S3.E2 ∙ Episode #3.2

Say hello to the Junco, a common and abundant, yet amazing and diverse, group of songbirds. The same bird that can be found in the backyards of millions of North Americans has played a starring role in scientific discoveries for nearly a century. From the Appalachian mountains of Virginia to Wyoming's Grand Tetons--to remote highland sites in Mexico and Guatemala--to a small Pacific island 200 miles offshore--join researchers in their quest to understand evolution, animal behavior, physiology, and genetics by studying the Ordinary Extraordinary Junco. Designed for public and student audiences, this feature-length (88 min.) film is comprised of eight shorter (3-20min.) segments suitable for use as teaching modules.

The Egyptian Christians are a sensitive thermometer indicating the times of tolerance, violence, and cultural changes in the Egyptian body and history. The Christian Copts have an untold story, hidden under the dust of negligence and misunderstanding in Egyptian society. A story started since Jesus went to Egypt, since Jesus was here.

Ars Medicina is a story about a team of doctors and surgeons who undertake a journey of personal discovery and compassion. The medical team travels to Solola, a breathtakingly beautiful but impoverished jungle community in rural Guatemala. For six days the team works around the clock with limited equipment and supplies to perform life-saving treatments and operations for the thousands of Mayan Indians and Guatemalans who come for help. Their journey gives insight into the heart-breaking reality of health care in under-developed countries, but also provides a glimmer of hope for the future. For many of the patients it is their first experience in modern medicine. For many of the doctors it is their first experience in endless need. The experience changes both the doctors' and patients' lives forever.

'We've been shortchanged on the change!' In 2009, two years before the Occupy Wall Street protests began, urban designer and policy analyst Michael E. Arth decided to take on the one percenters. While traversing the length and breadth of Florida on a bicycle, he found that running for higher office within the corrupt American political system is like wrestling a tornado, both literally and figuratively. Gov'nor is the inspiring true story of a Renaissance man with no money taking on a man with a questionable past who spent $73 million of his family's money to buy his way into office. 'Michael E. Arth is a hero for the people... a true, modern-day David against the Goliath...' - Sydney Solis

The film begins with a question, Do you think the radiation is heavy here? They busy streets of Tokyo swamp the sky of an unknown suspense while a dining table is lit by a family's gentle conversation. AIR takes place in a taxi with 60-year-old local driver, while traveling, observing and conversing intimately of the inescapable fact of life after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. The conversation wander about the radiation, the 9.11 event, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima through a gentle outlook while mountains, ocean, devastated areas and recently restored cityscape of Soma, outside of the evacuation zone move through the mind of a search. The trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima evoke a hope for this inescapable and unsolvable situation.

Lots of people know a little about The Republic of Maldives, and those who were lucky enough to visit it, just know that it's a little paradise in the Indian ocean. It's an Islamic republic that might disappear because of the global warming and the shrinking of the polar ice caps, this film will introduce the audience to the history and culture of an old country, and in the same time it will show in a very indirect way the danger of global warming.