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Water Resources

Water Resources


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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    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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    BIG RIVER

    Directed by Curt Ellis

    Following up on their Peabody Award-winning documentary KING CORN, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have returned to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has had on the people and places downstream.

    In a journey that spans from the heartland to the Gulf of Mexico, Ian and Curt trade their combine for a canoe, and set out to see the big world their little acre of corn has touched. On their trip, flashbacks to the pesticides they sprayed, the fertilizers they injected, and the soil they plowed now lead to new questions, explored by new experts in new places. Half of Iowa's topsoil, they learn, has been washed out to sea. Fertilizer runoff has spawned a hypoxic 'dead zone' in the Gulf. And back at their acre, the herbicides they used are blamed for a cancer cluster that reaches all too close to home.

    A lively investigation and a worthy follow-up, BIG RIVER grows to ask is industrial agriculture worth its hidden costs?

    Reviews
  • "A sharp and clever reminder that nothing ever really goes away." - Bill McKibben, Author, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

  • "Cheney and Ellis narrate, but there are moments when they just silently paddle a canoe or listen to experts. The men's silence is powerful...[Big River] successfully re-creates the earlier film's [King Corn] tone, which is calm, curious and, above all, quietly despairing." - Isthmus

    Item no.: NG01110611
    Format: DVD (Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 27 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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    TAPPED

    Directed by Stephanie Soechtig

    An unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water.

    Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car? And I.O.U.S.A., this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of the bottled water industry -- an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.

    From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table. A powerful portrait of the lives affected by the bottled water industry, this revelatory film features those caught at the intersection of big business and the public's right to water.

    Reviews
  • "Sounds a clarion call to kick the bottle and return to the tap." - Sandra Postel, Director, Global Water Policy Project

  • "Tapped...is just as vital and maybe more important [thanFood, Inc.]...Tapped is one of the most pivotal documentaries made to save our lives." - Jon Peters, Killerfilm.com

  • "Well-made, thought-provoking and anger-inducing...An engaging documentary that doesn't overwhelm with technical speak or annoy with tie-dye radicalism." - Dean Carrico, Honolulu Weekly

    Award
  • Best Feature Length Documentary, Anchorage International Film Festival

    Item no.: KU02560624
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 75 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 295.00

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    WATERLIFE

    Directed by Kevin McMahon

    An epic cinematic poem that reveals the extraordinary beauty and complex toxicity of the Great Lakes, the largest remaining supply of fresh water (20%) on Earth.

    The film tells the epic story of the Great Lakes by following the cascade of its water from northern Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, through the lives of some of the 35 million people who rely on the lake for survival.

    Providing earth with 20% of its surface fresh water and its third largest industrial economy, the Great Lakes are a unique and precious resource under assault by toxins, sewage, invasive species, evaporating water and profound apathy. They are also one of the planet's great preserves of extraordinary wilderness beauty and a bounty of unique species.

    WATERLIFE blends these realities with a dreamlike fluidity as it pours through the lives of some amazing characters. We meet an Anishinabe medicine woman who walked 16,000 miles around the lakes to sympathize with them; the last of the great Michigan fishing families; a man whose lakefront home now borders a field thanks to sewer overflows; the people of a village where mysterious toxins ensure that most new babies are girls; and the residents of Love Canal, a notorious Niagara Falls neighborhood abandoned in the 1970s and now dubiously refurbished.

    Along the way, WATERLIFE show viewers the Great Lakes as they might appear to a seagull, a fish or a water molecule...and from a myriad of other amazing perspectives. Filmed over a full year with a battery of specialty cameras and techniques, WATERLIFE provides an unprecedented view of an incredible ecosystem rarely seen by the city dwellers who form most of its population. From the ornate fountains of Chicago to the sewers of Windsor, viewers are carried through marsh and pipe, across pounding waves and through thunder clouds on a journey which, as the film says, has no "ending or beginning, that shapes every body it passes through and unites them all across space and time."

    WATERLIFE's director, Kevin McMahon, is one of Canada's most innovative documentary filmmakers. Gord Downie, leader of The Tragically Hip and a Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, narrates the film. Topping off this epic cinematic poem is a fabulous soundtrack featuring Sam Roberts, The Allman Brothers, Dropkick Murphys, Sufjan Stevens, Sigur R?, Robbie Robertson, Daniel Lanois, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno and a new song by The Tragically Hip. Plus check out the award-winning interactive website.

    Awards
  • Special Jury Prize, Canadian Feature, HotDocs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
  • Best Documentary Cinematography, Canadian Society of Cinematographers

    Item no.: AZ02560784
    Format: DVD (Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 109 minutes
    Copyright: 2009
    Price: USD 320.00

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    AMERICAN OUTRAGE

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

    Directed by George Gage and Beth Gage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    ARID LANDS

    A moving and complex essay on a unique landscape of the American West, the area around the Hanford Site in Washington State.

    Arid Lands is a documentary feature about the land and people of the Columbia Basin in southeastern Washington state. Sixty years ago, the Hanford nuclear site produced plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and today the area is the focus of the largest environmental cleanup in history. It is a landscape of incredible contradictions: coyotes roam among decommissioned nuclear reactors, salmon spawn in the middle of golf courses, wine grapes grow in the sagebrush, and federal cleanup dollars spur rapid urban expansion.

    Arid Lands takes us into a world of sports fishermen, tattoo artists, housing developers, ecologists, and radiation scientists living and working in the area. It tells the story of how people changed the landscape over time, and how the landscape affected their lives. Marked by conflicting perceptions of wilderness and nature, Arid Lands is a moving and complex essay on a unique landscape of the American West.

    Reviews
  • "Exquisitely filmed and carefully crafted...The multiple perspectives showcased in the film highlight debates and issues that go far beyond the local environs-land development vs. ecology; science vs. real-world experience; and how to determine `acceptable risk.' Minimal narration allows viewers to weigh the various economic, ecological, cultural and political vectors of the problems facing the Hanford area and reach their own conclusions, making this film an excellent launching point for classroom debates." - Melissa Checker, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, City University of New York, Queens College

  • "Arid Lands is an engaging and thought-provoking film about shifting human adaptations and transformations of a particular landscape, and the incongruous absurdities sometimes generated in the process...[The film] provides a compelling springboard for discussion of some of the most important issues defining our times." - Dr. Lene Pedersen, Dept. of Anthropology and Museum, Central Washington University

  • "Arid Lands does not offer easy answers. Is it truly safe? What does it mean if a town is desensitized to nuclear waste? When will the federal money run out? Will tourism be the answer to economic development and at what cost? The film presents a richly textured view on a community that battles nuclear waste, wrestles with development, and worries about the water. Arid Lands does what most sociology professors want to teach: the ultimate sociological paradox of examining how societal influences shape individuals and, at the same time, how individuals shape the outcome of community, institutions, and society." - Dr. Marisol Clark- Ibanez, Assistant. Professor of Sociology, California State University- San Marcos

  • "An insightful look into...the concerns of the people who work and develop the land...An excellent job of showing how the choices made now will not only influence future lives, but, more important, the viability of a fragile landscape that the people cannot help but depend upon." - City Pages

  • "A love song for the ailing, if resilient, expanse of sagebrush and bunch grass that still thrives on the Hanford nuclear site...a comprehensive and, at times, profound and entertaining narrative." - Minnesota Daily

  • "In this age of golf courses in the desert, this honest look at the state of the west is as refershing as a tall drink of water." - Missoula Independent

  • "A smart, comprehensive, and beautiful film." - Williamette Week

  • "Stunning documentary...a provocative, complex portrait of Eastern Washington as it grapples with the legacy of Hanford and the future of its arid but starkly beautiful landscape." - Crosscut

    Awards
  • CINE Golden Eagle
  • Audience Choice Award, Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival
  • Best Documentary, Ellensburg Film Festival
  • Audience Award for Best Documentary, Sweet Onion Film Festival
  • Best Independent Film and Focus Award, Montana CINE
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Best Environmental Film, Seattle True Independent Film Festival
  • Special Jury Award, Eckerd College Environmental Film Festival
  • "Best of Fest", Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Best Environmental Film, Plymouth Independent Film Festival
  • Longbaugh Film Festival
  • Big Sky Film Series
  • Globians Film Festival, Potsdam, Germany
  • Idaho International Film Festival
  • Ellensburg Film Festival
  • Northwest Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: HJ02790349
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With Study Guide, Subtitles)
    Duration: 98 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 295.00

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    BLACK DIAMONDS: MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL & THE FIGHT FOR COALFIELD JUSTICE

    Directed by Catherine Pancake
    Research, Consulting, Interviews by Ann Pancake
    Graphic Design by Randy Miller
    Narrated by Lauren Graham


    Examines the escalating drama in Appalachia over mountaintop removal mining.

    BLACK DIAMONDS charts the escalating drama in Appalachia over the alarming increase in large mountaintop coal mines. These mammoth operations have covered 1200 miles of headwater streams with mining waste; demolished thousands of acres of hardwood forest; and flattened hundreds of Appalachian mountain peaks.

    Citizen testimony and visual documentation interwoven with the perspectives of government officials, activists, and scientists create a riveting portrait of an American region fighting for its life -- caught between the grinding wheels of the national appetite for cheap energy and an enduring sense of Appalachian culture, pride, and natural beauty.

    The film includes testimony from Julia Bonds, WV citizen-turned-activist, who received the 2003 Goldman Award (the nation's largest environmental activist award); Ken Hechler, former WV Secretary of State; William Maxey, former Director of WV Division of Forestry; and the many citizens of West Virginia.

    Reviews
  • "A searing...documentary...mixes history, sociology, advocacy journalism, and personal portraits vividly depicting the catastrophic ecological and cultural effects wrought by mountaintop removal." - Michael Yockel, Baltimore Magazine

  • "A riveting and ultimately energizing documentary...plays like a modern-day "Civil Action," only this time the corporate baddies are the leaders and mouthpieces of the coal industry, and the grass-roots crusaders are poor Appalachian residents who are rich in courage and culture. In a scant hour-plus, "Black Diamonds" provides a thumbnail economic and political history of coal mining in the state, a textured portrait of Appalachian life and a convincing case for ending the environmental scourge of decapitating mountains to get to the coal buried inside them." - Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

  • "BLACK DIAMONDS A MASTERPIECE... The Pancake sisters of West Virginia have created the best film to date on the subject of mountaintop removal mining... Presents the first complete overview of the subject... Black Diamonds is an epic film about the monumental collision between the demand for cheap energy and the century-long victims of this demand, the people, the land, the living Appalachian forests, the innocent animals and the very water and air they breathe." - Steve Fesenmaier, Graffiti

    Awards
  • Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media Award
  • Anchorage International Film Festival
  • West Virginia International Film Festival
  • Kansas International Film Festival
  • Takoma Park Film Festival
  • Heartwood's Annual Forest Council / Summit for the Mountains
  • Mountain Summer Justice Film Fest

    Item no.: TE02560513
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 72 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 275.00

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    BLACK WAVE: THE LEGACY OF THE EXXON VALDEZ

    Directed by Robert Cornellier

    The story of the Exxon Valdez and the 20-year legal battle to get restitution from ExxonMobil.

    In the early hours of March 24th 1989 the Exxon Valdez oil supertanker runs aground in Alaska. It discharges millions of gallons of crude oil. The incident becomes the biggest environmental catastrophe in North American history.

    In a flash, dramatic images shoot across the planet. They show thousands of carcasses of seabirds and sea otters covered in oil. A thick black tide rises and covers the beaches of once-pristine Prince William Sound.

    For twenty years, Riki Ott and the fishermen of the little town of Cordova, Alaska have waged the longest legal battle in U.S. history against the world's most powerful oil company - ExxonMobil. They tell us all about the environmental, social and economic consequences of the black wave that changed their lives forever.

    This is the legacy of the Exxon Valdez.

    Review
  • "A stunning reminder of the havoc wreaked...by the grounding of the Exxon Valdez." - Arthur R. Miller, University Professor, School of Law, New York University

    Award
  • Gemini Award (Canadian Emmy Awards), Best Direction in a Documentary Program

    Item no.: LY02560612
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 99 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 295.00

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    CITY LIFE: A FISTFUL OF RICE

    Protein deficiency threatens generations of children in Nepal.

    Nine out of every ten children in Nepal suffers from some form of malnutrition. Ironically, it is because malnutrition is so widespread that it is also unnoticed. This is particularly true of protein energy malnutrition, or PEM as it is known -- a condition officially defined as being short and underweight for age, but which, in reality, is a devastating intergenerational cycle of lost potential, both physical and mental.

    This program from the City Life series unravels the complex causes and effects of Protein Energy Malnutrition through the stories of people in Nepal who live with it on a daily basis. It also explores ways of changing attitudes towards food and gender.

    Item no.: AK01110053
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: BRAZIL - WINNING AGAINST AIDS

    Brazil has developed generic antiretroviral drugs to care for those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

    HIV/AIDS sufferers in Brazil today get the same treatment as HIV/AIDS sufferers in the USA and Europe -- the same, free anti-retroviral drugs, clinical care, and monitoring. Since Brazil started to manufacture its own HIV/AIDS drugs in 1997, the country's patients have proved just as capable of taking their medicines on time as Americans or Europeans, and the Brazilian government's national HIV/AIDS program has halved the death rate from AIDS, prevented thousands of new patients from being hospitalized, and helped to stabilize the epidemic. Brazil's actions have effectively countered the arguments that the drug companies were using to deny AIDS treatment to developing countries' health services.

    So is Brazil's program the template for AIDS treatment elsewhere? This program from the City Life series examines whether it can be replicated in other countries.

    Item no.: BM02560054
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: CITY LIFE

    Explores Sao Paolo in introduction to series examining the effects of globalization on people and cities.

    Marta Suplicy is the new mayor of Sao Paolo, Brazil -- a breath of fresh air after years of municipal apathy and corruption. Her aim is to make Sao Paulo a sustainable 21st century global city.

    This program, the first from the City Life series, follows Marta as she visits schools, hospitals, favelas, and a shelter for battered women, in her quest to turn the city around.

    Interviewed in the program are Professors Peter Marcuse (Columbia University), Saskia Sassen (University of Chicago), Ed Glaeser (Harvard University), as well as Sheela Patel, director of SPARC (Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centers), and Anna Tibaijuka, the new Executive Director of the United Nations Center for Human Settlements.

    Item no.: TK02790055
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: DOING THE RIGHT THING

    Porto Alegre, Brazil has benefited from urban revitalization.

    Porto Alegre, capital of Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, was once a run-of-the-mill, dirty, Brazilian port city. But an amazing transformation has taken place: unemployment has fallen, public transportation is now excellent, and poor neighborhoods have improved dramatically.

    These changes are thanks to a process of direct democracy known as the 'Participatory Budget' scheme that's giving all Porte Alegre's citizens a say in how their city is run. The scheme devotes the bulk of the city's financial resources to renewing the infrastructure of the town's slum areas and improving living standards for its neediest residents. As a result, exceptional neighborhood leaders have sprung up. This program from the City Life series traces the experiences of two such women, both born in poor slum areas, who have risen to make a difference in the community.

    Item no.: NH01110056
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: GAZA UNDER SIEGE

    The Gaza Strip has been a virtual prison for Palestinians for over fifty years.

    One of the most densely populated places on earth, the Gaza Strip, is home to a million Palestinians -- and is a virtual prison. Just forty-three kilometers long and ten kilometers wide, most of its residents are refugees who have lived in camps since 1948. Since the Palestinian uprising -- the second Intifada -- began in September 2000, none of Gaza's forty thousand day laborers have been able to cross the border to Israel. The checkpoint is also closed to all goods and medical supplies coming in from Israel and the West Bank. Local Gazans bear the brunt of Israel's determination to quash the uprising.

    This program from the City Life series films Reyidh and Sabah -- from just one refugee family trying to cope. Already poor, the family has reached breaking point, with Sabah wondering how long life can go on with no solution in sight.

    Raji Soranj, a human rights lawyer, asks why the United Nations shies away from its responsibilities and fails to criticize Israel's aggression and the denial of the Palestinians' rights -- rights laid down in UN resolutions, but ignored by Israel, and it seems, by the rest of the international community.

    Awards
  • Middle Eastern Studies FilmFest
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: FV02560057
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: HOLY SMOKE - CAMBODIANS FIGHT TOBACCO

    Buddhist monks lead anti-tobacco campaign in Cambodia.

    Developing countries like Cambodia bear the brunt of aggressive marketing techniques by huge multinational tobacco companies. The lure of cash from tobacco companies results in lenient advertising regulations. There are no health warnings on tobacco products in Cambodia, and no bans on sales to minors. Since 1993, there has been a ban on tobacco advertising on the public broadcast media. But it does not apply to private media, with surveys showing cigarette ads on television and radio quadrupling since 1996, tobacco advertising accounting for forty-six percent of all street advertising, and Japan Tobacco even advertising its Mild Seven cigarettes on ice cream trucks.

    But not all is lost. Since the fall of the oppressive Khmer Rouge regime, religion that had previously been suppressed has reemerged, and asserted itself as an instrument of change. Buddhist monks are now spearheading the campaign to persuade Cambodians to give up tobacco -- a tough assignment in a country with one of the highest rates of smoking in the world and life expectancy of only fifty-four years. Award
  • Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting

    Item no.: PD02790058
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: LINES IN THE DUST

    In revolutionary programs in Northern Ghana and India, gender roles are challenged, and illiterate adults educated.

    In a small village in Northern Ghana, a group of men and women sit around in a semi-circle, discussing the chart that they have drawn in the dust. The chart has three columns, showing the hours in the day and the different tasks men and women undertake during those hours. It soon becomes clear that women undertake the most labor intensive work -- fetching water and firewood, cleaning and preparing food -- and the discovery sparks a lively debate about why the men can not take on more 'women's' work. In this Muslim village, it is a radical move for men and women to sit down and debate together.

    But the project aims to go beyond discussion of men's and women's separate workloads, reaching out to the nine hundred million illiterate adults across the world--from Ghana to the Eastern Ghats of India--who have been failed by conventional education. Known as 'Reflect', it is part of a radical approach to learning for adults that does not rely on importing textbooks from the outside world, but where, instead, everything is created by the participants themselves.

    As well as changing ideas about whose job it is to carry all the water and fuel, charts and other home-made tools act as a stepping-stone towards reading, writing and number-work--and introduce learners to the concept that the symbols they copy onto paper can represent not just words, but ideas--and their plans for change.

    Reviews
  • "Opens up new avenues to think about education in a non- Western context" - Tanya Palit, Women and International Development

  • "Provides a very candid look at life in rural villages, and it opens up new avenues to think about education in a non- Western context." - Tanya Palit, Women and International Development

  • "Lively and engaging" - Global Peace Film Festiva

    Item no.: HN01110059
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: MISSING OUT

    Anemia threatens the population of Niger and Tanzania.

    Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, and less than a third of the population has access to any health care. Malnutrition remains the main cause of maternal and infant mortality and well over half of all pregnant women suffer from iron deficiency anemia. This program from the City Life series follows two traditional birth attendants as they try to persuade women to take iron folate supplements and visit hospitals, which is often prohibitively expensive.

    The program also visits Tanzania, where malaria is blamed for the increase in anemia. In some areas, ninety-three percent of children suffer from the condition. Unicef believes that the way forward is micromultinutrient pills which contain iron folate and other vitamins. But is this a sustainable solution for Tanzania? Unfortunately, the possibility that donors may pull out of distribution programs is high. Young, adolescent girls already constitute a majority of those missing out on supplemental programs. Mothers of the future are in danger.

    Item no.: NA02560060
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: MY HANOI

    Tour of rapidly urbanizing Hanoi, and the effect on citizens and culture.

    Hanoi is one the new global cities of the 21st century--a burgeoning center of international trade and tourism, in competition with other fast growing cities of South East Asia and the south China region. Growing urbanization has led to a boom in construction: market reform and globalization have caused an influx of Western consumer goods.

    My Hanoi is the story of Tran Thuy Linh, whose family has lived in the flower village area of Hanoi for generations, but now must move. Thuy describes the extended family she grew up with in the flower village, and charts the stories of their lives against the backdrop of the changing skyline of the city -- old people, young people, politicians, housewives, and the migrant day laborers who work on the construction sites.

    Seen through Thuy's eyes, the program profiles a city in a period of dramatic change -- emerging from colonialism and the still painful memory of the Vietnam War, through socialism to the current free market era where a younger generation is asserting itself as a force for change.

    Award
  • Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting

    Item no.: FP02790061
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: MY MOTHER BUILT THIS HOUSE

    Large homeless contingent in South Africa has organized to build houses for each other.

    There are four million homeless people in South Africa. Nearly one million people in Cape Town live in slums or squatter settlements alone. Victoria Mxenge was the first of the housing projects founded by the South African Homeless People's Federation in the 1990s in Khayalitsha, a huge sprawling township outside Cape Town. A small oasis in a seemingly infinite sea of neat houses, a creche, an office built from old, brightly painted shipping containers and a small shop selling basic essentials. Behind it, and beyond the railway line that carries commuters into the city, the endless shacks stretch out to the distant horizon -- and the distinctive outlines of Table Mountain.

    Over 70,000 very poor women belong to the Homeless People's Federation, which was founded to transform the suffering of shack dwellers in South Africa and provide them with the opportunities and choices they had been denied under apartheid. This episode of City Life tells the story of three women shack dwellers.

    Award
  • Bronze Plaque Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: VS01110062
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PARADISE DOMAIN

    Pacific islanders are not benefiting from digital windfall or World Wide Web.

    What's in a name? To a tiny nation in the South Pacific, plenty. The country is Tuvalu, and thanks to the Internet domain name registry, Tuvalu looked as if it might be about to hit pay dirt.

    Tuvalu is a string of coral rocks in the South Pacific: nine low-lying islands that make up one of the world's smallest, most isolated countries. Largely unknown to tourists, Tuvalu and its 9,000 people suffer from underdevelopment and a lack of jobs. It is a country so poor that four out of five fishermen are lost every year because they can not afford compasses for their boats. Other than fishing, people get by harvesting coconuts -- pretty much the only thing the soil will grow.

    But Tuvalu had one valuable asset: its coveted domain name -- dot tv. In 1999, the prime minister determined to capitalize on this by selling the name to an American dot.com company -- in exchange for several million dollars and access to the new wired-up world. But who's benefiting most? -- the Tuvalu islanders themselves, used to a relaxed, Pacific way of life with few modern conveniences, or the US corporation?

    Item no.: NK02560063
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PATENTLY OBVIOUS

    International patent regulations only protect multinationals.

    Protection of intellectual property -- works of the mind -- is the lifeblood of today's new knowledge economy. But while the benefits to the multinational pharmaceutical or telecommunications giants are plain, what relevance do World Trade Organization regulations have for developing countries? This program from the City Life series explores the benefits of intellectual property protection in the Indian state of Gujarat.

    Karimbhai practices herbal medicine from his home. Ten years ago he lived in a tiny hut, charged nothing for treating patients, and as his sons had no interest in learning his skills -- his knowledge was likely to die with him. By contrast Karimbhai today makes a good living -- with people traveling for miles for treatment and advice. He even has a patent application out for one of his medicines. His change of fortune came about after he joined the Honeybee Network, coordinated by Professor Anil Gupta with the aim of protecting and strengthening rural innovators and traditional knowledge keepers by documenting their work and protecting its patents.

    Item no.: SC02790064
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PAVEMENTS OF GOLD

    Increase in urban poverty and population, caused by globalization, threatens Peruvians.

    Urban poverty is one of the biggest challenges facing the world in the 21st century. In 1950, three hundred million people were living in urban areas; by 2001 that figure had increased to 2.85 billion, or almost half the world's population. And the flow of rural migrants arriving in the world's mega cities shows no signs of slowing down. -- "It is a trend which cannot be stopped," says Anna Tibaijuka, the new executive director of the UN Center for Human Settlements, "even in the developing countries..."

    With the backdrop of Lima, Peru, this program examines the enduring magnetism of big cities -- and asks whether the migrants who have moved here now feel that city life is the answer to their dreams.

    Award
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: JJ01110065
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: PAYING THE PRICE

    Pharmaceutical companies block generic drugs, threatening the lives of millions of Africans with AIDS.

    In a hospital in Uganda, 14-year-old Vincent is being treated for cryptococcal meningitis, contracted as a result of AIDS. Underweight, frightened and wracked with pain, he is one of literally millions of AIDS orphans across Africa who will die in the next ten years unless life-saving antiretroviral drugs become more widely available. But at current prices, the drugs are just too expensive for most African countries.

    The fight for affordable drugs in Africa first made world headlines last year when a consortium of forty-two major pharmaceutical companies took the South African government to court over its right to import or manufacture generic drugs to treat AIDS sufferers.

    After a global campaign by activist groups, trade unions and NGOs, the companies finally withdrew the case in April 2001 -- in what was likely regarded as a humiliating climb-down. But even before the court case outcome, the companies had begun reducing the prices of their patented drugs -- as part of the Accelerating Access Initiative brokered by UNAIDS to provide drugs at a lower cost and training to selected African countries.

    This program from the City Life series investigates the background to AIDS treatment in Africa, reports of the success of the Ugandan program, and asks why the South African government is still refusing to authorize a national program of treatment for AIDS.

    Item no.: BA02560066
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: STOP THE TRAFFICK

    Investigates horror of child sex industry in Cambodia.

    Thirty years of war has left Cambodia ravaged and poverty-stricken. Since the end of the brutal Khmer Rouge rule, poverty, corruption and global tourism have combined to make it particularly vulnerable to the child labor industry. Children as young as ten years old are trafficked into cities from rural areas to become sex workers or trafficked out to comparatively wealthy Thailand to work as beggars, domestic laborers, or laborers on construction sites. Most of the sex workers are girls, although some of the boys on the streets are working as prostitutes too.

    With seventy percent of the Cambodian population living in rural areas, international trafficking gangs target poor rural families, often striking when times are hardest. They offer 'loans' in return for the children which then accumulate huge interest repayments, leaving the children trapped in 'debt bondage' for life.

    This program from the City Life series investigates the trade and new efforts by the International Labor Organization and local groups to rescue the children and stop the traffic.

    Review
  • "A brief but densely informative piece that exposes the depth of child exploitation and abuse in Cambodia's burgeoning sex industry..."Stop the Traffick" gives a human face to the socioeconomic problems of Southeast Asia that are portrayed so abstractly in the Western media." Tanya Palit, Women and International Development

    Item no.: NW02790067
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: THE BARCELONA BLUEPRINT

    Barcelona today is a model of urban planning that may prove sustainable.

    Once the industrial heart of the region of Catalonia in Spain, Barcelona could have become just another burnt-out, rust-belt European city that failed to find a role in the modern, globalized world. But what set Barcelona apart from other European cities was a visionary local government that decided to radically redevelop the city in the run-up to the 1992 Olympics -- a redevelopment that involved all of the city's population.

    Barcelona today is a model 21st century city, combining historic buildings with modern architecture in a fusion that has helped make it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

    This program from the City Life series starts with a short tour of the city's seafront with Barcelona's Chief Architect Josep Acebillo and UK architect and urban planner Richard Rogers, before moving on to a studio debate on the process at the Special Session of the UN General Assembly in New York in summer 2001, held to review progress from the 1996 UN City Summit in Istanbul.

    Item no.: DR01110068
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: THE HEALTH PROTESTORS

    Health care advocates demand universal health care for the world's population at international convention in Dhaka.

    In 1978, the World Health Organization's Alma Ata conference promised to deliver basic health care for all the world's population. Today, that promise remains unmet in too many countries and cities of the developing world where health is still the prerogative of wealthy elites -- and the poor remain trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and ill-health.

    Frustrated by the failure of the international community to deliver on its promises, doctors, health professionals, and civil rights activists from around the world convened in Dhaka in December 2000 at the People's Health Assembly. Their mission was to draw up a charter of their own demands for health care, framed in the new People's Health Charter.

    This third episode in City Life follows the process -- from a fifty thousand-person rally in Calcutta, through heated debates with World Bank spokespeople in Dhaka and argumentative late-night drafting sessions -- to the final triumphant publication of the Charter on the final day of the Assembly.

    Item no.: TN02560069
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: THE LONG MARCH

    Community in Chengdu, China has organized to clean-up polluted river.

    China is already home to a fifth of the world's population. To relieve the pressure on scarce farm land and fragile topsoil, the Chinese government is building four hundred new cities over the next 20 years, each housing over half a million residents. New towns and settlements are springing up from nowhere. Others are witnessing an explosion in their populations, stretching their capacity to deliver essential services to breaking point. This film tells the story of one such town.

    Chengdu, in South West China, was once the southern staging post for the silk trade and capital of Shu Kingdom. In 256 BC, Shu leader Li Bing built the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, channeling the Min River through Chengdu in what is still recognized as a triumph for hydraulic engineering. But the irrigation system was neglected and abused during the rapid industrial development of the 1970s, resulting in massive pollution and floods. Today, Chengdu's municipal government has succeeded in reversing the damage, turning what had become an urban nightmare into a model of modern day planning.

    Item no.: TF02790070
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: THE MILLER'S TALE - BREAD IS LIFE

    Efforts are underway in Egypt and Yemen to fortify flour with iron to wipe out needless malnutrition.

    Iron deficiency anemia is the most widespread nutritional disorder in the world, a severe health problem that affects more than 3.5 billion people. It causes a range of problems, from extreme lethargy to low birth weight, stunting, maternal mortality, miscarriage and loss of productivity. More than half the population of Middle Eastern countries is iron-deficient -- yet fortifying flour with iron costs about US $2 per person, per lifetime.

    To quell the anemia epidemic in the Middle East, health professionals urge that fortified flour be used in bread. But because of complex social and cultural issues in the Middle East, fortifying flour with iron is difficult. Bread originated in Egypt and has been sacred since ancient times. Because of deeply rooted beliefs many millers refuse to add anything unnatural to their bread.

    Item no.: NS01110071
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: THE OTHER SIDE

    Poor Mexicans attempt perilous border crossing to US, often at the expense of family, traditional culture, and their lives.

    Over the last century, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans have crossed the border to the United States in pursuit of permanent jobs, and a better life. But in the new millennium, that journey has become increasingly dangerous, and the costs are starting to outweigh the benefits.

    This program from the City Life series reveals the devastating impact of Mexican-US migration. The people who attempt to cross suffer horribly and frequently die. The families and communities left behind are disabled and their languages and cultures are being destroyed. The Other Side tells the story of the villagers who have had enough -- and now are trying to make sure their children will no longer have to migrate to realize their dreams.

    Item no.: SW02560072
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: TOGETHER AGAINST VIOLENCE

    Poor Jamaican community overcomes violence.

    Bennetlands is a ghetto community in the heart of Kingston, Jamaica -- home to five thousand people. Half of them are under 25 and over two thousand are unemployed. Once, despite the poverty, Bennetlands was a peaceful place, with daily life revolving around its primary school, two churches and the S-Corner Clinic, which provided health care, support and education for high school drop-outs. But in the 1980s war broke out in the region -- with rival 'corner' gangs fighting a vicious turf battle over Bennetlands' one high street, terrorizing the neighborhood and preventing children from going to school. Then one of the gang leaders, the 'dons' in the local parlance, was shot outside the S-Corner Clinic, and the community decided that enough was enough.

    Together Against Violence recreates the story of how the local leaders joined forces to challenge the local gangs to heal their differences and work together to restore a sense of community in one poor Jamaican neighborhood.

    Item no.: SZ02790073
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    CITY LIFE: WAITING TO GO

    Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are denied human rights.

    This program from the City Life series is set in Lebanon, where (according to the UN) there are three hundred seventy-five thousand Palestinian refugees. Palestinians are unwanted in Israel, but in war-torn, sectarian Lebanon, among fellow Arabs, they hardly fare better, and most live in poverty. Barred from working, they also have limited access to medical care and higher education. Many have been in Lebanon for over fifty years.

    A Palestinian doctor working in the PLO-funded Haifa hospital in Burj el Barajneh refugee camp, Beirut, earns US $200 month, and is glad of the work: she's forbidden in any Lebanese hospital. Elsewhere young Palestinians do not value education because they see their parents in menial, part-time jobs regardless of their qualifications. For refugees living in South Lebanon, a degree qualifies a person to pick oranges, at a salary of US $6.30 a day. South Lebanon's refugees are even prohibited from rebuilding their houses.

    Those who can get out of Lebanon go to Europe, Canada, USA -- but they never give up hope of returning to their villages in Palestine. Adding insult to injury, a recent law enacted in Lebanon prohibits Palestinians from owning property -- though people from any other recognized state have that right. But Palestinians do not have a state: they are officially stateless.

    Item no.: MM01110074
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 195.00

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    COWBOYS, INDIANS, & LAWYERS

    Directed by Julia Dengel
    Written by Julia Dengel
    Editor: Jonathan Oppenheim
    Narrated by Julia Dengel
    Music by John Fahey, Badly Bent, and Phillips, Grier and Flinner

    The story of a pork-barrel project: a dam on the free-flowing Animas River in Colorado.

    COWBOYS, INDIANS & LAWYERS follows the fortunes of two enemy camps as they struggle over the fate of the free-flowing Animas River in Colorado. A dam project called ALP was authorized by Congress over 30 years ago to help white farmers irrigate desert lands, but has never been built. The filmmaker, a former New Yorker, becomes obsessed with ALP as she learns the dam is tied to massive development plans including coal mines, power plants, and housing developments. With the Southern Ute Indian tribe recruited as a key promoter, Sage Remington -- a radical Southern Ute activist -- pits himself against his own tribal government and their politically connected lawyer, Sam Maynes. While Sam's friendship with the tribal chairman helps solidify the tribe's alliance with developers, Sage finds allies in a ragtag group of white environmentalists.

    Can a multicultural alliance of determined activists stop a dam supported by the biggest development interests in the Southwest? In an intimate portrait of pork barrel politics, COWBOYS, INDIANS & LAWYERS bears witness as these unlikely nemeses bring their case to the halls of Congress, revealing the rich complexities of American politics and Anglo- Indian relations through a rural community's battle over money, power and water.

    Reviews
  • "This is the quintessential American West -- a heavily-subsidized, environmental boondoggle of a water project that also brings long-overdue justice to Indian people and irrigation water to hardscrabble farmers on a parched landscape. COWBOYS, INDIANS, & LAWYERS presents the tangled and compelling saga of the Animas- LaPlata Project through the words and visions of the diverse and colorful westerners at the heart of this epic controversy. And there is no gloss here -- this is the true story, fairly told and utterly authentic." - Charles Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado

  • "Julia Dengel's clear examination of the infamous Animas- La Plata project rushes along like the river itself. Her splendid photography reminds us that the landscape surrounds us and we have the power to destroy it bit by bit. The larger Western fight over water is illuminated in searing detail. This is an intelligent documentary, well told, and clear as a mountain lake." - Judith Reynolds, Durango Telegraph

  • "Dengel's real interest, and the payoff for the viewer, lies in the closeups. The characters involved are at least as fascinating as the political story. What results is a treatment that reveals much about private human motivations and how they attach themselves to a public cause." - Mike Clark, Durango Herald
  • "Julia Dengel gets at the heart of western water conflicts: competing points of view that are passionately defended by diverse groups who sometimes form surprising alliances. While not attempting to mask her own personal stance, Dengel presents the reasoning behind both sides of the debate. Cowboys, Indians, & Lawyers can be used to provoke discussion in classes on political ecology, environmental studies, cultural anthropology, studies of the southwest and American Indian studies, among others." - Karen Pennesi, Research Associate, CLIMAS, University of Arizona

  • "By carefully weaving the many threads of this narrative into a compelling drama, [the filmmaker] succeeds in presenting an informative account of a riveting situation that is being replayed in many rural areas across the West." - School Library Journal

    Awards
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Durango Film Festival
  • Santa Cruz Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: GP01110515
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 250.00

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    CRAPSHOOT: THE GAMBLE WITH OUR WASTES

    Looks at the failure of our current sewage disposal system and presents alternatives.

    A hazardous mix of solid and liquid waste is flushed into the sewer every day. With literally billions of gallons of water passing through municipal sewer systems-composed of unknown quantities of chemicals, solvents, heavy metals, human waste, and food-the question becomes: where does it all go? And what effect does that have on us?

    From ancient times, countries have chosen the sewer as the waste management system of choice, flushing untold amounts of household and industrial contaminants that inevitably resurface in the food chain; fish swim through rivers choked with waste water, while processed sewage sludge is spread on farmland as a fertilizer.

    With CRAPSHOOT, filmmaker Jeff McKay takes viewers on an eye-opening journey around the world to explore different approaches to sewage, starting at the 2,500 year old Cloaca Maxima in Rome, where the modern concept of sewers began. Filmed in Italy, India, Sweden, the United States and Canada, this bold documentary questions whether the sewer is alleviating or compounding our waste problem. While scientists warn of links between sewage practices and potential health risks, our fundamental attitudes toward waste are being challenged by activists, engineers, and concerned citizens alike. Does our need to dispose of waste take precedence over public health and safety? What are the alternatives?

    Reviews
  • "One of the very best films I've screened this year." - Matthew Hays, (Montreal) Mirror

  • "3 stars1/2... Despite the lighthearted title, this...production takes a serious look at the question of what happens when we flush... The visuals here are occasionally spectacular... Thought-provoking, scary as all-get-out, and engrossing, Crapshoot is a must for environmental studies collections and highly recommended in general." - Video Librarian

  • "Out of sight and out of mind, most people will say, however there exist some fairly significant questions regarding our massive investments and miscalculations in waste management. Well, Canadian director Jeff McKay has tackled the dirty issue and formed it into a stunningly disgusting and thought-provoking documentary." - Creative Generalist

  • "One of the very best films I've screened this year is a thoughtful NFB doc about what happens to human waste and the dilemma ridding ourselves of it is creating...Yeah it's disgusting alright, and it's also a harrowing look at yet another environmental travesty that's unfolding everywhere-not just third world spots..." - Matthew Hays, (Montreal) Mirror

  • "The haunting message of the film is that nothing flushed down the toilet is ever just gone. The problem caused by using water to move our waste cannot be solved by technology. This will take a major social change...Crapshoot could generate a healthy discussion. The film would have great applicability in courses with environmental units, but it could also be used in Sociology, Law, Civics, Science, Ethics or Technology." - Frank Loreto, CM Magazine

  • "[A] strongly recommended addition to school, college, and community library collections." - The Midwest Book Review

  • "The City of Moncton was gearing itself to promote the use of 'bio-solids' with its new plant. I think [Crapshoot] showed a lot of people that the use of bio-solids has serious long-term effects on the environment and people's health...a few people who saw the film wrote editorials in the local paper and that stirred up interest and questions from the local community. This might not have happened if we had not seen the film." - Eric Arseneau, Coordinator of the Petitcodiac Watershed Monitoring Group

  • "The film had a really powerful impact on me...It wasn't until I saw [Crapshoot] that I fully grasped that a toilet doesn't have to be designed to use water. Nor does that whole system of underground sewage pipes even have to exist. There are and can be options." - Leslie Forrester, resident of the small community of Stirling, Ontario Canada

    Awards
  • Runner- Up in Category, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Montreal World Film Festival
  • United Nations Association Film Festival
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • The Green Film Festival, Washington DC
  • Global Visions Film Festival
  • World Community Film Festival, Courtenay, BC
  • Plymouth Independendent Film Festival
  • Silver Plaque, Chicago International Television Awards
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Golden Sheaf Awards
  • Environmental Media Awards

    Item no.: WV02790082
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2003
    Price: USD 250.00

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    DEVELOPING STORIES 1: ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT - LUCIA

    Directed by Mel Chionglo

    A compelling dramatic feature from the Philippines which starts off at dawn in a fishing village in Bataan after a tanker has spilled oil in the night. The oil threatens not just marine life but the existence of the entire community. People and animals get sick. Many villagers leave. The film chronicles the efforts of Lucia and her family to stay in the village. But the social forces at play are too strong and Lucia is powerless to stop the disintegration of her family as they are forced into the slums of Manila.

    Review
  • "Social realism at its most searing, relentlessly despairing but riveting." - TORONTO GLOBE and MAIL

    Awards
  • Best Developing Country Production, Okomedia
  • Premier Award, One World Broadcasting Trust
  • Best Drama Special, Philippine Movie Press Club

    Item no.: NM02560694
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 89 minutes
    Copyright: 1992
    Price: USD 150.00

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    DOWNWIND/DOWNSTREAM

    Threats to the Mountains and Waters of the American West

    Water quality for major southwest cities is threatened by mining, acid rain, urbanization.

    DOWNWIND/DOWNSTREAM documents the serious threat to water quality, sub-alpine ecosystems, and public health in the Colorado Rockies from mining operations, acid rain, and urbanization.

    10,000 abandoned mines in the high country, plus thousands of acres covered with wastes from such huge operations as the Climax molybdenum mine, release a steady stream of toxic heavy metals into the headwaters of the Western water supply -- water on which cities as far apart as El Paso, Phoenix, Denver, and Los Angeles depend.

    Acid rain and snow leach additional metals from mountain soils and threaten aquatic ecosystems and forests. Together, these problems also represent a potent threat to the $10 billion Western tourism industry. The time for action is now!

    Review
  • "A powerful reminder that we share a limited environment with other humans and other life forms and that we will be ecologically and ethically accountable for thoughtless conduct. The film is a superb tool for teaching modern environmentalism." - Roderick Nash, Professor of History and Environmental Studies, UC Santa Barbara

    Awards
  • Blue Ribbon, American Film & Video Festival
  • Gold Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival
  • Best of Festival/Polaris Award, National Council for Geographic Education
  • CINE Golden Eagle
  • Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival
  • Gold Medal, International Film & TV Festival of New York
  • Special Jury Award, Telluride MountainFilm Festival
  • Ekofilm
  • Editor's Choice, Booklist
  • Editor's Choice, Science Books and Films

    Item no.: CA01110389
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 59 minutes
    Copyright: 1987
    Price: USD 59.00

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    DROWNED OUT: WE CAN'T WISH THEM AWAY

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

    Resettlement site or stay at home and drown.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • "Quiet, fierce, beautiful" - New Internationalist

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

  • "The film highlights not just the Indian political power structure that makes it possible to displace millions, but also the human face of villagers asked to uproot their lives without assurance of reward." - India- West

  • "A thoughtfully presented account of how a tribal farming family decide to stay and drown in their home rather than relocate to a world where their skills would be useless. It's a troubling, thought-provoking story." - The Metro (Edinburgh)- Scotland

  • "Provides an insight as to how political decisions made without the knowledge or the consent of those who will be affected, have far reaching effects on people as well as the environment...a very thought provoking film that provides interesting topics for discussion as it poses questions such as 'development for whom, and at what cost?' ...highly recommended for Asian studies' collections in high school, college and academic libraries." - Geetha Yapa, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Is it really 'progress' if millions must be forcefully dispossessed and lose their livelihood? Is it really democracy when desperate people are ignored despite a large body of evidence that their demands are reasonable? Questions about economic development and environmental ethics are raised in a powerful way. College students in several disciplines are likely to be engaged and challenged by this film." - Paul Conway, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, SUNY Oneonta

  • "Handsomely produced" - Phil Hall, Film Threat

  • "There are some films you want to recommend. But this is a film I'd beg people to go and see. It is that important, and it is that moving and inspiring." - Kevin Williamson, Rebel Inc Coffee Shop- UK

  • "Superb...The film is heart-wrenching as the wheels of privilege turn and crush those without money, education, or access to power. But it's also hugely inspiring to see the quiet, determined courage of common folk rise again and again to the challenge of self-determination and self-protection..." - Ernest Hardy, Flaunt Magazine

    Awards
  • Honorable Mention, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
  • Silverdocs, American Film Institute
  • Robert Flaherty Film Seminar at MoMA
  • United Nations Association Film Festival, Stanford
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Bermuda International Film Festival
  • Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
  • Planet in Focus, the Toronto International Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Amnesty International Film Festival
  • Wild Spaces Film Festival
  • ImagineAsia Festival, Edinburgh
  • Commonwealth Film Festival, Manchester
  • Tiburon International Film Festival
  • Ashland Independent Film Festival
  • 1001 Documentary Festival, Istanbul
  • Global Visions Film Festival
  • Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
  • Annapolis Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Chicago International Documentary Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Runner- Up, Audience Award for Best Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

    Item no.: SA02560097
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 75 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 275.00

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    EDENS LOST AND FOUND - CHICAGO: CITY OF THE BIG SHOULDERS

    City Hall and grass roots groups in Chicago are working on open space, green buildings and an educated citizenry to create a sustainable city.

    Chicago is a dynamic and fascinating city with spectacular architecture and a dramatic setting on the shores of Lake Michigan. The largest metropolis between the coasts, it has the biggest population, the most problems...and the greatest potential.

    Edens Lost & Found tells Chicago's story by threading together the stories of a diverse group of its active and committed citizens including volunteers, professionals, students and community leaders -- among them, the city's mayor, Richard M. Daley. During his tenure, Chicago made a powerful commitment to open space with the creation of the 24-acre Millennium Park built atop a parking garage in the heart of downtown. The city has also become a laboratory for green architecture with the award-winning City Hall Roof Garden and Green Roof Initiative.

    Whole neighborhoods are getting involved in the effort to create more livable communities. Eden Place is a prime example of grassroots determination to reclaim for themselves pieces of Eden that had been lost to generations of apathy.

    And out in the suburbs? An Elgin High School environmental instructor convinced the school board to set aside adjacent land as an outdoor classroom and nature preserve. Here, her students are learning to become leaders in the movement to create sustainable ecosystems.

    Reviews
  • "Positively redemptive" Philadelphia Inquirer

  • "There's something positively redemptive about Edens Lost & Found, the new PBS series about the transformation of dismal urban spaces into gardens and parks, villages and murals that are green and welcoming." - Virginia A. Smith, Philadelphia Inquirer

    Item no.: PF02790102
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 250.00

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    EDENS LOST AND FOUND - LOS ANGELES: DREAM A DIFFERENT CITY

    Directed by Harry Wiland

    Is it possible that the City of the Angels can tell a story to the world about environmental rebirth?

    LA made smog and pollution into household words. No longer. Its citizens have said enough. TreePeople, founded by Andy Lipkis, is leading the campaign to plant one million trees in the next decade. Friends of the LA River and the Rivers & Mountains Conservancy are reclaiming the Los Angeles River. They are determined to see the return of steelhead salmon in their lifetimes.

    To everyone's surprise, Los Angeles is discovering mass transit. Darrell Clarke, Executive Director of Friends of the Expo Line has spent 17 years finally convincing the city to begin building the first east-west light rail-line in Los Angeles in 50 years.

    Girls Today Women Tomorrow mentors the girls of Boyle Heights, teaching them about nutrition, exercise, and their Latina culture. The community-based program also provides college scholarships in a neighborhood where the drop-out rate is close to 50%.

    Los Angeles is even planning a 26-acre downtown park thanks to the philanthropic generosity and vision of Eli Broad. Other green projects are being promoted by its 24/7 Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who understands that environmental justice, public health and quality-of-life go together in order to dream a different city.

    Reviews
  • "[Eden's Lost and Found] Los Angeles: Dream a Different City inspires and instructs everyday citizens to tackle the big problems of sustainability, bit by bit, with effective grassroots initiative. It covers a wide range of angles: from light rail to urban forestry, restoring the L.A. River to developing sustainable lifestyles, and restoring toxic brownfields to developing farmers markets and urban gardening. A terrific resource for classrooms and community meetings alike, for those who live in well-off neighborhoods to those struggling to create environmental justice in areas once devastated by landfills and junkyards." - Carmen Sirianni, Chair, Sociology Department, Brandeis University

  • "In a day of increasing environmental awareness, the film hits home. It was especially relevant to us here in San Jose, California, just a few hundred miles north [of Los Angeles] and the 10th largest city in the U.S. It causes for some introspection of our personal actions and behaviors. I am considering biking to work in the future." - Dave Taylor, Physics teacher, Lynbrook High School

    Award
  • Amigo de los Rios Community Advocacy Award

    Item no.: TJ02790523
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With 45 Pages Teachers' Guide)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 250.00

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    EDENS LOST AND FOUND - PHILADELPHIA: THE HOLY EXPERIMENT

    Faced with severe budget limitations, Philadelphia's rebirth is being brought about by a network of community-based volunteer organizations.

    Philadelphia is a historic city responding to many challenges, including suburban development, that threaten to decimate the core city. Faced with severe budget limitations (a universal reality), it created a vast network of community-based volunteer organizations who have brought about rebirth through volunteerism and community outreach. Some of those organizations include The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, The New Kensington Community Development Corporation and The Philadelphia Water Department.

    City government hasn't been sitting still, either. Mayor John F. Street created the Neighborhood Transition Initiative (NTI) program as part of a coordinated plan to save the city from the impact of "moving up and moving out." NTI was assigned to come up with practicable and affordable solutions to remove blight, promote quality restoration, stimulate investment in new housing, and improve how the city delivers services to its businesses and residents. The challenge is to make neighborhoods more attractive so families will stay and become stakeholders.

    Philadelphia has many tales to tell about how it is dealing with challenges being felt around the planet: creation of a sustainable society, economy, and ecosystem in a thriving urban environment.

    Reviews
  • "Positively redemptive" Philadelphia Inquirer

  • "There's something positively redemptive about Edens Lost & Found, the new PBS series about the transformation of dismal urban spaces into gardens and parks, villages and murals that are green and welcoming." - Virginia A. Smith, Philadelphia Inquirer

    Item no.: AS01110103
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With 45 pages teachers' guide)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 250.00

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    EDENS LOST AND FOUND - SEATTLE: THE FUTURE IS NOW

    Directed by Harry Wiland

    Recognizing that the human community is growing faster than the aging infrastructure, the city of Seattle created an Office of Sustainability and Environment.

    Seattle is synonymous with environmental awareness. Some have called it the city of the future. It leads the nation in the search for alternate fuels (Seattle Biodiesel) and was one of the first locations to create community-based biodiesel distribution co-ops.

    The High- Point mixed-use housing development is the first planned sustainable neighborhood in a major American city. It garners visitors from around the world. High- Point has even restored streams that are critical to the region's salmon migration.

    Salmon is an indicator species for the North West and it is an integral part of our story. We follow the plight of this remarkable species from the releasing of eggs into Lake Washington by schoolchildren, to a trip into Elliot Bay with an enlightened fisherman and, finally, with a visit to native American commercial fisheries that adhere to sustainable practices.

    Also related to water, there is a heated debate on how to provide access to Seattle's remarkable shoreline. Will its aging Viaduct Highway be torn down and replaced with a tunnel? The issue is still being discussed.

    Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a citizen movement fails. Such a cautionary tale describes our final story, the 10-year battle to fund and build the citizen-inspired Monorail.

    Reviews
  • "[Eden's Lost and Found] Seattle: The Future is Now provides a wonderful resource for teaching in classroom and community settings. It provides portraits of everyday citizens, activists, and professionals who are genuine innovators: protecting and restoring watersheds, developing green building practices, reducing dependency on the automobile, transforming public housing, and developing sustainable transportation. It is at once visionary and practical and doesn't shy away from the difficult issues of costs and controversy, as in the monorail project. A very valuable civic resource for helping to imagine and inspire work for a sustainable city." - Carmen Sirianni, Chair, Sociology Department, Brandeis University
  • "This is a well-produced, broad-reaching, and optimistic film. Easily accessible to almost any audience, it highlights some of the innovative practices and projects being implemented in Seattle. This would be a valuable introduction to people in cities that have not yet begun to develop environmentally sustainable practices." - Branden Born, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington

    Item no.: HN02560525
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With 45 Pages Teachers' Guide)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 250.00

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    FOOD FOR THOUGHT

    Presents the environmental effects of eating meat.

    Comparing a cow to a gas-guzzling automobile, Bingham explains the inefficiency of using meat as fuel for the human body, especially in light of the environmental impact of raising all that meat -- from loss of topsoil, and groundwater depletion and pollution, to methane's contribution to global warming, and the growing gap between the rich and poor nations.

    Reviews
  • "This well-balanced, thought-provoking companion to FAT CITY urges viewers to weigh the taste for beef against global responsibilities." - Booklist

  • "Instructively but humorously compares the environmental effects of driving a car with meat-eating...Show this one to school and civic groups just before lunch and watch hamburger sales plummet." - The Animals' Agenda

  • "Would interest a wide range of viewers from junior high level to adult...a good buy for libraries or schools looking for fairly objective, informational videos on this topic." -3 Stars Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Awards
  • Birmingham International Film Festival
  • U.S. Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: EW02560396
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 28 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    Price: USD 59.00

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    HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION (SHORT VERSION)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    SHORT VERSION: To create a shorter version more suited to classroom, organizational, and television use, the producers have rearranged the order of the stories as above, and edited them down. Losing none of the power or

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    ISLAS HERMANAS (SISTER ISLANDS)

    Ometepe, Nicaragua, and Bainbridge Island near Seattle work together for a better life for both communities.

    Filmed on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua, and Bainbridge Island near Seattle, ISLAS HERMANAS (Sister Islands) celebrates a 13 year relationship between people on the two islands. Shade grown organic coffee, produced on Ometepe, is imported to the U.S., and profits are returned to Nicaragua to fund clean water and school building projects.

    Each year Ometepe families welcome Bainbridge High students into their homes for two weeks. An enterprising third grade class on Bainbridge creates and sells calendars to support community projects on their sister island.

    In an era of many negative impacts of globalization, this program, filled with inviting Nicaraguan music by the Mejia Godoys, conveys a positive story of international friendship.

    Reviews
  • "An inspirational story of two foreign lands providing services for the other, exchanging cultures, and building friendships...Through the personal experiences of each of the island inhabitants, a great sense of enthusiasm and gratitude shines brightly...Recommended for high schools and undergraduate classes in the fields of Central American Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Spanish, Community, and Geography." - Kim Davies, Milne Library, SUNY College at Geneseo, MC Journal

  • "If we are to create sustainable futures for our children it will be by creating dialogue through cooperation with others...This is beautifully illustrated in Islas Hermanas." - Danny O'Keefe, The Songbird Foundation

  • "This informative video powerfully conveys the extraordinary success of one Washington community's effort to make a global impact through responsible buying." - Paul Rice, Executive Director, TransFair USA

  • "Extremely upbeat, filled with images of tropical scenery and animals, children playing, and festive music...(G)ives a brief but heartfelt description of an inspiring relationship between two completely foreign and unrelated cultures tied together by nothing but the common bonds of humanity and the fact that they are both surrounded by water." - The Nicaragua Monitor

  • "Islas Hermanas helps students in the United States make a link to those living in a small country like Nicaragua. The program shows that international relationships can be established based on respect and that young people in the United States can make a difference in the lives of those around the world." - Matias Valenzuela, Spanish instructor, University of Washington

    Awards
  • CINE Golden Eagle
  • Northwest Film & Video Festival
  • Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema
  • Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Big Muddy Film & Video Festival
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: PT02560163
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 28 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    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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    LIFE 6: THE PIED PIPER OF EYASI

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

    Series Editor: Steve Bradshaw
    Series Consultant: Jenny Richards

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

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

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

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

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

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    LOOK AGAIN: JOURNEY OF THE BLOB

    An illustration of the water cycle in a cautionary tale about pollution.

    This classic, wordless film from the "Look Again" series tells a story that appeals to all ages, and is used widely in environmental education courses around the country.

    A boy makes a decision about how to dispose of a green glob he has concocted. What will happen if he dumps it into a stream? Where does water come from and where does it go? This film illustrates the water cycle and raises many questions about environmental responsibility and the consequences of our decisions.

    Reviews
  • "Who says the video medium has no place in literacy? In an era rife with the claims of the supremacy of print, these fine videos (the Look Again series) not only make kids look again, but they also make them think and learn." - Booklist

  • "Very creative and imaginative -- an excellent presentation of concepts for a young audience. This is a good program for repeat showings. The explanatory materials for teachers are unusually detailed." - AFVA Evaluations

  • "Well photographed, catching many details that will interest viewers." -4 Stars Video Rating Guide for Libraries

  • "Recommended." Landers Film & Video Reviews

    Awards
  • Best of Festival, North American Association for Environmental Education
  • Blue Ribbon, American Film and Video Festival
  • Editor's Choice, Booklist
  • East Lansing Children's Film Festival
  • What's Up Docs? Children's Film Festival, Hot Springs
  • Colorado Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: ZN02790430
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 10 minutes
    Copyright: 1989
    Price: USD 150.00

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    NATURAL CONNECTIONS: BIODIVERSITY VS. EXTINCTION

    Mass extinction of species can be stopped if we understand the importance of biodiversity.

    Edward O. Wilson, known as the "father of biodiversity", explains the significance of the mass extinction of species taking place around the planet today -- the sixth the earth has seen in its long history. The difference between this one and the previous five is that this one is induced by humans.

    HIPPO is the acronym that succinctly sums up the major factors contributing to this extinction. H stands for habitat destruction, I for the introduction of exotic species, P for pollution, another P for population growth, and O for over-consumption.

    If we begin to embrace the earth more as a community to which we belong, rather than a commodity belonging to us, we might begin to cherish our natural connections and help our own survival.

    Reviews
  • "Riveting and startling, but, more important, congenial, considerate and convincing." - Seattle Post- Intelligencer

  • "Astonishingly beautiful documentary...With gorgeous photography, straightforward writing and enthusiastic participation by scientists who don't come off as pedants...a wake-up call that is riveting and startling, but, more important, congenial, considerate and convincing." - Seattle Post- Intelligencer

  • "A beautifully produced and effective piece." - Edward O. Wilson, Honorary Curator of Entomology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, and author of "Biophilia" and "The Diversity of Life"

  • "This video...is an invaluable teaching tool. There are dozens of films on the market that address the environmental and biodiversity problems we are currently facing. Natural Connections may have an edge because it will appeal to all age groups. Highly recommended for public, school and college libraries." - Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "Superb photography, eloquent narration, and stirring interviews with biologists combine to make this Emmy Award winner perhaps the best video I have ever seen to make the case for the preservation of biodiversity. This dramatic video should be required viewing for all students teachers, parents, politicians, business leaders, consumers...Most highly recommended for viewers from about grade 6 or 7 through adults. Schools, nature centers, camps, and even individuals will value this video." - Dan R. Kunkle, Wildlife Activist Magazine

  • "A lovely piece of work. Excellent production values and interesting vignettes help to make several concepts in conservation and biodiversity very real and immediate...Could be used quite effectively in secondary schools or lower division biology or ecology classes as an introduction to issues of biodiversity, the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the critical need for conservation. All of the scientists interviewed are articulate and interesting...Individual vignettes and stories could be used separately in more advanced classes or where class time is very short." - Michael Renner, Professor of Animal Behavior, West Chester University

    Awards
  • 5 Emmy Awards
  • Gold Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition
  • Best of Category , Best Educational Value, Best Scientific Content and Best Conservation Message, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • UNESCO Silver Medal, The New York Festivals
  • Best of Category, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Best Graphic Design, International Monitor Awards
  • Bronze Anvil Award, Public Relations Society of America
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival
  • SAVVY Award

    Item no.: VA02560030
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 11 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 95.00

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    NATURAL CONNECTIONS: FORESTS, BIODIVERSITY AND YOU

    Can forests retain their productivity and biodiversity? Consuming less ourselves is key.

    Jerry Franklin, Professor of Ecosystem Analysis at the University of Washington, is working on ways to manage forests that enable them to retain both their productivity and their biodiversity.

    The value of forests goes far beyond the industrial use of the trees that comprise them. Forests provide us with the air we breathe, absorb greenhouse gases, and regulate stream flow. They are vital to the chemistry of the biosphere.

    What each of us consumes has a direct impact on the fate of the forests and their biodiversity.

    Reviews
  • "Astonishingly beautiful documentary...With gorgeous photography, straightforward writing and enthusiastic participation by scientists who don't come off as pedants...a wake-up call that is riveting and startling, but, more important, congenial, considerate and convincing." - Seattle Post- Intelligencer

  • "A beautifully produced and effective piece." - Edward O. Wilson, Honorary Curator of Entomology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, and author of "Biophilia" and "The Diversity of Life"

  • "This video...is an invaluable teaching tool. There are dozens of films on the market that address the environmental and biodiversity problems we are currently facing. Natural Connections may have an edge because it will appeal to all age groups. Highly recommended for public, school and college libraries." - Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "Superb photography, eloquent narration, and stirring interviews with biologists combine to make this Emmy Award winner perhaps the best video I have ever seen to make the case for the preservation of biodiversity. This dramatic video should be required viewing for all students teachers, parents, politicians, business leaders, consumers...Most highly recommended for viewers from about grade 6 or 7 through adults. Schools, nature centers, camps, and even individuals will value this video." - Dan R. Kunkle, Wildlife Activist Magazine

  • "A lovely piece of work. Excellent production values and interesting vignettes help to make several concepts in conservation and biodiversity very real and immediate...Could be used quite effectively in secondary schools or lower division biology or ecology classes as an introduction to issues of biodiversity, the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the critical need for conservation. All of the scientists interviewed are articulate and interesting...Individual vignettes and stories could be used separately in more advanced classes or where class time is very short." - Michael Renner, Professor of Animal Behavior, West Chester University

    Awards
  • Best of Category , Best Educational Value, Best Scientific Content and Best Conservation Message, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • Best of Category, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival
  • 5 Emmy Awards
  • Gold Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition
  • UNESCO Silver Medal, The New York Festivals
  • Best Graphic Design, International Monitor Awards
  • Bronze Anvil Award, Public Relations Society of America
  • SAVVY Award

    Item no.: YV02790121
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 10 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 95.00

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    NATURAL CONNECTIONS: INTRODUCTION TO BIODIVERSITY

    The concept of biological diversity and its importance to humans.

    Introduces this 5-part series on biodiversity. Dr. Edward O. Wilson, one of the world's leading experts on ants, who is often referred to as the "father" of biodiversity, and entomologist, Dr. Jack Longino, put the role of human beings in the biosphere into proper perspective.

    They point out that mammals are the smallest group of species with only 4,500 known individual species, whereas there are 963,000 known species of insects.

    Pound for pound humans and ants probably match each other. The rather startling difference is that ants and other insects contribute to the maintenance of earth's ecosystems. Human beings often have the opposite effect.

    To be a successful and long-lived species, we must foster a respect for all life.

    Reviews
  • "Astonishingly beautiful documentary...With gorgeous photography, straightforward writing and enthusiastic participation by scientists who don't come off as pedants...a wake-up call that is riveting and startling, but, more important, congenial, considerate and convincing." - Seattle Post- Intelligencer

  • "A beautifully produced and effective piece." - Edward O. Wilson, Honorary Curator of Entomology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, and author of "Biophilia" and "The Diversity of Life"

  • "This video...is an invaluable teaching tool. There are dozens of films on the market that address the environmental and biodiversity problems we are currently facing. Natural Connections may have an edge because it will appeal to all age groups. Highly recommended for public, school and college libraries." - Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "Superb photography, eloquent narration, and stirring interviews with biologists combine to make this Emmy Award winner perhaps the best video I have ever seen to make the case for the preservation of biodiversity. This dramatic video should be required viewing for all students teachers, parents, politicians, business leaders, consumers...Most highly recommended for viewers from about grade 6 or 7 through adults. Schools, nature centers, camps, and even individuals will value this video." - Dan R. Kunkle, Wildlife Activist Magazine

  • "A lovely piece of work. Excellent production values and interesting vignettes help to make several concepts in conservation and biodiversity very real and immediate...Could be used quite effectively in secondary schools or lower division biology or ecology classes as an introduction to issues of biodiversity, the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the critical need for conservation. All of the scientists interviewed are articulate and interesting...Individual vignettes and stories could be used separately in more advanced classes or where class time is very short." - Michael Renner, Professor of Animal Behavior, West Chester University

    Awards
  • Best of Category , Best Educational Value, Best Scientific Content and Best Conservation
  • Message, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • UNESCO Silver Medal, The New York Festivals
  • Best of Category, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival
  • 5 Emmy Awards
  • Gold Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition
  • Best Graphic Design, International Monitor Awards
  • Bronze Anvil Award, Public Relations Society of America
  • SAVVY Award

    Item no.: SN01110162
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 15 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 95.00

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    NATURAL CONNECTIONS: KEYSTONE SPECIES

    The principle of keystone species proves the interconnectedness of the living world.

    Zoologist Bob Paine has conducted experiments on a small island off the Washington coast for over 30 years in one of the longest ongoing studies of a single area by the same scientist.

    His experiment on the connection between starfish and mussels has resulted in one of the most important principles of modern ecology, known as "keystone species". Paine showed that certain species are critically important to the balance of particular ecosystems. The loss of a keystone species can have a devastating impact on that ecosystem's biodiversity.

    Humans impact the biodiversity of the world more than any other creature. We are the ultimate keystone species. Thus we have a larger responsibility towards the world around us.

    Reviews
  • "Astonishingly beautiful documentary...With gorgeous photography, straightforward writing and enthusiastic participation by scientists who don't come off as pedants...a wake-up call that is riveting and startling, but, more important, congenial, considerate and convincing." - Seattle Post- Intelligencer

  • "A beautifully produced and effective piece." - Edward O. Wilson, Honorary Curator of Entomology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, and author of "Biophilia" and "The Diversity of Life"

  • "This video...is an invaluable teaching tool. There are dozens of films on the market that address the environmental and biodiversity problems we are currently facing. Natural Connections may have an edge because it will appeal to all age groups. Highly recommended for public, school and college libraries." - Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "Superb photography, eloquent narration, and stirring interviews with biologists combine to make this Emmy Award winner perhaps the best video I have ever seen to make the case for the preservation of biodiversity. This dramatic video should be required viewing for all students teachers, parents, politicians, business leaders, consumers...Most highly recommended for viewers from about grade 6 or 7 through adults. Schools, nature centers, camps, and even individuals will value this video." - Dan R. Kunkle, Wildlife Activist Magazine

  • "A lovely piece of work. Excellent production values and interesting vignettes help to make several concepts in conservation and biodiversity very real and immediate...Could be used quite effectively in secondary schools or lower division biology or ecology classes as an introduction to issues of biodiversity, the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the critical need for conservation. All of the scientists interviewed are articulate and interesting...Individual vignettes and stories could be used separately in more advanced classes or where class time is very short." - Michael Renner, Professor of Animal Behavior, West Chester University

    Awards
  • Best of Category , Best Educational Value, Best Scientific Content and Best Conservation Message, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • Best of Category, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival
  • 5 Emmy Awards
  • Gold Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition
  • UNESCO Silver Medal, The New York Festivals
  • Best Graphic Design, International Monitor Awards
  • Bronze Anvil Award, Public Relations Society of America
  • SAVVY Award

    Item no.: FE01110169
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 10 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 95.00

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    NATURAL CONNECTIONS: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SALMON

    Salmon and people both need clean water to survive. Can we make the connection?

    Ecologist Bob Furstenberg looks at how humans have pushed salmon out of the habitat on which they depend. Salmon have always spent their lives facing incredible odds, but today pollution, development, poor logging practices, runoff from farmland, indiscriminate water use, over-fishing, dams, and climate change are proving to be too much for the salmon's survival.

    The connection between the survival of people and salmon is clear: we both need clean water to survive

    Reviews
  • "Astonishingly beautiful documentary...With gorgeous photography, straightforward writing and enthusiastic participation by scientists who don't come off as pedants...a wake-up call that is riveting and startling, but, more important, congenial, considerate and convincing." - Seattle Post- Intelligencer

  • "A beautifully produced and effective piece." - Edward O. Wilson, Honorary Curator of Entomology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, and author of "Biophilia" and "The Diversity of Life"

  • "This video...is an invaluable teaching tool. There are dozens of films on the market that address the environmental and biodiversity problems we are currently facing. Natural Connections may have an edge because it will appeal to all age groups. Highly recommended for public, school and college libraries." - Barb Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "Superb photography, eloquent narration, and stirring interviews with biologists combine to make this Emmy Award winner perhaps the best video I have ever seen to make the case for the preservation of biodiversity. This dramatic video should be required viewing for all students teachers, parents, politicians, business leaders, consumers...Most highly recommended for viewers from about grade 6 or 7 through adults. Schools, nature centers, camps, and even individuals will value this video." - Dan R. Kunkle, Wildlife Activist Magazine

  • "A lovely piece of work. Excellent production values and interesting vignettes help to make several concepts in conservation and biodiversity very real and immediate...Could be used quite effectively in secondary schools or lower division biology or ecology classes as an introduction to issues of biodiversity, the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the critical need for conservation. All of the scientists interviewed are articulate and interesting...Individual vignettes and stories could be used separately in more advanced classes or where class time is very short." - Michael Renner, Professor of Animal Behavior, West Chester University

    Awards
  • 5 Emmy Awards
  • Gold Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition
  • Best of Category , Best Educational Value, Best Scientific Content and Best Conservation Message, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • UNESCO Silver Medal, The New York Festivals
  • Best of Category, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Best Graphic Design, International Monitor Awards
  • Bronze Anvil Award, Public Relations Society of America
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
  • Olympia Environmental Film Festival
  • SAVVY Award

    Item no.: NS01110257
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 12 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 95.00

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    POINTLESS POLLUTION: AMERICA'S WATER CRISIS

    We all contribute to nonpoint source pollution of our water!

    "Nonpoint source pollution" encompasses all runoff pollution that does not come from a single source. It's the oil, grease, and trash on our streets that flows into the drains during a downpour; the runoff of fertilizers and pesticides from farmland, golf courses, and lawns. By some estimates it contributes 80% of the contamination that is found in this nation's water resources.

    The program focuses on how nonpoint pollution has affected the lives of people in four regions of the country. In the Chesapeake Bay, a once thriving oyster industry has all but vanished. In Minnesota, underground reservoirs have been contaminated. In Tennessee, reservoirs have silted up, rendering the hydro-generators useless. And in Texas, nonpoint pollution is threatening the Highland Lakes, as well as Barton Springs, a popular spring-fed pool in Austin.

    We all contribute to nonpoint pollution, and as Walter Cronkite says, "How we live our lives on the land will determine what kind of water we will leave for our children."

    Reviews
  • "Solutions to the problem are highlighted, including an efficient agricultural waste-management system and municipal legislation that regulates overdevelopment." - Booklist

  • "This is a hard-hitting documentary...highly recommended for high school libraries and public libraries." - Video Librarian

  • "This production is recommended for all who have an interest in clean water. High schools, community colleges, and public libraries will find many applications for this video." - Choice

    Awards
  • 5 Stars Video Rating Guide for Libraries
  • CINE Golden Eagle
  • Silver Award, John Muir Medical Film Festival
  • Bronze Award, Houston International Film Festival
  • Recommended, National Council for Geographic Education

    Item no.: PZ02790448
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 28 minutes
    Copyright: 1989
    Price: USD 250.00

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    POISON IN THE ROCKIES

    Directed by Christopher McLeod

    Threats to water quality in the Colorado Rockies.

    Documenting the serious threat to water quality, sub-alpine ecosystems and public health in the Colorado Rockies from mining operations, acid rain and urbanization.

    Increasing emphasis has been given to the scientific side of the story--from an explanation of Rocky Mountain geology and the development of aquifers, to detailing how the thousands of small abandoned mines contaminate water sources by leaching heavy metals into the rivers and streams.

    More time has also been given to the story of today's vast mining operations. Included are new interviews with mining officials and Charles Wilkinson, Professor of Law at the University of Colorado, who discusses the evolution of water battles in the West from questions of water supply to water contamination, and now mining regulations, which he describes as being in their infancy.

    Cities as far apart as El Paso, Phoenix, Denver and Los Angeles depend on clean water from the Rockies for their water supply. In addition to the mining operations, that water supply is now threatened by acid rain and acid snow. Together these problems also represent a potent threat to the $10 billion Western tourism industry. This is a story about our society's waste products and the necessity of cleaning up our act now before it's too late.

    Reviews
  • "Actor Peter Coyote articulately narrates this sobering, beautifully shot examination of the threatened Colorado Rocky Mountain waters... sterling landscape footage in this well-documented look at an ecological time-bomb." - Booklist
  • "Photography is excellent... of interest to environmentalists, students, and the general public alike. Libraries in all areas will want to buy this title, since these environmental calamities are universal. Highly recommended." - Video Rating Guide

    Item no.: AH01110744
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 56 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    Price: USD 59.00

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    RETURN OF THE CUYAHOGA, THE

    The story of the death and rebirth of one of America's most emblematic waterways.

    Directed by Lawrence R. Hott and Diane Garey

    For centuries, the Cuyahoga River has been on the frontier. When the United States was a new nation, the river literally marked the western frontier. But "civilization" came to the river; by 1870 the river was on the industrial frontier. On the river's banks sprouted a multitude of factories, a booming display of what was called progress. The river, as it flowed through Cleveland, became a foul-smelling channel of sludge, with an oily surface that ignited with such regularity that river fires were treated as commonplace events by the local press.

    But then, in 1969, the river burned again, just as a third kind of frontier swept across the nation: an environmental frontier. And the Cuyahoga River became a landmark on this frontier too -- a poster child for those trying to undo the destruction wrought by progress in America.

    The Return of the Cuyahoga is a one-hour documentary about the death and rebirth of one of America's most emblematic waterways. In its history we see the end of the American frontier, the growth of industry, the scourge of pollution and the advent of a political movement that sought to end pollution.

    The Cuyahoga's story is a particularly apt example for future environmental efforts, because the once burning river can't just be cleaned up and "set aside" as a pristine wilderness park - it runs right through Cleveland, and like most American rivers, the Cuyahoga has to serve widely varying needs - aesthetic and economic, practical and natural, human and animal. The challenge: how to maintain industrial uses of the river near Lake Erie, encourage recreation and entertainment, and yet preserve the nature in and around the river. It's the same challenge that much of our riparian nation is facing today.

    Reviews
  • "Should be required viewing for those who feel unable to improve their environment." - Dr. James A. Danoff-Burg, Associate Director, Center for the Environment, Economy, and Society, Columbia University

  • "The Return of the Cuyahoga is more than a history of the desecration and restoration of the Cuyahoga River. It is a graphic story of depth and emotion about people who are committed to restoring life to a valued natural resource." - John E. Wear, Director, Center for the Environment, Catawba College

  • "The Return of the Cuyahoga is ultimately an uplifting story of hope, that it is in fact possible for large populations of humans to coexist with natural waterways. An excellent addition to public and school library environmental collections." - The Midwest Book Review

  • "Rivers become ideal metaphors for where we have been and where we are going. This symbolic power is put to marvelous use in The Return of the Cuyahoga...What emerges from [the film] is a local story of vital national importance." - The Plain Dealer

    Awards
  • Gold Award, Ava Awards
  • Award of Distinction, Videographer Awards
  • Bronze World Medal, New York Festivals International Film & Video Awards
  • Award of Excellence, International Academy of the Visual Arts Communicator Awards

    Item no.: TN02790601
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 250.00

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    SALMON FOREST, THE

    Reveals the fragile connection between salmon, bears, trees, and people in the NW rainforest.

    On Canada's Pacific coast, winding from the north end of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border, is over 400 kilometers of forested inlets and islands. This is the largest tract of intact temperate rainforest on earth -- it's more than twice the size of Switzerland. Here millions of spawning salmon that support dense concentrations of forest life, return every year. It is also where grizzly bears, black bears, bald eagles, seals, otters, gulls, and countless invertebrates thrive. Bathed in mist and rain year round, this is one of the most biologically diverse and lush places on the planet. Much of life here still remains secret and unknown.

    Biologist Dr. Tom Reimchen, however, has uncovered one of those secrets. He has discovered why both black and grizzly bears fish at night and revealed the link between the salmon and the forest.

    Entomologist Dr. Neville Winchester is also featured as he investigates the vast array of strange-looking arthropods and insects that litter the forest canopy. In addition, the Gitga'at, a First Nations people, are featured reaffirming their connection with the land and sea and performing their traditional Salmon Dance.

    Reviews
  • "Eye-popping cinematography, intelligent and well-placed explanations, and a subtle-but-reliable narrative thread...Underwood's elegant design and production make this video applicable to a wide audience -- biology and ecology studies, as well as classes in anthropology, environment and indigenous peoples. Rating: Highly Recommended" - Mark Collins, Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "The film is timely because of the precipitous decline in salmon populations on the Pacific Northwest Coast threatens more than commercial and sport industry -- it threatens the health of the coastal rainforest...The compelling story, dazzling scenery, close-ups of tree-climbing, insect sampling, and the tree coring techniques kept my students enthralled throughout the showing of the film. They erupted in spontaneous applause at the end! Congratulations on marketing such a superb film." - Carol A. Jefferson, Ph.D., Plant Ecologist, Department of Biology, Winona State University

  • "Weaves an interesting story, linking the anadromous salmon stocks with grizzly and black bears, hemlock growth, and a diversity of invertebrates and microorganisms in Northern British Columbia. [The Salmon Forest] documents the life history of the salmon and makes the case that salmon are important components of the forest ecosystem. The video footage is good and captures the true feeling of the area. In addition, time-lapse photography is effectively used to illustrate the efficient decomposition of salmon carcasses." - Best Science Books and Films, Science Books and Films

    Awards
  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Runner Up, EarthVision International Environmental Video Festival
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: DK01110245
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 250.00

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    SWIM FOR THE RIVER

    Directed by Tom Weidlinger
    Original Music Composed by Ed Bogas

    The story of the Hudson, and the battle to save it, are told as Chris Swain swims the entire length of the river.

    Christopher Swain braved whitewater, sewage, snapping turtles, hydroelectric dams, homeland security patrols, factory outfalls, and PCB contamination to become the first person to swim the entire length of the Hudson River from the Adirondack Mountains to New York City.

    Swain's experience links together stories of the river, which begins in wilderness and ends in one of the nation's densest population centers. We meet heroes who are fighting to protect the Hudson against a range of threats from industry, inept regulatory agencies, and public indifference. We also see how ordinary citizens can and do make a difference through choices they make effecting the environment, and by joining together around a common cause.

    Reviews
  • "A must-watch for anyone concerned not only about the quality of our water but overall environmental health. It inspires people to take action steps-large and small-knowing that even the smallest steps to reduce our footprint make a big difference." - Wanda Urbanska & Frank Levering, authors of Simple Living.

  • "The film offers a fresh-but stark-look at the health of the Hudson River. The love and compassion the swimmer and photographer have for the river and those who live along its banks is evident. It is a film of honest caring and a desire for positive change. It is all about the river ... and hope ... and will play an important role in moving communities along the Hudson into action to protect and preserve this wonderful resource." - John E. Wear, PhD, Founding Director, Catawba College Center for the Environment

  • "For anyone who cares about our natural treasures, who gets angry when they're used as toxic waste dumps, and who wants to celebrate the surprising progress activists have made in rescuing a great American waterway from its abusers, Swim for the River is a gem. Its narrative line is refreshingly original, and the end will bring a lump to your throat. Don't mss it." - Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost and Bury the Chains

  • "Weidlinger's riveting film recounts Swain's swim...and the stories of the communities that have mobilized to reclaim the river from its polluters." - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

    Awards
  • Mill Valley Film Festival
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival

    Item no.: JS01110548
    Format: DVD (Color, With 58 Pages Teacher's Guide)
    Duration: 56 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 250.00

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    THIRST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • "Highly Recommended" - Educational Media Reviews Online

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

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

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    THIS IS DANIEL COOK 2: NATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

    Directed by J.J. Johnson

    Daniel visits a recycling plant, learns about butterflies, visits a waterfall, goes on an eco-adventure and studies rocks.

    This series features seven-year old Daniel Cook. Well-mannered, inquisitive and intelligent Daniel explores the world around him through his own candid questions. Simple, pure, and honest, this is a series that allows children to view everything from Daniel's perspective, seeing what he sees and learning what he learns.

    Each segment is six minutes long and they have been aggregated thematically into 13 half-hour episodes, each with 5 separate segments.

    The five 6 minute segments in Nature, Science, and the Environment are:

    1) THIS IS DANIEL COOK AT A RECYCLING PLANT- Daniel learns how to sort recyclables into different categories and watches the process as old newspapers are broken down and recycled into new paper.

    2) THIS IS DANIEL COOK LEARNING ABOUT BUTTERFLIES- Daniel tours a conservatory before helping the curator release a new batch of day-old butterflies.

    3) THIS IS DANIEL COOK AT A WATERFALL- Daniel visits Niagara Falls! Daniel learns how much water goes over the falls when he takes a boat ride to the base of the falls.

    4) THIS IS DANIEL COOK ON AN ECO- ADVENTURE- Daniel learns how eco-adventures help the environment by not disrupting it as he walks from treetop to treetop.

    5) THIS IS DANIEL COOK STUDYING ROCKS- Daniel learns about all the different types of rocks that exist when he goes rock collecting with a geologist. On his expedition, Daniel finds crystals, rocks with fossils in them and the perfect skipping stone.

    Reviews
  • "What a delightful collection! It is a terrific variety of appropriate topics nicely grouped and with distinct parallels to the primary curriculum. Besides the value for children, I think the positive modeling of channeling the energy, focusing the interest and taking advantage of the curiosity is terrific! There is a lot for parents, caregivers, and teachers to learn from this series." - Sandi Zwaan, Educational Consultant

  • "[This is Daniel Cook] is a fun, entertaining, and quite interesting set of adventures... These videos are great for pre- K levels. Additionally, kids from fourth grade and under might find them somewhat intriguing. The ideal library niche for this set is a public library or early childhood learning center that might use them for both entertainment and inspiration." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Item no.: YP02790556
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    THIS IS DANIEL COOK 2: WATER AND ANIMALS

    Directed by J.J. Johnson

    Daniel sets up an aquarium, learns about fish and fishing, and goes whale watching.

    This series features seven-year old Daniel Cook. Well-mannered, inquisitive and intelligent Daniel explores the world around him through his own candid questions. Simple, pure, and honest, this is a series that allows children to view everything from Daniel's perspective, seeing what he sees and learning what he learns.

    Each segment is six minutes long and they have been aggregated thematically into 13 half-hour episodes, each with 5 separate segments.

    The five 6 minute segments in Water and Animals are:

    1) THIS IS DANIEL COOK SETTING UP AN AQUARIUM- Daniel sits down with a fish expert and learns how the different parts of a fish tank work. After setting up his aquarium, Daniel chooses a few fish to go inside.

    2) THIS IS DANIEL COOK LEARNING ABOUT WHALES- Daniel has been invited to learn about whales up-close. Daniel brings food for both the beluga and killer whales and learns how the two species are different and how they communicate under water.

    3) THIS IS DANIEL COOK FISHING- Daniel gets to do one of his favorite things when he joins a local fisherman to go fly fishing. Daniel learns how to make a lure, throw a line and the importance of the "catch and release" philosophy.

    4) THIS IS DANIEL COOK WHALE WATCHING- Daniel learns about the different animals that live in the ocean when he goes whale watching in a small coastal fishing village.

    5) THIS IS DANIEL COOK LEARNING ABOUT FISH- Daniel visits an aquarium to see different kinds of fish. Daniel learns about the difference between salt and fresh water fish and even gets to help feed a shark!

    Review
  • "What a delightful collection! It is a terrific variety of appropriate topics nicely grouped and with distinct parallels to the primary curriculum. Besides the value for children, I think the positive modeling of channeling the energy, focusing the interest and taking advantage of the curiosity is terrific! There is a lot for parents, caregivers, and teachers to learn from this series." - Sandi Zwaan, Educational Consultant

  • "[This is Daniel Cook] is a fun, entertaining, and quite interesting set of adventures... These videos are great for pre- K levels. Additionally, kids from fourth grade and under might find them somewhat intriguing. The ideal library niche for this set is a public library or early childhood learning center that might use them for both entertainment and inspiration." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Item no.: MU02560561
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 195.00

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    UNCONQUERING THE LAST FRONTIER

    Chronicles Native Americans' struggle to survive in the midst of hydroelectric development.

    Long before corporations like Enron and Global Crossing made headlines with accusations of greed and impropriety, there was Olympic Power and Development.

    Olympic Power, in violation of Washington State law, erected a dam on the Elwha River in 1910. Over the course of the ensuing years, it became clear that the river and its almost incredulously large salmon runs had been sacrificed for hydropower development. Such development was commonly referred to as "progress." Nonetheless, it was progress which occurred at tragic expense to the Native American, Elwha Klallam people, who relied upon the river for their sustenance.

    Even after the devastating impacts to the river's fisheries and to the tribal community became known, the prevailing social myths, that hydropower was cheap, that it was clean, and that it was beneficial for everybody, continued to be perpetuated.

    The film tells the story of the 90-year long struggle of the Elwha tribal community to challenge these perceptions, and eventually to lobby Congress for the removal of the dams and for the restoration of the river's ecosystem and fisheries. It is a struggle which is now producing rewards. Beginning in 2004, the two dams on the Elwha will be removed by the federal government, in the largest dam decommissioning project in the world.

    For the Elwha Klallam and for the people of the town of Port Angeles, dam removal provides opportunities for cultural reconciliation and economic renewal.

    Reviews
  • "Portrays the dignity and wisdom of the Lower Elwha Klallam in the face of almost half a century of racism and political ill-will...shows us how the tribe has taken center stage in the efforts to retain what's left of Elwha salmon stocks. When the stocks return, more than the ecology will be restored...the tribe will have salmon to complete the circle of traditional ceremonial ways." - Adam Burke, High Country News

  • "Highlights the injustices done to the Lower Elwha Klallam people who relied on the salmon for sustenance, both physical and spiritual, and who paid the price for the dam's cheap electricity." - Sierra Magazine

  • "It was moving to watch our elders interviewed in the film, and to hear their stories. The young kids in our tribe that are growing up today-they'll have this film to look back on, they'll have the video and the storytelling in it. And they'll know where we come from." - Dennis Sullivan, tribal chair of the Lower Elwha Klallam

    Awards
  • First Place, EarthVision International Environmental Video Festival
  • Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Finalist, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • American Anthropological Association Film & Video Festival
  • Ekotopfilm, Slovakia
  • Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • REAL2REEL Documentary Film Festival
  • El Festival del Riu, Spain
  • Great Lakes Independent Film Festival
  • Moab Film Festival
  • Anchorage Film Festival
  • International Film Festival of the Americas

    Item no.: ED02560309
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 250.00

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    WAKE UP, FREDDY

    One man's morning routine reveals the hidden energy costs of everyday life.

    In the tradition of classic film, "Toast," here's a whimsical introduction to where resources come from and where waste goes, with a bouncy soundtrack everyone loves.

    Freddy wakes to the sound of his blaring alarm. In an amazing camera journey, we follow the path energy takes to get to Freddy's house and to power his alarm. When Freddy takes his morning shower we see where the water comes from and how it travels through pipes and processing stations all the way to Freddy's shower head. Then we watch the used water wash down Freddy's drain. Guess where we go next!

    Reviews
  • "Excellent technical standards, interesting camera angles and exhilarating original music...This program would supplement a social studies, science, or even a music unit." - Video Rating Guide

  • "Remind(s) the instant gratification crowd...that power, water, and even bread do not appear by magic. A good discussion starter for a talk about using resources. Recommended for elementary school libraries." - Video Librarian

    Awards
  • CINE Golden Eagle
  • Judges Honorable Mention, New England Film Festival
  • Chicago International Children's Film Festival
  • New England International Children's Film Festival
  • SciFest, Vancouver

    Item no.: SL02560507
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 21 minutes
    Copyright: 1993
    Price: USD 59.00

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    WATER AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT - PROGRAM ONE

    Directed by Robert Peace and David Calderisi

    Communities solving their own water problems.

    This is the first of two programs on the state of our waters. In it we meet people from all walks of life who demonstrate an unstoppable determination to do something to improve the water situation in their communities. The focus is on change - it is possible, it is happening, and there is a role in this change for each of us.

    The programs are designed to create a better understanding of the intricate factors affecting a healthy river system by providing: a learning tool for young people, to ensure ongoing stewardship from one generation to the next; an idea resource for non-professionals to generate community action; and a primer on aquatic resource management for those involved in policy planning and implementation.

    Reviews
  • "Slick graphics and layman's language help to make this half-hour video public friendly... contains a step by step guide to how the water cycle works." - The Brampton Guardian

  • "The two producers have concentrated on finding people who've decided to do something about the problem...An inspiration for everyone in the water management field." - The Mississauga News

  • "Carefully lays out the issue of water management in voice-over and montage. The effect of a growing community on local water supplies is discussed...offer(s) persuasive ecological arguments that are explicit but not too heavy-handed." - Booklist

    Award
  • 2nd Place, North American Outdoor Film & Video Awards

    Item no.: KA02790782
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 27 minutes
    Copyright: 1995
    Price: USD 59.00

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    WATER AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT - PROGRAM TWO

    Directed by Robert Peace and David Calderisi

    Farmers and communities solving their own water problems.

    This second program in the two-part series documents shining examples of community cooperation that have resulted in successful solutions to local water problems.

    The community of Salmon Arm, BC, was inspired by Mary Thomas, a Shuswap elder, to clean up their river; and in Ontario there's a model Children's Groundwater Festival.

    One of the main contributors to deteriorating river conditions is agriculture - from chemical run-off and livestock waste, to trampled banks that cause erosion. But some farmers have found that taking conservation measures has actually made their farms more profitable.

    As producer Robert Peace says, "The best way to preserve our waterways is to claim the resource as our own and to take charge of it."

    Reviews
  • "An informative and uplifting video...I highly recommend this film for public and school libraries. The message is clear and the film will be educational and thought provoking for viewers of all ages." - Barb Butler, University of Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "This is an excellent video for showing the strength of community involvement... the video can serve as an inspiration to students and as an illustration of what individuals can do to solve complex problems." - Science Books and Films

    Item no.: JH01110783
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 1996
    Price: USD 59.00

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    WATER FIRST: REACHING THE MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    WATER FRONT, THE

    The story of Highland Park, Michigan, and the larger issues of water privatization and human rights.

    Directed by Liz Miller

    What if you lived by the largest body of fresh water in the world but could no longer afford to use it?

    With a shrinking population, the post-industrial city of Highland Park, Michigan is on the verge of financial collapse. The state of Michigan has appointed an Emergency Financial Manager who sees the water plant as key to economic recovery. She has raised water rates and has implemented severe measures to collect on bills. As a result, Highland Park residents have received water bills as high as $10,000, they have had their water turned off, their homes foreclosed, and are struggling to keep water, a basic human right, from becoming privatized.

    The Water Front is the story of an American city in crisis but it is not just about water. The story touches on the very essence of our democratic system and is an unnerving indication of what is in store for residents around the world facing their own water struggles. The film raises questions such as: Who determines the future of shared public resources? What are alternatives to water privatization? How will we maintain our public water systems and who can we hold accountable?

    Reviews
  • "Should be viewed by everyone concerned about the survival of our communities and the just and equitable distribution of water resources." - Bunyan Bryant, Ph.D., Director of the Environmental Justice Initiative, University of Michigan

  • "This water issue is so profound I had no idea that we would be engaged in this horrific fight to have water acknowledged as a human right." - Maureen Taylor, Michigan Welfare Rights

  • "Miller's film does precisely what documentaries do best: it introduces us to a problem, sticks with it without losing focus and somehow makes us care deeply about the struggles of the people in front of the camera." - Montreal Gazette

  • "Powerful and moving." - Martha Saxton, Associate Professor of History and Women's & Gender Studies, Amherst College

  • "Brilliant and engaging." - Professor Bruce Pietrykowski. Director of Urban & Regional Studies, University of Michigan-Dearborn

    Awards
  • Best of the Festival, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
  • Community Empowerment Award, National Council for Community Reinvestment
  • Katherine Knight Award, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
  • Best Water & Wetlands Film (Ramsar/Medwet Award), Ecofilms Rodos International Film and Visual Arts Festival
  • Silver Drop Award, International Water and Film Events, World Water Forum, Istanbul

    Item no.: YW02560603
    Format: DVD (Color, Closed Captioned)
    Duration: 53 minutes
    Copyright: 2007
    Price: USD 250.00

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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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    WIND RIVER

    The battle over water rights on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.

    WIND RIVER is a modern-day story of cowboys and Indians. White ranchers on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming are fighting to protect their long-held water rights for irrigated agriculture. The Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes are fighting to save the de-watered Wind River and a part of their own heritage.

    This is a classic example of the changing face of the West, as environmentalists and Indian activists use the courts in an attempt to curtail some of the traditional, but harmful, practices of white ranchers and farmers.

    Reviews
  • "A taut and impassioned chronicle of a high stakes water-rights fiasco in Wyoming." - Timothy McGettigan, Professor of Sociology, University of Southern Colorado

  • "This film does an excellent job of telling both sides of the story...The Shoshone and Arapaho people of the Wind River Reservation conceive of water as an integral part of a natural system; its highest "use" is to maintain the integrity of that system. In contrast, the local ranchers, and the government agencies that assist them, view water in utilitarian terms; water is wasted unless it is diverted and applied in a manner that brings an economic return." - Daniel McCool, Director of The American West Center, University of Utah

  • "Wind River tells a compelling story that extends far beyond questions of water rights, examining core community values and concerns relating to human dignity, self survival, and fundamental fairness." - Stuart Lieberman, Environmental Attorney

  • "The video is thought provoking and will be an excellent resource for teachers. It is highly recommended for all high school and public libraries." - Barbara Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, MC Journal

  • "Will inspire lively debate because so many perspectives are represented, all with valid arguments." - School Library Journal

    Awards
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film Festival
  • Best of Category, EarthVision Environmental Film & Video Festival
  • Merit Award, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula
  • Equinox Environmental Film Festival
  • Fargo Film Festival
  • Na'al Kid Summer Film Festival

    Item no.: TA02790331
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 33 minutes
    Copyright: 2000
    Price: USD 195.00

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