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Technological Perspectives (6)
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The Age of InventionAlbert Kish 1984 10 minThis short film serves as a poem-on-film about the coming of the machine age on the eve of World War I. Images and sounds combine to recreate a bygone era of scratchy phonograph records, faded photographs, hand-cranked movie cameras, staccato Morse telegraph messages, and rhythmic steam pumps. Machines of every description were shaping peoples' lives and changing them more rapidly than at any other time in history. -
Cinéma Vérité: Defining the MomentPeter Wintonick 1999 1 h 42 minCrisis, Lonely Boy, Chronicle of a Summer. You may not know these films, but you see their influences every day--in everything from TV news to music videos to Webcams. The cinéma vérité (or direct cinema) movement of the '50s and '60s was driven by a group of rebel filmmakers tired of stilted documentaries. They wanted to show life as it really is: raw, gritty, dramatic. Rich in excerpts from vérité classics, Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment is the first film to capture all the excitement of a revolution that changed movie-making forever. Director Peter Wintonick's Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media is one of the bestselling documentaries of all time; co-producer Éric Michel won the Cannes Palme d'or for 50 ans, by director Gilles Carle, and co-producer Adam Symansky won an Oscar for Flamenco at 5:15.
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Mirrors of TimeJean-Jacques Leduc 1990 23 minThis short animated film delves into the mysteries of time: how calendars came to be; why the seasons change; why the year is divided into days, etc. From Babylon to 16th-century Europe, this film presents the history of the measurement of time.
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A Short History of the Highrise, Part One: MudKaterina Cizek 2013 3 minIn the first installment, "Mud" traces the historical roots of the residential highrise, from the biblical Tower of Babel to the tenement buildings of New York. The film is narrated by singer-songwriter Feist, and is directed by Katerina Cizek in collaboration with the New York Times.
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A Short History of the Highrise, Part Two: ConcreteKaterina Cizek 2013 6 minIn the second installment, "Concrete" explores how, in New York City and globally, residential high-rises and public housing attempted to foster social equality in the 20th century. The film is narrated and directed by Katerina Cizek in collaboration with the New York Times.
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Surviving ProgressMathieu Roy & Harold Crooks 2011 1 h 26 minThis feature documentary connects the financial collapse, growing inequity and the Wall Street oligarchy with future technology, sustainability, and the fate of civilization itself. Inspired by Ronald Wright's bestseller A Short History of Progress, Surviving Progress digs deep into human nature and patterns of history to challenge and redefine the very idea of progress.
