Fifteen fantastic works by the cinema's first special effects wizard. Decades before the term "special effects" was coined, audiences of the newborn cinema were witnessing spectacular screen illusions, courtesy of the medium's first master magician, Georges Méliès. Includes the documentary, Georges Méliès, cinema magician, by Patrick Montgomery and Luciano Martinengo, ©1978.
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COVID-19 was not just a viral pandemic; it was an infodemic of disinformation that turned citizen against citizen. Asian-Canadian Andy Sue, a Toronto florist, was a target of racialized scapegoating by a customer. The psychological trauma of this encounter with anti-Asian racism during the pandemic was eased when a sympathetic business neighbour took positive action. Experts discuss the implications of stigma and racism and examine the psychological reasons that some people become ensnared by it. The film examines the social and public health implications of our digital media reality, where social media algorithms detect bias to translate fear, blame, and outrage into profit.
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In the late 19th century, the Canadian government removed ritual objects from the possession of the Kwakiut'l, an indigenous community on the Northwest Coast. The Potlatch was their way of celebrating their culture, their identity, and their heritage. A ritual passing down of treasures, it symbolized a rebirth of tradition, a positive affirmation of their identity, past and present. In 1921, the Kwakiut'l people of Alert Bay, British Columbia, held their last secret potlatch. In 1980, also at Alert Bay, the U'mista Cultural Centre (U'mista means "something of great value that has come back") opened its doors to receive and house the cultural treasures which were seized decades earlier and only then returned to the people.
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From the mind of award-winning director Julie Taymor (The Lion King on Broadway, Frida, Titus) comes a Shakespeare adaptation like none other, A midsummer night's dream. Rich with Taymor's trademark creativity, this immersive and darkly poetic cinematic experience brings the play's iconic fairies, spells and hallucinatory lovers to life. Filmed at her sold-out stage production with cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto (Argo, Frida) and music by Academy Award-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal, the feats of visual imagination are ingenious and plentiful, but beating at the center of the film is an emotionally moving take on the deeper human aspects of Shakespeare's beloved tale.
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The question that lies at the heart of the ongoing debate about the world's forests is whether we can halt deforestation while still sustaining communities that depend on the forest for their livelihood. GoodWood looks at four forestry-based places where communities are discovering--sometimes with help from surprising quarters--that it can be done. From a village chair-making project in Honduras to a design school in Nelson, B.C., and from a community-based forestry in Mexico to more than 3,000 items from certified wood sold in a British retail chain, vital links are being made to keep people employed, while at the same time preserving the world's forests.
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Visions of light documents the evolution of motion picture photography, told in the words of the cinematographers themselves and in scenes from 125 films with behind-the-scenes archival footage. Anecdotes and comments chronicle the changing role of the cinematographer.
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The genesis of the motion picture medium is vividly recreated in this unprecedented collection of the cinema's formative works. More than crucial historical artifacts, these films reveal the foundation from which the styles and stories of the contemporary cinema would later arise. A rendering of Eadweard Muybridge's primitive motion studies (1877-85) begins the program, immediately defining the compound appeal of cinema as both a scientific marvel and sensational popular entertainment. This volume also includes works by Louis and Auguste Lumière, early films from Pathé, Edwin S. Porter's The great train robbery, and Georges Méliès' A trip to the moon, with narration written by Méliès, adapted and read by Fabrice Zagury.
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While some may consider the cinema a distinctly American invention, the most influential figures during its infancy were two brothers in France: Auguste and Louis Lumiere. In the beginning, they dominated world film production and distribution. Through the magic of cinema, such ordinary sights as the demolition of a wall, the arrival of a train, a family enjoying breakfast or workers exiting a factory were transformed into mystifying spectacles of light and motion, having their premiere on December 28, 1895. Perhaps the most extraordinary elements of this collection are the early British films, virtually unseen in the United States. Robert W. Paul, a scientific instrument maker by trade, devoted fifteen years to motion pictures, designing his own camera and projector and, in March 1896, staging the first performance by an Englishman of projected motion pictures to a fee-paying public.
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More than any other decade, the first ten years of the moving picture saw the greatest amount of experimentation and development. Ranging from the ingeniously creative to the audacious, the films represented in this volume offer a sampling of the primitive masterworks that allowed the technical novelty of the cinema to so quickly flourish into an artistically expressive medium.
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By 1907, the cinema's initial growing pains had subsided and fairly distinct generic categories of production were established. This volume of The movies begin examines some of these integral works that begin to reflect the modern day cinema--punctuated with authentic hand-tinted lantern slides used during early theatrical exhibition. Visual comedy, with notable elements of slapstick, is represented in Path Frares' The Policeman's Little Run (1907), Bangville Police (1913, marking the first appearance of the legendary Keystone Kops) and Max Linder's Troubles of a Grass Widower (1908). Best remembered today as a major influence on Charlie Chaplin, Linder was one of the first and most popular stars of the cinema.
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Ape genius explores the secret mental lives of apes and the crucial gap between ape intellects and our own. It discusses what is known about the intelligence of our nearest relatives, the great apes, including chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas--and asks what forms the crucial differences in intellect between apes and humans.
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Using dramatic recreations and animation, this program brings the August 27, 1883 eruption to life. The volcanic eruption reduced the island of Krakatoa to a third of its former size and triggered massive waves, including a tsunami that topped 100 feet high, killing 36,000 people.
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On December 26, 2004 a series of tidal waves killed thousands and devastated communities around the Indian Ocean. With around 100 tsunamis striking the world's coastlines each decade, Nova investigates what made the recent event so powerful and catastrophic. Shot within days of this shocking disaster, this program presents a clear explanation and analysis of the tragedy, revealing exactly how these deadly waves were triggered by one of the most powerful earthquakes recorded this century.
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Digestion and excretion examines the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food that occurs in the mouth and stomach.
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molecular messengers, chemical control
The endocrine system : molecular messengers, chemical control looks at the chemical structure of various hormones, the hormone receptors found on target cells, and the feedback mechanisms that regulate hormone levels.
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recognition, attack, and memory
The immunological system : recognition, attack, and memory looks at external barriers to microbial attack such as the skin and mucus membranes and non-specific internal defences such as macrophages, natural killer cells, and inflammatory response.
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defining our form
Muscular, skeletal, and integumentary systems : defining our form introduces the dermis and epidermis of the skin; the sweat and sebaceous glands; and the skin's role in protecting against microbial invasion, ultra-violet radiation and in producing vitamin D and then looks in-depth.
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neurons, networks, and the human brain
The nervous system : neurons, networks, and the human brain provides an introduction to the components and functions of the human nervous system.
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gas exchange, molecular transport
Respiration and circulation : gas exchange, molecular transport looks at the flow of air through the conducting portions of the respiratory system to the alveoli before examining: the role of hemoglobin in gas exchange and O₂ and CO₂ transport in the blood; the operation of the respiratory control center; and the mechanics of breathing.
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This unusual look at plant reproduction investigates the diversity of plant adaptations for pollination with an emphasis on unusual coevolved relationships with animal pollinators. Sexual encounters of the floral kind includes unusual bird and mammal pollinators, flowers that smell like rotting flesh, and orchids that lure male wasps with the promise of sex. The program includes examples from Australia, the Arctic, Central America, and Great Britain.
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In the 16th century, Lord Hidetora decides to retire and share his territory between his three sons, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. The latter, foreseeing difficulties, opposes his decision and he is consequently disinherited. However, the father soon discovers that, mocking his authority, his first two sons begin to fight. Jiro treacherously kills Taro and then Saburo before realising that it is, in fact, Taro's widow who is responsible for this confusion since she had sworn to revenge Hidetora's murder of her family years ago. Now all that is left for Jiro is to die fighting the enemies of the Hidetora dynasty. Based on Shakespeare's King Lear.
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The eyes of me presents an extraordinary look at four blind students. The parallel stories of two freshmen and two seniors unfold over the course of one dynamic year at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin. Distilled from over 250 hours of footage, this experiential documentary captures a textured portrait of these teenager's lives.
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A well-known nightmarish vision of the future: The Earth's population reaches seven billion. Dwindling resources, mountains of toxic waste, hunger, and climate change--the results of overpopulation? Who says that the world's overpopulated? And who's one too many? After the box-office success of Plastic planet, documentary filmmaker Werner Boote travels the globe and examines a stubborn view of the world that has existed for decades. But he sees a completely different question: Who or what is driving this catastrophic vision?
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Frozen river is set in a real-life smuggling zone on a Native American reservation between New York State and Quebec, where the lure of fast money presents a daily challenge to single moms who would otherwise be making minimum wage. Deserted by her husband and strapped for money, working class Ray (Melissa Leo), reluctantly teams up with Lila (Misty Upham), a widowed Mohawk woman, to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River from Canada to the U.S. in the trunk of a Dodge Spirit. Both women swear each trip will be their last--but one final run across the river leads to a showdown with the law on all sides.
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