Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America

The famous fighting monks of the Shaolin Temple have seen a resurgence throughout the world, aided in part by the popularity of kungfu movies starring Jet Li and the Academy Award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Narrated by Beau Bridges, SHAOLIN ULYSSES: Kungfu Monks in America traces the odyssey of five real Shaolin kungfu monks from China who immigrated to America in the 1990s.


SHAOLIN ULYSSES explores the stories of five immigrant kungfu monks from China's Shaolin Temple: the legendary birthplace of kungfu, Zen Buddhism and today's contemporary kungfu mecca. They share their lives, ambitions and visions of building American temples, doing Las Vegas shows and producing Olympic sport champions. From New York to Texas to Las Vegas, their stories reflect a unique version of the American Dream—Shaolin style.


The film began as a concept between producers Martha Burr and Mei-Juin Chen several years ago. Burr was the editor of a kungfu magazine and Chen had recently debuted her documentary in Berlin on the famous Chinese opera star Mei Lanfang. Both shared an interest in Chinese culture and cross-cultural topics, especially between China and America.


The stories of the five kungfu monks who left their homeland are as individual and varied as the men themselves. Shi Guolin opened a successful Buddhist temple and kungfu school in Flushing, Queens. Li Peng Zhang has married an American woman and now is raising a family in Brooklyn, New York. Two monks, Shi Xing Hao and Shi De Shan, have landed in Houston, Texas, where they coach young athletes aspiring to the Olympics (where kungfu may be a medal sport in 2008) and teach brutal self-defense and submission takedowns to Texas police. And, finally, one of the biggest Shaolin stars, Shi Xing Hong, is springboarding to Las Vegas, where he sees a perfect opportunity to spread Zen and kungfu in America.


Interspersed throughout the documentary is footage and history of China's Shaolin Temple in Henan province, chronicling the creation of Zen and kungfu by a wandering monk named Bodhidharma, 1500 years ago. Today the temple is a mega-tourist attraction, the world's largest kungfu school and a UNESCO World Heritage Monument applicant. The film explores the cultural interface of Shaolin kungfu, Zen Buddhism and America. It is at once a story about immigrants, a story about kungfu and Buddhism, a story about dreams and a story about journeys.

The Lost World of Communism: East Germany

The Lost World of Communism is a three part British documentary series which examines the legacy of Communism twenty years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall.


Produced by Peter Molloy and Lucy Hetherington, the series takes a retrospective look at life behind the Iron Curtain between 1945 and 1989, focusing on three countries in the Eastern Bloc - East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania. Through film and television footage and the personal recollections of those who lived in these countries, the series offers a glimpse of what daily life was like during the years of Communist rule.


The Lost World of Communism debuted on BBC Two on Saturday 14 March 2009 at 9:00pm. There is also a book which accompanies the series.

The Exile of Leon Trotsky

Fascinating account of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky’s exiled years living in Istanbul. The narration by Vanessa Redgrave lends accessibility to this inflammatory historical figure's life while the cinematography fills the screen with beautiful, epic-minded imagery.


Leon Trotsky November 7, [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940; born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War. He was also among the first members of the Politburo.


After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union. An early advocate of Red Army intervention against European fascism, Trotsky also opposed Stalin's peace agreements with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued in exile to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and was eventually assassinated in Mexico by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent. Trotsky's ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term coined as early as 1905 by his opponents in order to separate it from Marxism. Trotsky’s ideas remain a major school of Marxist thought that is opposed to the theories of Stalinism. He was one of the few Soviet political figures who was never rehabilitated by the Soviet administration.

The Prisoner:The Human Condition

The Prisoner is an extraordinary TV series that not only entertains but also offers you the chance to philosophise or ponder the human condition.


It is highly regarded as one of the most famous, the most acclaimed and most of intriguing of British cult TV adventure series. Staring Emmy award winner Patrick McGoohan as Number Six.


A man removed from his position in a secret organisation and trapped in a nightmare village where his thoughts and movements are controlled by an unknown force- represented by the ever changing Number Two.


A taut psycho-thriller, The Prisoner was highly influential when aired on ITV (UK) in 1967 and 1968 and it remains as relevant and intriguing as ever.

The Quiet One (Academy Award Winning Film / Documentary Movie)

Director: Sidney Meyers.
Creative Commons license: Public Domain.


Among the 10 Best Films, 1948-49 New York Times.
Best Documentary Feature nominee, 1948 Academy Awards.
Best Story and Screenplay nominee, 1949 Academy Awards.
Best Picture nominee, 1949 National Board of Review.




- Synopsis:


The story of a lonely young boy growing up in Harlem. Using a semi-documentary technique, the film-makers realistically capture the hostile environment which leads the boy to delinquency. The youth is sent to Wiltwyck School for rehabilitation, where a psychiatrist and counselor try to break through the wall of silence which the boy uses to hide his fear and bitterness. The Quiet One relates, in semidocumentary fashion, the inner workings of the Wiltwyck School for Boys at Esopus, New York.


The nonprofessional cast is headed by Donald Thompson as emotionally disturbed youth Donald Peters. Under the compassionate ministrations of a psychiatric counselor (Clarence Cooper, a real-life Wiltwyck counselor), Donald recalls the various traumatic events that have led up to his present troubled state. Out of the tortured experiences of a 10-year-old Harlem Negro boy, cruelly rejected by his loved ones but rescued by the people of the Wiltwyck School, a new group of local film-makers has fashioned a genuine masterpiece in the way of a documentary drama.


In several respects this hour-long picture, shaped from the stuff of modern life, is comparable to those stark film dramas which we have had from Italy since the war. For not only does its poignant story mirror a contempora scene, but it is performed by a cast of "picked-up" actors, with an untrained lad in the principal role. Also, it was filmed entirely on the concrete streets of New York, in sleazy Harlem apartments and at the Wiltwyck School for Boys at Esopus, N. Y. More than that—and most especially—it views with a clear and candid eye in searching about for the torment of a so-called delinquent child. It illustrates the problem with compassion but utter clarity.


And it comes to an honest conclusion, which is far from a "happy end." In a sense, it might be reckoned the "Shoe Shine" of American urban life, with the fade-out less fatal and tragic because of our more fortunate state. Briefly, "The Quiet One" tells the story of a boy whose childhood has been scarred by the brutal indifference of his parents and the disgust of the grandmother with whom he lives. Abused, rebuffed, rejected, he has lost all confidence and heart and, in his lonesome shame and anguish, he turns wildly and darkly into himself. Out of this empty "quiet" region he is slowly and painfully drawn by the care and understanding of the psychiatrist and a counselor at the Wiltwyck School. If that sounds like propaganda, let us hasten to assure that no cause is pleaded in this picture, other than that of affection and guidance for the young.


The fact that one school was selected as the refuge for this particular child was plainly a matter of convenience. For this is essentially the story of any child who has hungered for love and, in the misery of that hunger, has rebelled in some unsocial way. It is also a clear illumination of the psychology of such a child and of the delicate handling and patience required to help him find some heart and strength.

Executions (Stories About Death Penalty)

Warning: Footage from live executions are shown in detail. Viewers' disrcretion is advised.


"Executions" (1995) is a documentary showing real footage of the many different methods humanity has used through-out history for capital punishment.


During the film, the makers point out how unjustifiable the death penalty is in every situation, so they do take a staunch stance against what they're presenting. Footage from live executions are shown in detail.


This objective documentary on the death penalty and state sponsored killing looks at the social, political and moral impact of these methods of death.


The film is separated into chapters on various execution styles and uses the theme of humane death in every segment.

Trials Of Henry Kissinger

Part contemporary investigation and part historical inquiry, documentary follows the quest of one journalist in search of justice. The film focuses on Christopher Hitchens' charges against Henry Kissinger as a war criminal - allegations documented in Hitchens' book of the same title - based on his role in countries such as Cambodia, Chile, and Indonesia.



Kissinger's story raises profound questions about American foreign policy and highlights a new era of human rights. Increasing evidence about one man's role in a long history of human rights abuses leads to a critical examination of American diplomacy through the lens of international standards of justice.



The film focuses on Henry Kissinger and his role in America's secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969, the approval of Indonesia's genocidal assault on East Timor in 1975, the assassination of a Chilean general in 1970, and his involvement in the 1969 Paris peace talks concerning the Vietnam Conflict.