Summary: Japan in the modern age: a people existing between the protection of the kami and the geological dangers of earthquake. This program covers the cataclysmic events of the 20th century-the devastating earthquake of 1923, the rise of militarism, the accession of Emperor Hirohito, the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, the Pacific War, Hiroshima, and the American occupation of Japan-but its...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The history of Japan past and present is the story of the kami, the supernatural, not quite godlike spirits who underlie the Japanese-ness of Japan-who created the Japanese islands at the beginning of time and remain today the ones responsible for health and luck, for success in childbirth and business, for the proper functioning of silicon chips and the uniqueness and unity of the Japanese....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The fine loess soil of the Yellow River basin quickly established that region as the home of China's earliest recorded dynasty. This program focuses primarily on Bronze Age China and the contributions of the Yin (or Shang) dynasty, with a tangential emphasis on the reign of the Qins. Commentary by Tang Jigen, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and other experts; archival film of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Were Egypt's pyramids really built by slaves to be the tombs of the pharaohs? Most scholars believed so-until the excavation of a workers' village and the tomb of High Priest Kai led to some startling conclusions. In this program, Zahi Hawass, of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, and renowned anthropologist Azza Saary el-Din provide support for the "public works" theory of the late...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The arrival of Commodore Perry in 1854 marked the stage for Japan's dramatic leap from the Middle Ages into modernity. The ports of Japan were forced open; the English, French, Russians, and Dutch promptly demanded-and got-the same privileges. In 1868, the last shogun gave way to a 15-year-old emperor, who dressed in Western-style clothes. Edo became Tokyo, education became a national passion,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Literally "the land between the rivers," Mesopotamia was host to some of the world's earliest and most powerful civilizations. Shot on location, this program seeks to understand how the Sumerian city-states, cradled by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, built a vibrant agricultural economy-and why, after centuries, the wheat crop suddenly failed. Commentary by Asli Ozdogan, of Istanbul...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This was the age of the Tokugawa family, the era of Edo, a period of over two-and-a-half centuries during which Japan was hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world and only a few Dutch and Chinese-constantly watched and treated like pariahs-were allowed to live on Japanese soil and to trade with the Japanese. This program treats the history of Japan during this period: the established...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In 1540, Portuguese navigators and Jesuit priests landed in a Japan of shoguns and samurai, where the arts of warfare had been refined to hitherto unknown heights of cruelty. Although Westernisms quickly became the rage in Japan, the Japanese soon recognized the long arm of colonialism. Christian priests and converts were persecuted and martyred and, in 1650, Japan shut tight its doors to the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Shrouded in mystery, the details of the Indus Valley civilization are slowly being extracted from the archaeological record. In this program, Richard Meadow, of Harvard University; R. S. Bisht, of the Archaeological Survey of India; linguist Asko H. S. Parpola; and other experts investigate the language, customs, and beliefs of the inhabitants of Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Born too soon and too small, premature newborns present doctors with some of the toughest medical and ethical challenges today. This program takes a deeply personal look at the emotional odysseys of two families, as specialized medical teams do all they can to save their babies. The emergency C-section to deliver Baby Jada, born twelve weeks early, and an operation to close a hole in Baby...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: When a baby is hospitalized with a life-or-death illness, parents place their trust in the doctors, nurses, and other specialists of the neonatal intensive care unit. This program blends the intimate and the informative to examine both the technological and the human aspects of infant critical care. Case studies featuring footage of the birth of the Faul twins, one of whom was diagnosed in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005