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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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: Nebraska in the 1880s: bleak, lonely, and far from what you’d expect the Wild West to be. But for a naïve Swedish immigrant (David Warner), the frontier parlor of The Blue Hotel represents the quintessential Western fantasy. No one can convince The Swede that his dime-store notions about the West are foolish. He sees murderous intentions all around him, and in his terror he turns everybody...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1984

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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: Seabiscuit’s fame as a champion racehorse was unexpected yet it was timely. In the 1930s, when American’s longed to escape the grim realities of the Great Depression, Seabiscuit became the working man’s hero. Despite his boxy build, stumpy legs, scraggly tail, and ungainly gait, he was one of the most remarkable Thoroughbred racehorses in history. Seabiscuit, from the PBS American...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009

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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: 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: 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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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: 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: During the early 20th century, Washington, D.C., was the cultural capital of black America. Prefiguring Harlem in the 1920s, D.C.'s Uptown area nurtured dynamic figures such as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Mary Church Terrell, Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Dr. Charles Drew. In this program, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith tells the often-overlooked story of the heyday,...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: Best known for its flappers, gangsters, and jazz, the Roaring Twenties was also an era of social tensions and political change. This program is a time capsule of a boisterous era that began with a surge of hope and ended on the verge of the Great Depression. Topics include the presidencies of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, the post-World War I "return to normalcy," the economic boom and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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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: President William McKinley speaking at the Buffalo Exposition. He was assassinated the next day.

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1901

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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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