Documentary DVDs

Engrossing and eye-opening, KING CORN is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom - corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naivet‚, college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aid, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America's modern food system.

THE NATIONAL PARKS is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved for everyone. The series traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years, chronicling the addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them.

This film is presented in "widescreen" format. Enchanced for 16x9 televisions.

Audio: English 5.1 Surround, English 2.0 Stereo, Spanish 2.0 Stereo, Described Video for the Visualy Impaired

Subtitles: English & Spanish

Region: NTSC 1

Hailed as a film masterpiece and landmark in historical storytelling, Ken Burns's epic documentary brings to life America's most destructive-- and defining--conflict. With digitally enhanced images and new stereo sound, here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one.

In 1977, an independent documentary movie shone a light on the world of bodybuilding, becoming a huge box office hit and creating an international sensation. It launched one man's multi-million dollar career and changed the world of bodybuilding and physical exercise forever: PUMPING IRON. Starring five-time Mr. Olympia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie followed the 28-year old bodybuilder as he competed for his 6th title.<P><b>DVD Features:
Biographies
Documentary
Interviews
Outtakes
Photo gallery<br>

How can we all live happier, more fulfilling lives? THIS EMOTIONAL LIFE explores ways we can improve our social relationships, learn to cope with problems like depression and anxiety, and become more positive and resilient individuals. Host Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychologist and best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness, talks with experts about the latest scientific understanding of our emotions and how we can find support for the issues we all face. Each episode weaves together scientific perspectives with the compelling personal stories of ordinary people, complemented by insight from celebrities like Chevy Chase, Larry David, Alanis Morissette, John Leguizamo, Katie Couric, and Richard Gere, among many others.

BBC natural history producer Alastair Fothergill spent the last ten years producing two of the most stunningly beautiful series ever created, The Blue Planet: Seas of Life and Planet Earth. For the first time, these must-own programs will be offered together in special collector's gift set. Winner of two Emmy(R) Awards (Outstanding Cinematography - Non-Fiction and Outstanding Music Composition for George Fenton's score), The Blue Planet: Seas of Life is the definitive exploration of the marine world, chronicling the mysteries of the deep, coastline populations, sea mammals, tidal and climatic influences, and the complete biological system that relies on and revolves around the world's oceans. Planet Earth does for the entire world what The Blue Planet: Seas of Life did for the oceans. Using high definition photography and revolutionary ultra-high speed cameras, this is the ultimate portrait of our planet. This truly breathtaking television experience captures rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures.

Dropping into a viper pit in Panama's Camino Reale...navigating his way out of a crevasse of one of the world's largest glaciers...battling extreme conditions in frozen Siberia...it's all in a day's work for adventurer Bear Grylls. A former British Special Forces soldier, Bear shares ingenious and often shocking techniques for surviving in some of the world's most treacherous environments in each unforgettable episode of Man vs. Wild. <P>Episodes: Sahara: Bear Grylls parachutes into the hottest place on Earth to tackle extreme survival challenges, showing you how your own urine and eating the feared camel spider can stave off dehydration and heat-stroke. Desert Survivor: A camel train takes Bear to the deadly desolation of the salt pans where there's no food and no water but plenty of mirages to trick the mind. However, his biggest survival challenge will be something he learned from the indigenous Berber tribesmen of West Africa. Panama: Bear parachutes into croc- and shark-infested water to tackle the stinking tangle of the mangroves and drops from a vine into the lethal Viper Pits on the historic Camino Reale - where he has to face one of his biggest fears in the pitch-black of a cavern. Jungle: Bear encounters the Emberra Indians, who teach him some of their legendary survival techniques. And in a country where there's a high risk of kidnapping, how can you conceal yourself and dodge your trackers? Patagonia: In the Southern Patagonian Ice Field - one of the largest expanses of ice in the world - Bear negotiates his way out of a crevasse and spends the night in a snow hole sheltering himself from an icy blizzard. Andes Adventure: In this chilling episode, Bear spends the night sleeping under a rock in freezing conditions, skins a hare, climbs a 100-foot cliff, meets a gaucho (a South American cowboy) and tracks pumas to find a recent kill. Bear Eats: Bear puts his taste buds (and stomach) to the ultimate test as he takes us to nature's kitchen: See him drink the liquid from a camel's stomach and eat elephant droppings, live frogs, 3-inch-long beetles and raw goat's testicles...if you dare. Siberia: Battling sub-zero temperatures, Bear journeys toward the Taiga forest, where it's thought that a quarter of the people who enter it never find their way out. On the way, he uses a deer skin he finds to sled down a series of treacherous inclines. Land of Ice: In the Sanyan Mountains in Siberia, Bear meets the Tuvans, yak herders descended from Genghis Khan who have lived there for 20,000 years, and learns some survival techniques from these cold-climate experts. Namibia: Bear's journey begins on the notorious skeleton coast, a lethal 900-mile stretch that has wrecked thousands of ships. Fighting dehydration, Bear meets the masters of desert survival, the San Bushmen, who reveal their methods for finding water in barren locales and teach Bear to hunt porcupine. Zambia: Flash floods of the Zambezi River and the 12-foot waves and vicious currents of the Batoka gorge regularly claim the lives of canoeists and rafters. Before heading into the bush, Bear demonstrates how to survive some of the world's biggest rapids. Jungle Swamp: Bear goes into the Pacific Ring of Fire as he takes on a week of challenges in an area devastated by the 2004 tsunami. He shows how to stay alive by making a simple shelter and scavenging whatever he can from the tiny island. Castaway: In the jungle, Bear sleeps in a tree to stay safe during tropical storms, sharing his bed with a variety of horrible insects. Then he dines on grubs and snakes and must use all his survival skills and ingenuity to get through waterfalls, sheer cliffs and deadly jungle.

Ken Burns tops himself with this epic of American history, told in "nine innings," with a skilled narration by John Chancellor and the voices of Paul Newman, Jason Robards, Billy Crystal, and other stars. The series spans 150 years, starting with the myth-debunking tale of baseball's true beginnings -- when it was a game "one degree above mayhem." Then follow the growth of America's National Pastime through the decades of glory and record-setting achievements, as well as the scandals, the bigotry, and the big money. The series portrays the game as a mirror of America itself -- the passions, prejudices, and ambitions that have shape the country.

Before creating the monumental Planet Earth, producer Alastair Fothergill and his team from the BBC put together one of the most breathtaking explorations of the world's oceans ever assembled, The Blue Planet: Seas of Life. The winner of two Emmy(R) Awards, The Blue Planet: Seas of Life is the definitive exploration of the marine world, chronicling the mysteries the deep in ways never before imagined. It is now being re-released in an all-new special edition, with an added 5th disc of bonus programming not included in the original DVD release. See it again, like never before!