Cobb, Daniel M.
Summary: Join the Smithsonian Institution to discover the rich history of native Americans.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2016
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 970.004 NATCopies Available at Fife Lake
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD NATSummary: In spite of mounting ecological damage, the Amazon Basin continues to nurture age-old stories and beliefs. This documentary illustrates the importance of indigenous narratives to those who dwell near the city of Iquitos, Peru, and view their natural surroundings in mythical terms. Concerning a young man who has recently gone missing in the forest, the film depicts his mother's attempts to find...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: "The Exiles" of the title are displaced Native Americans, living in late 1950s Los Angeles on Bunker Hill, a depressed area connected to the rest of the city by the Angels Flight trolley. The Indians were already exiles, from the moment they lost their ancestral lands and were confined to reservations. Starting on Friday afternoon and closing Saturday morning, the film follows pregnant Yvonne,...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Milestone Film & Video 2009
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Drama DVDs, Call number: DVD DRAMA EXISummary: Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North created the very genre of film documentary, with its documentation of Nanook the Inuit and the Eskimo traditions which were even then being threatened by the influences of whites. This program revisits the site of Flaherty's filming, and learns that he staged much of what he filmed, sired children to whose future he paid no heed, and is himself now part of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This episode of New York: A Documentary Film begins by identifying the key themes that shaped New York's history: commerce and capitalism, diversity and democracy, transformation and creativity. Filmmaker Ric Burns charts the development of the city founded by the Dutch as a purely commercial enterprise, first as New Amsterdam, a freewheeling enclave of trade and opportunity; then as the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: Once forced to hide their heritage, Native Americans now enjoy both an acceptance and a celebration of their history and culture. By presenting the experiences of Native Americans from a wide array of fields including artisans, performers, and teachers, this program shows how many tribes are returning to the traditions and spirituality of their ancestors. Among those interviewed are Kevin...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Experience the rich cultural diversity of Native American tribes and the impact that early white explorers had on their lives. In this program, viewers will learn about the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi culture and the successful Pueblo revolt against their Spanish conquerors. First-person accounts bring to life the adventures of early explorers, from Cabeza de Vaca, the first white...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1996
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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: In Nicaragua, a growing awareness of domestic violence and its consequences has spurred grassroots activism. This program documents the efforts of two groups, the Xochitl-Acatl Center and the Association of Men Against Violence, both of which confront gender and sexual abuse. Arguing that economic and political oppression influence male tendencies to exercise physical authority within the home,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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: Journeying to a remote land high in the Andean mountains, this program follows a team of adventurers and scientists on a perilous rescue mission. Their goal is not to save lost tourists or injured hikers but to rediscover forgotten cultures, ancient Inca ruins, and rare species of plants and animals. All of this work must be done before a massive highway, which will crisscross the South...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Sixteen skeletons-what is left of a 9th-century Mayan royal family-are discovered in the ancient city of Cancuen. Can their remains tell us anything about the collapse of the Mayan Empire? Did disease, starvation, or drought bring about that calamity? A crack team of experts from Guatemala's Forensic Anthropology Foundation uses its experience with wartime atrocities to investigate. While...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Urban punks with green hair and green thumbs, the members of Tierra Viva transform toxic Mexican earth into vegetable gardens. Their actions make up one remarkable part of this wide-ranging Mexican odyssey. Depicting Michoacan farmers who are fighting the trend to move to the cities-and preserving the winter home of the monarch butterflies-the program also journeys to Magdalena Bay,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: As the last great Aztec ruler, Montezuma II inherited a sprawling yet fragile empire. This program studies his governance, its abrupt end at the hands of the conquistadors, and its historical meanings. Paralleling a major exhibition at the British Museum, the film features artifacts, architecture, and images that speak to Montezuma's humanity, his self-proclaimed divinity, and the cultural...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: The Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa peoples live along northern California's Klamath River, and each tribe's ancient culture revolves around the majestic Pacific salmon. Today, four large hydroelectric dams have made salmon extinction a real and frightening possibility. This case study follows tribal members as they confront the owners of the dams-specifically, a global energy giant in Scotland which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Home to more biodiversity than either Europe or North America, Costa Rica has shown the world how to benefit from the environment without destroying it. This program treks across the Central American nation with a spotlight on ecotourism and how it fits into Costa Rica's overall economy. Visits to a banana farm, a coffee plantation, the Monteverde Cloud Forest, and the Tortugero National Park...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The brutal roots of the American slave trade are exposed in this program, focusing on the years 1450-1750 when Native Americans first encountered Europeans and when their world was transformed - and largely destroyed - by white settlers. Not only did the settlers exploit the natural wealth of the Americas, they also traveled to Africa, where they began a transatlantic slave trade that would...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1998
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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: This poignant collage features members of the Oglala Lakota Sioux living on and off the Pine Ridge reservation who present their unself-pitying yet pointed observations on Lakota history and modern-day Lakota life. Their creation myth and their attitudes toward Mother Earth and the concept of time contribute insights into their worldview, while footage of a major powwow and a tepee-raising...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: When an 11-year-old Paraguayan boy named Silvino Talavera died from pesticide poisoning in 2003, his name became a rallying cry in the fight against intensive soya production. This program recounts the tragedy and the legal, political, and economic impact of "agritoxins" in Latin America. Opening with a poetically filmed reenactment and moving on to feature key players in the story, the film...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Yuroks, California's largest Native American tribe, have lived near the mouth of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers for 10,000 years. This program details the many problems that beset them as they try to survive: their lands overrun by prospectors and soldiers in the 19th century, the primeval forest cut by lumber companies, environmental destruction that has nearly wiped out the fish on which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The remains of more than 10,000 Native Americans unearthed at archaeological sites across the U.S. are in the possession of museums such as the Smithsonian. Is the analysis of the bones valid scientific research, or is it a desecration of Native American culture? This program focuses on the tensions between scientists, historians, and museum curators and Native American groups, as the bones...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The consequences of armed conflict are complex and long-lasting. Using Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan as points of departure, this program examines some of the economic, environmental, and social impacts of conflicts at the national and international levels. Topics include the pernicious phenomenon of child soldiers; the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons; thorny...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Continuing his trek across the Muslim world, art scholar Waldemar Januszczak introduces viewers to masterworks in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia-from the gigantic and surreal mud mosques of Mali; to a rare, 10th-century Egyptian ewer carved out of a single piece of rock crystal; to the inspired urban planning of the ancient city of Isfahan in Iran; to the stunning architecture of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007