Channel Four (Great Britain).
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English
Description
Festivals of life nourish us with ancient rituals in a fast-changing world. Follow two families in Beijing, China as they prepare for and celebrate the New Year. See experiences and customs that reveal a modern face onold traditions. Learn about China's Spring Festival, which focuses on family and good fortune for the New Year ahead, and get a real-world glimpse at how festivals of life nourish us with ancient rituals in a fast-changing world.
Language
English
Description
Festivals of life nourish us with ancient rituals in a fast-changing world, covering all facets of the human condition, the changing seasons, weddings, coming of age ceremonies, births and deaths, the worship of gods and the battle against evil spirits. This film showcases Mexico's Day of the Dead celebrations that unite the living and the dead in feasting, dancing and decoration. In Oaxaca City, local artists create sand tapestries and enter an altar...
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English
Description
Festivals showcases three of the world's most iconic cultural festivals at close quarters, revealing the modern face of ancient traditions. In this episode we travel to Morocco for the Berber Wedding Festival, which surrounds marrying couples with music and the sounds of a massive harvest market.
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English
Description
In the second film of his series on the Great War's impact, historian David Reynolds looks at how the conflict gave birth to an age of turbulent mass democracy. In the immediate aftermath of war, monarchies toppled, the people rose up, and three iconic leaders-Vladimir Lenin, Woodrow Wilson and Benito Mussolini-emerged with competing visions of power that polarized much of continental Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. In Britain, the socialist Labor...
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English
Description
In this film, historian David Reynolds argues that the Great War made national identity a matter of "us" versus "them," and he traces the recurrent struggle between nationalist uprisings and empire-building since 1914. New nation states hastily patched together from the ruins of the Habsburg Empire destabilized the whole European continent for much of the twentieth century. However, the British Empire strengthened after the war and bonds with Dominions...
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English
Description
In this series, historian David Reynolds examines how World War I haunted the generation who lived through it and shaped the peace that followed. In this film, he shows how the common perception of the Great War as futile slaughter has developed after the Second World War and, in particular, through popular depictions in the 1960s. For many British people, the sacrifice would not have been in vain if the Great War proved to be "the war to end war."...
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English
Description
Crossing the strait between Papua New Guinea and the northernmost shores of Queensland, Australia, program host Griff Rhys Jones meets a culture that was for centuries cut off from the rest of the world. The intriguing, stunningly creative objects produced by Torres Strait Islander artists are infused with mystery and a sense of magic - indeed, their perceived power is so closely guarded that many in the community are reluctant to have them seen by...
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English
Description
Continuing his trek across the Muslim world, art scholar Waldemar Januszczak introduces viewers to masterworks in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia-from the gigantic and surreal mud mosques of Mali; to a rare, 10th-century Egyptian ewer carved out of a single piece of rock crystal; to the inspired urban planning of the ancient city of Isfahan in Iran; to the stunning architecture of Uzbekistan's Samarquand. Januszczak shares his knowledge...
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English
Description
The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over the declining Ottoman Empire's territories. Considered one of the first "modern" wars, written reports and photographs kept the British public informed of the day-to-day battlefield realities for the first time. This series uses firsthand British, French, and Russian accounts to describe the military and logistical incompetence,...
10) The Reason Why
Language
English
Description
The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over the declining Ottoman Empire's territories. Considered one of the first "modern" wars, written reports and photographs kept the British public informed of the day-to-day battlefield realities for the first time. This series uses firsthand British, French, and Russian accounts to describe the military and logistical incompetence,...
Language
English
Description
Program host Griff Rhys Jones continues his quest to understand non-Western art forms by travelling to West Africa. Looking beyond the astonishing monetary worth of antique carvings from the region, Jones asks: what makes a piece "authentic" and are such objects still produced by artists today? Is there an exact definition for what constitutes African art? Has there ever been? The investigation starts on Mali's Bandiagara Escarpment, a hub of Dogon...
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English
Description
With the grandeur and geometric sophistication of the Alhambra as a powerful opening example, this program looks at Islamic culture in southern Spain following the Berber invasion of 711. Scholar Bettany Hughes talks with Professor Antonio Fernandez-Puertas of the University of Granada, who has studied Nasrid art and architecture for 40 years; with Professor Lauro Olmo Encisco of Alcala University in Madrid, an expert on the Visigothic site of Recopolis;...
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English
Description
Produced with unprecedented access to Hamas and its operations, this program takes viewers inside Gaza's Islamic fundamentalist government in the months following its civil war against Fatah. The film observes Hamas leaders as they struggle to shape policy and follows a former militant who now heads up an Executive Force police unit-carrying out orders he doesn't agree with. Archival footage and interviews from earlier years are also included, creating...
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English
Description
In this program, host Griff Rhys Jones goes to India in search of exquisite, traditionally made textiles. Can he solve the mystery of an extraordinary Indian floor cloth kept in England for over 300 years? Who made it, and does the skill with which the fabric was created still exist? In the state of Gujarat, renowned throughout history for textiles, Jones goes off the beaten track to the towns and villages of the North West plains and discovers how...
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English
Description
Every time Laura gets swollen glands, she spends hours on the Internet researching terminal cancer. Kevin lives in fear of contracting HIV-a drop of blood can send him into a state of panic. And the smallest ache convinces Sarah that she could die at any moment. Studies suggest that as many as one in four general-practitioner consultations are for hypochondriacs-or those who suffer from what is now called Health Anxiety Disorder. This compelling film...
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English
Description
This documentary looks at the state of the Roman Empire in the first century AD and examines its many aspects by following the career of one of its finest emperors, Vespasian, from his childhood to his death in 79 AD. Through the exploration of Vespasian's life we gain an insight into the sophisticated workings and of the Roman Empire. Vespasian came to power in 69 AD, at a moment when the Empire was in grave crisis, when it's continued existence...
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English
Description
When renowned psychologist Paul Salkovskis offers three agoraphobics a base from which to battle their fears, each sufferer embraces the opportunity to utilize the professor's "safe house." There's only one problem-getting there. This program illustrates the paralyzing anxiety agoraphobics typically experience when stepping outside their cloistered comfort zones. After Simon, Su, and Archana finally arrive at the house, Professor Salkovskis forces...
18) Landscapes
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English
Description
Sculpture likely began as a form of spiritual expression, celebrating life and death and the connection both have to the Earth. Thousands of years later, that aspect of sculpture is still difficult to dismiss. This program follows British critic Waldemar Januszczak as he travels across North and South America, encountering stunning examples of sculpture tied to nature and the physical environment. From Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and Nancy Holt's...
19) Leaders
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English
Description
Art isn't always for art's sake-a reality that is all too clear when political figures commandeer the artistic process for their own gain. Dictators and tyrants are experts at this, but even free societies use art to lionize their political heroes. And what medium is most suited to the glorification of leaders past and present? Public sculpture. This film examines the ways in which three-dimensional art is used to perpetuate power and carry on historical...
20) Women
Language
English
Description
The feminine form has inspired artists for thousands of years-but have the results done justice or injustice to women? What specifically does the history of sculpture tell us about attitudes toward womanhood and ideas of feminine beauty? British art critic Waldemar Januszczak addresses those questions in this challenging, eye-opening program. After tracing the representation of women from the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf and Venus de Milo to Marc...