Jane Goodall's When Animals Talk 2008
Produced by Animal Planet
Starring: Jane Goodall

World renowned primatologist and animal behavioral expert Jane Goodall leads this fascinating look at how animals communicate with humans, exchanging information with behavior that's as clear as the written word if you know what to look for. The documentary also examines the numerous instances in which primates have learned to utilize the English language by typing, signing, and more. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Advertising & the End of the World 2002
Directed by Sut Jhally

Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, Advertising and the End of the World asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from this market-based view of the world: Do our present arrangements deliver what they claim - happiness and satisfaction? Can we think about our collective as well as our private interests? Can we think long-term as well as short-term? Drawing the connection between society's high-consumption lifestyle and the coming environmental crisis, Advertising & the End of the World forces us to evaluate the physical and material costs of the consumer society and how long we can maintain our present level of production. Media Education Foundation

Surviving the Dust Bowl 1998
Series: American Experience

In 1931 the rains stopped and the "black blizzards" began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains--the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes. One journalist traveling through the devastated region dubbed it the "Dust Bowl."

This American Experience film presents the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease--even death--for nearly a decade. Less well-known than those who sought refuge in California, typified by the Joad family in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," the Dust Bowlers who stayed overcame an almost unbelievable series of calamities and disasters. WGBH

Ted Bundy 2007
Presented by Biography A&E

This episode of the long running series Biography tells the life story of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. The director utilizes interviews with criminologists, psychiatrists, and people who knew Bundy in order to explain how and why he killed over two-dozen women. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Al Qaeda 2006
Presented by Biography A&E

Discover the secrets behind the most powerful terrorist organization on the planet as the award-winning filmmakers at A&E attempt to uncover the mysterious origins and complex motivations of the group responsible for carrying out the deadliest attack ever committed on American soil. From their leader Osama Bin Laden to the associates and agents responsible for executing his nefarious orders, filmmakers attempt to uncover the source of Al Qaeda's unwavering hatred of western culture and values before turning the clock back twenty years to explore their early efforts to defeat Soviet Communism under the banner of "Arab Afghans." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The Root of All Evil: the uncut interviews 2007
Presented by Dr. Richard Dawkins

Nine Months before the release of his million copy bestseller The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins had the world buzzing with his television documentary Root Of All Evil? During the filming, many of the original pertinent interviews were cut for time and some omitted entirely. This DVD collection showcases 8 raw and uncut interviews from the original tapes allowing the viewer a rare vantage point into these revealing exchanges. AMAZON

The Root of All Evil: the uncut interviews 2007
Presented by Dr. Richard Dawkins

Nine Months before the release of his million copy bestseller The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins had the world buzzing with his television documentary Root Of All Evil? During the filming, many of the original pertinent interviews were cut for time and some omitted entirely. This DVD collection showcases 8 raw and uncut interviews from the original tapes allowing the viewer a rare vantage point into these revealing exchanges. AMAZON

The Cats of Mirikitani 2006
Directed by Linda Hattendorf
Featuring: Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani

Filmmaker Linda Hattendorf offers a remarkable profile of a man who, after surviving one of the most shameful episodes in American history, finds his nation preparing to make the same mistakes all over again. Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani is an elderly man of Japanese heritage who lives on the streets of New York City, where he makes a meager living peddling his drawings. Mirikitani specializes in sketches of cats, but that's hardly the only thing he draws. When he was a young man, Mirikitani lived in California during World War II and found himself in an internment camp in Tule Lake, CA, where Japanese-Americans were stripped of their rights and locked away because of racist assumptions about their loyalties; his years in Tule Lake are a common subject in his more personal work. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, Mirikitani found life in New York City harder than ever for the homeless, and filmmaker Hattendorf, who had struck up an acquaintance with the artist, offered to let him move into her home. As Mirikitani slowly but surely takes over Hattendorf's flat under the gaze of her camera, he shares with her horrifying stories of his days in internment, discusses the emotional scars that have yet to heal from his experiences, and his growing rage over the casual racism that has taken over New York in the wake of 9/11 -- racism which mirrors his own experiences in the 1940s. The Cats of Mirikitani was screened in competition at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Incredible Britain 2008
Presented by Robbie Coltrane

British actor and funnyman Robbie Coltrane explores the wonderful weirdness of rural British life in this armchair travelogue that skips Big Ben and the River Thames in order to focus on more peculiar sights. Settling behind the wheel of his classic Jaguar roadster, Coltrane introduces viewers to a teenage wing-walker, a fire truck driver who specializes in wheelies, and the curious attendees of a popular scarecrow convention. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Beavers:the biggest dam movie you ever saw 1988
Producer/Director: Stephen Low

Originally intended for IMAX theaters, this documentary follows a family of beavers as they lay claim to a dam and build a place to live. The animals live as extended families, complete with uncles and aunts, and with their instinctive engineering skills build complex dams and apartments for themselves. What could be a mundane nature documentary, though, is made lyrical by its score, lighting, and camera work. It's a rare documentary that can be sweet but not cloying, with plenty to hold the interest of kids and adults alike. Beaver's accompanying making-of film answers some of the inevitable questions and reveals that the project was an incredibly arduous task. The film was made in the mid-1980s and involved lugging around the cumbersome IMAX camera in the wilderness, as well as weeks of waiting for the beavers to actually do something. Set against the breathtaking beauty of the Canadian Rockies, this is an incredible example of nature photography and a rewarding little film about our bucktoothed rodent friends and their innate construction drive. --Jerry Renshaw