Summary: "The product of over 2,000 interviews recorded in 60 countries, this unique and thrilling collection of stories and images leads inexorably to the core of what it means to be human. Stories full of love and happiness, hatred and violence, from everyday experiences to accounts of the most unbelievable lives, share a rare sincerity and underline what is universal. Intercut with never-before-seen...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Kino Lorber 2017
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC HUMSummary: Virtually every reef system in the world is endangered, and the island nations of the South Pacific provide some of the most troubling examples. This program examines the uncertain future of tropical offshore ecosystems using the French collectivity of New Caledonia as a case study. Viewers accompany lagoon protection crew members as they patrol fragile marine reserves by boat; an itinerant...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: What do we mean when we talk about sustainable communities? How can they be created? This program joins architects, urban planners, civic leaders, business owners, and community residents in three separate localities as they respond to the challenge of building a sustainable community. A number of environmental and urban-planning questions are addressed, including: Is the architecture sound,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Called "the rainforests of the sea," the world's coral reefs are home to millions of species. But these underwater ecosystems are in grave danger. This program travels to Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar; Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania; and Ras Mohammed National Park, Egypt, to study the fragile ecology and amazing biodiversity of coral reefs-and the impacts of tourism, pollution,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: For thousands of years, the only threat to polar bears came from humans. Nothing has changed-except now it is fossil fuel consumption, not spears and guns, that pushes Ursus maritimus toward extinction. Depicting the hapless species as the proverbial canary in a coal mine, this program studies the intensifying impact of climate change on the Arctic region. Viewers learn how the entire Arctic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Ranging from rivers and lakes, to wetlands and intertidal zones, to coral reefs and kelp forests, aquatic ecosystems are as diverse as the life-forms that inhabit them. This program introduces students to a variety of the world's aquatic biomes. The characteristics of saltwater and freshwater environments are clearly described, as are the plants and animals that call these watery regions home....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: How long will the biosphere tolerate exploitation of the oceans? Are local fishermen a doomed species? What can be done to reverse the decline of fish stocks around the planet? This program documents the environmental and socioeconomic costs of excessive fishing. The film contrasts ancient maritime practices-like those of Mauritania's Imragen fishermen and Djibouti's pearl divers and lobster...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This Science Screen Report examines different ways marine species confront their environments using elaborate, specialized survival adaptations. Parallels between hunting techniques and defensive methods are described by contrasting aquatic predators with more vulnerable creatures, which rely on camouflage and sophisticated mobility. The program emphasizes that the oceans are not only the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Beneath our feet lies a world of violence, death, and renewal-the soil. This program takes viewers deep inside that unseen realm, focusing on the chemical and ecological complexity that enriches soil and sustains plant and animal life. A wide array of fungi, microorganisms, insects, and small animals are examined, illustrating the roles they play in the development of root systems and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This Science Screen Report explores the challenges that marine plants and animals face in rocky shoreline areas, and vividly illustrates the diversity of those life forms. Examining crustaceans, gastropods, mollusks, and other shoreline creatures, the program shows how tide pools form a marine sub-habitat, and how rocky shore dwellers have evolved specific abilities to survive powerful waves...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: It's easy to talk about environmental stewardship, but quite another matter to practice it. This compilation of 12 ABC News stories shows how governments, businesses, and individuals around the world are taking concrete, eco-friendly action. Each engaging example of "going green" offers an opportunity for class discussion, further study, and perhaps even genuine change.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This Science Screen Report shows how human interests and the needs of aquatic life can be balanced. It describes the efforts of scientists, engineers, farmers, and fishermen to address shoreline habitat problems and support endangered species. Citing ways these cooperative efforts have succeeded-for example, by rehabilitating gray seal populations, redesigning dikes to aid migratory birds, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Prehistoric art often renders animals in spiritual, even divine, form-but primitive beast images can also reflect a degree of humanity. This program sifts through the complexity of the animal-god concept, identifying the place of the lion, the giraffe, the wolf, the elephant, and many other creatures in a wide range of myths and religions. With detailed observations of sculpture, carvings, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: A city shouldn't be a problem, says Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba. "It should be a solution." This program explores innovative planning, engineering, and conservation at work in the Brazilian metropolis as it transcends many of the problems plaguing other South American cities. The film spotlights fully modernized public transportation and recycling systems, a "Citizenship Street"...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: As in the case of coffee, sugar, and other cultivated products, the floral industry would collapse without a steady supply of cheap labor. This program goes inside the world of Colombia's flower growers, in particular those who work the hardest for the lowest pay. Profiling two women with varying experiences, the film reveals both the tenuous nature of life on the industry's bottom rung - Hilda...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines types of conflict that can occur at the local level, whether that locality is a single town, a region, or an entire country. After generally addressing armed conflict-different types of war, where they tend to proliferate, and kinds of weaponry used-Conflict on a Local Scale illustrates unarmed conflict through five examples. They include a clash of recreational interests...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: In 1532, 168 Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru. They were exhausted, outnumbered, and terrified, and ahead of them were camped 80,000 Incan troops. And yet within just 24 hours, more than 7,000 Inca warriors were slaughtered, the Incan emperor languished in chains, and the victorious Europeans began what would become a brutal reign that would leave its marks throughout the Americas. This...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why do urban crime rates soar in some wealthy countries while dropping in others? This program analyzes that question using data-mapping to find telltale patterns in Japan and the United States. With the Japanese crime rate increasing in 90 percent of the nation, a data map based on locations and peak times of criminal activity sheds light on deteriorating conditions in city outskirts. Opposite...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Based on recent statistics, 90 percent of the world's orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa; 40 percent of African children work seven days a week; and many support themselves by prostitution or are subjected to enslavement. This program highlights the work of the Terre des Hommes Oasis Center, in Benin, which rescues, rehabilitates, and returns exploited children to their families; the Jinja...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Coffee is second only to oil as the world's most valuable traded commodity, but small-scale producers rarely profit from it. This program reveals the hardship and uncertainty faced by coffee farmers in Guatemala, and how many are taking steps to obtain better prices and build better lives. Analyzing the country's traumatic history and the lingering effects of its civil war, the video sheds...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In Canada, diversity is represented as "an ethnicity + a hyphen + Canadian." But what if you are one of the many people who don't fit into an obvious category? What if your background is a hybrid of ancestries and you live "in the hyphen"-somewhere in between, where cultural identities overlap? This program examines the experiences of poet Fred Wah and six other Canadians with one parent from a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Earth's surface gave shape to the early cosmologies of almost every culture. This program explores that universal phenomenon, traveling across the globe to examine the role of geology in religion and myth. From the revered Uluru/Ayers Rock in Australia to Crete's Diktaeon cave-according to tradition, the birthplace of Zeus-the video explains the spiritual significance of numerous sites...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Despite the extraordinary engineering of Brazil's Porto Primavera Dam, many scientists and environmentalists view its ecological effects as catastrophic. This program offers a sobering look at a nation's effort to balance its growing energy needs against the long-term benefits of preserving unique and irreplaceable ecosystems. Produced prior to the completion of Porto Primavera and the creation...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Between the early 19th century and the early 21st century, the global population grew from one billion to more than six billion people. This program describes population geography and explains how experts use it to define groups and forecast changes within those groups. First, population distribution and demographics are described. Then, the effects of birth and death rates on the populations...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010