Summary: The mariachi sound is the heart and soul of Mexico-and a form of music that today is enjoyed throughout the world. In this down-to-earth program, mariachi aficionado Cornelio Garcia introduces viewers to the music, history, and cultural importance of mariachi bands in Mexico and elsewhere. Whether they are marching in a parade, performing onstage in a restaurant or at a fiesta, or even...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: The numbers alone are stunning: 8 million inhabitants, 70 percent of whom live below the poverty line; a life expectancy of 50 years; a 65 percent illiteracy rate; and a 70 percent unemployment rate. Such is the recent population in Haiti, which ironically had its origins cast in optimism: the Haitians were the first people to abolish slavery in 1797 and establish a black republic. Yet the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: If a single individual may be said to have embodied the development of the Cuban secessionist movement, that person was surely Jose Marti. Set within the context of the turbulent relations between Cuba, Spain, and the U.S.A., this program spotlights Marti-a striking orator, sagacious propagandist, and inspiring leader-and the movement that he founded, Cuba Libre. Although killed during a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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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
View online at AVOD
Summary: In recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 12, 1992. "The celebration of Columbus is for us an insult," said Menchu, one of the most outspoken and articulate and persuasive advocates of native rights. This program presents a profile of this extraordinary woman, whose life has become a symbol of the sufferings,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This beautifully filmed program looks at the wall paintings of some of the most famous Mexican muralists-Diego Rivera, Juan O'Gorman, Jose Clemente Orozco-and at the work of Luis Barragan, the greatest Mexican architect of the 20th century. Their common medium is the wall. The muralists sought to return art to the people, by putting it on the walls of public buildings, just as it had been in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: For guidance northward, illegal immigrants from Latin America frequently enlist mercenary escorts known as "coyotes." This program examines one such charming and unseemly figure and the three Guatemalans who have placed their trust in him. Viewers follow the nervous foursome through checkpoints and river crossings as they employ unreliable forged documents and take on false identities-while...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Presented by sculptor Antony Gormley, this program was created to complement the 2002-3 exhibition of Aztec culture at London's Royal Academy. Many of the incredible works loaned to the exhibit are shown, along with sculptures and artifacts filmed in Mexico City and at important Aztec sites. Leading scholars and curators explore how the nomadic Aztecs drew inspiration from earlier cultures. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: South America has tilted to the left, and its socialist governments are forging an economic alliance that places public power, not market dynamics, at the center. The plan? To exploit revenues from the continent's abundant natural resources to build a better future where all will benefit from that wealth-and, in the process, to become free from North American interference. To explore the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The mariachi sound is the heart and soul of Mexico-and a form of music that today is enjoyed throughout the world. In this down-to-earth program, mariachi aficionado Cornelio Garcia introduces viewers to the music, history, and cultural importance of mariachi bands in Mexico and elsewhere. Whether they are marching in a parade, performing onstage in a restaurant or at a fiesta, or even...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines the pros and cons of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution through the eyes of women exiles in Miami and Castro supporters in Cuba. We hear from several women, including an avid anti-Castro exile and a Cuban television reporter, who tell stories of repression under the Castro regime. Health workers and educators discuss the benefits of Castro's policies, and the role of women in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although dreams of a socialist utopia in Cuba have all but vanished, decades of U.S. trade sanctions have not had the expected effect, either. This program looks at the legacy of Cuba's Communist revolution and the Castro regime, examining political, social, and economic conditions prevailing in the island nation today. Positive and negative aspects alike are discussed-from Cuba's high literacy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Surveying some of the most under-appreciated art of the 20th century, this program documents a groundbreaking exhibit of work by Latin American women at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The video opens up the world of these bold and sensitive visionaries, illuminating their accomplishments, their impact on artists outside their own countries, and the relationship between cultural and artistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: For decades, boxing has held a special place of honor in Cuban society-not least because Fidel Castro deployed the nation's athletes as an unconventional tool of foreign and domestic policy. This Wide Angle report goes inside the Havana Boxing Academy-the first time a foreign film crew has been permitted-to follow future Olympians, hand-picked from the age of nine, as they fight their way into...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: 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...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Summary: Ernesto "Che" Guevara was both a romantic and a rebel, honored by many for his commitment to liberation yet vilified by others as a rogue. This compelling program traces the life of a man whose idealism and determination gripped the imagination of an era. Interviews with family members, partisans, enemies, and others-including the photographer who immortalized him-share their recollections and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In 1532, 168 Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru. They were exhausted, outnumbered, and terrified, and ahead of them were camped 80,000 Incan troops. And yet within just 24 hours, more than 7,000 Inca warriors were slaughtered, the Incan emperor languished in chains, and the victorious Europeans began what would become a brutal reign that would leave its marks throughout the Americas. This...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program provides a portrait of Cortez and his world-the real world and the imaginary one painted by theologians, mystics, imaginative travelers, poets, and liars; of the New World as seen by a small number of Spaniards; and of the civilizations of Mesoamerica before they were "discovered"-the world of the Mayas and Aztecs, the nature of Aztec religion and politics. It describes the Battle...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Panama Canal, one of the wonders of the modern world, ranks among the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century. This program spotlights William Gorgas and John Stevens-only two of the legions who worked on the project, but who stand out, even a century later, for their extraordinary achievements in spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Dr. Gorgas is remembered for his...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Beginning with a summary of Cuban history from the island’s 16th-century subjugation by Spanish conquistadors to the 20th-century communist revolution, this program scrutinizes the current state of U.S./Cuba relations through the eyes of progressives, who want to put the past behind them for the benefit of Cubans still suffering from the decades-long U.S. embargo, and the anti-Castro expatriate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010