Shamans Of The Amazon

SHAMANS OF THE AMAZON, is a personal account of filmmaker, Dean Jefferys, returning to the Amazon with his partner and one year old daughter.

They journey deep into the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest to meet two Amazon shamans to learn about and experience the ancient hallucinogenic ayahuasca ritual.

The film brings to the viewer an intimate and fascinating look at the shamans of the Amazon, their culture and their rituals that are fast disappearing. 

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Ulysses' Gaze - Theo Angelopoulos

a Greek filmmaker living in exile in the United States, returns to his native Ptolemas to attend a special screening of one of his extremely controversial films. But A's real interest lies elsewhere--the mythical reels of the very first film shot by the Manakia brothers, who, at the dawn of the age of cinema, tirelessly criss-crossed the Balkans and, without regard for national and ethnic strife, recorded the region's history and customs. Did these primitive, never-developed images really exist? If so, where are they? - "Why 'A'? It's an alphabetical choice. Every filmmaker remembers the first time he looked through the viewfinder of a camera. It is a moment that is not so much the discovery of cinema, but the discovery of the world. But there comes a moment when the filmmaker begins to doubt his own capacity to see things, when he no longer knows if his gaze is right and innocent." --Theo Angelopoulos

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BBC Documentary - Stupidity

This documentary about stupidity tells us the history of the word "moron", the difference between stupid, moron, smart, intelligent, genius and questions the regular practice of classifying peoples intelligence through standardized IQ tests. Of course also Mr. Bush is examined in this report. A well educated guy who, nevertheless, acts in a completely dumb way -- or at least wants us to believe so.
Albert Einstein said:
"Only two things are infinite the universe and stupidity.
and I am not sure about the former."

The Romantics - BBC documentary

This programme in the BBC/OU's Romantics series explores the birth of the individual in modern society.

The 18th century was a time of opulence and privilege for some. Europe was dominated by the twin authority of the Church and King - but beneath the surface, new forces were gathering to challenge their absolute rule.
The French philosopher, Denis Diderot insisted that men must reason for themselves. His friend, Jean-Jacques Rousseau claimed civilization had corrupted mankind - to free themselves, men must listen to their emotions.
Rousseau's writings gave birth to a hope for a new world of liberty, equality and fraternity. These ideas would fuel the greatest social upheaval in history - the French Revolution.
In Britain, these 'Romantic' ideals would burst into the public arena in art and poetry. William Blake's engravings and poetry were howls of revolutionary anger: Blake made the liberation of the human spirit his life's work.
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote one of the most powerful revolutionary works of the time; Lyrical Ballads. This volume of poetry was considered so dangerous that even as they composed, Wordsworth and Coleridge were being followed by government spies.
This was the greatest period of sustained creativity in English literature - at a time of revolutionary change in which poets had the power to remake the world in their own image.

The Romantics – BBC documentary – Eternity

The Romantics – BBC documentary – Eternity

The Romantics – BBC documentary – Eternity

The Romantics – BBC documentary – Eternity

The Romantics – BBC documentary – Eternity

The Romantics – BBC documentary – Eternity

BBC - Everything and Nothing

Two-part documentary which deals with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing?

In two epic, surreal and mind-expanding films, Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness.

The first part, Everything, sees Professor Al-Khalili set out to discover what the universe might actually look like. The journey takes him from the distant past to the boundaries of the known universe. Along the way he charts the remarkable stories of the men and women who discovered the truth about the cosmos and investigates how our understanding of space has been shaped by both mathematics and astronomy.

BBC - Everything and Nothing - Everything

BBC - Everything and Nothing - Nothing

 

Racism: A History - BBC documentary (2007)

In response to the criticisms of T Scott from Andover and Dr J Owen from London concerning the passage on eugenics which appears in the second episode of Racism: A History, we would like to point out that this section was based on information drawn from a number of authoritative sources. As well as numerous conversations with eminent academics and researchers, this film relied on several acclaimed books by distinguished authors, including Michael Burleigh's award-winning The Third Reich: A New History; Harry Bruinius' Better For All The World; and most importantly, of course, the works of Francis Galton himself.
Mr Scott's suggestion that "eugenics was not about racism" and Dr Owen's assertion that it had been a 'valid' field of study that was later "brought into disrepute" by the Nazis are interesting interpretations of eugenics' chequered history. Unfortunately, though, these assertions are not supported by the facts. Questions of race were a crucial aspect of eugenic thought right from the start. The pioneering eugenicist Francis Galton might have been a gifted statistician, as Dr Owen says, but it remains the case that he made a significant contribution to the development of racist ideas in the Victorian era. In a chapter entitled The Comparative Worth of Different Races, which appears in his most famous work, Heredity Genius (1869), Galton makes several references to the relative superiority of Europeans compared to what he called 'the lower races'. After insisting that "the number among the Negroes of those whom we should call half-witted men, is very large", Galton went on to say that the behaviour of 'Negroes' was "so childish, stupid, and simpleton-like, as frequently to make me ashamed of my own species".
In the preface to the 1892 edition of same work, Galton also considers the impact of the new European empires being established in Africa. Once the Europeans "enforce justice and order", he wonders whether "the Negroes, one and all, will fail as completely under the new conditions as they have failed under the old ones, to submit to the needs of a superior civilization to their own; in this case their races, numerous and prolific as they are, will in the course of time be supplanted and replaced by their betters." Taken together with his description of "the uncorrected sense of moral perspective" and "impulsive, unstable nature" of "savages", Galton's writings supply abundant evidence to suggest that - decades before eugenics was "brought into disrepute" by the Nazis - the founding father of eugenics was already advancing positions that sit firmly in what some might call 'the exterminatory wing' of late Victorian racial science.
As Dr Owen quite rightly observes, eugenics drew support from many 'liberal', 'progressive', and indeed 'socialist' figures, including George Bernard Shaw, HG Wells, Harold Laski and the Webbs. Nowhere in our film is it claimed that these eminent 'liberal' Victorians were 'proto-Nazis'. But it is clear that many prominent figures within the British 'liberal' intelligentsia explicitly supported ideas of racial purity - notions that were promoted by the leading eugenicists of the time. Just like Charles Dickens, who supported Governor Eyre's murderous response to the protest at Morant Bay in 1865, many prominent 'liberal', 'progressive' and 'left-leaning' members of Europe's intellectual elite have embraced and supported racism. Hence, the 'socialist' HG Wells - an enthusiastic champion of eugenics - could warn of the menace of the "ill-trained swarms of inferior people", and suggest that it was "sane and logical" to exterminate members of an 'inferior race'.
For reasons of space, the film did not offer evidence that Winston Churchill was a supporter of eugenics - but there's no doubt that Churchill was wholly committed to the cause. In 1910, Churchill wrote to the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith to express his support for a Bill that proposed the introduction of compulsory sterilisation for the 'feeble-minded' in Britain. Two years later, Churchill attended the First International Eugenics Congress in London and even agreed to become its Vice-Chairman.
Further, our film did not intend to make sweeping claims about the impact of Social Darwinism on British Social Policy in general. Rather, we simply suggested that these ideas influenced the Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, during the time of the great Indian famines in the last quarter of the 19th century. In the book Late Victorian Holocausts, the historian Mike Davis writes: "The grim doctrines of Thomas Malthus... still held great sway over the white rajas. Although it was bad manners to openly air such opinions in front of the natives in Calcutta, Malthusian principles, updated by Social Darwinism, were regularly invoked to legitimise Indian famine policy at home in England".
It was Lytton's administration that imposed The Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877, which prohibited private relief donations that potentially interfered with the market-fixing of grain prices. In effect, this legislation meant that any individuals wishing to make charitable donations to save the lives of starving Indians were threatened with imprisonment. By this time, official relief centres had already turned away famished people if they were too weak to work for their meagre rations. Under Lytton's rule, survival really was the sole preserve of the fittest.

The Colour of Money

Fatal Impact

A Savage Legacy

 

Desmond Morris The Naked Man: A Study of the Male Body

Vintage Books | 2009 | ISBN: 0099506238 | 288 pages | PDF | 116 Mb

This follow-up to Morris's 2005 The Naked Woman rambles aimlessly around each part of the male body, beginning with hair and working down to the feet, jumping from evolutionary matters to strange, tangentially related social ones. Discussing the mouth, for instance, Morris begins with the unusually fleshy human lip, proceeds to the teeth and soon digresses to why women visit the dentist more often than men and the latest trends in false teeth. Bits and pieces of the book are entertaining, but Morris regularly falls back on anecdotes rather than scientific evidence for his arguments. And while he espouses equality for both women and homosexuals, he can still express the view that it is men, not women, who have been driven on by their genetically installed ambitions actually to take the great steps necessary to build our towering civilisations. And current scientific evidence runs counter to his view that from an evolutionary standpoint, there is only one valid biological lifestyle for the human male and that is heterosexual. Morris's writing is simple (perhaps too simple), clear and occasionally entertains, but it makes for poor science. Photos.

http://www.fileserve.com/file/4HEJQGB

Desmond Morris, "The Naked Woman: A Study of the Female Body"

St. Martin's Griffin | 2007 | ISBN: 0312338538 | 320 pages | PDF | 28,9 MB

Internationally bestselling author and world-famous human behaviorist Desmond Morris turns his attention to the female form, taking the reader on a guided tour of the female body from head to toe. Highlighting the evolutionary functions of various physiological traits, Morris's study explores the various forms of enhancement and constraint that human societies have developed in the quest for the perfect female form. This is very much vintage Desmond Morris, delivered in his trademark voice: direct, clear, focused, and communicating what is often complex detail in simple language. In THE NAKED WOMAN, Desmond builds on his unrivalled experience as an observer of the human animal while tackling one of his most fascinating and challenging subjects to date.
Desmond Morris is a world-renowned animal and human behaviorist. He is also the author of many bestselling books, including The Naked Ape and Manwatching. He lives in England.
Author and human behaviorist Desmond Morris turns his attention to the female form, taking the reader on a guided tour of the female body from head to toe. Highlighting the evolutionary functions of various physiological traits, Morris's study explores the various forms of enhancement and constraint that human societies have developed in the quest for the perfect female form. In The Naked Woman, Desmond builds on his experience as an observer of the human animal while tackling one of his most fascinating and challenging subjects to date.
'The Naked Woman lives up to the high standard Morris set for himself in many of his more than 30 previous books, including The Naked Ape. He champions the current data suggesting that women are by nature more fluent in speech than men, better at handling several tasks at once and more manually dexterous. In fact, after noting that most exceptional pianists are men, he writes, 'If a slightly smaller keyboard was made . . . female pianists would easily outplay their male counterparts.' In an age when many educated people resist the voluminous data on the biological variations between the sexes, Morris's unapologetic description of myriad gender differences is refreshing. Perhaps most important, Morris reiterates an anthropological tenet: for millions of years humankind lived in societies where women and men were regarded as different but largely equal. Today women in many cultures are gradually returning to their ancient human status. And in a time when some people question the concept of evolution, Morris's book gives an elegant view of nature's timeless evolutionary processes and one of its most sophisticated creations: woman."—Helen Fisher, The New York Times Book Review

http://www.mediafire.com/?qkci2xld1pu9lms

Diamond, Jared: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years

ISBN: 1582356657 | edition: 2001 | PDF | 437 Pages | 3,35 Mb

Description ,review and table of contents of Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years : THIS BOOK ATTEMPTS TO PROVIDE A SHORT HISTORY OF EVERYbody for the last 13,000 years. The question motivating the book is: Why did history unfold differently on different continents? In case this question immediately makes you shudder at the thought that you are about to read a racist treatise, you aren't; as you will see, the answers to the question don't involve human racial differences at all. The book's emphasis is on the search for ultimate explanations, and on pushing back the chain of historical causation as far as possible.

http://www.mediafire.com/?bjkb8mmwu2l2r98

Hanyo / Служанка (2010)

Hanyo / Служанка (2010)
DVD Video | 1hr 47mn | PAL 16:9 | 720x576 | 7.16 Gb
Korean / Russian: Dolby AC3, 6 ch
Subtitles: Russian
Genre: Thriller 

A man's affair with his family's housemaid leads to a dark consequences.

http://www.filesonic.com/folder/8692761

Peru - Fiestas Music of the High Andes

World/Peruvian Folklore | MP3 CBR 192kbps | 61 MB |

The music was recorded in June and July 1968 and was originally released in 1972. Some songs feature only two flutes playing together all the way to a 15 piece brass band playing festival music. There's some remarkable music here that helps dispel much of the panpipe myth about Andean music -- simply listen to "Marcha Akuchimay," where mandolin rings over a pair of guitars, or the song "Puru Purucha." The harp playing is exquisite (it should be noted that many of the musicians here also appear on Kingdom of the Sun: The Inca Heritage), as is the guitar solo "Vilcas Plazapi," played in a pentatonic style that's unusual for the region. The real meat comes at the end of the disc, however, first with "Chuschi," recordings made at a fiesta in the village of the same name.

1. Various Artists - Marcha Akuchimay (2:27)
2. Various Artists - Tankar Kichkachay (3:35)
3. Various Artists - Puru Purucha (3:10)
4. Various Artists - Lamento Andino: Yaraví (2:30)
5. Various Artists - Lorochallay Silbaykapullaway (2:26)
6. Various Artists - Carnaval Ayacuchano (2:50)
7. Various Artists - Carnaval de Colca: Vilcas Plazapi (1:16)
8. Various Artists - Pirwalla Pirwa (2:27)
9. Various Artists - Chuschi: Fiesta of Corpus Christi (3:47)
10. Various Artists - Carnaval Ayacuchano (6:38)
11. Various Artists - Street Music: A Wake (2:30)
12. Various Artists - Paucartambo Contradanza, Fiesta Al Virgen del Carmen (4:30)

http://www.filesonic.com/file/98837562