Talks & Documentaries - Audiovisuals

Back to Audiovisuals

If you come up with ideas which can be included on Michelle's Projects for English Learners , please get in touch!

If you want to learn to listen and improve your listening and speaking skills, don't use subtitles or transcripts. Not till you have listened to the video a few times. And don't read while listening. That's training in reading, not in listening!

Story of Stuff If your English is at the Upper Intermediate level, make sure you watch a few of the Story of Stuff Project videos. You can download them for free on their site, and you can get loads of interesting ideas to work on the presented topics and also to share it and contribute thus to consciousness-raising. Although you will find the videos translated into different languages, don't be a chicken! And don't use the subtitled version for the hearing-impaired, unless you are in that case! Help your ear become used to deciphering English in real life, and only resort to the subtitled version in English once you have trained your ear and your mind in survival techniques!

Listen to Marvin Harris, anthropologist, talking about his life's work.

YouTubers

TED Talks : an amazing site, full of amazing talks by people with great ideas. You can watch their videos and subscribe to their podcast. Remember not to use the translations till you've watched each video a few times! Your ear must stop being lazy! Here is a selection of some favorites!:

Eve Ensler's Happiness in Body and Soul (20 minutes) Related links: The Vagina Monologues
Peter Gabriel fights Injustice with Videos (15 minutes)
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh, The real-life culture of bonobos (18 minutes) - amazing nonviolent society, full of empathy. Discover what you never got to know about animals...
Jane Goodall helps humans and animals live together (24 minutes)
Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds (24 minutes). This brilliant scientist, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works
Shilo Shiv Suleman's Using tech to enable dreaming (8 minutes) - technology used to enable magic

March 2012: due to restrictive laws, sites are being closed down or unable to share knowledge. If you find broken links, let us know! Thanks.

The Corporation (Canada, 2003, 2h59') For Advanced students. "Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it."
The World According to Monsanto (transgenic food - this video is a must-watch!)
Home , by Luc Besson, sent in by Alex (Nov 2010): 2'12'' clip and homepage. A 50-minute environmental film. (Besson has uploaded the film himself, as opposed to some pirate action.) The film will premiere as part of World Environment Day on June 5, 2009 Source: NowPublic
Life After People - here you can watch video clips, like this one on Trash (2'32'') or Animals (2'11'')
Science & Philosophy: Space hubblesite.org you can watch and download a series of short videos illuminating Hubble’s activities, discoveries and science. The String Theory, in our universe, where we might have 11 dimensions instead of three? Here you can watch all the parts of the 3-hour documentary The Elegant Universe. And here you can watch a 2-minute preview (look on your right)!
Science & Philosophy: Sam Harris: Watch Philosopher and neurologist, analizing religious beliefs and its connections to the dangers civilization is running. Use the forums to comment!
Top Documentaries Online! link sent by Raúl (May 2011)
The Genius of Darwin
BBC Science & Nature
Channel 4 UK On-Line Documentaries and Shorts
Free Movies Found On-Line (Documentaries) - March 2012: they only show a few minutes now! :(
This is coffee (1961, 12m)
Dispatches: Supermarket Secrets
Grass (1999, 1h18')
Hooligans (2006, 1h)
Big Brother, Big Business (2006)
McLibel (2005)
On Piracy: On Piracy & the future of Media (2007)
Santa's Workshop: toy production in China
Slavery: A Global Investigation (2002)
A Place Called Chiapas (1998)
Viking Visitors to North America (1979, 23')
Jimmy Hendrix at Woodstock (1992, 1h, entire performance of 1969)
Walking with Lions (2002, 1h)
The Private Life of a Cat (1944, 20')
Cosmos, Who Speaks for the Earth? (Carl Sagan, 1980, 1h)
Democracy NOW! Independent Media in a Time of War - Watch the video on-line, 30 min., with tapescript. : if media reported what war is like, war would be erradicated, because people would be horrified. Includes info on Iraq war mainstream media reporting, the Palestine hotel, Ana DiFranco's concert, how the FBI questions dissenting artists.
Society, Culture, Politics. Watch the International edition of CNN videos on the latest news.

Talks & Documentaries - Audiovisuals

Related Links