Summary: This program focuses on General Stilicho, who, as guardian of the young Emperor Honorius, became the de facto commander-in-chief of the Roman armies in the West.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, two poets reflect on the cultural legacies they have inherited. Lucille Clifton and David Mura bring their talent and humor to bear as they look at the past and the lives they live in America today. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Poetry's ability to bridge gaps and cross boundaries is emphasized in this program through the works of Robert Hass, Claribel Alegria, and Carolyn Forche. Distinctly different in terms of background and style, these three artists are identical in their ability to transport audiences to new places, new feelings, and new hopes. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The number one predictor of obesity in children is an overweight parent-but genes are only part of the story. This program reports on the health and happiness of five toddlers who are part of a large-scale longitudinal study in child development. Highlighting the issue of childhood obesity, the program asks: Why are a rising number of children overweight and how does parenting make a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Long ago, the oceans were home to all living things. Then some creatures moved ashore. But how? This program outlines the stages of natural selection that enabled water-dwelling animals and plants to survive, and then thrive, on land. Key evolutionary innovations such as exoskeletons and endoskeletons, legs and feet, cold blood and warm blood, lungs, hard-shelled eggs, fur, and live young are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A major part of socialization is about self-control-and age three is a critical time for a child to learn how to reign in hostility, resentment, and impulsive behavior. This program delivers a progress report on five toddlers-the public face of a much larger longitudinal study-who must now learn to manage their own feelings and actions. Can Decklan get a handle on the tantrums that, not...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: When determining a child's health and well-being, a major factor to take into account is stress. This program explores the causes and effects of the chronic stress that children experience as they learn and grow. Viewers will follow a group of one-year-olds as they take part in a large-scale, longitudinal child development study-which, in this installment, measures levels of cortisol at...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program analyzes how flight evolved not once but four times, in very different ways. Presenting a number of theories, the program examines how insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats each took to the sky. Bug wings that may have evolved from larval gills into pond-crossing sails; flight feathers that could have begun as soft down on small dinosaurs; and bat wings that probably developed from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The oceans are life's laboratory, the global test tube where trial and error meet cause and effect. By focusing on pivotal animals-ammonites, flatworms, sea squirts, frog fish, and bottlenose dolphins, to name only five-and anatomical adaptations such as the eye, the brain, the backbone, and fins, this program illustrates how life populated the seas. Evidence of humankind's evolutionary past is...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: How accurate is the term "identical twins"? Can a cell-for-cell likeness between two siblings really exist? And what does that say about the supposed uniqueness of each human being? This program examines the genetics, physiology, and psychology behind such questions as it presents fascinating real-world case studies of identical twin development. Viewers meet monozygotic twins raised apart and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Poetry offers a way for individuals to make sense of themselves, understand their motivations and fears, gain insight into their past and their future. As this program shows, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Robert Bly, and Marilyn Chin have all found routes to self-discovery and personal reconciliation through writing. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Two courageous women artists who have turned potential tragedy into triumph are testimony to the healing powers of poetry. In this program, authors Sandra McPherson and Linda McCarriston revel in the beauty of love, family, and nature, exploring and elevating their lives through wondrous and passionate words. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Adrienne Rich, Victor Hernandez Cruz, and Michael S. Harper have changed the way poetry is heard, read, and absorbed. This program showcases these three poets who exult in language's ability to illuminate culture and history. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Do Americans still hold certain truths to be self-evident? Do all human beings possess inalienable rights endowed by their creator? Are all lives of equal value? And if so, how do those core beliefs translate into public policy on issues such as healthcare, poverty, abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia? This program explores what the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin called a "consistent...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program seeks to understand how relationships between living things have promoted the diversity and splendor of life as it exists on Earth today. Predation, competition, and symbiosis are addressed through topics such as the anatomical arms race between predators and prey, the evolutionary benefits of sexual reproduction, and the impact of viruses on creatures ranging from rabbits to human...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Coleman Barks has dedicated much of his life's work to introducing the 13th-century Islamic mystic Jelaluddin Rumi to contemporary audiences. In this program, Barks brings the prolific Rumi to life in poems that are alternately ecstatic, wise, and hilarious. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Despite their shared genetic makeup, some "identical" twins don't appear identical at all-raising important questions about the role of environment in human development. This program explores several ways in which monozygotic twins grow and change on separate paths as well as the epigenetic, anatomical, and psychological factors involved. With the help of 4D scanning and CGI graphics, viewers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Gary Snyder and Daisy Zamora have each, in their own way, engaged in battle. In this program, the staunch defender of the natural world and the combatant in the Nicaraguan civil war wield their preferred weapon, language, which in their hands has the power to change the way people feel, think, and act. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: An extraterrestrial biologist would probably not hesitate to classify Homo sapiens as just another chimpanzee. After all, the two species share 98 percent of their DNA-and yet what a difference that two percent makes. This program investigates how such similar primates became so very dissimilar.and how humans, having reached the point where they are little hindered by natural selection, are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: When it comes to situations involving life and death, the United States is strongly polarized. Liberals commonly support the legality of abortion as a private matter of personal choice but condemn the death penalty as inhumane, while conservatives often support execution as a form of justice but denounce abortion as legalized murder. How did these points of view become a part of the ideologies...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the jazz-laced street speech of African-American poet Sekou Sundiata's Harlem nights to Palestinian-American Naomi Shihab Nye's delight in the wonder of everyday objects, this program celebrates the cultures of today-and the way those cultures have become part of the American mosaic. Filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The first year of life contains many challenges for children-and many opportunities to predict what kind of life a child will lead. This program introduces a group of one-year-olds who are part of a large-scale longitudinal study in child development. Closely documenting the daily routines and developmental milestones of the children, the program gauges each subject's ability to confront new...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The story of a child's development is written most poignantly in his or her ability to bounce back after pain and trauma. From outward, observable behavior to the mysterious inner world of epigenetics, this program examines the coping mechanisms of five-year-olds in highly varied contexts and surroundings. Aside from catastrophe or a loved one's death, parental separation is the most traumatic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: A good start to school depends on three fundamental gifts: the ability to communicate effectively, a talent for fitting in well with others, and an ambition to learn. This program tracks the challenges, setbacks, and successes in the lives of a half-dozen five-year-olds as they prepare for the world of organized education. When it comes to school readiness, why is Ben, the smallest of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010