About this product: Work out with Master Instructor Trainer Moira Merrithew to strengthen your back and improve your posture. Minimize pain & maximize quality of life. Back pain is one of the most common ailments plaguing adults today. Take back your quality of life by strengthening core muscles around the spine, shoulders and abdomen. The first level in the Back Care Series, Be Kind to Your Spine is a great way to improve flexibility, mobility and functional fitness. It is ideal for fitness instructors and rehabilitation practitioners. SUITABLE FOR: Beginner audiences (Level 1 of 5) EQUIPMENT REQUIRED: Exercise Mat
About this product: In 1920, exploring American anthropologist Robert J. Flaherty traveled alone, with camera in hand, to the remote Canadian tundra. There, for over a year, he lived with Eskimos, documenting their daily lives and returning to his editing studio with the raw footage. The result of his rigorous study was groundbreaking; with Nanook of the North, Flaherty pioneered both a new cinematic genre, the narrative documentary, and created a timeless drama of human perseverance under the harshest of conditions. Flaherty obviously understood the charisma of one Eskimo in particular, Nanook, and much of the film's warmth, humor, and charm come from the mutual respect and sympathy between the filmmaker and his subject. Flaherty possessed an acute eye for simple detail and his presentation of the stark climate and unique culture remains breathtaking. Flaherty also had a knack for editing and manipulation, and along with pioneering a new cinematic form, Nanook too raised all of the problematic ethical dilemmas that still face documentarians. Many of the famous sequences--the seal hunt, the building of the igloo--were actually staged for "authenticity" purposes, thus starting debates on whether documentaries could truly capture truth or reality. Then there's the presence of the camera and whether that in itself alters or disrupts the natural behavior of its subjects. Yet, despite Flaherty's tamperings, there's no denying the film's power, its wondrous sense of adventure, and the touching portrait of one of cinema's truly courageous heroes. --Dave McCoy
About this product: I needed something to help me build sufficient strength to do chaturanga (low push-up) for ashtanga yoga. This DVD was invaluable. After doing it once a week (and practicing the spinal wave off an on in between formal practice) for about 2 months, I am now able to EASILY move from plank to chaturanga! Not only can I easily lower into chaturanga, I can also hold this asana for one complete breath before going into a full cobra! Please note...I am a 60 year old woman with moderately severe pulmonary fibrosis!
About this product: Witches and ghosts are always a treat for your child in these spooky tales. TEENY-TINY AND THE WITCH-WOMAN (By Barbara K. Walker, Illustrated by Michael Foreman) A deliciously scary story about a boy who outsmarts an old witch-woman before she can have him and his brothers and sisters for dinner. SPACE CASE (By Edward Marshall, Illustrated by James Marshall, Narrated by Christopher Lloyd) This zany story about a small space traveler and the young boy he befriends is vividly brought to life through lively animation and an upbeat musical score. THE BOY WITH TWO SHADOWS (By Margaret Mahy, Illustrated by Jenny Williams) An unforgettable tale about the mayhem that takes place when you promise to help a witch. THE WITCH IN THE CHERRY TREE (By Margaret Mahy, Illustrated by Jenny Williams) David and his mother must find a way to protect their freshly baked cakes from the tricky witch in the cherry tree. DVD Features: Extra Bonus Story Exclusive to DVD "King of the Cats" by Paul Galdone; Read Along; Interactive Menus; Story Selection; Auto Play
About this product: Comfort Zone, Feeling Younger Workout: Relieving Tension in the Neck and Spine features comfortable, gentle movements that promote balance, prevent neck pain, and help align your spine. Doing some or all of the movements daily, weekly, or monthly not only will help your mental and creative capacity as well, it will also enhance your awareness of how your body moves, which is a key component of a sound exercise regimen. Based on the renowned Feldenkrais exercise principles, a COMFORT ZONE, FEELING YOUNGER WORKOUT offers the ultimate exercise is medicine experience.
About this product: Back and abdominal muscles are essential components of the muscular network of the spine, helping the body maintain proper upright posture and movement. The Yogasanas in this DVD not only keep the body healthy and supple, but also strengthen very specific muscle groups and muscles that support the spine. The Yogic stretching exercises described in this product enhance blood flow to the tissues that support the spine, thus improving the health of the discs and muscles along the spine. Regular practice of these exercises increases the flexibility of the shoulders and hips. Yoga's focus on breathing and connecting breath with movement improves body awareness, making one more conscious of movements that may contribute to back pain. Special features of this DVD: 1. This DVD features traditional Yogasanas, breathing techniques for asanas & meditation framed under the expert guidance of Dr. Sujatha. 2. Sequenced asanas in 23 min REAL TIMEWORKOUT with audio assisted time-cues. 3. Multiangled presentation of Yogasanas by experts. 4. Explicit instructions in English, Hindi and Tamil.
About this product: Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is as truly mythic as any film ever shot, its artistic achievement rivaled by its turbulent history. The focal point of controversy when released in 1928, the original film was lost for a half-century until an intact copy of Dreyer's original version was recovered in the early '80s.
Seeing Joan of Arc today remains a cinematic revelation, its approach to storytelling, set design, editing, and especially cinematography (by Rudolph Maté, who also shot Dreyer's visionary Vampyr) radical then, and still strikingly modern many decades later. Influenced by both German expressionist film and the French avant-garde, Dreyer's huge set was designed with asymmetrical doors, windows, and arches, through which Maté's camera moves along equally off-centered, even vertiginous, but fluid trajectories. Although the story is epic in its implications, the film is composed primarily of extreme close-ups, especially of Joan and her principal interrogator, Bishop Cauchon, and medium shots of small groups, often shot from low angles. Dreyer and Maté shot their cast in bright light, without makeup, giving each wrinkle, blemish, or tuft of hair sculptural detail.
For all its visual invention, however, Dreyer's film is most devastating in its central performance by Falconetti (née Renee Falconetti), a French stage actress who made her only screen appearance here--one critic Pauline Kael has suggested "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film." Through Falconetti, Joan's spiritual devotion, simple dignity, and suffering become utterly real; even without a dialogue track and only sparse inter-titles, the film achieves a fevered eloquence.
This meticulous restoration also includes composer Richard Einhorn's beautiful oratorio, Voices of Light, inspired by Dreyer's film and set to texts by women mystics from medieval and early-Renaissance Europe. A luminous work on its own, Einhorn's oratorio matches both the dramatic arcs and tremulous emotions of Dreyer's film, while its juxtaposition of choral and solo voices (with early-music vocal quartet Anonymous 4 evoking Joan herself) echoes the martyr's confrontation with the court. --Sam Sutherland
About this product: This is a Kundalini Yoga Home Practice DVD set on a beautiful lake in Maine near Sewall House Yoga Retreat.
The practice can be done by all levels of practitioners, starting with warm-ups and sun salutation, then going into a specific series that stretches the spine in all directions and ends with a calming breath meditation and then a 3 minute chanting meditation. Donna has over 20 years experience. Music by Kent Bonham.
About this product: David Lean's handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic novel captures the warm humor and richness of character that so many filmmakers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England. From the nightmarish opening sequence on the windswept graveyard where young orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) meets the desperate escaped criminal Magwitch (Finlay Currie) to the shadowy, musty mansion of the widow Miss Haversham (Martita Hunt) where he first meets the impertinent young beauty Estella (Jean Simmons), Lean captures a childlike exaggeration of reality with his elegant expressionism. When Pip's sudden change in fortune sends him to London as a burgeoning gentleman in high society, Lean sketches a beautiful, bustling city. John Mills's performance as the adult Pip charts his change from the wide-eyed wonder and generous spirit of the child he was to the class snob transformed by money and social standing, an ugly flaw that Pip confronts when his mysterious benefactor is finally revealed. The outstanding cast also features Valerie Hobson as the grown-up Estella, now a beguiling enchantress, a bright young Alec Guinness in his film debut as Pip's jovial London roommate Herbert Pocket, and the imposing Francis L. Sullivan as the decidedly humorless lawyer Jaggers. Exquisitely photographed by Guy Green (who won an Oscar for his work). Lean and his collaborators effectively maintain the heart of Dickens's epic drama while cutting it to its essentials in this vivid, compelling film. --Sean Axmaker
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