Summary: Charming, Mercuria. Mystifying, Overpowering, the list of adjectives used to describe Anish Kapoor's installations and public sculptures seems endless. And yet, as varied as the responses to his work are, Kapoor has precise goals in mind for each piece, and his creative outlook, while certainly wide-ranging, is enriched by specific influences and traditions. This program follows the Indian-born...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This program examines the Suez Crisis, through which Britain and France were totally discredited and the career of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden was ruined.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: This program examines the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor through the eyes of veterans from both sides.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The years between the World Wars generated self-doubt and ideological crisis as Britain contemplated the devastation of World War I and the decline of empire that would transform the British novel. "The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins," wrote D. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's Lover. This program examines the evolution of the British novel during the period 1919-39, spotlighting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The 1970s and '80s were a time of turmoil and dislocating change in Britain as customs and values were repeatedly challenged-a period in which, as Angela Carter put it, there was nothing sacred. This program examines the evolution of the British novel during the period 1970-90, spotlighting Fay Weldon, Angela Carter, Penelope Fitzgerald, John Berger, Malcolm Bradbury, Hanif Kureishi, Alasdair...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: With the end of the Second World War, the cultural period W. H. Auden named the Age of Anxiety had begun-a time characterized by an intensifying fear of nuclear Armageddon as the Iron Curtain fell across Europe and the Cold War spread across the globe. This program examines the evolution of the British novel during the period 1945-69, spotlighting J. R. R. Tolkien, William Golding, Iris...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The flowering of the Jazz Age is a tale of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and two extraordinary artists whose achievements spanned nearly three-quarters of a century. Louis Armstrong was a fatherless waif who grew up on the rough streets of New Orleans, developing his extraordinary gifts before moving to Chicago, where his transcendent sound inspired a new generation of musicians. Duke...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: The story of jazz begins in New Orleans, 19th-century America's most cosmopolitan city. Here, in the 1890s, African-American artists created a new music out of ragtime syncopations, Caribbean rhythms, marching band instrumentation, and the soulful feeling of the blues. This program introduces the pioneers of this revolutionary art form: half-mad cornet player Buddy Bolden, pianist Jelly Roll...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: This poignant adaptation of Andrea Levy's award-winning novel Small Island explores the lives of two couples, one Jamaican and the other English, whose worlds intertwine in post-World War II Britain at a turning point in the long relationship between the two countries. It is a story of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: This bold adaptation of Oliver Twist breathes new life into Charles Dickens' wonderfully sordid tale of the orphan Oliver (Sam Smith), sent to the workhouse where children are raised on a diet of hard work and thin gruel. But the story doesn't end there. As the shrewd Artful Dodger (Alex Crowley), menacing Fagin (Robert Lindsay), and vicious Bill Sikes (Andy Serkis) lead Oliver into a life of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: The most charming small mammals you'll ever meet team up with the world's most exasperating amphibian to pursue their merry adventures in this adaptation based on Kenneth Grahame's beloved children's classic The Wind in the Willows. This dramatization dispenses with animation and relies instead on the striking animal instincts of some very talented actors: Matt Lucas as gadget-crazed Mr. Toad;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: It's a little play with all the big subjects in it, wrote Thornton Wilder in a 1937 letter to Gertrude Stein about what has become his most renowned and frequently performed work. Set at the turn of the 20th century, Our Town reveals the ordinary lives of the people in the small town of Grover's Corners, U.S.A. The play's themes of love and marriage, the transitory nature of existence, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: In this overview of D.H. Lawrence's life and work from the Famous Authors series, viewers are introduced to the conditions of the mining town in England in which Lawrence was born and to his relationship with his mother, both which reappear in Sons and Lovers and his other fiction. The film follows Lawrence and his wife Frieda through their many moves, the inspiration he gained from their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: This overview of Virginia Woolf's life and work from the Famous Author's series introduces the writer's upperclass family and their many literary friends who cultivated her talents and later inspired characters. The film takes a look at Woolf's response to the early loss of her mother and sister and her mental health struggles thereafter. Woolf secured an important position in London literary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: In this retelling of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," Kathy, deemed "too sensitive for her own good" and told to control herself, is confined to a child's bedroom with barred windows and garish decor by her well-meaning husband. As the enforced idleness of a rest cure begins to drive her mad, Kathy imagines there is someone imprisoned within the wallpaper, and she works to set...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: The Cold War turns hot in Viet Nam... a burglary at the Watergate Hotel becomes a national crisis... a space shuttle ascent erupts in tragedy... these are a few of the momentous events examined in this program. The 9/11 attacks and the election of President Barack Obama are discussed, along with the technological forces that drove America toward the 21st century: television, the credit card,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: From player salaries to performance-enhancing drugs, baseball's latter days have seen more than their share of controversy and confusion. This program covers the period from the 1994 player strike through the 2009 Major League season. Ample attention is given to the steroid problem, with a focus on Barry Bonds-both his stellar career and the scandal in which he became embroiled. But the film...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: Like December 7th, September 11th is a hallowed day in U.S. history, a time for reflection and remembrance. This A and E Special looks back on the dark day in 2001 when a handful of al Qaeda terrorists struck a heavy blow against America.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: More than just a manufacturer of goods, the craftsperson is an artist who draws on a bountiful lineage to create objects that are as beautiful as they are useful. This three-section program profiles a variety of craft artists to explore the origins, techniques, and significance of that process. 'Memory' provides a historical overview, and then introduces craftspeople whose work is informed by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Where do craft practices come from? How are they preserved? And how do today's artists acquire the skills to carry on the handmade tradition? This two-section program visits instructors, apprentices, and the self-taught to survey both the roots and the flourishing branches of American craft. The artists featured in 'Origins' honor African, Native American, and European sources as they pass...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This program from the Famous Composers series offers an overview of the life and work of composer and pianist Johannes Brahms beginning with an introduction to Brahms' family and hometown, the nineteenth century seaport city of Hamburg. The film follows Brahms' musical education with teachers Otto Cossel and Eduard Marxsen, his days of playing in bars and teaching to earn money, and his...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program looks at the creation of two products as it explores the visual, tactile, and aesthetic factors that inform the design process. The 321 Water filter is an attractive personal water purifier aimed at health-conscious women. Tear Lab is a non-invasive medical tool for measuring salt levels in tears. Sharing prototypes and drawings with the camera, the designers of these products talk...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: For some designers, the thought of promoting their own work is overwhelming. They may even believe that having creative talent means they should leave the advertising and marketing to others. With a strong focus on designers and artists, this program explores strategies for achieving commercial success. The benefits of having a professional portfolio, photographs, business cards, and a Web site...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Working on schedule and within a budget is crucial in the fast-paced world of design, where success often depends on timing and products must be priced affordably. This program shows how the factors of time and money affect the design process. Case studies for the Apple iPad wall-mount and a go-kart sticker manufacturer highlight cost issues in the design process, including productivity,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011