Infobase.
28281) East and west: pt. 1
Language
English
Description
Born into a prominent family in China, Soong Mei-ling was nonetheless thoroughly Western in thought and philosophy, having studied in America-one of the first Chinese women to do so. After marrying Chiang Kai-shek, the couple led a China embroiled in years of war and political intrigue. During World War II, she became the first Chinese national ever to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress and was counted as the fourth luminary of the Cairo...
28282) Green home building
Language
English
Description
Eco-friendly building is catching on in the construction trade, and is projected to become the norm among home builders and contractors. Using easy-to-understand visuals and comments from industry experts, this program presents general construction guidelines for environmentally friendly residential building. Viewers are given a solid foundation of technical knowledge and best practices in all aspects of green housing construction. Topics include:...
28283) Solo Whitewater
Language
English
Description
This short film from famed canoeist Bill Mason explains clearly how to locate a deep water channel by reading the rapids-and how to apply the many paddling strokes and maneuvers to steer the canoe where you want it to go. Filled with meaningful survival tactics, Solo Whitewater also depicts what happens when you make a mistake and "wipe out" in a turbulent rapid, as well as how to survive the swim.
Language
English
Description
This program explores Appia's innovations: replacing the flat painted scenery and declamatory style of the 19th century with plastic environments for three-dimensional actors and actresses, using mobile lighting, and counterpointing visuals with music. His designs for Ibsen and Shaw productions link 20th-century theater to the freedoms of ancient Greek drama and mark Appia as the father of modern theatrical design.
28285) Exile years: pt. 2
Language
English
Description
After the Chinese Nationalist Government fled to Taiwan, Soong Mei-ling remained in the public eye as the distant and mysterious "Madame Chiang." She continued the role she had played during her years in mainland China, remaining prominent in foreign affairs and devoted to her work with women and charitable causes. This program examines the second half of Madame Chiang's life: her often-fractious relations with her stepson, President Chiang Ching-kuo;...
Language
English
Description
During the English Civil War, London's theaters were closed by Parliament, and many were destroyed by Cromwell. During the Restoration, new playhouses, built to stage the probing social comedies of the era, were shaped by changes in English drama, politics, and society. We learn how the Parisian tennis court theaters, attended by the court in exile of Charles II, influenced the new London theaters, particularly Christopher Wren's Theatre Royal. Other...
28287) The Raven and other poems
Language
English
Description
If "The Raven" is not the best-known American poem, then "Annabel Lee" is. Both have endured because they successfully illustrate Poe's esthetic theories of poetics; they use natural, comprehensible language whose music weaves a spell that underscores and heightens the language. These two poems and "The Dream within a Dream" are performed (not merely read!) as Poe himself might have recited them to his peers-with deep passion and intensity, but always...
Language
English
Description
Beginning with the most rudimentary of theaters-an open plot of ground which the Greeks called a theatron or "seeing space"-this program illustrates in stunning detail how that idea evolved over the centuries. Professor Richard Beacham of King's College London guides viewers through the Theatre of Epidaurus and the Lycurgian, Hellenistic, and Roman manifestations of the Theatre of Dionysus. The odea of Pericles and Agrippa and Rome's magnificent Theatre...
Language
English
Description
Running rapids will always be a calculated risk. But risk diminishes with skill and knowledge. In Doubles Whitewater, a film by famed canoeist Bill Mason, two canoeists paddling double demonstrate how to read the rapids, plan a course, and follow it in complete control of the boat, using the basic paddling strokes. The strokes can be used in endless combination to reduce the risk of whitewater canoeing and increase the sheer joy and exuberance of...
28290) Phantom of The Opera
Language
None
Description
This classic silent adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel stars Lon Chaney in his most famous performance, as the disfigured Phantom who falls in love with a young prima donna. Some critics consider it the greatest horror film ever made.
28291) The Black cat
Language
English
Description
This confessional monologue depicts the decay of one man as a result of his addiction to alcohol. Pomerleau's portrayal brings to vivid life that character as he evolves from a lover of animals and a caring husband to a demon facing the ultimate horror.
28292) The Renaissance stage
Language
English
Description
The intermediate step between the modern theatre and its classical antecedents was the Renaissance stage-an obvious, if by no means simple, step, for while texts of classical plays were more or less readily available, there was no knowledge of what Roman theatre had looked like and how plays had been performed. This program traces the earliest Renaissance attempts to stage classical drama through the application of medieval concepts of production;...
28293) The Cask of Amontillado
Language
English
Description
This classic tale of revenge and murder depicts a victim lured to his doom by the false promise of riches-in this case, a highly prized cask of vintage wine. Pomerleau portrays both victim and villain with consummate skill as greed is punished with inescapable and eternal imprisonment.
28294) The Tell-tale heart
Language
English
Description
Here is Poe weaving a web of psychological terror as a murderer recounts the bizarre details of his crimes against "the old man with the evil eye. The intensity and emotion build as the murderer becomes unhinged, a victim of his own crime. Again, the strength of Pomerleau's performance enables the audience to feel the power of Poe's macabre imagination.
28295) Doubles Basic
Language
English
Description
When paddling double, the canoeists demonstrate the basic paddling strokes and how to apply them in a variety of combinations to move the canoe at will. Throughout the classic Doubles Basic film, the application of each stroke in rapids is shown briefly, with emphasis on the necessity of working as a well-coordinated team. This short film from canoeist Bill Mason is the winner of the BAFTA Film Award in the Best Specialized Film category.
28296) Staging classical tragedy
Language
English
Description
Understanding Greek tragedy, not through post-Ibsenist, post-modernist, post-Method eyes but in terms of what the ancient playwright may have intended, requires going beyond the text to the staging. For the staging defines the relationship between chorus and actors, between actors and audience, and between playwright and play. Using the theatre at Epidauros as an example-it was built a century after the heyday of Greek classical theatre but is well...
Language
English
Description
In the Greek myth, Orpheus suffered the consequences of looking back to see if his beloved was following; Appia had no such temptation-he deliberately turned his back on the stiff, boring, dated way in which Gluck's opera was being staged. Here is Richard Beacham's imaginative re-creation of the Orpheus as staged by Appia and Jacques Dalcroze in 1912-a fusion of acting, music, and sets that ushered in a new form of theatrical art. With the University...
28298) The Renaissance theatre
Language
English
Description
The theater familiar to most modern viewers had a lowly medieval birth-in churches, on festival platforms, and in the great halls of the European nobility. Hosted by Professor Richard Beacham of King's College London, this program weaves together elaborate visual tours and the latest scholarly research, surveying the evolution of Elizabethan and Renaissance stage formations and the conventions they established. With striking depictions of the Globe...
28299) Staging classical comedy
Language
English
Description
Tragedy upholds traditional values and comedy attacks them-which explain much of the change from Aristophanes to Plautus, from Old Comedy to New, reflecting as it does the change from Athenian democracy to Roman totalitarianism. Wary of creating permanent spaces that might be used for mass meetings, the Romans constructed temporary wooden structures to house their theatrical productions. Since these structures were made of wood, they did not survive....
28300) The Conquering Power
Language
English
Description
This famous silent film is a fine adaptation of one of Balzac's most famous novels, Eugénie Grandet. It tells the story of a young man named Charles Grandet who is sent to live with his evil and miserly uncle Pere. Charles falls in love with Pere's daughter Eugénie, but Pere is determined to keep them apart.