Tapa cloth, or ngatu as it is called in Tonga, is cloth made from the bark of the mulberry tree. The inner bark is beaten into fine sheets and painted using traditional designs. After centuries of use, ngatu has literally become the fabric of Tongan society. In Tonga and throughout much of Polynesia, bark cloth has deep symbolic and ceremonial use. At birth, babies are swaddled in it. At marriage, newlyweds line their wedding bed, and at death, the departed are buried wrapped in it. This documentary investigates the highly collaborative process of making ngatu and the organizations of women who carry on with the tradition. While the process continues to be passed on from generation to generation, there are signs of change as a cash economy begins to infiltrate Tongan life. Young people show less interest in such labor intensive endeavor in the face of the older generation's belief that this tradition will never die.
This documentary begins with the story of the prelude to World War II, and goes on to analyze such events as the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations, rise of the dictators, the spread of fascism in Italy, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Spanish Civil War, the Munich Agreement, Hitler's March into Czechoslovakia, the Blitzkrieg and invasion of Poland, the fall of Norway, and more.
This film takes viewers through the rich, white majesty of the Inuit Great North. Along with doing justice to the breathtaking and awesome landscape of the freezing, snow-covered environment, Great North also looks into the long-standing traditions, such as fishing and hunting, of the Inuit tribes.
The life and work of Chris Doyle, the acclaimed Australian cinematographer who found regular work as the collaborator of maverick Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai.
A revealing one-off documentary that provides an inside view of how Tony Blair and former prime ministers - including Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and John Major - have run their cabinet, the highest decision-making body in the land.
Young hobbit Frodo Baggins, after inheriting a mysterious ring from his uncle Bilbo, must leave his home in order to keep it from falling into the hands of its evil creator.
