30+ interviews in 10 U.S. states with authors, collectors, journalists, professors, bloggers, students, artists, inventors and repairmen (and women) who meet up for ‘Type-In’ gatherings to both celebrate and use their decidedly lo-tech typewriters in a plugged-in world.
Millions of people around the world live in the shadow of active volcanoes. From Japan s Mount Fuji to the Sleeping Giant submerged beneath Naples to the Yellowstone Supervolcano in the United States, NOVA travels with scientists who are attempting to discover how likely these volcanoes are to erupt, when it might happen, and exactly how deadly they could prove to be.
For more than 80 years, Solenopsis Invicta has been on a ceaseless march across the United States, racking up six billion dollars every year in crop damage, equipment repair, and pest control. They have conquered more than 320 million acres in 13 states and killed at least 80 people. And the invader is still on the move. Globally. Now, scientists are cracking the ant's ancient secrets to success and breeding winged assassins to hunt them down. Stunning 3D macro photography explores the secret world of the fire ant and the cutting-edge research into stopping it.
A Journey to the Origins of Modern Yoga. Yoga is known to go back to God Shiva, who perfected 8,4 million postures, according to Indian tradition. Far less known is the fact that yoga is at the same time an early 20th century-creation of Indian savant T. Krishnamacharya, which is what this film is about. Krishnamacharya's life and teachings are seen through the eyes of the director on his search for authentic yoga. His journey leads him from students and relatives of Krishnamacharya's such as the legendary teachers Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois to the source of modern yoga: the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore, where Krishnamacharya founded the first ever yoga school. A feature-length documentary including rare historical footage as well as lavish reenactments.
Before there were big surf corporations, a handful of pioneers were building wooden surfboards in their garages. Unbeknownst to them, they created a lifestyle that would be emulated by the generations to come. This is their story.
On 29 April 2011, William and Catherine were married in a fairy tale wedding watched by more than two billion people and celebrated the whole world over.
Venezuela, Guiana Shield, Tepuis, Canaima, Gondwanaland, magical words in the Nature World, this documentary explores the adventure of travelling to the highest falls in the world, Angel Falls, passing thru dangerous rapids, fantastic falls, otherworldly.
The LLANOS is one of the greatest fauna reservoirs in South America with 400 species of birds and many other animals. Birdwatching, horse riding, fishing, hand milking, night watching, river dolphins, forest animals, waterfowl and much more.
"The flow of the tides, flooded jungles with fauna and flora, piranha fishing, canoeing, a Warao Shaman ceremony, houses, handicrafts, and a whole chapter dedicated to the jungle wisdom. In the end, a young Ocelot practices its skills."
As recently as forty years ago, most sections of the Maasai were semi-nomadic and relatively independent of the nation-state. However, political, social and economic changes in East Africa have forced many herders to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. The Chairman and the Lions introduces Frank Kaipai Ikoyo, a charismatic Ilparakuyo Maasai who, at thirty-three, is the leader of a Tanzanian village called Lesoit. Ikoyo was elected to his post at the age of twenty-six in part because he had completed primary school. That someone so young would be accorded such authority would have been without precedent not long ago. Yet this ethnography of Ikoyo's duties as village chairman shows how literacy and insight into the workings of the nation-state are essential for Maasai to combat the many lions, both real and figurative, that beset them: land grabbers, "bush" lawyers, unemployment, out-migration and poverty.
In the muddy market square of Momostenango, Guatemala, where shamans burn offerings in the shadow of the Catholic church, prehispanic gods dance beside horror movie monsters and dictators from the dark days of the Cold War. Unlike the folkloric performances long studied by anthropologists, this new dance won't show up on any postcard. In some villages, it's even been banned for frightening tourists. So how did these fiberglass masks of Xena: Warrior Princess come to be blessed in the smoke of Maya altars? Presenting a striking case never before documented on film, Gods and Kings illuminates the way creations of mass-culture take on new meanings as they travel around the world. In a town where a Hollywood B-movie villain is a real evil spirit, stories can't be taken lightly and it always matters who's telling them.
Ngaben: Emotion and Restraint in a Balinese Heart takes an impressionistic look at the ngaben from the perspective of a mourning son, Nyoman Asub, and reveals the intimacy, sadness, and tenderness at the core of this funerary ritual and the feeling and force that underlie an exquisite cultural tradition. Amidst ample cultural and interpretive understandings of the cremation ceremony, the film purposefully provides a personalistic, impressionistic, and poetic glimpse of the process and the complex emotions involved.