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Sea Change

Sea Change


DIRTY BUSINESS: CLEAN COAL AND THE BATTLE FOR OUR ENERGY FUTURE

Directed by Peter Bull

Reveals the true social and environmental costs of coal power and looks at promising developments in renewable energy technology.

In the digital age, half of our electricity still comes from coal. DIRTY BUSINESS reveals the true social and environmental costs of coal power and tells the stories of innovators who are pointing the way to a renewable energy future.

Guided by Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell, the film examines what it means to remain dependent on a 19th century technology that is the largest single source of greenhouse gases.

Can coal really be made clean? Can renewables be produced on a scale large enough to replace coal? The film seeks answers in a series of stories shot in China, Saskatchewan, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada and New York.

The film features amongst others: Robert Kennedy Jr., Bill McKibben, Dr. James Hansen, Myron Ebell, Don Blankenship, Joe Lovett, Maria Gunnoe, Dr. Vaclav Smil and Dr. Julio Friedmann.

Reviews
  • "A must-see for anybody concerned with our environment and energy future." - Brent Yarnal, Department of Geography, Penn State University

  • "The best and most comprehensive look at global dependence on coal, and explores some promising alternatives...wind, solar thermal, increased energy efficiency through recycling 'waste heat'--which makes this a valuable resource for science as well as social studies classes...Dirty Business is a fine and lively overview of a complicated issue." - Rethinking Schools

    Awards
  • First Place, Documentary, Appalachian Film Festival
  • Spirit of Innovation Award, EcoFocus Film Festival

    Item no.: DG02790675
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 90 minutes
    Copyright: 2011
    Price: USD 295.00

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    PRICELESS

    Directed by Steve Cowan

    A non-partisan look at the consequences of big-money campaign donations and a Capitol overrun by lobbyists.

    PRICELESS examines the growing cost of federal elections, the impact of political campaign fundraising on members of Congress and on policymaking, and the citizen movement to limit the "undue influence" of large campaign donors.

    This non-partisan film includes a look at two national policies - agriculture and energy - shaped by a variety of interests including industry groups, political parties, lobbyists, citizen groups, candidates and officeholders.

    The filmmakers also look in on Arizona's pioneering "clean election" system as a possible alternative to the prevailing model - an optional reform attracting support from members of Congress in both parties. Commentators include elementary school students, "average" citizens, members of Congress, lobbyists, reform advocates, noted political observers and humorists. Amongst those interviewed are Alan Simpson, Mario Cuomo, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bill Bradley, Lawrence Lessig, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Charlie Stenholm, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Thom Hartmann, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Bob Edgar.

    Reviews
  • "An excellent and vivid introduction to one of the central challenges facing American democracy: the role of money in politics." - Alex Keyssar, Professor of History and Social Policy, Harvard University

  • "Priceless is a thought provoking film that explains in an accessible way the impact of campaign contributions on public policy. The most compelling portions of the film are the extraordinarily frank interviews with lobbyists explaining the use of campaign contributions to affect decision-making at the highest levels of government." - Frederick G.

    Award

  • Grand Jury Award, Documentary, Washington DC Independent Film Festival

    Item no.: KH02790681
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 58 minutes
    Copyright: 2011
    Price: USD 295.00

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    BURNING IN THE SUN

    An inspirational portrait of a young West African man who starts a business building solar panels from scratch and selling them to rural customers in Mali.

    6-year-old Daniel Dembele is equal parts West African and European, and looking to make his mark on the world. Seizing the moment at a crossroads in his life, Daniel decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels -- the first of its kind in the sun-drenched nation. Daniel's goal is to electrify the households of rural communities, 99% of which live without power.

    BURNING IN THE SUN tells the story of Daniel's journey growing the budding idea into a viable company, and of the business' impact on Daniel's first customers in the tiny village of Banko. Addressing climate change, poverty, and self-sufficiency, the film demonstrates how a small-scale, local business model can provide jobs, appropriate technology, and empowerment to people everywhere. The film also explores what it means to grow up as a man, and a vision of what it takes to prosper as a nation.

    Reviews
  • "If you are hungry for solutions to renewable energy development in developing countries, this is the film you have been waiting for." - Len Broberg, Director and Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Montana

  • "As a teacher and user of small-scale solar PV systems, I very much appreciate the take-away message of this film--innovation, education, collaboration can make solar energy truly accessible, affordable and fun. Bravo!" - Dr. Jonathan Scherch, Core Faculty, Center for Creative Change, Antioch University Seattle

  • "A fascinating subject...riveting, and the ramifications are pretty extraordinary--for Mali, of course, but for poor countries worldwide and, in fact, for some rich ones, too." - TrustMovies blog

    Awards
  • Grand Jury Prize, Best Environmental Film, Santa Cruz Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Indie Spirit Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Best Documentary Feature, Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival

    Item no.: WJ01110671
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 83 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 295.00

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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]...[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: 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: 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]...[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: 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: 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...The 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...The 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]...[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]...[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]...[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]...[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: 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: 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]...[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]...[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]...[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]...[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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    SOLA: LOUISIANA WATER STORIES

    Investigates how the exploitation of Southern Louisiana's abundant natural resources compromised the resiliency of its ecology and culture, multiplying the devastating impact of the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina.

    Everywhere you look in Southern Louisiana there's water: rivers, bayous, swamps, the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico. And everyone in Cajun Country has a water story, or two or three or more. Its waterways support the biggest economies in Louisiana - a $70 billion a year oil and gas industry, a $2.4 billion a year fishing business, tourism and recreational sports.

    They are also home to some insidious polluters: the same oil and gas industry, 200 petrochemical plants along a 100-mile-long stretch of the Mississippi known "Cancer Alley," the world's largest Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico and erosion that is costing the coastline twenty five square miles of wetlands a year. At the same time, SoLa is home to one of America's most vital and unique cultures; if everyone who lives there has a water story they can also most likely play the fiddle, waltz, cook an etoufee and hunt and fish.

    Reviews
  • "A great crash course that deftly addresses the ecological, economic and social issues facing Louisiana." - David Burley, Asst. Professor of Sociology, Southeastern Louisiana University

  • "This is a superb treatment of how the oil and gas industry threatens not just a way of life in southern Louisiana but life itself. Water is the centerpiece of cultural and ecological health in and around New Orleans and it is being ruined, slowly, by neglect and greed. SoLa should be a wakeup call for the country." - Lee Clarke, Professor, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, Author, Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination

  • "SoLa is a beautifully filmed and moving story about a way of life that is threatened. Its relevance, from an educational perspective, is with the rapidly growing field of environmental studies which, more than many of our traditional disciplines, put humans in the ecosystems and in environmental change...An excellent overview." - Dr. Robert Gramling, Professor of Sociology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Author, Oil on the Edge: Offshore Development, Conflict, Gridlock, co-Author, Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America

    Item no.: RW02790668
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 62 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 250.00

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    WATER ON THE TABLE

    An intimate portrait of international water activist Maude Barlow and the debate over whether water is a commercial good or a human right.

    WATER ON THE TABLE features Maude Barlow, who is considered an "international water-warrior" for her crusade to have water declared a human right. "Water must be declared a public trust and a human right that belongs to the people, the ecosystem and the future, and preserved for all time and practice in law. Clean water must be delivered as a public service, not a profitable commodity."

    The film intimately captures the public face of Maude Barlow as well as the unscripted woman behind the scenes. The camera shadows her life on the road in Canada -- including an eye-opening visit to Alberta's tar sands -- and the United States over the course of a year as she serves as the UN Senior Advisor on Water to Fr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations.

    More than a portrait of an activist, WATER ON THE TABLE presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it. It is proposed that Canada bulk-export its water to the United States in the face of an imminent water crisis.

    Reviews
  • "Water is life. It's not like a debate about running shoes or oil. It's a debate about life. We all need water to survive." - Toronto Magazine

  • "Marshall has captured an unforgettable portrait of a woman on a mission and created an alarming documentary that will make you want to get up and do something about the water crisis." - Ryerson Free Press

  • "A documentary that's pointed but visually sumptuous and poetic." - The Globe and Mail

    Award
  • Best Canadian Feature Film, Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: CA02560670
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 79 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 295.00

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    DIRT! THE MOVIE

    Directed by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow

    The story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility, from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.

    Dirt! The Movie introduces viewers to dirt's fascinating history. Four billion years of evolution have created the dirt that recycles our water, gives us food, provides us shelter, and that can be used as a source of medicine, beauty and culture.

    However, people have become greedy and careless, endangering this vital living resource with destructive methods of agriculture, mining practices, and urban development. The word dirt has become "dirty". This abusive behavior has yielded catastrophic results, which the film does not shy away from: mass starvation, drought, floods and global warming.

    Dirt! The Movie proves that times are changing. More than 25 renowned global visionaries in countries around the world are discovering new ways of thinking as they come together to repair this natural resource with practical, viable solutions. These participants include Bill Logan, Andy Lipkis, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Fritjof Capra, Pierre Rabhi, Wangari Maathai, Wes Jackson and Majora Carter.

    To capture these prescient people and their inspiring stories, the production team filmed in more than 20 locations, including Argentina, Brazil, France, India, Kenya, and several regions of the United States.

    On their journey, the filmmakers found:
  • farmers and agronomists re-discovering sustainable agriculture
  • tiny villages standing up for their right to feed their families
  • scientists discovering connections with soil that can help reduce global warming including ways to generate electricity from soils and sediments
  • inmates finding inner peace and job skills in a prison horticulture program
  • children uncovering the secrets of soil fertility and eating from edible schoolyards.

    Dirt! The Movie uncovers the surprising ways we can repair our relationship with dirt and create new possibilities for all life on earth. You may never look at the ground beneath your feet quite the same.

    Reviews
  • "A great way to introduce people to the importance of healthy soil." - Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, Washington State University

  • "A strong call to renew our ties with the land and protect life-sustaining dirt." - Booklist

  • "Clearly, dirt doesn't enjoy a good name--just think of 'dirt poor' and 'dirty jokes.' Yet in filmmakers Bill Benenson and Gene Roscow's Dirt! The Movie...dirt emerges as one of the noblest substances on earth...Highly recommended." - Video Librarian

    Awards
  • Best Film for Our Future, Mendocino Film Festival
  • Best Green Documentary, Maui Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, Visions/Voices, Eckerd College Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: SN01110635
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 80 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 359.00

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    SEA CHANGE, A: IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT FISH

    Ocean acidification threatens over one million species with extinction--and with them, our entire way of life.

    A Sea Change documents how the pH balance of the oceans has changed dramatically since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution: a 30% increase in acidification. With near unanimity, scientists now agree that the burning of fossil fuels is fundamentally reshaping ocean chemistry. Experts predict that over the next century, steady increases in carbon dioxide emissions and the continued rise in the acidity of the oceans will cause most of the world's fisheries to experience a total bottom-up collapse--a state that could last for millions of years.

    A Sea Change broadens the discussion about the dramatic changes we are seeing in the chemistry of the oceans, and conveys the urgent threat those changes pose to our survival, while surveying the steps we can take to reduce the severity of climate change. The film's protagonist Sven Huseby asks how will he explain to his oldest grandchild, Elias, what is happening to the oceans and their ecosystems.

    A Sea Change is both a personal journey and a scientifically rigorous, sometimes humorous, unflinchingly honest look at reality. It offers positive examples of new technologies and effective changes in human behavior that we all must choose before the oceans are lost.

    Reviews
  • "Sounds the alarm about ocean acidification while offering hope for the future." - Chuleenan Svetvilas, San Francisco International Film Festival Program

  • "Ocean acidification is a significant part of the climate change story. A Sea Change does a unique and excellent job of conveying this complex scientific issue to the public." - Dr. Richard W. Spinrad, NOAA Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

  • "A magnificent synthesis of science and heart." - Anne Alexander Rowley, Chair, Oceana's Ocean Council

    Awards
  • Grand Prize, Feature Documentary, FICA International Environmental Film Festival, Goias, Brazil
  • Best Coastal Film, Cottonwood Creek Environmental Film Festival
  • Best Nordic Country Documentary, Polar Film Festival, Finland
  • Green Docs Award, Kosovo International Documentary Film Festival

    Item no.: DR02790607
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 83 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 295.00

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    SPLIT ESTATE

    Documents the devastating effect that oil and gas drilling is having on the health of families and the environment in the Rocky Mountain West.

    Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine another shocking truth: you have little or no recourse to protect your home or land from such development. SPLIT ESTATE maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.

    Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children.

    SPLIT ESTATE zeroes in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, but the industry is aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states. They are even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.

    As our appetite for fossil fuels increases despite mounting public health concerns, SPLIT ESTATE cracks the sugarcoating on an industry that assures us it is a good neighbor, and drives home the need for alternatives -- both here and abroad.

    Reviews
  • "This film is of value to anyone wrestling with rational, sustainable energy policy." - Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico

  • "A must-see film for any elected official who deals with natural resources issues and the impact that oil & gas extraction can have on a community. Anyone who sees the film will be changed by the experience - for the better." - Brian Egolf, New Mexico State Representative
  • "We are fighting for our lives here in the Marcellus Shale in NY & PA. Your film may save us." - Diane MacInnes

    Item no.: LW02560609
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 76 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 295.00

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    SUZUKI DIARIES, THE: SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION

    Directed by Kenton Vaughan

    David Suzuki and daughter Sarika travel to Europe to visit inspiring people and projects that give hope for a sustainable future.

    For the past 30 years, geneticist and science broadcaster, David Suzuki, host of CBC's "The Nature of Things," has been warning television audiences around the world about the dangers of taking nature for granted. He has urged us to change our consumer lifestyles, and to put brakes on an economic system that values unlimited growth above all other considerations.

    THE SUZUKI DIARIES takes a different path. It follows Suzuki and his youngest daughter, Sarika, as they travel to Europe to explore what a sustainable future might look like, and to see if two different generations can find reason for hope.

    As they travel through Germany, Denmark, France and Spain, father and daughter begin to see what is possible as they meet the people who are working towards restoring the equilibrium between human needs and planetary limits.

    Amongst the projects the people and projects they feature are: in Germany, Hermann Scheer, politician and author of the innovative and influential feed-in tariffs that created vibrant renewable energy industry; Berlin's photovoltaic-powered central railroad station; the newly renovated Reichstag Building; and Studio 7.5 which designed the fully recyclable Mirra chair.

    In Denmark, they visit Preben Maegaard, president of World Wind Energy Association. Denmark leads the world in the proportion of energy use that comes from wind. They also look at Copenhagen's traffic where 40% of the population bicycles to work or school.

    In France they tour the farm of Nicholas Joly, a banker turned organic farmer who is producing biodynamic wine.

    And in Spain, they check out a major concentrating solar power project by Abengoa Solar and the new high-speed rail network, where 190-mph trains will hopefully make carbon-intensive air travel between the major cities obsolete.

    Reviews
  • "Highly recommended...ecologically friendly energy solutions are already in use on a wide scale across the pond." - The New Resilient

  • "This is a remarkable journey--into beautiful places, but also into the future. We need good solid hope right now, and here it is, in living color." - Bill McKibben, Author, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

  • "The most personalized episode...Revealing. Sarika explains how, as a child, her parents' harangues about eco-politics left her feeling helpless. When she told her father, he says he began to understand the need to focus on practical solutions, not just on doomsday threats...That is inspirational." - Bruce Kirkland, Winnipeg Sun

    Award

  • Chris Award, Columbus International Film and Video Festival

    Item no.: YM01110623
    Format: DVD (Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 45 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 250.00

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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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    GOOD FOOD

    An intimate look at the farmers, ranchers, and businesses that are creating a more sustainable food system in the Pacific Northwest.

    Directed by Mark Dworkin, Melissa Young
    Editor: Mark Dworkin
    Screenwriter: Melissa Young, Mark Dworkin
    Cinematographer: Mark Dworkin
    Music: Jami Sieber, Mark Graham, Los Emocionantes, Jack Knauer Band


    Something remarkable is happening in the fields and orchards of the Pacific Northwest. After leaving the land for decades, family farmers are making a comeback. They are growing much healthier food, and more food per acre, while using less energy and water than factory farms. And most of this food is organic.

    For decades Northwest agriculture was focused on a few big crops for export. But climate change and the end of cheap energy mean that each region needs to produce more of its own food and to grow it more sustainably. Good Food visits farmers, farmers' markets, distributors, stores, restaurants and public officials who are developing a more sustainable food system for all.

    Reviews
  • "Offers a celebration of those working to turn things around and make them right." - Seattle International Film Festival

  • "Couldn't be more timely! A film made to awaken our taste buds and our courage -- to create a food system aligned with what the earth needs and what our bodies yearn for. GOOD FOOD shows us it's possible. It's happening!" - Frances Moore Lappe, author, Diet for a Small Planet, Hope's Edge

  • "Exhilarating...Chronicles a veritable revolution going on all around us...This one is not out to scare us with an environmental horror story so much as to inspire us." - William Arnold, Seattle Post- Intelligencer

  • "A must-see...It boldly pulls the viewer into the extremely broad and complex landscape of organic food production. Incorporating health and economic impacts in an assessment of our methods of food production and consumption makes this film especially powerful." - Laura Skelton, Program Director, Facing the Future

  • "The film visits many of the pioneers in the movement to 're-localize' our food system and documents, first hand, the tremendous grassroots work that is being done here in the Northwest." - Mary Embleton, Executive Director, Cascade Harvest Coalition

  • "Not only does the film convey the ingenious methods of some of the sustainable producers, but it also shows innovative ways they are marketing their products to help sustain themselves as family farmers." - Maurice Robinette, Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network

  • "Captures the joy and creativity of the northwest's sustainable farming community, and the love they have for their work. It looks at the deep human connections created through food, both to other people and to the earth." - On Screen Magazine

  • "Makes the important personal connection between the source and your table." -21 Acres

  • "After watching this documentary you will be moved to cook and to eat well!" - Sound Food

  • "Excellent, straightforward...does an especially good job showing what the face of small farms and markets look like today." - Edible Seattle

    Awards
  • Seattle International Film Festival
  • United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
  • Black Bear Film Festival

    Item no.: GH01110574
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 73 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 275.00

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    BUILD GREEN

    David Suzuki reports on a wide range of green buildings, from large community developments to mini-homes.

    Directed by Paula Salvador

    In a refreshing hour, Build Green shows how by taking advantage of the sun, the wind, and the rain, as well as dirt, straw and waste, homeowners and developers can reduce their personal contribution to climate change by building structures that are healthier for the occupants, economical to run, and even fun to live in.

    David Suzuki sets out across Canada to discover the latest in green construction. On British Columbia's Salt Spring Island, Suzuki visits the rammed earth house of rock star Randy Bachman. Rammed earth is a traditional building technique that, with modern advances, has become viable and popular in many different climate regions. The technique minimizes site disturbance, the importation of construction materials and and the use of toxic substances.

    In Build Green, Canada's best architects show us round their latest green projects. From retrofitting an aging Montreal housing complex with state-of-the-art sustainable energy systems, to laying up hay for strawbale houses, to building transportable "mini-homes" with their own small power plant, Build Green takes a close look at the materials and technologies we'd be foolish not to adopt as standard practice in construction.

    Reviews
  • "A tour de force, showing beautiful design and addressing tough issues with clearly explained, implementable solutions." - Alexis Karolides, AIA, LEED AP, Principal, Rocky Mountain Institute

  • "Informative...A well-researched film which will inspire viewers to rethink today's construction techniques and understand the urgent need to adopt green construction in order to protect our environment as well as to save energy and money...This objective film will be of interest to environmental studies classes." - School Library Journal

  • "Well-edited and informative documentary...Recommended for high-school, college and public libraries." - Barbara Butler, University of Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Good production values and an inspiring subject make this of interest to public libraries." - Library Journal

    Item no.: RK02560594
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 44 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 250.00

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    CHEAT NEUTRAL

    Satirical look at the inadequacies of the concept of carbon offsetting.

    Directed by Beth Stratford

    Since the1960s, concentrations of heartbreak, cheating and jealousy in the atmosphere have risen dramatically. CheatNeutral.com offers a unique market-based solution to this essential problem of modern life. For the cost of a condom, those who have cheated on their partners - whether a drunken hook-up at the office party or a sustained period of bigamy - can have their cheating 'offset' by a global network of fidelity.

    This hilarious film follows satirical website creators Alex Randall and Christian Hunt as they try to sell the idea of cheat offsetting to a bemused public. From the high street to the Houses of Parliament, they spark an important and timely debate about the inadequacies of carbon offsetting.

    Reviews
  • "An essential contribution to debates over climate change and how to address it." - Melissa Checker, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, Queens College

  • "A raucously filmed and edifying look into a story of a hoax, but also the thought and important global point behind it...For high school to adult audiences interested in environmental and media studies, Cheat Neutral is highly recommended." - Dan DiLandro, State University of New York at Buffalo, Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • Grand Jury Prize, Best Short, Environmental Film Festival at Yale
  • Short Film Award, Aotearoa Environmental Film Fextival (New Zealand)
  • Audience Award, Colchester International Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Cambridge International Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, Heart Of Gold International Film Festival (Australia)
  • Best Documentary, Canary Wharf Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, Rushes Soho Shorts

    Item no.: SN02790595
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 13 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 150.00

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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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    EVERYTHING'S COOL

    Examines the media strategies, on both sides, that have resulted in the US government's failure to take decisive action on global warming.

    EVERYTHING'S COOL is a "toxic comedy" about the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action- Global Warming. The good news: America finally gets global warming; the chasm is closing and the debate is over. The bad news: the United States, the country that will determine the fate of the globe, must transform its fossil fuel based economy fast, (like in a minute).

    While the industry funded naysayers sing what just might be their swan song of scientific doubt and deception, a group of self-appointed global warming messengers are on a life or death quest to find the iconic image, proper language, and points of leverage that will help the public go from understanding the urgency of the problem to creating the political will necessary to push for a new energy economy. Hold on -- this is bigger than changing your light bulbs.

    EVERYTHING'S COOL features a renowned cast of scientists, journalists and actiivists including Step It Up's Bill McKibben, Pulitzer Prize winner Ross Gelbspan, The Weather Channel's Dr. Heidi Cullen, the "bad boys of environmentalism" Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, and White House whistleblower Rick Piltz.

    Reviews
  • "Everything's Cool" can be downright euphoric in its sense of ordinary people doing their part for the planet." - Robert Fuentes, Variety

  • "This movie outrages and inspires. It's not about the science of climate change, rather it's about the politics. It's an upbeat critique, not only of the industrial-political complex confusing the public on climate change, but also of the environmental movement that fails to capture the hearts of the American public. Everything's Cool provides reasons to be angry, but also provides counterbalancing inspirational examples of individual actions and local political successes." - Steven Roof, Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Hampshire College

  • "The new Everything's Cool is the best movie I've ever seen about global warming for kids in junior high school." - The New York Sun

  • "With wit and passion, Gold and Helfand marshal a plethora of data and developments yet never lose their narrative thread...Everything's Cool is chock full of pithy observations." - Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

  • "The doc is notable for continuing where An Inconvenient Truth left off, delving into the political censorship that has kept global warming a non-issue in the United States for so long, and doing so through a uniquely character-driven method that shows how foot soldiers like Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Ross Gelbspan and Weather Channel climate expert Heidi Cullen continue to fight the good fight against ghouls whose hands are in the pockets of the country's gas and oil companies." - Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

  • "There are no CO2 graphs in Everything's Cool. Instead, the film tells the fascinating story of the message itself...All of this alone makes for compelling documentary. But what really makes this film significant is its unique perspective on the surprising shift in public perception that has transformed global warming from a fringe issue to a mainstream concern in just the last two years...The result is a remarkable time capsule." - The Austin Chronicle

  • "A breezy polemic about the politics of global warming." - Stephen Holden, The New York Times

  • "If An Inconvenient Truth can be considered one bookend, then Everything's Cool can definiely stand as the other. This is an important documentary, and, in many ways, a profile in courage." - Ashland Daily Tidings

  • "Provid[es] a viable argument from both sides in a quirky, witty fashion that makes learning about our screw-ups, well, kind of enjoyable. 4 Stars " - Zack Haddad, FilmThreat.com

  • "Everything's Cool has the same kind of dark yet perky voice [as Blue Vinyl]. Boston Globe

  • "Offers viewers an opportunity to meet the relatively unknown researchers, scientists, and activists who've helped shape public and political opinion on global warming for the better." - Mel Valentin, HollywoodBitchSlap.com

  • "All in all, Everything's Cool lets you see that everything isn't and also how urgent this situation really is." - Rene Hill, The Royal Gazette

  • "[The filmmaker's] evident conviction that individual activism isn't futile is a refreshing alternative to the oppressive gloom of most documentaries on the subject of catastrophic climate change. They don't downplay the material's seriousness, but they know a spoonful of humor helps the message go down." - Time Out New York

    Awards
  • Sundance Film Festival
  • South by Southwest Film Festival
  • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
  • Hot Docs, Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
  • San Francisco International Film Festival
  • Audience Award for Best Documentary, Eckerd College Environmental Film Festival
  • Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Seattle International Film Festival
  • Ashland Independent Film Festival
  • Leeds International Film Festival
  • Bergen International Film Festival
  • Mendocino Film Festival
  • Maui Film Festival
  • BendFilm Festival
  • Provincetown Film Festival
  • Traverse City Film Festival
  • Guelph International Film Festival
  • Cucalorus Film Festival
  • Fresno Film Festival
  • Tales from Planet Earth Film Festival
  • Silver Lake Film Festival's "Sustainable LA"
  • RiverRun International Film Festival
  • Israel Eco Cinema
  • Princeton Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: TP01110392
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 89 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 295.00

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    ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT, THE: ACCOUNTING FOR A SMALL PLANET

    Dr. Mathis Wackernagel introduces the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures human demand on the Earth.

    Humans are the most successful species on the planet. But our growing economy is placing unprecedented demand on the planet's limited ecological resources. How can we assure our future well-being?

    "We can choose to live on a depleted planet or we can choose to live on a rich, biologically diverse, more stable planet" proposes Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of the Ecological Footprint. He suggests that an essential step in avoiding depletion is to track ecological assets, allowing us to make more informed choices.

    In the film, Wackernagel introduces the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures human demand on the Earth. Footprint accounts work like a bank statement, documenting whether we are living within our ecological budget or consuming nature's resources faster than the planet can renew them.

    In just thirty minutes, the film paints a picture of our current global situation: for the first time, humanity is in "ecological overshoot" with annual demand on resources exceeding what Earth can regenerate each year. Most countries are running ecological deficits, with Footprints larger than their own biological capacity. Wackernagel explores the implications of these ecological deficits, and provides examples of how governments, communities and businesses are using the Footprint to help improve their ecological performance.

    For Wackernagel, "Sustainability boils down to how we can all live well, how we can all have great lives, within the means of one small planet." He concludes on a hopeful note, showing how a new organization, Global Footprint Network, is partnering with government agencies, businesses, universities and NGOs to support the use of the Ecological Footprint and to help turn this vision of a sustainable future into reality.

    Reviews
  • "The Ecological Footprint is one of the most important environmental concepts in currency today, with virtually unlimited educational and practical implications." E.O. Wilson, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

  • "This is an elegant report, requiring herculean effort in its preparation, and it is a frightening report." Ray Anderson

  • "What a timely and excellent report. I hope it will be a wake up call for the world community and in particular European decision makers that we need a dramatic change in our economic paradigm to ensure the maintenance of our vital eco-system and ecological processes." Vandana Shiva

    Awards
  • Seattle Environmental Film Festival
  • "Stories from the Field" United Nations Documentary Film Festival

    Item no.: LW01110100
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 149.00

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    FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

    Raises questions about conventional methods of fighting fire, and whether decades of suppressing fire have simply made matters worse.

    Monster forest fires, big enough to be seen from space and hot enough to create their own weather, used to be a once-in-a-decade nightmare. But now, they're an everyday summer reality across vast stretches of North America. Authorities in Canada and the United States are bracing for increasing infernos each fire season.

    A timely documentary, Fighting Fire with Fire takes audiences onto the fire line and brings them face-to-face with raging fires that are literally unstoppable. This provocative film raises questions about conventional methods of fighting fire, and whether decades of suppressing fire have simply made matters worse. The long-standing lesson taught by Smokey the Bear goes out the window as a new controversial approach to fighting fire is examined.

    Fighting Fire with Fire ventures into the forests of Banff National Park, where the park wardens are deliberately setting fires known as "prescribed burns." They are taking accepted practice (if it's on fire, put it out), and doing the exact opposite. One goal is to try and prevent bigger, hotter, faster fires; another is to regenerate the land, creating conditions for flora and fauna to thrive.

    As viewers discover in Fighting Fire with Fire, this little-known phenomenon is working. Experts explain that fire has always been part of our landscape, but forces like global warming and "hit it hard, hit it fast" fire management policies have conspired to create infernal blazes.

    Reviews
  • "By examining several recent wildfires in British Columbia and the historic 1988 Yellowstone fire, and interviewing fire history and firefighting experts, Fighting Fire With Fire addresses pressing and vital questions in the ongoing debate over fire's presence in the western landscape: What is the role of fire in a forest ecosystem? How has the perception of fire changed over the last century? Why is it a necessary yet controversial management tool and what is involved in using it? and What are the pros and cons of using it? As these questions are raised and explored over the course of the film, the viewer will come to understand the history of fire in the western American and Canadian landscapes and its vital role in reshaping (and rejuvenating) those landscapes in the future. This film is ideal for classroom use because of the depth and quality of the presentation achieved within its 44-minute length." - James G. Lewis, Forest History Society Staff Historian and author of The Forest Service and The Greatest Good: A Centennial History

  • "Very well done and quite informative...Fighting Fire with Fire helps viewers understand why wildfires are becoming more frequent and catastrophic. It carefully explains how prescribed fire is being used to restore western forest ecosystems and reduce the intensity of future wildfires in large wilderness areas. The future prognosis for our public forests is challenged by climate change, insect damage, and heavy fuel loads. We need thoughtful and proactive approaches to forest management, like those demonstrated at Banff National Park." - Martha Monroe, School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida

  • "Fighting Fire with Fire is not a training video on prescribed burning-it is much more. This well produced documentary effectively illustrates the magnitude of forest fires in western North America in terms of both human and environmental impacts, and then introduces the use of controlled burns to reduce the chances of catastrophic wildfires. The film certainly would provide a solid introduction to these topics for those unfamiliar with forest fire science and management. The video greatly enhances its usefulness by introducing a number of interesting and related topics, including the ideas of fire dominated ecosystems and successional change, the possible role of land-use policies and building codes in reducing property damage, the influence of global warming on fire frequencies and intensities worldwide, the importance of public opinion in determining forest management policies and practices, and the historical use of fire by indigenous peoples. Hence, this would be an excellent video for stimulating a discussion of the many inter-related issues regarding wild and controlled fires in forested landscapes and human-environment interactions. Obviously well suited for an introductory environmental science course in high school or college, it might similarly prove useful with public groups facing the potential of life-altering wildfires." - James Lassoie, Professor, Brent Boscarino, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University

  • "Fighting Fire with Fire is a timely documentary ideal for junior high through college classroom viewing...Highly recommended." - Midwest Book Review

    Note
  • Nominated, Gemini Awards

    Item no.: JK02790439
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 44 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 250.00

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    FRANKENSTEER

    Investigates the dangers to human health posed by feedlot-raised beef.

    "When you bring a package of hamburger home from a supermarket, you have to treat it as toxic material." - Mike McBane, Canadian Health Coalition

    FRANKENSTEER is a disturbing yet compelling documentary that reveals how the ordinary cow is being transformed into an antibiotic dependent, hormone-laced potential carrier of toxic bacteria, all in the name of cheaper food.

    The beef industry, supported by North American government agencies and pharmaceutical companies, has engaged in an on-going experiment to create the perfect food machine to increase speed of production and reduce the cost of manufacture. But there is a price in producing a cheap industrial product. This benign, grazing herbivore has undergone a radical rethinking in how it's raised, fed and slaughtered, including recent changes in inspection rules have shifted the responsibility for food safety from government inspectors to the people on the floor who do the slaughtering and packing.

    FRANKENSTEER reveals some startling facts. Every year 50% of the total tonnage of antibiotics used in Canada ends up in livestock. And every year cattle raised in massive feedlots are routinely dosed with antibiotics even if they are not sick. For public health safety reasons during the current BSE (Mad Cow disease) crisis, North American health officials have labeled certain parts of the cow as bio-hazardous products and have ordered that they be handled accordingly.

    And consumers, by and large, are totally unaware of the dangers lurking in their beloved steaks, ribs and, most especially, hamburgers.

    Review
  • "This is not a pro-vegetarian propaganda film, although the troubling revelations certainly inspire a meat-free lifestyle...This documentary serves up a stockpile of disturbing information from sources on all sides of the cattle fence, including an agricultural research scientist, feedlot operators, an agricultural economist, organic farmers, veterinarians and Health Canada officials...The low-budget, straightforward production avoids in-your-face pandering, choosing instead to lay out the details with a simple, no-frills approach." Edmonton Sun

    Awards
  • Best Nature/Environment Film, Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: TC01110126
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 45 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 250.00

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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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    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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 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 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 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: 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: 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: 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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    OIL ON ICE

    Connects the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to critical decisions about energy policy.

    OIL ON ICE is a vivid, compelling and comprehensive documentary connecting the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to decisions America makes about energy policy, transportation choices, and other seemingly unrelated matters. Caught in the balance are the culture and livelihood of the Gwich'in Athabascan Indians and Inupiat Eskimos and the migratory wildlife in this fragile ecosystem.

    OIL ON ICE exposes the risks of oil extraction in this extreme environment. What happens if another oil spill occurs on the coastal plain or under an ice-covered Beaufort Sea? How can one rationalize development of irreplaceable wilderness areas or ignore the cultural survival of indigenous populations? Already, Eskimo residents and leaders of the North Slope Borough are criticizing the impacts of oil development to their lands and seas. Gwich'in Indian residents of Arctic Village, on the southern boundary of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, fear their community's caribou hunting will be severely impacted by oil development in the Refuge.

    OIL ON ICE also examines the effects that improved fuel efficiency standards for vehicles and development of alternative sources of energy will have on this nation's oil consumption. The issue of oil extraction from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge brings into sharp focus the broader debate over energy conservation vs. unbridled consumption. It also dramatizes the choice between technologies based on fossil fuels and those that draw upon renewable, efficient, and non-polluting energy resources.

    Reviews
  • "Moving, lucid and aptly told, Oil On Ice is quite simply the best documentary to date on the ANWR issue. And beyond the politics, expect your people compass to be pulled north, magnetized by the observations of folks like Gwich'in elder Adeline Peter Raboff, singing us back into the mystery of a place too few know and even fewer understand." - Art Goodtimes, The Telluride Watch

  • "This one-hour film pulls you in with stunning footage of one of the most remote places left in America, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...You have likely heard about the controversy, but may not have experienced the splendor of the place. Here's your chance." - Sierra Magazine

  • "Oil on Ice is a critically important and timely documentary on the complex factors surrounding the oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The film combines all the elements of the drama: stunning footage of the ecology and wildlife of the region, scientific debates over the toxicity of oil spills to the wildlife and ecosystems; views from indigenous Gwich'in peoples as well as Alaskan residents who make their living as fishers and hunters; the political jockeying at the state and national level; and local grassroots activists working against the opening of ANWR. All these factors are situated against the backdrop of our impending energy crisis and over-dependence on fossil fuels. Weaving all these complex elements into a single narrative is no easy feat, but the film's producers and editors have done a heroic job. This film is an important introduction for any student interested in learning more about anthropology and the environment, environmental justice, and local responses to the globalization of natural resources. What is clear is that the control over and access to the oil beneath the refuge is a highly contentious situation. Without a doubt the people that will benefit from the potential extraction of the oil will never have to live with the inevitable environmental and economic burdens that will result from the destructive exploitation of a non-renewable resource. " - Amity Doolittle, PhD, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

  • "An intimate portrayal of the native Gwich'in Indians taking on powerful global energy interests to prevent invasive oil operations threatening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's fragile caribou calving grounds on which the Native people's subsistence has always depended." - Sierra Club

  • "Has a strong political point of view and lots of surprises for those who have heard that the vast refuge is barren." - San Francisco Chronicle

  • "An excellent resource for teaching about ANWR, oil dependence, climate change in the north, and the situation of contemporary Alaska Natives in the Far North... I would recommend [Oil on Ice] for institutions with environmental policy, environmental science curricula." - Thomas F. Thornton, Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, Trinity College

  • "The heart and soul of the film is its depiction of the Refuge itself, replete with stunning images of the landscape and wildlife. In pictures, sounds and words, the film shows that the Refuge is much more than the blank white posterboard that former U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski (R, AK) snidely holds up in his now-famous diatribe in Congress about ANWR... As a teaching tool the Oil on Ice DVD provides plenty of information for students, while potentially inspiring them to action. At the very least, it makes clear that our personal behaviors, such as driving gas-guzzling SUVs, are what drives the continued push for developing new oil sources at the expense of places like ANWR. The accompanying website, which viewers can link to directly from the DVD, provides additional resources and suggestions for personal and community involvement.

  • While the President and Congress have had their say, the debate over ANWR is far from over. For those interested in learning more about the issue, Oil on Ice is a good way to start. It's also a nice way for those already engaged in the debate to introduce the issues to their friends, neighbors, and students." - Kreg Ettenger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Southern Maine

  • "Oil on Ice brings secondary and higher education yet another reminder that each of Earth's citizens is affected by changes in the ecosystem, however far away from home... Teaching opportunities abound: environmental issues, global warming, traditional cultures, as well as critical thinking for the student exposed to the half truths and rhetoric of our Senators and Representatives. Not only will the video tend to inflame activist passions, the CD itself popped into a computer and played as a CD/ROM, provides excellent web access to important resources for those who will get involved, perhaps stay involved, in the political process that may slow or stop the environmental exploitation juggernaut before it's too late. Highly Recommended" - Cliff Glaviano, Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • Runner- Up, Best Conservation & Environmental Film, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, San Francisco
  • MountainFilm, Telluride
  • Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film & Video Festival- Toronto
  • Bioneers Moving Image Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
  • Marin Environmental Film Festival
  • Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival
  • Arctic Film Festival
  • Artivist Film Festival
  • Pare Lorentz Award, International Documentary Association
  • CINE Golden Eagle Award
  • Silver Plaque, Chicago International Television Awards
  • Calypso Award, Moondance International Film Festival

    Item no.: BC02790208
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2004
    Price: USD 250.00

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    BAKED ALASKA

    Looks at the battle over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the context of Alaska's accelerated warming.

    "The weather really changed", says Eleanor Sam, plucking feathers from a goose. "When we were children we wore thick fur. We don't wear clothes like that any more..."

    Temperatures in Alaska are rising ten times faster than in the rest of the world. President George W. Bush is ignoring the warning signs about global warming; after pulling out of the Kyoto convention, he now wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Native Alaskans are divided: the Inupiat Eskimos want the jobs and the money that drilling would bring, but the Gwich'in Indians fear it will destroy their caribou. Alaska is rich in oil-but for every barrel shipped south, damage is done to the delicate balance of Arctic life.

    Reviews
  • "It is important for everyone to see 'Baked Alaska', a wake up call for action on global warming." - Deborah L. Williams, Executive Director, Alaska Conservation Foundation

  • "As documented thoughtfully in 'Baked Alaska', global warming is having significant, adverse impacts on Alaska's environment and indigenous peoples right now. These impacts are unquestionably measurable, costly, and a harbinger of the devastating impacts that global warming will have on the rest of the nation and world. It is important for everyone to see 'Baked Alaska', a wake up call for action on global warming." - Deborah L. Williams, Executive Director, Alaska Conservation Foundation

  • "The case study approach showing communities who are, right now, suffering from the consequences of global warming is very effective." - Jacqueline Fern, Lane Community College

  • "Provides cogent anecdotal and scientific evidence of the impact of the state's rising temperatures through a combination of interviews with tribal members, scientists, oil industry representatives and other citizens. Baked Alaska takes a compelling and objective look at an important issue that should garner interest from individuals beyond the state's boundaries. Recommended for junior high through adult audiences. Recommended" - Todd Hannon, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Breathtaking scenery and real people with stories to tell highlight the issues of global warming, that balance of nature, and the environmental costs of our oil consumption. This balanced production would be useful to generate discussion in science and environmental studies classes." - School Library Journal

  • "Well produced, with excellent scenic footage and narration. [Baked Alaska] presents a documented explanation of the dilemma in order to comprehend the different community perspectives." - Library Journal

    Awards
  • Robert Flaherty Film Seminar at MoMA
  • Anchorage International Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • MountainFilm, Telluride
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Artivist Film Festival
  • Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival
  • CHAOS Film Festival
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Environmental Media Awards

    Item no.: TA02560021
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 26 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 195.00

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    BLUE VINYL

    With humor, chutzpah and a piece of vinyl siding firmly in hand, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand and co-director and award-winning cinematographer Daniel B. Gold set out in search of the truth about polyvinyl chloride (PVC), America's most popular plastic. From Long Island to Louisiana to Italy, they unearth the facts about PVC and its effects on human health and the environment.

    Back at the starter ranch, Helfand coaxes her terribly patient parents into replacing their vinyl siding on the condition that she can find a healthy, affordable alternative (and it has to look good!).

    A detective story, an eco-activism doc, and a rollicking comedy, BLUE VINYL puts a human face on the dangers posed by PVC at every stage of its life cycle, from factory to incinerator. Consumer consciousness and the "precautionary principle" have never been this much fun.

    Reviews


  • "Funny and irreverent! One of Sundance's best documentaries." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun- Times

  • "That rare muckraking film with a sense of humor." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

  • "Directors Helfand and Daniel Gold brilliantly link unlikely stories and characters across continents, race, and class." - Caroline Libresco, Sundance Film Festival.

  • "Scary and hilarious!" - Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times

  • "The Green Building Movement may have just acquired its first cult film." - Environmental Building News

  • "Blue Vinyl hits your psyche like a ten-ton brick. If you care at all about the future you'll see this film." - Theo Colborn, author, Our Stolen Future

  • "Blue Vinyl is highly recommended for upper level high school students, colleges and the general public. School media centers, college/university libraries and public libraries would benefit by having this video in their collections." - Ronald E. Saskowski, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "The kind of movie you could name an ice cream after." - Ben Cohen, President, TrueMajority.org, Co- Founder of Ben and Jerry's

  • "Kudos to Helfand for her five-year struggle to get her parents -- and us -- to see the light." - Now Toronto

  • "Frightening and funny! Blue Vinyl has left audiences lingering in the hallways for hours to debate and question." - Sharon Waxman, The Washington Post

    Notes
  • Emmy Awards nominee (Best Documentary, Best Research)
  • Distinguished Documentary Achievement nominee, International Documentary Association

    Awards
  • Excellence in Cinematography Award, Sundance Film Festival
  • Epic Award, The White House
  • Best Documentary, Bermuda Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
  • Audience Award, Santa Cruz International Film Festival
  • Environmental Messenger of the Year, Environmental Grantmakers Association
  • "Nice Modernists" National Award, Dwell Magazine
  • Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary, High Falls Films Festival (Rochester, NY)
  • South by Southwest Film Festival
  • Cleveland International Film Festival
  • Maryland Film Festival
  • Seattle Jewish Film Festival
  • Taos Talking Picture Festival
  • Hot Docs International Film Festival
  • San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
  • Encounters: South African International Documentary Film Festival
  • Melbourne International Film Festival
  • Athens International Film Festival
  • Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, San Francisco
  • Planet in Focus: Toronto Environmental Film and Video Festival
  • Sheffield International Documentary Festival
  • Human Rights Watch Film Festival
  • Green Mountain Film Festival
  • DocAviv Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Artivist Film Festival
  • The Wine Country Film Festival
  • Black Bear Film Festival
  • Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
  • PINE Film Festival, Portland, OR

    Item no.: PW02790034
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 97 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 295.00

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    BLUE VINYL (SHORT VERSION)

    Filmmakers Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold use humor and chutzpah in their search for the environmental truth about vinyl.

    With humor, chutzpah and a piece of vinyl siding firmly in hand, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand and co-director and award-winning cinematographer Daniel B. Gold set out in search of the truth about polyvinyl chloride (PVC), America's most popular plastic. From Long Island to Louisiana to Italy, they unearth the facts about PVC and its effects on human health and the environment.

    Back at the starter ranch, Helfand coaxes her terribly patient parents into replacing their vinyl siding on the condition that she can find a healthy, affordable alternative (and it has to look good!).

    A detective story, an eco-activism doc, and a rollicking comedy, BLUE VINYL puts a human face on the dangers posed by PVC at every stage of its life cycle, from factory to incinerator. Consumer consciousness and the "precautionary principle" have never been this much fun.

    Reviews
  • "Funny and irreverent! One of Sundance's best documentaries." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun- Times

  • "That rare muckraking film with a sense of humor." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

  • "Directors Helfand and Daniel Gold brilliantly link unlikely stories and characters across continents, race, and class." - Caroline Libresco, Sundance Film Festival.

  • "Scary and hilarious!" - Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times

  • "The Green Building Movement may have just acquired its first cult film." - Environmental Building News

  • "Blue Vinyl hits your psyche like a ten-ton brick. If you care at all about the future you'll see this film." - Theo Colborn, author, Our Stolen Future

  • "Blue Vinyl is highly recommended for upper level high school students, colleges and the general public. School media centers, college/university libraries and public libraries would benefit by having this video in their collections." - Ronald E. Saskowski, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "The kind of movie you could name an ice cream after." - Ben Cohen, President, TrueMajority.org, Co- Founder of Ben and Jerry's

  • "Kudos to Helfand for her five-year struggle to get her parents -- and us -- to see the light." - Now Toronto

    Notes
  • Emmy Awards nominee (Best Documentary, Best Research)
  • Distinguished Documentary Achievement nominee, International Documentary Association

    Awards
  • Excellence in Cinematography Award, Sundance Film Festival
  • Epic Award, The White House
  • Best Documentary, Bermuda Film Festival
  • Audience Award, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
  • Audience Award, Santa Cruz International Film Festival
  • Award of Excellence, Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Video Festival
  • Environmental Messenger of the Year, Environmental Grantmakers Association
  • "Nice Modernists" National Award, Dwell Magazine
  • Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary, High Falls Films Festival (Rochester, NY)
  • South by Southwest Film Festival
  • Cleveland International Film Festival
  • Maryland Film Festival
  • Seattle Jewish Film Festival
  • Taos Talking Picture Festival
  • Hot Docs International Film Festival
  • San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
  • Encounters: South African International Documentary Film Festival
  • Melbourne International Film Festival
  • Athens International Film Festival
  • Planet in Focus: Toronto Environmental Film and Video Festival
  • Sheffield International Documentary Festival
  • Human Rights Watch Film Festival
  • Green Mountain Film Festival
  • DocAviv Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Artivist Film Festival
  • The Wine Country Film Festival
  • Black Bear Film Festival

    Item no.: MF01110356
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 60 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 250.00

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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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    HARRIMAN ALASKA EXPEDITION RETRACED, THE

    Two scientific expeditions to Alaska, 100 years apart, give us an unparalleled view of environmental damage and the change in society's attitudes.

    A century ago, railroad tycoon Edward H. Harriman, one of the most powerful men in America, decided to take a little vacation-in the form of one of the most ambitious scientific expeditions the world had ever seen.

    He invited the top authorities in the country: geologists, botanists, foresters, ornithologists, paleontologists, zoologists, painters, photographers, writers-at least two of each, like a private Noah's Ark of knowledge-to join him on a 9000-mile exploration of the coast of Alaska. Many were famous -- John Muir, John Burroughs, and George Bird Grinnell -- and a few were still obscure-the young painter Louis Agassiz Fuertes and the unknown photographer Edward Curtis. For many of these brilliant men, the journey would alter their destiny.

    Over a century later, Thomas Litwin of Smith College organized an expedition to follow the path of the original one. Again, it was stocked with a constellation of scientific brilliance, though this time they were both men and women. It was called the Harriman Expedition Retraced, and its purpose was simple: to go to exactly the same places and see what the effects of the 20th century had wrought on Alaska. "What we are doing," said historian William Cronon, "is seeing this landscape at two moments in time. We're seeing it through that expedition in 1899 and seeing it at the beginning of the 21st Century and we're asking, "What's the change? What are the dynamics of history that have brought us here, and what do they tell us about where we are headed?"

    The film uses both expeditions as a vehicle for understanding subtle as well as dramatic changes in Alaska's environment, economy, and society. While thoroughly researching very specific and specialized issues that surface in Alaska's history-such as the Exxon- Valdez oil spill, the separation of kinfolk during the Cold War, the prosperity of Alaskan natives, and the repatriation of indigenous artifacts-the film also addresses the boom and bust of industry, global warming, endangered species, the state of natural resources, and the influx of tourism to the pristine edges of the world.

    Reviews
  • "A cinematic tour de force that no one should miss." - William Cronon, University of Wisconsin- Madison

  • "Combines the best qualities of historical documentary, nature film, and investigative reporting on the modern-day environmental and social challenges faced by the people and ecosystems of coastal Alaska. Offering magnificent photography and compelling stories...it is a cinematic tour de force that no one should miss." - William Cronon, Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History, Geography, & Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin- Madison

  • "I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film, which masterfully catches the spirit of the original Harriman expedition...The photography is superb as is the assembly of the film." - Vera Alexander, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks

  • "It's rare that a documentary film can encompass nearly all of environmental history and ethics in a mere two hours...The history of Alaska, since its purchase by the United States, provides a locus for examining nearly all the environmental issues facing the world today, from oil spills to overfishing, from deforestration to destruction of habitat. Too much for the viewer to handle? No way...It's a fast-paced voyage, full of wry jokes, lovely music, and wonderful wildlife." - David Tebaldi, Executive Director, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities

  • "A vivid demonstration of how the past can illuminate the present and future. By recreating the Harriman Alaska Expedition, the film shows the environment -- and human attitudes toward it -- changing over the course of a century...The film is beautifully shot and sharply written and edited. This is engaged historical and environmental filmmaking at its best." - Stephen Fox, author of JOHN MUIR AND HIS LEGACY

  • "The thing that most impresses me...is the willingness to tackle thorny, sensitive, and complex issues about Alaska...such...as clearcut logging by Native corporations -- an especially divisive conflict...No preaching. No sensationalizing. Just clear-thinking presentation of modern problems and their historical roots, engagingly addressed by people of conscience with a personal stake in differing solutions. What a treat! It engendered much discussion in our small group, and I feel sure it will do the same in living rooms, classrooms, and conference rooms across America and beyond." - Kesler Woodward, Professor of Art Emeritus, University of Alaska

  • "An excellent teaching tool for many age levels. The film offers teachers an opportunity for exciting, in-depth interdisciplinary work in the sciences, economics, language arts, cultural studies, ecology, history, geography, the arts, etc. Educators will be thrilled with this exquisite documentation of a slice of America over one century." - Doris J. Shallcross, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts/Amherst

  • "This film exemplifies the best aspects of thoughtful inquiry: first-hand exploration, insightful engagement of history, and the construction of a narrative that raises as many important questions as it answers." - Carol T. Christ, President, Smith College

  • "Larry Hott ranks with the best documentary film makers today...especially when it comes to films about the environment. The Harriman Alaska Expedition Retraced has all the elements of a great Hott documentary: a compelling and swift-moving narrative that places contemporary Alaska in the context of history; humor and humanity, and stunning footage of the Alaskan wilderness." - Tom Lewis, author of "Divided Highways", Professor of English at Skidmore University

  • "Well received and praised by over 100 Arctic enthusiasts, allowing them to use the film as a tool of understanding the North, our connection to the Arctic region, and respect for all living inhabitants of the fragile, yet dynamic environment." - Scott Pollock, Program Director, Arctic Film Festival Program, North House Folk School

  • "Beautifully presented, thoughtful and well organized, this documentary presents both an interesting, historical event in wonderful detail and examines the impact of industry and tourism upon the history, environment, wildlife, and native cultures of Alaska...appropriate for all grade levels in the areas of environmental sciences, natural sciences, sociology, visual arts, and anthropology." - Social Sciences Post Secondary, 2003 NAMTC/NMM Curriculum Media Reviews

    Awards
  • Second Place in Category, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Philadelphia Film Festival
  • MountainFilm, Telluride
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Newport Beach Film Festival
  • Anchorage Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Arctic Film Festival
  • CINE Golden Eagle

    Item no.: BD02560145
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 110 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 350.00

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    NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, THE

    William McDonough, Michael Braungart & the Birth of the Sustainable Economy

    Architect Bill McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart bring together ecology and human design.

    While some environmental observers predict doomsday scenarios in which a rapidly increasing human population is forced to compete for ever scarcer natural resources, Bill McDonough sees a more exciting and hopeful future.

    In his vision humanity takes nature itself as our guide reinventing technical enterprises to be as safe and ever-renewing as natural processes.

    Can't happen? It's already happening...at Nike, at Ford Motor Company, at Oberlin College, at Herman Miller Furniture, and at DesignTex...and it's part of what architect McDonough and his partner, chemist Michael Braungart, call 'The Next Industrial Revolution.'

    Shot in Europe and the United States, the film explores how businesses are transforming themselves to work with nature and enhance profitability.

    Reviews
  • "This film is an inspirational look at a hopeful vision of the future. It does an excellent job of presenting both theory and real world examples of a design revolution that has the potential to re-make our world." - James Gustave Speth, Dean, Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

  • "One of the most informative, brilliant and hopeful films about the transformation of industrial and economic activities that will lead to a healthy, just, socially stable and environmentally sustaining society for all current and future generations. By showcasing the visionary philosophy and unprecedented work of Bill McDonough with outstanding colleagues and a variety of society's most influential institutions, the film is a critical educational vehicle for changing our collective mindset to achieve these goals. It's a 'must see!'" - Anthony Cortese, Sc.D., President, Second Nature, Inc.

  • "This video should have a profound effect on the way future architects are educated and how they practice. Every student and faculty in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, or urban planning should see it. We are all students of the environment." - Marvin E. Rosenman, ACSA Distinguished Professor of Architecture, Ball State University

  • "Inspirational! This video is a must for all-consumers, educators, health professionals, business and government leaders. Our current systems of production and habits of consumption are harming our health and the health of the planet. McDonough offers a practical vision and gives us hope for a future that is safe for our grandchildren." - Polly Walker, M.D., M.P.H., Director, Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

  • "Provides a vision that is simultaneously radical, yet pragmatic. It offers concepts and proven examples to show how that vision can be put into practice. This video can spark the type of thoughtful dialog and quantum leap planning that will enable any organization to accelerate its progress toward creating a sustainable organization." - Thomas C. Tuttle, Ph.D., Director, University of Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity

  • "It's rare to find a film about environmental issues that makes you feel better about the world after you watch it than you did before...And while the filmmakers acknowledge the dire situation our planet is in, they also understand a little hope and a lot of determination can go a long way." - Christopher Riley, Director, Cornell University Environmental Film Festival

  • "Superbly produced video...High school, college and university students will find here a pragmatic and ecologically sound vision of sustainability, and examples of the proactive work that sometimes succeeds while disaster hits the headlines. McDonough has a knack for putting the message in a pithy and hard-hitting form without being confrontational." - Green Teacher

  • About Bill McDonough "There are very few visionaries who are practical -- Bill McDonough is one of the most profound environmental thinkers in the world." - William Clay Ford, Jr., Chair, Ford Motor Company

  • "His utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that -- in demonstrable and practical ways -- is changing the design of the world." - Heroes for the Planet, Time Magazine

    Awards
  • First Place in Category, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival
  • The Green Festival, Washington DC
  • The Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: PH02790204
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 55 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 275.00

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    RISING WATERS: GLOBAL WARMING AND THE FATE OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

    Shows that global warming is already hurting the Pacific Islands.

    " We are like the warning system for the whole world to see." Penehuro Lefale, Samoa

    For 7 million people living on thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific ocean, global warming is not something that looms in the distant future: it's a threat whose first effects may have already begun.

    Through personal stories of Pacific Islanders, RISING WATERS: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands puts a human face on the international climate change debate.

    The majority of scientists around the world now agree that global warming is real, and key studies show that the tropical Pacific islands will be hit first and hardest by its effects. The water temperature in the tropical Pacific has risen dramatically over the last two decades, bleaching coral and stressing marine ecosystems. Sea level rise threatens to inundate islands, and extreme weather events -- such as more frequent and intense El Ninos, severe droughts, and mega hurricanes -- could wipe out ecosystems and the way of life that has existed for thousands of years.

    "Way before most of these islands go under, they're going to lose their fresh water supply." Anginette Heffernan, Fiji

    In the program, islanders show the viewers the physical and cultural impacts caused by global warming. Unusual high tides have swept the low-lying atolls of Micronesia, destroying crops and polluting fresh water supplies. Ancestral graveyards are being destroyed by the impacts of rogue waves and erosion never witnessed before the last decade. An increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes is making it difficult for island communities and ecosystems to recover.

    "It's very difficult for someone living in the United States to grasp the fact that if the sea level rises just a few feet, a whole nation will disappear." Ben Graham, Republic of the Marshall Islands

    But the islanders' stories have not convinced everyone in the rest of the world. Some scientists refute the studies, and business leaders and economists warn that forcing industries to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions will cause a global economic collapse.

    While the policy makers and scientists argue about when and how much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next twenty years, many Pacific Islanders are wondering if they will have a future. One thing is known: the longer emission reductions are delayed, the harder it will be to curb the effects of global warming, and prevent sea level rise from devastating the Pacific Islands.

    What, then, should the islanders do? Whom should they believe? Where would they go if forced to leave their homes? RISING WATERS explores what it means to live under a cloud of scientific uncertainty, examining both human experience and expert scientific evidence. The problems facing the islanders serve as an urgent warning to the rest of the world.

    Locations include Kiribati, the Samoas, Hawai'I, the atolls of Micronesia including the Marshall Islands, as well as laboratories and research centers in the continental United States. RISING WATERS weaves the portraits of the islanders with historical film and video materials, interviews with top scientists, and voiceover. 3D animation is used to illustrate key scientific concepts.

    Reviews
  • "Perhaps it is no great wonder that the issue of global warming appears so remote to most U.S. citizens. The front lines of the crisis, and even the venues of the debate are so remote...The brilliance of this film is that it brings these front lines into your living room." - The Amicus Journal

  • "Hauntingly beautiful, this groundbreaking film is a quantum leap from pedantic environmental films...revealing a remarkable pan- Pacific effort to save entire nations...utilizing new science and a fresh idiom." - MountainFilm Festival Program

  • "A successful tool to illustrate the effect of industrialization on our global ecosystem...Recommended" - Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "The documentary treats global warming itself as an anthropogenic catastrophe in the making. Indeed, the strength of this approach to global warming is the human and cultural dimension that this film highlights." - H- NET MULTIMEDIA REVIEW

    Awards
  • Certificate of Merit, The Chicago International Television Competition
  • Taos Talking Picture Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Hawaii International Film Festival
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival
  • Marin Environmental Film Festival
  • Special Jury Award, MountainFilm, Telluride
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Second Place Winner, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: PR02790238
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2000
    Price: USD 250.00

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    BIG SPUDS, LITTLE SPUDS

    The impact of climate change and monoculture on one of the world's staple food crops.

    BIG SPUDS, LITTLE SPUDS takes a close look at the potato to examine the effects of climate change and monoculture on one of the world's staple food crops. With half the planet's population dependent on rice, wheat, potatoes, and corn, to what extent are pests and disease-often exacerbated by climate change-threatening world food security?

    The people of the Andes in Peru have raised more than 5,000 varieties of potatoes. During the Green Revolution of the 1960s they were urged to adopt a handful of new high-yielding varieties, that proved to be highly vulnerable to the harsh mountain weather, and to pests and diseases. The new varieties also require massive inputs of chemicals and water.

    In 1997 El Nino had a dramatic impact on the climate both in Peru, and Idaho, home of the US potato industry. In Peru, El Nino brought drought and killer frosts to the highlands: in Idaho, it brought persistent rains. With the wet weather came the blight that caused the Irish potato famine. Idaho's potato farmers were totally unprepared.

    The film looks at traditional methods of potato farming where Andean families grow their own varieties, practice crop rotation, and utilize a minimum of inputs. In sharp contrast is the industrial method of production used in Idaho, and increasingly in Peru, where just a few high-yielding varieties are grown, where soil fertility decreases, pesticides lose their effectiveness, and campesinos wind up working as laborers on their own land.

    But there is a new pride in the old varieties of potatoes. People are documenting the characteristics of different varieties in an attempt to preserve genetic diversity, and with it perhaps world food security.

    Reviews
  • "Gives a reasoned explanation both of the problem and its possible solution through reintroduction of traditional potato varieties requiring less in the way of fertilizers and pesticides." - Buzz Haugton, Shields Library, UC- Davis, MC Journal

  • "Our scientists felt that the video gave a good overview of the importance of biological diversity and associated knowledge." - Christine Graves, International Potato Center, Peru

  • "Excellent...make(s) a compelling case that action is urgently needed to respond to global change, above all climate change and declining biodiversity. The message about the value of local knowledge comes through clearly...I strongly believe we will only have governments act when their citizenry is well enough informed and pressing for action...A significant contribution. It is important (it) be widely viewed." - Gordon Smith, Director of the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria

  • "The film successfully depicts the coping strategies for both the Peruvians and the Idahoans, placing the struggle of the individual farmers in the framework of larger global ecological, economic, and development issues...(S)uitable for use in classes on ecology, anthropology, globalization and agricultural development." - Alan Duben, Human Ecology

    Awards
  • Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Nordische Filmtage Lubeck
  • Inventur 6- Filmschau Niedersachsen
  • Tage des unabhaengigen Films Osnabruck

    Item no.: PP01110029
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 250.00

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    SILENT SENTINELS

    Was the unprecedented mass coral bleaching in 1998 proof of global warming?

    Coral reefs are the jewels of the ocean. Communities of organisms as rich and diverse as any above or below the surface of the planet, they encircle the tropics like an azure necklace.

    1998 was designated 'International Year of the Oceans'. It turned out to be the year that coral reefs around the world began to die. Unprecedented mass bleaching swept the world's tropical oceans, in places leaving hundreds of miles of coral coastline-the fringes of entire countries in places-severely damaged. Following a number of similar but lesser events since the 1980s, this latest bleaching event is being touted as unequivocal proof that global warming has begun, and that it will have a greater impact than many think.

    This program reveals disturbing evidence that even if coral can survive continually rising temperatures, they won't be able to escape the chemical effects of high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Experiments in Arizona's Biosphere II show that as the ocean is becoming more acidic, corals will grow more slowly and with weaker skeletons.

    SILENT SENTINELS examines these claims and takes a step back to take a broader look at the coral organism and how it has coped with climate change over time. How coral both defines its environment and is created by it. It is a story of a polyp and a plant-one of the most successful biological relationships in the history of the earth.

    SILENT SENTINELS was filmed in three oceans, on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and remote Scott Reef in the Indian Ocean, in the Maldives, the Red Sea, the USA and the Caribbean. "This is the most important movie on global warming to date." Rafe Pomerance, key US global warming negotiator, former Deputy Asst. Secretary of State for Environment

    Reviews
  • "This is the most important movie on global warming to date...Has a much stronger impact than any written report." - Rafe Pomerance, key US global warming negotiator, former Deputy Asst. Secretary of State for Environment and Development

  • "Drawing connections between the biological processes of life and death in the reef ecosystem with climate patterns, the viewer directly experiences the evidence that has convinced the scientific community that global warming is having significant impacts on coral reefs...Silent Sentinels combines the dire predictions of the future with strategies for staving off massive disaster, making it an important film for anyone concerned with the marine environment." - Stuart Sandin, Coral Reef Ecologist, Princeton University

  • "A comprehensive introduction to this subject that is both understandable to the layman and sufficiently penetrating to interest the professional." - Steve Coles, Bishop Museum, Honolulu

  • "Excellent program...Highly recommended for earth science and ecology classes." - Booklist

  • "Excellent...make(s) a compelling case that action is urgently needed to respond to global change, above all climate change...I strongly believe we will only have governments act when their citizenry is well enough informed and pressing for action...A significant contribution. It is important (it) be widely viewed." - Gordon Smith, Director of the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria

  • "An essential film for scientists and students of all grade levels who want to understand the critical impacts global warming is having of one of the earth's most biologically diverse, climatically sensitive ecosystems...Watching this film will put to rest any disagreement that rising global temperatures are killing tropical coral reefs." - James M. Cervino, Marine Biologist, University of South Carolina

  • "Science is one of the few human endeavors that still depends primarily on the printed word for reporting...The power of near-real-time satellite data to produce testable predictions of the location and intensity of coral bleaching is particularly well presented with computer graphic "movies" of evolving hotspots. The message simply could not be as well presented in any other medium...In summary, the quality of the science presented in "Silent Sentinels" approximates that of the work done by the scientists it features: I.e. a very high standard." - Bruce G. Hatcher, Dept. of Biology, Dalhousie University

  • "There are literally dozens of videos available that relate to coral reefs, but "Silent Sentinels"...belongs in every school, college and public library. It is an excellent educational film...and it is very highly recommended." - Barbara Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "This is an outstanding film." - David M. Anderson, Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado

  • "Perhaps the greatest "wakeup call" environment film I've ever seen." - Ceferina G. Hess, Political Science, Lander University

    Awards
  • Gold UNESCO Award, The New York Festivals
  • Best Environmental Film, Telescience, Canada
  • Best Nature Film, Okomedia, Germany
  • Best Documentary, Ekofilm, Czech Republic
  • Best Foreign Film, Prix Leonardo, Italy
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Finalist, Earth Vision, Japan
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Semi- Finalist, Animal Behavior Society Film Festival
  • Semi- Finalist, Merit Awards for Conservation Message & Educational Value, International Wildlife Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Cornell Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: TA02790259
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 250.00

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    TURNING DOWN THE HEAT: THE NEW ENERGY REVOLUTION

    Renewable energy sources and energy conservation are the solution to global warming.

    The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, which warms the atmosphere, leading to increased floods, droughts and hurricanes. This film addresses the crisis of global warming and offers renewable energy sources and energy conservation as economically viable solutions to climate change.

    TURNING DOWN THE HEAT profiles innovative and successful projects of the new energy revolution, showcasing alternative sources of power. They include solar energy in Holland, Japan and California, biogas in Denmark and Vietnam, wind energy in Holland and India, and hydrogen fuel cells and ground source heat in Vancouver.

    We see the effects of global warming already manifesting themselves in the small island nations of the world. But, as Donald Aitken, Ross Gelbspan, Amory Lovins and others make clear, we do have viable options. All we need is the political will.

    Reviews
  • "Now that the debate about global warming is over, Turning Down the Heat offers a wonderful and hopeful examination of alternative energy sources -- from hydrogen fuel cells to wind energy. Presented in clear language, this film is perfect for any K-12 or university level course that broaches environmental topics." - Mike Sosteric, Managing Editor, Electronic Journal of Sociology

  • "A super introduction to the field of renewable energy as a solution to global warming...Compelling and upbeat, Turning Down the Heat is ideal for schools, colleges, and anywhere a nontechnical audience can be assembled for a glimpse into the future of clean energy." - Renewable Building News

  • "Illustrate(s) the need for humanity to change its...energy sources...Besides being utilized in environmental classes, this film is ideal for many others...including...Asian Studies, World Politics, etc...I highly recommend this monumental film." - Ceferina G. Hess, Political Science, Lander University

    Awards
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Planet in Focus, Toronto Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Conscientious Projector Film Festival
  • Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: EH02790307
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 46 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 250.00

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    GOODWOOD

    Directed by David Springbett and Heather MacAndrew

    The question that lies at the heart of the ongoing debate about the world's forests is whether we can halt deforestation while still sustaining communities that depend on the forest for their livelihood.

    GOODWOOD looks at four forestry-based places where communities are discovering - sometimes with help from surprising quarters - that it can be done.

    From a village chair-making project in Honduras to a design school in Nelson, B.C., and from a community-based forestry in Mexico to more than 3,000 items from certified wood sold in a British retail chain, vital links are being made to keep people employed, while at the same time preserving the world's forests.

    Reviews
  • "It's an inspiring, heart-lifting film about the possibilities that await those who learn to see old things in new ways." - Vancouver Sun

  • "The film's basic message rings clear throughout: It's possible to have jobs and trees. It just takes a little innovative thinking." - Forest Magazine

  • "One of the few (videos) that offers a look at what it will take to make forests profitable without denuding them...Recommended for academic and medium to large libraries particularly in areas where deforestation is an unusually sensitive issue." - Christopher Lewis, American University, MC Journal

    Item no.: PZ02790678
    Format: DVD (Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 45 minutes
    Copyright: 1998
    Price: USD 59.00

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    AIR WE BREATHE, THE

    Connects asthma and other respiratory diseases with air pollution and suburban sprawl.

    This product traces the damaging connection between suburban sprawl, our addiction to the automobile, air pollution, and disturbing increases in asthma and other respiratory diseases.

    The EPA and Congress have said we must lower the allowable ozone pollution in our cities. In the past ten years hospital admissions for asthma have doubled, and air quality specialists are pointing to alarming statistics correlating smog levels with high rates of respiratory diseases as well as higher mortality rates.

    With insight and wit, THE AIR WE BREATHE examines our addiction to the automobile, the environmental consequences of suburban sprawl, and the damaging effects of commuter culture on both the air we breathe and our overall quality of life. We also hear from scientists, activists and urban planners who map out possible solutions that include alternative fuels, zero-emission vehicles, and integrated public transit plans.

    Reviews
  • "An excellent discussion of the issue from many aspects, this video will be useful in social studies, health, and environmental studies classes as well as for those seeking information on the subject in general." - School Library Journal

  • "There is an effective blend of serious and humorous material. Technical qualities were generally good to excellent. Audience level is college and general adult, although it could be shown in high schools. Usage potential is high since content is applicable to a wide range of subjects or curriculum areas." - MC Journal: the Journal of Academic Media Librarianship. Reviewed by Rachel Lohafer, Instructional Technology Center Media Library, Iowa State University

    Awards
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • UNA Film Festival at Stanford University

    Item no.: SW01110344
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 49 minutes
    Copyright: 1996
    Price: USD 250.00

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    REDWOOD SUMMER

    Documents both sides in the summer of struggle between environmentalists vs. loggers and timber companies.

    REDWOOD SUMMER documents a season of public demonstrations and civil disobedience actions against Northern California timber corporations by environmental action group, Earth First!

    It covers the geography of summer-long protests: from small town Main Street to confrontations with bulldozers deep in an ancient redwood grove; and chronicles events from the tragic bombing of two organizers in May 1990 to a raucous Labor Day parade.

    Earth Firsters and loggers join in a passionate conflict: a clash between people who struggle to tell the world it must change to survive, and an angry community that resists being told it must change.

    Reviews
  • "A program with wide appeal, this can be used in both high school and college collections, as well as in public libraries." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

  • "This is a film that tries seriously to show complexity, rather than play on opposition, to show how deeply concerned the people are whose lives are affected. But it also takes a firm stand against the irrationality of cutting old growth timber, because there is no surer way to end loggers' jobs and livelihood than to cut down the last of the forests." - The Workbook

    Awards
  • Certificate of Merit, Chicago International Film & Video Festival
  • Recognition/Selected For Merit, NAAEE Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: HJ01110458
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 1993
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: THE COLONISTS (CLASSROOM VERSION)

    Colonists invading the rainforest.

    The colonists who invaded the rainforest in huge numbers in the 1980's are mostly small farmers forced off their land in other parts of Brazil by increasing mechanization and the economics of cash cropping for export. When they reached the state of Rondonia they were given roughly 175 acres of virgin forest free of charge on condition that they cleared the land. This led to deforestation on a massive scale. But the tragic irony is that once the trees have been cut down the soil is so poor that many colonists were forced to abandon their land after just a couple of years.

    Review
  • "The tragedy is examined globally...in an unambiguous and intelligent manner." - Children's Video Review Newsletter

    Item no.: FP01110371
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 16 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: THE DEVELOPMENT ROAD (CLASSROOM VERSION)

    A road is always the first step to rainforest destruction.

    The first nail in the coffin of the rainforest is always a road. First comes a surveyor, then bulldozers, then loggers, then a small settlement, and finally farm families. In Rondonia the name of the road was BR364. Before long all the valuable wood will have gone. Cattle ranches and cash crops are already proving unsuccessful. So far 60% of the land that was cleared is now abandoned. Is this development?

    Review
  • "The tragedy is examined globally...in an unambiguous and intelligent manner." - Children's Video Review Newsletter

    Item no.: WW02560372
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 12 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: THE INDIANS (CLASSROOM VERSION)

    The displaced Indian tribes of the Amazon rainforest.

    There are many Indian tribes that have always lived in the forest. The Brazilian Government's Indian Agency, knowing what contact with "civilization" was likely to bring to the Indians, tried to protect them against the invading road builders and colonists and the diseases they would bring with them. Search parties were sent out in advance. Reserves were set up. But it was to no avail. Colonists and loggers invaded the reserves, and tragically many Indians succumbed.

    Review
  • "The tragedy is examined globally...in an unambiguous and intelligent manner." - Children's Video Review Newsletter

    Item no.: PU02790373
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 16 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: THE POLITICIANS (CLASSROOM VERSION)

    Politicians plunder the Amazon rainforest.

    It was Brazil's politicians who saw the Amazon as the answer to their prayers. Here was the world's richest storehouse of raw materials and all over Brazil were millions of poor people who would come to help exploit it. The main obstacle was that the BR364 road was unpaved. So they went to the World Bank to finance the project. Jose Lutzenberger opposed it and took his fight to the U.S. Congress. He felt it was vital that provisions be made to protect the forests, Indians and rubber tappers. Eventually the World Bank was forced to admit their mistakes, but in the meantime hundreds of thousands of square miles of rainforest were burned. With the help of satellite photographs, the battle to save the world's richest store of biodiversity began.

    Review
  • "The tragedy is examined globally...in an unambiguous and intelligent manner." - Children's Video Review Newsletter

    Item no.: PA02560375
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 19 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: THE RAINFOREST (CLASSROOM VERSION)

    The ecology of a rainforest.

    This program uses time-lapse and satellite photography as dramatic visual aids to provide a basic understanding of the mechanics of the world's largest rainforest.

    It shows clouds forming at the Atlantic coastline and then drifting southwest over the heart of the rainforest. It explains how 3/4 of the rain that falls in the forest is caught by the trees and leaves, and is pumped back into the sky again. Without the trees there would be no clouds, no rain and impoverished soil.

    Review
  • "The tragedy is examined globally...in an unambiguous and intelligent manner." - Children's Video Review Newsletter

    Award
  • Honorable Mention, American Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: NS02790376
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 9 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: THE RUBBER TAPPERS (CLASSROOM VERSION)

    Rubber tappers live sustainable lifestyle.

    Rubber tappers had made peace with the Indians and learned forest survival skills from them 70 years ago. Their lifestyle can be sustained indefinitely, in sharp contrast to that of the colonists, who invaded their land. In some places the rubber tappers organized themselves and successfully defended their lands. Chico Mendes was one of their leaders who campaigned for the defense of all Amazonia and was assassinated by local ranchers for his effort. But his alliance with the Indians and the example of his life gives hope for the future of the Amazon.

    Review
  • "The tragedy is examined globally...in an unambiguous and intelligent manner." - Children's Video Review Newsletter

    Item no.: BG01110377
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 10 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: IN THE ASHES OF THE FOREST - PART 1

    Saga of two colonists in the Amazon rainforest.

    The first film follows the saga of two colonists, Chico and Renato, and a never previously photographed Indian tribe, the Uru Eu Wau Wau. Renato is a landless peasant who has been lured into the rainforest with promises of free land and big harvests. He and his neighbors slash and burn the forest to clear the land, only to discover that the soil is so poor their crops will not grow. In retaliation for the settlers' incursions, the Indians kidnap Chico's 7-year-old son. As the little boy's family searches for the kidnappers, the government tries to make peace with the Indians. By the decade's end, the fate of Chico's boy is learned; an epidemic kills many of the Indians; the settlers' farms have failed; and more than 15% of the forest has been destroyed.

    Review
  • "Packed with information, this documentary sheds new light on the issue...Highly recommended, this is an outstanding choice." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Awards
  • Blue Ribbon, American Film & Video Festival
  • Gold Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival
  • Special Jury Award, San Francisco International Film Festival

    Item no.: KD02560378
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 55 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    Price: USD 175.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: IN THE ASHES OF THE FOREST - PART 2

    Concludes the Amazon colonists' saga.

    The first film follows the saga of two colonists, Chico and Renato, and a never previously photographed Indian tribe, the Uru Eu Wau Wau. Renato is a landless peasant who has been lured into the rainforest with promises of free land and big harvests. He and his neighbors slash and burn the forest to clear the land, only to discover that the soil is so poor their crops will not grow. In retaliation for the settlers' incursions, the Indians kidnap Chico's 7-year-old son. As the little boy's family searches for the kidnappers, the government tries to make peace with the Indians. By the decade's end, the fate of Chico's boy is learned; an epidemic kills many of the Indians; the settlers' farms have failed; and more than 15% of the forest has been destroyed.

    Review
  • "Packed with information, this documentary sheds new light on the issue...Highly recommended, this is an outstanding choice." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Awards
  • Blue Ribbon, American Film & Video Festival
  • Gold Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival
  • Special Jury Award, San Francisco International Film Festival

    Item no.: ZC02790379
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    Price: USD 175.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: KILLING FOR LAND

    Squatters face off against gunmen hired by absentee landlords in the Amazon.

    In Brazil during the past two decades, nearly 24 million small farmers have lost their land, while almost half of Brazil's arable land is now owned by 1% of the population. Millions of poor farmers have migrated to the Amazon as homesteaders, and many have moved onto massive ranches carved out of the rainforest by large companies. These absentee landlords often leave the land idle and hold it purely for speculation. Violence erupts when the squatters begin to work the land and the landowners hire gunmen to frighten them off.

    Review
  • "A very well-made documentary with a strong point of view...It argues implicitly that the problem of how to save the rainforest is an economic and political as well as an ecological one." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Award
  • American Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: WV02560369
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 51 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    Price: USD 175.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: MOUNTAINS OF GOLD

    Gold mining in the Amazon is a dangerous and dirty business.

    Brazil has one of the world's largest untapped gold reserves and roughly 70% of its production is mined by freelance prospectors, or garimpeiros, who pan and dredge gold all over the forest on land licensed by the government to huge companies. The film follows Jova, a prospector famous among his colleagues for his illegal gold strikes, as he plays hide and seek with the security forces of Brazil's largest mining multinational. The main threat to the company, however, is the huge mine of Serra Pelada which is manually operated by garimpeiros.

    Award
  • 4 Stars Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Item no.: GD02790370
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 54 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    Price: USD 175.00

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    DECADE OF DESTRUCTION, THE: THE KILLING OF CHICO MENDES

    The story of rainforest defender, Chico Mendes, that ended with his 1988 assassination.

    The series concludes with the story of Chico Mendes whose brutal murder on December 22, 1988, provoked international protest and brought worldwide attention to the problem of Amazonian deforestation. The film follows his rise to prominence as the leader of the rubber-tappers, or seringueiros. The seringueiros have lived in the rainforest for over 100 years, susbsisting by tapping native rubber, collecting Brazil nuts, and other ecologically sustainable activities. Seeing their way of life threatened, Mendes formed the seringueiros into a union and led the fight to halt the devastation of the rainforest and to create protected areas, called "extractive reserves," to be managed by local seringueiros communities.

    Review
  • "Packed with information, this documentary sheds new light on the issue...Highly recommended, this is an outstanding choice." -4 Stars Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Awards
  • Gold Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival
  • American Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: FN01110374
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 55 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    Price: USD 175.00

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    BANKING ON DISASTER

    The grave consequences of building a road through the heart of Amazonia.

    A unique and vitally important documentary about this century's worst environmental disaster-the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest. Noted British documentarian Adrian Cowell has spent the last decade filming the opening up of Amazonia, the last great frontier. In this film he documents the disastrous consequences of paving a road through the heart of the world's largest rainforest in Brazil.

    The road through the state of Rondonia was partly financed by the World Bank. It was paved to help hundreds of thousands of colonists from other areas of Brazil move into the region to farm, but the effects on the environment have been catastrophic, and measures to protect the Indians have proven inadequate. Ironically, many of the settlers have gained very little. Poor soil and poor planning have meant that many attempts to farm the cleared land have failed.

    The story is told in three chapters, the last of which deals with the late Chico Mendes, the leader of the rubber-tappers union, who was assassinated for his courageous efforts to halt the devastation of the rainforest and to create protected areas to be managed by local rubber-tapper communities. These "extractive reserves" have since been characterized by the World Bank as "the most promising alternative to unsustainable agriculture and cattle ranching."

    The scope of the film is epic, and to U.S. audiences it has a special resonance. It provides us with an uncanny insight into how our western frontier was opened, while documenting a burgeoning human and environmental disaster in the Brazilian rainforest.

    Reviews
  • "Gentle, detailed, immensely thoughtful" - The Daily Telegraph

  • "Provides compelling evidence that our U.S. tax dollars are used to destroy the rainforest." - Randall Hayes, Rainforest Action Network

  • "A must for a wide range of college classes from political science and anthropology to environmental science and ecology." - Choice

  • "Will interest all who are concerned with large-scale social change, the causes and effects of deforestation, and the tropical rainforest and its fate...it is extremely powerful, and I highly recommend it." - Science Books & Films

  • "An expose of the best kind -- responsible journalism... Recommended." -4 Stars Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Awards
  • Grand Prize, Medikinale International Parma
  • Best International Issues, American Film & Video Festival
  • Crystal Apple, Social Studies, National Educational Film & Video Festival
  • Golden Gate Award, Best Environmental Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival
  • Best Educational Feature, 4th Annual TV Movie Awards
  • Best International Concerns, Vermont World Peace Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital

    Item no.: DL01110353
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 78 minutes
    Copyright: 1987
    Price: USD 59.00

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    GAIA: THE LIVING PLANET

    By Angelika Lizius & Detlef Jungjohann

    A portrait of James Lovelock, originator of the theory that the earth is a living organism.

    The Gaia Hypothesis is one of the most exciting new scientific theories to emerge in the 20th century. It's the work of a British scientist, James Lovelock, who believes that the earth is itself a living organism, and that life actively creates the environment it needs to survive, by maintaining environmental factors like temperature, humidity and atmosphere. His theory has been embraced by the environmental movement and has stirred up controversy in the scientific establishment.

    Lovelock lives in the hills of Devon in southwest England. He's a biologist, doctor, chemist, cybernetician, inventor, and author of science fiction. In this video portrait we meet the man at his home and workshop, and visit the Marine Biological Laboratory in Plymouth, which conducts marine research, that has produced some amazing results, apparently confirming major parts of the theory.

    The Gaia Hypothesis gives us a completely new view of the evolution of the Earth and may well be an incredibly productive tool for studying the complex ecological interrelationships that allow life to exist on our planet.

    Reviews
  • "An excellent introduction to the concept... Academic and general libraries will find this a useful addition to collections on environ-mental science and ecological stewardship." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

  • "This program sticks to the underlying science which informs Lovelock's theory...high school and university libraries will want to consider this for courses in general science and environment studies. Highly recommended." - Video Librarian

  • "As public concern for environmental issues rises, the Gaia hypothesis is sure to attract greater attention...the film excels at presenting science as a human enterprise." - The American Biology Teacher

    Award
  • Special Jury Award, San Francisco International Film Festival

    Item no.: HC02560677
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 45 minutes
    Copyright: 1987
    Price: USD 59.00

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    FOUR CORNERS, THE: A NATIONAL SACRIFICE AREA?

    The "hidden" cost of energy development in the homeland of the Hopi, Navajo, and Mormons.

    This renowned student Academy Award-winning documentary examines the social, cultural, and environmental impact of energy development in the Southwest U.S. The film takes its title from a National Academy of Sciences report which concluded that strip-mining in the fragile arid environment could permanently damage the land, resulting in "national sacrifice areas."

    The film explores the hidden cost of uranium mining and milling, coal strip-mining, and synthetic fuels development in the "Golden Circle of National Parks" -- the homeland of Hopi, Navajo, and Mormon cultures.

    Reviews
  • "Superb for ecology, biology, history, energy/environmental studies, and social studies. A 'must-see'." - Media & Methods

  • "A beautiful, impressive and thoroughly honest film. I hope millions of people see it." - Edward Abbey, author of "Desert Solitaire"

  • "A first-rate documentary." - Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle

  • "Hits moments of intensity which would be a credit to "60 Minutes." - Michael Maza, The Phoenix Republic

    Awards
  • Academy Award, Best Student Documentary
  • Best of Category, National Association for Environmental Education Film Festival
  • Silver Medal, Houston International Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, Native American Film Festival
  • Editor's Choice, Science Books & Films

    Item no.: KF01110398
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 59 minutes
    Copyright: 1983
    Price: USD 59.00

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