Summary: Part one of this program presents the life of Jesus against the backdrop of first-century Judea, inhabited by the Jews and occupied by the forces of the Roman Empire. Was Jesus the long-awaited Messiah? After the Resurrection, Saul of Tarsus, later Paul, became a champion of a budding new religion based on Jesus' teachings: Christianity. Part two traces the spread of the faith and its...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: This program considers the debt Western civilization owes to paganism, Christianity, and Islam, showing how each religion has influenced the other and how the art of all three continues to exert an effect on the world. Highlighting the lifelike sculptures of ancient Greece that celebrate what it is to be human; the primitive daubs in Roman catacombs, shimmering Byzantine mosaics, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Industrialization in the 19th century, and the widespread human exploitation and personal alienation that characterized it, produced a crisis of faith and shook people's confidence in the very concept of civilization. In this program, Matthew Collings follows in the footsteps of John Ruskin, a social critic who interpreted the ills of his era and believed that art could salve, and perhaps even...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: UN aids Palestinian refugees in Gaza strip; harsh conditions
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1950
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Summary: Ernesto "Che" Guevara was both a romantic and a rebel, honored by many for his commitment to liberation yet vilified by others as a rogue. This compelling program traces the life of a man whose idealism and determination gripped the imagination of an era. Interviews with family members, partisans, enemies, and others-including the photographer who immortalized him-share their recollections and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Zen master Joan Halifax, a driving force of socially engaged Buddhism, is known for her work with people at the last stage of life. In this TEDTalk, Halifax recounts her experiences in a Bangalore hospice ward as she defines the intricacies of compassion. To understand the nature of suffering, to aspire to transform suffering, and to engage in activities that alleviate suffering, without fear,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: From the executive producers of Super Size Me and Director Sara Sackner, this program examines the deplorable atrophy of arts education in America's classrooms by contrasting the crisis with the story of one very dedicated, inspiring high school drama teacher: Jay W. Jensen, who over a 50-year career touched the lives of many with the transformational power of the arts. Renowned pupils-actor...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Key figures either directly or tangentially connected to the progress of atheism-the Baron d'Holbach, Thomas Paine, Jeremy Bentham, Charles Darwin, George Jacob Holyoake, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Marx-are profiled in this program as Jonathan Miller draws links between atheism and the realms of utilitarian and secularist philosophy, evolutionary science, psychology, and politics. Is religion...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
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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
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Summary: It was in the Bavarian mountains that much of Germany's sense of nationhood and identity was forged. Caspar David Friedrich became the Romantic movement's first great painter, creating perhaps its defining image in Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. More explicitly nationalistic was the Nazarene Brotherhood, a group of young artists, including Johann Friedrich Overbeck and Philipp Veit, who lived...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: World War I would soon write finis to the world of glitter and elegance. Formality was loosening, the Gibson girl was the rage, and so was wearing grotesque assemblages of dead birds affixed to hats. The first of the major couture houses were established, and Japanese influence belatedly hit the fashion world, combining the worst of East and West. From hobble skirts to tailored suits, women...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Under Muslim rule, Spain became the most advanced, wealthy, and populous country in Europe, with great leaps forward in art, architecture, and many other fields. In this program, art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from Cordoba to Seville and on to Granada as he tells the story of art in Islamic and medieval Spain. Richly designed and decorated buildings such as the Great Mosque in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Abstract Expressionism was born from a joining of attitudes in American art and European avant-garde art, but was later rejected for its nonfigurative and seemingly egocentric character in favor of the ultra-objective phenomenon known as Pop Art. This program examines: Franz Kline's C & O
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Although rendered in stone, the sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini convey a sense of weightlessness perhaps unequalled in the history of Western art. This program illustrates Bernini's nearly miraculous ability to turn marble into a vessel of rapture, both spiritual and sexual. With The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa as his principal focus, presenter Simon Schama examines numerous works by the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Far from disappearing after the Hellenistic age, Greek art flourished with the rise of Christianity and the Orthodox church. This program explores the development of icon painting, the influence of Greek artists on later European movements, and the advent of neoclassical architecture as a manifestation of an age-old cultural legacy. With historical context from the conversion of Constantine...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Mute until the age of nine, Stephen Wiltshire learned to communicate through realistic, richly detailed drawings. Alonzo Clemens sculpts clay animal figures with great precision, even though he can barely form a sentence. Matt Savage faced extraordinary developmental problems as a child but has become a teen prodigy among jazz musicians. What is the relationship between creativity and autistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon continues his travels from southern to northern Spain, revealing a stunning and informative array of artworks. In this program, he journeys to the provinces surrounding Madrid-where, during the 16th and 17th centuries, many of the world's great artists flourished against a backdrop of imperialism and fervent Catholicism. In Toledo, El Greco's mystical style is...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: A literary naturalist and an Audubon of prose, John Burroughs blended his loves of literature and the great outdoors to become one of America's premier essayists. In telling the story of his life, this award-winning program places Burroughs within the contexts of both his times and our own as it visits the locales and dwellings that made up his world. Excerpts from his writings are drawn from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Part 1 of the documentary Andy Warhol delves deep into his impoverished upbringing in Pittsburgh, taking a rare look behind the façade of one of the most famous pop art celebrities in history. An often riveting and deeply moving portrayal, the film examines his early career as a commercial artist in the 1940s, where he produced his renowned silkscreen pop paintings (including the famous...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: If God exists, why is there so much suffering? What happens after you die? Does God hear our prayers? In this program a panel of teens pose the hard questions to a Catholic pilgrimage leader, a Sufi Muslim practitioner, and an Anglican minister as together they examine the relationship between the physical world and the spiritual. The group find areas of agreement between Christianity and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Those who wish to pursue a life of pure reason are often attracted to the movement known as secular humanism. This program explores the movement by presenting several humanist inquiries, including: How and why do religions develop? Can morality exist without religion? Is there a humanist narrative that can take the place of myth? How can public policy become truly rational? The film features...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: The illuminated psalm book of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell is a priceless treasure, containing beautiful calligraphy and extremely fine illustrations. Packed with scenes from the Bible and from everyday life-plus all manner of creatures, including bizarre monsters called babewyns-the book provides a mysterious glimpse of life during the Middle Ages. Section one of this charming program discusses how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Promoted in its time as a celebration—or at least a fully informed study—of foreign ethnicities and customs, the 1900 World’s Fair is recognized today as a spectacle of Eurocentric myopia. This program lays bare that conceit as it interweaves archival photographs, film clips, and posters from the Fair with commentary from renowned art historians. Offerings from museum collections across the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Part 2 of Andy Warhol examines his prolific expansion into the world of art. Filmmaking, sculpture, performance art, playwriting, and publishing are among only a few of Warhol’s artistic endeavors. In addition to his famous paintings and sculptures, Warhol was the creator of many classics in avant-garde cinema as well as the producer of a multimedia show featuring the Velvet Underground (one of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006