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Asia in transition Fighting the tide Lawrence of Arabia (New York, N.Y.) Lorsque le monde parlait arabe Paradise found South-Western introduction to business Southwestern introduction to business The Wide Angle Collection: Human Stories, Global Issues Vertical city Voyageur experience in global geographyFilter By Series
Asia in transition Fighting the tide Lawrence of Arabia (New York, N.Y.) Lorsque le monde parlait arabe Paradise found South-Western introduction to business Southwestern introduction to business The Wide Angle Collection: Human Stories, Global Issues Vertical city Voyageur experience in global geographySummary: The UAE's oil is plentiful and readily consumed by an energy-thirsty world; meanwhile, the nation struggles with its own thirst for water. This program documents the history of the wealthy Arab nation and how it deals with water scarcity and an abundance of petroleum. Detailed discussions of the oil drilling and seawater desalinization processes, conversations with young UAE citizens, and a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In Iran, even laughter is considered sinful by the nation's strict Shiite regime. Yet after revolution and war, Iranians cherish hopes of a freer future. This program describes the impact of life in a modern fundamentalist society on Iran's diverse population, which includes Muslims, Christians, and Jews. It also spotlights the joyful celebration of Sizdah Bedar, which welcomes the spring; the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Despite severe restrictions on Western media, this Wide Angle documentary goes deep inside the ruling elite of the Saudi kingdom. With an introduction to the royal family from reform-minded Prince Turki al-Faisal, the program explores the Saudi government's ability-or lack thereof-to implement lasting democratic change. It records an extraordinary emergency council session convened by then...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program offers a global history of the oil industry and the issues intertwined with it, from early-20th-century prospecting in South America and the Middle East to war in Iraq. The origins and significance of OPEC figure prominently in the narrative, as do several historic and violent conflicts revolving around controlling sources or flows of oil: labor strikes in Latin America, Nasser's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Containing nearly a sixth of the world's population, India is home to almost a billion people, more than half of whom live in rural villages. This program provides an overview of topics such as the caste system as it exists in the holy Hindu town of Varanasi and the massive pilgrimages to Allahabad, where millions of Hindus come to ritually bathe at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Renamed Myanmar by its ruling junta, Burma is one of the world's poorest nations due to decades of iron-fisted military control and despite its valuable natural resources and priceless national treasures. This program presents an intriguing glimpse of Burmese life, ranging from washing the sacred Buddha at the Maha Muni Pagoda and the initiation of young Buddhist novices amid the ruins of Bagan...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Peak oil: the point at which oil-producing countries, faced with diminishing crude reserves, can no longer keep pace with growing demand. Has the world already reached it, or is the point of irrevocable decline still decades away? That is the slippery question that frames the narrative of this program as experts from around the world give their views on factors associated with escalating oil...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: A magnet for tourists, investors, and Fortune 500 companies, the United Arab Emirates is an oasis of economic success-but the wealth is not shared equally among its sheikdoms. In the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi has a plan to attract more business to his oil-poor realm: a new capital city designed to become the region's center of trade, industry, and tourism. But...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In this program, Turkish filmmaker Isaac Isitan investigates recent economic crises in Turkey and Argentina, with a focus on their roots and their effects upon the middle classes in both countries. How could these two countries have gone bankrupt within a decade? The financial turmoil began in the 1980s, when the IMF ordered structural adjustment programs in the agricultural industry and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Many Arab widows lead a cloistered and restricted life, often living below the poverty line. In 2003, eight widows in the Galilean village of Tamra started a daring business venture-the Azka Pickle Cooperative-seeking financial independence for themselves and their children. This Wide Angle report follows the women as they establish a tiny pickle factory and market their product to local...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: It has the tallest building in the world, the biggest shopping mall on earth, and economic growth rivaling China's. This CNBC Original documentary takes viewers to Dubai, a Persian Gulf city with huge business and investment opportunities-many of which have nothing to do with oil. With insight from American corporate leaders, including J. W. Marriott Jr. and GE's CEO Jeffrey Immelt, the program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: A series of intimate, 10-minute portraits explores the lives and beliefs of six young people whose usual places of worship are beautiful and historic mosques in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The documentary follows the six Muslims of different cultures and traditions as they go on the journey of a lifetime - the pilgrimage to Mecca, where the prophet Muhammad was born. The seven wonders...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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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
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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
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Summary: This program defines Mexico City's globalization in terms of winners and losers, examining how, in the world's largest metropolis, immigration challenges are linked to poverty and population influx from surrounding rural areas. Contrasting the city's high-tech facilities and fashionable neighborhoods with its sprawling slums and their struggling inhabitants, the program outlines the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
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
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Summary: An intensely personal drama, Battle for the Arab World tells the story of T. E. Lawrence beginning with his 19th-century childhood. Born to unmarried parents and branded with the stigma of illegitimacy, he spent most of his childhood alone, striving for physical and academic achievement. While attending Oxford, his passion for medieval history led to an expedition to the great crusader castles...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: Heading for Peace continues the biography of T. E. Lawrence from the year 1917 as he and the Arabs continue to attack and undermine the Turks. Upon Turkish surrender, the Balfour Declaration paves the way for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and Lawrence leads the Arabs in an allied race for the city. But soon after, British duplicity is exposed. Now a celebrated figure to the British public,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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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: One of the strongest buildings on the planet, Torre Mayor is constructed to withstand seismic movement that would obliterate the average skyscraper. Built in the wake of Mexico City's devastating 1985 earthquake, the tower is both a monument to engineering and a haven of safety in one of the world's most active seismic zones. This program focuses on the brilliant safety solutions behind Torre...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: As life among the aristocracy in Damascus and Baghdad attained its zenith of refinement, another important cultural center was developing in Islamic Cordoba. This program focuses on the remarkable cultural contributions of Ziryab, a talented young musician who fled the East for Andalusia and became the era's preeminent arbiter of style and taste. After creating a popular new form of music and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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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
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Summary: Why was Islamic philosophy, once the epitome of Arab learning, eventually rejected by Muslims? And why, after assimilating it, did Europeans distance themselves from its formulators? This program seeks to understand the religious climate of the late Middle Ages, in which universities and madrassas became centers of power and models for evolving sociopolitical systems. The potentially heretical...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, art critic Waldemar Januszczak travels through the heart of the Middle East and beyond to study a wide range of Islamic architecture, decoration, and art objects. Providing helpful historical background on the faith-with an eye on the explosive spread of early Islamic culture-the program examines the pristine beauty of India's Taj Mahal as well as one of the world's oldest...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007