Summary: Once a common sight at Easter in Mexico, displays of los judas - or large devil figures made of paper - have, like so many other folk customs across Latin America, become increasingly rare. In an attempt to save the ritual from extinction, the city of San Luis Potosi sponsors a yearly competition prompting the creation of a small army of the paper grotesques. This program follows three folk...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Presented by sculptor Antony Gormley, this program was created to complement the 2002-3 exhibition of Aztec culture at London's Royal Academy. Many of the incredible works loaned to the exhibit are shown, along with sculptures and artifacts filmed in Mexico City and at important Aztec sites. Leading scholars and curators explore how the nomadic Aztecs drew inspiration from earlier cultures. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: With the arrival of the conquistadors, many ancient Mesoamerican rituals were absorbed into Christian holidays. This program examines a collection of sacred, social, and artistic traditions that survived European assimilation and now compose one of Mexico's most important annual festivals. The film follows the travels and experiences of a young Purepecha artisan, her grandmother, and their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Surveying some of the most under-appreciated art of the 20th century, this program documents a groundbreaking exhibit of work by Latin American women at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The video opens up the world of these bold and sensitive visionaries, illuminating their accomplishments, their impact on artists outside their own countries, and the relationship between cultural and artistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: The most advanced of the pre-Hispanic peoples of Central America, the Mayans rose to great prominence, only to suddenly decline around the year AD 900. In this program, cultural historian Iain Grain delves into Mayan history, investigating topics such as the Mayans' mastery of mathematics, their extremely hierarchical society, their use of human sacrifice to induce rain, and Mayan art. Many...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: The works of Frida Kahlo, one of the 20th century's most prominent artists, are included in museums and private collections the world over. This documentary incorporates archival material, readings from journals and letters, and interviews with friends and scholars to retrace the life and work of one of Mexico's most highly recognized painters.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Since their appearance in Europe some 300 years ago, the stories of The Thousand and One Nights have entranced Western readers with visions of an exotic, magical Middle East. In this program, actor and director Richard E. Grant revisits the book he loved as a child and seeks to understand its persistent hold on the collective imagination. Grant travels to Paris to discover how the Arabist...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: In 1839, facing danger and disease, the American John Lloyd Stephens and his English companion Frederick Catherwood embarked upon the first of two epic voyages to Central America. They returned from the mysterious land with extraordinary images and breathtaking accounts of a once-great civilization. A century later, archaeology had revealed a great deal about the region, but the inscriptions...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: This beautifully filmed program looks at the wall paintings of some of the most famous Mexican muralists-Diego Rivera, Juan O'Gorman, Jose Clemente Orozco-and at the work of Luis Barragan, the greatest Mexican architect of the 20th century. Their common medium is the wall. The muralists sought to return art to the people, by putting it on the walls of public buildings, just as it had been in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Rigoberta Menchu has become widely known as a leading advocate of Indian rights and ethno-cultural reconciliation-and also a center of controversy-not only in her native Guatemala, but throughout the western hemisphere. In this program, Menchu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and other international awards, talks about her life both at home and in exile, her autobiographical I, Rigoberta...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Perhaps the world’s most famous epic poem, Homer’s The Odyssey follows Odysseus as he undertake a twenty-year journey to return home from battle to reclaim his wife and kingdom. This episode of Clash of the Gods relates the tale of adventure, filled with legendary beasts, vengeful gods, and seductive sirens. Experts discuss that astronomical clues and new geological evidence suggest that the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Traveling the world, photographer Phil Borges documents endangered cultures with the hope that he can help preserve them by photographing and interviewing members of them. In this TEDTalk, Borges shows rarely seen images of people from the mountains of Dharamsala, India, and the jungles of the Ecuadorean Amazon, as he tells their stories. In addition, Borges talks about his initiative to link...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: This episode of Clash of the Gods presents the real story behind our most renowned modern myth - that classic story of good vs. evil, fought in the world of Middle Earth. We enter creator J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical world of hobbits, orcs, and wizards, and uncover the real life influences that shaped his epic fantasy, The Lord of the Rings. Intriguing connections and parallels are drawn from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This episode of Clash of the Gods examines Homer's The Odyssey, one of the most famous epics ever written. Follow its archetypal hero, Odysseus, as he sets sail on a twenty-year journey to return home from battle to reclaim his wife and kingdom. It's a timeless tale of adventure filled with mythological beasts, vengeful gods, and enchanting seductresses. But could it have actually happened?...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This episode of Ancient Mysteries brings us back more than 3,000 years to the legendary city of Troy. Scholars delve into the secrets of Troy by researching the Greek poet Homer, who related the city’s history in The Iliad. Their discoveries are revealed and shed new light on the legends of the Trojan horse, Achilles, the abduction of Helen, and the fall of Troy.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1994
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Summary: This program travels to both developing and industrialized countries to capture culture-defining rhythms and melodies and explain the important roles they play in human society. With stops in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe, the video observes how music is used by gauchos and Cossacks, Sufis and Buddhist monks, Papuan warriors and Western soldiers, Senufo weavers and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Dark mysterious creatures, tales of vampires are told in many different cultures around the world. This revealing documentary explores the fear and intrigue that these undead beings stir. Origins of the Vampire also presents the surprising truth about real-life cases through history. From Vlad the Impaler’s 16th century Transylvania to Bram Stoker’s stories of the 19th century to today’s movies...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1993
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Summary: Anthropologist/ethnobotanist Wade Davis is a passionate advocate for preserving what he's dubbed the "ethnosphere." Using stunning photos and stories, Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures in this TEDTalk. A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Davis travels the globe to document the cultural practices of people whose time-honored ways of life are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program tells the powerful story of a group of women who banded together and dared to defy the brutal dictatorship of Chile's Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The women-mothers, wives, and sisters of the tens of thousands of victims of the regime's torture and execution-armed only with scraps of cloth, sewing needles, and the overwhelming desire to find their loved ones, set to work to tell their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program is devoted to the history and the archaeological sites of Teotihuacan, the City of the Gods. Once the largest city in Mesoamerica, birthplace of the creation myth that held sway for over 1,800 years, political and financial hub of a vast tributary network, Teotihuacan disappeared without an explanation, leaving buildings, paintings, and the oral tradition of the Nahuas, which was...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Evoking the awesome power of nature's toxins, this program presents case studies of people who have survived near-fatal onslaughts from some of the deadliest poisons on Earth. It also shows how modern medical technology is turning the tables to use poisons in the fight against disease. Employing sophisticated animation and photography, the film explores ways in which poison can enter the body...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Art may represent a quest for beauty and perfection, but throughout history it has also explored a terrifying realm of doom, decay, and darkness. This program delves into the age-old human compulsion to surround ourselves with images of death. Starting with the Neolithic relics known as the Jericho Skulls, the film identifies a pattern of morbidity and death fetishism covering a broad swathe of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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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: This program provides a portrait of Cortez and his world-the real world and the imaginary one painted by theologians, mystics, imaginative travelers, poets, and liars; of the New World as seen by a small number of Spaniards; and of the civilizations of Mesoamerica before they were "discovered"-the world of the Mayas and Aztecs, the nature of Aztec religion and politics. It describes the Battle...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006