Summary: The Amish rarely allow themselves to be photographed or filmed, yet several members of the isolated religious community agreed to appear in this eye-opening documentary. Filmed on location in Pennsylvania and Ohio Amish country, the program goes beyond stereotypes and common misconceptions, presenting a fully human portrait of a misunderstood people. Interviews with Amish men and women-some...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Satisfying one's hunger is a primal act which most Westerners never connect to global issues. But the diets and farming systems of wealthy countries can be directly linked to starvation in the underdeveloped world. This program sheds light on the international tragedy of hunger and malnutrition, emphasizing that the problem is one of distribution, not production. Filmed in Asia, South America,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Ireland never had an industrial revolution-its economy leaped from agrarian gloom into high-tech high-gear almost overnight. This Wide Angle case study visits Limerick, one of the country's largest cities and the epitome of the Celtic Tiger's rise. Once the blighted setting of Angela's Ashes, today's Limerick boasts the glories and the growing pains of all economic boomtowns: heavy foreign...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: With hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide, a net worth in the billions, and a dozen brands, General Motors is at the center of the political debate over globalization, the environment, and the future of the U.S. economy. In this program, GM President and CEO Rick Wagoner talks with BBC Chief Washington Correspondent Matt Frei. Topics under discussion include America's unending love...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: With the population of the Earth poised to double within the next five decades, there is evidence that the pendulum of overpopulation is beginning to swing the other way. In this program, Population Communication's Robert Gillespie visits India, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Iran, Ghana, Nigeria, France, the U.S., and elsewhere to observe a fertility transition that may prove to be one of the most...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Forests protect and nurture humanity in a variety of ways. Why, then, does deforestation continue? Who is responsible for it? This program analyzes the problem through a socioeconomic lens, drawing connections between corporate interests, food security concerns, and annihilation of the planet's woodlands. Outlining the history of deforestation from Roman times to WWII, the film focuses on the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: A growing number of environmentalists, ethicists, and economists believe that the needs of the "have-nots" will one day become too powerful to ignore. This program highlights that viewpoint, illustrating vast disparities between the living standards of developed and underdeveloped nations and questioning the wisdom of looking the other way. Deconstructing conventional economic notions of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: “I have found my mission in Kyrgyzstan,” says French horse expert Jacqueline Ripart. In remote areas of the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan, Ripart hopes to find descendents of the small, tough horses with which Genghis Khan once conquered Central Asia - if they are not already extinct. Under Soviet rule, the Kyrgyz horse was bred with larger Russian strains to produce meat for slaughter....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Situated near an oasis in Niger’s Ayar Mountains, the remote settlement of Timia is home to small-scale wheat growers. Once a year, after the harvest is done, members of the Kel Ewen clan federation - a subgroup of the Tuareg nomads - will venture into the merciless Tenere desert to trade their wares. Almost 600 kilometers lie between the paradise-like gardens of Timia and the village of Bilma,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This first segment takes us on a journey to the Dark Ages of Greece, the end of the Achaean Age, and the coming of the Dorian Greeks to the Peloponnesus and Laconia. Next the Messenian conquest and the establishment of the Spartan constitution are presented. The upbringing of Spartan youths, warts and all, is then addressed at length. Spartan institutions are credited for initiating a system of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: This riveting program investigates a new image of the Vikings that goes far deeper than their savage stereotype as raiding marauders. Faithful replicas of their magnificent ships, life-like computer animation and fascinating recreations reveal the Vikings as canny merchants, expert shipbuilders, superb artisans, and bold colonizers of lands that lay beyond the edge of the known world.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: China's global influence has grown enormously since the turn of the new century. Now the second-largest economy in the world, its citizens are buying up consumer goods both domestically and from abroad in record numbers. In this collection of 12 ABC News segments, anchor Diane Sawyer travels from Beijing to Shanghai exploring life in the Asian nation and the part the U.S. has played in shaping...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: How did a language originally spoken in just a small part of the British Isles come to dominate the communication of so many different countries? From its start as a diverse group of Anglo-Saxon dialects and all the way onward to adoption on a global scale, this program tracks the establishment of English as the world’s common tongue. English crossed the sea by means of settlement, trade, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: A demographic change is affecting all Americans wherever they work and live: the rise of the flexible workforce. The global economy, increasing numbers of two-income families, and the need for businesses to retain talent both in the executive suite and among low-paid workers are all having an impact on the way people work. This documentary, hosted by Bonnie Erbe, explores innovations in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Changpa people live cut off from the rest of the world on a barren, 4,000-meter-high plateau in the southeast of Ladakh, in the Kashmir Himalayas. Here, livestock must search far and wide to pry something edible from the earth. Inhospitable as it is, the region is also home to a living treasure: Changpa goats, which grow a fine wool - but only at extremely high altitudes and in bitterly...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: This last segment opens at Delphi with a look at Greek religion and Spartan attitudes toward the gods and oracles before resuming the history of the Peloponnesian War. Alcibiades, the Syracuse expedition, and Lysander are examined. Then the period of the Spartan hegemony is briefly described. Hughes notes the critical decline of Spartan citizen manpower and the rise of Thebes as a rival. She...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: This segment begins by exploring how Sparta and Athens fell out after the Persian Wars, with a look at the contrast between Athenian and Spartan politics and society. Women’s life is given much attention, and Sparta comes off as considerably more enlightened, by modern Western standards. The legacy of “radical” Spartan customs on later societies is discussed. Lastly, the Laconian earthquake of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
View online at AVOD
Summary: Day-to-day use of English has impacted local languages everywhere, spawning the growth of variants such as India’s Hinglish and Singlish in Singapore. Do these variations undermine language, or do they enrich it? This program examines the emergence of hybrid forms of English and discusses their pros and cons. A push by the Singapore government to promote Standard English was met with fierce,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: Indentured servitude, however dehumanizing, played a role in the colonization and development of early America. But its 21st-century incarnation, the practice of debt bondage, contributes virtually nothing to the common good of southern Asia. This program examines the plight of workers in India's rural areas, exposing the conditions in which they toil to pay off staggering personal debts. More...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: While we celebrate the adventurers who expanded our horizons, their discoveries often came at a price. Such was that in October, 1897, when renowned Arctic explorer Robert Peary returned to New York from his latest Greenland expedition. At an unusual request, he brought with him five polar Eskimos for study at the American Museum of Natural History where they were housed in an overheated...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program defines Mexico City's globalization in terms of winners and losers, examining how, in the world's largest metropolis, immigration challenges are linked to poverty and population influx from surrounding rural areas. Contrasting the city's high-tech facilities and fashionable neighborhoods with its sprawling slums and their struggling inhabitants, the program outlines the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Each week, in countries around the globe, nearly a million people say goodbye to their homes in impoverished rural regions-and move to even worse conditions in cities. This program explores the tragic results: illegal slums filled with some of the poorest people in the world, lacking water, sanitation, and other resources needed to support exploding populations. Viewers are shown the lives and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: In spite of mounting ecological damage, the Amazon Basin continues to nurture age-old stories and beliefs. This documentary illustrates the importance of indigenous narratives to those who dwell near the city of Iquitos, Peru, and view their natural surroundings in mythical terms. Concerning a young man who has recently gone missing in the forest, the film depicts his mother's attempts to find...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: As online gaming companies position themselves to tap an entertainment market that is projected to explode, researchers question the safety of deeply immersive virtual worlds. In this program, MIT psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle; David Greenfield, author of Virtual Addiction; Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online; Brad McQuaid, co-creator of EverQuest; representatives of Sony...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005