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: Art may represent a quest for beauty and perfection, but throughout history it has also explored a terrifying realm of doom, decay, and darkness. This program delves into the age-old human compulsion to surround ourselves with images of death. Starting with the Neolithic relics known as the Jericho Skulls, the film identifies a pattern of morbidity and death fetishism covering a broad swathe of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: When did we begin to create images and, more importantly, find tangible meaning in them? How did this conceptual leap lay the groundwork for our modern, visually oriented culture? This program investigates when and why humanity underwent what archaeologists call the "creative explosion" and invented pictorial art. Beginning with the Altamira cave paintings in Spain, the film addresses questions...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: No storytelling medium is more powerful than the modern movie-but the ability to inspire and entertain by combining words and pictures is hardly a recent phenomenon. This program reveals the age-old roots of the cinematic narrative form and their evolution over the centuries. Beginning in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nineveh, the film points to the Epic of Gilgamesh as one of the earliest...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Amid the clamor of business and technological advances, a reverence for age, custom, and craftsmanship endures in Japan. There, the title of "Living National Treasure" is bestowed on some seventy master artisans and performers who are charged with passing on the country's cultural heritage to future generations. This program takes viewers into the studios, workshops, and homes of the remarkable...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Filmed in Japan, this program pushes beyond the stereotypes to objectively examine the history of manga, how manga are drawn, and manga's influence on Japanese life as illustrated by cosplay bars, where people dress up as their favorite characters; manga kissa, 24/7 manga cafes; and Comicket, the twice-annual comics market that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors. The program also...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Perennially popular in China, paper-cutting is treasured for its ability to transform ordinary paper into intricately patterned, brilliantly colored works of art. This program, filmed in Hubei Province, charts the evolution of Chinese paper-cutting from traditional cutouts representing luck and health to modern visual art as it illustrates the designing, cutting, and coloring processes. Tsuwoo...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program enters the world of Beijing opera through the traditional art of mask-making-and through the eyes of 76-year-old Xiang Qi Shang, a celebrated mask maker who has devoted his life to preserving a custom that may yet be lost in China's rush to modernization. Master Xiang demonstrates his remarkable brushwork as he comments on a range of topics, including the use of facial expression...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program spotlights 33 works of Chinese art seldom ever seen outside of the National Palace Museum. Spanning approximately 5,000 years of history, this diverse collection of pieces includes a Neolithic pottery jar; bronze fangzun and fangyi vessels from the late Shang-early Zhou period; a bronze ding vessel from the Late Western Zhou period; a Tang figurine in sancai glaze; a Ming cup in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: There is an old Japanese adage that "the best food is that which is least prepared." This program looks at Kyoto-style sushi both as a delicacy and as a symbol of Japanese cultural aesthetics. Footage of Kitamura Norio and Kitakura Hiroyuki-two of Japan's foremost sushi chefs-illustrates their specialized approaches to oshi sushi and nigiri sushi while capturing the care they put into every...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: More than 80 years of unstinting devotion to his craft have made 98-year-old Yatsujiro Yamaguchi one of the best textile artists in Japan-and perhaps the world. Filmed at the Nishijin Textile Center and other locations, this program showcases the obi, the key component of traditional female garb and the epitome of Japanese elegance and refinement, as woven by Mr. Yatsujiro. Noh costumes are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Hokusai's The Great Wave is arguably the best-known image of Japanese art in the Western world today, and yet prints of it were sold in the 19th century for only the price of a large bowl of noodles. This program tells the story of an iconic image, its visionary maker, and the times in which he lived. It also decodes the multiple meanings of The Great Wave, explains the mechanics of woodblock...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Mehndi is traditional painting of intricate patterns drawn on hands and feet with natural dye extracted from henna leaves, says mehndi artist Smarahjit Jana. In addition to numerous demonstrations of mehndi being applied, this program shows the gathering and preparation of henna leaves, discusses types of mehndi patterns and their significance, and describes different purposes of mehndi. More...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Designated national treasures, the picture scrolls of The Tale of Genji were made in the 12th century, 100 years after Murasaki Shikibu wrote her classic story of Buddhist sensibilities and courtly romance in Japan's Heian period. This program combines readings from chapters corresponding to the paintings with a look at their meticulous restoration in order to rediscover an enduring literary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This program takes a deep look into Hokusai's The Great Wave, interpreting the story it tells and scrutinizing formal aspects ranging from the perfect spiral that underpins the wave, to the spiritual balance between water and sky, to the fractal-like nature of the wavelets. Footage of artisans at work demonstrates how plates for The Great Wave were cut, inked, and successively impressed onto...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Art appreciation requires an understanding of the medium, the subject matter, and the subtexts inherent in the artists' techniques. In this program, correspondent Paul Solman and art historian Wen Fong visit an exhibit that is emblematic of Imperial China from the 8th century to the 17th. Styles discussed include the Imperial "propaganda" of the Sung and Ming dynasties; the wild spontaneity of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a world-renowned cultural center filled with some of the ancient world's most precious artifacts-including the famed burial mask of King Tutankhamun and the Royal Mummies of Luxor. The museum's collection is so large that it has traditionally shown only half of its holdings at any one time. This program documents an expanded presentation that enables viewers to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Who actually built the pyramids? What innovations enabled the ancient Egyptians to practice mummification? Why did they select certain treasures for their journeys to the afterlife? This classic program travels to a land of mystery and marvel as archaeologists investigate the secrets of long-lost Pharaonic culture and technology. Viewers encounter the sophisticated methods used to construct the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Historically, the arts in Africa were largely communal and unrecorded. But much has changed over the past century, and this program takes a look at art in sub-Saharan Africa as it exists today through profiles of Senegalese rap groups Alif and Wageble and the rap collective Fight and Forget, who use their music as a form of political activism; Senegalese sculptor Babacar Niang, whose workshop...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: n the villages of sub-Saharan Africa where traditions are still strong, art is an integral part of daily life. This illuminating program examines the symbolism, aesthetics, and functionality of African art through the vast region’s sculpture, masks, architecture, ornaments, clothing, and utensils. In addition, indigenous African religious beliefs are explored through rituals—a spiritual form of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Belgium's Tervuren Museum contains the world's largest collection of Central African art, which consists of approximately 250,000 pieces. Noted journalist Paul Solman discusses the power and the true price of this collection with art historian Ramona Austin and journalist/author Adam Hochschild. In the immense Congo region, there are more than 250 different cultures, so there is a broad range...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Over seven centuries of Islamic rule, Spain became the cultural jewel of Europe. This program illustrates that flowering of art and science, placing the rebirth of classical learning in Andalusian rather than Italian cities. Writer Bettany Hughes speaks with Antonia Almagro of the Spanish National Research Council about the intellectual and aesthetic revelations a visitor from Florence or...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: With the grandeur and geometric sophistication of the Alhambra as a powerful opening example, this program looks at Islamic culture in southern Spain following the Berber invasion of 711. Scholar Bettany Hughes talks with Professor Antonio Fernandez-Puertas of the University of Granada, who has studied Nasrid art and architecture for 40 years; with Professor Lauro Olmo Encisco of Alcala...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Throughout history, one type of individual has instinctively grasped art's power to persuade and manipulate-and indeed, images have become at least as deadly as swords or guns in the hands of political and military leaders. This program revolves around a basic question: when did art mutate from a vehicle of the imagination into a tool of the ruler? Beginning in Britain, the program looks at the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009