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Effects of Globalization

Effects of Globalization


BROTHER TOWNS / PUEBLOS HERMANOS

Directed by Charles D. Thompson, Jr. and Michael Davey

An uplifting story about Jupiter, Florida's humane response to an influx of day laborers from Jacaltenango, Guatemala.

Brother Towns is a story of two towns linked by immigration, family, and work: Jacaltenango, a highland Maya town in Guatemala; and Jupiter, a coastal resort town where many Jacaltecos have settled in Florida.

Brother Towns chronicles a story of how and why people migrate across borders, how people make and remake their communities when they travel thousands of miles from home, and how people maintain families despite their travel. Because we are all immigrants, this is a universal human story, and a quintessential American one. All of us understand family.

Brother Towns is also a story of local and international controversy. News of undocumented immigrants is familiar in nearly every community across the U.S., and citizens must choose how they respond to this issue.

Our story includes voices of those opposed to undocumented immigrants as well as advocates helping migrants who seek work and hope, whether documented or not.

Reviews
  • "This film is a wonderful pedagogical tool but also a moving document of our times." - Jacqueline Bhabha, Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer, Harvard Law School

  • "A panorama of how two communities existing in different countries and in different social worlds become intertwined...As the film demonstrates, sometimes the biggest difference that emerges when new immigrants appear is not between the immigrants and community residents, but among the established residents themselves. The dual-country approach of the film gives it high educational value." - Nestor Rodriguez, Professor, Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, Author, When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror

    Item no.: NR02560634
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 58 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 250.00

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    FLAW, THE: MARKETS, MONEY, MORTGAGES AND THE GREAT AMERICAN MELTDOWN

    Directed by David Sington

    Tells the story of the credit bubble that caused the financial crash of 2008, and clearly explains how excessive income inequality leads to economic instability.

    In October 2008, a humbled Alan Greenspan admitted to the US Congress that he had been mistaken to put so much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and that he had failed to anticipate the self-destructive nature of wanton mortgage lending and the housing and credit bubble it generated.

    Taking for its title Greenspan's admission that he'd found a flaw in his model of how the world worked, THE FLAW attempts to explain the underlying causes of the crisis in more depth than any documentary to date.

    Made by international award-winning documentary maker David Sington (IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON), THE FLAW tells the story of the credit bubble that caused the financial crash. Through interviews with some of the world's leading economists, including housing expert Robert Shiller, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and economic historian Louis Hyman, as well as Wall Street insiders and victims of the crash including Ed Andrews - a former economics correspondent for The New York Times who found himself facing foreclosure - and Andrew Luan, once a bond trader at Deutsche Bank now running his own Wall Street tour guide business, the film presents an original and compelling account of the toxic combination of forces that nearly destroyed the world economy.

    The film shows how excessive income inequality in society leads to economic instability. At a time when economic theory and public policy is being re-examined this film reminds us that without addressing the root causes of the crisis the system may collapse again and next time it may not be possible for governments to rescue it.

    Reviews
  • "This is the best film ever on the flaws in America's post-industrial capitalism." - Dr. Joseph A. Soares, Professor of Sociology, Wake Forest University

  • "An eye-opening look at the mischief of greed and its global repercussions. A wake-up call for those policy makers that put their heads in the sand and could not detect the rise of systemic risk and the roaring fire that ensued." - Dan Braha, Professor of Complex Systems, New England Complex Systems Institute and Professor of Decision and Information Sciences, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth

  • "A lively, iconoclastic look at the current crisis in capitalism" - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

    Item no.: YB01110676
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 82 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 295.00

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    LIFE 8: HASSAN AND THE GRADUATES

    As Egyptian industry is undermined by Chinese imports, Hassan, a university graduate, takes up the government's offer of free land to farm

    When Hassan's wife first saw the plot of land that was to be their new home, she said, "I can only see the sky connected to the desert," and refused to get out of their car. But Hassan had decided to come and live here. After realising that growing Chinese imports were fast undermining Egypt's industry, the government began offering land to any graduate willing to farm it. Hassan took the offer, and he was not the only one. Across the Middle East, two out of every three people are now under the age of 25, and the bustling cafes of Egypt's capital Cairo teem with young people who can't find work in the metropolis. Have Hassan and 40,000 other graduates been true pioneers, when the knowledge economy worldwide isn't providing enough jobs?

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]...[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: BH01110651
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: LOOTING THE SEAS

    Investigates the looming collapse of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna stocks and the role EU policies have played in the crisis.

    With growing global appetite for sushi, bluefin tuna is big business--one fish can sell for up to a hundred thousand dollars. But scientists and environmentalists now argue that Atlantic bluefin-- the kind caught in the Mediterranean--is on the verge of collapse, and that the rules designed to protect them aren't working. At the heart of the dispute over bluefin tuna regulation is the European Union. Its member states include big fishing countries like France, Spain, and Italy. For the EU, the task is to prevent a final, and terminal, collapse of bluefin stocks. Looting the Seas investigates why, and reveals a world where even the experts seem unable to agree how to ensure the sustainability of Atlantic bluefin stocks.

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]...[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: WZ02790653
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: NOTTINGHAM LACE

    With unemployment figures rising across Europe, is there still a place for the niche craft skills of Cluny Lace in the U.K.'s East Midlands?

    With unemployment figures rising across Europe and the U.S., why isn't there more demand to learn the niche craft skills that once brought wealth and fame to the industrial heartlands of the U.K.'s East Midlands? Owned and run by the tightly-knit Mason family who've been making lace for nine generations, Cluny Lace is the last of its kind, still making intricate and beautiful lace on its old jacquard machines. But opting for a career in textiles no longer seems to appeal to British workers. Cluny Lace now faces a dilemma - can East Midlands towns today find a place for the skills that made them rich? Or does the lace which Mrs. Thatcher once lauded as "truly British" now belong on museum shelves or designer dresses worn only by fashionable elites?

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]...[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: HS02560655
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: MOMENTS OF TRUTH

    Charles Stewart, whose 1984 film alerted the world to the Ethiopian famine, returns to check whether the people he filmed then are now free from danger.

    In 1984, Charles Stewart shot the first film to alert the world to the terrible famine taking place in Korem, in Ethiopia. It helped trigger the 1985 Live Aid concert, leading in turn to the largest public donation of aid ever seen. Now in his 70s, Charles and his partner, Pat Scott Robson, return to Ethiopia to find the folks he filmed then. Swapping his vintage motorbike for Africa's chaotic buses, they travel across the country to to find out if, under the new government of Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi, they're finally free from danger.

    Reviews
  • "An excellent resource for teaching about the complexities of international aid and the politics of media representation." - Teresa Barnes, Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • "Moments of Truth is an unusual film, showing not only the lives of people in drought-affected regions of Ethiopia, but their complicated relationship with the journalist who has chronicled their lives for decades. Complicated and affecting." - Dr. Deborah Maine, Professor of International Health, Boston University

  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]...[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: KR01110654
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: BIKER BOYS OF THE DIRT ISLAND

    In Nairobi's Korogocho slum, a group of former thieves trying to go straight now provide an informal motorcycle taxi service.

    Boniface is trying to convince his friend Kama to go straight and think about the future. But in a slum like Nairobi's Korogocho, where crime and violence are rife, is his mission possible? Boniface is one of the founders of the motorcycle boys, a team of young men who used to steal from their neighbors, but now provide an informal motorcycle taxi service around Korogocho. Kama is one of their latest recruits. They argue about money and crime, and a central question of slum rehabilitation: Is it better to start upgrading the place, or the people?

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: PB01110648
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: HOW TO BECOME A PRESIDENT

    Former World Soccer Player of the Year, George Weah, is running for president again in his native Liberia. Is he out of his depth?

    They say that soccer and politics never mix, but what happens when they do? In Liberia, former World Player of the Year George Weah first ran for president in 2005, a year after the country's bloody civil war had ended. He lost out to current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Now he's studying in America to prepare for another campaign in 2011. But in a war-ravaged country like Liberia, some critics fear the soccer star could be dangerously out of his depth. Life goes on the road in Liberia to canvass the views of Liberians themselves.

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: RP02560652
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: SCENT OF THE STREETS

    Nigeria has had some success in getting more women into government and business. But what about in the crowded and often violent slums of Lagos?

    Nigeria has had some success in getting more women into government and business. But what about at street level--in the crowded and often violent slums of the capital, Lagos? Every big city has gangs of young people on the margins; in Lagos, it's the "Area Boys", gangs of youths who "control" the neighborhood who know how to play rough and dirty to survive. So what's an "Area Girl"? Is she tough and "cool" too, or just a young woman without a job? With 10 brothers and sisters, Onyinye left school at the age of 12. Now she shoulders the responsibility for caring for her siblings by working on the street. But Onyinye wants a legitimate career--and dreams of becoming a catwalk model.

    Review
  • "[Scent of the Streets presents a harsh reality of how some young girls choose to live their lives and actually accept it as a survival mode with no alternative¡KThe material is presented in an authentic way in the natural setting and contains a subtle message of the dangers of life on the streets--rape, beatings, and physical fights with competitors¡KThe film can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: AF01110657
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: SORIE K AND THE MDGS

    Blind musician, Sorie Kondi, from Sierra Leone looks at what's happening with girls' education in his country 10 years after civil war.

    Musician Sorie Kondi, blind from birth, has been called Sierra Leone's Stevie Wonder, but he's still trying to make it as a world musician. Sorie worries about the future of his 14-year-old daughter, Zeinab. He manages to make enough as a busker to pay for her education, but keeping Zeinab out of trouble is more difficult. She lives with her cousins, who have all had to leave school early because of pregnancy. Life asked Sorie to help us make a road movie looking at what's happening with girls' education around the country 10 years after civil war.

    Award
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: LF01110660
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: THE ELEPHANTS' DREAM OF PEACE

    In Ivory Coast the national soccer team, the Elephants, helped stop a civil war in 2005. Can the efforts of their top players avert disaster this time?

    As the 2010 World Cup played out in South Africa, the Life series turned the camera on two other top African soccer stars: Didier Drogba, Chelsea striker and captain of the Ivory Coast team, and his teammate on both teams, Salomon Kalou. The Elephants are competing in South Africa wearing their distinctive orange uniforms, but on the other side of the continent, Ivorians are wearing orange to show their commitment to peace, tolerance and unity - and in homage to the role Drogba played in 2005 when he and his team helped stop the civil war that threatened to split the country in two. The Elephants' Dream of Peace tells the story of Drogba and the Elephants' 2005 peace mission.

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: PH02560661
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: TRAWLER GIRL

    A female trawler captain in Namibia exemplifies goals set forth for women in the Millennium Development Goals.

    Johanna is Namibia's first female trawler captain. She trained with the Namibian Maritime Fisheries Institute and became skipper after eight years service as an officer and chief mate. Now in command of a crew of 23, she finds that men are not used to a woman at the wheel. Namibia signed up to the Millennium Development Goals that aim to cut poverty by half in 2015. These goals include specific targets for women on education, reproductive health and equality. Johanna is an example of targets fulfilled--but what about her friends and relatives back home?

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film: being a woman in a man's world, being a professional and leader at work and being an ordinary woman back home with no title or recognition of being a leader. There are internal dilemmas that happen in daily life to all, in this case, being a mother and being a successful career woman. Johanna brings a message of hope to many, a message that needs to be heard. Life is a challenge but those challenges need to be taken head on by both males and females. The film is good teaching material and is likely to motivate youngsters who would see Johanna as their role model." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: HJ01110663
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

    Hungarian filmmaker Arp Bogdan sets out to discover what's behind the new wave of anti-Roma sentiment in Hungary today.

    Film director Arp Bogdan took a fateful step, looking for his gypsy roots for the Life 6 series. Should he now stay in touch with his newfound family? And how should he react to the current political threats that face other Roma populations in Hungary today? Hungary's fragile economy was badly hit by the economic crisis in the fall of 2008, with growing social tensions leading to a spate of horrific attacks on gypsy families. This episode of Life 8 follows Arp as he sets out to discover what's behind the new wave of anti-Roma sentiment in Hungary. Arp is convinced that only social change and greater acceptance will allay Roma fears.

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: HR02560649
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: GRACE UNDER FIRE

    Dr. Grace Kodindo explores what help is available for the people, particularly women, affected by the ongoing and bloody conflict in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

    North Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been described as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman. Since 1998, as the Congolese army has battled against a number of rebel militias, 5.5 million civilians have been killed and more than half a million women raped in the country. It is estimated that the conflict is now bloodier than any since World War II. We follow Dr. Grace Kodindo - known across the world for her fight to stop women dying in pregnancy and childbirth - as she tries to find out what help is available for the people affected by the fighting. Do the women here have access to the emergency services, health care and specialist drugs they need? Grace talks to doctors, nurses and ordinary people to find answers.

    Reviews
  • "Grace Under Fire is a stunning film, mixing the beauty of the Congo with the tragedy of war. Dr. Grace Kodindo is our experienced guide to the many reproductive health problems faced by women in conflict zones. But even Dr. Kodindo is moved and shocked by what she sees and hears from the women, men and health workers. This half hour film is a condensed course in reproductive health and rights, and makes a convincing case for improving services for women in such situations." - Dr. Deborah Maine, Professor of International Health, Boston University

  • "[Grace under Fire] challenges us to think about global healthcare disparities and how to address them. One argument of Dr. Kodindo is that certain healthcare interventions, such as delivery kits, are low-cost but highly effective in saving lives. Focusing on low-cost simple medical technology may be the answer to some global health threats." - Dr. Alexander Rodlach, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, Creighton University

  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: JA02790650
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: RECLAIM THE CONDOM

    Trained advice columnist Sheila launches a campaign in Mozambique to promote condoms as sexy contraceptives - not weapons in the fight against HIV and disease.

    Twenty-two year old Sheila is a trained advice columnist. In her office at the North East Secondary school in Maputo, she listens to students' stories about love, sex, birth control and AIDS, and offers advice and free condoms. But out of 8,000 students, only 40 or 50 come to collect the condoms on offer. The problem, Sheila reckons, is the condom's image, which is medical, off-putting, and inextricably linked in people's minds with sickness and death. Sheila knows sex and romance sell - so why not use them to promote condoms, and change perceptions? She's launching a campaign to promote condoms as sexy contraceptives - not weapons in the fight against HIV and disease.

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: SU02790656
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: SILK CEILING, PART 1

    Ritu Bhardawaj is an Indian TV reporter who has broken through the silk ceiling which narrows the prospects for so many women in the Asia Pacific region.

    In New Delhi, Ritu Bhardawaj is a star to the neighborhood children. Not only does she help with their homework, but she's also a glamorous TV reporter. For young Indian girls like Kiran and Monika, she's a role model in a society that doesn't favor ambitious girls. We follow Ritu as she makes her next big report - a documentary about the "silk ceiling" which hangs over the lives of many women in the Asia Pacific region, narrowing prospects and frustrating talent. Do politics and the law mean they're all fighting against impossible odds?

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: HH02560658
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: SILK CEILING, PART 2

    Indian TV journalist Ritu Bhardawaj goes to Bihar to investigate the invisible barrier that confronts so many Asian women.

    Indian TV journalist Ritu Bhardawaj reckons that the dancing girls have a special insight into the plight of women. That's because they're really men, dressed up for the Navratri festivities in the Indian state of Bihar. Ritu is visiting Bihar to continue her report on the invisible barrier which confronts so many Asian women. And if Anand and Shrish are right, women are still too often regarded as sex objects. But supposedly backward Bihar also offers a role model in Kiran Devi, a young housewife elected as village head, or sarpanch. Among her duties is judging local disputes, and so far she's settled at least 200 cases. When men, who are seen as protectors and providers, walk out of marriages, women can be left in legal limbo. But is it wise to press for reforms when Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise?

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: NC02790659
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 8: THE PRESIDENT'S DILEMMA

    In the face of rising sea levels due to climate change, Kiribati President Anote Tong must decide the fate of his people. Should he plan for an orderly evacuation of the islands?

    The islands of Kiribati in the Pacific have been inhabited continuously for 4,000 years. Now climate change and rising sea levels mean they may be the first to be abandoned. Elected in 2003, President Anote Tong must decide the fate of his people. Should he plan for an orderly evacuation of the islands? Or should he persuade his people to tough it out instead? Tong believes that it's ordinary people like the Kiribati islanders who are too often forgotten as countries negotiate measures to combat climate change. Life looks at the challenges Tong faces from the climate, the wider world and from his own people.

    Review
  • "There is a continuous challenge of trying to strike a balance in the film[s]¡K[The films] can be used successfully in stimulating a discussion amongst the youth about the negative aspects of such a life as well as an exploration of alternatives." - Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University

    Item no.: NP02790662
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    MEGAMALL

    Directed by Vera Aronow, Sarah Mondale, Roger Grange

    The construction of a huge mall 18 miles north of Manhattan reveals the role of money, power and politics in the age of sprawl.

    Twelve years in the making, MEGAMALL documents the origins of the massive Palisades Center mall and its impact on the suburban community of West Nyack, New York, 18 miles north of Manhattan.

    The film kicks off when the biggest mall developer in the Northeast comes to the smallest county in New York to build its biggest mall yet on a toxic dump, one mile from the filmmakers' homes. That move sparks a citizen uprising which lasts almost 20 years. It also inspires the filmmakers' quest to understand the dramatic events unfolding right in their backyard.

    MEGAMALL turns out to be a local saga of epic proportions. We see big money overwhelm local governments, zoning and planning boards to impose a massive development project on a community, extract milliions, and move on -- leaving the local community to bear the costs of road maintenance, increased crime, and shuttered stores downtown.

    Featured throughout the film is provocative commentary from leading urban critics and writers, who give viewers the real story behind the mall-building business and challenge Americans to think about the consequences of our obsession with shopping. They include authors James Howard Kunstler (The Geography of Nowhere); Roberta Brandes Gratz ("Malling the Northeast" for The New York Times Magazine); and real estate economist Donavan Rypkema.

    MEGAMALL is a gripping story of ordinary Americans who confront the forces that are changing the face of our nation. It is designed to give students and communities around the country the tools they need to understand the forces propelling growth. It encourages people to think of themselves as citizens--not consumers--and to take action in their own communities.

    Reviews
  • "See this film, get mad and then get involved." - Bill Moyers - PBS

  • "An engaging drama with a strong point of view as well as a sense of humor. MEGAMALL is calm, credible and at the same time, maddening." - John Paul Newport

  • "An enthralling documentary about a small county's fight against a big mall developer...Examines the interesection between money, power and politics in ways that have implications for our own issues of adequate affordable housing vs. slow growth." - SB Sound (Santa Barbara)

    Note
  • Nominee - Social Justice Award for Documentary Film, Santa Barbara International Film Festival

    Item no.: HG02790622
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 81 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 295.00

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    WHEN CHINA MET AFRICA

    Directed by Nick Francis and Marc Francis

    Examines China's expanding footprint in Africa through the stories of three people in Zambia: a Chinese farmer, a Chinese multinational's road project manager and Zambia's trade minister.

    A historic gathering of over 50 African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia where the lives of three characters unfold. Mr Liu is one of thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs who have settled across the continent in search of new opportunities. He has just bought his fourth farm and business is booming.

    In northern Zambia, Mr Li, a project manager for a multinational Chinese company is upgrading Zambia's longest road. Pressure to complete the road on time intensifies when funds from the Zambian government start running out.

    Meanwhile Zambia's Trade Minister is on route to China to secure millions of dollars of investment.

    Through the intimate portrayal of these characters, the expanding footprint of a rising global power is laid bare - pointing to a radically different future, not just for Africa, but also for the world.

    Reviews
  • "A rare, grass-roots view into one of the most important economic challenges of our age." - The Times

  • "An intriguing ground-level look at the effects of Chinese investment in one African country - Zambia." - The Independent

  • "The channelling of Chinese investment into the world's poorest continent is explored in this leisurely but enlightening film." - RadioTimes

    Award
  • Best Filmmaker Award, Margaret Mead Film Festival

    Item no.: DC02560794
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 75 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 295.00

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    EARLY LIFE: KIBERA KIDS

    The adults of Kibera are working hard to offer kids a safe and stimulating haven in pre-schools.

    Slumdog Millionaire, City of God...you could make a box office hit from the lives of kids in Kibera, the biggest slum in sub Saharan Africa. Even before they go to school here, children must run the gauntlet of Kibera's crazy and even violent street life.

    Scientists warn that stress can raise levels of the hormone cortisol, permanently altering the architecture of young brains. But while stress can be a problem, so can too little stimulation - as scientists discover how important interaction is for childhood development. Experts disagree how critical the first five years are and whether more funding should be diverted to early childhood development. But many of those who set the agenda for global development now regard early childhood as a key priority.

    The adults of Kibera are working hard to offer kids a safe and stimulating haven in pre-schools. Pre-school is a safe space for the kids, somewhere they can develop peacefully and-in theory-become less violent adults. But many parents can't afford the ten dollars a month in fees.

    For parents and teachers of children like Nasuru, Brian and Patience in this episode of Early Life, pre-school also brings dilemmas. Should it reflect traditional African social values, or the West's more individualistic outlook?

    Item no.: HE02790613
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    EARLY LIFE: MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL

    Three children prepare to enter primary school in Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Thailand's Festival of Water: Songkran. A chance for adults to behave like kids. And for some kids a last chance to misbehave before the first day of school. The third program in the Early Life series follows three children preparing to enter primary school in Chiang Mai, Thailand. But are their lives already set on different courses? Scientists suggest that how the brain develops in the first years of life may affect a child's ability to prosper at school.

    Sita is looking forward to her first day, Best is wary, and Tha Na Korn doesn't even have a school to go to yet. Their dilemmas reflect those of Thailand as a whole: how should a country with its own traditions of childhood prepare their kids for a new, globalized society? Thailand is now developing an education policy to meet the needs of a globalized economy.

    Child rights might have guaranteed Tha Na Korn local schooling. But many experts who say culture should guide early child development don't like talk of "child rights". They say it could lead to the West imposing its own views of childhood on the world.

    Can Thailand achieve child rights without sacrificing its culture? Child rights will mean more kids like Tha Na Korn go to school. But Tha's school has a different language and culture. He could become "unrecognizable to his parents." Child rights and respect for culture need to be combined.

    Item no.: HD01110614
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    EARLY LIFE: THE MAYOR'S DREAM

    The Mayor's dream is simple: a better world because every child gets a better start.

    What goes on inside the brains of babies-and how much are we shaped by the first few years of our lives? Scientists have new insights into how children think, and some claim that by not acting on these discoveries, lives are being wasted.

    We visit the Andes where Mayor Amilcar Huanchuari believes that stimulating children's brains early on can make for a more prosperous-and less violent-society. We visit the labs of Boston, MA, where Harvard scientists are trying to determine whether science really is on the Mayor's side. We see how some Kenyan mums have realized that their traditional parenting ways have to change in today's world. And we talk to a young architect in Turkey who believes that her own life proves the Mayor's dream can be a reality.

    "I have a dream," says Amilcar Huanchuari. "We know that poverty is a product of malnutrition, poor education and poor stimulation. And from this we believe that investment in education, health and nutrition is important, and we believe in the early stimulation of our children. We're convinced we should work with children from the earliest age and we're going to form a new society of children. We'll build a new generation of children. They'll be more successful and prosperous children and they'll contribute effectively towards a peaceful future for our country."

    The Mayor's dream is simple: a better world because every child gets a better start. But does science support his dream? Across the world, evidence on both sides of the debate is mounting up.

    Review
  • "An outstanding way to bring the world into the early childhood teacher education program." Mary Jane Eisenhauer, Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Education, Purdue University North Central

    Item no.: MM02560615
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LOVE OF MONEY, THE: BACK FROM THE BRINK

    In the month that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, the world stared into the abyss of total financial collapse. The third part on the crash tells the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learned from the entire calamity...and could it happen again?

    With unrivalled contributions from the key decision makers including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and five other finance ministers, the program pieces together the details of an extraordinary moment in history when the world faced its greatest financial crisis.

    The collapse of Lehman Brothers sent the world into a tail spin, leaving the authorities unsure how to react. Should they let "market forces" play out or should they intervene and if so, how? The decisions made in those few days will have consequences for the world for decades to come. Even today, few realize how close we all came to a truly catastrophic collapse of the very foundation of the modern world.

    First with access to many of the key power brokers, the program takes the viewer inside the corridors of power in Washington DC as the first attempt to stabilize the economy, known as the TARP Plan, was proposed, rejected and adapted.

    Then the drama switches to London and on to mainland Europe as the plan to pump billions of taxpayers' pounds into failed assets was formed. Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, European Finance Ministers and for the first time, the behind-the-scenes officials, tell of the ups and downs of a month in which they held the fate of the world in their hands. Finally, a plan to inject an estimated $3 trillion into the world's failed financial system was adopted around the world.

    THE LOVE OF MONEY also asks: Who will pay for it all? Have we left future generations with an unmanageable debt? Did we have any choice?

    Now is the right time to take a step back and ask what we have learned and, more importantly, will it happen again? With contributions from Alan Greenspan former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, and others, the program provides a crucial and unmissable addition to the debate.

    Reviews
  • "A vivid, fascinating account of the crisis...Those directly involved recall the frenzied, round-the-clock attempts to save the firm [Lehmans], amid `the smell of pizza and unwashed bodies'." - Daily Mai

  • "Engrossing...immensely well-informed overview of the global crash." - David Chater, The (London) Times

  • "Five stars." - Mail On Sunday

    Item no.: FW02790619
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 250.00

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    LOVE OF MONEY, THE: THE AGE OF RISK

    This film examines the boom years before the global financial crash of 2008. Testimony comes from many of the key decision-makers over the last two decades.

    The program explains how people changed their attitude to risk, learned to live with debt and - above all - how governments stepped back from regulating the system. At the heart of the story is Alan Greenspan, who, for 20 years, was one of the most powerful people in the world. However, in October 2008, weeks after the catastrophic collapse of Lehman Brothers, the man whose ideas influenced the world admitted he just might have been "partially" wrong.

    THE AGE OF RISK shows how low interest rates and the economic rise of China left the markets awash in "cheap" money. Banks were also busy inventing new and ever-more risky investment strategies. This, allied with a boom in the US housing market, created a perfect storm that hit in the summer of 2007.

    The program looks at whether the holy grail of economics had really been discovered - a risk-free, guaranteed way of making money - or whether it was a time of mass self-delusion as bankers, regulators and politicians looked the other way while the economy headed for financial disaster.

    Finally, the film tells the story of Roland Arnall, boss of sub-prime bank Ameriquest. He built a multimillion dollar fortune selling sub-prime mortgages and was appointed by President Bush to be Ambassador to the Netherlands. However, in a cautionary tale for the times, he ended his days dealing with lawsuits and paying out $325 million in an out-of-court settlement in a case over allegations of predatory lending practices.

    Reviews
  • "A vivid, fascinating account of the crisis...Those directly involved recall the frenzied, round-the-clock attempts to save the firm [Lehmans], amid `the smell of pizza and unwashed bodies'." - Daily Mai

  • "Engrossing...immensely well-informed overview of the global crash." - David Chater, The (London) Times

  • "Five stars." - Mail On Sunday

    Item no.: BN01110620
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 250.00

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    LOVE OF MONEY, THE: THE BANK THAT BUST THE WORLD

    In September 2008 the collapse of Lehman Brothers tipped the world into the greatest financial crisis for eighty years. Now, in the first part of a major three part series on the crash, the BBC offers the definitive account of what happened.

    With the world reeling from the credit crunch, US Authorities summoned Wall Street bosses to an emergency meeting at the New York Federal Reserve. Over one extraordinary weekend, these so-called "masters of the universe" argued about what should be done to save the ailing 158-year-old investment bank.

    A series of catastrophic investments in property and the exposure of its sub-prime liabilities had left the bank debt-ridden and with few creditors.

    British bank Barclays saw an opportunity to buy the stricken bank. The program hears from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Chancellor Alistair Darling, and Chairman of Barclays Bob Diamond, as fevered transatlantic negotiations went on through the night. It also examines the claim it was the British Government that, in the end, blocked Barclays' takeover.

    The program includes never-before-seen footage shot inside Lehman's in the weeks leading up to the demise of the bank. It shows Lehman's boss, Dick Fuld, struggling to keep his empire going as the sharks begin to circle. Weaving together personal testimony and analysis, the program delivers a portrait of a man and an institution under intolerable pressure.

    Finally, when all other avenues had been exhausted, the bank filed for bankruptcy amid emotional scenes as employees saw their lives, reputations and livelihoods shredded in the biggest bankruptcy of modern times.

    Reviews
  • "A vivid, fascinating account of the crisis...Those directly involved recall the frenzied, round-the-clock attempts to save the firm [Lehmans], amid `the smell of pizza and unwashed bodies'." - Daily Mai

  • "Engrossing...immensely well-informed overview of the global crash." - David Chater, The (London) Times

  • "Five stars." - Mail On Sunday

    Item no.: BZ02560621
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 250.00

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    WHICH WAY HOME

    Directed by Rebecca Cammisa

    The personal side of immigration as child migrants from Mexico and Central America risk everything to make it to the US riding atop freight trains.

    As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, WHICH WAY HOME shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the United States.

    The film follows several unaccompanied child migrants as they journey through Mexico en route to the U.S. on a freight train they call " The Beast." Director Rebecca Cammisa ("Sister Helen") tracks the stories of children like Olga and Freddy, nine-year old Hondurans who are desperately trying to reach their families in Minnesota, and Jose, a ten-year-old El Salvadoran who has been abandoned by smugglers and ends up alone in a Mexican detention center, and focuses on Kevin, a canny, streetwise 14-year-old Honduran, fleeing an abusive stepfather, and whose mother hopes that he will reach New York City and send money back to his family. These are stories of hope and courage, disappointment and sorrow. They are the ones you never hear about - the invisible ones.

    Reviews
  • "A truly captivating documentary, that doesn't carry an agenda." - Erik Davis, Cinematical

  • "Harrowing." - Reed Johnson The Los Angeles Times

  • "Tremendous - eye opening filmmaking." - Erik Price, Esquire

    Awards
  • Emmy Award, Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form
  • Best International Television Program, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards
  • Best Documentary Nominee, Film Independent Spirit Awards
  • UNICEF Prize, Havana International Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Documentary Feature, Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
  • Special Jury Prize for Human Rights, Traverse City Film Festival
  • Best of Festival, Columbus International Film + Video Festival

    Item no.: HY01110641
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 83 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 295.00

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    YES MEN FIX THE WORLD, THE

    Two daring political activists, posing as top executives, infiltrate conferences and pull off pranks designed to provoke better business practices.

    THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story that follows two daring and imaginative political activists - Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno -- as they infiltrate the world of big business and pull off outrageous pranks that highlight how corporate greed is destroying the planet.

    One day Andy, purporting to be a Dow Chemical spokesperson, gets on the biggest TV news program in the world (BBC World News) and announces that Dow will finally clean up the site of the largest industrial accident in history, the Bhopal catastrophe. The result: as people worldwide celebrate, Dow's stock value loses two billion dollars. People want Dow to do the right thing, but the market decides that it can't. The reality hits Andy and Mike like a ton of bricks: we have created a market system that makes doing the right thing impossible, and the people who appear to be leading are actually following its pathological dictates.

    At conference after conference, the Yes Men try to wake up their corporate audiences to this frightening prospect, in the process taking on some of the world's biggest corporations. On their journey, the Yes Men delve deep into the question of why we have given the market more power than any other institution to determine our direction as a society.

    As they appear on the BBC before 300 million viewers, or before 1000 New Orleans contractors alongside Mayor Ray Nagin, the layers of lies are peeled back to reveal the raw heart of truth - a truth that brings with it hope.

    Reviews
  • "This brilliant piece of guerilla humor, rich with political satire, is sure to stimulate discussion and reflection." - Peter M. Haas, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • "Hilarious, therapeutic, inspiring. The Yes Men are geniuses." - Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo

  • "This is the year's top documentary film." - New Scientist

  • "Educates and entertains; The Yes Men do both. Entertainment that tickles the justice-for-all glands." - Empire Magazine Online

  • "Part journalism, part mockumentary...it shines with a raw wit and originality." - Michael Levitin, Newsweek

    Awards
  • Audience Award at Panorama Selection, Berlin International Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Planete Doc Film Fetival (Warsaw)
  • Audience Award, Berkshires Independent Film Festival

    Item no.: AC02790610
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 87 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 295.00

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    AGE OF STUPID, THE

    Directed by Franny Armstrong

    An old man (Pete Postlethwaite) living in a devastated world, watches 'archive' footage from today and asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

    Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055. He watches 'archive' footage from 2008 and asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

    Runaway climate change has ravaged the planet by 2055. Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again. Or that intelligent life may arrive and make use of all that we've achieved. He pulls together clips of "archive" news and documentary from 1950-2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why. He focuses on six human stories:

  • Alvin DuVernay, is a paleontogolist helping Shell find more oil off the coast of New Orleans. He also rescued more than 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, which, by 2055, is well known as one of the first "major climate change events".

  • Jeh Wadia in Mumbai aims to start-up a new low-cost airline and gets a million Indians flying.

  • Layefa Malemi lives in absolute poverty in a small village in Nigeria from which Shell extracts tens of millions of dollars worth of oil every week. She dreams of becoming a doctor, but must fish in the oil-infested waters for four years to raise the funds.

  • Jamila Bayyoud, aged 8, is an Iraqi refugee living on the streets of Jordan after her home was destroyed - and father killed - during the US-led invasion of 2003. She's trying to help her elder brother make it across the border to safety.

  • Piers Guy is a windfarm developer from Cornwall fighting the NIMBYs of Middle England.

  • 82-year-old French mountain guide Fernand Pareau has witnessed his beloved Alpine glaciers melt by 150 metres.

    Reviews
  • "Bold, supremely provocative, and hugely important, her film is a cry from the heart as much as a roar for necessary change." - Sukhdev Sandhu, The Daily Telegraph

  • "This is a signally important film--a very clever and very powerful reminder of exactly where we stand on this fragile, lovely planet." - Bill McKibben, Educator, Environmentalist, Author, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

  • "Very, very impressive film. At a time when climate change has become far too politicized, The Age of Stupid is the wake up call we do not want to miss." - Dr. Paul Andrew Mayewski, Director, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine

    Item no.: LA01110633
    Format: 2 DVDs
    Duration: 89 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 320.00

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    AMERICAN OUTRAGE

    Two elderly Western Shoshone sisters, the Danns, put up a heroic fight for their land rights and human rights.

    Directed by George Gage and Beth Gage

    Carrie and Mary Dann are feisty Western Shoshone sisters who have endured five terrifying livestock roundups by armed federal marshals in which more than a thousand of their horses and cattle were confiscated -- for grazing their livestock on the open range outside their private ranch.

    That range is part of 60 million acres recognized as Western Shoshone land by the United States in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, but in 1974 the U.S. sued the Dann sisters for trespassing on that land, without a permit. That set off a dispute between the Dann sisters and the U. S. government that swept to the United States Supreme Court and eventually to the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

    AMERICAN OUTRAGE asks why the United States government has spent millions persecuting and prosecuting two elderly women grazing a few hundred horses and cows in a desolate desert? The United States Bureau of Land Management insists the sisters are degrading the land. The Dann sisters say the real reason is the resources hidden below this seemingly barren land, their Mother Earth. Western Shoshone land is the second largest gold producing area in the world.

    Reviews
  • "Masterful storytelling, beautiful cinematography, and unforgettable characters." - John H. Biaggi, Director, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival

  • "Highly recommended for academic and public libraries, American Outrage is an outstanding resource for courses in history, government, sociology, law, and ethics." - Douglas Reed, Ouachita Baptist University, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Should be required viewing for every U.S. citizen." - Sarasota Film Festival

  • "Real Indians. Real Lives. A powerful testament to Indian self-determination and women-power. The Dann sisters deserve our utmost respect." - Michael Smith, Founder and Director, American Indian Film Festival

    Awards
  • Best Feature Documentary, San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
  • Best Documentary Feature, American Indian Film Festival
  • Audience Award and Spirit & Advocacy Award, Mountainfilm In Telluride
  • Audience Award (Feature Documentary), Ashland Independent Film Festival
  • Audience Award (Documentary), Asheville Film Festival
  • Grand Prize, Presence Autochtone Film Festival, Montreal
  • Best Documentary & People's Choice Award, Frozen River Film Festival
  • Best Environmental Film. Boulder International Film Festival
  • Silver Remi, Houston Worldfest
  • Honorable Mention, Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: LS01110593
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 56 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 295.00

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    LET'S MAKE MONEY

    Directed by Erwin Wagenhofer

    Erwin Wagenhofer's incredible odyssey tracking our money through the worldwide finance system.

    LET'S MAKE MONEY follows the trail of our money through the worldwide finance system.

    What does our retirement savings have to do with the property blow-up in Spain? We don't have to buy a home there in order to be involved. As soon as we open an account, we're part of the worldwide finance market--whether we want to be or not. We customers have no idea where our debtors live and what they do to pay our interest fees. Most of us aren't even interested, because we like to follow the call of the banks to "Let your money work.'' But money can't work. Only people, animals or machines can work.

    The film starts at the Ahafo mine in Ghana, West Africa, where vast areas are being blasted open. Gold is extracted from the rock in a tedious process, then smelted and flown directly to Switzerland. The spoils are divided up proportionally: 3% for Africa, 97% for the West. The mine was opened with the assistance of the World Bank.

    "I don't think the investor should be responsible for the ethics, the pollution or anything the company in which he has invested produces. That's not his job. His job is to invest and earn money for his clients." - Mark Mobius, president of Templeton Emerging Markets

    "In the end it's always the so-called man or woman on the street who's left paying the bills." - Hermann Scheer, winner of the alternative Nobel Prize and a member of German Parliament

    Reviews
  • "This prescient, shocking, and expertly crafted primer will spark many urgent debates." - Sundance Film Festival Program

  • "[A] probing, penetrating and deeply critical look at the economic foundations of neo-liberalism." - AllMovie.com

  • "The most impressive cinematic work on the issue...crucial, devastating and inspired by rare intelligence in this era of political propaganda, Let's Make Money is a must-see." - DVD Drama

    Note
  • Nominated for Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival - World Cinema Documentary Competition

    Award
  • German Documentary of the Year Film Prize
  • "WorldShift Ethic Prize" of the Intellektuellen-Vereinigung Club of Budapest

    Item no.: RC02560618
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 107 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 295.00

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    LIFE 6: CASTRO OR QUIT?

    Two young doctors in Venezuela have to decide whether to leave the country or stay with their patients.

    Directed by Chris Woods
    Editor: Sotira Kyriacou
    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    Across the world people who live on the edge are the dispossessed-those left behind by globalization. True? Not quite. There's one country where it's the middle class who are on the edge-Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Despite Chavez's recent setback at the polls, many thousands of professional people have fled the country, and some are still wondering if they should emigrate.

    Like many of their friends, young doctors Yurani and Florencio like to think of themselves as wanting to care for the poor as much as the rich. They even approve of many of Chavez's policies, believing they've helped the poor. Like millions across Latin America, they hoped for a regional answer to globalization, and saw hope in the triumph of leaders like Kirchner, Lula, Morales, Bachelet and Correa. Maybe socialism wasn't defeated after all.

    But now they believe Chavez may have gone too far. They think the Chavistas pose the middle class with a fundamental choice: help us model the country on Castro's Cuba, or quit before it's too late.

    Can socialism still be an alternative to American-led globalization? Or will it always led to dictatorship? Should they stay and fight for what they believe, or give up before it's too late and leave for Miami? For Life, Yurani and Florencio spent 10 days travelling Venezuela to help find the answer.

    Item no.: JN01110579
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: COLLISION COURSE

    Reviews the positive steps being taken in India and Brazil to confront the serious public health issue presented by traffic accidents.

    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    Road traffic accidents are now the second leading cause of death among young people-with young men most at risk. Nearly three times more young men than young women are killed or injured on roads every year. Globally, 1.2 million people are killed on roads every year and up to 50 million more are injured and remain disabled for life.

    Around 85% of deaths from road traffic crashes occur in developing countries, costing them between 1-1.5% of their annual GNP. Without action, and with the growing number of cars on the roads in thriving new middle-income countries like India and Brazil, road deaths and disabilities are likely to rise still further.

    Through the eyes of road campaigner Harman Sidhu, who is himself a paraplegic after a road crash, this special Life program looks at the current situation in both countries-and reviews what positive steps are being taken to confront this serious health issue.

    Item no.: NT02560580
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: EDGE OF ISLAM

    Three Muslim students face a choice between their faith and their future.

    Directed by Alex Gabbay
    Editor: Alex Gabbay
    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    On the beautiful island of Lamu on the eastern coast of Kenya, three young footballers have just graduated from school summa cum laude, but cannot get hold of the school certificates they need for university or to find jobs until they pay their hefty school fees arrears. Until then, the certificates remain locked in a rusting filing cabinet in the headmaster's office.

    They could get work in Lamu's booming tourist industry, which has brought an influx of pop stars, models and glitterati-and much needed income-to the island over the past 15 years. But tourism has also introduced alcoholism, drugs and soaring house prices that are threatening the local Islamic culture and way of life.

    One of our young protagonists, Arafat, isn't worried. His faith is strong enough, he claims, to withstand the lure of the West, and he's happy to earn money providing boat services for tourists on the dhows that ply their trade along Lamu's coast. But his schoolmates, and fellow footballers, Adbulkarim and Abubakar, are reluctant to get involved with the tourists whose dress and habits they regard as corrupting and opposed to Islam.

    But how else will they earn enough to secure their precious certificates-and their future? And can the West really offer a model of globalization that will win over Lamu's young men? What future will our three young protagonists choose?

    Item no.: HH02560575
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: LOOKING FOR MY GYPSY ROOTS

    Hungarian film director Arpad faces a dilemma-should he track down his Roma father?

    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    Radio C, the Roma station in Budapest, has stopped broadcasting news in Romany. The reason?-there aren't enough Romany words for many 21st century concepts. Among the missing words is 'globalization.' And yet few people in the world are having more difficulty confronting globalization than the Roma in Hungary. Under-employed, under-educated and often alienated, they feel excluded from the young democracy's growing prosperity. And yet many Hungarians feel the Roma have bought this exclusion on themselves.

    Roma make up a large percentage of Hungary's prison population, and have few leaders who have been successful in the wider world and are prepared to stand up for their Roma, or 'gypsy', inheritance. Radio C is in District 8-informally known as Gypsy Harlem. It's long been the center of Budapest's gypsy culture, known across the world for its musicians. But 'gypsy' artists here face a dilemma-if they sell themselves as gypsies, they're regarded as quaint representatives of an ethnic minority. In the words of Roma writer Andrjz Mirja, the dilemma for the Roma is "how to be a minority but still be equal."

    In Escape from Gypsy Harlem Arpad Bogdan, a prize-winning Roma filmmaker ('Boldog uj elet-'Happy New Life'), describes how he and his friends have faced this dilemma in their working, and personal, lives, and takes us on a tour of Gypsy Harlem, The Jungle-an even tougher neighborhood in Budapest-and the more tranquil Rose Hill, where he now lives, looking for answers to the question of how to escape the gypsy artist cliche in a globalized world.

    Item no.: MR02790581
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: NO COUNTRY FOR YOUNG GIRLS?

    A young Indian woman has to choose-stay with a husband who doesn't want female children, or make it on her own.

    Directed by Nupur Basu
    Editors: Reena Mohan, Sotira Kyriacou
    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    Twenty-seven year old Vyjanthi lives in the Indian city of Agra, in the shadow of the Taj Mahal built in honor of a beautiful woman. Already mother to one three-year old girl, when she became pregnant again her husband and in-laws forced her to have a scan to determine the sex of the foetus. Told she was carrying a girl, they tried to pressure her to have an abortion, and after a major argument she fled to her parents' home. But she felt bad, went back to her husband, got pregnant again, and the same thing happened all over again.

    Now she's living with her parents, with two young daughters-and undecided whether she can make it on her own, or will have to go back to her husband again. Sex-selective abortion is illegal in India, but so widespread that there are many more boys than girls, especially in India's more prosperous states. Vyjanthi wants to know if things are really as bad for girls in the rest of India as in her own neighborhood. Isn't India now one of the world's booming economies, thanks to its embrace of globalization?

    Life takes Vyjanthi on a journey through India, and films as she makes a disturbing discovery. Just because a country's becoming richer, doesn't actually mean life's going to be better for most people. In fact the status of women in India is falling behind that of women in many other countries, even in South Asia, and the newly prosperous middle class are particularly likely to abort female foetuses.

    Will Vyjanthi decide that India can offer her and her daughters a fair and prosperous future on their own? Or will she decide that India is no country for young girls, and go back to her husband?

    Item no.: EH01110582
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: RUNNING ON EMPTY

    Highlights the plight of two young mothers-one in South Wales and the other in Northern Ethiopia.

    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    In this film, Life highlights the plight of two young mothers living in two very different societies. Dawn lives in South Wales, in one of the poorest districts in the European Union, where over a quarter of all children live in poverty. She has a partner and three children. Her youngest child is David who is one year old. Asemu lives in northern Ethiopia where most of the people are farmers who cannot produce enough food to live on. She has a partner and two children; the youngest Mikiray is eight months old. Both Dawn and Asemu are 22 years old.

    David and Mikiray are both at a crucial stage in their development where a healthy diet is fundamental to preventing lifelong problems linked to malnutrition. Both women are aware that their children's diets are poor and that their health is suffering because of this. Asemu's eldest child Bayou is small and seriously underweight with chronic health issues. Dawn's youngest child David is not too small or underweight, but she recognises that she feeds him fatty foods because they are cheaper.

    Item no.: CY02560583
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: THE PIED PIPER OF EYASI

    The Hadza are among Africa's last hunter-gatherers. Should they follow charismatic Baallow into the modern world?

    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    The Hadza are one of the very last tribes of hunter-gatherers on earth and their lifestyle may soon be over because of the pressures of globalization. Traditionally, they hunt game with bows and poisoned arrows and gather fruits and wild honey in the strikingly beautiful area around Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. Recently they have been increasingly threatened by neighbouring tribes, scarcity of wild game, and polluted water. What's more, tourism has given the Hadza access to easy money, and to illegal local moonshine, which can be lethal.

    For 70 years the Tanzanian government has tried to force the Hadza to integrate into mainstream society. Now tribesmen are being arrested and jailed for poaching on land coveted by rich hunting businesses. And last year they came closer to being evicted from their homeland altogether. It was almost sold to the Abu Dhabi royal family as a hunting estate. The Hadza are quickly realising that their former philosophy of non-confrontation will not protect them any longer, and that they must fight back to protect their development. The Hadza have no traditional sense of hierarchy, and no leaders. But now they believe they must find a voice to make themselves heard.

    Meet Baalow, a young Hadza hunter who is championing the Hadza cause. Baalow was one of a number of Hadza men who were arrested by the Tanzanian government over the Arab hunting deal. Like other young Hadza, Baalow is torn between two competing worlds. But few Hadza are as strong as Baalow, and most are finding it hard to resist the lure of money, alcohol, illicit sex-the attractions of modern Tanzania.

    Life follow Baalow as he expertly negotiates the wild: tracking, hunting, killing and eating his wild prey, and as he dips in and out of the modern world of bars, markets, labor with tourists/tour operators, and encounters with other tribes. How will he unite fiercely independent people to a common cause when each has an opinion on how to best lead their lives?

    Item no.: WC01110585
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: THE PRINCE

    A young Pakistani landowner chooses between trying to implement the MDGs in the village that his family owns, and a quiet life.

    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    In Pakistan, a feudal prince's family has been making life hell for local villagers for centuries. Rafeh Malik is a young feudal prince who inherited Ratrian, a village in Northern Punjab, on his 18th birthday. Prince Rafeh had a friend from the city: Dawn TV journalist Shehryrar Mufti. And one day Shehryar told him: "Look, man, people just don't buy your act anymore. You can't make out you own these folks." It was apparently a dramatic moment of conversion. The prince claims he now realizes his land-owning caste has been living in the past.

    Mufti has told him about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the prince says he's inspired to try and introduce them to his village. But in the process, he risks alienating his family and even the conservative villagers themselves. After all, they all live close to the edge of the troubled North West Frontier and don't necessarily want what the West calls "development."

    Will the villagers accept the prince's offer? Will his family stop him? And how genuine was his conversion? In the face of self-doubt, selfishness and conservatism, will he decide to go on?

    Item no.: EN02560586
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: THE UNFORGIVEN

    Should General Butt Naked (nee Joshua Blahyi)-now a Christian pastor-be forgiven for his role in Liberia's horrific civil war?

    Directed by Emily Marlow
    Editor: Smita Malde
    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    Across the world it's increasingly recognized that civil conflict is as big a barrier to development as illiteracy or illness. Once war-torn countries can struggle for decades with its legacy. Liberia is still struggling to establish law and order, establish security for its people and find roles for ex-combatants. But can countries like Liberia-until recently ravaged by fighting of unspeakable savagery-forgive and forget in the absence of a proper legal process to try those responsible for war crimes?

    One man who believes that only God has the answer to this dilemma is evangelical pastor Joshua Milton Blahyi. He recently travelled to Kenya to help a peace and reconciliation process after the bloodshed which followed its disputed election. And Mr Blahyi should know. He was once known as General Butt Naked, a warlord who admits to some of troubled West Africa's most horrific war crimes.

    The general submitted himself to Liberia's own Truth and Reconciliation process at the end of 2007. In his testimony to the TRC, he admits to responsibility for 20,000 murders and cannibalism. He says it's up to the discretion of the TRC to decide his fate (it's due to report later this year), but that God's already given him a second chance-he's changed his ways, and can now help guide other former ex-combatants to rebuild Liberia.

    So can-and should-the general and other perpetrators of atrocities really be forgiven for cannibalism and child murder? Many, after all, are still celebrated as heroes and role models by large numbers of Liberians. And in a country where evangelical Christianity underpins a culture of impunity for those responsible for 14 years of vicious civil war, most people advocate (or are encouraged to advocate) forgiveness.

    But if the general and others like him are forgiven, what can be the sanction for future warlords? If the so-called war criminals are punished and held to account, how far will Liberia need to go-when almost everyone was involved in the factions in one way or another? What's the best forward-do you name and shame, and potentially destroy the fabric of Liberian society, or forgive and forget, and allow the perpetrators to go on living in the community-unpunished and unchecked, and potentially ready for renewed fighting.

    Item no.: DZ02790522
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: THREE SISTERS

    Eritrea's women fought in the war. Should they now liberate themselves from harmful traditional practices?

    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    Young Eritrean women like Commander Belainesh have fought in two wars-and been pioneers for women's rights. From the early 1970s, tens of thousands of girls from poor, conservative Muslim and Christian families-previously powerless in their communities-were enlisted by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front and integrated into the ranks as bona fide fighters.

    A third of the guerrilla army were women. For 35 years they fought on the frontline and were treated as equals, serving as platoon commanders, tank drivers, barefoot doctors and engineers. By the late 1970s EPLF women fighters had come to personify an image of progress and liberation from oppressive traditions. But from 2002 on, thousands of them were demobilized.

    Now they face life in villages where girls must be circumcised, wives must obey their husbands, and children are married off as young as 12. Reports suggest that half the women who fought on the front lines are now estranged from their families and live in abject poverty. Despite a new constitution intended to protect women's rights, the old ways-from bride prices to female circumcision-continue to be practiced.

    Across the world, women soldiers like Belaniesh who've literally fought for their rights are struggling to hold on to their gains now that men don't need them. Their plight reflects a growing, controversial academic view that almost all "liberation struggles" fail to realize their dream. On this count, Eritrea stands as a monument to the futility of taking arms to win rights which economic growth can more effectively fulfil.

    For Commander Belainesh, it's time to decide whether her dreams of liberation have failed-and whether it's time to move on

    Item no.: WY01110524
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    MILKING THE RHINO

    The promise of community-based conservation in Africa.

    Directed by David E. Simpson

    A ferocious kill on the Serengeti...dire warnings about endangered species...These cliches of nature documentaries ignore a key feature of the landscape: villagers just off-camera, who navigate the dangers and costs of living with wildlife on a daily basis. When seen at all, rural Africans are often depicted as the problem - they poach animals and encroach on habitat, they spoil our myth of wild Africa.

    MILKING THE RHINO tells a more nuanced tale of human-wildlife coexistence in post-colonial Africa. The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Namibia's Himba - two of Earth's oldest cattle cultures - are in the midst of upheaval. Emerging from a century of "white man conservation," which turned their lands into game reserves and fueled resentment towards wildlife, Himba and Maasai communities are now vying for a piece of the wildlife-tourism pie.

    Community-based conservation, which tries to balance the needs of wildlife and people, has been touted by environmentalists as "win-win." The reality is more complex. "We never used to benefit from these animals," a Maasai host of a community eco-lodge explains. "Now we milk them like cattle!" His neighbor disagrees: "A rhino means nothing to me! I can't kill it for meat like a cow." And when drought decimates the grass shared by livestock and wildlife, the community's commitment to conservation is sorely tested.

    Charting the collision of ancient ways with Western expectations, MILKING THE RHINO tells intimate, hopeful and heartbreaking stories of people facing deep cultural change.

    Reviews
  • "Asks all the right questions, showing us just how much is at stake for both people and biodiversity--but ultimately letting the viewers decide for themselves." - Dr. Charles C. Chester, Author, Conservation Across Borders: Biodiversity in an Interdependent World

  • "Offers hope based not in platitudes but in practical solutions." - Time Out Chicago

  • "A common theme in Kartemquin docs is that making a living is a political matter. Simpson skillfully adapts that perspective to rural Africa, where investing in wildlife links the Masai and others to the new globalism." - Chicago Sun-Times

  • "Fascinating, often beautiful...4 Stars " - Chicago Tribune

  • "Milking the Rhino represents refreshingly optimistic fare...impresses throughout." - Variety

  • "David E. Simpson balances all sides of the argument, giving equal play to the emaciated cattle and the tenuous transfer of a black rhino, while generating impassioned and articulate discourse from all of his interview subjects." - EyeWeekly.com

  • "Fresh and ultimately fascinating...A worthy film and a rare peek into a world most of us will never know." - Metro

    Awards
  • Director's Award for Best Documentary Feature, Pan African Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
  • Joris Ivens Award Competition, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
  • Silver Lei Winner, Honolulu Film Festival

    Item no.: KW02790588
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 83 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 295.00

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    WATER FIRST: REACHING THE MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

    An inspiring story from Malawi shows that clean water is essential for the achievement of the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

    Directed by Amy Hart
    Cinematography by Steve Nealey & Amy Hart
    Composer: Samite
    Additional Music: Habib Koite, Todd Nolan

    Through the inspiring story of Charles Banda, a humble Malawian fireman turned waterman, we see how water is a solution to many of the problems in his impoverished, sub- Saharan country. From hunger and poverty to women's equality and population control, HIV/AIDS to environmental sustainability, Banda makes it clear that the best way to assist and empower people in developing nations, and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is by putting water first.

    Water First draws a clear correlation between clean water and all of the other Millennium Development Goals. The goals are a set of 8 targets set by the UN in the year 2000 and endorsed by 187 nations. Sadly, at the halfway mark, we are less than halfway there. Charles Banda believes that if more people knew about the MDGs we would have a much better chance of achieving them. And, if clean water was the top priority, achieving the goals would be much more feasible. "30% of the goals would automatically be achieved if everyone had clean water," says John Oldfield of Water Advocates.

    Reviews
  • "The perfect primer on the global challenge of providing universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation." - Sandra Postel, Director, Global Water Policy Project

  • "Eye-opening and inspiring. It is almost impossible for us to imagine living even one day without the clean water we take for granted, but the film compels us to do so. Just as importantly, Water First shows us that it is possible to mend the global water crisis." Elizabeth Arkell, Student Movement for Real Change

  • "A moving and well-done film, featuring African countries, especially Malawi, which would well benefit by access to clean, readily available water and its separation from human waste and wastewater to reduce waterborne diseases and related deaths, childhood stunting, labor and economic deprivations, and poverty. I am not easily impressed, after working in developing countries in water and sanitation for the past 30+ years, but I am impressed by [Amy Hart's] work." - Barney P. Popkin, Environmental Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development/Bureau for Asia and the Near East

  • "I love the film. Water First is a powerful look at the problem of failing to meet basic human needs for water, and the fantastic efforts underway by dedicated heroes trying to solve that problem. We need more awareness of water issues and more such dedicated heroes. This film offers the first and I hope it will help produce the second." - Peter Gleick, President and Co-founder, Pacific Institute, Author, The World's Water

  • "Deftly demonstrates that small change can make a huge impact. I look forward to adding this title to our collection, and I feel it will be used well in a variety of teaching disciplines." - Patricia O'Donnell, Instructional Media Collections & Services, University of California, Los Angeles

    Awards
  • International Jury Award, International Water and Film Festival, World Water Forum
  • Fulbright Cultural Exchange Award, EcoFilm Festival, Rodos, Greece
  • Environmental Film Festival In The Nation's Capital
  • Maryland Film Festival
  • Global Peace Film Festival
  • Colorado Environmental Film Festival
  • Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles
  • Starz Pan African Film Festival, Denver
  • Bergen International Film Festival
  • Cinespot Environmental Film Festival, Montpelier, France
  • Cortopotere Film Festival, Bergamo, Italy
  • UN Environmental Programme Award Film Festival, Istanbul
  • Voices from the Waters Film Festival, Bangalore
  • Ulisphotofest, Istanbul
  • Africala Film Festival, Mexico City
  • Verviers au Film de l'Eau , Verviers, Belgium
  • Food and Water- Global Hunger Conference, Chicago IL

    Item no.: FD02560578
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 46 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 250.00

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    WEATHER THE STORM: THE FIGHT TO STAY LOCAL IN THE GLOBAL FISHERY

    Fishing communities on France's western coast show the path to sustainability.

    Directed by Charles Menzies and Jennifer Rashleigh

    In today's global economy, the world's ocean resources are being hit hard. Enormous industrial "floating factories" follow the fish wherever they are abundant, and move on when they have plundered the fish stocks. In the process, they squeeze the life out of small and local fishing communities.

    The fishing communities of the Bigouden, on France's rugged Western coast, are determined to fight back. From the Paris fish riots of 1991, to the newly formed World Forum for Fish Harvesters, these small town fishermen have launched a sophisticated and multi-faceted strategy to stay small and successful in the face of global competition.

    Filmed in ports from Western Canada to France, from Scotland to Senegal, Weather The Storm introduces viewers to the logic underlying both industrial and artisanal fishing economies. It provides compelling evidence for the environmental and socio-economic benefits of staying small and local. Although the battle to save the oceans is often publicly waged between environmentalists and corporations, this film gives voice to an important group who just may have the solutions we need: the small-scale artisanal fishers.

    Reviews
  • "Argue[s] that 'choosing to stay local is the best way to stay sustainable.'" - Dr. Courtney Carothers, University of Alaska Fairbanks

  • "Weather the Storm tells the story of local fishers everywhere under pressure. By taking a stand against industrial fleets that devastate fish stocks worldwide, fishers on the western coast of France may have just the solutions we need to save fish, fishers, and their communities." - James R. Karr, Professor Emeritus, Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Washington

    Item no.: GT02790604
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 36 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 225.00

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    ADDICTED TO PLASTIC

    Reveals the history and worldwide scope of plastics pollution, investigates its toxicity and explores solutions.

    Directed by Ian Connacher
    Camera: Ian Connacher, Gad Reichman
    Music Supervision: Oliver Johnson courtesy of the Hive
    Editors: Martyn Iannece, Gad Reichman, Kevin Rollins

    From styrofoam cups to artificial organs, plastics are perhaps the most ubiquitous and versatile material ever invented. No invention in the past 100 years has had more influence and presence than synthetics. But such progress has had a cost.

    For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. Addicted To Plastic is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there's so darn much of it. On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up.

    Addicted To Plastic is a point-of-view style documentary that encompasses three years of filming in 12 countries on 5 continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions-which include plastic made from plants-will provide viewers with a new perspective about our future with plastic.

    Reviews
  • "A sobering must-see and needs to be shown at every educational level globally!" - Dr. James M. Cervino, Visiting Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Department of Marine Chemistry

  • "For anyone who's wondered what eventually happens to all the plastic in water bottles, packaging, and hundreds of other everyday uses, the feature-length documentary Addicted to Plastic offers a visually compelling, entertaining, ultimately frightening explanation...Candid interviews, especially a particularly revealing one with a representative of the industry's American Plastics Council, permit viewers to form their own opinions. Connacher's on-screen presence as a curious, energized hipster on a plastic road trip lends immediacy to his narrative and enables him to filter complex information and hypotheses into a manageable form that will provoke viewers without confusing them. All in all, Addicted to Plastic is an absorbing, shocking, only partially reassuring odyssey." - Jeffrey L. Meikle, Professor, American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Author, American Plastic: A Cultural History

  • "Addicted to Plastic was a wake-up call for me as a marine scientist. This film presents the viewers with a grim, realistic look at how the food chain is being affected due to plastic confetti invading nearly every square centimeter on earth. This documentary is a sort of eco-horror movie, detailing how persistent plastics sprinkled throughout the ocean and land carry chemical compounds up the food chain and onto our dinner plates. The word 'bioaccumulation' truly strikes home in a frightening and understandable way after viewing this film. Addicted to Plastic is a sobering must-see and needs to be shown at every educational level globally!" - Dr. James M. Cervino, Assistant Professor, Biology and Health Sciences, Pace University, Visiting Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Department of Marine Chemistry

  • "Addicted to Plastic is a journey of discovery of what happens to the various plastics we use and what we can do about them. The documentary is riveting, disturbing, and even sometimes comforting. Everyone should see this important film." - Reah Janise Kauffman, Vice President, Earth Policy Institute

    Awards
  • International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
  • Vancouver International Film Festival
  • Milano Film Festival
  • Planet In Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • DOCSDF: Mexico City International Film Festival

    Item no.: TR02790573
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 85 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 295.00

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    ALL IN THIS TEA

    Crusading American tea importer, David Lee Hoffman, supports China's endangered organic farmers by searching out fine, chemical-free teas.

    The latest film from distinguished documentarian Les Blank, in collaboration with co-director Gina Leibrecht, follows American tea importer David Lee Hoffman to some of the most remote regions of China in search of the world's finest teas.

    Hoffman is obsessed; during his youth he spent four years with Tibetan monks in Nepal, which included a friendship with the Dalai Lama, and was introduced to some of the finest of teas. Unable to find anything but insipid tea bags in the U.S., Hoffman began traveling to China, the homeland of tea. There, he struggles against language barriers and Byzantine business codes to convince the Chinese that the farmers make better tea than the factories and that their craft should be honored and preserved.

    This craft can not be learned from a book, but has been handed down through generations of tea makers for thousands of years. He drags the reluctant tea factory aficionados up a lush, terraced mountainside and brings them face to face with those "dirty" farmers. In an ironic twist, Hoffman reintroduces them to one of their country's oldest traditions.

    But Hoffman is even a step ahead of his own country in that he is advocating "fair trade" and organics. Images of the farmers standing on urban street corners selling a week's harvest for three dollars, in the shadow of China's increasing number of high rises, illustrate the paradox that stepping into the modern world imposes.

    Tea experts James Norwood Pratt, Gaetano Kazuo Maida, and Winnie W. Yu provide the fundamentals of tea, lending weight to Hoffman's endeavor.

    Reviews
  • "Packs in more information (not to mention pleasure) per celluloid foot than just about anything you'll see this year fiction or non." - Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian

  • "An entertaining portrait of an eccentric figure whose singular passion proves infectious." - The Hollywood Reporter

  • "This film is a labor of love by Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht, and is a gentle, poetic film about one man's passion for tea." - Alex Lee, New Zealand International Documentary Film Festival

  • "Packs in more information (not to mention pleasure) per celluloid foot than just about anything you'll see this year fiction or non." - Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian

  • "A delightful ode." - Jeffrey M. Anderson, Cinematical.com

    Item no.: VE01110605
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 70 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 275.00

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    ARGENTINA: TURNING AROUND

    An intimate view of new models of work, politics and community development in Argentina.

    In the 90s Argentina embraced globalization, but instead of making everyone rich the economy collapsed. The eyes of the world were on Argentina as a desperate people turned to each other for mutual support in a remarkable outpouring of grassroots organizing. Now, several years later, have there been fundamental changes, or is it business as usual?

    From the producers of Argentina: Hope in Hard Times, comes a new film that re-visits worker-run factories, and talks with journalists, economists, and unemployed workers. ARGENTINA: TURNING AROUND provides an intimate view of the new models of work, politics and community development that are now underway, as people re-invent their society to offer a better life for all.

    Reviews
  • "Combining colorful footage of the experiences of ordinary Argentines with insightful interviews of Argentine professors, journalists and civil society leaders, this film provides a comprehensive and timely follow-up to the experimentation and empowerment that arose out of Argentina's recent crises. It is a valuable resource for educators and activists alike." - Dr. Robert Andolina, International Studies, Seattle University

  • "This film takes us into the society that is actively trying to find solutions to the neo-liberal policies advanced by the US Government, the International Monetary Fund, and many economists around the world." - Kim Scipes, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology, Purdue University

  • "It is a sobering film. It made me think about how much time, hope, imagination, creativity, and cooperation are needed to build a new society, the many diverse skills required, the pivotal role of artists as well as mechanics, the importance of process, the support both of those on high and those on the bottom." - Grace Lee Boggs, James and Grace Lee Boggs Center, Detroit

  • "This exciting film captures the spirit of Argentina's grassroots response to economic meltdown. Drawing from diverse interviews and incredible footage, the film offers an inside look at the victories and challenges of Argentina's neighborhood assemblies, protest movements and worker-run factories. Argentina: Turning Around skillfully transmits the country's courageous examples of social change." - Ben Dangl, author, The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia

  • "A lovely immersion in the ongoing struggles in Argentina." - Sarah Van Gelder, Executive Editor, YES! Magazine

  • "A gem of a film whose heart is with the workers and poor of Argentina. Argentina:Turning Around takes us onto the shop floor of worker-run factories and into the barrios where the unemployed are organizing schools, kitchens and work." - Jerry Harris, Secretary, Global Studies Association

  • "Argentina:Turning Around is a remarkable story of how a crisis in today's global society can provide an opening for new models of work, production, politics, ownership, and human and community development." - Dan Swinney, North American Network for Solidarity Economy

  • "The unemployed workers movement and the recuperated factories in Argentina show us an alternative path of economic recuperation and Argentina: Turning Around accurately captures this experience without romanticizing the challenge that Argentineans are still facing." - Dr. Delia Marx, Argentinean and Global Exchange Reality Tour leader to Argentina

  • "Inspiring and timely...Turning Around undertakes the rare and important-yet too often neglected-task of revisiting and re-examining social change once the headlines have faded. This well crafted film captures the hard won insight and wisdom of the workers, business managers, movement leaders, academics and journalists who have lived and led Argentina's struggle to challenge the dominant economic development paradigm. In many cases, what began as informal experiments, born out of necessity or desperation, have evolved into thriving new people-centric models of business, agriculture, education and community building. Turning Around captures Argentina's modern story of hope, struggle, consciousness and transformation and is a 'must see' for changemakers everywhere." - Tanya Dawkins, Founder, Director, Global- Local Links Project, Florida

    Item no.: HY02560348
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 38 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 225.00

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    DIAMOND ROAD

    Examines every facet of the diamond trade from the prospectors to the miners, cutters, jewelers, smugglers and dealers, and advocates for fair trade.

    Directed by Nisha Pahuja

    Every year 24 tons of diamonds are teased from the heart of the earth. Once mined they begin their year-long journey through the "pipeline," a vast network encompassing five continents and a diverse cast of characters. By the end of their journey these tiny bits of carbon will have made multi-millionaires of some and virtual slaves of others.

    Boring deep into the diamond world, Diamond Road seeks to understand the multiple meanings this object has for a few of the fascinating people who are part of the diamond pipeline - international prospector, impoverished miner, child cutter, celebrity jeweller, smuggler, high-end dealer. Interwoven with their stories is the determined pursuit of one industry leader to bring fairness and transparency to this secretive world. What results is a multi-layered portrait of a stone which is steeped in a history of intrigue, conflict, love and hope.

    Reviews
  • "A most useful classroom tool to raise issues concerning socio-economic deprivation, poverty reduction, and other allied problems." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, Hofstra University Law School

  • "A gripping picture of the world and the myth behind the much-loved stone...the weight of fact is overwhelming: diamonds are sold as an idea, that idea is eternity and that eternity comes from mines staffed by the poorest people in the world." - Erik Jensen, The Sydney Morning Herald

  • "Diamond Road seeks to understand the multiple meanings this object has for a few of the fascinating people who are part of the diamond pipeline...What results is a multi-layered portrait of a stone steeped in a history of intrigue, conflict, love and hope." - TakingITGlobal

  • "Diamond Road is an interesting and information rich documentary that showcases the transactions in the global market of the diamond trade as well as some of the human stories behind it." - Aniuska Luna, African Peace and Conflict Network

  • "Has potential value in a number of curricular areas such as African studies, economics, globalization, and human

    rights." - School Library Journal

    Awards
  • Best Documentary Series, 23rd Gemini Awards
  • Platinum Remi Award, WorldFest Houston

    Item no.: NC02560597
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 99 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 295.00

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    GAME OVER: CONSERVATION IN KENYA

    Explores the changing face of conservation in Kenya.

    Directed by Sara Marino

    Game Over: Conservation in Kenya looks at the changing face of conservation in Kenya and explores the impact of both colonial and contemporary initiatives, as well as how they affect the peoples who have traditionally lived off the land.

    With a rapidly increasing population and escalating poverty, more people are moving into areas where wildlife once roamed freely. They are competing with wildlife for the same natural resources - water and pasture.

    It is a conflict between old and new, human versus wildlife. Fortunately for humans and non-humans alike, there are some Africans who have devoted much of their lives to efforts to resolve these fundamental conflicts.

    In particular, we follow the shifting fortunes of the semi-traditional pastoral group the Maasai, who are now engaged both in conservation and tourism. Prominent conservationists like Dr. Richard Leakey discuss key events in Kenya's conservation history, and what it is going to take for conservation to succeed today.

    Review
  • "A wonderful and sobering overview of the greatest 'game' country on Earth." - Peter Alden, naturalist, lecturer, tour guide, co-author The National Audubon/Collins Field Guide to African Wildlife

    Item no.: WT02560587
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 44 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 250.00

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    WAR ON DEMOCRACY, THE

    John Pilger reports that, in spite of a history of repeated US-backed suppression, popular democratic movements are gaining ground in Latin America.

    The War on Democracy demonstrates the brutal reality of the America's notion of 'spreading democracy'; that, in fact, America is actually conducting a war on democracy, and that true popular democracy is now more likely to be found among the poorest of Latin America whose grassroots movements are often ignored in the west.

    John Pilger conducts an exclusive interview with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Pilger also goes to the United States and in some remarkable interviews, speaks exclusively to US government officials who ran the CIA's war in Latin America in the 1980s. This reveals more about US policy than all the statements and postures of recent times; it also reveals how what's happened in Latin America is a metaphor for how the rest of the world is being "ordered."

    The War on Democracy, however, is a hopeful film, for it sees the world not through the eyes of the powerful, but through the hopes and dreams and extraordinary actions of ordinary people. Although set mostly in Latin America, it is a metaphor for all the world.

    The thrust of John Pilger's latest film is a constant theme in all his work: that great, rapacious power is far from invincible and that people power is enduring. Photaographed in high definition video, few films have been as timely as The War on Democracy.

    Reviews
  • "Put[s] forth troubling views on contemporary American society and our place in the world...Presents a powerful picture of a people attempting to rise above injustice and take control of their future." - Library Journal

  • "Thoughtful and thought-provoking...Very highly recommended viewing for civil rights activists, political reformers, and the general public in this current political season,The War On Democracy is a welcome and necessary addition to academic and community library collections." - The Midwest Book Review

  • "It is to be applauded for its extensive interviewing, its selection of government officials (active and retired), and a host of witnesses to tragedies throughout Latin America, and unabashed critical analysis. Recommended." - Michael J. Coffta, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Educational Media Reviews Online

    Award
  • Best Documentary, One World Media Awards

    Item no.: CT01110669
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 94 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 295.00

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    WEATHER REPORT

    A report from the front lines of climate change in Kenya, India, Canada, the Arctic, China, and Montana where peoples' lives have already been dramatically altered.

    Directed by Brenda Longfellow
    Director of Photography: Christopher Romeike
    Original Music: Philip Strong & Laurel Macdonald

    Climate change is already here. In another decade, the damage will be irreversible.

    Weather Report is a sneak peek into the future. This year-long road trip takes us around the world, to places where global warming is having an immediate effect. We meet people for whom climate change already has life-and-death implications.

    In India, city planners brace for more flooding disasters. In northern Kenya, tree-planting activists try to fend off the extreme drought that is sparking armed conflict over water and land. In the Canadian Arctic, elders are baffled by unpredictable weather patterns and animal behavior.

    Many of the characters we meet are tireless fighters. People like Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai, whose Green Belt Movement marries conservation with community economic growth. A few years ago, Maathai was beaten by private security guards while protecting a forest. Now she's an assistant minister in the Kenyan government. Half a world away, in northern Canada, firebrand activist Sheila Watt- Cloutier fights to protect Inuit human rights against the impacts of climate change. Cloutier grew up riding dog sleds and hunting seals, a way of life disappearing for social but also climatic reasons. As head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, she mounts a case that emissions from the US are a violation of the rights of the Inuit and other northern peoples whose cultures are being destroyed.

    Weather Report brings us the powerful human stories of people whose lives have already been dramatically altered by the global crisis that will soon affect us all. It suggests that the weather is telling us that the current model of economic growth is not sustainable.

    Reviews
  • "Excellent...provides sobering testimony from people who, thus far, are the most impacted by the rise of greenhouse gases." - Dr. Paul Mayewski, Director, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine

  • "Excellent...Weather Report provides sobering testimony from people who, thus far, are the most impacted by the rise of greenhouse gases and other humanly emitted pollutants. Many of these people come from cultures that have observed their surroundings very carefully over the last few centuries and longer and they see the change. They provide eloquent commentary for those of us who are still at least partially buffered from environmental change and this commentary ought to awaken us." - Dr. Paul Mayewski, Director, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Author, The Ice Chronicles: The Quest to Understand Global Climate Change

    Award
  • Bronze Remi Award, WorldFest International Film Festival

    Item no.: SP02560547
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 250.00

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    BUYER BE FAIR: THE PROMISE OF PRODUCT CERTIFICATION

    Looks at the benefits of fair trade goods and product certification for people and the environment.

    Under the auspices of the WTO, globalization of world trade seems like a juggernaut that will not be stopped. But is there a way to make trade FAIR? How can retailers and consumers use their purchasing power and market choice to make the world better for people and the environment? What is the promise of product certification and labeling?

    BUYER BE FAIR looks at two major trade goods -- timber and coffee -- to find out how certification works and whether it helps the world's poor, and their lands. Can the lessons from certification of timber, by the Forest Stewardship Council, and coffee, by Fair Trade, be applied to other products?

    BUYER BE FAIR takes viewers to Mexico, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, the USA and Canada, where compelling stories and characters raise and answer these questions in a powerful documentary that explores new ways to make globalization work for all of us.

    Reviews
  • "It's moving, it's gorgeous, it's engaging, and the viewer feels empowered, not preached to." Frances Moore Lappe, author of "Diet for a Small Planet" and "Hope's Edge"

  • "Buyer Be Fair will have a huge impact. It's moving, it's gorgeous, it's engaging, and the viewer feels empowered, not preached to." Frances Moore Lappe, author of "Diet for a Small Planet" and "Hope's Edge"

  • "The film makes one simple point: as consumers we have the power. When we buy products with eco-labels like the Forest Stewardship Council and Fair Trade we really make a difference, for both people and nature." Barbara Bramble, National Wildlife Federation

  • "Buyer Be Fair offers an engaging look into one of the hottest topics in today's marketplace. Its straightforward approach illuminates the considerable and increasing power that is in our hands as consumers to have a direct impact on the lives (and environments) of countless people. This film helps people understand WHY to care and WHAT to do." Daniele Giovannucci, World Bank, Senior Consultant and author of "The State of Sustainable Coffee" and "Coffee Markets: New Paradigms in Global Supply and Demand"

  • "BUYER BE FAIR is an excellent introduction to how fair trade can be a win-win innovation in the marketplace. Students will enjoy the clear exposition, and teachers will find that the documentary opens many doors to classroom discussion. The documentary has two parts-one on coffee and one on lumber-that can be seen and discussed in two separate class sessions." Michael Kevane, Associate Professor of Economics, Santa Clara University

  • "Buyer Be Fair shows us that our economic decisions need not be made in a moral vacuum; that our purchases in the marketplace are a statement of the type of world we wish to live in. It carefully explains the concept of fair trade and demonstrates the power American consumers could have in transforming the global economy. A must see for every American consumer." Paul Winters, Dept. of Economics, American University

  • "As a professor of business and society courses, I am excited about Buyer Be Fair. Fair trade and product certification are two extremely important practices that can link corporations, consumers, and producers together in socially responsible ways to address challenging global issues of poverty, environmental degradation and social justice. Textbook discussions of certification and fair trade are relatively uncommon, and fail to effectively communicate their essence and potential. Buyer Be Fair provides viewers with an understanding of these practices and their importance. This film helps fair trade and product certification move from abstract concepts to real, practical mechanisms for making the world a better place." Gordon Rands, Associate Professor of Management, Western Illinois University

  • "A fair, balanced look at certifying timber and other products. It left me wanting to purchase only certified coffee in the future!... [Buyer Be Fair] portrays so well the relationship between economic and environmental sustainability." Sally D. Collins, Associate Chief, USDA/Forest Service

    Awards
  • Honorable Mention, Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Council on Foundations Film & Video Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Northwest Sustainability Conference

    Item no.: FJ02790046
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 250.00

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    KABUL TRANSIT

    A street-level documentary that explores the soul of a city devastated by nearly three decades of war.

    In the broken cityscape of Kabul, Afghanistan, amid the dust and rubble of war, Westerners and Afghans adjust to the uncertain possibilities of peace. Kabul Transit shuttles through the broken streets of the city, moving between public space and private, listening in on conversations, posing questions, probing the darker alleys mainstream media avoids. The result is a unique cinematic experience-a shifting mosaic of encounters and raconteurs, captured glances and telling gestures, all beautifully shot and woven together by the music and the found sounds of a city sluggishly coming to life. Rejecting the usual device of narration and portraiture, the film asks the viewer to experience Kabul as a newly arrived visitor would-with a freshness born of apprehension on finding oneself in a place that is at once hauntingly strange and altogether familiar.

    Reviews
  • "Returning to Afghanistan after the war, anthropologist David Edwards (Heroes of the Age, 1996; Before the Taliban, 2002), with the help of his cameraman [Gregory Whitmore] and co-filmmaker Maliha Zulfacar, created a rare glimpse of what he found in a ravaged city and the complex ways in which Afghans are trying to survive. Finalist in a number of international documentary film festivals and recently shown at the Walter Reed Theatre in New York, Kabul Transit is one of the most important films on the Middle East in recent years." - Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies

  • "The documentary accurately reveals the end result of a 30-year war devastation of the ancient city of Kabul and its inhabitants. It draws many contrasts-the abundance of supply for foreign troops and the scarcity faced by Afghan security forces, the new buildings and the devastation of the city, and the views of university students on what should be done and what is being done by donors. The quality of photography is superb and the coverage is comprehensive with high educational value to viewing students and the public at large. Kabul has been destroyed many times in history and Kabul Transit clearly demonstrates that history repeats itself. The most astonishing aspect came through the positive psychology of the people showing strive and hope rather than despair at terrible odds. The directors of Kabul Transit have rendered a major service to the public and deserve our [gratitude]." - Nake Kamrany, Professor of Economics, University of Southern California

  • "Afghanis caught in the lower hell of globalization, surviving with the kind of disarming courage that only a fellow human can muster. Subtle, devastating, and poetic, Kabul Transit will be of great use to educators who seek an honest portrait of Afghanistan today." - Flagg Miller, Religious Studies, The University of California- Davis

  • "As someone who has spent time on the ground in Afghanistan I have long wanted to share this land with those who see it only through the lenses of the war on terror. In particular, as an educator I have wanted to bring this vibrant land of snow-covered mountains, ancient mosques, caravans, nomads, and colorful peoples to life for my students. In Kabul Transit I have found the means to do so. This revealing documentary brings to life average Afghans, from police officials to women who are probing the limits of personal freedom in a new, post- Taliban setting. The result is dozens of vignettes into the lives of ordinary Afghans who hardly resemble the threatening images most outsiders have of the Taliban, warlords, opium barons, or mujahideen. It is the story of real Afghans." - Brian Glyn Williams, Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth

  • "Spare, unsentimental and uncompromising...Most comparable to the recent doc "Iraq in Fragments," and infinitely more successful, this is a picture of a city in fragments, without intro, commentary or visual aid....Edwards, a tyro filmmaker, anthropologist and expert on Afghanistan at Williams College, and vet filmmaker/editor Whitmore, with Afghan-born producer Maliha Zulfacar, ventured to Kabul in 2003 with the idea of taking in various aspects of Kabul sans pre-set agenda. With Edwards' somewhat distanced, anthropological manner of filming akin to French doc pioneer Jean Rouch, Whitmore as editor opts to build the film by showing each part of the city, and seldom revisiting it, creating a sort of Cubist effect for the viewer....Such an approach may seem downright revolutionary to some doc fans, but the pic's style is much in accord with the norm for current Euro and Asian documaking, where polemics takes a back seat if it has a place at all. Lensing under arduous conditions is superb, lending the pic a bigscreen presence." - Robert Koehler, Variety

  • "Forgoing devices of narration and intertitles, filmmakers David Edwards, Gregory Whitmore, and Maliha Zulfacar sculpt an engrossing, wry and ultimately haunting vision of war-torn Kabul and its diverse residents. Meandering through the neighborhoods, we encounter a mystic herbal doctor, an earnest Canadian soldier, the city's fledgling police force, a childless French schoolteacher and even a band of kite enthusiasts. With each encounter, human behavior is captured in its most fragile, humble form, thereby reminding us of mankind's ability to persevere no matter what the circumstances." - Los Angeles Film Festival

  • "With its title suggesting both its subject and its style, kabul transit presents a portrait of a fragmented country in transition via a glancing, observational look at its capital city and environs at a very particular moment in its history...a mosaic of images and experiences that convey the sorrow, black humor, irony, and surprising hope that can exist in the most untenable of situations." - Film Society of Lincoln Center

  • "Rather than taking a sensationalist outsider's perspective, this masterful documentary by first-time filmmakers David Edwards, Dr. Maliha Zulfacar, and Gregory Whitmore offers panoramic views of the city, as if filmed by an everyman on the streets of Kabul. The camera is in a constant state of quiet motion, swooping past money exchangers, government officials, U.N. Peace Keepers, and kite runners. There are no inserted queries on terrorism, diatribes about the burqa, or elongated shots of starving children within such organic motion; rather, the seemingly invisible filmmakers allow the residents, landscape and traditions of Kabul to illustrate the current state of the city and its people. Throughout the film, the camera serves less as a microscope and more as an eye, mimicking the sight of anyone and everyone on the streets of this legendary capitol city." - San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

  • "Rather than shoot a travelogue or a polemic about how military violence has damaged the city and its people, they opted to shoot a fly-on-the-wall documentary in which they portrayed all sides of life in Kabul and allowed its citizens to speak for themselves." - Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

  • "Kabul Transit explores the soul of a city devastated by nearly three decades of war. The film follows city residents in the course of their daily lives and listens to their stories of the past and their hopes for the future. From neighborhoods leveled by rockets, traditional mud brick homes next to modern glass towers, gleaming SUVs caught in traffic jams with rebuilt taxis, Kabul Transit is about the spirit, as much as it is about the problems of the city. It is about the black humor and sardonic good sense that keep people attuned to the realities of their lives, even as politicians lay the groundwork for battles yet to come." - New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival

  • "A meditative but uncompromising document of the diverse residents of the war-torn Afghan capital, Kabul Transit forgoes didactive narration in favour of patient expose of a range of everyday lives. A group of female university students discuss resistance and Western influence, a fledgling police force struggle with insufficient resources, a herbal doctor consults with his patients and a French schoolteacher forges close relations with her pupils in her adopted home. All are a testament to perseverance and spirit in the face of regression and destruction." - Leeds International Film Festival

  • "Kabul Transit is a sensual meditation on the meaning of security in a city pummeled by decades of war. An earnest Canadian peacekeeper reflects on the daunting task of rebuilding a country in the absence of a clear sense of direction. Female university students provide a sardonic perspective on Western efforts to save Afghanistan from Afghans. A salesman tries to sell multi-million dollar fire equipment to a government that cannot afford uniforms for its policemen. At the same time, kite runners, amulet makers and herbal doctors transmit an unlikely sense of hope and humor, insisting that though buildings, roads and bodies have been broken by war, the spirit of Kabul survives. " - International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam

  • "After the fall of the Taliban the world pledged an unprecedented sum of money and committed vast military resources to Afghanistan. In the capital city of Kabul, among broken bricks, dust and craters, the watchwords of the reconstruction efforts were `budgets' and `progress'. Notions of patience, consideration, cooperation and history sounded tinny and weak.Kabul Transit attempts a slower and gentler inquiry into the meaning of the country's security and reconstruction....Kabul Transit sets out to give voice to those whose stories would otherwise never be told." - Galway Film Fleadh

  • "Kabul Transit is beautifully photographed, matter-of-fact, bleak yet oddly hopeful and "infinitely more successful," according to Variety's Robert Koehler, than the comparable Iraq in Fragments. I heartily concur." - Michael Hawley, twitchfilm.net

  • "The film was beautifully shot, making sure there is not a moment where you are not captivated by something on the screen." -filmobsessionblogspot.com

  • "After the fall of the Taliban-but also after centuries of colonialism and decades of proxy war and chaos-the world pledged an unprecedented sum of money and committed vast military resources to Afghanistan. Amidst this largess voices of optimism, hope and progress began to drone out the once familiar stories of despair, perseverance and exhaustion.In the capital city of Kabul, among broken bricks, dust and craters, Westerners and Afghans alike moved quickly to forge new circuits and in some cases graft entirely new systems-of law, economics, architecture and defense strategy-onto the shell of what remained. Perhaps too quickly. `Budget' and `Progress' became the sole watchwords of the reconstruction and security efforts. Notions of patience, consideration, cooperation and history sounded tinny and weak.Speed itself had become a goal..." - Bodrum Film Festival

    Awards
  • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
  • International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam
  • Award of Commendation, Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Video Festival, American Anthropological Association
  • Los Angeles Film Festival
  • Vancouver International Film Festival
  • Film Society of Lincoln Center Independents' Night
  • San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
  • Leeds International Film Festival
  • Galway Film Fleadh
  • New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival
  • Barcelona Asian Film Festival
  • Bodrum FilmFest, Turkey
  • Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia

    Item no.: YM02790424
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With English & Spanish Subtitles)
    Duration: 84 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 295.00

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    RAIN IN A DRY LAND

    Directed by Anne Makepeace
    Directors of Photography: Joan Churchill, Barney Broomfield
    Editor: Mary Lampson
    Composer: Joel Goodman

    Two Somali Bantu families leave behind a legacy of slavery in Africa and find new homes in urban America.

    In 2004, thirteen thousand Somali Bantu refugees realized their dream of coming to America. They are now living in fifty cities across the country, becoming the largest African group from a single minority to settle in the United States at one time.

    RAIN IN A DRY LAND chronicles two years in the lives of two extended Somali Bantu families as they leave behind a two-hundred year legacy of oppression in Africa to face new challenges in a strange new land. The film begins in January, 2004, at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where our featured families are stunned by what they learn about America in their "Cultural Orientation" class: refrigerators, stoves, bathtubs, elevators, stairs, buildings taller than one storey, schools, and all the things we take for granted in modern life. As their awe and excitement grow, the audience fears for them. How will these illiterate Muslim farmers who speak no English manage to survive in America?

    These opening scenes in Kakuma introduce our featured families, both dynamic, charismatic, and very different in nature. Arbai is quick, strong, affectionate, a single mother of four with a great sense of humor and an easy contagious laugh, despite her devastating past.

    Madina is fierce, vulnerable, wounded, strong; her husband Aden is volatile, moody, soulful, determined to provide for his huge family but uncertain and a bit naive about the life that lies ahead. Their witty, resourceful teenage sons, Ali (17) and Warsame (15), figure prominently in the film, as do Arbai's beautiful teenage daughters, Sahara (13) and Khadija (16).

    The documentary follows these two families to America and through their first two years in their new homes. Aden and Madina, sponsored by Jewish Family Service, settle in the grim mill-town of Springfield, Massachusetts; while Arbai's family settles in Atlanta.

    Despite racism, poverty, failures of the school system, and severe culture shock, both families do find ways to survive in America, and to create a safe haven for their war-torn families. The film ends with two vivid celebrations: the naming ceremony of Aden and Madina's first American-born child; and the traditional wedding of Arbai's oldest daughter, a colorful reunion of hundreds of Somali Bantu families converging on Atlanta from all over America.

    Reviews
  • "Rigorously intimate and disarmingly affectionate...In following two subject families in their transition from Somalian refugee camp to underclass America, filmmaker Anne Makepeace never reduces them to devices or symbols or anything less than human beings caught in the cross-hairs of global politics. The film's honesty and grit should give it wide appeal...Gorgeously, purposefully shot...One noteworthy aspect is that Makepeace's movie never fails to be cinematic regardless of how free-form the director is forced to be, or how difficult the circumstances of a given scene; it almost feels that the film is blessed...a compassionate telling of what is often a heartbreaking story." - John Anderson, Variety

  • "With immigration on the American radar, director Anne Makepeace's documentary "Rain In A Dry Land" reminds audiences that immigrants come from countries other than Mexico and that their transitions can be hard, but ultimately victorious on some level." - John E. Mitchell, North Adams Transcript

  • "[A film] you'll kick yourself for missing...The way the camera passively observes the rough transition is unsettling...but underscores the way in which promises of aid and a better life can be difficult to deliver." - Missoula Independent

    Awards
  • Working Films Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
  • Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
  • Best of Festival, Fire Island Film Festival
  • Margaret Mead Film Festival
  • Vancouver International Film Festival
  • "Stories from the Field" United Nations Documentary Film Festival
  • Santa Barbara International Film Festival
  • Atlanta Film Festival
  • Denver International Film Festival
  • Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Tri Continental Film Festival, Africa
  • St. Louis International Film Festival
  • Sonoma Valley Film Festival
  • Berkshire Film Festival
  • Woods Hole Film Festival
  • Mountaintop Human Rights Film Festival
  • Cucalorus Film Festival
  • Longbaugh Film Festival

    Item no.: LG02790544
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 82 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 295.00

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    RAIN IN A DRY LAND (SHORT VERSION)

    Directed by Anne Makepeace

    Two Somali families find new homes in urban America.

    In 2004, thirteen thousand Somali Bantu refugees realized their dream of coming to America. They are now living in fifty cities across the country, becoming the largest African group from a single minority to settle in the United States at one time.

    RAIN IN A DRY LAND chronicles two years in the lives of two extended Somali Bantu families as they leave behind a two-hundred year legacy of oppression in Africa to face new challenges in a strange new land.

    Item no.: CG02790749
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 250.00

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    HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION

    Tells the inspiring story of four battles in which Native American activists are fighting to preserve their land, sovereignty, and culture.

    Having brutally occupied the homeland of Native Americans, the invading Europeans forced the indigenous population onto reservations-land that was specifically selected because of its apparent worthlessness.

    To add salt to wounds that are still open, multinational energy companies and others are coming back to extract the hidden mineral wealth of the reservations, and are leaving a trail of toxins that, if unchecked, will make the land unlivable for centuries to come.

    But Native American activists are fighting back, and their inspirational stories are chronicled in "HOMELAND: Four Portraits of Native Action" against the backdrop of some of the country's most spectacular landscapes.

  • Gail Small, an attorney from the Northern Cheyenne nation in Montana, is leading the fight to protect the Cheyenne homeland from 75,000 proposed methane gas wells that pollute the water and threaten to make much of the reservation unsuitable for farming or ranching.

  • Evon Peter is the former chief of an isolated Alaska community of Gwich'in people, who are working against current efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

  • Mitchell and Rita Capitan founded an organization of Eastern Navajo people in New Mexico whose only source of drinking water is threatened by proposed uranium mining.

  • And Barry Dana, the former chief of the Penobscot Nation in Maine, is battling state government and the paper companies that have left his people unable to fish or swim in or harvest medicinal plants from the river on which they've depended for 10,000 years.

    With the support of their communities, these leaders are actively rejecting the devastating affronts of multinational energy companies and the current dismantling of 30 years of environmental laws. They are dedicated to forcing change-to save their land, preserve their sovereignty and ensure the cultural survival of their people.

    Framed by the ecological and spiritual wisdom of Winona LaDuke, HOMELAND presents a vision of how people all over the world can turn around the destructive policies of thoughtless resource plundering and create a new paradigm in which people can live healthier lives with greater understanding of, and respect for, the planet and all of its inhabitants.

    Reviews
  • "This is one of the most moving films I've seen in a long time. As captivating and beautifully filmed as any feature film, the message unfolds clearly and fairly, without the usual 'propaganda' tone, and somehow remains hopeful -- a positive call to action...the way [the filmmakers] relayed the message as story telling, bringing the audience into the lives of real people -- was brilliant, so much more effective than the usual documentary." - Alexis Karolides, AIA, Principal, Green Development Services, Rocky Mountain Institute

  • "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action is a tragic and heroic tale documenting centuries of human and environmental rights violations against four Native American communities...Combining historical footage of Native American community life, the voices of articulate and passionate advocates who describe their spiritual and livelihood connections to their homelands, and politicians and scientists this documentary provides an account of human rights and environmental violations that should enrage all Americans and stimulate more people to consider the environmental cost of unlimited economic growth and to defend their rights to a healthy environment." - Amity Doolittle, PhD, Program Director, Tropical Resources Institute, Associate Research Scientist, Conservation and Development, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

  • "An in-depth look at an often overlooked area of environmental issues...These stories are important to all Americans who care about the state of the land, water, and air that we all depend on for survival...Watch, learn, and enjoy!" - Faye Hadley, Native American Resources/Reference Law Librarian, University of Tulsa College of Law

  • "Homeland paints powerful and moving portraits of Native action to protect natural resources that all peoples depend upon for life. This film is a 'must see' for students of environmental justice and grassroots activism. It provides insight into conflict between long-term survival and short-term profit making as it simultaneously illustrates courageous and effective advocacy for human rights and environmental protection." - Stefanie Wickstrom, Ph.D., Environmental Studies and Political Science, Green Mountain College

  • "Homeland is an enlightening and well-constructed program...An emotive score laced with native tones complements the often breathtaking footage of the threatened natural landscapes. Historical photographs and footage lend the viewer a sense of the scope and longevity of the struggles of native peoples. Commentary by perhaps the most well-known Native American activist, Winona LaDuke, punctuates and contextualizes the challenges facing the different tribes. The scientific processes that lead to environmental degradation are succinctly explained by geologists and other experts. All of these elements create a clear picture of how the Native Americans' spiritual connection to their homeland and way of life is threatened by unsustainable, harmful practices that affect us all...Highly Recommended. Meghann Matwichuk, Morris Library, University of Delaware for Educational Media Rveiews Online

    Awards
  • Vancouver International Film Festival
  • United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
  • Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, San Francisco
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival
  • Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
  • Terres en Vues
  • The Native Voice Film Festival
  • Heard Museum Film Festival
  • Indigenous Rights Watch Film Festival, Washington, DC
  • Durango Film Festival
  • Mill Valley Film Festival
  • Ecocinema Film Festival, Athens, Greece
  • Montreal First Peoples Film & Video Festival
  • Maine International Film Festival
  • Human Rights Nights Film Festival, Bologna
  • Friends of the Oglala Lakota Film Festival
  • Hamptons International Film Festival
  • Brownfields Film Series
  • Native Cinema Showcase, Santa Fe
  • Native American Filmmakers Film Festival, Albuquerque
  • Seattle Environmental Film Fest
  • Grand Teton Award (Best of Festival), Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival
  • The Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Audience Award, Social Justice Award, Santa Barbara International Film Festival
  • Award of Excellence, Indian Summer Film & Video Image Awards, Milwaukee
  • Environmentalism and Social Justice Award, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: GA02790152
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 88 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 295.00

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    HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION (SHORT VERSION)

    A shorter version of the inspiring story of four battles in which Native American activists are fighting to preserve their land, sovereignty, and culture.

    Having brutally occupied the homeland of Native Americans, the invading Europeans forced the indigenous population onto reservations-land that was specifically selected because of its apparent worthlessness.

    To add salt to wounds that are still open, multinational energy companies and others are coming back to extract the hidden mineral wealth of the reservations, and are leaving a trail of toxins that, if unchecked, will make the land unlivable for centuries to come.

    But Native American activists are fighting back, and their inspirational stories are chronicled in "HOMELAND: Four Portraits of Native Action" against the backdrop of some of the country's most spectacular landscapes.

  • Barry Dana, the former chief of the Penobscot Nation in Maine, is battling state government and the paper companies that have left his people unable to fish or swim in or harvest medicinal plants from the river on which they've depended for 10,000 years.

  • Gail Small, an attorney from the Northern Cheyenne nation in Montana, is leading the fight to protect the Cheyenne homeland from 75,000 proposed methane gas wells that pollute the water and threaten to make much of the reservation unsuitable for farming or ranching.

  • Mitchell and Rita Capitan founded an organization of Eastern Navajo people in New Mexico whose only source of drinking water is threatened by proposed uranium mining.

  • And Evon Peter is the former chief of an isolated Alaska community of Gwich'in people, who are working against current efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

    With the support of their communities, these leaders are actively rejecting the devastating affronts of multinational energy companies and the current dismantling of 30 years of environmental laws. They are dedicated to forcing change-to save their land, preserve their sovereignty and ensure the cultural survival of their people.

    Framed by the ecological and spiritual wisdom of Winona LaDuke, HOMELAND presents a vision of how people all over the world can turn around the destructive policies of thoughtless resource plundering and create a new paradigm in which people can live healthier lives with greater understanding of, and respect for, the planet and all of its inhabitants.

    SHORT VERSION: To create a shorter version more suited to classroom, organizational, and television use, the producers have rearranged the order of the stories as above, and edited them down. Losing none of the power or exceptional visual and audio quality of the original, the short version is also closed captioned.

    Review
  • "This is one of the most moving films I've seen in a long time. As captivating and beautifully filmed as any feature film, the message unfolds clearly and fairly, without the usual 'propaganda' tone, and somehow remains hopeful -- a positive call to action...the way [the filmmakers] relayed the message as story telling, bringing the audience into the lives of real people -- was brilliant, so much more effective than the usual documentary." - Alexis Karolides, AIA, Principal, Green Development Services, Rocky Mountain Institute

  • "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action is a tragic and heroic tale documenting centuries of human and environmental rights violations against four Native American communities...Combining historical footage of Native American community life, the voices of articulate and passionate advocates who describe their spiritual and livelihood connections to their homelands, and politicians and scientists this documentary provides an account of human rights and environmental violations that should enrage all Americans and stimulate more people to consider the environmental cost of unlimited economic growth and to defend their rights to a healthy environment." - Amity Doolittle, PhD, Program Director, Tropical Resources Institute, Associate Research Scientist, Conservation and Development, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

  • "An in-depth look at an often overlooked area of environmental issues...These stories are important to all Americans who care about the state of the land, water, and air that we all depend on for survival...Watch, learn, and enjoy!" - Faye Hadley, Native American Resources/Reference Law Librarian, University of Tulsa College of Law

  • "Homeland paints powerful and moving portraits of Native action to protect natural resources that all peoples depend upon for life. This film is a 'must see' for students of environmental justice and grassroots activism. It provides insight into conflict between long-term survival and short-term profit making as it simultaneously illustrates courageous and effective advocacy for human rights and environmental protection." - Stefanie Wickstrom, Ph.D., Environmental Studies and Political Science, Green Mountain College

  • "Beautifully crafted...Roberta Grossman skillfully intersperses vastly varied archival clips with quietly impassioned testimonials by tribal leaders and stunning lensing showcasing both the natural wonders and the manmade degradation of the landscape...Homeland merits a wider audience than provided by scattershot PBS airings...At a time when 30 years of environmental protection laws are being rapidly dismantled, Homeland militantly proposes America's First Peoples as the vangaurd of resistence." - Variety

  • "The story of a U.S. tragedy -- multinational companies doing their deadly work in Native peoples' backyards -- and of the brave few who stand up to combat it." - Utne Reader

    Awards
  • Grand Teton Award (Best of Festival), Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival
  • The Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Audience Award, Social Justice Award, Santa Barbara International Film Festival
  • Award of Excellence, Indian Summer Film & Video Image Awards, Milwaukee
  • Environmentalism and Social Justice Award, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Honorable Mention, Chicago International Television Awards
  • Vancouver International Film Festival
  • United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
  • Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, San Francisco
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival
  • Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
  • Terres en Vues
  • The Native Voice Film Festival
  • Heard Museum Film Festival
  • Indigenous Rights Watch Film Festival, Washington, DC
  • Durango Film Festival
  • Mill Valley Film Festival
  • Ecocinema Film Festival, Athens, Greece
  • Montreal First Peoples Film & Video Festival
  • Maine International Film Festival
  • Human Rights Nights Film Festival, Bologna
  • Friends of the Oglala Lakota Film Festival
  • Hamptons International Film Festival
  • Brownfields Film Series
  • Native Cinema Showcase, Santa Fe
  • Native American Filmmakers Film Festival, Albuquerque
  • Seattle Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: TV01110413
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 250.00

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    LIFE 5: BACK IN BUSINESS?

    Directed by Emily Marlow

    After 11 years of civil war, can Sierra Leone expect tourism to improve the economy?

    Eleven years of civil war between 1991 and 2002 has left Sierra Leone in ruins. According to the United Nations it's the second poorest country in the world. Tens of thousands of people were killed and many more injured and displaced during the war. In May 2002, stability was restored when the former ruling party was returned to power in democratic elections.

    Now, after three years of peace, the rebuilding has begun, and Sierra Leone is looking for outside investment to kick-start its economy. Until now, most of Sierra Leone's foreign earnings have come from exporting diamonds. But it's rich in other natural resources. Apart from diamonds, there is titanium ore, gold and fisheries. Tourism, on the other hand, offers the promise of revenue with a far quicker turnaround time. Sierra Leone has miles of beautiful beaches. In a country that was once a war-zone, could tourism be one of the new industries that moves the country into the future?

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: YV02790529
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: CASH FLOW FEVER

    Directed by James Heer

    One in ten people on the planet either send or receive money from abroad.

    There have always been economic migrants-people who swap regions, countries, even continents-to find better wages to pay for a better life. One out of every ten people on the planet either sends or receives money from abroad. And unlike all other forms of financial aid that travels into developing countries, remittances go directly to the poor. Worldwide, it's estimated that amounts to a staggering two hundred billion dollars a year.

    With the scent of serious money, some banks are getting involved. And that could lead to a reduction in costs, as well as a change in how remittances are transferred. Aiding the flow of money to poor rural areas may be the most important effect in the current transformation of the remittance market. What impact can this have on the fight against poverty? To find out more, Life travels to the United States and El Salvador to uncover this hidden economy.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: BN01110530
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: KILL OR CURE?

    Directed by Reena Mohan

    India's $4.5 billion dollar pharmaceutical industry that serves the world's poor is at a crossroads.

    The recent history of drug patents in India has had a significant impact on world health. For over fifteen years, India has been largely self-sufficient as a manufacturer of generic pharmaceuticals. Poor families benefited from India's historic 1970 Drug Patent Law, which granted patents on the process rather than the product. Low costs means it's also been a major supplier in producing affordable drugs for the rest of the developing world, especially Africa and Asia.

    Now, India's $4.5 billion pharmaceutical industry is at a crossroads following a new law introduced there in January 2005. TRIPS (Trade- Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) is an agreement drawn up by the World Trade Organization between 1986 and 1994 to ensure intellectual property rights are respected within international trade. The government says that despite the new law, they are committed to supplying drugs at an affordable price. But those actually working in the health system have doubts.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: CR02790532
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: KILLING POVERTY

    Directed by Rob Sullivan

    Has the corruption in Kenya lessened under its new president?

    In December 2002, President Mwai Kibaki was swept to power in Kenya based largely on his pledge to end the government corruption endemic to the previous regime of Daniel arap Moi. But ministers in the present government admit that corruption hasn't been entirely wiped out. HIV/AIDS has made matters much worse. International donors are giving over 200 million dollars for AIDS programs every year, but many Kenyans believe that these vital funds are not getting through. The price of the government's apparent unwillingness to tackle corrupt officials has been that donor funding for Kenya is scaled back. And yet at the same time Kenya's government is calling for debt relief on its $600 million annual debt repayments.

    Kenya was one of the countries which signed up to a global partnership deal aimed at halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015. In return for more foreign aid, Kenya promised to govern itself more openly and honestly: its answer to weeding out corruption is the Anti- Corruption Commission, established in May 2003.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: LC01110533
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: ROMA RIGHTS

    Directed by Di Tatham

    Breaking the cycle of Roma poverty and persecution.

    The Roma have an exotic image: musicians, actors, artists, and sometimes beggars. Europeans called them `Gypsies' because they thought they came from Egypt. But Romani people have lived in Europe for over a thousand years, and they originally came from India, not Egypt.

    Roma communities in Europe have been subjected to centuries of persecution and racism. They are one of the most excluded groups in the world. They are denied the chance to work, proper housing, healthcare and their children refused a decent education. A new initiative-the Decade of Roma Inclusion-was launched in 2005 in a concerted attempt to help break the desperate cycle of poverty in which so many Roma live.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: TM02790535
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 22 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: SCHOOL'S OUT!

    Directed by Dick Bower

    The private school option in a Lagos shantytown.

    Makoko is a shantytown on the edge of Lagos, the largest city in West Africa. Space is precious, so Makoko stretches out into the lagoon, where many of the houses are built on stilts. Average income in Makoko is about fifty dollars a month. In Nigeria ninety per cent of people live on less than two dollars a day. According to UNICEF, less than half the children of primary school age get an education, with school fees as high as ten dollars. However, new research reveals that parents here are prepared to pay to get their children educated.

    The people of Makoko appear to have a choice: Children can go to the free state school, or they can pay at one of a growing number of small, private schools that have opened there. Research into how and why these private schools have emerged in such unlikely circumstances has been organized by a team from the University of Newcastle-upon- Tyne. Their research reveals that in communities like Makoko, parents are voting with their feet. They think the state system has failed, and a new and interesting grass roots movement in education seems to be the result.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: AR01110536
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: THE DONOR CIRCUS

    Directed by Ben Summers

    Zambia tries to change the conditions for international aid.

    Zambia, southern Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world, where one in every six children dies before reaching their fifth birthday. Its economy depends heavily on international aid: over 40% of the Zambian government's budget comes from foreign donors. In 2003 that was $560 million. While the EU prefers to channel most of its aid through the government, the US and the Japanese still fund individual projects, such as the building of a new school which is being completed by a Japanese contractor.

    There are many individual NGOs in Zambia involved in local projects, independent from government and funded directly by international donors. But now the government is arguing that it should be in control of dispersing all international development aid. The days of individual donors funding individual projects could be a thing of the past.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: LV02790538
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: THE GREAT HEALTH SERVICE SWINDLE

    Directed by Kim Hopkins

    Reversing the brain drain in doctors and nurses from developing countries.

    For over forty years there's been a trickle of Ghanaian nurses to the English-speaking developed world. One widely quoted source says almost two thousand nurses left the country between 1995 and 2002. The exodus is set to continue as nurses opt to leave a crumbling health system to earn more abroad. In the UK, some nurses can earn more in a day than they could in a month back home.

    Spending on health in Ghana has gone up but its value has declined. In 1990 it was $4.5 dollars per person per year. In 2004 the figure was $13.4 dollars. However, inflation means that Ghana is spending less in real terms per person. Most of that money goes to wages. For almost everything else, patients have to pay because the health service operates on a "user pays" principle, the so-called "cash and carry" system. The stresses of this system is one reason health workers leave.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: SR01110539
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: THE SILENT CRISIS

    Directed by Amanda Felton

    The Central African Republic struggles to avoid economic and social chaos.

    The Central African Republic is Africa's forgotten country. A landlocked former French colony of just under four million people, the country is struggling to avoid economic and social chaos. The Central African Republic is one of the least developed countries: few people there live beyond 40, 13 percent of children die in infancy and only a third of the population has access to safe drinking water. There is just one hospital bed for every one thousand people and one nurse to every 8,000 people.

    Many of the CAR's problems could be solved by money. But appeals for aid have fallen largely on deaf ears. Only a handful of aid agencies continue to work there, and the amount of aid it gets is pitiful compared to other sub- Saharan countries. In 2003, it received just $12.9 USD per person. Life interviewed the President, Francois Bozize, who confirms that health is the country's top priority. Bozize has pledged to restore the country's national unity and security, but foreign governments have been slow to respond to his repeated requests for assistance and support.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: MK02560540
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 6: THE DILEMMA OF THE WHITE ANT

    Dominic Ongwen is both a victim and alleged perpetrator of LRA war crimes. Should he face an international court?

    Directed by Caroline Pare
    Editor: Barbara Zosel
    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

    In northern Uganda, Esther Acan's husband and five year old child were hacked to death by LRA rebels and she was forced to kill her infant. She wants justice-at least punishment for the one who commanded the rebels. But the rest of the village who suffered similar atrocities say revenge will not solve their problems. It is better, they say, to forgive the perpetrators and let them come in from the bush in order to gain peace.

    But Esther still wants justice, and she has high level support. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Dominic Ongwen, the commander of the rebels who killed her husband and baby. He is to be tried for crimes against humanity. But he was also a victim of a crime, himself abducted by the LRA at the age of 10 and forced to fight for them.

    Traditional justice has always allowed murderers to return to the community having compensated, shown remorse and appeased the spirits. Ugandan law accepted this concept through the Amnesty Act, and many LRA rebels are now back in the community having paid no price for the 20 years of killings, abductions and mass displacement of the population. But Ongwen will have to go to The Hague, so he is not coming out of the wilderness.

    It leaves a dilemma for justice, but also for Esther. Despite wanting to testify and bring the perpetrators to account, she is scared. The war is not over. Ongwen and the others are still at large. She fears terrible retribution if she is seen with the ICC.

    Item no.: NW02790584
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: FOR RICHER, FOR POORER

    Directed by Bruno Sorrentino

    In Brazil the gulf between the rich and the poor is one of the biggest in the world.

    Sao Paulo is Brazil's biggest city and the business hub of the country. Nested between the sky scrapers are the favelas or urban slums housing the poor. The favelas epitomize a stark fact that has come to characterize the country today: the gulf between the rich and the poor in Brazil is one of the biggest in the world. Almost half the country's wealth is concentrated in the hands of just twenty thousand families-out of a population of 184 million.

    Today, President Lula da Silva's big project is to make a more equal society. In his election speech, he promised to improve education, to improve health, to make land ownership fairer and-most importantly-to fight poverty. But Brazil's business community believes rapid growth is what is needed to improve the country's economy and combat social inequality. Despite the gulf between rich and poor, extreme poverty is being reduced. In line with its Millennium Development Goal pledges, Brazil has halved the percentage of people living in extreme poverty.

    Reviews
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

  • "I think the film- For Richer, for Poorer-is a great introduction to issues of income inequality and other challenges of reducing poverty. It clearly shows how economic growth alone cannot automatically reduce poverty and inequality. To do that, governments must invest in housing, education and health services. I also liked how the film illustrates some "post capitalism" initiatives such as the economic projects of worker-owned factories, giving the viewer a sense of optimism in that poverty and inequality can be diminished." - Katarina Wahlberg, Social and Economic Policy Program Coordinator, Global Policy Forum

    Item no.: DV02560531
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: KOSOVO - A HOUSE STILL DIVIDED?

    Directed by Christopher Jeans

    Resentment and property ownership issues remain as the UN Housing Property Directorate Mission ends.

    Although Kosovo is technically a part of Serbia, only 5% of its population is Serbian, while 90% is Albanian. It still bears the scars of the civil war between them: during the conflict, the two communities seized each others' homes and property, leaving thousands displaced after the war ended. The UN created the Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) to restore homes back to the lawful property-right holders.

    Since it's inception the HPD has successfully dealt with 29,000 cases. It has made conditions for return easier and offered a cheap, impartial, and safe process where people can come and make their claims. But the HPD's authority has been limited, and its mandate in Serbia is soon at an end. Will HPD's withdrawal signal new anger over land and property rights?

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: FH02560534
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 24 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: SREBRENICA - LOOKING FOR JUSTICE

    Directed by Amanda Felton

    Examines the massacre at Srebrenica on its 10th anniversary.

    In July 1995 Serbian forces entered the mainly Muslim town of Srebrenica in North-east Bosnia. Twenty thousand refugees, mainly women and children fled to the UN base at Potocari, but thousands were ultimately handed over to the Serbs. The Serbian troops separated men and boys from women and small children. Most of the women were then bussed out; others were raped, tortured and murdered. The men were taken away to be slaughtered, their bodies dumped in mass graves.

    Forensic scientists are still uncovering the truth about what really happened at Srebrenica. The perpetrators of the massacre went to enormous lengths to hide the evidence; former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military subordinate General Ratko Mladic-both indicted for war crimes-have evaded capture for ten years. But there is now a bigger political process at work as all sides try to move towards a better and more secure a better future for the Balkans. One reason for this new determination is the prospect of the Balkan States joining the EU.

    Review
  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: RT02560537
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 5: TROUBLE IN PARADISE

    Directed by Emily Marlow

    Local inhabitants of the Maldives wait for promised tsunami aid.

    Clustered into 26 atolls, three hundred and fifty thousand people live on the small scattered islands in the Indian Ocean known as the Maldives, spread over an archipelago stretching nine hundred kilometers from North to South. The Maldives are viewed as a paradise on earth, but their existence is threatened by rising sea levels and violent storms. They were badly damaged by the Tsunami of 2004, with 83 lives lost and a 50% drop in tourists.

    The rebuilding has started but the distances between islands are huge, greatly slowing the efforts of the British Red Cross and other agencies. After one year, some 800 had been repaired, with over 2,000 still needing to be completely rebuilt. In 2006, five new island resorts are due to open and it's predicted that tourism in the Maldives will reach an all time high. Only time will tell what the long-term social and political impact of the Tsunami will be on the Maldives.

  • "The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum." -Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University

    Item no.: TZ02790541
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 24 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    MCLIBEL: TWO PEOPLE WHO WOULDN'T SAY SORRY

    The new feature-length version and final chapter in the saga of the postman and the gardener who took on McDonald's. And won.

    McLIBEL is the story of two ordinary people who humbled McDonald's in the biggest corporate PR disaster in history.

    McDonald's loved using the UK libel laws to suppress criticism. Major media organizations like the BBC and The Guardian crumbled and apologized. Then they sued gardener Helen Steel and postman Dave Morris. In the longest trial in English legal history, the "McLibel Two" represented themselves against McDonald's ¢G10 million legal team. Every aspect of the corporation's business was cross-examined: from junk food and McJobs, to animal cruelty, environmental damage and advertising to children. Outside the courtroom, Dave brought up his young son alone and Helen supported herself working nights in a bar. McDonald's tried every trick in the book against them. Legal maneuvers. A visit from Ronald McDonald. Top executives flying to London for secret settlement negotiations. Even spies.

    Seven years later, in February 2005, the marathon legal battle finally concluded at the European Court of Human Rights. And the result took everyone by surprise-especially the British Government.

    McLIBEL is not about hamburgers. It is about the importance of freedom of speech now that multinational corporations are more powerful than countries.

    Filmed over ten years by no-budget Director Franny Armstrong, McLIBEL is the David and Goliath story of two people who refused to say sorry. And in doing so, changed the world.

    Reviews
  • "An irresistible David and Goliath tale...you can't help but cheer along" - Seattle Times

  • "Hilarious and engrossing" - BBC

  • "Freedom of speech rarely tasted so satisfying" - The (London) Times

  • "Truly, hilariously dramatic" - SF Weekly

  • "Twists the dagger in McDonald's clogged arteries" - Orlando Sentinel

  • "Complex and fascinating" - CBS News

  • "Dynamite" - Yahoo Movies

  • "Will make you think twice about what civil liberties are worth in the corporate era...Powerful." - Time Out

  • "Alarming, but ultimately inspiring" - Variety

  • "Satisfies both head and heart" - Time Out

  • "Kind of legendary" - E- Insiders

  • "Absolutely unmissable" - The Guardian (UK)

  • "4 Stars An intriguing, important documentary. Don't miss it. " - Todd David Schwartz, CBS Radio

  • "A racing plot with more twists than a John le Carre novel...the perfect 21st century narrative...a wonderfully human tale about two people who simply refused to say sorry and in doing so they changed the world. Brilliant." - Bermuda Sun Newspaper

  • "Inspirational...Absorbing." - Chicago Reader

  • "Will make you think twice about what civil liberties are worth in the corporate era...Powerful." - Time Out

  • "I learnt more from this film-and laughed much more-than I did in Super Size Me." - Nick Fraser, BBC Storyville Series editor

  • "An often-hilarious expose of big business arrogance and an extraordinary example of independent filmmaking." - Sydney Morning Herald

  • "Absolute nonchalance and great pizzazz...Dynamite." - IndieWire

  • "Dramatic, inspiring, hard-hitting and heart-warming" - New Internationalist

    Notes
  • Nominated for Best British Documentary, British Independent Film Awards
  • Nominated for Best Newcomer, Grierson Awards

    Awards
  • Best of Festival, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Winner, Athens International Film & Video Festival
  • Spirit of Activism Award, Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival
  • Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Israel Eco Cinema
  • Global Issues Film Festival, Mott Community College

    Item no.: TS01110431
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 85 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 295.00

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    WE FEED THE WORLD

    Vividly reveals the dysfunctionality of the industrialized world food system and shows what world hunger has to do with us.

    Close to a billion of the nearly seven billion people on Earth are starving today. But the food we are currently producing could feed 12 billion people. This is a film about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, the flow of goods and cash flow -- a film about scarcity amid plenty.

    Why doesn't a tomato taste like a tomato today? How does one explain that 200 million people in India, supplier of 80% of Switzerland's wheat, suffer from malnutrition? Why are thousands of acres of the Amazon being cleared to grow soybeans? Is water something to which the public has a basic right or, as the CEO of the world's largest food company Nestle suggests, a foodstuff with a market value?

    These distressing questions are addressed as filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer travels from Austria to Brazil, France to Romania to interview Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, CEOs and directors of the world's largest food companies, agronomists, biologists, fishermen, farmers and farmworkers.

    On a daily basis, in Vienna alone, enough left-over bread to supply a small city is destroyed. The planet has enough production power to feed everyone, but 800 million people suffer from hunger. What does world hunger have to do with us?

    Reviews
  • "Through evocative images and compelling stories, We Feed the World illustrates the ominous ecological and societal consequences of a global food system driven solely by the relentless quest for corporate profits and growth. The documentary reflects a European perspective from which every American might learn. Clearly, the future of humanity is at risk and time is running out." - John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, author of Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense, A Return to Common Sense, Small Farms are Real Farms, and Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture

  • "The absurdities of a globalized food industry are subject to mounting scrutiny and criticism. These excesses are illustrated with jaw-dropping efficacy in this timely documentary from Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer." - Sofia International Film Festival

  • "This unsettling documentary from Austria meticulously documents how the mechanization of modern food production has created a monster. It reveals how the Western agro-industry's insatiable hunger for yield is creating poorer quality food, mind-boggling wastage, and impoverishing our natural environment and those who work in it." -iofilm

  • "Sincere...perversely fascinating. It's enough to put you off poultry." - Variety

  • "The documentary focuses on various aspects on the supply side of the food chain, giving insight to the various industries which produce food, like fishing, vegetables and poultry...It just boggles the mind, and makes you feel sad at the way things work, illogical as it may seem, in the name of profit." - A Nutshell Review

  • "We Feed the World highlights two of the most pressing issues of our time: food distribution and globalization. Students can surely learn much by observing the differences shown between large agribusinesses and small farmers...This film illustrates many surprising results and connections among the people who produce foods and those who consume them...A great resource to spark a dialogue about the effects of globalization on food production and distribution systems." - Laura Skelton, Assistant Program Director, Facing the Future: People and the Planet

  • "We Feed The World tells us that we are all part of the system, and that it is up to 'us' to change it, as we are the ones who should desire to do so." - Shift Magazine

  • "The film is a thoughtful look at the problems facing small food producers in the face of increasing subsidies and industrialization of agricultural processes...provides fodder for student discussion on the perils of the modern agriculture system. Strong production values make We Feed the World visually interesting as well as thought provoking." Dr. Jeffrey Miller, Professor, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University

  • "We Feed the World ensures that viewers will rethink their ideas about what farms look like, where their groceries come from, and why people starve. A provocative instructional tool, this film will be an asset anywhere educators wish to inspire students to think critically about globalization, food, and hunger." - Charlotte Biltekoff, American Studies & Food Science and Technology Departments, University of California- Davis

  • "This powerful film provokes the viewer to thought about the real nature of the world's food system, and what we need to consider in moving beyond mere concern with just lower food prices...[We Feed the World] does a superb job of stirring the emotions on the way to envisioning a different and better future with regard to the way we produce the food we eat." - Gary D. Lynne, Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska- Lincoln

  • "We Feed the World provides a thought provoking look at the global food industry...an excellent starting point for discussion of several important topics. The problems of overproduction and food waste, global corporate policies and their impacts, government regulations and subsidies, the dark side of biotechnology, environmental degradation both of the ocean's resources and the Amazon, and water rights are just some of the subjects that can be further studied and discussed after viewing this film. Recommended." - Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Does this film have a place in the anthropology curriculum? Absolutely! Students, like most consumers, have virtually no connection to their food nor are interested in the technology...[We Feed the World] will increase awareness and impress students with the complexity of global food policies. The film may be used in courses on globalization, capitalism, culture change/development, or applied anthropology." - Thomas Stevenson, Ohio University, Anthropology Review Database

    Awards
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Toronto International Film Festival
  • IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • The Guelph International Film Festival
  • The Portland International Film Festival
  • Belgrade International Film Festival
  • One World Film Festival (Prague)
  • Thessaloniki Film Festival
  • Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival
  • Taos Mountain Film Festival
  • CounterCorp Film Festival
  • Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

    Item no.: ZS02790567
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, German With English Subtitles)
    Duration: 96 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 295.00

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    WHO SHOT MY BROTHER?

    Directed by German Gutierrez
    Editor: Jean- Marie Drot
    Music: Jimmy Tanaka
    Narration: Luis de Cespedes

    As German Gutierrez searches for the gunmen who tried to kill his brother, he exposes the root causes of the violence in his native Colombia.

    Some phone calls can turn your life upside down. That's what happened to filmmaker German Gutierrez when he received a call from Colombia, informing him there had just been an assassination attempt on his older brother Oscar, a political activist hated by the establishment but adored by the disenfranchised. In this film, German Gutierrez, who has been living in Montreal for the past thirty years, recounts his quest to find the hired gunmen who tried to kill Oscar and expose the roots of violence that have taken hold of his native country.

    This beautifully filmed political documentary takes a courageous look at what Colombia has become: a lawless, neo-liberal Far West run by a corrupt middle class; an Eldorado where oil is more precious than gold and where Americans are the puppet masters pulling the strings while drug traffickers, guerrillas and paramilitaries engage in all-out combat with each other as the war on drugs rages on.

    Reviews
  • "Riveting" -- Montreal Mirror

  • "Who Shot My Brother? provides an evocative account of Colombia's seemingly endless quest for peace. Using striking imagery and lucid, unfeigned personal narration, Who Shot My Brother? seeks to expose the forces responsible for the indiscriminate massacres, forced displacements and brutal assassinations, kidnappings and torture that plague Colombia. It is an investigation that is both alarming and inspiring: For the viewer cannot help but be moved by the resilience of Oscar Gutierrez and his fellow Colombians, as they struggle for dignity, justice and a peaceful Colombia. I strongly recommend taking a look at Who Shot My Brother?" -- Kevin A. Turner, Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham

  • "Presents a jolting ground-level view of how the breakdown of law and order affects both one country as a whole and one family in particular. A memorable, deeply disturbing documentary, this is highly recommended. 3 1/2 Star" -- Video Librarian

  • "Introduces Colombia's current political, social and economic dilemmas and provides an alternate viewpoint of the United States' involvement in Latin America...Recommended for college students, adult viewers, and libraries supporting Latin American studies programs." -- Sean Patrick Knowlton, University of Colorado at Boulder, Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • Radio- Canada People's Choice Award, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Montreal
  • aluCine Latino Media Festival, Toronto
  • Durban Internationl Film Festival, South Africa
  • University of California, Irvine Latin American Film Festival
  • Amnesty International Human Rights Film Festival, St. John's, Canada

    Item no.: EC02560564
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 95 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 295.00

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    ARGENTINA: HOPE IN HARD TIMES

    The Argentine people, in the face of economic collapse, provide a hopeful example for the rest of us.

    Que se vayan todos!" Chants echo off the skyscrapers, burst through the plazas, and clamor down the streets of Buenos Aires. "Throw them all out!" shout legions of frustrated Argentine housewives, students and lawyers, weaving their way through the city one summer evening, banging on pots and pans.

    What would you do if you lost your job, they closed the banks so you couldn't access your savings, and the government seemed unable to help? In Argentina they stormed supermarkets for food; the police gunned down 30 people in just one day. But what happened next was truly extraordinary.

    ARGENTINA- HOPE IN HARD TIMES joins in the processions and protests, attends street-corner neighborhood assemblies, visits workers' cooperatives and urban gardens, taking a close-up look at the ways in which Argentines are picking up the pieces of their devastated economy and creating new possibilities for the future. A spare narrative, informal interview settings, and candid street scenes allow the pervasive strength, humor, and resilience of the Argentine people to tell these tales. These are their inspiring stories-of a failed economy and distrusted politicians, of heartache and hard times, of a resurgence of grassroots democracy and the spirit of community-told in resonant detail.

    Reviews
  • "A wonderfully effective education piece on issues relating to the global economy." - Dr. David Korten, President, The People- Centered Development Forum

  • "ARGENTINA: HOPE IN HARD TIMES is an eloquent and powerful film about a country and a situation few Americans know much about. It is not only educational but inspirational in its depiction of a people fighting for justice under what seem impossible circumstances. I hope it will be widely seen in the United States." - Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States: 1492- Present, Terrorism and War

  • "A wonderfully effective education piece on issues relating to the global economy and the real consequences of IMF/World Bank policies...the documentary illustrates in a beautiful and powerful way the potential that lies within ordinary people to truly care for one another and to self-organize their resources, communities, and enterprises to the benefit of all if presented with the need and the opportunity." - Dr. David Korten, President, The People- Centered Development Forum

  • "A great resource for classroom use...depicts in detail the effects of globalization, neoliberal economics, and other broad trends on everyday people's experience." - Angelina Godoy, Acting Chair of Latin American Studies, The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies

  • "For anyone who has ever felt despair or pessimism in the face of the global economy, ARGENTINA- HOPE IN HARD TIMES is a powerful and inspiring antidote. A cogent critique of neoliberalism and a compelling alternative. Perfect for classroom use in economics, sociology and political science. " - Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College

  • "This film is a powerful reminder of the fragility of our global economy and the possibilities for rekindling the human spirit." - George Cheney, Professor of Communication, University of Utah

  • "The documentary's timeliness is matched both by the powerful scenes it shows and by its clear political message: Even in difficult times there is hope of a better world." - Arturo Santa- Cruz, Political Science Professor, University of Guadalajara, Mexico

  • "[Argentina] contains precise and complete information...viewpoints are well established from the beginning and reinforced during the film. The picture and sound qualities are very good, and superb background music by well known musicians adds to the emotional impact...It would be most suitable for academic programs in Latin American studies, globalization, ethics, economics, international relations, and sociology." - Cindy Badilla- Melendez, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young's film is an important record of this inspiring episode in the global struggle against corporate domination." - Utne Reader

    Awards
  • San Diego Latino Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival
  • Sin Fronteras Film Festival, University of New Mexico
  • Boston International Film Festival
  • CINE Golden Eagle

    Item no.: WR02790019
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 74 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 275.00

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    BROKEN LIMBS: APPLES, AGRICULTURE, AND THE NEW AMERICAN FARMER

    Looks at the plight of apple growers in the age of globalization, and points the way to sustainable US agriculture.

    Wenatchee, Washington, the "Apple Capital of the World"; this pastoral valley in the heart of the Northwest prospered for nearly a century as home to the famed Washington apple. But the good times have vanished. Apple orchardists by the thousands are going out of business and thousands more await the dreaded letter from the bank, announcing the end of their livelihoods and a uniquely American way of life.

    After his own father receives just such a letter, filmmaker Guy Evans sets out on a journey to find out what went wrong here in this natural Garden of Eden. Over the course of filming, Evans witnesses small farmers struggling to compete against the Goliaths that populate today's global economy, only to be ultimately forced off their land. The future looks grim for the Apple Capital until Evans happens upon an entirely new breed of farmer, practitioners of a new model called "sustainable agriculture".

    BROKEN LIMBS explores these hopeful stirrings within agriculture, outlining ways in which any individual can play a role in saving America's farmers.

    Reviews
  • "Broken Limbs is a very accurate and moving description of what is happening to agriculture in America." - Fred Kirschenmann, Director, Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University, organic farmer

    Wenatchee, Washington, the "Apple Capital of the World"; this pastoral valley in the heart of the Northwest prospered for nearly a century as home to the famed Washington apple. But the good times have vanished. Apple orchardists by the thousands are going out of business and thousands more await the dreaded letter from the bank, announcing the end of their livelihoods and a uniquely American way of life.

    After his own father receives just such a letter, filmmaker Guy Evans sets out on a journey to find out what went wrong here in this natural Garden of Eden. Over the course of filming, Evans witnesses small farmers struggling to compete against the Goliaths that populate today's global economy, only to be ultimately forced off their land. The future looks grim for the Apple Capital until Evans happens upon an entirely new breed of farmer, practitioners of a new model called "sustainable agriculture".

    BROKEN LIMBS explores these hopeful stirrings within agriculture, outlining ways in which any individual can play a role in saving America's farmers.

    Reviews
  • "Inspiring and powerful...[Broken Limbs] is cutting new ground in terms of where agriculture in this state, country and the world needs to go." - Rev. Paul Benz, Director, State Public Policy Office of Evangelical Lutheran Church

  • "Broken Limbs is a powerful film that, using humor and drama, gives viewers a lot to think about in this increasingly globalized world we live in...What works in this film is its intellectual honesty and the sense of hope that is its underlying message." - Rufus Woods, Editor and Publisher, The Wenatchee World

  • "Broken Limbs is a very accurate and moving description of what is happening to agriculture in America. Focused on apple growers in Washington State, the story reflects what is happening to hog producers in Iowa, citrus growers in Florida and dairy farmers in New York. The video offers a ray of hope---the "new farmers" who add value to their production and retain more of that value on the farm by producing the quality, attributes and services that a growing number of food customers want. A moving and compelling story." - Fred Kirschenmann, Ph.D., Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and a North Dakota grain and livestock farmer

  • "Broken Limbs is amazing, excellent, and on the mark...The entire group was enchanted by this film...the first half of "bad news" was terrifically and delightfully offset by the second half of the film which focuses on solutions and alternatives to traditional style farming." - Michelle Frain, The Rodale Institute

  • "Broken Limbs will break your heart with its images of the sad plight of the independent American farmer being forced off the land by the global economic machine. But then, it will begin to heal your heart with its stories of new small scale farmers who are living well, low to the ground with a vision of a sustainable agricultural future." - Sam Keen, filmmaker, author

  • "Broken Limbs can well serve to demonstrate that sustainable ag "socializes" responsibility in the food system among all participants, while industrial ag "socializes" environmental and community costs onto society but jealously retains responsibility only for financial rewards." - Brad Redlin, Center for Rural Affairs

  • "This insightful documentary works through how agriculture is changing. It's a personal story for filmmaker Guy Evans...[b]ut the film's concerns affect us all. When Evans begins his inquiry, he is pushed toward accepting as inevitable the trends that squeeze the small-to-mid-size farmers, leaving only the largest, most globalized and vertically integrated or, maybe, a few of the smallest, niche-market producers. Evans captures the waste and sorrow this entails...But as Evans keeps searching, he finds another trend that, with nurturing, may offer hope-sustainable agriculture. It requires we reformulate decision-making so that the overall, long-term quality of life, land, and food become the defining terms. This can only be done when the farmer and the consumer understand how they are connected to each other. Starting in Washington State, Evans has examples around him. Farmers markets and produce stands abound in the Seattle area and beyond. For much of the rest of the country, the trend has weaker roots fornow, but its where we should be heading." - Deborah Popper, Co-author of The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust, Associate Professor of Geography at CUNY's College of Staten Island

  • "This is a poetic, lyrical film with excellent visuals of the land, appropriate musical soundtrack, and soft voiced narration. Environmental studies, science, and current events classes can utilize this film and be challenged to live with hope for the future and believe that 'one by one we change the world.'" - Patricia Ann Owens, School Library Journal

  • "If you're looking for a video to provide background information and be the springboard for a group discussion about agricultural issues [Broken Limbs is] worth considering...I can imagine this video being shown to church classes or social justice groups and being the impetus for a church or home becoming the drop-off site for a CSA operation or meat producer." - Dana Jackson, The Land Stewardship Letter

  • "Provides a vivid example of how agribusiness and world trade practices have disasterously impacted family farming of apple orchards...[a] strongly recommended addition to school, college, and community library collections." - Midwest Book Review

  • "The production elements of Broken Limbs are excellent. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in agriculture. Broken Limbs presents a refreshing look at ways that farmers can survive and even thrive without becoming bogged down in discussing the often depressing outlook for the future of the family farm." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • The Chris Statuette, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Honorable Mention, Rural Route Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • The Conscientious Projector Film Festival
  • Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
  • Port Townsend Film Festival
  • Marin Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: HN02560042
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 250.00

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    FARMING THE SEAS

    The perils and promise of fish farms in a world running out of ocean fish stocks.

    Aquaculture was intended to take the pressure off ocean fish stocks and help avert a global food shortage, but many experts now believe that some forms of "fish farming" are actually creating more problems than they're solving...and time is running out.

    The sequel to the award-winning PBS Special EMPTY OCEANS, EMPTY NETS, FARMING THE SEAS explores what's at stake for us all. As the aquaculture industry explodes across the globe, a growing number of communities and fisheries experts are engaged in an intense debate over its environmental, socio-economic, and health and food safety consequences.

    Market demand for seafood now far exceeds the ocean's ability to keep pace, and the crisis is deepening. Worldwide, most marine fisheries are either fully exploited or in sharp decline. With stunning visuals and compelling narration, FARMING THE SEAS journeys around the world documenting the most important stories as they unfold. From the indigenous tribes of British Columbia to the large-scale operations of multinational corporations, from Mediterranean fishermen to Thai shrimp farmers, FARMING THE SEAS gathers perspectives from around the globe as it examines the problems and the promises of this emerging industry.

    The viability of the global food chain and the sustainability of our oceans' fisheries hang in the balance.

    Reviews
  • "Well-crafted and important environmental documentary that combines superb research, production values and journalism...My students were educated, entertained, and inspired..." - David L. Brown, City College of San Francisco

  • "Excellent footage of aquaculture operations...It is easy to see why Farming the Seas won the award for Best Marine Conservation Message at the International Wildlife Film Festival and a host of other awards as well. It is well researched, well edited and a timely and interesting look at the potential problems associated with aquaculture. I highly recommend this video to all libraries." - Barbara Butler, Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • Best Independent Film & Best Marine Conservation Message, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • United Nations Association Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • The Green Festival, Washington DC
  • PINE Film Festival, Portland, OR
  • Plymouth Independendent Film Festival
  • CINE Golden Eagle Award

    Item no.: LM01110109
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 55 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 250.00

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    LIFE 4: AIMING HIGH

    Focuses on Uganda's successful economic recovery in the wake of Idi Amin's regime.

    In 1986 Uganda was bankrupt-a byword for corruption and economic mismanagement. Six years of civil war in this former British colony in East Africa had followed the ousting of former President Idi Amin and its social and state institutions were near collapse. But today Uganda's economy is widely seen as a success story and over the last ten years the number of Ugandans living in absolute poverty has been cut by half. This edition of Life looks at how Uganda has achieved this remarkable turnaround, and questions whether the country could now be on course to meet the Millennium Development Goal by 2015.

    Item no.: GB01110010
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: BLUE DANUBE?

    Connecting more than 18 countries in Western Europe, the Danube River is at the heart of a dilemma over shared resources in the growing European Union.

    The Danube is Western Europe's longest river, running nearly 2800 kilometers from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea. It is the world's most international river connecting 18 countries. The Danube and its tributaries comprise a river basin that covers one-tenth of continental Europe. But with the expansion of the European Union into Eastern Europe, it's at the heart of a very modern dilemma-how to create prosperity through trade and development without destroying the environment. This Life program examines the legacies of communist rule and conflict in the region, and asks what are the consequences when more than one country shares what a river has to offer? It is the story of how the Danube has become a new battleground in the conflict between the EU's transport and agriculture lobbies, and environmentalists fighting to preserve the river's unique ecology.

    Item no.: MR02560033
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: GERALDO'S BRAZIL

    Five years later, Life rejoins a Brazilian factory worker affected by the globalized economy.

    Life examines the effects of globalization through the story of Geraldo Da Souza, a worker at Ford in Sao Paolo, Brazil. In 1999, he was among 2000 workers laid off from his factory during the "international financial crisis". Life filmed him then, trying to work out the connection between the financial crises in Asia, Russia and Brazil and understand the impact of globalization. In this film we will look at the effects of globalization over the past 5 years through Geraldo's life and eyes. And we examine how institutions like the IMF and the World Bank have been dealing with a government which had in mind not to pay its external debt.

    Item no.: LP01110132
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: HELPING OURSELVES!

    In India, two community projects help people move out of poverty and gain control of their lives.

    Over the last 25 years India has cut absolute poverty by half. Still 440 million people live on less than a dollar a day. This Life program looks at two projects that are helping Indian communities move out of poverty-in line with the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015-and that have succeeded in giving previously powerless people some control over their lives. In Karnataka, the IT revolution has allowed farmers to access land deeds vital to obtaining credit with which they can sow next year's harvest. In Andhra Pradesh, women's self-help groups have enabled rural women to change aspects of their lives, and given them a voice in local government.

    Item no.: TW02790149
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: THE COFFEE-GO-ROUND

    Many coffee-producing countries like Ethiopia are facing economic disaster even as the demand for coffee increases worldwide.

    Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world-a major cash crop for many poor, developing countries trying to trade their way out of poverty. Coffee promises to increase developing countries' share of income from agricultural products on world markets-in line with Millennium Development Goal No 8's commitment to a global partnership for development. But for the last 10 years the international coffee industry has been in crisis-and many coffee-producing countries are facing disaster. The world's 25 million coffee farmers receive less than one per cent of the price of a cup of coffee sold in a coffee bar. Life visits Ethiopia, the cradle of coffee cultivation, and speaks to players in the international coffee trade to find out how individual coffee growers can survive the boom and bust of the global coffee market.

    Item no.: DY02560075
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: THE MILLENNIUM GOALS - DREAM OR REALITY?

    Explores the ambition and scope of the UN's Millennium Development Goals, and the obstacles to their achievement.

    "Ours is the very first generation in history that had the possibility and the ability to feed every hungry person on earth," says Professor Adil Najam. "We had the technology, we had the food -- we just didn't have the will. And that's where the MDGs come in."

    At the turn of the new millennium, the world looked forward to an end to absolute poverty, avoidable disease, oppression of women and children without education. The United Nations embodied these hopes in a series of eight targets -- the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This introductory program to the series intercuts sequences from China, Bangladesh, Jamaica, India, Sri Lanka, Zambia and Ethiopia with comment from key academics and activists, to explore the ambition and scope of each of the individual MDGs, and the obstacles to their achievement.

    Reviews
  • "Perhaps the most striking feature of this documentary is its diverse representations of the eight goals and their corresponding crises throughout Asia and Africa...These representations cement the fact that this condition is a global emergency. Millennium Goals is highly recommended as an outstanding, well organized film outlining the noble pursuits to curtail global poverty...suited for high school audiences or for those who want a brief introduction to the Millennium Development Goals and the barriers to their fulfillments." - Michael J. Coffta, Business Librarian, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Educational Media Reviews Online

    "This video offers an informative overview of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and a provocative message: politicians beware! The greatest impediment to each of the MDGs is a dearth of essential political will." - Prof. Timothy McGettigan, PhD, Dept of Sociology, Colorado State Univ- Pueblo

    Item no.: WS01110196
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: WHEN THE COWS COME HOME

    Despite the success of the "Jamaica Hope" milk cow, Jamaica's dairy industry is facing a crisis, as EU trade undercuts island production.

    Away from the beaches and resorts there's another rural Jamaica, struggling to make ends meet on farming. Milk is part of the staple diet of the 2.6 million people living in Jamaica. But dairy production is difficult in tropical climates. Most of the island's milk was imported until early 20th century breeders helped produce a dairy cow that could withstand the island's heat and tropical diseases. They called the breed the Jamaica Hope. But despite the success of the breed, the Jamaican dairy industry is facing a crisis. Jamaica's steps toward sustainable rural development is threatened. This edition of Life looks at how -- with cruel irony -- the Jamaica Hope is under threat from subsidized European Dairy Farmers and ask how Europe's agricultural policies squares with its commitment to the Millennium Development Goal.

    Item no.: TY01110326
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE

    The United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia encourages combatants to turn in their weapons and wage peace.

    Liberia, Africa's oldest republic, was relatively calm until 1980 when William Tolbert was overthrown by Sergeant Samuel Doe after food price riots. By the late 1980s, arbitrary rule and economic collapse culminated in civil war when dissidents of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front overran much of the countryside and executed Doe. Over half of the population fled their homes in terror during its long and bloody civil war. After 14 years of anarchy, the international community has arrived in force in an attempt to stabilize the country. Many see this as Liberia's last chance. With more than 59,000 fighters (some of them children) demobilized in the last three months and another 15,000 waiting to follow, this Life program reports on Liberia's attempts to find a way of engaging the former fighters in rebuilding their country-to sustain the peace.

    Item no.: LF02560027
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: BRAZIL'S LAND REVOLUTION

    In the state of Bahia, a new initiative encourages the landless to band together to buy up land--with low-interest government loans.

    In Brazil, almost half of the agricultural land is owned by just one per cent of the population. The government estimates that land reform would benefit some 4.5 million families-both agricultural workers and city slum-dwellers. Although successive governments have backed the policy, political opposition has so far prevented any meaningful progress. Now Brazil's President, Luiz Ignazio Lula da Silva, has announced plans to resettle more than 100,000 landless families this year, and promised an extra US$500 million towards agrarian reform over the next two years. Life visits the Northeastern state of Bahia to report on an initiative, which encourages the landless to club together to buy up land, with low-interest government loans.

    Review:
  • "An informative update on the impacts of globalization in the life of one man. Geraldo's travails illustrate that, for the vast majority of laborers, globalization offers little more than fear, deprivation, and interminable uncertainty." - Prof. Timothy McGettigan, PhD, Department of Sociology, Colorado State University- Pueblo

    Item no.: VJ02790040
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: CRISIS CONTROL - STEMMING THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS

    Ukraine's emerging HIV epidemic is contrasted with Africa's longstanding HIV/AIDS catastrophe.

    Worldwide, 42 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS. 90 percent of them live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. But while world attention has been focused on Africa's longstanding HIV/AIDS catastrophe, new crisis regions are emerging. Ukraine has one of the fastest growing infection rates in the world-an epidemic waiting to happen, unless urgent action is taken. Life visits the former Soviet Republic and Zambia, to find out if Eastern European countries like Ukraine can learn from Africa's experience in fighting AIDS-before it's too late.

    Review
  • "If you thought the global AIDS epidemic was under control, you'd better think again. This chilling documentary demonstrates that the spread of HIV/AIDS is worse than ever, and if medical relief efforts fail to adapt, then an already horrible situation is going to get much, much worse." - Prof. Timothy McGettigan, PhD, Dept of Sociology, Colorado State Univ- Pueblo

    Item no.: HK02560084
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: EDUCATING YAPRAK

    Turkey's ambitious campaign to reduce poverty includes convincing reluctant parents to send their daughters to school.

    At the crossroads of Asia and Europe, Turkey is a country with a large, young population. But literacy rates have traditionally lagged behind neighboring Greece and Bulgaria. With its sights firmly set on future EU membership, Turkey has identified education as key to reducing poverty. So Turkey has embarked on an ambitious campaign, targeting those most deprived of education-young teenage girls-especially from the poor rural areas. Life visits Turkey's eastern Province of Van and meets 13-year-old Yaprak, just one of the many targeted by this massive education drive. She, for one, is sure of the benefits. "I want to study until the end. I want to finish university. I want to have a job."

    Item no.: LZ02790105
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: HOW GREEN IS MY VALLEY?

    Documents efforts to revitalize the polluted, impoverished communities in the former coal and steel producing valleys of South Wales.

    The valleys of South Wales once produced much of the coal and steel which powered industrial development in Britain-and worldwide. Today those industries are gone. Their legacy is a polluted pocket of poverty-180,000 people nestled in the steep-sided windswept valleys of Caerphilly County; where the highest rates for chronic emphysema, cancer, heart disease, asthma, poor housing and sanitation, low birth weight and accidental death combine to mean that people living here suffer the highest mortality rates in Western Europe. There are schemes to regenerate the entire area-health projects, with incentives, working groups, investment and employment strategies-but are these really working and what more can be done to lift this community out of its depression?

    Item no.: TR02790155
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: IN THE WAKE OF WAR

    A burgeoning grassroots peace movement in Burundi is aimed at ending civil war between Tutsis and Hutus.

    Philippe Mvuyekure has spent the last five years living in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Now, he's on his way home. He's among thousands of refugees convinced that the bitter, 10-year civil war that decimated his homeland of Burundi may be coming to an end. The civil war here between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-dominated army uprooted over a million people and killed more than 300,000. But the benefits of a peace process are finally beginning to emerge. Using traditional mediation systems and peacemakers, Burundi is introducing innovative peace and reconciliation projects. The aim is to start a grass roots movement to bring a lasting peace to Burundi and its long-suffering citizens. This program examines the future for Burundi, for power sharing and for a rapprochement between warring factions.

    Item no.: BH01110159
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 24 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: LISTEN TO THE KIDS!

    A UNICEF initiative involves children in decisions that affect their own futures, their families and communities.

    One in five of the world's population is aged between 12 and 18. In developing countries, where the percentage is much higher, children and young people often carry a huge burden of responsibility yet rarely are their views taken into account. This Life program reports on a Unicef initiative to involve children in decisions that affect their own futures, their families and communities.

    From post-conflict Sri Lanka to the back-streets of New Delhi children are campaigning to be heard: street children forming the Children's Council in New Delhi, a teenage photographer campaigning for girls to be able to stay in school in Bangladesh, a sixteen year-old fighting discrimination against HIV/AIDS sufferers in Nepal.

    Item no.: ZZ02790178
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: REACHING OUT TO THE GRASSROOTS

    Education and community-driven development combat poverty in Bangladesh and Indonesia.

    Shilmundi is a village in the vast Delta in the south of Bangladesh. The children here attend a local school, and come together to study after hours, a sign of their enthusiasm for learning. But the real question is how long they'll be able to continue. This program looks at two very different approaches to improving the lives of poor people -- one through education, as in the Shilmundi project in Bangladesh, the other through what's known as "community-driven development" in Indonesia.

    Life asks whether projects like these can be replicated in other countries trying to meet the targets of the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015.

    Item no.: PH02560225
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: REEL TO REAL - BALANCING ACTS

    Explores the international movement for women's rights.

    In 1994, 179 government leaders attending the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development signed a groundbreaking agreement aimed at improving the lives of women worldwide. Balancing Acts -- the first in a duo of Life programs made in collaboration with women broadcasters and producers around the world to mark the 10th anniversary of that conference -- explores how women from very different cultures, often faced with extremes of inequality, are taking on the status quo. Individual stories look at how Afghani women refugees are returning to pick up the pieces of their lives in Kabul; the feisty female entrepreneurs of Nigeria known as "Mama Benz" who, despite owning an estimated 50 per cent of the country's small businesses, are denied recognition of their contribution to the economy; a teenager battling purdah to get an education in Pakistan; and the "inherited widows" who are challenging convention in Kenya. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN Commissioner for Human Rights, provides an overview of the state of women's rights worldwide-and why they are so crucial to social and economic development.

    Item no.: JB02560228
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: REEL TO REAL - HOLDING OUR GROUND

    International efforts to assure reproductive health and rights conflict with cultural realities in the Philippines, Latvia, Japan, and India.

    Holding Our Ground focuses on one of the most contested of the agreements hammered out in Cairo: reproductive rights. The right of both women and men to decide freely if and when to get married, and if, when and how often to have children, was enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights over 50 years ago. But 10 years after the Cairo agreement, it's still far from universally acknowledged. The program features reports from: the Philippines, now at the epicenter of the battle over efforts to restrict information on, and access to, family planning; Latvia, where taboos surrounding the subject of sex still hamper efforts to provide information for adolescents; Japan, where the falling birthrate is focusing attention again on the problems of childcare for working women; and finally India, where-despite laws designed to protect the girl child-the practice of female infanticide, and its horrendous repercussions, appears to be growing. Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund, describes why reproductive health and rights are critical for development worldwide.

    Item no.: PL02790229
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: RETURN TO SREBRENICA

    Survivors of the massacre in Srebrenica struggle to heal their communtiy and build a new future.

    Srebrenica is a traditionally Muslim town in the north east of Bosnia. In July 1995 it became the site of the worst massacre in Europe since World War Two-a symbol of the horror of the Balkan wars. After a three-year siege, Serb armed forces entered the town and, over the following four days, massacred between 7000 and 8000 Muslim civilians, mostly men and boys. Another 35,000 Muslims, mostly women and children, were driven out into other parts of Bosnia. Now international aid, and the burials of victims of the massacres, are part of a process allowing the town to move forward, and begin to build a new future. The story of Srebrenica today, a town slowly reconciling itself to its past, unfolds through interviews with returning refugees, and those who can't face ever going back; with the International Commission for Missing People; with EU Ambassador Michael Humphries; and with Lord Paddy Ashdown, internationally appointed administrator of Bosnia.

    Item no.: FF02790235
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: RETURNING DREAMS

    In the aftermath of Liberia's civil war children are fighting to reclaim their futures and return home.

    Fourteen-year old Jemoh fled from Liberia when she was 11, and has been living in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone for the last three years. Now she is about to join one of the first and biggest UNHCR convoys to return to Liberia for three years. This Life program follows Jemoh's long journey home, and the mixed picture she finds when she gets there. Jemoh's just one of the millions of children caught up in the world's conflicts. Some are forced to fight and kill; others are used as slaves and "wives". Those that survive are left brutalized and traumatized. How, the program asks, do you rehabilitate children who have gone through these kinds of experiences? To mark the 15th anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, Life returns to Sierra Leone and Liberia, to assess the fate of children caught up in their recent civil war.

    Item no.: CR01110236
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: SLUM FUTURES

    The slums of Mumbai are an important microcosm of how slums are developing around the world.

    Bombay -- now known as Mumbai -- is the home of Bollywood movies and India's city of gold, its financial capital. But behind the glitz and glamour lurks a different reality -- a city landscape dominated by massive, sprawling slums, which rank among the biggest in the world. According to Mumbai's city housing authority, eight out of the twelve million people in Mumbai live in the slums. Mumbai's slum dwellers are, however, a vibrant and proud community, and the city is also an important microcosm of how slums are developing around the world. Globally one in six people live in slums. At the current rate of growth, UN-Habitat predicts that by 2030, one in every three people in the world could be living in a slum.

    Item no.: LK01110263
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: STAYING ALIVE!

    Poverty combined with lack of education and health services affect maternal mortality rates in Bangladesh.

    Life visits Bangladesh to find out how the country is planning to cut the maternal mortality rate by three quarters by the year 2015. Every year, a recent WHO report shows, 529,000 women worldwide die in childbirth and pregnancy. Nearly all of these preventable deaths occur in developing countries, where problems of poverty, combined with lack of health and education services, make motherhood a dangerous undertaking. For over 20 years, the international community has pledged itself to improving maternal health. But until recently there has been very little progress. Now, in the Millennium Development Goals, 189 countries have renewed their commitment to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015. In Bangladesh, 50 women die during pregnancy or in childbirth every day. Will Bangladesh be able to deliver its promises to cut maternal mortality figures by three-quarters by 2015.

    Item no.: BL01110266
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: THE HOSPICE

    Workers at the Mother of Mercy hospice in Zambia provide palliative care for those afflicted with AIDS.

    The Mother of Mercy Hospice on the edge of the capital, Lusaka, was the first of its kind in Zambia. "Our idea was just to build a simple shelter so people can die with dignity," says Sister Leonia. 200 people a day in Zambia die from HIV/AIDS. Because controlling HIV/AIDS is one of the biggest challenges world health experts face, all the member countries of the United Nations have pledged to "reverse" the spread of the disease as one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals-a global ambition the international community hopes to achieve by 2015. This Life film follows the work of the staff and volunteers at the Mother of Mercy hospice and in the surrounding villages. The courage of patients, the resilience and despair of the staff and the dignity of how they all deal with the almost daily ritual of death combine to give a poignant account of the human face of AIDS in modern Africa.

    Item no.: BW01110153
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: THE REAL LEAP FORWARD - SCALING UP POVERTY REDUCTION IN CHINA

    Reports on China's successful efforts to reduce poverty through sustainable development and targeted programs.

    China is fast becoming one of the world's industrial powerhouses. But hundreds of millions of Chinese still live in poverty, far from the coastal regions generating the new wealth. As elsewhere in the world, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. The Chinese government is trying to address the problem -- through targeted poverty reduction programs. As Lu Fei Jie, Director General of China's State Council Leading Group on Poverty, sums it up, it is more than just a relief program-"we do not just supply money. We focus on helping people to improve their capabilities to develop the areas by themselves. To improve their basic living and work conditions. That way they can walk out of poverty forever." The Real Leap Forward reports on China's efforts to spread the new social benefits beyond the city limits -- and asks how well they're succeeding.

    Item no.: AK02790226
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: THIS HARD GROUND - REMEMBERING THE DISPLACED

    Civil war leads to the internal displacement of millions in Sri Lanka.

    Away from the idyllic, tropical paradise beaches of Sri Lanka, a civil war has been raging for the last twenty years. Jaffna, once a thriving port in the north of the island, is now a decimated skeleton of a city: buildings flattened by bombs, homes shot out and deserted. During the course of the war, 800,000 people were forced to leave their homes and all their possessions. Even though they were displaced within their own country, they have lost everything: their livelihoods, their community and often their families. This Life program examines the fragile peace and what it means to people who have fled because of the fighting. We talk to the Sri Lankan army, the government and NGOs and ask what are the prospects for a long-term political settlement and lasting peace?

    Item no.: TR02790283
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: WARMING UP IN MONGOLIA

    Unless sustainable alternatives are introduced, Mongolia's dependence on fossil fuels and rapid urbanization threatens the environment.

    Ulaan Baatar is the coldest capital city in the world, with winter lasting for seven months of the year. Following the collapse of communist rule in 1991, increasing numbers of Mongolians are moving into the city, where they mostly live in sprawling, polluted and unplanned slums. Today the Mongolian Government is working with international development agencies in an attempt to ensure a sustainable transition into the modern world. This Life film looks at how Mongolia is powering itself. All electricity produced in Mongolia comes from fossil fuels. What can be done to repair environmental damage and introduce sustainable alternatives? Life examines the long-term environmental implications of exhausting Mongolia's natural resources-global warming, environmental degradation, desertification-and asks, what clean technological solutions are there to Mongolia's problems?

    Item no.: CW01110317
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 25 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: WHOSE AGENDA IS IT ANYWAY?

    To fulfil the Millennium Development Goals, many poor countries are now implementing Poverty Reduction Strategy Programs -- PRSPs. They are supposed to be "home grown", developed by both government and civil society and emphasize pro-poor economic growth. But in Malawi, PRSPs are viewed by many as merely a new version of old World Bank policies, with decisions ultimately being made in Washington, rather than by the country's own citizens. This Life report investigates the PRSP process and its effectiveness in Malawi. We interview Malawian government officials, civil society campaigners, World Bank economists and critics of World Bank policies, as well as visiting rural communities to ask how they themselves would eliminate their own poverty.

    Item no.: YN02790328
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 4: YEMENI FUTURES

    More than a decade after its unification, Yemen is still struggling to improve the standard of living.

    In 1990 Yemen became a single country, with the unification of the Yemen Arab Republic in the North and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in the South.

    It was hailed as a move that would bring prosperity to the country. 42% of the population live in poverty. Only a quarter of the people live in cities and outside the urban areas population density is low. This makes it difficult to provide healthcare, education and basic infrastructure. This Life program asks what is being done to address fundamental needs of the Yemeni people, and whether anything has been achieved since the unification in 1990 to raise the quality of their lives.

    Item no.: KE02560342
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE RUNNING OUT OF CONTROL

    In the mid-1980s, scientists, with the help of biotechnology, thought they had found the key to mastering the planet, and especially its living organisms. Suddenly, everything seemed possible!

    Twenty years later the filmmakers embark on a global journey to explore the effects of the ongoing experiments in the genetic manipulation of plants, animals and human beings.

    Some of the results have not been pretty.

  • Due to a disastrous crop of genetically modified cotton many Indian farmers face ruin, and choose instead to sell one of their kidneys or commit suicide.

  • In Canada genetically modified canola seeds blow onto the fields of neighboring organic farms, thus making organic certification of those farmers' crops impossible.

  • The Icelandic parliament sells the entire gene pool of its population to a private company which intends to turn over the data at a profit to the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies.

  • The Human Genome Diversity Project collects blood, hair and saliva samples from 700 groups of people judged to be in danger of extinction on the pretext of preventive health care. The gene samples find their way into the laboratories of industry to provide the basis for valuable patents.

    Worldwide only a handful of idealistic scientists are defying industry, doing independent research on the effects of transgenic animals and plants on the environment and our health when we consume genetically modified food.

    This leads to the conclusion that not only does genetic engineering pose a serious scientific problem, it also challenges fundamental democratic principles, and deserves the widest possible public discussion.

    Reviews
  • "Life Running Out of Control offers a uniquely wide-ranging international perspective on the science and ethics of genetic engineering. This film carries us on an enlightening journey to India, Norway, and the forests of Colombia, offering inspiring images of resistance and hope amidst the pressing concerns about the science and ethics of GMOs, corporate control of our food, and the patenting of human, animal, and plant life. A must for those who are looking beyond the most immediate health and safety concerns, and seek to understand the wider implications of today's biotechnologies." - Brian Tokar, Director, Institute for Social Ecology Biotechnology Project; editor of "Redesigning Life?" and "Gene Traders"

  • "A harrowing exploration of the increasing genetic manipulation of plants, animals, and human beings around the globe...With its camera focused on the beauty of biodiversity, Life Running Out of Control warns that corporate control of genetic technology is both a serious scientific problem and a major challenge to democracy." - Green Screen Environmental Festival Program

  • "From the genetic transformation of our food to the manipulation of the human genome, this meticulously researched, excellently photographed and multilayered documentary constitutes a rousing appeal to stop a fatal development." - Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital Program

  • "Meticulously researched, excellently photographed and multilayered documentary" - Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital program

    Awards
  • Environmental Film Festival, Seia/Portugal
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film and Video Festival
  • Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, San Francisco
  • Environmental Film
  • Golden Lynx for Best Journalistic Achievement, Okomedia Environmental Film Festival
  • First Prize for Best Long Production, FICA- International Environmental Film Festival, Goias, Brazil
  • Environmental Great Prize, Special Commendation by CineEco-youth jury, CineEco

    Item no.: HK02560176
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 95 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 295.00

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    STEALING A NATION

    A Special Report by John Pilger

    Award-winning reporter John Pilger exposes how the British Government expelled the population of a group of islands, including Diego Garcia, so the US could build a military base.

    STEALING A NATION is an extraordinary film about the plight of people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean-secretly and brutally expelled from their homeland by British governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to make way for an American military base. The base, on the main island of Diego Garcia, was a launch pad for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

    A remarkable dossier of evidence has been put together by Pilger and producer Chris Martin, all from official files, charting one of the most shocking conspiracies of modern times, which continues today.

    Diego Garcia is America's largest military base in the world, outside the US. There are more than 4,000 troops, two bomber runways, thirty warships and a satellite spy station. The Pentagon calls it an "indispensable platform" for policing the world.

    Before the Americans came, more than 2,000 people lived on the islands, many with roots back to the late 18th century. There were thriving villages, a school, a hospital, a church, a railway and an undisturbed way of life. The islands were, and still are, a British crown colony. In the 1960s, the government of Harold Wilson struck a secret deal with the United States to hand over Diego Garcia. The Americans demanded that the islands be "swept" and "sanitised". Unknown to Parliament and to the US Congress, the British government plotted with Washington to expel the entire population-in secrecy and in breach of the United Nations Charter.

    Review
  • "Pilger skilfully contrasts the desperate lives of those in exile with British and American government chiefs shamelessly spinning their side...Watch and be angry." - Daily Mirror Award
  • Best Single Documentary, The Royal Television Society Programme Awards

    Item no.: AE02560267
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 56 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 250.00

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    THIRST

    A piercing look at the global corporate drive to control and profit from our water -- from bottles to tap.

    Is water part of a shared "commons", a human right for all people? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded in a global marketplace? THIRST tells the stories of communities in Bolivia, India, and the United States that are asking these fundamental questions, as water becomes the most valuable global resource of the 21st Century.

    A character-driven documentary with no narration, THIRST reveals how the debate over water rights between communities and corporations can serve as a catalyst for explosive and steadfast resistance to globalization.

    Reviews
  • "THIRST is a provocative portrayal in stark human terms of current battles over water privatization. Communities rise in protest; corporate interests seem to turn a deaf ear. Can there be a middle ground? THIRST provides a passionate jumping off point for a debate that is just beginning." - Tom Graff, Environmental Defense

  • "THIRST brilliantly dramatizes a potential threat of great enormity. A careful and deeply disturbing film about the threat to human safety and survival worldwide by corporate attempts to privatize the earth's water supplies." - Norris Hundley, author, The Great Thirst and Professor Emeritus of History, UCLA

  • "A moving and inspiring film about one of the biggest water issues of our day...it sounds a clarion call for citizens and governments to reaffirm that water is a public trust, not a commodity to be exploited for private profit. I hope THIRST is viewed widely, discussed at town meetings and in legislative debates, and that it energizes citizen involvement in water decisions. A powerful -- and needed -- film." - Sandra Postel, Director, Global Water Policy Project

  • "Do you know who controls your water? You'd better find out. As this powerful film shows, it may already be a private corporation run from afar. THIRST challenges apathy and ignorance about our most precious resource and shows how every citizen's voice can, indeed must, make a difference. See this film, and be inspired to act." - Peter H. Gleick, 2003 MacArthur Fellow and author, The World's Water

  • "THIRST is a remarkable film. The looming freshwater crisis is the greatest environmental and human rights crisis of our time. Not surprisingly, the move is on by powerful corporations and governments to commodify and cartelize the world's water supplies for power and profit. THIRST is the story of this assault and the fight to stop it." - Maude Barlow, National Chair, Council of Canadians and Co-author, with Tony Clarke, Blue Gold, The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water

  • "Beautiful and engaging..." - Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director

    "THIRST is an important and timely film, and vividly illustrates the human costs of commodifying a most basic human right -- water. From women in India struggling to care for their families in the absence of fresh water and adequate sanitation to the people of Stockton, California, fighting to maintain control over their water resources, THIRST tells a powerful story of resistance and survival." - California State Senator Liz Figueroa (D, Fremont) Chair, Select Committee on International Trade Policy Chair

  • "THIRST beautifully shows how the labor movement can work closely with community groups and the environmental movement to defend public jobs and the public trust. Struggles for control of water could become the focus for creative new coalitions to reverse the tide of privatization." - Peter Olney, Institute for Labor and Employment, University of California

  • "THIRST is a transformative experience. As patrons left the theater, it was clear that the entertainment they had witnessed had progressed to education, visual beauty to substantive understanding. They had been fulfilled and motivated, their minds engaged and expanded. Despite the fact that the issues raised often inflame the passions, audience members felt they had grown without rancor, moved forward without leaving any players or arguments behind." - Professor Robert Benedetti, Executive Director, Jacoby Center for Regional and Community Studies, University of the Pacific

  • "THIRST documents how power, politics and money all combine in the raging international debate about water policy. The underlying issues of community versus corporate control are remarkably similar whether in India or the United States. The control of water may be responsible for more political, economic and even military clashes in the 21st century than was oil in the 20th." - Congressman George Miller (D-7, California) Former Chair, House Committee on Natural Resources

  • "Surprisingly captivating...unlike so many other documentaries about multinationals -- documentaries that tend to be overbearingly supercilious and contemptuous -- THIRST simply lets the story tell itself...THIRST is like a message in a bottle sent from the future. It tells the beginning of what could be one of the major political and economic issues to shape the next century. Don't say they didn't warn you." - Phil Busse -- The Portland Mercury

  • "THIRST gives you dry mouth." - Matthew Hirsch, San Francisco Bay Guardian

  • "Another smart bottom-to-top take on complexly related racial, economic, legislative, and individual issues. The crux here: can water access remain 'part of the global commons' everyone should have free access to, or is it doomed to become an economic commodity bought and sold like any other?...This important and engrossing film provides a spur to activism that no one should ignore, unless they're rich enough in obliviousness to propose, 'Let them drink sake.'" - Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian

  • "By showing how activists in Stockton, Cochabamba and India are all...thinking globally but acting locally, Snitow and Kaufman give us a provocative look at the current and coming water wars...After seeing THIRST it will be hard to ever take water for granted." - Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle

  • "A groundbreaking and provocative new film about the rush to privatize what the filmmakers rightly define as the very essence of life." - Silja J.A. Talvi, AlterNet

  • THIRST insightfully and thoroughly explores the contentious issues surrounding water privatization, showing us that it's not merely a Third World concern but a dark and growing trend right here in our own backyard." - Shannon Abel, HOT DOCS Canadian International Documentary Festival

  • "A compelling study of corporate greed, exploitation of the disadvantaged, and volatile uprising among civic-minded protestors demanding equal voice in a controversial issue...A valuable tool for awareness and activism, especially in water rich communities that could become the next battleground for the public's right to water, THIRST deserves to be seen by all who drink, flush, and cook with life's most essential element. Highly recommended." - Video Librarian

  • "Highly Recommended" - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • National PBS Broadcast on "POV"
  • The Chris Statuette, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • CINE Golden Eagle Award
  • First Place, EarthVision Enviromental Film Festival
  • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
  • Hot Docs, Toronto
  • Seattle International Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • United Nations Association Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Planet in Focus, Toronto International Environmental Film Festival
  • Amnesty International Film Festival, West Hollywood
  • Public Citizen Water Justice Film Festival
  • Gimli Film Festival
  • Taos Mountain Film Festival
  • Bioneers Moving Image Film Festival
  • The Green Film Festival, Washington DC
  • Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
  • Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival
  • Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival
  • TERRASCOPE, Montreal
  • Plymouth Independendent Film Festival

    Item no.: GH01110281
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 62 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 250.00

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    TURBULENT WATERS

    An investigation of international shipping practices and the treatment of seafarers.

    "Mr. Myles, pick up the phone. Please. This is a very urgent matter."

    Myles Parsons gets the call in Vancouver. At the other end of the line is John DeGuzman, a cook onboard a German-owned vessel docked at the French port of Brest. Can Parsons help? The Filipino crew complains of poor food, withheld wages and routine abuse from the Romanian captain.

    It's all in a day's work for Myles Parsons, a seasoned seaman and an inspector for the International Transport Federation, fighting for seafarers around the world.

    Turbulent Waters takes us below deck to meet the men who toil at the grimy heart of the global economy. Whether it's petroleum, wheat or computer keyboards, over 90% of international trade moves by sea. Yet the men whose labor is the lifeblood of world trade reap few benefits. Every year 2,500 seafarers die on the job. Many work in dangerous conditions on ships flying flags of convenience, a common practice whereby companies register vessels in countries with low labor standards and corporate taxes. Seafarers who speak out are often blacklisted, which can end their careers.

    This hard-hitting documentary exposes the reality of international shipping, while giving voice and dignity to the men who risk their lives to bring us the goods we need.

    Reviews
  • "An excellent portrayal of the difficult labor conditions experienced by ship workers on ships flying flags of convenience." Elizabeth R. DeSombre, Environmental Studies & Political Science, Wellesley College

  • "Turbulent Waters is an excellent portrayal of the difficult labor conditions experienced by ship workers on ships flying flags of convenience... The film shows the complex difficulties facing seafarers when they are mistreated on ships... If anything, the video understates the dire conditions faced by many ship workers, since the cases shown here are those where the [International Transport Workers Federation] was able to step in to help ship workers in need and, in most of the instances shown, resolve at least some of the problems they faced. It shows the important work that can be done by international inspectors and unions in guaranteeing the rights of those who are hired because few others will come to their defense." Elizabeth R. DeSombre, Frost Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Political Science, Wellesley College

  • "Highly Recommended. The film's strength is its ability to demonstrate the negotiations of the IFT on behalf of the seafarers... Turbulent Waters is an important film because it brings to light and makes visual a world too few people are familiar with; yet in our global era of international shipping, are inseparable from." Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • Hot Docs, Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, Toronto
  • Vancouver International Film Festival

    Item no.: DT02560306
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 53 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 250.00

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    SUSPINO: A CRY FOR ROMA

    An unflinching look at the persecution of Europe's largest minority, the Roma or 'gypsies'.

    SUSPINO- A CRY FOR ROMA takes an unflinching look at the persecution that continues to plague Europe's largest and most vilified minority. With the fall of communism and rise of right-wing nationalism, the Roma (or Gypsies as they are pejoratively called) have become scapegoats for Eastern Europe's nascent democracies. Because of violent conflicts and discrimination, tens of thousands of Eastern European Roma are fleeing their countries. The film focuses on Romania where Europe's largest concentration of Roma are considered 'public enemies', and Italy, where the Roma are classified as nomads and relegated to living in camps. Here they are denied basic human rights available to refugees and foreign residents.

    Aiming to create a "Gypsy-free" Romanian town, a mayor tries to move local Roma into an abandoned chicken farm, encircled with barbed wire and patrolled by guards with dogs. A Roma family gathers in a Transylvanian graveyard to mourn the death of 3 brothers murdered in an earlier pogrom that also saw the destruction of 21 of their houses. In a squalid trailer camp ten kilometers from Vatican City, a young Roma couple that fled persecution in Romania is trying to build a new life. Instead they end up begging to feed their children. Their nightmare worsens when the mayor of Rome decides to bulldoze the camp to the ground. A Romanian Roma activist seeking asylum in Canada tells a heart-breaking story of a pogrom against his community back home, and explains that this international human rights crisis has its roots in 500 years of slavery in Eastern Europe.

    Romania hopes to enter the European Union by 2010 but first must improve their treatment of minorities, especially the Roma. But what hope is there for the Roma when gatekeeper countries like Italy are also in flagrant violation of human rights conventions?

    Reviews
  • "I had no idea how much I would be affected by watching this intensely moving documentary. I wanted to grab all my colleagues, and sit them down, and make them watch it. If anything will dispel the popular notion that "the Gypsy's life is a joyous life," then this will." - Ian Hancock, Director, The Romani Archives and Documentation Center

  • "The message is passionately stated, yet with great authoritiveness...Kovanic, even though an outsider, is to be congratulated for so successfully presenting an insider perspective by allowing the subjects to speak for themselves." - William G. Lockwood, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Michigan

  • "I highly recommend this film in both versions. I especially encourage its use in higher education seminar classes, where it can potentially stimulate critical thinking about the subtleties as well as the significance of the Roma and their issues...The film offers introductory multicultural classes a sensitivity exercise for its younger audiences." - David Jim Nemeth, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toledo

  • "As the first American Romani person to be appointed to the United States Holocaust Council...I am proud to lend support to this documentary film and encourage everyone to see it. This documentary clearly states the racism and persecution my people have faced in past centuries to the present times." - William A. Duna, author "Gypsies" A Persecuted Race"

  • "Does an excellent job of calling attention to the plight of the Roma and would provide an excellent starting point to a broader discussion of the problems of ethnic minorities." - Patricia B. McGee, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "A gripping, humane documentary that accurately depicts the plight of Europe's vulnerable 'Gypsy' population. Given the political realities in Italy and Romania as well as other countries where the Roma are considered socially inferior, these abysmal conditions are not likely to change much in the forseeable future. This poignant video will remain relevant for many years to come." - Paul G. Conway, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, SUNY at Oneonta

  • "[The] interviews...blend well with archival newsreel clips to help viewers conceptualize the long struggle these formerly nomadic people have endured...a program which will move viewers and remind us that the 21st Century still faces humanitarian challenges. Courses in contemporary issues and most areas of the social sciences will find this poignant and timely presentation a valuable research tool." - School Library Journal

    Awards
  • Gold Plaque (Cinematography, Music Score), Silver Plaque (Investigative Reporting/News Documentary), Silver Plaque (Overall Sound), Chicago International Television Awards
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • International Festival of Human Rights Films, Spain
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Amnesty International Film Festival, Salt Lake City
  • Amnesty International Film Festival, Vancouver
  • Amnesty International Film Festival, Seattle
  • International Women Directors Film Festival, Creteil, France

    Item no.: HH02790277
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 72 minutes
    Copyright: 2003
    Price: USD 275.00

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    ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

    A rousing account of the 2002 World Social Forum that will inspire activists everywhere.

    What if 51,000 people from 131 countries put their heads together to discuss what is wrong with the world and how to work together to change it? In early 2002, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, public officials, representatives of non-governmental organizations, indigenous nations, farmers, and labor -- including 11,000 young people -- gathered for the World Social Forum. Called in response to the elite gathering of the World Economic Forum in New York, this week of workshops, panel discussions, and high-spirited demonstrations was inspirational for those attending.

    The international event, covered extensively by the media in other parts of the world, was virtually ignored by the US press. ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE presents a sampling of the issues and events at this enormous and creative gathering. Amongst the speakers featured are Naomi Klein, Vandana Shiva, Kevin Danaher, Wolfgang Sachs, and Rigoberta Menchu. This documentary impression of the gathering gives hope to US activists that, despite the media blackout, the movement for social justice is alive and well around the world.

    Reviews
  • "What we've been doing all week here is telling each other rumors, about creative and brave resistance, telling each other stories, that are true stories, that it is possible." - Naomi Klein

  • "When local activists scattered around England's 13 North American colonies prepared for the American Revolution, they met to form the Continental Congress. The World Social Forum is today's global equivalent. If you want to get an inside glimpse of the movement that is linking the advocates of democracy, human rights, and environmental protection around the world, see ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE." - Jeremy Brecher, historian, co-author, "Globalization from Below: The Power of Solidarity"

  • "Despite long odds, activists join forces in Porte Alegre, Brazil to advocate a more hopeful, human-centered alternative to the current global business-as-usual philosophy." - Prof. Timothy McGettigan, PhD, Department of Sociology, Colorado State University- Pueblo

    Awards
  • Gold Award, Prix Leonardo
  • Bronze Plaque Award, Columbus International Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Planet in Focus, The Toronto International Environmental Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Peace and Human Security Film Festival, New York
  • Global Visions Film Festival, Edmonton
  • Global Justice Film Festival, Washington, DC
  • Freedom Cinema Festival
  • Green Reel Film Festival
  • Mountaintop Film Festival, Vermont

    Item no.: WF01110016
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 24 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    DROWNED OUT: WE CAN'T WISH THEM AWAY

    An Indian family chooses to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam.

    Resettlement site or stay at home and drown.

    The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast. In the next few weeks, their village will disappear underwater as the giant Narmada Dam fills.

    Bestselling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight against the dam and asks the difficult questions. Will the water go to poor farmers or to rich industrialists? What happened to the 16 million people displaced by fifty years of dam building? Why should I care?

    DROWNED OUT follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes, rallies, police brutality and a six-year Supreme Court case. It stays with them as the dam fills and the river starts to rise...

    Reviews
  • "Angry, compassionate, disturbing and yet empowering, it makes for urgent and necessary viewing." - Time Out (London)

  • "The DVD is, frankly, the most complete I have ever seen for a documentary feature, loaded with extras, all of which are of a high quality and all of which contribute to the story, the characters and the message of the film-there's not a superfluous special feature in the whole, succulent bunch." - DVD Outsider

  • "Documentaries rarely, if ever, come better than this. It is impossible to overstate that this is absolutely required viewing." - Royal Gazette (Bermuda)

  • "An inspiring record of a quite extraordinary campaign of mass resistance, at once angry, compassionate, disturbing and yet empowering, it makes for urgent and necessary viewing...Critics Choice" - Time Out (London)

  • "A powerful and masterfully crafted study of a stand-off between the powerless and the powerful." - OneWorld Media Awards Jury

  • "If you see one doc at the SF International Film Festival, this should be it." - Kathleen Wilkinson, San Francisco Chronicle

  • "Combining compelling interview footage with creative visuals...this powerful documentary is highly recommended." - Three ? Stars Video Librarian

  • "This intimate, urgent documentary unravels the question, "Progress for whom?" ...Clear-eyed villagers inspire as they reach out and fight for their lives." - Kathleen Denny, San Francisco International Film Festival Program

  • "One real eye-opener was DROWNED OUT, a powerfully intimate report on a national catastrophe still evolving in India. Feisty young British filmmaker Franny Armstrong...makes a forceful case that the dam project, intended to bring water to arid parts of the country, is doing more harm than good with its inept, essentially heartless provisions for a primitive farming people whose traditions go back centuries." - Film Journal International

  • "DROWNED OUT is one of the best documentaries made about a dam or indeed any big development project. With accuracy, fairness and empathy, DROWNED OUT teases apart the strands of a long and complex story. It doesn't preach, it lets both sides of this epic struggle tell their story, but leaves the viewer with a stinging sense of injustice and venality. And it looks great." - Patrick McCully, International Rivers Network

  • "Quiet, fierce, beautiful" - New Internationalist

  • "A fascinating film that looks at the human cost of economic development in the name of poverty relief." - Edinburgh Filmhouse- Scotland

  • "The film highlights not just the Indian political power structure that makes it possible to displace millions, but also the human face of villagers asked to uproot their lives without assurance of reward." - India- West

  • "A thoughtfully presented account of how a tribal farming family decide to stay and drown in their home rather than relocate to a world where their skills would be useless. It's a troubling, thought-provoking story." - The Metro (Edinburgh)- Scotland

  • "Provides an insight as to how political decisions made without the knowledge or the consent of those who will be affected, have far reaching effects on people as well as the environment...a very thought provoking film that provides interesting topics for discussion as it poses questions such as 'development for whom, and at what cost?' ...highly recommended for Asian studies' collections in high school, college and academic libraries." - Geetha Yapa, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Is it really 'progress' if millions must be forcefully dispossessed and lose their livelihood? Is it really democracy when desperate people are ignored despite a large body of evidence that their demands are reasonable? Questions about economic development and environmental ethics are raised in a powerful way. College students in several disciplines are likely to be engaged and challenged by this film." - Paul Conway, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, SUNY Oneonta

  • "Handsomely produced" - Phil Hall, Film Threat

  • "There are some films you want to recommend. But this is a film I'd beg people to go and see. It is that important, and it is that moving and inspiring." - Kevin Williamson, Rebel Inc Coffee Shop- UK

  • "Superb...The film is heart-wrenching as the wheels of privilege turn and crush those without money, education, or access to power. But it's also hugely inspiring to see the quiet, determined courage of common folk rise again and again to the challenge of self-determination and self-protection..." - Ernest Hardy, Flaunt Magazine

    Awards
  • Honorable Mention, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
  • Silverdocs, American Film Institute
  • Robert Flaherty Film Seminar at MoMA
  • United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Bermuda International Film Festival
  • Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
  • Planet in Focus, the Toronto International Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Amnesty International Film Festival
  • Wild Spaces Film Festival
  • ImagineAsia Festival, Edinburgh
  • Commonwealth Film Festival, Manchester
  • Tiburon International Film Festival
  • Ashland Independent Film Festival
  • 1001 Documentary Festival, Istanbul
  • Global Visions Film Festival
  • Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
  • Annapolis Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Chicago International Documentary Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Runner- Up, Audience Award for Best Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: SA02560097
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 75 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 275.00

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    FIRES OF THE AMAZON, THE

    Adrian Cowell reports on the situation in the Amazon more than a decade after his series THE DECADE OF DESTRUCTION.

    In this new documentary, Cowell returns to Amazonia and finds that many of Chico's friends and colleagues are in power, including his closest associate, Mary Allegretti, who is now the federal government's Secretary for Amazonia.

    There have been some notable gains for the rubber-tappers, including the establishment of the forest preserves, literacy for their children, and higher prices for their certified lumber. But year after year the fires go on burning. Less than 1/3 of Amazonia is protected in a park or preserve. Roads are being built, and agriculture is moving into southern Amazonia.

    Daniel Nepstad of the Institute for Environmental Research estimates that, in the next quarter century, 40% of the forest will be replaced by agriculture, and another 40% will be lost to logging. Cargill is building a huge new grain terminal in Santarem, which is dreaming of becoming the Chicago of Brazil.

    At the same time the Ministry of the Environment is trying to contain the fires using satellite photography provided by the National Institute for Space Research, and its police force, IBAMA, to enforce the regulations. Greenpeace is working to move world public opinion to refuse to buy Amazonian mahogany.

    Review
  • "FIRES OF THE AMAZON is powerfully crafted by the Amazon's premiere documentarian -- beautiful, yet disturbing. The best summary of the rainforest's problems and promise. Just what we need to motivate the final push to save the Amazon and perhaps save ourselves." - Randy Hayes, President, Rainforest Action Network

    Awards
  • The Chris Statuette, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Runner- Up in Category, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: NW01110115
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 44 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 250.00

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    LIFE 3: DANGER - CHILDREN AT WORK

    Guatemalan agencies try to discourage child labor and fireworks production by poor families.

    Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in Central America; most Guatemalans exist on subsistence farming. But in the San Juan Sacatepequez region, where the land is poor, many have turned to producing fireworks at home. The practice has become the major source of income for 80% of the local people. It is a labor intensive process, and children often start working at the task by the age of six. There are no guarantees on how much families are paid for their labor, and no safety controls. Accidents are frequent. Many are fatal.

    This LIFE installment looks at campaigns to persuade local people to consider safer ways of earning a living-ways that can also allow their children to go to school and gain the education necessary for sustainable development.

    With the support of the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor of the International Labor Organization; the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; the Directorate General for the Environment.

    Item no.: BT02560087
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: IT TAKES A VILLAGE

    A cyclone in Bangladesh results in the construction of an experimental community health center.

    In 1991 a devastating cyclone struck the district of Chakaria in western Bangladesh. Foreign aid flooded into the region in the wake of that disaster, bringing much needed food, drugs, and other supplies. But in what is still a very conservative Muslim region, the very same aid bred dependency and mistrust.

    What was needed in Chakaria was a real experiment in community participation, one in which the villagers could decide what kind of health services were necessary, and then take it upon themselves to facilitate those services. With this in mind, community doctor Moazzem Houssain from the International Centre of Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR.B) took up residence in Chakaria to work with the villagers on the construction of the district's first-ever health center.

    IT TAKES A VILLAGE tells the story of the experiment: the obstacles the project had to overcome, the successes it has achieved, and the role that community health care provision can play in the framework of a national health care strategy.

    With the support of the World Health Organization; the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

    Item no.: WF02790165
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: KOSOVO - REBUILDING THE DREAM

    Assesses the success of UN efforts in rebuilding Kosovo.

    As a result of fervent Serbian nationalism, a movement stoked by Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, all records of Albanian property and land ownership in Kosovo were either destroyed or removed, allowing Serb families to occupy houses and flats owned by Albanians. In 1999, the tables turned. Following the NATO bombing of Kosovo and the return of thousands of Albanian refugees, Albanians quickly appropriated Serb homes and property.

    Today, under the umbrella of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), UN-Habitat officials are wrestling with the daunting task of rebuilding municipal government in the region, establishing who truly owns which property in the process. It's a painstaking business, one that involves recreating official ownership records and organizing local government elections. In short, rebuilding democracy from the ground up.

    This installment of LIFE assesses the success of UN efforts through the eyes and experiences of local families-both Serbian and Albanian-in Kosovo.

    With the support of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat); the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; the Directorate General for the Environment; and the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    Item no.: LA01110172
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: PATENTS AND PATIENTS

    India battles HIV/AIDS using generic drugs.

    Dr. Yusuf Hamied, Managing Director of the Indian drug company Cipla, thinks the Indian government should put the country "on a war footing" to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic that threatens his country. As evidence, he cites the 3500 new HIV/AIDS cases that are reported almost daily in India, as well as statistics suggesting that this year the total number of infected Indians may reach 35 million.

    But there is another battle being fought, this one over how to deal with the pandemic in developing countries like India: a battle over the patents held on the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) known to prolong the lives-and minimize the suffering-of HIV sufferers the world over. Cipla produces generic copies of ARVs whose patents officially belong to pharmaceutical giants like Bristol Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline.

    But without a proper health infrastructure to monitor patients and ensure the drugs are properly administered, India faces the risk of a drug-resistant HIV explosion, a new epidemic that will lead to even more deaths and misery.

    With the support of NCDO The Netherlands; The European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; and the World Health Organization.

    Item no.: HB02560213
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: SEEING IS BELIEVING

    Zambia begins a nationwide program to deliver Vitamin A to its population.

    Health experts have long known that a lack of Vitamin A can lead to serious complications and diseases during childhood-such as measles and blindness-as well as increasing the risk of child and maternal mortality, thus undermining the health and development of poor countries. The problem facing health workers and government ministries, therefore, has been how to deliver supplemental Vitamin A to populations most at risk, and how to help those populations understand the vital role it can play in protecting health.

    Guatemala pioneered the fortification of sugar with Vitamin A, and their success has influenced the country of Zambia and the launch of a new, nationwide program to ensure that Vitamin A reaches all of its people. But as this episode of LIFE shows, sugar fortification is just one part of a multi-pronged strategy that also includes experiments with the fortification of corn in local mills, administering Vitamin A supplements in mother-and-child clinics, and the cultivation of new varieties of high-yield palm trees that provide Vitamin A-rich palm oil.

    Item no.: EL01110251
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: SOWING SEEDS OF HUNGER

    The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has crippled the agricultural community while forcing children to undertake the responsibilities of farming.

    Barnabas and Mary Chalaba were once among the more prosperous farmers of their village in the north of Zambia. But today, they are destitute-too sick to farm their land, and dependent on their children to oversee the crops. Like 30 million others in sub-Saharan Africa, Mary and Barnabas are infected with the HIV virus.

    In southern Africa, the highest rates of HIV infection occur among young adults, whose ages range from 15 to 49. This is the same group who, as agricultural workers and small scale farmers, are the backbone and future of countries such as Zambia. Since 1985, more than seven million farmers have succumbed to AIDS, striking at the heart of agricultural production.

    But as SOWING SEEDS OF HUNGER shows, the fallout from this pandemic extends beyond agriculture, undermining development in the region while endangering the lives of orphans and widows affected by the rampant spread of HIV.

    With the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    Item no.: YZ02790265
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: THE DOCTOR'S STORY

    The US debate over abortion has severe consequences for health care in rural Nepal.

    In 2001 Dr. Gunraj Lohani trudged eight hours up a long misty trail from Diktel airport in eastern Nepal to take up residence in the local district hospital in Khotang-filled with a determination to bring change to the ailing local health services. For years, the lack of roads has kept most development and distribution of services away, and the brain drain to the cities has led to an acute shortage of professionals, especially doctors and nurses. With the doctor's arrival, things look set to change.

    With as many as five out of every 200 women dying in childbirth, Nepal has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In 2001, an estimated 10,600 women would have needed emergency obstetric care in just four out of Nepal's 75 districts. But only 452 of these women were seen by the hospitals.

    This episode of LIFE explores the plight of Nepal's local health services, and links the situation to the Bush Administration, whose reinstatement of the 'global gag rule' has prohibited the U.S. government from funding any non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support abortion.

    With thanks to the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; The World Health Organization; and UNICEF Nepal.

    Item no.: HN02560093
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: THE PERFECT FAMINE

    Examines the causes of, and solutions to, severe famine conditions in Malawi.

    The "Perfect Famine" is the kind of famine that happens when everything that can go wrong does go wrong, either because of natural disasters or because of the activities of humans.

    That's what is happening in the southern African country of Malawi, where bad weather, poor governance, and profiteering have combined to create a desperate situation. It is at the epicenter of what may become a major famine in the south of the continent. Families are resorting to strategies such as abandoning villages, stealing crops, and eating next year's seed corn-yet Malawi is a green land that should be able to sustain itself. Although many have thought foreign aid would lift the world's poor out of absolute poverty, there is now a growing consensus that the policies of poor countries and ineffectual bureaucracies are major obstacles to sustainable development.

    THE PERFECT FAMINE looks at the role of governance through one African example, and discusses the global issues at hand with development experts and economists.

    With the support of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat); the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; the Directorate General for the Environment; and the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    Item no.: RL01110215
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: THE ROAD FROM RIO

    Questions the relevance and success of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

    Alexandra is a poor suburb of Johannesburg, but it's within sight of the prestigious Sandton Convention Centre. The venue was the home for what was billed as the most important international conference of this century: the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which opened on 26 August 2002.

    In THE ROAD FROM RIO, life in Johannesburg is seen through the eyes of Nankie, a DJ on the community radio station Alex FM. She's excited by the prospect of delegations from around the world flying in to her hometown to debate the world's environmental problems and new ways to create a global society without the class divisions that have continued to widen, leaving the power and wealth in the hands of a covetous few.

    The "Jo'burg Summit" took place 10 years after the Rio Earth Summit, and a full 30 years after the first international conference on the human environment, which convened in Stockholm in 1972. But as world leaders prepared for the meeting, hard questions were being raised. What could the conference really hope to achieve? And why-when governments have failed to deliver on so many of the promises they made at Rio-should the world believe they'd be any more sincere this time around?

    With the support of the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; the Directorate General for the Environment; and the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    Item no.: HL01110239
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: THE TRADE TRAP

    Ghanaian farmers struggle to get a foothold in the international market.

    Augustine Adongo is the chief executive of the Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters. His job is to help Ghana's manufacturers, particularly the 70% of the population involved in agriculture, gain a bigger share of the international trade market. But "non-tariff" barriers conceived and imposed by the European Union have made that task a difficult one.

    The globalization lobby insists that trade is now the best way for impoverished countries to work their way out of poverty: they must open their markets to imported goods, deregulate, ensure openness to foreign entities and practice good 'governance'. Anti-globalization advocates oppose this viewpoint, arguing that trade is simply not working for the poorest of the poor. They say that the rules of trade are rigged in favor of the developed world by subsidies, regulations and penalties intended to marginalize exports from countries like Ghana.

    THE TRADE TRAP follows Adongo as he visits farmers and business owners across his country, exploring both sides of the globalization issue along the way.

    With the support of the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; and the Directorate General for the Environment.

    Reviews
  • "Free trade, or economic freefall? An exasperating account of Ghana's desperate struggle to survive in the face of international "fair trade" regulations that its fat cat trading partners slant to their overwhelming advantage." - Prof. Timothy McGettigan, PhD, Department of Sociology, Colorado State University- Pueblo

  • "A simply outstanding documentary. The film successfully makes the leaps between the impacts of globalization on the worker to the rationale of the policy makers, by interviewing a good representation of both groups...an excellent film with sensible movement from identification and examination of the problems to problem-solving approaches...The Trade Trap receives the highest recommendation for anyone aged high school and over. This documentary gives an extremely well focused analysis of Ghana's response to the demands of the global economy." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Award
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: WA01110302
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: UP IN SMOKE

    Dependence on tobacco crops and manipulation by the tobacco industry has stunted the economy of Malawi.

    In the southern African country of Malawi tobacco is the major export crop, responsible for 70% of all export earnings. Agriculture is the mainstay of Malawi's economy, accounting for over 90% of GDP. Out of a total population of 11 million, the majority of Malawians are farmers, and seven million owe their livelihoods to the tobacco industry.

    But economic dependency on tobacco has not brought the country wealth. According to the World Bank, over 60% of Malawians live below the poverty line, with limited access to land, little education, and poor health. Despite the diminished returns from tobacco growing, the government has actually increased the land under cultivation. Malawians are now questioning if the wealth promised from growing tobacco is really an illusion.

    Review
  • "Up In Smoke is concise, yet it fully and fairly analyzes the impact of globalization in this setting. It is an excellent film for sparking debate among younger audiences, and is highly recommended to anyone high school age and over." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Award
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: NV02560312
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    LIFE 3: CHEATED OF CHILDHOOD

    The International Labor Organization tries to rescue and rehabilitate the street children of St. Petersburg.

    Once the glittering capital of Russia, the city of St. Petersburg and its magnificent metro stations have become home to a generation of street children who survive by begging, informal child labor or prostitution. The end of communism may have brought many positive economic changes in the lives of ordinary Russians, but it's also led to soaring rates of unemployment, alcoholism and family breakdown-driving children as young as seven to leave home to seek some kind of a living on the streets.

    There are believed to be over a million homeless children in Russia, and in St. Petersburg alone, 16,000 children live on the streets. President Vladimir Putin has described the situation as the "most threatening of his country's economic and social indicators".

    This installment of LIFE looks at the work of the International Labor Organization, whose efforts to rescue and rehabilitate these street children are a wholly new phenomenon.

    With the support of the International Labor Organization; and the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues.

    Reviews
  • "A tragic vision of homeless kids begging, sniffing glue, and falling prey to pedophiles as global realities force St. Petersburg's social safety net to become more porous by the day." - Prof. Timothy McGettigan, PhD, Department of Sociology, Colorado State University- Pueblo

    Item no.: PK01110050
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    NOT FOR SALE

    Examines the disturbing new corporate practice of patenting life forms.

    Not for Sale is an engaging new documentary that explores some little known aspects of global trade agreements like the WTO. Patents and other intellectual property rights are expanding what corporations can own and control -- from things like machines, to knowledge and even living creatures. What does this mean for the environment, our food supply, and human rights?

    This film looks at farmers, indigenous people, and anti-globalization activists who oppose patents on life and advocate for a world where life is not a commodity but something to be treasured.

    With beautiful footage from the headwaters of the Amazon, farms in Washington and Iowa, as well as India and Peru, plus glimpses of the Seattle WTO protests, Not for Sale brings this global issue into focus with stories of everyday people.

    Also interviewed are Vandana Shiva, Anuradha Mittal of Food First, and Debra Harry of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism.

    This is the third in an ongoing series of educational programs produced by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young about the risks and benefits of the new biotechnology. The other two to date are Risky Business: Biotechnology and Agriculture and Gene Blues.

    Reviews
  • "A brilliant documentary that finally demonstrates the connection between biodiversity and cultural diversity, between resistance to globalization and social and environmental justice." - Devon Pena, Professor of Anthropology, Director of Ph.D. Program in Environmental Anthropology, University of Washington

  • "Does a great job in raising awareness regarding just how serious the economic and food security threat associated with genetically modified crops (GMOs) really is, especially from a corporate concentration and agribusiness power perspective...I recommend that this documentary be viewed by all the world's farmers." - Dan McGuire, Program Director, Farmer Choice- Customer First educational program, American Corn Growers Association.

  • "The future of food and medicine is in jeopardy. This film explains why." - Linda Setchell, Safe Foods Campaign

  • "Not for Sale tackles the serious issue of genetic patenting -- a practice which threatens entire cultures -- in a straightforward and sometimes playful way that makes this fundamental threat to the world's food supply easy to digest." - Matt Parish, Boston Independent Media Center

  • "Disturbing but liberating." - Francis Boyle, attorney, University of Illinois

  • "An important contribution to the discussion of genetics and society." - Paul Billings, M.D., GeneSage Inc.

  • "Not for Sale is a clear, comprehensive and honest look at the consequences of genetic engineering and patents on life -- on lives around the world." - Jill Rubin, Food and Safety Advocate, MASSPIRG

  • "Excellent production values...Half-hour length makes the program ideal for classroom viewing, with time left for discussion. Not for Sale is a thought provoking program that effectively demonstrates that genetically modified organisms are a global as well as local concern. Highly recommended." - Barb Bergman, Minnesota State University, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Not For Sale raises one of the most important questions of our time: 'who will control the food?' The film offers a sobering assessment through many voices that ultimately call for a globalization of citizen action that is in the end both empowering and essential." - Zoe Weil, Co-founder of the International Institute for Humane Education

    Awards
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Honorable Mention, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Films
  • United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • American Anthropological Association Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capitol
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Barcelona International Festival of Environmental Films
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival
  • Irvine Human Rights Festival
  • Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland
  • Conscientious Projector Film Festival
  • Santa Cruz Film Festival
  • The Green Festival, Washington DC
  • Audience Choice Award, Best Short, East Lansing Film Festival

    Item no.: DC01110205
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 31 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: A FISTFUL OF RICE

    Protein deficiency threatens generations of children in Nepal.

    Nine out of every ten children in Nepal suffers from some form of malnutrition. Ironically, it is because malnutrition is so widespread that it is also unnoticed. This is particularly true of protein energy malnutrition, or PEM as it is known -- a condition officially defined as being short and underweight for age, but which, in reality, is a devastating intergenerational cycle of lost potential, both physical and mental.

    This program from the City Life series unravels the complex causes and effects of Protein Energy Malnutrition through the stories of people in Nepal who live with it on a daily basis. It also explores ways of changing attitudes towards food and gender.

    Item no.: AK01110053
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: BRAZIL - WINNING AGAINST AIDS

    Brazil has developed generic antiretroviral drugs to care for those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

    HIV/AIDS sufferers in Brazil today get the same treatment as HIV/AIDS sufferers in the USA and Europe -- the same, free anti-retroviral drugs, clinical care, and monitoring. Since Brazil started to manufacture its own HIV/AIDS drugs in 1997, the country's patients have proved just as capable of taking their medicines on time as Americans or Europeans, and the Brazilian government's national HIV/AIDS program has halved the death rate from AIDS, prevented thousands of new patients from being hospitalized, and helped to stabilize the epidemic. Brazil's actions have effectively countered the arguments that the drug companies were using to deny AIDS treatment to developing countries' health services.

    So is Brazil's program the template for AIDS treatment elsewhere? This program from the City Life series examines whether it can be replicated in other countries.

    Item no.: BM02560054
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: DOING THE RIGHT THING

    Porto Alegre, Brazil has benefited from urban revitalization.

    Porto Alegre, capital of Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, was once a run-of-the-mill, dirty, Brazilian port city. But an amazing transformation has taken place: unemployment has fallen, public transportation is now excellent, and poor neighborhoods have improved dramatically.

    These changes are thanks to a process of direct democracy known as the 'Participatory Budget' scheme that's giving all Porte Alegre's citizens a say in how their city is run. The scheme devotes the bulk of the city's financial resources to renewing the infrastructure of the town's slum areas and improving living standards for its neediest residents. As a result, exceptional neighborhood leaders have sprung up. This program from the City Life series traces the experiences of two such women, both born in poor slum areas, who have risen to make a difference in the community.

    Item no.: NH01110056
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: GAZA UNDER SIEGE

    The Gaza Strip has been a virtual prison for Palestinians for over fifty years.

    One of the most densely populated places on earth, the Gaza Strip, is home to a million Palestinians -- and is a virtual prison. Just forty-three kilometers long and ten kilometers wide, most of its residents are refugees who have lived in camps since 1948. Since the Palestinian uprising -- the second Intifada -- began in September 2000, none of Gaza's forty thousand day laborers have been able to cross the border to Israel. The checkpoint is also closed to all goods and medical supplies coming in from Israel and the West Bank. Local Gazans bear the brunt of Israel's determination to quash the uprising.

    This program from the City Life series films Reyidh and Sabah -- from just one refugee family trying to cope. Already poor, the family has reached breaking point, with Sabah wondering how long life can go on with no solution in sight.

    Raji Soranj, a human rights lawyer, asks why the United Nations shies away from its responsibilities and fails to criticize Israel's aggression and the denial of the Palestinians' rights -- rights laid down in UN resolutions, but ignored by Israel, and it seems, by the rest of the international community.

    Awards
  • Middle Eastern Studies FilmFest
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: FV02560057
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: HOLY SMOKE - CAMBODIANS FIGHT TOBACCO

    Buddhist monks lead anti-tobacco campaign in Cambodia.

    Developing countries like Cambodia bear the brunt of aggressive marketing techniques by huge multinational tobacco companies. The lure of cash from tobacco companies results in lenient advertising regulations. There are no health warnings on tobacco products in Cambodia, and no bans on sales to minors. Since 1993, there has been a ban on tobacco advertising on the public broadcast media. But it does not apply to private media, with surveys showing cigarette ads on television and radio quadrupling since 1996, tobacco advertising accounting for forty-six percent of all street advertising, and Japan Tobacco even advertising its Mild Seven cigarettes on ice cream trucks.

    But not all is lost. Since the fall of the oppressive Khmer Rouge regime, religion that had previously been suppressed has reemerged, and asserted itself as an instrument of change. Buddhist monks are now spearheading the campaign to persuade Cambodians to give up tobacco -- a tough assignment in a country with one of the highest rates of smoking in the world and life expectancy of only fifty-four years.

    Award
  • Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting

    Item no.: PD02790058
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: LINES IN THE DUST

    In revolutionary programs in Northern Ghana and India, gender roles are challenged, and illiterate adults educated.

    In a small village in Northern Ghana, a group of men and women sit around in a semi-circle, discussing the chart that they have drawn in the dust. The chart has three columns, showing the hours in the day and the different tasks men and women undertake during those hours. It soon becomes clear that women undertake the most labor intensive work -- fetching water and firewood, cleaning and preparing food -- and the discovery sparks a lively debate about why the men can not take on more 'women's' work. In this Muslim village, it is a radical move for men and women to sit down and debate together.

    But the project aims to go beyond discussion of men's and women's separate workloads, reaching out to the nine hundred million illiterate adults across the world--from Ghana to the Eastern Ghats of India--who have been failed by conventional education. Known as 'Reflect', it is part of a radical approach to learning for adults that does not rely on importing textbooks from the outside world, but where, instead, everything is created by the participants themselves.

    As well as changing ideas about whose job it is to carry all the water and fuel, charts and other home-made tools act as a stepping-stone towards reading, writing and number-work--and introduce learners to the concept that the symbols they copy onto paper can represent not just words, but ideas--and their plans for change.

    Reviews
  • "Opens up new avenues to think about education in a non- Western context" - Tanya Palit, Women and International Development

  • "Provides a very candid look at life in rural villages, and it opens up new avenues to think about education in a non- Western context." - Tanya Palit, Women and International Development

  • "Lively and engaging" - Global Peace Film Festiva

    Item no.: HN01110059
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: MISSING OUT

    Anemia threatens the population of Niger and Tanzania.

    Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, and less than a third of the population has access to any health care. Malnutrition remains the main cause of maternal and infant mortality and well over half of all pregnant women suffer from iron deficiency anemia. This program from the City Life series follows two traditional birth attendants as they try to persuade women to take iron folate supplements and visit hospitals, which is often prohibitively expensive.

    The program also visits Tanzania, where malaria is blamed for the increase in anemia. In some areas, ninety-three percent of children suffer from the condition. Unicef believes that the way forward is micromultinutrient pills which contain iron folate and other vitamins. But is this a sustainable solution for Tanzania? Unfortunately, the possibility that donors may pull out of distribution programs is high. Young, adolescent girls already constitute a majority of those missing out on supplemental programs. Mothers of the future are in danger.

    Item no.: NA02560060
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: MY HANOI

    Tour of rapidly urbanizing Hanoi, and the effect on citizens and culture.

    Hanoi is one the new global cities of the 21st century--a burgeoning center of international trade and tourism, in competition with other fast growing cities of South East Asia and the south China region. Growing urbanization has led to a boom in construction: market reform and globalization have caused an influx of Western consumer goods.

    My Hanoi is the story of Tran Thuy Linh, whose family has lived in the flower village area of Hanoi for generations, but now must move. Thuy describes the extended family she grew up with in the flower village, and charts the stories of their lives against the backdrop of the changing skyline of the city -- old people, young people, politicians, housewives, and the migrant day laborers who work on the construction sites.

    Seen through Thuy's eyes, the program profiles a city in a period of dramatic change -- emerging from colonialism and the still painful memory of the Vietnam War, through socialism to the current free market era where a younger generation is asserting itself as a force for change.

    Award
  • Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting

    Item no.: FP02790061
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: MY MOTHER BUILT THIS HOUSE

    Large homeless contingent in South Africa has organized to build houses for each other.

    There are four million homeless people in South Africa. Nearly one million people in Cape Town live in slums or squatter settlements alone. Victoria Mxenge was the first of the housing projects founded by the South African Homeless People's Federation in the 1990s in Khayalitsha, a huge sprawling township outside Cape Town. A small oasis in a seemingly infinite sea of neat houses, a creche, an office built from old, brightly painted shipping containers and a small shop selling basic essentials. Behind it, and beyond the railway line that carries commuters into the city, the endless shacks stretch out to the distant horizon -- and the distinctive outlines of Table Mountain.

    Over 70,000 very poor women belong to the Homeless People's Federation, which was founded to transform the suffering of shack dwellers in South Africa and provide them with the opportunities and choices they had been denied under apartheid. This episode of City Life tells the story of three women shack dwellers.

    Award
  • Bronze Plaque Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: VS01110062
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PARADISE DOMAIN

    Pacific islanders are not benefiting from digital windfall or World Wide Web.

    What's in a name? To a tiny nation in the South Pacific, plenty. The country is Tuvalu, and thanks to the Internet domain name registry, Tuvalu looked as if it might be about to hit pay dirt.

    Tuvalu is a string of coral rocks in the South Pacific: nine low-lying islands that make up one of the world's smallest, most isolated countries. Largely unknown to tourists, Tuvalu and its 9,000 people suffer from underdevelopment and a lack of jobs. It is a country so poor that four out of five fishermen are lost every year because they can not afford compasses for their boats. Other than fishing, people get by harvesting coconuts -- pretty much the only thing the soil will grow.

    But Tuvalu had one valuable asset: its coveted domain name -- dot tv. In 1999, the prime minister determined to capitalize on this by selling the name to an American dot.com company -- in exchange for several million dollars and access to the new wired-up world. But who's benefiting most? -- the Tuvalu islanders themselves, used to a relaxed, Pacific way of life with few modern conveniences, or the US corporation?

    Item no.: NK02560063
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PATENTLY OBVIOUS

    International patent regulations only protect multinationals.

    Protection of intellectual property -- works of the mind -- is the lifeblood of today's new knowledge economy. But while the benefits to the multinational pharmaceutical or telecommunications giants are plain, what relevance do World Trade Organization regulations have for developing countries? This program from the City Life series explores the benefits of intellectual property protection in the Indian state of Gujarat.

    Karimbhai practices herbal medicine from his home. Ten years ago he lived in a tiny hut, charged nothing for treating patients, and as his sons had no interest in learning his skills -- his knowledge was likely to die with him. By contrast Karimbhai today makes a good living -- with people traveling for miles for treatment and advice. He even has a patent application out for one of his medicines. His change of fortune came about after he joined the Honeybee Network, coordinated by Professor Anil Gupta with the aim of protecting and strengthening rural innovators and traditional knowledge keepers by documenting their work and protecting its patents.

    Item no.: SC02790064
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PAVEMENTS OF GOLD

    Increase in urban poverty and population, caused by globalization, threatens Peruvians.

    Urban poverty is one of the biggest challenges facing the world in the 21st century. In 1950, three hundred million people were living in urban areas; by 2001 that figure had increased to 2.85 billion, or almost half the world's population. And the flow of rural migrants arriving in the world's mega cities shows no signs of slowing down. -- "It is a trend which cannot be stopped," says Anna Tibaijuka, the new executive director of the UN Center for Human Settlements, "even in the developing countries..."

    With the backdrop of Lima, Peru, this program examines the enduring magnetism of big cities -- and asks whether the migrants who have moved here now feel that city life is the answer to their dreams.

    Award
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: JJ01110065
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PAYING THE PRICE

    Pharmaceutical companies block generic drugs, threatening the lives of millions of Africans with AIDS.

    In a hospital in Uganda, 14-year-old Vincent is being treated for cryptococcal meningitis, contracted as a result of AIDS. Underweight, frightened and wracked with pain, he is one of literally millions of AIDS orphans across Africa who will die in the next ten years unless life-saving antiretroviral drugs become more widely available. But at current prices, the drugs are just too expensive for most African countries.

    The fight for affordable drugs in Africa first made world headlines last year when a consortium of forty-two major pharmaceutical companies took the South African government to court over its right to import or manufacture generic drugs to treat AIDS sufferers.

    After a global campaign by activist groups, trade unions and NGOs, the companies finally withdrew the case in April 2001 -- in what was likely regarded as a humiliating climb-down. But even before the court case outcome, the companies had begun reducing the prices of their patented drugs -- as part of the Accelerating Access Initiative brokered by UNAIDS to provide drugs at a lower cost and training to selected African countries.

    This program from the City Life series investigates the background to AIDS treatment in Africa, reports of the success of the Ugandan program, and asks why the South African government is still refusing to authorize a national program of treatment for AIDS.

    Item no.: BA02560066
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: CITY LIFE

    Explores Sao Paolo in introduction to series examining the effects of globalization on people and cities.

    Marta Suplicy is the new mayor of Sao Paolo, Brazil -- a breath of fresh air after years of municipal apathy and corruption. Her aim is to make Sao Paulo a sustainable 21st century global city.

    This program, the first from the City Life series, follows Marta as she visits schools, hospitals, favelas, and a shelter for battered women, in her quest to turn the city around.

    Interviewed in the program are Professors Peter Marcuse (Columbia University), Saskia Sassen (University of Chicago), Ed Glaeser (Harvard University), as well as Sheela Patel, director of SPARC (Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centers), and Anna Tibaijuka, the new Executive Director of the United Nations Center for Human Settlements.

    Item no.: TK02790055
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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