Films Media Group.
Description
Categorizing others is a part of human nature, and even as infants we divide the world into two groups-male and female-to help organize our reality. But when these stereotypes are used to make assumptions about a person's character and value, they become gender bias or outright sexism. This program illustrates some of the commercial, cultural, psychological, and sociological forces that have shaped sexual stereotypes in the media, such as demographic...
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Deeply rooted in African rhythms, the first gospel music, as sung on southern plantations, expressed the collective sorrow of American slaves, and the history of their diaspora. Using narration and thrilling performance footage, these programs trace the 200-year history of gospel music from black churches, to the civil rights movement, to its influence on modern jazz, blues, and rock and roll. Its revolutionary sounds and joyful vocal styles are featured...
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In her youth, Barbara Arrowsmith struggled with a severe learning dysfunction-until she designed a self-improvement regimen aimed at strengthening areas of her brain. This film profiles Arrowsmith, takes viewers inside the school she founded, and follows the progress of four cognitively challenged students enrolled there. Psychology and special education experts articulate diverging opinions of Arrowsmith's methods-including enthusiasm from Dr. Norman...
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Read by noted actors Michael Gough, Edward Fox, and Eileen Atkins, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land powerfully expresses the disillusionment and disgust of the post-World War I era in Europe. In this program, Professor Frank Kermode, of Cambridge University; Eliot biographer Peter Ackroyd; and poets Sir Stephen Spender and Craig Raine examine the complex nature of Eliot's influential poem, analyze its appeal, and trace the reasons why it became one of...
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Filmed in 11 countries, this collection of video segments spotlights Lydia Cacho, Casimira Rodriguez, and 14 other women who are making a difference in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Segments include ... Southeast Asia Indonesia-Standing in the Gray Zone: This clip profiles Nurdiati Akma, one of thousands of Indonesian women campaigning for a law restricting access to pornography-particularly by children. The Women's...
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Filmed in 15 countries, this collection of video segments spotlights Malalai Joya, Mukhtar Mai, and 17 other women who are making a difference in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Segments include ... Africa Sierra Leone-Among the Numbers: This clip profiles 58-year-old Mary Musa, the first female council chair in the town of Koidu. One of few women to have risen to leadership via the grassroots, she is also a widow raising five children of...
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Beginning with the Battle of Bailen, this program charts the erratic course of politics in Spain that saw Ferdinand VII deposed by Napoleon and replaced by the emperor's brother, Joseph; reinstated at the end of the Peninsular War by the victorious allied forces; constrained by a coup in 1820 to abide by the liberal Constitution of 1812; and unbound by a second coup to resume his authoritarian reign-an era known as the Decada Ominosa. Wars for independence...
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The life of Cuba's Communist leader reveals much about the Cold War, 20th-century Latin American history, and the political and military dimensions of revolutionary movements. This program reaches into all those subjects as it explores the rise and decades-long rule of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. Interviews with Latin American experts-including Argentine columnist Oscar Raul Cardoso, historian and psychologist Mario Pacho O'Donnell, and Dr. Roberto...
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Continuing his exploration of their impact on European history, in this program Rageh Omaar discusses the spread of the Ottoman Empire, its golden age, and factors that led to its decline by the early 20th century. Omaar explains how Suleiman the Magnificent consolidated his million-square-mile realm by combining religious law with political power, setting a precedent that would have consequences for the next four centuries. The lasting repercussions...
10) Sleep apnea
Formats
Description
Over 19 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea. But the potentially fatal disorder only presents during sleep-so a large number of sufferers remain unaware of the danger. This program explores the causes of OSA and the treatments available for it. Two instructive case studies will help viewers understand and feel comfortable about current diagnostic approaches, including the completion of a polysomnogram or sleep study. With the expertise...
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Millennials--the generation of young people coming of age in the early 21st century--have recently been much maligned. Are their critics right? Is this generation, which has grown up with revolutionary technology and entered adulthood in a time of recession, uniquely coddled, narcissistic, and lazy? Or have we let conventional wisdom blind us to their openness to change and innovation, and optimism in the face of uncertainty, which, in any generation,...
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This program examines the tragic story of nine-year-old James Darby, who sent a letter to President Clinton asking him to stop the violence in his city as part of a classroom project. Nine days after he sent the letter, Darby was shot walking home from a local park. Successful community efforts such as Cleveland Works and Beat the Streets show how local businesses, religious organizations, and individuals can help at-risk youths divide their time...
13) Broken Moon
Description
As the sun beats down and the wind whips dust into his eyes, Sonam, a Himalayan nomad, struggles across an arid landscape. Yet life here was not always like this. The climate changed, urning his once beautiful world into a desert. Now Sonam and his people face a desperate struggle to survive or must leave their homeland behind. Cinematic and full of majesty, this documentary offers a startling glimpse of one of the most remote corners of the planet....
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Narrated by Emmy-nominated actress Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey), "Civil War: the Untold Story" provides new insights into the causes of the Civil War, life on the home front, the politics of war, the issue of slavery, and the relatively unheralded role African Americans played in the conflict. Filmed at the actual battle sites, the five-part series uses re-enactors to recreate the epic battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge...
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This classic play is aimed at the student, teacher, lecturer and theater lover alike, uses professional actors and directors at London's award-winning Greenwich Theater. With its themes of deceit, pride, love, gossip and capriciousness, The School for Scandal is one of the most enduring of all theater classics by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Showcasing Sheridan's mastery of farce, witty dialogue and delight in satirizing upper-class pretension and affectation;...
16) Name That Meter
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Can you sense the "beat"? Meter is the particular grouping of beats in music. In this Chat Maestro Maull helps you learn to distinguish different meters. Part of the Discovery Orchestra Chat series.
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There's a new gold rush in America's west where decades of marijuana prohibition are coming to an end and Wall Street is moving in. With predictions that sales and profits will grow by 64 percent in the next year, thousands of new businesses are entering the market - but there is a growing opposition warning that a new Big Tobacco is being created. (29 minutes).
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With 33 percent of adults and 17 percent of children obese, the United States is facing an obesity epidemic. Obesity increases risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other maladies and costs the U.S. health care system nearly $150 billion a year. Should the government implement policies to fight obesity, or is this a matter of individual rights and personal responsibility?
19) Honduras: Log On
Description
Timber is one of Honduras' biggest natural resources and the source of great potential wealth. Hence the existence of wholesale illegal logging, irrespective of the consequences to the local environment. This has led concerned parties to set up the Olancho Environmental Movement. This organization has mobilized to protect these forests, at some risk to its members, like Rene Gradiz, whose testimony is disturbing in the extreme. (25 minutes).
Description
The people who are building and managing it insist it's a temporary, emergency shelter. The people living in it are creating neighborhoods, commercial and retail centers, education precincts and function centers. To call Zaatari a refugee camp would be to deny its vibrancy and complexity. Residents want to return to Syria, but until their war-ravaged nation becomes safe again, this desert community has become their home away from home. (29 minutes)....