Lord Louis Mountbatten arrives in India in March 1947 as Britain's Last Viceroy. He is committed to transfer administrative and authoritative power to an independent and sovereign India. Six months later India indeed was set free, but it had also been partitioned and overwhelmed by an orgy of sectarian violence involving Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.
This film describes the nature and impact of major religions in India, artistic monuments and contributions of each dynasty and cultural development of the people in different regions of the vast subcontinent.
This FitzPatrick Traveltalk series short looks at Czechoslovakia before World War II, including images of bridges, churches, and castles in Prague, also a non-military parade through the city.
This Traveltalk series short takes a look at Cairo's landmarks, people, and culture.
In the holy city of Varanasi, 16-year-old Ali has one of the most dangerous jobs in the world – catching poisonous snakes. The boy balances life and death on a daily basis to support his family.
King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.
India's forgotten people
Shortly after his mother’s passing, playwright and stage director Mohamed El Khatib receives a phone call from his uncle in Bab Berred, the family’s village in the Moroccan Rif, instructing him to come as soon as possible to collect his inheritance – mysteriously insisting that he should make the trip in a Renault 12. Coaxed by his father, El Khatib decides to make the journey from Orléans to Tangier. Structured like a road movie, Renault 12 is also the filmmaker’s quest to discover his own origins, in which he both documents chance encounters and stages situations to bring social, political, and cultural landscapes to light.
Blissful scenes of tourists arriving by boat and then sea bathing on a beach in the Venetian lagoon.
1950s Soho beats with far more energy than its 21st century counterpart in this vivid time capsule.
A farmer struggles to make a living on his land near the coast of the Dead Sea.
With the help of hidden camera, Danish TV 2 documents how a known Danish imam teaches Muslim women about Islam's violent rules of adultery.
This short film presents a look at Italy's popular tourist spots.
Permaculture expert Geoff Lawton describes how he and a team of volunteers grew an oasis in arid, salty lowland, despite extremely high temperatures and minimal irrigation. The site is the lowest dryland expanse on Earth: a plain in Jordan, two kilometres northeast of the Dead Sea, and 400 metres below sea level.
Richly detailed amateur ethnographic film on the agrarian economy and society in rural Punjab.
Meena is a documentary film about sex trafficking in India based on a true story.
The Little Ballet Troupe of Bombay performs a "puppet ballet" of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.
The average age of the U.S. farmer has reached 60. Half of America's farmland will change ownership in the next 15 years. Our nation faces a little-known agricultural crisis on an unprecedented scale. Against all odds, this is the story of an eclectic mix of young people- military veterans, bright-eyed idealists, and multi-generational farmers who are accepting the virtuous challenge of feeding us all. The documentary is narrated by Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs, Returning the Favor and stars farmers from every region of the United States including national agricultural leaders like Joel Salatin, Eliot Coleman, Blake Hurst and Lindsey Lusher-Shute.
A short look at various seasonal activities offered in the Tyrol region of Austria.
This travelogue begins at Bangkok's rail depot, a center of Indo-Chinese commerce. Next the narrator talks about Buddhism as the camera shows us some of Bangkok's many temples. Then, the narrator introduces us to the importance of traditional dance, with emphasis on the way that delicate wrist movements tell stories. It's on to the system of waterways in Bangkok, where more than 1,000,000 people live or conduct commerce. We take a ride down the Menam River, the country's most important commercial and social road. From our boat, we pass Wat Arun and other colorful signs of life typical in serene Siam.