Media Edge Archive

Episode #272 (July 24-26)

Segment 1 -- "Peak Moment"
Take a tour, accompanied by curious sheep and geese, of Mark Cooper's self-sufficient small farm. Over several years, he transformed a rundown house and hillsides of berry brambles into pasture and gardens where he
produces and preserves most of his family's food. Visit the Goose Grotto in a constructed pond, a heritage fruit tree orchard, logs producing shiitake mushrooms, and a cheap-and-easy container kitchen garden. Mark gives us a close-up view of the solar dehydrator he constructed from salvaged materials - and his tips on food drying. He has husbanded up to fifty animals at a time, including two Tibetan yaks! This farmstead in Rough and Ready (CA) lives up to the town's name - and is a testament to hard work, wide-ranging construction skills, and love.

Segment 2 -- "Dr. Nabil"
A gentle and committed surgeon, with literary talents, works at a small understaffed Baghdad hospital, which suffers from lack of equipment and medicines. While many other doctors have been killed or have fled the
country in fear of their lives, Dr Nabil has decided to stay. He worries, though, about the effect that the atmosphere of violence and brutality is having on his young son.

Segment 3 -- "Behind the Mask"
A controversial documentary about animal rights activists who break into laboratories and other facilities to provide previously unseen footage of the way animals are used. This film reveals the hearts and souls of men and women who unveil their individual struggles for Animal Liberation, and weaves together the lives of people who face jail, devastation, and even death for their ideals.

Episode #271 (July 17-19)

Segment 1 -- "The Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Eyewitness Reports and Smuggled Footage"
On the night of May 30, 2010, the Mavi Marmara, one of the seven ships in a Gaza bound humanitarian aid convoy, was attacked and boarded by the Israeli military. The attack by 4 warships, 2 submarines, 3 helicopters and 30 zodiacs took place on international waters in violation of international law. Eleven passengers from the Mavi Marmara were killed, dozens were wounded, and six hundred were forced to go to Israel where they were jailed. All media equipment was confiscated or destroyed. For days Israel told its version of the event. As flotilla members returned home, eyewitness accounts emerged and Iara Lee from Cultures of Resistance presented her smuggled raw footage to the UN Press Club and later online. These resources contradicted Israeli press releases. Israel then broadcast doctored footage it took from passengers' cameras to fend off an outpouring of criticism from the world community. Clearly an impartial investigation needed to be made, but Israel and the US blocked this. (Media Edge producer Mary Brassell compiled footage from online sources to create this video. Original Iara Lee footage can be found at http://vimeo.com/12429821.)

Segment 2 -- "Notes on the War"
This film, by Rosie Bsheer and Maya Mikdashi for the Deep Dish TV "Nothing is Safe" series, highlights the voices of citizens who were displaced during the 2006 war in Lebanon. It addresses the debates within Lebanese society that were sparked by the conflict, the Lebanese government response to the crisis, the role of Hizbollah and how the U.S. attempted to define the Israeli attack as part of the "war on terrorism."

Segment 3 -- "Wild Versus Wall"
The new Sierra Club border film, "Wild Versus Wall," details the unique and diverse natural areas along the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and explains how they have been and will be affected by current and planned federal border policy and infrastructure, as well as the danger to our rights and safety imposed by sweeping new powers granted to the Department of Homeland Security.

Episode #270 (July 10-12)

Segment 1 -- "The Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation"
The gripping story of Robert King, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, men who have endured solitary confinement longer than any known living prisoner in the United States. Politicized through contact with the Black Panther Party while inside Louisiana's prisons, they formed one of the only prison Panther chapters in history and worked to organize other prisoners into a movement for the right to live like human beings. This feature length movie explores their extraordinary struggle for justice while incarcerated in Angola, a former slave plantation.

Segment 2 -- "Other Voices"
Alternative voices emerge in Israel and Palestine that bypass hatred and engage in direct peace-making activities -- like rebuilding a demolished Palestinian home in a refugee camp.

Episode #269 (July 3-5)

Segment 1 -- "Peak Moment"
Bill Wilson and Wayne Weiseman pour their hearts into their permaculture design courses, changing lives as well as landscapes. In a unique format, students do initial course work online and then attend a one week hands-on course. In this chat along with Sivananda Yoga Farm sponsor Vidya Chaitanya, Wayne discusses principles starting with with observing elements like wind, water, sun and topography in a specific property. Bill provides alarming information on "peak soil." Together they note that permaculture's goal is to create small, intensive ecologies, a foodweb where everything is exchanging with everything else.

Segment 2 -- "I Won't Drown on that Levee and You Ain't Gonna Break My Back"
After Hurricane Katrina, there was a botched evacuation of the Orleans Parish Prison, and racial tension and brutality that divided the population into survivors and looters along lines of race and class.

Segment 3 -- "Jerusalem...The East Side Story"
A feature-length documentary about Israel's policy to gain supremacy over the City of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. It also touches on the future of the city: Jerusalem is the key to peace; without Jerusalem, there is no peace.

Episodes #243 - 268 (January-June 2010): Click here for details

Episodes #217 - 242 (July-December 2009): Click here for details

Episodes #191 - 216 (January-June 2009): Click here for details

Episodes #165 - 190 (July-December 2008): Click here for details

Episodes #139 - 164 (January-June 2008): Click here for details

Episodes #113 - 138 (July-December 2007): Click here for details

Episodes #88 - 112 (January-June 2007): Click here for details

Episodes #63 - 87 (July-December 2006): Click here for details

Episodes #37 - 62 (January-June 2006): Click here for details

Episodes #1 - 36 (April-December 2005): Click here for details