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Subjects
Films by Subject
Asia
194 film(s) found
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Rebiya Kadeer is a human rights activist twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the impassioned though graying exiled leader who continues to lobby for the Uyghurs, a Muslim people whose ancestral home was annexed by the Chinese in 1949. more »
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Once a year, about one hundred companies seeking dominant positions in China’s booming economy, compete in an auction for television advertising time. This film reveals China’s hectic embrace of market economics presenting a close look at the TV ad auction and the companies bidding . more »
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This is a multi-award winning documentary about Japan's World War II biological weapons facility as seen from two points of view. The first half gives the perspective of the Chinese and describes the horrors, while the second half, using the same footage, gives the Japanese revisionist perspective. more »
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The women of a small, remote village in the Indian Himalayas have their world transformed with the arrival of a silk weaving cooperative. One woman, Hema, begins a cooperative in her new village to teach local women—and her husband—to weave. more »
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This no-holds-barred documentary follows the illicit opium industry, from the cultivation of the opium plants, to the processing of heroin, to the cross border smuggling that occurs between Afghanistan and Iran. more »
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A close-up view of an eight-year-old boy who works as a domestic in Calcutta. Despite his hard life, he feels fortunate to have a job that gives him food as wages. more »
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Tran Van Lam was foreign minister of South Vietnam during the devastating war with the North. During the war he dispersed his nine children to Australia, France, the US, and Scotland with the hope that they would return to Vietnam after the war. The film captures their challenges to make new lives in the countries to which they immigrated. more »
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Along with the personal story of one young man's return to Cambodia years after his escape from its holocaust, this compelling documentary traces the history of his homeland, from the reign of King Sihanouk, to his overthrow, with American support, by Lon Nol, a right wing former police chief. more »
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A Westerner explores the institution of arranged marriages with her married Indian friends. She finds that there are many variations in the way these marriages are arranged, but in all cases, the marriage is a family matter, often used to reinforce the social standing of the family, and to preserve values from generation to generation. more »
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In a backlash against feminism, European men marry Asian wives through advertisements. This footnote to social history will set any women's studies class gnashing their teeth. more »
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A close up look at the tribe in Papua New Guinea, known as "the men who eat men." more »
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Art and everyday life come together in this intimate story about a Balinese family whose gamelan music and Legong dance tradition span four generations. more »
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India's cities are thronged with faceless rickshaw workers. This film puts a human face on those at the low end of the caste system whose only chance to eke out a bare subsistence for their families is to do the work done by beasts of burden in more affluent societies. more »
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Today, many ambitious young women in China feel they have to westernize their appearance through plastic surgery in order to get ahead. more »
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This documentary examines the painful legacy of Korean sex slaves under World War II Japanese colonial rule. It honors a few brave survivors who came forward to break the silence. more »
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Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, the first woman to head a Muslim country. This film traces her political life and how she and her family are linked with Pakistan¹s stormy history. more »
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The betelnut has been a socially accepted narcotic in coastal Papua New Guinea since ancestral times but in the Highlands, where a majority of the population lives, it is a recent arrival. The film follows Lukus Kalma as he tries to supplement his income by buying betelnuts from growers and reselling them at home. more »
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Bird Flu Wars
The international scientific community has been monitoring the bird flu virus since 1997 when seven people died in Hong Kong. This films outlines some of the proposals suggested at the WHO to prevent a pandemic. more »
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The third film in the renowned trilogy on Papua New Guinea completes the story chronicled in First Contact and Joe Leahy's Neighbours. more »
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Young girls in India face a dismal future, despite a decade of feminism. Widespread poverty means families need to send their children to the workplace, especially girls. more »
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On the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea thousands of people were killed in a war of secession that grew from a local uprising against an Australian copper company. When the ten =year= old civil war ended in 1998, the islanders had to deal with the challenging emotional terrain of personal reconciliation. more »
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This film takes us to a remote part of Yunan province in China where the Lisu people have lived for generations in a village carved out of a steep mountain gorge, cheerily battling the elements to go about their daily tasks. more »
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Buddhism, which began in India, has shown a remarkable ability to adapt across race, language, and cultural barriers. What became the dominant spiritual tradition of the East has now taken root and is flourishing in the West. more »
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Recent demographic studies show that the aging of the Japanese is occurring at a much faster rate than anticipated. By the year 2025 there will be only two working people for every retired person, and within the next fifty years, one out of every three Japanese will be over 65. The particular Japanese response to this phenomenon is to stay in the workforce long after the normal retirement age. more »
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An expose of the hypocrisy of the West, which continued to support the Pol Pot regime despite the atrocities they committed. more »
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In the mid-1970's, Cambodia was the victim of a brutal genocide, when the communist Pol Pot regime exterminated every fifth inhabitant. This film shows efforts that are now being made in the country towards reconciliation. For many, the wounds remain deep. more »
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A report of the condition of India¹s "untouchables," whose segregated life has kept them in poverty despite promises of reform. more »
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An intimate portrayal of Tibetan resistance to China, it contrasts the moderate approach of the Dalai Lama with that of young rebels who are more confrontational. more »
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This richly photographed film shows a special ceremony performed in a remote village in northern Bali to purify the village. Two young girls dance and chant in accordance with strict Balinese traditions. more »
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In Japan, the old system of arranged marriages is giving way to the "love match," with dramatic social consequences. more »
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This lively film about the kingdom of Cambodia provides a remarkable picture of a country that endured political upheaval and genocide, yet was able to renew itself by reconnecting with ancient beliefs and traditions more »
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Three children-refugees escape from their native Tibet across the Himalayas in search of a better education in India. Leaving their families behind and risking their lives, they find life in India not as easy they expected. more »
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This is a view of China in transition through the eyes of six members of the intelligentsia. They are addressing the issue of freedom of expression and censorship. more »
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The filmmaker was born in Shanghai to a privileged family that lived an enviable life style. When the Communists came to power the family fled. This beguiling film records her first visit back to the land of her birth and the relatives she left behind. more »
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In 1992, Deng Xiaoping's slogan "It is glorious to get rich" unleashed one of the biggest revolutions in thousand-year-old China. He overthrew the classless society and the equal division of the means of production and from then on, China stuck to a socialism with "Chinese characteristics." Which meant that many Chinese families have built successful companies, embracing all the lessons of capitalism. more »
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When a massive earthquake struck China's Sichuan province in May, 2008, China's government presented a new face to the world, allowing increased media coverage. But as the months passed, this newly transparent China melted away into one of secrecy. more »
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Two hundred million farmers have left their roots and migrated to the cities in search for a better life. The film focuses on one young man and his travails in participating in the new economy. more »
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In 1980, the Communist Government of China instituted a policy of one child per family as a means of curtailing population growth. Now, the success or failure of this highly controversial social experiment can be assessed. This report travels from middle class Beijing to poor farms in the countryside to see the effect of the policy. more »
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Despite China's economic success, there has been no progress in civil rights. Workers can be sent away for "reeducation" if they complain about working conditions. People charged with crimes do not get adequate legal representation. more »
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This companion film to Contemporary Chinese Art: Artists working in China focuses on the ground-breaking Chinese art being exhibited in the US that has excited Western curators and collectors alike more »
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There has been an astounding flowering of innovative, energetic and challenging contemporary art in China. The film travels to artists studios, galleries and museums where this art is evolving and displayed, and the artists explain their techniques and philosophies. Art experts bring historical context to the new movement.
Accompanying film: Chinese Contemporary Art Comes to America more »
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A pair of small feet -- three-inch golden lilies -- were once the male-designated yardstick for feminine beauty in China. A young girl's feet were broken and bound inwards along the instep, a process that caused excruciating pain. Systematically bound, day after day, the stunted feet began to take on the coveted look of that profoundly sensuous image, the lotus bulb. more »
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In Beijing stands the only hospital in China devoted to giving the terminally ill a death with dignity. more »
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The Korean film industry, which once struggled to attract domestic audiences, has been successfully exporting its movies and expanding its influence throughout Asia, Europe and North America in the past decade. Korean cinema is enjoying a revival of interest internationally because of the broader cultural phenomenon of hallyu ("Korean Wave"). But contemporary Korean cinema's roots run deep and hallyu is only the latest chapter in a rich history. more »
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Circus School is a rare glimpse into one of China’s most revered institutions, the Shanghai Circus School, where students ranging in age from six to fifteen must complete a grueling seven-year program before working as professionals. It captures the breathtaking feats of gymnastics executed by a new generation of performers in training. more »
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In the world's largest democracy, urban planning can be a complicated task. Despite Mumbai’s exploding population, a collapsing infrastructure could put an end to economic growth. Public trains are filled to the bursting point and traffic is nearing a complete gridlock. But officials are hopeful that building an eight lane highway out at sea will help relieve the strain of the overwrought transportation systems. more »
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Shanghai is a unusual city, bursting with four thousand skyscrapers, thousands of miles of highway, millions of citizens, and thousands of government planners. To make way for new skyscrapers, roads, and industries, vast communities are being expropriated. Can government influence help control Shanghai’s growing pains? more »
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Delhi's archaeological ruins, and some of its intact buildings, mirror the city's history of religious strife. The warfare between Muslims and Hindus continues to this day and affects the political climate of Delhi. more »
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An extraordinary portrait of a Chinese ballet dancer who underwent one of the first sex change operations in China to become a woman. She is now the toast of the Chinese theater, despite having challenged very traditional institutions. more »
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An extraordinary investigation of the long drawn out guerrilla war in the jungles of Burma. more »
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The film takes us back to the murderous years of Pol Pot (1975-79) when 90 percent of the Cambodian dancers were executed or died of starvation or disease. It shows how several surviving dancers train a new generation to continue their tradition. more »
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A Pakistani middle class family celebrates the engagements of their two children each who has followed a different path. The son, keeping to tradition, is marrying a woman he has never met. The daughter, a career woman, has chosen her own husband-to-be. more »
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An undercover report from China reveals the suffering of people who have been exposed to radioactivity from nuclear testing. more »
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A new phenomenon in the global economy: toll-free telephone numbers are often answered by Indians impersonating local operators. This film follows a group of university graduates as they prepare themselves for prestigious jobs in Indian call centers, learning to speak and think like their international callers. more »
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The extraordinary life of Pearl Buck (1892-1973), the child of missionaries who was raised in China and developed a deep affection for the Chinese people. She became one of the most popular American writers of the 20th Century, especially for her best-selling novel, The Good Earth. Archival footage and interviews provide unique insight into China in the first half of the 20th century more »
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This spectacular film brings to light the priceless treasures of China's imperial art collection, relating them to the political climate of their time. It also describes how the collection survived both war and revolution in the 1930-40's. more »
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This film tells the harrowing story of the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1941-45. England's decision to give up Malaya for the defense of Europe in World War II was ultimately the end of the British Empire. more »
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Portraits of three Asian women fighting for social justice. Each is from a different culture (Bangladesh, India, Vietnam) but are united by their refusal to remain silent and accepting. more »
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Fathima Burnad is fighting to change the caste system that has existed for 3,000 years. more »
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Hien Tran, a former Vietnamese refugee turned union representative in Austalia, is speaking up for her fellow workers, trapped by their circumstances and financial need. more »
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In 1994 a young poet from rural Bangladesh plunged the country into a wave of mass protest. Her crime: to write her thoughts about how religious fundamentalism has consigned women to a secondary role in modern society. more »
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Academy Award Nominee, 1984. This is the classic film of cultural confrontation that is as compelling today as when it was first released over ten years ago. more »
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Each year the wheelchair-bound 76-year-old Dr. Dicksheet, travels from New York to India to perform free reconstructive facial surgery on hundreds of children. Without the operations, these children would be not be able to develop normally and would be treated as outcasts.The film shows how this quirky, funny, and sometimes difficult character overcomes his own ailments by curing others. His stamina and commitment are truly staggering. more »
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This film follows the migration of the aging hippies from the mountains of Kathmandu to the beaches of Goa in South India. It captures their lifestyle with all its ironies. more »
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This is a colorful, ironic look at Chinese society as it is being transformed by burgeoning capitalism. Untold wealth has accrued to those who once followed Mao's dictates. more »
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Skillfully compiled from still photographs smuggled out of China, eye witness accounts and news sound tracks, this short film recreates this tragic event in Chinese history. more »
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A powerful and moving film exploring the complexity of female infanticide in southern India and showing steps that are being taken to eradicate the practice more »
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This beautiful film explores the rich culture of rice, still the basis of survival for most people throughout the world, which is poised to change forever due to genetic engineering. more »
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The fabled Golden Triangle of southeast Asia is the home of heroin, morphine, and a host of amphetamines. On the rugged hillsides and in remote clearings, rippling seas of golden poppies grow. The area is still the fiefdom of drug lords and their cronies, where conflict is the norm and everyone is armed. more »
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This award-winning film is a journey across three continents telling the story of the up-and-coming baby production industry in the age of globalization. more »
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This ironic film show how the natives of Papua New Guinea are confused by the rivalry for conversions among competing churches more »
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Filmmaker Christine Choy (Who Killed Vincent Chin) goes on a Kafkaesque journey to reclaim her family house. more »
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"The film captures the spirit and resilience of a group of Korean women who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during World War II. Now in their sixties and seventies, they live together in a shared community where they heal from the shame of having been "comfort women." more »
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The Chinese Communist revolution promised women equality after thousands of years of subservience to men. This film takes us to remote villages and urban factories to show how women are still oppressed. more »
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An intrepid woman who reported on events in China during the turbulent 30's and gained the friendship of Mao's inner circle. more »
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This film, based on newsreel footage and interviews with contemporaries, traces the story of Ho Chi Minh's life, the Vietnamese leader who against seemingly insurmountable odds humiliated two of the world's strongest armies, the American and the French. more »
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When Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, the frontier between the former British territory and Shenzhen, the prosperous special economic zone, theoretically disappeared. However, in actuality the border is still closed and integration is slow to occur. more »
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This portrait of young Chinese rock musicians in Beijing provides a glimpse into the lives of a generation awakened by Western cultural forces, despite the conservatism of their parents’ generation and their government. more »
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This Nature of Things documentary takes a sobering look at how the explosive growth in the world population affects our planet's resources. more »
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Chinese sculptor and painter Liao Yibai recounts his remarkable life. He depicts his childhood in his imaginative and ironic stainless-steel sculptures, reflecting the complex cultural relationship between China and the US. more »
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Kiran Bedi, a small woman with a huge mission, has been compared to Mother Theresa and Mahatma Gandhi. She is, in fact, a police woman-- and a reformer more »
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A monument to the suffering of the Chinese at the hands of the Japanese during World War II. Includes the newly discovered film footage of the massacre shot by John McGee, an American missionary who was living in Nanjing. more »
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Mira Nair's award-winning film shows the life of female strippers in a Bombay nightclub. The women reveal their hopes and fears, while showing strength and resilience. more »
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India’s booming private healthcare system is expected to be worth billions of dollars in the decades to come, as westerners flock to India to get healthy. Fed up with long lines and exorbitant fees at home, these patients can now fly to the subcontinent and go straight to the front of the line for cheap operations in newly built, hi-tech hospitals. more »
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The film is an eye-opening look at the plight of the 260 million untouchables struggling with marginalization in modern India. more »
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Using archival footage never before seen in the West, this epic film traces the history of the past hundred years on the Indian subcontinent with all of its religious, ethnic and political turbulence. more »
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As the gap between the rich and the poor in India turns to a chasm, a renowned news journalist questions the social stability of a country that will soon enter the top five of the world's economic giants. more »
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This documentary gives us a rare opportunity to meet young artists and intellectuals in Beijing and hear how they steer a course between survival and artistic expression. more »
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From the rice paddies in the country to the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, this lively film allows us to view contemporary Vietnam through a unique perspective: the culture of rice. The history of this small grain is intertwined with rites and customs that are an integral part of Vietnamese life and culture. more »
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China's students are marching in formation and chanting miliary slogans. But behind the closed dormitory doors at Nanjing University, they act surprisingly similar to Western students. A frank look at the generation torn between communism and capitalism. more »
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North Korea is known as the hermit kingdom because it has been cut off from the rest of the world. Cruelly colonized by Japan early in the 20th century, and split from the south after World War II by cold war politics, it has suffered repressive governments and frequent famines. more »
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These spontaneous, close-up portraits of individuals coping with affairs of daily life in China - finding a mate, running a business, negotiating local politics - put a human face on a nation of over a billion people that is in rapid transition. Please note the varying lengths. more »
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These spontaneous, close-up portraits of individuals coping with affairs of daily life in China - finding a mate, running a business, negotiating local politics - put a human face on a nation of over a billion people that is in rapid transition. Please note the varying lengths. more »
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These spontaneous, close-up portraits of individuals coping with affairs of daily life in China - finding a mate, running a business, negotiating local politics - put a human face on a nation of over a billion people that is in rapid transition. Please note the varying lengths. more »
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These spontaneous, close-up portraits of individuals coping with affairs of daily life in China - finding a mate, running a business, negotiating local politics - put a human face on a nation of over a billion people that is in rapid transition. Please note the varying lengths. more »
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These spontaneous, close-up portraits of individuals coping with affairs of daily life in China - finding a mate, running a business, negotiating local politics - put a human face on a nation of over a billion people that is in rapid transition. Please note the varying lengths. more »
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The film examines why the powerful Japanese economy went into a slump and what the future will hold. more »
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More and more young Japanese women are rebelling against the societal norm. Instead, these "single parasites" pursue careers and live with their parents, with dramatic impact on the economy and on demographics. more »
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This film is the followup to Academy Award nominee First Contact. more »
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Almost every person charged with committing a serious crime in Japan is convicted and goes to jail. Jury trials simply do not exist and convictions are based on confessions. The filmmaker obtained rare access to Japan's jails, where a cruel, secret system allows the abuse, torture and death of inmates. more »
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A portrait of a twenty-one year old Indian film star, who despite the glamour of her career, still has the traditional values of her parents. She will have a suitable arranged marriage. more »
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The strange story told in this film about Sri Lanka narrates a revival of mystical belief in the ancient Hindu god, Kataragama more »
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In a call center in India, young sales agents struggle to sell an unmarketable product and are at risk of losing their jobs. This poignant but humorous film points up the absurdity that can occur in the global telemarketing industry. more »
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This film documents a war where neither side was victorious, a struggle that came very close to thermonuclear war, and that still resonates in the geopolitical machinations between East and West more »
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This stunning film takes us to a rare matriarchal community in southwest China. The ancient Mosuo culture has survived both the time of the concubines and the Cultural Revolution. more »
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For centuries, the world has jostled for control of the land now known as West Papua, a rugged, isolated region, with its abundant natural resources and strategic position. Colonial ambition, fervent nationalism and cold war politics have played a part in its turbulent history. more »
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Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War they are among several millions diagnosed by the Vietnamese as victims of Agent Orange. In this film, we meet several who are plaintiffs in a class action suit against 32 US chemical companies. Attorneys, activists, scientists, and a military historian take us to a new battlefield. more »
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An elder in Kyrgyzstan passes down the heroic stories of their oral tradition. more »
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Relegated to remote reservations on the rugged slopes of Mt. Pinatuba, the Aetas survived slavery by the Spanish colonizers and battled commercial logging and encroachment on their ancestral land. more »
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Mira Nair's latest documentary is a portrait of the "serious laughers" who meet daily in India - and now in the U.S. as well - to laugh as a group in order to improve their health. more »
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The Law of the Dragon examines the way in which the Chinese legal system is trying to cope with the myriad recent dramatic changes to Chinese life and society by following the activities of a provincial legal practice, the Tiger Law Firm of Chengdu. more »
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This BBC film exposes how fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran in Pakistan leaves women vulnerable to be murdered for seeking divorce. more »
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Since 1980 when China decreed that couples should have just one child, there has been an alarming disproportion of young men over young women. Here are the personal stories behind a modern demographic crisis in China. more »
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This film looks at the issues of urban gentrification and preservation in Beijing today, as the old neighborhoods are being demolished for 'development' more »
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At the end of the 1950’s, the Shanghai Art Studios were among the most important in the world. The came the Cultural Revolution and the director was imprisoned. more »
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As China changes at an awesome rate, becoming more industrialized, urban, and westernized, this film explores how this has impacted traditional relationships between men and women. more »
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This richly photographed film captures the courtship rituals of the Miao who live deep in the mountains of China, preserving the traditions of the past. Young men and women woo each other with soulful songs. more »
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Since the former Portuguese colony Macao was ceded to China in 1999, it has become China's "Empire of Gambling." It derives all its income from tourism, thanks to its sleek new casinos and shopping malls. Thousands are employed by the casinos, with 80% of the population indirectly making their living from them more »
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With a sense of humor and curiosity, the filmmaker explores the shocking connections between the mad cow crisis, the farm crisis, and the global food crisis.
Globalization emerges as a recurring theme, connecting the food we eat to the environmental, cultural, economic and health crises we are currently facing. Ironically, India is home to a burgeoning meat export industry that threatens to destroy an agricultural economy once centered around the feeding of the sacred cow, which was the livelihood 65% ot the population. more »
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This film takes a wry look at the cultural confrontation of East and West, as reflected in Hindu attitudes towards the slaughter in England of cows sick with Mad Cow disease. more »
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Between 1958 and 1962, China experienced tragedy on an epic scale when the “Great Leap Forward” – an economic campaign conceived by Mao Zedong led to a catastrophic famine resulting in the death of up to fifty-five million people. more »
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This irrepressible film follows the fortunes of two attractive thirty-year old Beijing fashion designers who are out to make their mark on the international fashion industry. more »
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The spiritual side of Japanese society is often overlooked. This fascinating report focuses on Genshin Fujinami, a corporate employee who became a monk and embarked on a search for meaning in his life. He completed a grueling running test, known as the "Kaihogyo," which is not simply running, but rather a pilgrimage around the sacred mountain, worshipping Buddha. more »
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This documentary, filmed in Ho Chi Minh City, chronicles the search of an awkward 38-year-od Singaporean for a young, beautiful Vietnamese bride, with the help of a marriage broker. more »
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This biographical portrait of Gayatri Devi, the outspoken daughter and granddaughter of the Maharajas, spans modern India's history from British rule, through the struggle for independence to today's modern state. It is enriched with archival footage and home movies showing scenes of colonial splendor from a vanished way of life. more »
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Each day, thousands of women leave underdeveloped countries to seek work as domestics in more prosperous places. This film shows the human and sometimes tragic side of their stories. more »
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Goat herders, who typify a traditional community, are successfully adapting to a global economy as they are freed from government restraints. more »
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Western researchers are turning to Eastern spiritual practitioners for illumination on the workings of the mind. They want to learn how meditation affects attention and consciousness, and how it controls the emotions. more »
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Filmed in Calcutta at a hospice founded by Mother Teresa, we learn how her legacy of devotion to the destitute inspires the volunteers who now care for them more »
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This documentary explores how several Japanese women struggled to reconcile their traditional upbringing with their desire to create unique lives. more »
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Mr. Wong is a wealthy business man who returned to China from Canada. He has made it his mission to rescue historic buildings of old Shanghai that would otherwise fall prey to the wrecking ball during an unprecedented building boom. more »
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Alain Desjacques, a well-known ethnomusicologist, takes us on a pilgrimage to find and record the best traditional musicians on the rugged, remote steppes of Mongolia. more »
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A lively portrait of the mixed marriage beween a scholarly Sikh and his Australian-born wife, which unfolds against the complex social, political and religious events which tore the family apart. more »
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The legacy of the genocide in Nanjing echoes in the emotional life of a family today. more »
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This award-winning film describes the 1937 Nanking Massacre committed by the Japanese army in China’s former capital city. more »
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In order that their children excel in the Japanese school system, parents send them to an academic boot camp that forces them to study almost around the clock. more »
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Nothing of social or political import is broadcast on Chinese television which is a tool for promoting consumerism. more »
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This exclusive portrait is the first to portray North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il, with interviews of North and South Korean politicians, as well as close relatives and former employees who have fled the regime. Jong-il's regime has made North Korea a nuclear rogue state threatening the security of the world. more »
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Escaping from famine, many North Koreans live a furtive existence in China. more »
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The marketing of human organs is condemned in most places, but continues to grow as rich Western patients cannot obtain the needed organs through donation in their own countries. Poor people in third world countries are prepared to sell an organ in order to obtain cash that is equivalent to several years' wages. more »
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Our Nation is a stunning portrayal of how Korean youth are using punk rock to find a voice in a rapidly changing culture. more »
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Three classic films about cultural confrontation. more »
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This film explores the culture of Samoan fa'afafines, boys who are raised as girls, fulfilling a traditional role in Samoan culture. more »
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This film focuses on the debate between the established pharmaceutical industry and the manufacturers of low-cost medicine, The staggeringly high prices of medicines all over the world are a matter of life and death to millions of people suffering with HIV/AIDS in Africa. more »
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This fascinating film illustrates how religious differences, even on the basic level of dietary prohibitions affects the relationship of Malaysia's 12 million Muslims and 6 million Chinese. more »
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The two currencies in Papua New Guinea are the modern cash economy and a traditional economy based around shell money, banana leaves and pig tusks. The problem is that there is no exchange between the two and a bank is badly needed. more »
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Falun Gong is an ancient meditative practice that enjoyed a revival in China in the 1990’s. For years, however, the government has been brutally cracking down on practitioners. more »
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Since the economic reforms of the 1980s, runaway economic growth has turned China into a major creator of pollution. While the Chinese government ineffectually tries to grapple with its growing environmental problems, there is rising discontent among the masses. more »
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Operation Babylift in 1975 helped thousands of South Vietnamese children to escape to America where they were adopted. In their mid-twenties, the adoptees return to their birthplace in search of their roots. more »
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The love affairs of the young men and women of Jaranwala - a village just a few hours out of Lahore - keeps entire families entertained with gossip and sexual intrigue. Through the eyes of a Western woman who has lived in the Punjab for decades, we gain extraordinary access to the private lives and thoughts of her young chef Nawaz and her maid, Mehnaz. more »
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Many say Singapore has the best education system in the world. This film shows how this system has produced such amazing results and how it differs from the educational philosophy as practiced here in the U.S. more »
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The grandson of Mahatma Gandhi is an inspiring leader in India , seeking to fulfill the spiritual mission of his grandfather. more »
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Watching the lithe, expressive movements of Javanese masked dancer Rasinah, one would never believe a 72-year old woman is behind the mask! She is a master of an ancient form of mask dance called Topeng Cirebon, which originated in West Java, Indonesia. This colorful documentary shows the history, function and meaning of these masked dances. more »
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China's economic revolution is illustrated by the change undergone in Shenzen, a farming village that has become an industrial center. The lure of free enterprise is so strong that millions of Chinese want to work there and guards have been posted to control the flow of migrants. more »
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Tea played an important role in the British Empire's expansion as it sought to dominate trade throughout the world. A Scottish botanist successfully stole the secret of growing tea from China. more »
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Many men of Indian origin residing in the West travel to India to meet an Indian woman, marry her and bring her to the West. Increasingly a large percentage of these brides are abandoned over dowry disputes. more »
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Jews have a long history in India. Although only a handful remain, they maintain their traditions. more »
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The Samurai offers an enthralling and colorful odyssey into Japan's history in which Samurai culture became the core of Japanese values. The film colorfully illustrates the Samurai's martial traditions and the manifestations of its ties to the Zen principles of Respect, Purity and Composure. more »
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Say I Do chronicles the stories of three "mail-order brides" from the Philippines who uprooted themselves to marry men they did not know in order to escape poverty. Life was not what they expected. more »
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The effects of the one-child policy combined with a rapid revolution in China's values and lifestyles, have created increasingly selective middle-class Shanghai women. For working class men, finding a wife is a quest that requires money, time, and the strength to withstand countless disappointments. more »
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It is the first day of school in grade four of the Shanghai Experimental Primary School. The film follows the children through the semester as they learn, misbehave, flirt, play, and take exams under their teacher's watchful eye. more »
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What is it like to be an entrepreneur in today's China? This engrossing film provides an up-close view of the daily life of a tour operator in Shanghai determined to become wealthy. more »
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This remarkable film profiles a couple that craves personal freedom, but is faced with the unwanted constraints of parenthood. In a society where grandmothers are expected to care for babies, how much freedom is it reasonable for a mother to expect? more »
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This series on contemporary China is filmed from an insiders point of view and portrays daily life in one of the nation's busiest and most iconic cities. more »
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Originally from a small village in the Buryat region of Siberia, Irina Pantaeva emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980's. Every summer, Irina, a world-famous model, and her son travel back to help her troubled family, trapped in the new free market society. Siberian Dream shows the effects of perestroika and glasnost on this Buryat community. more »
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The Johore Strait separates the highly prosperous city-state of Singapore from the rapidly developing economic "tiger" of Malaysia. As the film illustrates, they are nevertheless extremely interdependent. more »
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A warm portrait of one of the most revered musical families in India, in which the cherished tradition of dhrupad vocal music is passed on from father to son. It presents for the first time on film an in-depth look at the musical training fundamental to this special music. more »
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The Bishop of East Timor, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, dares to speak out against Indonesia's relentless oppression. more »
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In a rural village of southwestern China a bevy of young girls yearn for an education. Their parents are poor and mostly illiterate; going to school costs money the families can ill afford. more »
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The Fergana Valley, a fertile plain rich in gas deposits in Central Asia is populated by more than a hundred million inhabitants in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirgizstan. This film takes an in-depth look at the Islamic fundamentalist threat in this strategic region. more »
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In the village of Longbaoshan, northwest of Beijing, inhabitants are trying to prevent their homes from being engulfed by ferocious sandstorms. more »
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This fascinating film depicts the Taigana, an unusual tribe of nomads living in the mountainous Hovsgol region of Mongolia, near the Siberian border. more »
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Using animation techniques combined with filmed actual performances, this colorful production documents an ancient storytelling tradition still ongoing in India. It recounts the epic of Lord Pabuji of Rajasthan. more »
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This visually stunning film focuses on two street children who survive in Bombay by guile, toughness and with the protection of other boys like them. more »
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A real-life picture of an ordinary Chinese family devoured by a disease caused by official negligence and then being persecuted by the government in their struggle for help more »
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This award-winning film sheds light on the perils faced by Chinese miners as they unearth the ore that fuels China’s booming economy. more »
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Prostitution and sex trafficking of women and children is a global problem. The United Nations estimates that more than one million children are forced into sexual slavery each year. This powerful documentary follows Chris Payne, a former police officer turned private investigator, as he investigates this traumatizing crime. more »
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Japanese waste is turning into gold in the hands of Chinese dealers who extract valuable metal and plastic from mountains of scrap. But not all Japanese trash is welcome. more »
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Collapsing prices on the world coffee market have thrown millions of growers around the world into poverty. Filmed in Nicaragua and Vietnam, the film describes the human consequences that the collapse of coffee prices has caused in producer countries. more »
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This is the story of a remarkable Canadian-American missionary couple who settled, in 1929, among the Montagnard tribes of Vietnam's highlands. They lived, worked and filmed there for fifty years. This film was produced by their grandson more »
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In 1965, as the Vietnam War intensified and Hanoi faced the threat of massive US bombing, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music were forced to flee the city for the relative safety of a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers, they built an entire campus underground, creating a maze of hidden tunnels, connecting an auditorium and classrooms. Here, as the war raged around them, they lived, studied and played music for five years. more »
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There is a craze for motor bikes in Ho Chi Minh City. Many save, scrimp, or borrow to buy one This report on the motor bike phenomenon, allows a rare look at the Vietnamese people in a rapidly changing time. more »
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A pilot program for curing drug addiction through the use of herbal medicine was developed by a doctor in Vietnam. We see astonishing recoveries. It is now being researched in the United States. more »
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Visioning Tibet chronicles the passion of ophthalmologist Marc Lieberman, founder of the Tibet Vision Project, to end preventable blindness in Tibet . He educates Tibetan doctors to perform cataract surgery more »
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This charming film contrasts ideas of marriage, courtship and divorce between generations and cultures. It follows Hindu Smita Acharyya and Catholic Remi Boudreau who, in order to escape the complications of a large, family wedding, decided to elope to Las Vegas. But they can't escape, and are married again, in a Bengali style wedding arranged by Smita's mother. more »
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This film, shot mostly covertly, shows the irony of a regime where 20 million people live in poverty, some on the brink of starvation, while former dictator Kim II Sung builds extravagant monuments to reflect his power. more »
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Chinese author Jung Chang's grandmother was born into a still feudal society, and became a warlord's concubine. Her mother, became a high ranking Communist Party official. This film brings to life the memories Chang recorded in her best-selling autobiography, Wild Swans. more »
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Taslima Nasreen, Bangladesh writer, gained international attention when Islamic leaders issued a fatwa calling for her death. more »
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A two-part documentary on the conditions of women in today's economically oriented Chinese society. It visits four diverse parts of China more »
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This BBC film takes us to the heart of rural China, where one woman about to have her third child is in trouble with the family planning officials, and another excitedly plans for her traditional wedding. more »
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This film tells the remarkable story of the villagers of one district of North Vietnam who found themselves on the frontlines of an increasingly brutal war. They survived by digging a series of tunnels and moving their entire community underground. more »
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This fascinating documentary filmed in Mosuo Province near the Tibetan border shares the story of a matriarchal society where there are no fathers, husbands, or marriages. more »
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This is a documentary that portrays the artistic endeavors and the personal journeys of two artists, Zhang Hongtu (b. 1943) and Zhang Jian-Jun (b. 1955), who are part of the Chinese contemporary art community of New York. more »
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An impoverished Chinese couple moves to Beijing from their home town in search of a better life. They invest what little they have in a shabby diner. The couple's problems at times reach almost comical proportions, but they carry on, through joy and worry, determined to succeed. more »
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