Today I am going to look at a documentary about journalist and activist Masih Alinejad.  It is Women’s history month and this is a documentary about a modern woman and her struggle against Iran’s brutal regime.  This comes from the German DW YouTube Channel, which continues to provide me with some very good documentaries.  There are some very disturbing images in this documentary and should be shown to older students.  The documentary is called The Women of Iran Let Down Their Hair.   The run time for this documentary is 51:56.

Masih Alinejad is an Iranian-born journalist who lives in New York City.  She fights against the compulsory wearing of the headscarf in Iran.  She is the most prominent critic of the regime in Iran.  She is also under threat because there was an assassination attempt on her life.  She has called on women in Iran to film themselves taking off the headscarf.  She publishes the videos she receives and has more than seven million followers on social media.  This film follows Masih’s story.

The documentary begins with how Masih launched her campaign.  It all began with a video of a girl standing on a box in the middle of Revolution Street.  She had taken her headscarf off and was waving it on a stick.  She wanted to know what happened to the girl.  In the meantime, both men and women were sending her videos of removing headscarves and waving them around.  Not wearing the headscarf was a crime that was punished with prison and sometimes even worse.
The filmmaker is an Iranian exile in Sweden and she has lived in Sweden since 1979.  The Iranian Revolution happened in 1979 and the mullahs seized power.  They imposed an Islamic regime that limited the freedoms of the people.  Women were forced to cover up and wear those headscarves.  Masih and the filmmaker meet in New York and they together go over a film that Masih was sent from Iran from a girl who was arrested for singing in the street.

Masih hosts a show called Tablet on Voice of America.  She talks about the experiences of women in Iran.  She talks about the express my freedom movement.  Thousands of Iranian women sent her photos of themselves not wearing the headscarves.  Then there is a discussion on her growing up in Iran at the start of the revolution.  Her brother was given everything and Masih rebelled.  She was a journalist in Iran who was a parliamentary reporter.  She was thrown out of her job.  She could ask the Members of Parliament anything.  She challenged the MPs on their lavish lifestyle.  If she did not cover her hair the MPs would routinely threaten her.  Eventually, she went abroad to study.

Punishments for not wearing the hijab was severe and many women are beaten and arrested by the morality police.  Men, members of the morality police, have been shown beating the women.  During the filming, Masih’s brother was arrested and taken by the secret police.  At this point, it was startling to see the contrast between Masih’s high energy at the start and the sick with worry over her brother’s arrest.

Masih travels to speak up against the Iranian regime.  She speaks with politicians and talks about how these politicians how are partnering with murderers.  Masih uses strong language she talks with these politicians.  She is under threat from actors in the regime.  However, she presses on with her protests and the Iranian people continue to send her videos of what is going on in Iran.  To learn more about this Masih Alinejad continue to watch this episode to find out more.

Masih’s story is fascinating and I am glad to be sharing this documentary.   Masih is a personality and a half, she has such passion and drive you can feel it through the screen.  The videos that were shown were very jarring.  This documentary was hard and heartbreaking to watch at times.  This film exposes what is going on in Iran.  Due to the mature nature of the film, I would show it to older high school students and college students.  This is a documentary about modern history and would be something that could be shown towards the end of the school year.

Good morning!  Today I am going to look at a documentary on Emmeline Pankhurst a leader in the British Women’s suffrage movement. The run time for this documentary is 51:20.  The documentary is called Emmeline Pankhurst: The Making of a Militant.

Emmeline Pankhurst led the suffrage movement in Britain.  Under her, an army of women took to the streets of Britain to demand the right to vote.  They acted at the time, contrary to what was expected of women at the time.  Sally Lindsay an actress takes a look at the life of Emmeline Pankhurst.  She takes a rare look at the woman whose personal loves and losses transformed her from a working-class woman into a militant activist.  Who was the real Emmeline Pankhurst? 

The story begins with the words of Emmeline talking about the militancy of men versus the militancy of women.  She was a resident of Manchester, England and Manchester formed her growing up years.  It was a city that was full of campaigners.  Sally interviews the nephew of Emmeline Pankhurst, which was a very nice touch to this documentary to interview family members.  She learns more about Emmeline’s childhood.  Emmeline was the oldest of eleven children and her parents were politically active in Manchester.  The nephew talks about how she was a strong personality and was a voracious reader.  Her father insisted on her reading the newspaper to him in the morning.

Her parents campaign against slavery and for women’s rights.  Emmeline’s earliest memories were of being with her mother collecting donations for the anti-slavery movement.  Her father was active in the theater and was an actor.  She would have learned how to talk and special awareness.  These skills would come in handy later in life when she started campaigning for women’s rights.  She was a woman who was between the Victorian and Edwardian Ages.

Sally continues to explore what life would have looked like for the Victorian woman.  She meets with Charlotte Wildman, a professor, to learn about how life would have been for women.  Manchester was a city that was built for men, in fact, there were no public toilets for women.  Manchester was a hotbed for radicalism and would eventually become the key to women’s suffrage.  Charlotte introduces a little-known woman named Lydia Becker.  She was one of the earliest advocates for women’s suffrage.  Emmeline would have witnessed her speak growing up.  This was a very interesting section learning about a relatively unknown woman in the women’s suffrage movement.  Charlotte even shows how Lydia was depicted in the newspapers to Sally’s horror.  Emmeline would have seen these images and knew what was going to come if she pressed for the women’s right to vote.

Sally then introduces another little-known woman from the right for women’s suffrage: Lily Maxwell.  Lydia Becker marched Lily Maxwell to the polling place in Manchester to cast her vote, fifty years before women had the right to vote.  Lily was a widow who owned a shop.  She paid rent and taxes.  She found herself on the electoral registers for Manchester.  This would have caused a sensation in the National Newspapers.  There were headlines for this vote while there were others that were against it.  However, there was a court case and a judge declared that women did not have a right to vote.

Emmeline would have met Richard Pankhurst in Manchester and the pair would be dynamite together.  They would marry within months of meeting each other and would have five children together.  To learn more about this period in Emmeline’s life continue to watch the rest of the episode.

I really wish one of the history channels such as Timeline or Absolute History would post Lucy Worsley’s documentary on Women’s suffrage.  I thought that was really well done and could be shown in a classroom, but I would want to watch it again to make sure.  That said, Sally did a really good job in exploring the life of Emmeline Pankhurst and was curious about the subject.  This documentary was divided into chapters for easy mining for clips.  Overall, it was very well done and I liked that family participated in the documentary.  It would go on my list of potential documentaries to show in a history classroom and would be something for research purposes too.

Good morning, we are looking at a little-known figure from Tudor History.  She was called Bess of Hardwick and she was an important figure in Tudor England.  This is part of the Secrets of the National Trust Series and this episode is about Bess of Hardwick and the spectacular hall she built.  The run time for this documentary is 41:06. 

Bess of Hardwick came from humble beginnings to become the second most powerful woman in England behind Queen Elizabeth I.  She created one of the most spectacular houses in England.  Her last husband would make her the Countess of Shrewsbury.  She was Mary Queen of Scot’s jailer.  She was at the center of Elizabethan politics.  Her granddaughter Arabella Stuart would eventually end up being imprisoned in the Tower of London.  Who was this woman to leave behind such a legacy?

Bess of Hardwicks’s story begins at the spectacular house she built.  It was a marvel of Elizabethan Britain.  She retired here after living a spectacular life.  Wish sheer determination and advantageous marriages she pulled herself up to the highest level of society.  She was Queen Elizabeth I’s confidant.  Bess may have been a woman limited by life in the 16th Century, however, she did not let those limitations stop her.  Hardwick Hall is evidence of this and it inspired the rhyme, “Hardwick Hall more glass than wall.”

Before the advent of glass, windows were covered by shudders.  Bess would allow light into her home and this would demonstrate her power to the world.  With each marriage, she moved up the ladder in society.  The story begins ad a building not too far from Hardwick Hall.  This house was where she was born.  As she married, she inherited more houses and more money.  When her last husband died, she was left wealthy.  She retreated to her childhood home intent on upgrading the family home.  She left her home as a poor noble and returned to a wealthy woman.  She would be nicknamed “Building Bess.”

She had fled from Chatsworth House after a dispute with her husband.  Her husband was Mary Queen of Scot’s jailer and was deep in debt.  Her husband did not appreciate her building Chatsworth Hall and spending money.  So he brought in soldiers and she was forced to flee.  This did not stop her from building at Hardwick.  The old house is now in ruins, but the new house was being worked on at the same time.

The new house was adorned with her initials and countess coronet throughout the house.  The great hall would have been richly decorated with her tapestries and the fireplace was adorned with her coat of arms with the coronet.  She wanted it known that she was a countess, it would be something that you would not be able to forget if you were in the presence of Bess of Hardwick.  Bess of Hardwick also included the coat of arms of Elizabeth in her quarters.  However, her granddaughter Arabella Stuart would run afoul of the crown and would eventually be imprisoned.

Bess would have built up a grand estate around Hardwick Hall, and a show host explores the mill Bess had built to make flour for bread.  The mill would have made flour for the big house and the estate workers.  Flour was the sustenance of the nation.  The wealthy would have had white bread while the lower classes had brown whole-grain bread.  The mill was restored and continued to grind grain into flour for the bread.  To continue to learn more about Bess of Hardwick and her extraordinary house continue to watch this episode to find out more.

It was a rather interesting tour of Hardwick Hall seeing places that the public does not see.  The hosts were shown more than Lucy Worsley did in the History of the Home Series.  The house only hints at the extraordinary woman who built it.  Lucy mentioned that she was reminded of a “footballer’s wife” who married well and got all the money.  You had the same sense of that phrase in this episode.  This episode would be better for a history fun day and for research purposes and not for the history classroom setting.

Good morning today I am going to explore a documentary on Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst, who were two sisters who shaped the history of Women’s Suffrage.  The run time for this documentary is 43:51 and is called Christabel and Sylvia: A Tale of Two Sisters.

It was one of the biggest political changes in the Twentieth Century: women gaining the right to vote.  It had taken decades of successive governments before women obtained the right to vote.  The Pankhurst Family fought hard for the right to vote.  They campaigned in public and were militant suffragettes.  They would have many encounters with law enforcement.  However, behind the scenes, there were some serious tensions in the family which would lead to one member being expelled from the suffragette movement.

Christabel Pankhurst was born to Emmeline and Richard Pankhurst.  Her parents were radicals and they were politically active.  The pair were keen advocates for women’s suffrage.  Sylvia would follow two years later.  Three more children would follow.  The Pankhurst children were encouraged to think about politics and they were encouraged to be creative.  The Pankhursts were a tight-knit family and were very close.  They did not go to school until they were teenagers.  Richard Pankhurst always encouraged his daughters to be of service to others and that if they were their upbringing would have been for nothing.

Their upbringing would have impacted each sibling differently.  Christabel basked in the attention.  Sylvia would have felt left out.  She was taught between the talented Christabel and her younger siblings.  She would retreat from the world.  Eventually, they moved to London for a time because Emily thought that Richard would have been an excellent parliament member.  Unfortunately, the youngest Pankhurst child died and the family would encounter financial difficulties.  They would return to Manchester.

It was in Manchester; all the members of the family would become members of the Independent Labor Party.  This party had the aim to get a working person into Parliament.  Christabel was a young woman who started speaking out on suffrage and would join the woman’s working organizations.  She studied law and was fed up with the limitations that were put on her.  She would thrive in this movement.  Sylvia would find her own path and she was an artist.  She drew and painted.  She was inspired by the artist William Morris.

Unfortunately, tragedy would strike the Pankhurst family.  Richard would suddenly pass away leaving Emmeline a lone parent.  She would throw herself into the Woman’s Movement and would establish her own organization.  The Independent Labor Party would raise money for the family but Emmaline would refuse the charity even though they were impoverished.  The Independent Labor Party would build a hall in honor of Richard Pankhurst.  However, this hall would not allow women to enter and become members.  Christabel said that she had left the cause of Woman’s suffrage down.
Eventually, Emmeline would establish the Women’s Social and Political Union.  The WSPU was formed on a shoestring budget and there was no formal constitution.  Governments had ignored women’s suffrage. It was to be women only and they were going to take action to get the right to vote.  Christabel and Anne Kelly would act in the political atmosphere.  They would interrupt men’s political meetings demanding a question be answered by a politician.  Christabel and Anne would be arrested and choose to be imprisoned.

This visible action would get everyone’s attention.  The WSPU finally caught the attention of the press.  Everyone was fascinated by Christabel Pankhurst.   She was well-read and intelligent.  She was also good-looking.  The press normally would ridicule the women’s suffrage movement.  The Suffragette movement gained ground.  However, the WSPU would split because of the dictatorial leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst.  Some women believed that they were fighting to expand democracy a dictatorship was not appropriate.  Sylvia Pankhurst was uncomfortable with the dictatorship and tried to talk Emmeline out of the leadership style.  She would be sidelined. So how would this initial fracture impact the Pankhurst family?  What demonstrations would be organized to get the right to vote?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

This was a very well-done and enjoyable documentary on the women’s suffrage movement.  IT presented the facts of the movement.  I would consider putting this on my list of documentaries to show to a history classroom.

Good morning, today I am looking at a documentary on Calamity Jane.  The run time for this documentary is 52:42 it is called Calamity Jane: Legend of the West.

The west was a vast plain that was inhabited by the First Nations.  However, these lands would become invaded when gold was discovered.  Thousands of pioneers went out west to make a new life.  It was here that Calamity Jane found herself.  She was the first legendary woman of the West.  She had plays written about her.  She was the most famous woman in America and a living legend.  A peak in South Dakota was named for her.  New York depicted her as the Queen of the Plains.  Who was the real woman behind the legend?

Calamity Jane was born Martha Canary.  As a young woman, she dreamed about marrying and settling down.  She would have two children: a son who died young and a daughter whom she adored.  Unfortunately, she could not maintain a stable relationship because of her alcoholism.  It may have been begun in childhood.

Martha Canary was born in Princeton, Missouri on a small windswept farm.  She was the oldest of nine children and her family were poor farmers.  In the surrounding areas, her family had a bad reputation.  Eventually, the Canary Family sold off the farm and moved further west to chase after gold.  Martha would have been eight years old when the family pulled up roots and moved west.  It would have been a long arduous journey.  Martha would help take care of the horses, discovering that she enjoyed working with the horses.

Unfortunately on this journey, her mother died and her father ran off.  The children were divided and Martha was forced to do women’s work.  She preferred soldiers to woman’s work.  Eventually, she would find herself at the Three Mile Hog House and would become a prostitute.  Then there was an interesting discussion on the different levels of prostitution in the West.

In 1875, Martha Canary sneaked along with an expedition scouting the west.  It was the first time she would make her way into history.  A journalist took a picture of her and this picture caused a sensation.  The Civil War prompted thousands of women to disguise themselves as men in order to fight.  However, Martha found men’s clothing comfortable which shocked the people.  Journalists described her as a strange creature and that the soldiers nicknamed her Calamity Jane.

However, she was tossed out of the expedition.  She was not deterred and she joined up with another regiment.  It was here a variety of stories that came out about her.  Many soldiers talked about how they met her but they could not remember where they met her.  Eventually, she would join up with Wild Bill Hickock’s convoy on their way to Deadwood.  Here, she became known as a storyteller, a skill that she excelled at.  Wild Bill Hickock did not care about her and would disappear when she started telling a story.  She was a colorful character and would soon become associated with Wild Bill Hancock.

Deadwood would spring up when gold was discovered.  It was crowded with people who lived in temporary houses and tents.  The streets were filthy.  It was smelly.  There were plenty of saloons in this town.  Calamity Jane would meet a journalist who would write about her and send stories about her east.  Everyone enjoyed the stories and there was a writer who would put her story in a dime novels.  These dime novels would contribute to the mythology of the West.

How did Calamity Jane get her nickname?  The one solid rumor was that she was involved in so many calamitous actions and that tragedy followed her seemed to hint at why she got the nickname.  Eventually, she would help the miners through a smallpox epidemic.  Eventually, she would leave Deadwood and would get married.  She had a baby boy who died shortly after he was born.  To learn more about Calamity Jane, continue to watch this episode to find out.

Overall, this was a good look at Calamity Jane and her life.  You felt bad that she could not turn her life around.  This would be good for research.
 

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this blog post.  Today I am exploring a documentary on the Tsarinas of Russia.  This is one we will see how it will go it could be about the last few Tsarinas of Russia or it could be about just the one.  The run time for this episode is 51:07 and is called The Splendor and Misery of the Last Tsarinas.

The Russian Empresses were mainly German women who found selves in the splendor of the Russian court.  The story begins with Princess Charlotte.  Charlotte was the daughter of Queen Louise of Prussia.  She was engaged to Grand Duke Nicholas and would eventually rule Russia at his side.  Maria von Prussen follows the story of Charlotte, her ancestor to discover Charlotte’s life and why Prussians were married into the family.

The story begins with a trip to the Winter Palace.  It was here that the Tsars and Tsarinas resided.  Princess Charlotte would have arrived in a whole new world when she arrived in St. Petersburg.  It would have taken her seventeen days by carriage to arrive in St. Petersburg.  Her final stop in Prussia before arriving in St. Petersburg was a border town.  It was here that Grand Duke Nicholas would have met Princess Charlotte.  From the beginning, it was clear that this was a love match.

Why would a Russian prince marry a German princess?  One historian talks about how the German states were a dating service and when a Russian prince needed to marry, he was sent there on a tour.  The German princesses were protestants and more open to converting to Orthodoxy in comparison to Catholic princesses.

Maria tours the site of the border; nothing remains of the obelisks that marked this border.  It was here that Charlotte would have crossed into Russia and her letters at the time not that Nicholas’ presence helped her.  Charlotte was arriving in a country that was a bundle of contradictions.  Beneath the glamour of the Russian court was in large part a poor and very rural country that still had serfs tied to the land.  Poverty and discontent lay just beneath the surface.  I find Maria’s curiosity about her ancestor very endearing.

As her tour and exploration continue, Maria arrives in St. Petersburg and learns about Princess Charlotte’s arrival.  It would have been a nerve-wracking experience for Princess Charlotte, let alone any German Princess.  On day four of her arrival she would have converted to Russian Orthodox and would have traded the name of Charlotte for Alexandra.  She was going to embark on a life in Russia as a Grand Duchess and eventually rule Russia.

It was here, that there was a discussion on the German princess who married into the Russian Court.  It was interesting to hear those minor German princesses were chosen to marry because it did not interrupt the balance in Europe.  After this short little detour, Charlotte and Nicholas’ roles were going to change.  Tsar Alexander I had decided to abdicate and retire from political life.  The pair were shocked by this decision.  Nicholas was not ready, and everyone thought Constantine the middle brother would have succeeded Alexander.  This would be a fatal error.

Maria then takes in a historic ball with Russian aristocrats.  The Russian aristocrats are trying to rediscover their roots and host these balls.  Charlotte was a lovely carefree woman who was a hit with Russian society.  She threw herself into family life and society, she did not dabble in politics.  She adored her husband Nicholas.  One historian says that she was the perfect wife for Nicholas.

However, things change for Charlotte and Nicholas when Alexander suddenly dies before realizing his plans.  The nobles pledged their loyalty to a very reluctant Constantine.  In the power vacuum military officers rose up to change the system.  What would Nicholas do to put down this rebellion and claim the crown?  How does Charlotte adjust to her life as Tsarina?  Tune into the rest of this episode to learn more about this Tsarina.

Over all this was an interesting documentary and I really appreciated Maria’s exploration.  This would something I would use for research purposes and not for showing in a classroom.

Good morning!  Today I am going to be looking at an older documentary that was posted a while back about Amelia Earhart.  This is a documentary about the enduring mystery of her disappearance and how her sister worked to keep Earhart’s legacy going.  The documentary is called Amelia: The Tale of Two Sisters.  The run time for this documentary is 44:02.

Society was changing and men were now taking to the skies in airplanes.  Women were demanding more rights and were finding achievements in aeronautics.  One such woman was Amelia Earhart.  Earhart was attracted to aviation and through determination and hard work, she would become the most famous aviator at the time.  She would inspire female aviators in future generations.  Her sister Muriel would not only champion her sister Amelia but would keep Amelia’s legacy alive.  To this day, people are still looking to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance.

Amelia Earhart was the most famous woman in the world.  Her courageous spirit resonated with people and they would hang on her every word.  The story here begins with her disappearance and the Itasca.  Amelia and Fred Noonan were working on her circumnavigation of the globe and she was planning on refueling at Howland Island.  However, she and her navigator never arrived.  Amelia’s niece, Amy Kleppner recalls seeing the headlines about Amelia’s disappearance.

The search for Amelia immediately started and continued on into the present day.  After World War II, more theories developed.  There were three main theories about Amelia’s disappearance.  The first theory says that she ran out of gas because was off course and crashed into the Pacific.  Amy recalls that this was the popular theory.  The second theory is that she was forced down and captured by the Japanese.  The last theory was that she landed on an inhabited island where she would have survived a few days.

Ric Gillespie, one aviation expert enjoys solving aviation mysteries, but never wanted to explore the Earhart mystery.  However, there were people that brought up her radio transmissions.  This prompted Ric to do more digging and it took him and a team to an inhabited island where there were airplane parts were discovered.  One expert pooh-poohs the searches and just wants to focus on the woman.

After this, we explore Amelia’s family.  She had a younger sister, Muriel.  They were both voracious readers and were tomboys.  They enjoyed sports and were always outside.  Amelia was known as “A.E.” in her family.  However, the family constantly moved when Mr. Earhart lost his job.  The girls would throw themselves into their studies.  Eventually, the family moved to California and it was here that Amelia discovered her love of flying.

George Putnum entered the picture when Amelia, her mother, and Muriel moved to Massachusetts after Earhart’s divorce.  He encouraged her to fly and became her promoter.  She became the first woman to ride in a plane across the Atlantic.  The pair would eventually marry, but Amelia would retain a lot of her independence and she would continue to follow her love of flying.  Eventually, she would eventually become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.  Due to the conditions, she was flying in, she ended up in Northern Ireland.  Other feats would soon follow and she would become the first woman to fly from Hawaii to California.  She had bigger goals and she would want to fly around the globe. 

This round-the-world trip would be her last.  Why did she disappear?  Where did she disappear?  What are the long-standing theories about her disappearance?  How did Muriel take her disappearance?  What would Muriel do to keep Amelia’s legacy alive?  What about the searches that go on in the area where she went down?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

I really enjoyed the tidbits and stories that Amy Kleppner provided throughout the series.  She could carry a documentary about Amelia Earhart on her own with all the stories she could tell or potentially tell about her aunt.  This was a very well documentary about Amelia and her sister and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It would be something that I would show to a history class or recommend to a student doing a project on Amelia Earhart.
 

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening whenever you read this blog and do lesson prep for a substitute teacher.  You could also look ahead to see what documentaries are available to fit the curriculum.  Anyway, time for a change-up.  This time, I am looking at a documentary about Beatrix Potter and how the Lake District inspired this writer.  This is part of the Historic Britain series that is called Secrets of the National Trust.  The run time for this documentary is 42:56

The Lake District is where Beatrix Potter, a children’s author found her inspiration.  Our hosts will explore this area as well as tell a tale of Beatrix Potter.  She not only was a children’s author she was also a savvy businesswoman who enjoyed living in the Lake District.  She would become an outspoken advocate for the Lake District.  On this trip as well, Oz Clarke meets a team at the Plant Conservation Center.  Jon Culshaw also explores the Snowshill Manor.

I am a little bit nervous about this section because of Patricia Routledge’s excellent documentary on Beatrix Potter, but here we go!  The show kicks off in Cumbria and it was where the most famous children’s book characters came to life.  The animals had names and they lived as ordinary people.  The tales were colorful and were a reflection of English Country Life.  The author of these children’s books was at Hilltop Farm.  You would recognize this farmhouse from the scenes in her tales’.  She would use the farmhouse and the furniture to help tell her tales.

In 1902, Beatrix Potter’s writing career began.  She wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  The book was filled with her own illustrations of animals.  She would become renowned for her accuracy.  Beatrix grew up dissecting animals and was a keen scientist.  It was a pet rabbit that inspired her to create a rabbit category.  Her approach to drawing was incredible.  Beatrix would face tragedy, she lost her beloved fiancée.  However, she would eventually find love again and go to stay at Hilltop Farm.  Together she and her husband would farm in the Lake District.  She had always wanted to farm. 

The next section talks about Blakeney Point and Suzanne Lipscomb joins the tour.  Here she learns about conservation and how this piece of the English coast was conserved by the Victorians.  The first stop that Suzanne makes on this tour, she goes to a repurposed lifeguard station.  It houses a museum and a research facility that helps in the conservation of this particular piece of coastline.  However, there was a great debate among conservationists and local fishermen.  The fishermen felt that if the seals were allowed to thrive local fish stocks would not recover.  Eventually, the seals were protected.

Then there is a return to learning about Beatrix Potter.  She would meet up with people who started thinking of conservation.  Then there is a discussion on how the National Trust was created.  It all started with the sale of a certain island.  If this island was sold, it could be closed to the public and developed into something that would not match the beauty of the lake district.  A group of people came together and raised funds to purchase the island to keep it preserved.  The National Trust was developed to preserve land and homes from the developers.  The National Trust is the largest landowner in England.  This island was purchased, but it has been donated to the national trust.  This Island will be open to the public for enjoyment and education.   To learn more about the National Trust and Beatrix Potter continue to watch this episode.

The number one thing about this episode is that it should have been divided into chapters.  This would make it easy for the section on Beatrix Potter to be shown in an English literature classroom.  Then the section on the conservation efforts of the Victorians would be excellent for an animal and plant science class.  I am a little bit mixed about showing this documentary in the classroom.  I feel like Patricia Routledge’s documentary is better for a classroom, particularly an English literature classroom.  I would sooner show it to a classroom about animal and plant science classroom.

Today I am doing to try a different channel to look for a documentary to review.  This time I am going to review a documentary on the Forbidden City.  The run time for this documentary is 52:50 and is called China’s Forbidden City.  The first episode of this series is called The Reign of the Concubine.  Just a warning, this series may be done out of order because this episode was about a woman who rose to power.

At the beginning of the 15th Century, Prince Zhu Di took power in China.  With his new power, he established the Forbidden City and declared Bejing the capital of China.  The Forbidden City was a palace complex and was a symbol of the new Emperor.  The Forbidden City was a place where the emperor lived with his empress and concubines.  It was kept off-limits to the ordinary man.  It is now China’s greatest tourist attraction and is revealing its secrets from the past.

The year is 1850 and the previous emperor died.  The question on everyone’s mind is who will the emperor marry?  Yehe Nara was a young Chinese woman who was brought to the Forbidden City to marry the emperor.  She participated in the selection of wives to the Xianfeng Emperor.  The emperor’s mother will choose the emperor’s wife.  She was selected to stay and was placed in the lowest level of concubines and granted the title of Noble Lady Lan.  She had come from an impoverished noble family.  The sights that awaited Yehe Nara would have been spectacular.  She would have been left in awe.

The curator of the Forbidden City Museum talks about the layout of the city.  The Emperor had made a mountain behind the Forbidden City to protect it from its cold wind.  The emperor even built a river to help complement the city.  Periodically this documentary will have the curator speak about the Forbidden City and its traditions.  In one section he talks about the principles of Ying and Yang and how the Emperor and Empress were a reflection of these principles.  The Forbidden City was a place where rituals were observed and strict protocols were in place.

The documentary goes back to telling the story of Yehe Nara.  The women would have been carefully examined before they were selected to either be a concubine or the Empress.  Yehe Nara is selected to be a concubine and another girl is selected to become Empress.  According to tradition, she was to be the one to bear the emperor a son.  The two would become rivals.  Yehe Nara and the remaining concubines are assigned to a variety of palaces in the Forbidden City complex.  Here she would meet other, older concubines who had never been sent for by the Emperor.  It would take two years before the Emperor would call for Yehe Nara.  Life in the forbidden city would have been monotonous for the women who lived there.  They lived in a comfortable gilded prison.

Then there is a discussion on the history of how the Ming Dynasty fell.  Yehe Nara’s family would have witnessed these events.  The new rulers would have adopted Chinese ways and become more Chinese than the Chinese.  However, what the rulers did not see was that the world was changing around them.  The West wanted access to China.  Additionally, there was corruption int eh system that needed to be addressed and the rulers failed to address it.

Yehe Nara was educated in the Chinese language and would have been spared the tradition of foot binding.  She was nicknamed orchid.  It was two years before a much took sympathy for Yehe Nara and offered to help her, thus helping her find favor in the court.  The eunuchs were the only men who had access to the inner sanctums of the Forbidden City.  They were the most influential members of the court.  Yehe Nara is given an audience with the chief eunuch who promises to mention her beauty to the Emperor.  He will be one of her most valuable allies.  So does Yehe Nara spend time with the Emperor?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

This was a very well-done documentary and the narration was good.  The museum curator added some excellent context as well.  The drama parts were well done too.  This would be something I would consider showing to a history class.

Good morning, there was a relatively new documentary about Cleopatra that I am going to do a review on.  It is called The Traces of Cleopatra and the run time for this documentary is 50:29.  Here goes nothing!

A group of scholars comes together to investigate new evidence that is emerging about the life of Cleopatra.  This investigation combines new techniques and technology to explore the mystery of Cleopatra.  Cleopatra was Egypt’s last ruler before it fell to Rome.  Who really was Cleopatra?  Where were her origins?  How did she come to power?  How did she exert her power?  Where was she buried?

The documentary kicks off with a trip to a library in Cairo.  A pair of experts go to this library to look at documents to find more information on Cleopatra.  They are looking for a French book called The Description of Egypt, written after the Napoleonic Wars.  The document talks her about having Greek origins and how she adopted Egyptian culture to gain power and rule Egypt.  After this, the two experts go to a temple site to learn more about the Ptolemaic dynasty.

This temple site shows the demonstration of the Ptolemies’ power over Egypt and how they embarked on their own building projects.  Cleopatra participated in her own building projects and ruled from Alexandria.  Alexandria was well known for its beauty as well as its lighthouse and the library.  The Ancient City would have been wiped out by an earthquake and flood.  Cleopatra’s palace was a victim of this flood as well as Alexander the Great’s tomb.  Marine Archeologists have made a few discoveries from Cleopatra’s Alexandria in the water.  This was a very fast-moving documentary and bounced from topic to topic rapidly.  It made it very difficult to follow.

The experts part and one expert works with a computer graphics expert to view a map of where the lighthouse of Alexandria was located.  This map shows the sea floor and the fractured ruins of a building.  Then the experts come together and explore the modern library of Alexandria.  Cleopatra was an avid reader and she spoke several languages.  She most likely would have used the Alexandria library and all the knowledge it contained to assist her with her rule.  The library at Alexandria was established by the first Ptolemy ruler and it was to bring together all the knowledge of the world.  This documentary finally slowed down a bit when talking about the library at Alexandria.

Then there was a discussion on the Romans and how they watched her every move.  One Roman historian wrote a history about Cleopatra.  The AI voice points out that he was born 76 years after Cleopatra’s death and belonged to people who have sworn enemies of her.  The expert has learned that Cleopatra was a woman of great power and a political mind.  These were things that Romans did not like.  This section was a challenge to follow along too.   However, the AI narrator points out that Cleopatra worked to get people to admire her.  In previous documentaries on Cleopatra, Cleopatra would portray herself in the image of the goddess Isis.  If you want to know more about Cleopatra, continue to watch more of this documentary.

Wow, AI has come far but not come far enough and you can immediately tell that the narration was an AI voice.  The AI was very off-putting and the filmmakers should have got a real human to narrate the episode.  I almost stopped reviewing the documentary because of the narration, this goes to show that good narration for a documentary goes a long way.  The AI also forced me to stop the documentary in parts to rewind.  There were times I drifted away from the documentary too so I had to stop and rewind for that reason too.

This was also very fast-paced and it felt disjointed at times because of the face pace.  If I found it a challenge to pay attention, I am sure that a student will find it hard to pay attention as well.  It documentary used clips from movies about Cleopatra, I will admit that it was kind of interesting.  Overall, I do not recommend showing this documentary to a class it is just too fast, the AI is off-putting and hard to pay attention to.