenology to the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Dr. Susan Greenfield expresses her belief that all aspects of human experience will eventually be explained in terms of the physical processes of the brain. Cases drawn from the history of brain research-from the earliest and crudest studies of the effects of brain injury to the latest data derived from brain surgery on patients who are awake and alert-offer insights both...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The human brain is made up of the same biological building blocks as the rest of the body, and yet somehow it manages to generate consciousness. In this program, Dr. Susan Greenfield seeks to understand the human body's most remarkable phenomenon-and explains why the existence of each mind's private world of experiences and feelings is actually more incredible than the fact that life on Earth...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Statistically speaking, why have men and women not proved equally adept at the same things? In this program, researchers debate whether differences in brain architecture lead to a division of talents and aptitudes between the sexes-and draw some startling conclusions. To illustrate these differences, children are observed in classrooms, on the playground, and at home.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is it about the human brain that has allowed Homo sapiens to take charge of the planet? Is it a question of brain size, cognitive abilities, speech, or perhaps something else? Bringing together diverse elements ranging from the first-ever brain scan of a chimpanzee performing a comprehension test to a case study of a brain injury caused by a hand grenade, this program featuring Dr. Susan...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: One patient cannot recognize a single face, including his own. Another cannot see anything that is moving. And a third can watch and understand a soccer game, but cannot recognize the black-and-white object they are kicking. Drawing on the experiences of people with rare forms of brain damage, this program featuring Dr. Susan Greenfield reveals the tricks and shortcuts used by the brain to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005