Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm)

A bridge that brings to mind a harp. A transportation hub reminiscent of a dove. Winner of the IAI Gold Medal as well as the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts, Santiago Calatrava is celebrated for harmoniously combining sculptural architectural elements with rigid principles of engineering. This program showcases some of Calatrava's most popular projects as it tracks the career of an architect/engineer who is also a skilled artist.

After the death of Franco and during the transition to a parliamentary monarchy, Spain's cultural life blossomed once again. In this environment, the poetry movement known as "the other sentimentality"-named after the first book of Javier Egea and Luis Garcia Montero-was born, a movement known for its transformation of the personal experience into a collective one so that any reader might identify with the feelings evoked. This program discusses that...

The 19th century brought tumultuous political change to Central and South America. This program shows how the cultural crucible of the region fused and realigned aesthetic movements considered sacrosanct in Europe-specifically, Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism. In an eclectic matching game that became typical of Latin American literature, Realist and historical novels existed cheek-and-jowl with Romantic poetry, Romantic novels competed with the...

If the 20th century was the era of physics and nuclear fission, the 21st belongs to the life sciences. Moving from gene, to genome, to genetically based diseases, this program provides an overview of the interrelated fields of genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics, with an emphasis on practical applications of biotechnology to the field of medicine. Are genetically personalized drugs around the next corner? Commentary is provided by Bob Forgey,...

It was an aesthetic movement with an ambitious program: linguistic innovation as a means of liberation from Romanticism and Neoclassicism, and as a way to clarify Latin American identity. As this program explains, Modernismo coincided with a burst of interest in stories and accounts that were tied to the creation of independent nation states. Viewers will discover valuable insights regarding this cultural tidal wave and the ways in which it transformed...

The literature of Latin America has always defied homogeneity-and the first decades of the 20th century were no exception. This program studies artistic responses to Modernismo that accompanied a deepening appreciation of local cultural currents forming across the region-currents that, however disparate, were flowing into a shared identity. The forces that paved the way for a new avant-garde, replacing traditional means of discourse with a fractured...

What do fireworks, a fried egg, and a rusting truck have in common? They all involve chemical reactions. This program illustrates the mechanics of chemical reactions in five sections: Chemical Reactions (reactants and products, state changes, diatomic elements and molecules, Law of Conservation of Mass); Chemical Bonding (Octet Rule, ionic and covalent bonds); Types of Chemical Reactions (synthesis and decomposition reactions, single and double displacement...

Muslims, blacks, gays, people with disabilities, and immigrants of every ethnicity and color: they and many other groups have stood in the spotlight glare of intolerance, easy targets for every sort of discrimination and violence. What makes people prone to irrational hate, and what steps can individuals and society take to eradicate it? In this program, psychology professors Susan Fiske, of Princeton University, and Mahzarin Banaji, of Harvard University;...

First, call 911. This program shows viewers how to respond to common medical emergencies while waiting for professional help to arrive. With demonstrations and commentary from an experienced paramedic throughout, each section describes trauma situations or symptoms of distress and the best way to address them. The video also includes relevant advice on topics such as giving yourself the Heimlich maneuver, using an epi-pen on someone having an allergic...

The history and social structures of Latin America's native peoples were neither simple nor peaceful before the arrival of Europeans. Wars were fought, empires were created and destroyed, and-as this program illustrates-narrative tapestries of fact and fiction were woven in the process. Underscoring the linguistic sophistication that flourished for thousands of years in the region, the program addresses the proliferation of Nahuatl and Quechua literature,...