Category: Arts & Tradition

Sacré-Coeur Basilica: Symbol of Faith on a Hill

Set on a hill in Montmartre, a district in the heart of Paris, the Sacré-Coeur Basilica is hard to miss. With its chalky-white façade and prominent domes, the structure doesn’t look like any other French religious building. Its origin is as colorful as its stained-glass windows. In December 1870, following France’s military defeat by Prussia,…


Life’s Most Precious Gifts

In the painting “Christmas Morning,” a humble Austrian family gathers together while the children discover their modest presents. In Austrian tradition, children put their shoes on the windowsill in hopes that St. Nicholas will leave them simple gifts if they’ve been good. A realist painter, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller shows us an intimate family scene. Waldmüller (1793–1865), was…


The Teenage Limbourg Brothers’ Illuminated Work ‘The Annunciation’

In 1405, three Flemish teenage brothers—Herman, Pol, and Jean of Limbourg—began a commission that would alter the art of illumination and painting. Prince Jean, the Duke of Berry and the third son of King Jean II of France, was an extravagant art patron. He commissioned the brothers to create “The Beautiful Hours of Jean of France,…


A Postcard From Pyongyang | Documentary

This film is only available in North America, the UK, and Australia because of territorial licensing. Filmmakers Gregor Möllers and Anne Lewald visit North Korea in 2013 for the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War and again in 2017 for the Pyongyang Marathon as foreign tourists. Using secret recordings, they register their…


The Real Meaning of Christmas

Don’t you love Christmas? I do, and I am especially looking forward to it this year. My anticipation is partly due to the two years or more of COVID restrictions and lockdowns. We’ve also been inundated with reports of climate change. This past summer we were terrified by a bout of hot weather, and the…


Popcorn and Inspiration: ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’: Stanley Kramer’s Metaphor for Family and Society

PG | 1h 48min | Drama, Comedy | 1967 Stanley Kramer’s “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” is all of 108 minutes, but packed with truth and insight that echoes beyond its genre, its generation, and its geography. Young Joanna or Joey (Katharine Houghton) tells her parents, Christina (Katharine Hepburn) and Matt (Spencer Tracy), of her…


Palazzo Medici Riccardi: The Power and Beauty of the Medici Palace

Once ruled by the powerful Medici family, Florence hosts some of the most beautiful treasures of the Italian Renaissance. Among these is the official residence of the Medicis until 1659, known as the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, or the Medici Palace. In 1444, Cosimo the Elder, the head of the Medici banking family, commissioned this palace…


The Cyber Slaves | Documentary

This film is only available in the United States because of territorial licensing. Shocking insight into Chinese cyber-scam human trafficking in Cambodia. An investigation into human trafficking and enslavement by Chinese cyber-scam operations in Cambodia and their links to the government and elite. Chinese cyber-scam operations are stealing tens of billions of dollars from victims…


Tremble and Obey | Documentary

This film is only available in the United States because of territorial licensing. ABC uncovers previously unseen footage for the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. “Millions of Chinese for the first time, maybe the last time in their lives, tasted freedom in the air of Beijing,” says Zhou Fengsuo, a student leader at…


Celebrating North America’s Cowboy Arts

Idahoan Cary Schwarz puts his heart into saddle making–a lifelong student keen to improve and perfect his work. Now in his fourth decade as a saddler, Schwarz is surely a master craftsman, but that’s something that he’ll never call himself, he said in a telephone interview. Schwarz sees ”becoming a master” as a byproduct of…