Summary: While northern India's 100-year-old film industry is best known for flamboyant dance sequences and romantic plot lines, its directors have begun to step outside established formulas and explore grittier subject matter. This program surveys the world of Bollywood filmmaking, examining the personalities as well as the commercial and thematic concerns that drive central Asia's answer to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: In this program, art critic Waldemar Januszczak travels through the heart of the Middle East and beyond to study a wide range of Islamic architecture, decoration, and art objects. Providing helpful historical background on the faith-with an eye on the explosive spread of early Islamic culture-the program examines the pristine beauty of India's Taj Mahal as well as one of the world's oldest...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In southern India, Yellamma is the goddess of the untouchables, and the joginis are typically Dalit girls dedicated to their service-and to the servicing of the local men. The jogini role as representative of the goddess has been corrupted: "Society has deliberately turned the jogini into sex workers, and exploits them as such," says jogini-turned-activist Hajamma. After describing the sacred...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: From ritual ablutions to ceremonial cremation, the religious life of a Hindu is intimately associated with the spiritual properties of water and fire. This program steps off the beaten path for a journey with two sadhus as they visit holy locales, witness religious rites, and, in general, immerse themselves in Hindu culture as it is exists in the religion's motherland, India. The Festival of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Home to more than a billion people, India struggles to remain the secular and tolerant society that Mahatma Gandhi envisioned. This Wide Angle documentary focuses on India's increasingly powerful Hindu nationalist movement, the specter of religious and ethnic strife that has haunted the nation since the dawn of its independence in 1947, and the actions of government and partisan forces that may...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Indoor plumbing is rare in rural India. This program introduces viewers to two Dalit families who, for generations, have cleaned the excrement from their villages' open-air latrines with their bare hands. But flush-toilets don't necessarily free untouchables from their role; a young man who manually removes waste from the sewers of Hyderabad is also interviewed, along with Bezawada Wilson-a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Every year, thousands die in India through caste-related violence, as untouchables and upper-castes alike stoop as low as they need to go to gain their aims. Seen through the lens of a veteran photojournalist, this program looks at both sides of the struggle between the upper-caste Ranvir militia and Dalit supporters of the Marxist-Leninists in Bihar. Professor Kanchia Eliah, of the University...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Mehndi is traditional painting of intricate patterns drawn on hands and feet with natural dye extracted from henna leaves, says mehndi artist Smarahjit Jana. In addition to numerous demonstrations of mehndi being applied, this program shows the gathering and preparation of henna leaves, discusses types of mehndi patterns and their significance, and describes different purposes of mehndi. More...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A daughter of a Badi prostitute is required to be registered under the surname Nepali. So marked from birth, she is born into prostitution and is expected to follow her mother into that trade-unless the family, the Dalit community, or charitable NGOs are moved to help them make a change. This program profiles two Badi families and the positive efforts of one former prostitute and Suklal Nepali,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Muslims arrived in India the same year they entered Spain-and by the end of the 13th century ruled nearly all of the country. This program travels across India by way of Iran, Pakistan, and Maldives to examine the rich Islamic heritage of the region. The program also observes the Muslim way of life on the subcontinent as it exists today. Sites of note include the Taj Mahal, the Golkonda Fort...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In parts of Nepal, there is little paying work available to untouchables. Forced to borrow small sums just to survive, they quickly become debt slaves to higher-caste people-and although the practice is illegal, it all too often represents the only chance Dalits have to obtain food. This program contrasts the lives of Bharat, who seeks emancipation through the assistance of a debt...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Containing nearly a sixth of the world's population, India is home to almost a billion people, more than half of whom live in rural villages. This program provides an overview of topics such as the caste system as it exists in the holy Hindu town of Varanasi and the massive pilgrimages to Allahabad, where millions of Hindus come to ritually bathe at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Iran's image in the West is due to several factors-including President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech as well as the political agenda of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This program takes viewers behind the facade of the theocratic state, following a handful of everyday Iranian citizens and addressing questions ignored by most mainstream media: What is daily life like in the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Exploring a clash between sacred customs and contemporary athletic aspirations, this program follows an Iranian women's soccer team daring to push traditional limits and pursue victories both on and off the field. Interviews with players and their families are combined with commentary by supporters of the sport as well as cultural leaders in the wider region who convey various opinions about...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Pakistan's greatest enemy is no longer India but rather the internal menace of the Taliban, who have reinvented themselves in a bid to take over the country. This program examines the conflict ravaging one of America's key allies in the war on terror. Traveling to Peshawar, an urban gateway to Pakistan's tribal region, the program depicts a city under regular Taliban attack and follows a local...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Once racked with poverty, India is now a model of economic revival and Western-style consumerism. This program examines the impact of the country's newfound wealth on domestic and international business, and on Indian society as a whole. Outlining the implications of the BRICs report, the film takes a detailed look at the strategies of Big Bazaar, India's largest supermarket chain, and Hitachi,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped, but it wasn't considered a crime; it was a sentence handed down by a Pakistani tribal council-a punishment for the alleged indiscretions of her younger brother. This ABC News program confronts the council's decision, a ruling declared an outrage by a local imam and others, while introducing the courageous woman who chose to defy custom and fight for justice in the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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: Famed for its wealth, cultural treasures, and spiritual traditions, India has for centuries beckoned the outsider. Many nations have vied for control of this fabled and colorful land-with two great empires, one established by invading Moghuls, the other by the British, flourishing in turns on the vast subcontinent. Viewers of this program learn how, in the 16th century, the Turkic warlord Babur...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Designed specifically with students and classrooms in mind, this video explores major themes in the history, geography, and culture of India. Emphasizing the diversity of this vast and ancient land, Images of India provides an overview of the country, with sections on Land, Culture, Religion, History, and Life Today, including current economic and social conditions. Spectacular footage helps...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the rise of the Moghul empire under Babur in 1526 to the setting of the sun on the British Raj in 1948, this program surveys four centuries of history during which India slowly but decisively shook off foreign rule. Expert commentary on the pivotal politico-military struggles between the Moghuls, the Afghans, Great Britain, and the Indians by Dr. David Hardiman, of Oxford University; Dr....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: India and Pakistan have been battling over ownership of Kashmir for more than half a century. In 1998, however, both countries shocked the world by joining the exclusive nuclear club. When violence erupted the following year in Kargil-the central region of Kashmir-an anxious U.S. report declared that this conflict "had the potential to escalate into a nuclear war between the two countries."...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The world knows too little about what happened in the Indian city of Bhopal on December 3, 1984. This program provides a chilling reconstruction of the Union Carbide methyl isocyanate disaster and details its horrific and protracted consequences. Interviews with eyewitnesses-including medical personnel, a company technician, Bhopal's police chief, and a young man orphaned by the tragedy-tell...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Both the painkilling and pleasurable effects of opium have been known in ancient cultures around the world for millennia. The narcotic arrived in the U.S. with the first Chinese immigrants, but it wasn't until the invention of the hypodermic syringe during the Civil War that opiates infiltrated American society in the same dual role. This program looks at the history of opium's use and misuse,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010