Manufactured Landscapes

Jennifer Baichwal’s cameras follow Edward Burtynsky (1955- ) as he visits what he calls manufactured landscapes: slag heaps, e-waste dumps, huge factories in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of China, and a place in Bangladesh where ships are taken apart for recycling.

In China, workers gather outside the factory, exhorted by their team leader to produce more and make fewer errors. A woman assembles a circuit breaker, and women and children are seen picking through debris or playing in it. Burtynsky concludes with a visit to Shanghai, the world’s fastest growing city, where wealth and poverty, high-rises and old neighborhoods are side by side. Alt Link http://www.megavideo.com/v/43GVBO3126616e8093ff1b1ac127fa8a57a2225e

Lost in China: Silk Road

Nat Geo takes you down The Silk Road.

Legacy: The Origins of Civilization

Iraq: The Cradle of Civilization – After thousands of years as a hunter/gatherer, man built the first cities 5,000 years ago on the banks of the Euphrates in Southern Iraq.

Civilization began. City life transformed the human race with the glorious cultures of Mesopotamia such as Ur and Babylon.

http://www.megavideo.com/v/P19N68QS7ee42ceadf9795297902c07d9bcd2d4e

India: The Empire of the Spirit – Ancient India is with us today in the living tradition of the Hindu religion, the basis of Indian culture. The traditions that are honored by millions of Hindus in the present were born in the Indus valley 5,000 years ago.

http://www.megavideo.com/v/GOPSURKAca901fd3d720707a0671fa0e31f7e967

China: The Mandate of Heaven – Many breakthroughs on which the modern world is based were discovered in China long ago – iron-casting, gunpowder, even printing. When introduced to Europe, these things changed Western civilization. This episode presents the synthesis of East and West.

http://www.megavideo.com/v/CKUAIAT63ecaab235f8d8e072007379ccae518aa

Egypt: The Habit of Civilization – Ancient Egypt was the first great nation on earth and endured for thousands of years. The god-like Pharaoh was the rock on which this civilization was built. Ancient traditions come together in the Muslim culture that is the Middle East today.

http://www.megavideo.com/v/7GKLD4Y80acd312466faaf36608a9d9876663165

Central America: The Burden of Time – Isolated from the rest of the world, the Mayans and Aztecs created sophisticated civilizations that in many ways paralleled ancient Mediterranean empires. God-like kings and a priestly ruling class dominated splendid cities of temples and pyramids.

http://www.megavideo.com/v/SFA9GE36fad65f047d24fea1abef110ecc19aeab

The Barbarian West – Civilization arose in Asia, but it was the West which would create the first world culture. This final episode traces the origins of western culture through Greece and Rome prevailing by borrowing from the legacies of the original five old world civilizations.

http://www.megavideo.com/v/N2DE7VYB6204ae497a85233940b94ad8400088c3