Japanese Architectural Design: East Meets West
46 min/ 2004/ DVD
College through adult
Beginning with the Meiji restoration, the techniques of Western architecture spread rapidly throughout Japan. Some architects fused the two traditions, while others subtly incorporated Western details into the modernized sukiya style. Made in Kyoto, this program focuses on the evolution of Japanese architecture from the late 19th century up to the Second World War. Buildings shown include Shimadzu Foundation Memorial Hall; Murin-an; Botukuden Hall by Matsumuro, Kyoto Museum of Art, and Yasaka Kaikan Hall by Kimura.

Japanese Prints: The Floating World           OA-38
22 min / 1997 / LUC / VHS
High school through adult
The exquisite artistry of Japanese “Ukiyo-e” woodcuts, made in the 17th-19th centuries is legendary. This program shows how life of the period was revealed in the images and traces the development of the printing technique from single block black-and-white to full color prints. Works by masters such as Moronobu, Sugimura Jihei, Masanobu, Harunobu, Shunsho, Shaqraku, Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige are shown as well as examples from the Torii and Kaigetsudo Schools.

Japanese Tea Ceremony            ED-541
30 min / 1989 / VHS
High school through adult
In Japan, the tea ceremony is a 400-year-old cultural tradition and an art of infinite resonance. This video shows preparations for and an actual ceremony in step-by-step detail. The simplicity, beauty, and calm of the experience are meant to bring the guests and host from the stress of the modern world into a spiritual state of reflection, harmony and tranquility. A gift from the Toshiba International Foundation.

Japanese Tea Ceremony: Wa, Kei, Sei, Jaku Spells Tea            VM-5
12 min / 2003 / VHS, DVD
Elementary through adult
This Virginia Museum of Fine Arts produced video provides a concise, inside look at one of Japan's most enduring social experiences. Historic background is provided on this tradition that originated in China. A tea ceremony is recreated. This respectful ceremony reveals eternal truths known as Wa, Kei, Sei, and Jaku.

Jasper Johns: Decoy           WA-122
18 min / color / 1979 / BPI / 16mm
High school through adult
Jasper Johns, one of this century’s greatest painter-printmakers, is shown at work on Decoy, a highly complex and inventive print that combines painting and photographic processes. Insight into the artist’s themes and methods is gained through footage of Johns at work and through the commentary of noted art critic and historian Barbara Rose.

Jasper Johns: Ideas in Paint           WA-471
56 min / color / 1992 / AA / VHS
High school through adult
Jasper Johns emerged as the preeminent force on the American art scene when he was only in his late 20s. His rich images of maps, flags, and targets led the artistic community away from Abstract Expressionism toward a new emphasis on the non-abstract, laying the groundwork for both Pop Art and Minimalism. Today his paintings command record prices and generate considerable controversy. This program includes conversations with the painter and footage of him at work in his studio. Colleagues, including Johns’s agent and art dealer Leo Castelli, composer John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham, and noted artists and art critics, share their thoughts on Johns’s art. Also featured is a trip to the 1988 Venice Biennale, where a landmark retrospective of Johns’s work captured the Grand Prize.

Jasper Johns: Take an Object
30 min / 1990 / VHS
College through adult
Archive footage, comments from curator Mark Rosenthal, extracts from Johns' writing read by John Cage and readings from Samuel Beckett's 'Fizzles' are included in this portrait for one of the most significant American artists of the 20th century.

Jean-Siméon Chardin: The Great Magician            WA-624
27 min / 2003 / DVD
High school through adult
At first a mere self-taught painter in the lesser genres of still life and portraiture, Chardin, (1699-1779), received the most unusual distinction of acceptance into the conservative, high French Academy and became court favorite of Louis XV. He was dubbed the "Great Magician" for his uncannily realistic paintings. This master artist's life and techniques are carefully examined in this video.

Jenny’s Arctic Diary           ED-293
50 min / color / 1988 / LF / VHS
Elementary school through adult
Jenny Gilbertson, who describes herself as nearer 80 than 70, received an invitation to document the Inuit living in Grise Fiord on Ellismore Island, 900 miles above the Arctic Circle. Jenny spent a year among the Inuit, filming a full cycle of seasonal experiences. There was no script or film crew-nothing was rehearsed. The result is an unvarnished and insightful documentation of life in the Arctic. Jenny was welcomed into the lives of the Inuit and shared every aspect of their culture from hunting and camping to bingo and dancing! As a result of this unique experience, Jenny produced a program that has been cited as being the most personal, intimate, and fascinating production ever made about the Inuit.

Jewel in the Himalayas           OA-20
52 min / color / 1988 / LF / VHS
High school through adult
This journey to the Himalayas is to discover the land of many passes where trade routes were established between China and India thousands of years ago. In these fertile valleys, called the Jewels of the Himalayas, lie ancient civilizations. The Buddhist monasteries located there provide their cultural identity, and the continuous revolutions of the prayer wheels act as a constant reminder of the mortality of life. Viewers witness the funeral and cremation of a Buddhist monk; join the ceremonial processions; and celebrate, with tribal groups from hundreds of miles around the monastary, the colorful spectacle of the annual festival where dances and rituals symbolize the time when demons ruled.

Jewelry: Step by Step           AT-41
30 min / color / 1990 / JMU / VHS
High school through adult
From a pencil drawing of an original concept to final soldering and polishing, the process of jewelry-making is to most people a complex and mysterious process. What tools do you need? What metals are available and appropriate? How do you get a stone to stay where you want it? This detailed and thorough explanation of the art of jewelry-making, produced by Ronald Wynacko, professor of art at James Madison University, erases much of the mystery of the process and reveals, step-by-step, the choices, decisions, skills, and even pitfalls involved in creating pieces of wearable art.

Jim Dine: A Self-Portrait on the Walls           WA-492
28 min / color / 1995 / UC / VHS
High school through adult
This remarkable documentary records eight days of intense work and quiet rumination as renowned artist, Jim Dine, produces an exhibition of huge, bold charcoal drawings directly on the walls of a gallery in Germany. It is an unusually transitory exhibition in that the drawings remain on the walls for only six weeks before being painted over.

Jim Dine: Childhood Stories           WA-416
28 min / color / 1992 / OIJ / VHS
High school through adult
Jim Dine, the noted American artist, reminisces on his childhood in Cincinnati and the early influences on his art in this poignant interview. The tools from the hardware store that his father and grandfather owned; the songs his mother and grandmother sang; the trips to Florida for his mother’s health; all of these memories contribute to the way in which Dine now paints. The early death of his mother, however, has been the biggest influence on Dine’s work. At the age of 56, he is just beginning to deal with the issues surrounding her death. Family photographs, home movies and images of Dine’s art complete the picture of this complex artist.

Jim Pallas: Electronic Sculptor           WA-197
12 min / color / 1982 / AFA / 16mm
High school through adult
Jim Pallas assembles fantastic, whimsical sculptures that spin, rise, fall, light up, inflate, and deflate as they respond to the body heat, motion, and sounds of on-screen viewers. In this film Pallas creates new pieces, describes his finished work, and explains the ideas behind his art. The artist choreographs a dance piece to accompany the unveiling of a major environmental sculpture, a work designed to display intricate light patterns triggered by the movements of passers-by. 1981 Emmy Award; finalist, 1982 American Film Festival.

Joan Miró Constellations: The Color of Poetry NEW!
52 min / 1994 / VHS
College through adult
Spain’s Miró painted using his own personal Surrealistic vocabulary which has been described as a “carnival of symbols”: stars, eyes, women, birds, objects from his native Catalonian landscapes and folklore. With exclusive access to the Miró Museum in Barcelona, this video interprets details of dozens of his works accompanied by his quizzical quotations. Newsreel footage and performers from La Claca Theater Group in costumes designed by Miró himself are interspersed.

Joan Miró: Theatre of Dreams           WA-262
60 min / color / 1978 / FI / VHS
College through adult
Writer/narrator Roland Penrose refers to the Spanish painter Joan Miró (1893-1983) as “the last of the great generation of painters who worked in Paris in the ’20s and who have left their mark on the art of the 20th century; the last of the great Surrealists.” Miró is shown in the program at age 85, five years before his death, still full of youthful vigor. Miró speaks in French and in his native Catalán, and while these passages are not translated into English, the viewer is able to comprehend much of what he is trying to communicate through his expression, gesture, and intonation.

JoAnn Falletta: Texture           PE-44
30 min / color / 1992 / GPN / VHS
Elementary through adult
Comedy team Penn and Teller introduce symphony conductor JoAnn Falletta in this program. Working with students in the Mannes College Orchestra, Falletta takes the viewers through the rehearsal process to a finished performance. Children are introduced to some of the ways in which musical elements come together to make a musical composition. The concepts of melody and accompaniment are explored, and children are introduced to polyphony, when more than 1 melody is played simultaneously.

John Biggers’ Hampton Murals           WA-409
29 min / color / 1992 / CBAR / VHS
Middle school through adult
John Biggers, artist, educator, and former Hampton University student, completed a 2-panel mural for his alma mater in 1992, and it now hangs in the new campus library as an inspiration to the university community. This video documents the creative process involved and, through interviews with Biggers, explains the multitude of images depicted. The left side of the mural, the House of the Turtle, conveys historical elements while the Treehouse on the right is a prayer for the future of African-Americans. Viewed on one level as a story, the mural also becomes a metaphor for transition and growth. Biggers, in his use of recurring symbols based in African art and lore, creates complex layers of meaning as an explanation of the “everchanging dance of life.”

John Cage: New River Watercolors            AT-76
13 min / 1988 / VHS
High school through adult
In 1988, John Cage visited the Virginia Tech Mountain Lake Symposium and gave a workshop in painting. Inspired by Japanese rock gardens, he found rocks at the nearby New River. Taking the rocks and laying them on paper, he traced around in watercolors using feathers as brushes. Cage works on his art and extemporaneously discusses his thoughts about it. Made by Ray Kass.

John Glick: An Artist and His Work           ED-238
9 min / color / 1980 / EBEC / VHS
Middle school through adult
John Glick, a major American ceramist, is visited in his studio as he prepares the clay, throws pots on the wheel, decorates, bisque fires, glazes, and performs the final firing. During the process, Glick talks about himself, his philosophy, and his work.

John Henry           ED-429
18 min / color / 1994 / WW / VHS
Elementary school
Noted actor Samuel L. Jackson narrates this lively version of the famous folk legend of the contest to the death between a spirited man with a hammer and a steam drill to build a tunnel through the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. Uses vivid illustrations by Jerry Pinckney.

John James Audubon: The Birds of America         WA-592
29 min / 1985 / CRYS / VHS
High school through adult
After bankruptcy in business ventures in the early 19th century, John James Audubon set out on his amazing quest to render the birds of our country. His lifelong dream was realized with the publication of The Birds of America, a magnificent collection of color engravings of his watercolors, and which established Audubon as this nation’s preeminent naturalist artist. This beautiful film was produced by the National Gallery of Art.

John Singer Sargent: Outside the Frame         WA-547
57 min / 2000 / HV / VHS
High school through adult
As the foremost portraitist of his time, Sargent exquisitely captured in oil and watercolor the spirit of the Gilded Age. This close look at his work reveals much more than the faces of the wealthy. Emmy winner, Jackson Frost, reexamines Sargent’s creations including landscapes, figures, and murals and highlights the paintings El Jaleo, Madame X, Carnation, Lily, Rose, and Gassed.

The Johnstown Flood           ED-284
26 min / b&w / 1989 / JFMA / VHS
High school through adult
In the late 1880s, the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a hub of activity. Fueled by a large and prosperous steel mill and coal-mining ventures, Johnstown was home to 30,000 people. On May 1, 1889, after rain flooded the Allegheny River, the dam above the town gave way, creating a wall of water that swept through Johnstown and in 10 minutes killed 2,200 people. In the face of this tragedy, the people of Johnstown heroically rebuilt their lives with the help of thousands of volunteers. This award-winning documentary by Charles Guggenheim and the Johnstown Flood Museum combines period photographs and remarkable re-creations in a gripping visual document of folly, disaster, and courage.

The Jolly Corner           ED-242
43 min / color / 1977 / CORF / VHS
Middle school through adult
In The Jolly Corner, novelist Henry James portrays the conflict between the American ideal of commercial success and the appeal of traditional European values. Brydon, an expatriate American who fled from the Civil War, returns to New York 35 years later to see Alice, the woman he might have married. He painfully relates the secrets of his past, yet sees potential for a more hopeful future. Fritz Weaver and Salome Jens are featured in this darkly provocative production.

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth
58 min each / color / 1988 / MFV / VHS
College through adult
The late Joseph Campbell (1904-1988), noted writer, philosopher, and professor of literature and philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, New York), leads this journey through time and across cultures in a series of reflections on the power and influence of myths in the history of civilization. Television commentator Bill Moyers prompts discussions of rites, rituals, artistic expressions, and symbols.

1. The Hero’s Adventure           PM-1
Long before medieval kings charged off to slay dragons, tales of heroic adventures were an integral part of all world cultures. Campbell discusses how the hero’s journey is possible in everyday life even today, and challenges viewers to make a heroic journey of their own lives.

2. The Message of the Myth           PM-2
Campbell compares the story in Genesis with creation stories from around the world. Because the world changes, religion has to be transformed and new mythologies created. Contemporary man is often confused because he attempts to adapt himself to old metaphors and myths that are not suited to his current needs.

3. The First Storytellers           PM-3
Campbell discusses the importance of accepting death as rebirth, as in an American Indian myth of the buffalo and in the story of Christ. He discusses primitive societies and their many rites of passage, the role of mystical Shamans, and the decline of ritual in today’s society.

4. Sacrifice and Bliss           PM-4
Campbell explores the role and significance of sacrifice in myth, which symbolizes the necessity for rebirth. The mother’s sacrifice for her child, and the sacrifices within the marriage relationship are discussed. Campbell stresses the need for each of us to find a sacred place and a sense of truth in order to grow creatively.

5. Love and the Goddess           PM-5
Campbell introduces the concept of romantic love as an idea that began with the 12th-century troubadors and distinguishes this type of love from traditional concepts of loving a deity. He also addresses questions about the image of woman as goddess, virgin, and earth mother.

6. Masks of Eternity           PM-6
In this final program, Campbell provides challenging insights into the concepts of God, religion, and eternity, as revealed in Christian, Buddhist, and Navajo Indian beliefs and in the writings of Schopenhauer, Jung, and others.

Journey Through Ancient Pompeii         ED-460
31 min / 1999 / FFH / VHS
College through adult
Almost 2000 years ago, Pompeii was a thriving Mediterranean city of 20,000 people. Then, tragically, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius literally covered its buildings and inhabitants in two hours. This video explores the excavated Pompeii in astoundingly vivid detail to reveal the city’s almost perfectly preserved past as a record of its history, art, and everyday life.

The Journey Within           WA-375
30 min / color / 1990 / REN / VHS
College through adult
Teacher Richard Lewis leads the 6th-grade class of the Louis Armstrong Middle School in Queens, New York, through play and make-believe activities that stretch their imaginations and make them look inward toward their own thoughts and feelings. In a classroom filled with wonder and laughter, magic happens. Word-play turns into creative activity. Shapes emerge and paintings are made. In the words of their teacher, “having played, the children have been given the license to create.” Especially recommended for teachers, museum docents, and parents.

Jugtown: Pottery Tradition in Change           ED-239
29 min / color / 1976 / EBEC / VHS
Middle school through adult
Founded in 1921, Jugtown is a colony of potters nestled in the wooded foothills outside Piedmont, North Carolina. The current generation, many of whom are descendants of the original artisans, combine old and new potting techniques to create the Jugtown look, which is exemplified by clean, functional lines, salt glaze, and blue, cream, or gray coloring. The shapes are most often in the forms of large jars, simple pitchers, bowls, and animal figures, all of which are stamped with the Jugtown imprint.

A Jury of Her Peers           ED-130
30 min / color / 1982 / TEXFLM / 16mm
Middle school through adult
This live-action drama, an adaptation of a short story written in 1917 by Pulitzer Prize-winner Susan Glaspell, reveals the isolation and oppression of a farm woman in rural America at the turn of the century. A farmer is found strangled in bed and his wife is accused of murder as the sheriff, the prosecuting attorney, and a neighbor search for clues. The wives of these men uncover some crucial details about the woman and her family and become, in effect, a jury of her peers. This film by Sally Heckel is based upon the same story as in the film Trifles by Martha Moran. Shown together, these 2 films can be used to study how 2 different filmmakers treat the same plot.