The Western Tradition

Pro-intelligent design scholars and scientists are often chastised, fired or denied tenured positions by those who believe in Darwin's theory of evolution.

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

Through a series of twenty six short stories, a girl describes the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict both the extraordinary and ordinary events of daily life. Together, they create a formally complex and emotionally intense film.

A Christian girl, Rachel Whitaker (Jordan Trovillion) goes off to college for her freshman year and begins to be influenced by her popular Biology professor (Harry Anderson) who teaches that evolution is the answer to the origins of life. When Rachel’s father, Stephen Whitaker (Jay Pickett) senses something changing with his daughter, he begins to examine the situation and what he discovers catches him completely off guard. Now very concerned about Rachel drifting away from her Christian faith, he tries to do something about it!

A precocious young girl and her younger brother run away from home and hide in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Nine filmmakers each profile a young girl from a different part of the world to weave a global tapestry of youth in the 21st century.

The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.

A parable of the missteps of life enacted in the hothouse world of late 1980’s New York, in which the art market and the stock market each boomed, and in process spawned a smorgasbord of “yuppie” delusions which still persist. Anna, a French actress studying in New York, crosses paths with a successful stock-broker, Mark, standing before a Vermeer portrait at the Metropolitan, thence ensues a peculiar romance of missed meanings and connections, with tangential asides to the steaming arts world and stock market, loft-mate conflicts, and, perhaps, love. Wrapped up in their blindered worlds, Anna and Mark deflect away from their chances, leaving at the conclusion the wistful face of Vermeer’s portrait enigmatically asking questions. All the Vermeers in New York is a comedy of manners which, as gently as a Vermeer, looks beneath the skin of this time and place, and of these characters.

The digital age has heralded a new unprecedented means of surveillance, and as more of our personal information goes online, more of our lives are subject to state-sponsored espionage. Governments with dubious human rights records are now using mass surveillance technology to thoroughly track and quell any murmurs of dissent - and it is western companies that are providing the technology to do so.

"The Case for Christ's Resurrection" investigates the historical record, draws upon medical knowledge, searches for evidence in the lives of the Apostles, explores ancient Jewish burial customs, and, with new scientific technologies, examines the 2000 year old burial cloth of Christ. For the first time through physics and space-age imaging, scientist are able to view the crucified body of Christ in a three-dimensional, holographic image. Learn what scientists have discovered. Your faith will be strengthened.

Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the third of the six films, "Yesterday's Tomorrows," filmmaker Barry Levinson delves into what we, as Americans, thought the future would be as we traveled through the 20th century. Houses and cars of the future, the promise of technology, and the other hopes and dreams of the early part of the century gave way to the fears and anxieties brought about by the atomic age and the Hollywood disaster films that followed. Soon we wondered if we could control technology, or if it would control us. This film is by turns light-hearted and thoughtful, and rare historical and archival film, produced by government and industry, alternates with on-screen interviews with people as diverse as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, cartoonist Matt Groening, futurist Alvin Toffler, comedienne Phyllis Diller, and actor Martin Mull.

Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the last of the six films, "The American Tapestry," filmmaker Gregory Nava takes viewers on an uplifting and challenging journey through the memoirs of five immigrant families, each one on a quest for its own American Dream. Beautifully interweaving accounts from several generations, Nava composes an astonishing tapestry of personal triumphs and tragedies, as each story of courage unfolds. The American Dream is an elusive thing, and the lives of the people in Nava's film are both triumphant and tragic, teeming with optimism and sometimes despair. They expose the finest and worst in America as well as what we feel most magnificent and dreadful. They are part of the many contrasting threads that make up the American tapestry — a complex portrait of a nation at the turn of the millennium.

As the Metropolitan Museum of Art closes, Big Bird decides to leave his Sesame Street friends behind in search of Snuffy. Once locked inside for the night, educational hilarity ensues as Big Bird and Snuffy team up to help a small Egyptian boy solve a riddle - as the rest of the cast searches for their big, yellow friend.

While visiting a museum, two siblings Ben and Kim a fierce electrical storm creates a passage between the real world and worlds within the paintings. They are magically whisked through time to the 1600's and find they must square off against a wicked magician and also locate a valuable jewel in order to return to the present day.

1 Giant Leap is a concept band and media project consisting of the two principal artists, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman. This is the film part of their first project. The result is a flowing, loose-knit tapestry of imagery, interviews, and diverse performances. Gathering material from 25 countries and dozens of famous and not-so-famous musicians, authors, celebrities, spiritualists, philosophers, and unique individuals from nearly every cultural background, this enveloping DVD is best enjoyed as a soothing audiovisual odyssey (select "loop mode" for continuous play!). Assembling this cornucopia by theme (Time, Inspiration, Sex, God, Death, etc.), Bridgeman and Catto function as co-composers with an astonishing array of collaborators, giving 1 Giant Leap its richly international (and some might say inter-spiritual) identity. The result is a far-reaching glimpse of our world through the eyes of those who improve it by their musical presence. --Jeff Shannon

Carl Sagan covers a wide range of scientific subjects, including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe.

Lost Worlds is a documentary television series by The History Channel that explores a variety of "lost" locations from ancient to modern times. These "great feats of engineering, technology, and culture" are revealed through the use of archaeological evidence, interviews with relevant experts while examining the sites, and CGI reproductions. These visual re-creations take the form of rendered 3D environments and photo manipulated overlays, allowing the "lost world" to be seen over its present-day state. The pilot episode "Palenque: Metropolis of the Maya" was first aired on April 4, 2005. It was followed by 12 more episodes in 2006, and a further 19 episodes in 2007.

Archaeologist and historian Richard Miles traces the development of Western civilization, from the first cities in Mesopotamia to the fall of the Roman Empire. In this six-part series, Miles travels through the Middle East, Egypt, Pakistan and the Mediterranean to discover how the challenges of society -- religion and politics, art and culture, war and diplomacy, technology and trade -- were dealt with and fought over in order to maintain a functioning civilization. Stories are told of disappeared, ruined and modern cities, from ancient Iraq to modern Damascus, to reveal how successes and failures of the ancients shaped the world today.

Rick Steves, America's leading authority on European travel, returns to transport viewers to the continent's bustling cities, quaint villages and picturesque countryside.

BEGIN Japanology invites you into the world of Japanese culture, both traditional and modern, explaining how traditions evolved and the part they still play today in people's everyday lives.

Mythos is a three-part documentary that consists of a series of lectures given by Joseph Campbell. Campbell conceived of the original lectures, filmed over the last six years of his life, as a summation of what he had learned about the human mythic impulse, in terms of psychology, ethnology and comparative mythology—what he called "the one great story of mankind."

Come along as TLC explores the unique and ancient traditions that have shaped and defined the Gypsy community for hundreds of years. From the most extravagant wedding gowns to explosive celebrations and the madness that follows, My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding takes you through the biggest bashes in Gypsy culture.

Stephanie Flanders explores the ideas of three influential thinkers who transformed international economics, and examines how their influence has shaped the 20th and 21st centuries. She begins by profiling John Maynard Keynes, the Cambridge-born economist whose ideas revolutionized the approach of Western governments to financial crises during the Great Depression and the Second World War, and explains why the world's leaders drew on his teachings as the global meltdown took hold in 2008.

Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life is a three-part television documentary presented by Richard Dawkins which explores what reason and science might offer in major events of human lives. He argues that ideas about the soul and the afterlife, of sin and God's purpose have shaped human thinking for thousands of years. He believes science can provide answers to some of these old questions we used to entrust to religion.

Examines the dawn of the comic book genre and its powerful legacy, as well as the evolution of the characters who leapt from the pages over the last 75 years and their ongoing worldwide cultural impact. It chronicles how these disposable diversions were subject to intense government scrutiny for their influence on American children and how they were created in large part by the children of immigrants whose fierce loyalty to a new homeland laid the foundation for a multi-billion-dollar industry that is an influential part of our national identity.

The sexual revolution is alive and thriving. National Geographic Channel examines a once-taboo subject that is now impacting every aspect of society, from pop culture and science to politics and social interaction. The six-part series explores how sex is increasingly permeating contemporary cultures around the world, shaping lives by becoming more visible via the Internet, advertising, education and the media. Archival footage, animation, interviews and re-creations help uncover surprising ways sex impacts humanity and how societal conditions have changed over the past 50 years.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. takes a look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. A breathtaking and personal journey through two hundred thousand years of history, from the origins, on the African continent, of art, writing and civilization itself, through the millennia in which Africa and Africans shaped not only their own rich civilizations, but also the wider world.

Join chef Marcus Samuelsson on an inspiring journey across the U.S. to explore and celebrate the wide-ranging diversity of immigrant traditions and cuisine woven into American food and culture.

Formerly the palace of Czars, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg is now one of the world's largest museums, drawing three and a half million visitors per year. This superbly mastered DVD series is a guided tour of the works in the galleries as well as a compelling lesson in art history. The 540 minute series examines some of the sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and glassware pieces found within the four pavillions, as well as the impressive European-style architecture of the museum itself. Researched and authenticated by the Hermitage Museum and lavishly photographed, the series covers such styles as Classical, Neo-Classical, Baroque, Gothic, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism. As well, it showcases works by such masters as Rodin, Goya, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso. Be captivated by the history and culture of this breath taking collection of visual art masterpieces.

Joanna Lumley sets off on one of her most epic voyages yet, a journey through the world’s greatest spice continents to discover the rich tapestry of flavours and cultures which have shaped our world. Touring Indonesia, Zanzibar, India and Madagascar, Joanna explores the centuries-old spice trade in this brand new four-part series of discovery.