This astonishing documentary investigates how an advertising slogan invented by Madison Avenue executives in 1948 has come to define our most intimate and romantic rituals and ideals. The Diamond Empire, which sent shockwaves through the transnational diamond industry when it first appeared, systematically takes apart the myth that "diamonds are forever." It exposes how one white South African family, through a process of monopoly and fantasy, managed...

Narritjin Maymuru, leader of the Manggalili clan, was one of the people Ian Dunlop worked with most closely during his long term film project at Yirrkala. This is a personal and sad film about Narritjin—artist, thinker, and passionate interpreter of the world through his Yolngu beliefs.. Narritjin is sitting on the verandah of his house at Yirrkala quietly painting. It is early 1974. He talks about the troubles with the mine and alcohol amongst...

"How to recognize the tactics of spiritual abuse-and save your faith Are you questioning the church of your upbringing but want to maintain your faith? Do you want to cut ties with your denomination, but fear abandonment by God? Are you struggling with spiritual anxiety-fear of hell, obsessive religious ritual, or feelings of never measuring up? Tiffany Yecke Brooks first explored reconstructing faith in Gaslighted by God. In this much needed follow-up,...

"Using her everyday research approach, in the tradition of the pedagogistas of Reggio Emilia, author Lisa Burman observed several special classrooms and identified some common threads: engagement, agency, identity, and belonging, which together combine to create what she terms a culture of agency. The term agency is widely used, but often misunderstood as "giving children choice." Agency is far more than this, and the most powerful learning happens...

"When he signed up for a psychedelic retreat run by a mysterious Argentine woman deep in Brazil's rainforest in early 2018, Ernesto Londoño, a veteran New York Times journalist, was so depressed he had come close to jumping off his terrace weeks earlier. His nine-day visit to Spirit Vine Ayahuasca Retreat Center included four nighttime ceremonies during which participants imbibed a vomit-inducing plant-based brew that contained DMT, a powerful mind-altering...

"The British monarchy has been through turbulent times of late. Rocked by scandal and strife, and without it seems a clear plan for the future following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, we have been left wondering: what happens next? Nothing seems certain. Will the monarchy survive with its continuing echoes of an Imperial past? Will young people - disenchanted with the political status quo - find the ritual and practice of the monarchy quite so mesmerising...

Prohibition - Episode 1: A Nation of Drunkards Americans have argued over alcohol for centuries. Since the early years of the American Republic, drinking has been at least as American as apple pie. As Episode 1: A Nation of Drunkards begins, clergymen, craftsmen and canal-diggers drink. So do the crowds of men who turn out for barn-raisings and baptisms, funerals, elections and public hangings. Tankards of cider are kept by farmhouses' front doors,...

This film, the first from the Central African Republic, takes us inside the world of the 'pygmies' or more properly BaAka. Le silence de la forêt is a film about the difficulty for even the most well-intentioned person to know and respect another culture. In this case, the problem is so acute that there is even heated debate over what to call that 'other.' The subtitles in the film use the familiar word 'pygmies,' a relatively pejorative European...

"Siku has always called the Zambezi River her home. She understands the water--and strangely enough, it seems to understand her, too, bending to her will and coming to her aid in times of need. But things are changing on the river--a great dam is being built, displacing thousands of Shonga people--and things are changing in Siku, too, as her ability to manipulate water grows out of control, and visions of a great serpent pull her further from reality...

"The Luminous Self shares teachings and practices that can help us connect with our true Self and claim our inherent power and wisdom-which are essential for living with purpose and grace in our turbulent world. In this book, Tracee Stanley shares teachings and practices in each chapter--including meditation, yoga nidra, breath work, connecting with nature, journaling, and more--that can help us remember who we truly are. The Luminous Self offers...