2012 New Releases Catalogue November - Learningemall.com

Beginning with Greek lyric poet Simonides
of Ceos' invention of the 'memory palace' -
in which memories are arranged in an
imagined physical space - the film
suggests that the recent flurry of
credit-fueled property development has
depleted not only national treasuries, but
the distinctive characters of these nation's
cities -- and therefore, their cultural
memory as well.
FUTURES MARKETS takes us inside the
fluorescent-lit showrooms of real estate
expos, where developers hawk shares in
hotel and condo projects in places from
Dubai to Miami. Outside, cars crawl
forward on endless stretches of
anonymous highway whose "straight lines
point in the direction of promises." This is
Spain, but it could be almost anywhere in
the world.
"The art of memory was practiced by
philosophers, poets, and architects", a
narrator tells us. In the film we see the art
of forgetting is practiced by the real estate
developers, as well as business school
gurus - who pledge the keys to success in
the same convention centers. Meanwhile,
investment bankers bark orders into
multiple phones, trading futures in their
non-descript offices. All peddle the same
dream: a tidy and prosperous future in
identical spaces the world over.
To make room for these new dreams,
history must be evacuated. FUTURES
MARKET meditates on great art works
from the past by painters like Bosch,
Michelangelo, Mantegna, and Raphael.
The grand philosophical and spiritual
visions represented in their paintings have
been replaced by the vulgar ones
embodied by the glass tower condos and
infinity pools in gleaming architectural
models.
A modest alternative is offered with the
introduction of Jesus Castro, a 92-year-old
junk dealer more interested in collecting
than selling. We watch movers cleaning
out an apartment in an old building slated
for demolition, bagging up the books,
furniture, and religious artifacts that
bespeak a particular cultural identity. They
turn up in the new repository of cultural
memory: not a palace, but Castro's flea
market. His stubborn refusal to bow to the
marketplace's demand to forget makes
him the hero of this film, which illustrates
how little most of us choose to remember.
Reviews
� "A compelling meditation on dreams
that doubles as an expose of how
cheap those dreams have become,
"Futures Market" is a wise and
fulfilling film that bears lofty
comparison with the work of Spanish
maestro helmers Victor Erice and
Jose Luis Guerin." - Variety
� "Draw[s] attention to the invisible
architects of the postmodern
economy at the moment before it
crashed, and...between what is
discarded and devalued and the
inflation of false values and dreams." -
Sight & Sound
Award
� Jury Special Mention, 2011 Buenos
Aires International Festival of
Independent Cinema (BAFICI)
Item no. : NV03210837
Format : DVD (Color)
Duration : 110 minutes
Copyright : 2011
Price : USD 398.00
GREY GREY GREY LANE, LANE, THE
THE
How important is the ability to drive as we
become older? How hard is it to maintain
independence without it?
Canada and other Western nations are
grappling with the emotionally charged
question of what to do about older people
behind the wheel. While many seniors are
superbly safe drivers, statistics show
those 75 and older cause more crashes
than teenagers per kilometer driven. Now,
as Baby Boomers start hitting 65, Canada
faces a "Boomsday" scenario. And the
need for better rules, regulations and
alternative means of transportation is
nothing less than urgent.
The Grey Lane takes a close, compelling,
and sometimes amusing look at the issue.
Join host, seasoned stand-up comic John
Wing, as he hits the road, traveling to
various locations in Canada and the
United States to find out how the aging
process affects driving skills, how older
drivers are being tested, and what
alternatives exist to help seniors get
around once they voluntarily – or are
forced to – give up their keys
Item no. : EV04121290
Format : DVD (Closed Captioned)
Duration : 44 minutes
Audience : Grades 10-12, Adult
Education, Post
Secondary
Copyright : 2012
Price : USD 188.00
INSIDE INSIDE AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN
Shot in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar,
Spinbuldak, and the Afghan countryside in
1987, this film is a look at the 'other' side
of the war in Afghanistan - the Communist
government and its supporters. Inside
Afghanistan opens with an examination of
the war as seen by the Afghan army.
The documentary then looks at the
educated, urban modernizers and
reformers who saw the "revolution" as a
way to bring Afghanistan into the modern
world, even if on the Soviet model: women
teachers and medical students, doctors at
a children's hospital, boys at a Soviet
orphanage, government officials, party
members, and a rare interview with then-
President Najibullah himself.
The second half of the film moves to the
countryside, where we visit several groups
of villagers who had left the Mujahedin and
were fighting on the government side
under the same khans (clan landlords)
who earlier had led them in their fight
against the government.
Inside Afghanistan underscores the chasm
between the urbanized, Westernizing
supporters of the Communist government
and the traditional Muslim world of the
villages, still based on clan and feudal ties.
Without preaching, the film breaks the
stereotypes of Communist "puppets" and
heroic "Freedom Fighters" to give the
viewer a new understanding of the tragic
and complex struggle for change in
Afghanistan - a struggle that is far from
over.
Item no. : CN07860211
Format : DVD
Duration : 56 minutes
Price : USD 140.00
KYPSELI: KYPSELI: WOMEN WOMEN AND
AND
MEN MEN APART APART - A A A DIVIDED
DIVIDED
REALITY
REALITY
Documents the peasant society of Kypseli,
a small, isolated Greek village on the
island of Thera in the Cyclades. Looks at
how the people divide time, space,
material possessions, and activities
according to an underlying pattern based
on separation of the sexes, and shows
how this division in turn determines the
village social structure. Kypseli: Women
and Men Apart - A Divided Reality directed
by Richard Cowan and Paul Aratow.
Item no. : CS07860220
Format : DVD
Duration : 37 minutes
Price : USD 375.00
LEGACY: LEGACY: CENTRAL
CENTRAL
AMERICA
AMERICA AMERICA - THE THE BURDEN BURDEN BURDEN OF
OF
TIME
TIME
Shows how the early Aztec, Mayan, and
Incan peoples developed sophisticated
Central American civilizations
independently of the Mediterranean
empires, but with striking similarities:
organized government and religion (and
the massive buildings to house them),
international trade, scientific systems, and
written languages.
Item no. : NH07860228
Format : DVD
Duration : 57 minutes
Price : USD 175.00
LEGACY: LEGACY: CHINA CHINA CHINA - THE
THE
MANDATE MANDATE OF OF HEAVEN
HEAVEN
Presents the synthesis of East and West,
illustrating how ancient China, through its
many innovations such as iron-casting,
gunpowder, and printing, changed the
Western world and influenced modern
civilization without threatening its own
traditions: Confucianism, reverence for
ancestors, and harmony.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Learning Rendezvous Limited
Email: inquiry@learningemall.com Websites: http://www.learningemall.com & http://www.learningemall.com.hk
138