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 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
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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: 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
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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
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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
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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: 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: 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
View online at AVOD
Summary: Through unfettered access to powerbrokers and ordinary citizens, this Wide Angle report covers Haiti's ongoing struggle to craft a truly representative government from a volatile failed state. Butteur Metayer and Guy Philippe-strongmen of the National Front for the Reconstruction of Haiti Party and former rebels who drove Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in 2004-and three other Haitians...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A 36-year civil war has left over 150,000 dead and more than 1 million displaced in Guatemala. This program presents stirring portraits of three Mayan women and their efforts on behalf of peace. Adela, a widow, bravely sustains her refugee family. Justina tirelessly travels the countryside explaining the human rights movement to fellow villagers. Francesca, a Mayan priestess, reaffirms the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The works of Frida Kahlo, one of the 20th century's most prominent artists, are included in museums and private collections the world over. This documentary incorporates archival material, readings from journals and letters, and interviews with friends and scholars to retrace the life and work of one of Mexico's most highly recognized painters.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Focusing on the life and career of Pedro Lascurain, this program scrutinizes the turbulent beginning and violent ending of democracy in 20th-century Mexico. The events leading up to Lascurain's noble moment as president are thoroughly examined, as is the heavy-handed American interference in Mexican politics. Political analyst Arnaldo Cordova, professor of history Eugenia Meyer, and other...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although Hernan Cortes hardly considered himself the reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztecs did-and his conquest of Mesoamerica utterly destroyed their world, exactly as prophesied. In this program, Spanish historian and Oxford University professor Sir John Elliott and cultural historian Dr. Elizabeth Baquedano survey political, cultural, and religious aspects of Aztec civilization; analyze...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Sixteen skeletons-what is left of a 9th-century Mayan royal family-are discovered in the ancient city of Cancuen. Can their remains tell us anything about the collapse of the Mayan Empire? Did disease, starvation, or drought bring about that calamity? A crack team of experts from Guatemala's Forensic Anthropology Foundation uses its experience with wartime atrocities to investigate. While...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Stretching over 4,000 miles across South America, the Amazon River has long defied human efforts to tame it. Not a single bridge crosses it, and not one dam halts its flow. This program visits urban centers on the banks of the Amazon and examines new attempts to harness-or exploit-the river's energy and natural abundance. The journey begins at Iquitos-a Peruvian city blighted by poverty and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This program examines Chile under martyred socialist President Salvador Allende, and the subsequent Pinochet regime that followed. Allende's niece and novelist, Isabel Allende, exile Hortensia Bussi, Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriela Mistral, and others discuss women's role in the eventual toppling of Pinochet, and the formation of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Families of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006