Summary: This production is part of the historic 1998 staging of the Corpus Christi Cycle in York, England, and captures the majesty and color of the original 14th- to 16th-century plays. Sponsored by the Company of Butchers, performed on a story wagon on the streets of York amidst an enraptured crowd, and using medieval materials and techniques, the performance strives for authenticity. The affecting...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: Founded in 1230, Scotland's Pluscarden Abbey still pulses with the prayers and spiritual pursuits of Benedictine monks. Abbot Hugh Gilbert describes their work in reassuringly human terms, framing the Christian battle against Satanic evil as an inner struggle within one's own psyche. But, as this program shows, the culture which brought Pluscarden into existence was rigidly institutional-and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: Cultivating an appreciation of the English classics requires studying the mother tongue as it was originally spoken. In this program, Dr. Joseph Gallagher brings language to life by reciting examples of Old, Middle, and Early Modern English in their original dialects. In addition, he discusses the evolution of English syntax and morphology. A dramatization of a portion of Beowulf is also...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Beowulf is the oldest written epic in English literature. In this program, Dr. Robert DiNapoli-teaching fellow in Old and Middle English at the University of Birmingham, England-and Professor John Burrow of Bristol University examine the symbolism and the influence of Christianity in Beowulf and other masterpieces of English and Germanic poetry. The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Dream of the...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Although rooted in religious misogyny and crude anatomical knowledge, the sexual mores of the medieval era were surprisingly complex. This program explores the attitudes and behaviors of a sexual culture that was by turns romantic, transactional, and perverse. Documents and historical accounts include the story of Christina of Markyate, who defied marital conventions and maintained a lifelong...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: When Death comes to take Everyman to his final judgment, Everyman attempts to bribe Death-and when that fails, Everyman instead tries to find a companion to accompany him on the fearful journey. In this adaptation of The Summoning of Everyman by Douglas Morse, a cast of classically trained actors, period music, opulent costumes, and captivating cinematography breathe new life into an enduring...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009

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Greenberg, Robert

Summary: Examines the life and works of Dimitri Shostakovich in 8 lectures of 45 minutes each.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Teaching Co. 2002

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Summary: This beautifully dramatized version of the late-14th-century poem offers a bonanza to the English teacher: one of the best known of the Arthurian legends, a portrait of life in Arthurian days as the Pearl poet imagined it, a baker's dozen of discussion topics about human virtue and human imperfectability-and a fascinating plot involving a challenge by the Green Knight (green is of course the...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: This enchanting program revives the drama and pageantry of the medieval mystery play as performed by the venerable guilds of York, England. Perched atop pageant wagons in the streets of their home city, guild members and townspeople in period costumes enact scenes from eleven plays of the Corpus Christi Cycle: Creation to the Fifth Day, The Creation of Adam and Eve, The Fall of Adam and Eve,...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: This program examines the ideas of the medieval philosophic theologians, particularly St. Thomas Aquinas. World-renowned author and professor Bryan Magee and Oxford medieval philosopher Anthony Kenny discuss Aristotelian logic as the basis of Aquinas' thought, and dispute charges that medieval philosophy merely reinforced extant Christian views. Logical methods employed by Aquinas are discussed...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: Like Malory's Le Morte Darthur, the anonymously authored Sir Gawain and the Green Knight represents a watershed in the development of the Arthurian tradition. Drawing on insights from Nicholas Perkins, a specialist on medieval English literature and manuscripts at the University of Cambridge; Arthurian expert Kevin J. Harty, of La Salle University; and Helen Cooper, authority on medieval...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Congregational music during worship owes its origin to Martin Luther, who used it to proclaim his bedrock message of the Protestant Reformation: God's grace as the sole ingredient for salvation. This elegant program explains how Luther changed the mode of public worship by integrating music into the divine service so that all Christians-not just the clergy-could express and celebrate their...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: Written in the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales has stood the test of time as a landmark in the development of English literature. This innovative "frame story" owes its classic standing and impact to the diversity both of the narrators and of the styles of tales they tell. In this program, expert commentators Dr. Christiania Whitehead and Dr. Peter Mack, both of the University of Warwick,...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Medieval science wasn't nonsense: it could conceive of a spherical Earth, for example. But the medieval scholar discerned both natural and supernatural forces at work in the cosmos, reading an eclipse as a sign from God as well as the result of planetary movement, and populating even the most rigorous maps of the era with sea monsters. This program explores that fascinating conceptual dichotomy...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: What makes the promise of Camelot still resonate in the 21st century? In this program, Barbara and Alan Lupack, authors of King Arthur in America and Arthurian Literature by Women; Debra Mancoff, author of The Arthurian Revival in Victorian Art; and Kevin J. Harty, author of King Arthur on Film, New Essays on Arthurian Cinema, discuss the enduring fascination with King Arthur in Britain and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: A scholarly program that reaches out to students of The Canterbury Tales to relate its characters and themes to everyday life in late-14th-century England. Period art of exceptional richness is combined with location photography that retraces the April pilgrimage to Archbishop Becket's shrine at Canterbury; excerpts are read from various tales; and the famous beginning is heard in Middle...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: The Civil War. A nation torn apart. A war fought in great battles, and a war fought on a much smaller scale…within the minds and hearts of a nation’s young men. On a lonely bridge, a group of soldiers prepare for the somber task of hanging one of their countrymen, now an enemy, for sabotage. This classic retelling of Ambrose Bierce’s acclaimed story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” from...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1962

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Summary: Filmed in several of northern Italy's most magnificent churches and beautiful villages, this documentary illuminates the medieval origins of Christian music through vocal and instrumental performances by the Gothic Voices of London, the Ensemble Venance Fortunat of Paris, the Orthodox Chorus of Moscow, and the Giovanna Marini Ensemble Micrologus of Assisi, Italy. The Timna Brauer Ensemble &...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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