BootsnAll Travel Community

This thread is for listings of video documentaries, etc...(non-movie) that cover issues from a global perspective with filming all over the world.

If you have any to add, please list episodes and city/region and countries visited.

The first one I will post is:

Shape of Life

4-DVD series available at Amazon Marketplace for $20 or your library. It is relatively obscure
considering how good I think it is.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/shapeoflife/

Episode

1 - Sulawesi, Indonesia ; Guizhou, China (brief) and Woods Hole - Cape Cod, MA, USA
2 - Providence, RI, USA ; Big Sur, CA (Queensland, Australia)
3 - Inyo Mountains, CA, USA ; Scotland ; Great Barrier Reef, Australia
4 - Hampden-Sydney, VA, USA ; Berkeley, CA, USA
5 - Imperial Beach, CA, USA ; New Caledonia (Island in Pacific)
6 - Honolulu, HI, USA ; Big Sur, CA, USA
7 - Bloomington, IN, USA ; Coos Bay, OR, USA
8 - Valencia Island, Ireland ; Bozeman, MT, USA

There are actually even more locations than this - but I'd have to re-watch them to know...most of these locations are copied from the website, except for the first few episodes where I did take better notes.


Upcoming ones I will add are:

National Geographic Strange Days on Planet Earth
PBS - Evolution
PBS - Journey of Man
BBC - Blue Planet
National Geographic Taboo Season 1
National Geographic Guns, Germs, Steel
PBS - Commanding Heights
Sacred Planet

National Geographic Taboo Season 1

If you are a traveler and have not yet seen an episode of NG's Taboo - then you are missing out!
This exciting series highlights the differences AND similarities (Once you look beneath the surface) across cultures of subjects many of us (Or someone you know) likely have strong opinions
about.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/programs/taboo.html

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/highspeed/taboo/

This 4-DVD set's main stories spans 23 countries! with references to numerous
others. Find it on Amazon marketplace for $20-$35 or your local library. Or check froogle.com

Disc 1

Drugs - Huancabamba, Peru ; WA DC, USA (Rave - Ecstasy); Tepic, Mexico (Nearby area - more variety of cacti than anywhere else in the world)

Healers - Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia ; Ruidoso, New Mexico, USA (Urine); Curva, Bolivia (Guinea Pig sacrifice)

Food - Kuching, Malaysia (Durian); Pismo Beach, CA, USA (bugs) ; Bangkok, Thailand (Cobra) ; Tokyo, Japan (fugu - Pufferfish) Asakusa restaurant district - 80 menus; Kouba, Benin (pet dog)

Blood Sports - Maurice, Louisiana, USA (cockfighting) ; Tamuin, Yucatan, Mexico (bullfighting) ; Llallagua, Bolivia (street brawling) ; interspersed images of foxhunting controversy in UK


Disc 2

Evil Spirits - Manila, Philippines ; Belem, Brazil (Fish market!) ; Harare, Zimbabwe ;

Voodoo - Allada, Benin (Home of Voodoo) ; Miragoane, Haiti ; Mt.Sorte, Venezuela

Marriage - Bihar, India ; Salimde, Togo (polygamy) ; Portsmouth, UK (gay marriage)

Witchcraft - Mexico City, Mexico ; Zaka, Zimbabwe ; Hastings and Cornwall County, UK (Wickans)

Disc 3

Sexuality - Tirana, Albania (Sworn virgins) lack of marriagable males in country - very patriarchal and strict gender roles - society changing; Bakersfield, CA, USA (To Thailand for sex change); Delhi, India

Death - Tondon, Sulawesi, Indonesia (Toraja) ; Varanasi, India ; Los Angeles, CA, USA

Rites of Passage - Port Elizabeth, South Africa (painted white - circumcision) ; Mescalero, New Mexico, USA (Apache girl) ; Mitchellville, Maryland, USA
(nursing home)

Disc 4

Tests of Faith - Vanuatu Land Diving, Greece - fire walking, Philippines - Crucifixion

Tattoo - Borneo, Malaysia ; Benin ; Norway


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Season 2 is on 4-DVD set now, but I don't have it yet. Season 3 is showing on NG Channel now, which I don't get. One of the episodes from Season 3 is on the Season 2 DVD set per description.

NOVA - World in the Balance

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/

You can find this online for about $10 or at your library.

Cool videos on population pyramids of different countries.

5 countries on 1 DVD

Japan, India, USA (Special on Washington State!), Kenya, China

China - city and rural locations (Beijing, Shanghai, Weixian - sp?, among others)

National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth

9 countries with mention of a few others

In light of the record strengthening of Hurricane Wilma, this video takes on even more relevance.
This 2-DVD set powerfully connects the dots on how things relate to each other on our planet.
Even the smallest and seemingly insignificant things.

You can find this for anywhere from $10-$25 or at your library.

Invaders - New Orleans,USA (termites) ; Lake Victoria, Uganda (Nile perch) ; Big Island of Hawaii (Miconia) ; Vignettes - San Francisco Bay ; California ; South Africa

One Degree Factor - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska ; US West Coast ; Trinidad and Lake Chad, Nigeria

Predators - Caroni Valley, Venezuela and Lake Guri, Venezuela ; Yellowstone NP - Wyoming, USA ; Discovery Bay, Jamaica and St. Lucia

Troubled Water - Wyoming, USA (frogs and atrazine) ; St. Lawrence, Canada (belugas and chemical) ; Great Barrier Reef, Australia (reef + nitrogen) ; E. Pacific Ocean (mola mola)

Journey of Man

6 Countries

Amazon link
http://tinyurl.com/9apj2

Publisher Link to companion book
http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7442.html

Namibia ; Kazakhstan ; Far NE Siberia in Russia ; Arizona, USA ; Brazil ; North Australia ; and South India

Step into Liquid

http://www.stepintoliquid.com/

Lest you think all these documentary DVDs tackle more serious or fundamental questions - here is one that will knock your socks off! f'ing amazing A global tour of surfing. I know there are some surfers on this board...Dan?

I've tried surfing a couple of times with no success before - I even went out during an extended workday lunch many moons ago in the documentary's first location - San Onofre, California, which is also the home of two large nuclear reactors - which aren't shown. (Google map?) I didn't "get" the appeal of surfing then. Since then - I now understand the lure of the sea -- though with scuba..especially high adrenaline drift diving.

San Onofre Nuclear station - Satellite view

This video mesmerized me...now I'm on the hunt for more surf documentaries. I've had a seed in the back of my head to go to surf school in Costa Rica someday....that seed is crying louder. WAHHH!!!!

Damn it...I already have a traveling scuba habit, how the hell am I going to fit in surfing... what about paragliding....shit.

7 countries and the open Pacific Ocean


San Onofre, California, USA
North Shore - Maui, Hawaii, USA - Pea'hi - tow in surfing
Sheboygan, Wisconsin - Lake Michigan
North Shore - Oahu, Hawaii, USA - pipelines from shore (COOL!)
Northern California, USA
County Donegal - Ireland
Costa Rica (Robert August) - puravita spirit - similar to Aloha
Malibu, California, USA
Encinitas, California, USA
Western Australia - discussion of World Cup - 44 surfers - 9 months - 8 countries
Tahiti - Teahupo'o - coral with teeth
Texas, USA - supertanker surfing, 2-3 miles!
Half Moon Bay, California, USA - more tow in surfing
foilboards - North Shore Maui
Vietnam - sand surfing and in Da Nang (24 visitors)
Rapa Nui, Chile
Cortes Bank, Pacific Ocean - 100 miles off San Diego

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Future RTW by DVDs that I will add now too are - Globe Trekker compilations, Neverending Thermal (Paragliding around the world), and the History of Soccer.

Winged Migration

http://www.sonyclassics.com/wingedmigration/index_flash.html

Freedom? Consider the freedom of a bird and maybe you might hope that reincarnation is true and you become one. Especially the Arctic Tern - which goes from Antarctica to the Arctic and back in a single year!!!

How's that for a globetrotter! Don't need no fancy machines...or no need to wait in line at a checkin counter. No baggage.....no hotels or hostels! What a life.

The back of the case says 5 film crews traveled through 40 countries on all seven continents.

No...I haven't written down each of them...from memory

New York City, USA
India
Tanzania or is it Kenya - Lake Bogoria...
Hokkaido, Japan
France
Himayalas -- Nepal/India area...
Senegal

Amazon rainforest...Peru?


Arctic
Antarctica

I'll add the rest of the countries...if I ever feel I need to use up extra brain cycles. Maybe they are on the website

RX for Survival

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/

I just found out about this a few days ago, haven't seen it - I'm going to check it out from Netflix or the library when it comes out on DVD shortly.

3-DVD series - 20 countries

From the website:

New Delhi, India
Lima, Peru
Farchana Refugee Camp, Chad
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Bamako, Mali
Rajaraani, Nepal
Nicaragua
Mansehra, Kashmir
Gambia
Thailand


That's only 10....

Globe Trekker Great Historic Sites

This 2 hour long DVD is like a veritable history of our "civilized" (Insane?) world. 25 countries

Amazing compilation of knowledge and video footage.
It's DVDs like this that continue to humble me. So what if I've been to XX# of countries and places. There are so many places I haven't been or experienced...

Too bad..stuff like this didn't exist when I had history classes...

Those who don't study the past and the present - of others OR your own -- are condemened to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.


Ancient Britons (Anglo-Saxons) -- now Anglo-Normans/Saxons
Greenwich, England - Megan
Stonehenge, UK - Janine

The Pharoahs
Giza, Egypt - Estelle ; Hot Air Balloon ride - Valley of the Kings - Megan

Persian Empire
Persepolis, Iran - Ian (Low touristed)

Ancient Greeks
Greece - Athens - Christina Chang ; Greece - Island of Delos - Megan (Slave market - 10k people / day)
Selinunte, Sicily, Italy - Ian ;

Qin Dynasty
Xian, China - Megan - 1974 discovery of Terracotta warriors - all just under 6 feet tall ; paint faded

Forts
Jaisalmer,India - 3,000 people live there
Derawah Fort, Pakistan - Neil Gibson
Bam Fort, Iran - Ian

Nabateans
Petra, Jordan - Ian

Romans (264BC-565AD)
Pompeii, Italy ; Rome, Italy - Justine Shapiro
Ephseus, Turkey - Justine
Palmyra, Syria - Ian (tourist free)
Baalbek, Lebanon - Ian - sacred prostitution
Roman thirst ended at wild savage Scotland (Separate barbarians)
Hadrian's Wall - England/Scotland border - end of Roman expansion - 73 miles long - Justine

Rise of Christianity
St.Anthony Monastery, Egypt - Megan
Gerhard Church, Armenia
Rock churches, Ethiopia - Ian

Rise of Islam
Esfahan, Iran (Blue Mosque) - Ian
Uzbekistan - Ian
Djenne, Mali - Justine (can't go inside unless Muslim) - because American couple found kissing, or model shoot with models running naked

Great Monuments
Anatolia, Turkey - big heads - Justine
Giza Egypt Sphinx - Estelle
Bangkok, Thailand - Wat Pho - Ian

The Mayans
Teotihuancan, Mexico - Justine
Chichin Itza, Mexico - Justine - lived by calendar more accurate than ours today - 91 stones/side = 364 days - calendar is in stone, top platform - 365
Tikal, Guatemala

Khmer Empire
Angkor Wat, Cambodia - Ian

Incas
Machu Pichu, Peru

People of Easter Island
Rapa Nui, Chile - Ian

Top 5
5 - Machu Pichu, Peru
4 - Acropolis , Greece
3 - Pompeii, Italy
2 - Colosseum, Rome, Italy
1 - Terracotta - Xian, China

Bonus -

Abu Simbel, Egypt - Megan
Luxor - Megan
Alhambra, Spain - most visited monument in Europe - Christina Chang?
Leptis Magna, Libya - covered by sand dunes - excavated in 1920s - Ian
Mount Sinai, Israel - Justine
Bagawat, Egypt - Megan
Ibn Tulun, Cairo, Egypt - Megan


21 countries - per DVD main program - actually 22 - they forgot India - though on border with Pakistan - Jaisalmer, also Scotland - part of UK

Bonus programs: Add Israel and Spain and Libya - 3 countries

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Speaking of history...will now add numerous A&E / History Channel documentaries to this thread.
In process of watching the History of Britain...

My world travels, thus far, were only the beginning of learning....lesson to be learnt -- don't get a big head about ANYTHING.

1 Giant Leap

World music combined with video images.

http://www.1giantleap.tv

25 locations in 20 countries

Double grammy nominated...

'global journey that included Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, India, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe' (And Nigeria from the clip I saw)


'a unique fusion of sound, image and spoken word from some of the world's most happening musicians, authors, scientists and thinkers and to explore 'The Unity in the Diversity'.'


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I haven't watched all the clips, but what I have seen so far looks inspiring. I'll update this when I've watched more...my book and DVD backlog is too high right now.