Presented with the kind permission of Bill Stonebarger, Hawkhill Associates
- Energy and Society (2007)
- Evolution (2007)
- Nuclear Power
- The Soul of Science
- Great Moments in the History of Science
- Global Warming (2005)
- Resources, Population and Climate Change (A contrarian view)
- Science & Society: Global Issues of the 21st Century
- Democracy in the Ancient World
- Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment
- The Industrial Revolution, Capitalism and the United States of America
- The Communist Challenge
- The Fascist Challenge
- Democracy in the 21st Century
- Science and Democracy (2009)
- Capitalism and Democracy (2009)
- Religion and Democracy (2009)
- Lincoln (A 3-act film play about Abraham Lincoln)
The following descriptions of each film are edited version of the producer’s descriptions …
Energy and Society (2007)
The history of energy and society in past ages and the controversies today
Relying on evidence from the past as well as the present, this film explains how energy availability relates to economic growth and human progress.
Part 1. A Brief History of Energy and Society. Traces the part played by energy throughout human history-muscle power to wind and water to fossil fuels to nuclear and solar energy and to large increases in efficiency today.
Part 2. Energy for Today and Tomorrow. Explains basic concepts in energy science and offers insights into energy production and use for today and tomorrow.
Evolution (2007)
The basic science of modern evolution theory. Includes a history of how the theory was discovered
Examines the basic science of modern evolution theory. Includes a history of how evolution was discovered and reviews present-day controversies. Challenges non-scientific “theories” like Creationism and Intelligent Design.
Part 1. How Theories of Evolution Were Developed. Exclusive Hawkhill on-site video in the Galapagos Islands and at Darwin’s study in England help demonstrate the achievement of this pioneer.
Part 2. Evolution by Natural Selection. A straight-forward presentation of the theory of evolution by natural selection as it is understood by most biologists today.
Nuclear Power
An unbiased view of nuclear power yesterday, today and tomorrow
This 2 part film seeks to brings knowledge and perspective to an emotionally charged subject. Includes video footage from Los Alamos, Three Mile Island, Oak Ridge and other centers of nuclear research. Helps provide a base in science and history for the discussion of nuclear power issues, including new developments in connections between energy production and global warming.
Part 1. The History of Nuclear Power. Tells the story of how nuclear power was developed in World War II and how it has come to be an important source of power (and controversy) today.
Part 2. Nuclear Power Today and Tomorrow. Presents the basic scientific principles involved in nuclear reactions. Includes pros and cons of nuclear energy in the future.
The Soul of Science
A Hawkhill Classic that explores the history of science from ancient Greece to modern times. “I recommend this series very highly.” John R. Stover, Univ. of Illinois in Science Books & Films.
The Soul of Science tells the story of science and society on all continents, stressing the great turning points in the Renaissance and in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Part 1 features the birth of science in power and wonder with special attention to ancient Ionian Greece.
Part 2 follows the rebirth of science in the Renaissance when men like Galileo, Copernicus and Isaac Newton forever changed the way we look at the world and the universe.
Part 3 – in this segment watch the scientific vision expand in Europe and into North America. See the Industrial revolution born in England’s midlands and sit with Charles Darwin as he writes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
In Part 4 we move into the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century when scientists like Einstein, Curie, Bohr, Crick and Watson led the way to the profound changes we see in our world of today.
Great Moments in the History of Science
Part 1: Marie Curie Finds Radium and Radioactivity
We go to Paris to visit the laboratory of Marie Curie to learn the personal story of how she and her husband, Pierre, worked long hours in a nearby shed to discover the new element radium, and how Marie Curie coined the word “radioactivity.”
Part 2: Louis Pasteur Proves Germs Cause Disease
Meet the scientist who benefited humanity more than any other. Take a field trip to sites where Pasteur discovered that germs cause disease — and found ways to prevent disease.
Part 3: Galileo Galilei Moves the Earth
The most giant of all giant steps in science and society happened during the Renaissance when men like Galileo launched the scientific revolution and changed forever the way humans view the universe.
Global Warming (2005)
Explains the science and the uncertainties behind current global warming debates in Congress and the press. Includes interviews with experts like: Richard Lindzen, MIT; Reid Bryson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Howard Odum, University of Florida; Thomas Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institute and others.
Resources, Population and Climate Change
A contrarian view on resources, population and climate change.
Confronts head-on three critical science/technology/society issues of the 21st century. On all three issues it explores a contrarian point of view.
That: (1) Natural resources are limited only by the ultimate natural resource, the human mind; (2) Population growth (or decline) is a problem, but not the overwhelming one some scientists and citizens considered it in the 20th century; and (3) Climate change is real but it may not be the most serious problem the world faces in the 21st century.
While this film does take the contrarian point of view, it challenges the viewer to investigate these critical issues and come to their own conclusions. In other words it is not dogmatic and offers a stimulating way to discuss these vital issues and to rationally explore what scientific methods can contribute to their solution.
Science & Society: Global Issues of the 21st Century
An introduction to major science and society issues of the 21st century. Featured are five key issues of global importance today: Population, Natural Resources, Pollution, Genetic Engineering and Growth vs No-growth lifestyles.
Scientists, environmentalists and economists who give their views on these issues include: Bruce Ames, University of California-Berkeley; Richard Burgess, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Bernard Cohen, University of Pittsburgh; Richard Lindzen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Thomas Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institution; Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute; Howard Odum, University of Florida; Jeremy Rifkin, environmental activist; and Julian Simon, University of Maryland.
Democracy in the Ancient World
How democracy began in tribal societies, and in the Greek, Roman and Christian worlds.
Traces the early history of how democracy began in tribal societies on all continents. Stresses the importance of enduring ideas of western civilization that first arose in Greece, in Rome and out of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Contrasts these ideas with competing ones from Islamic, Asian, African, South American and South Pacific civilizations.
Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment
The western world experienced revolutionary transformations from the 15th to the 17th centuries. This film seeks to clarify why these revolutions were so important in preparing the ground for our modern 21st century world.
The Industrial Revolution, Capitalism and the United States of America
Connections between free-markets, industry and the birth of modern democracy in the United States.
Learn how the 1776 birth of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” combined with the Industrial Revolution and free-market capitalism to destroy feudal societies of agricultural ages past.
The Communist Challenge
The reality of “people’s” democracies around the world in the 20th century.
Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro and followers around the world claimed to be liberators. This film exposes the hard reality of what they actually did in creating their “people’s democracies” that enslaved and murdered so many millions in the 20th century.
The Fascist Challenge
The story of fascism in the 20th century — and beyond.
Fascists, like communists, claimed to offer a new vision of progress to the 20th century world. As brought to ghoulish reality in Nazi Germany, it brought instead unprecedented brutality and despair, the world’s most destructive war, and the Holocaust. Learn what fascism is and is not and how some versions still challenge the 21st century world.
Democracy in the 21st Century
This film is speculative and controversial. It discusses three major challenges to democracies in the 21st century. (1) World-wide terrorism, especially from radical Islam. (2) Poverty in the developing world. (3) Radical right-wing and radical left-wing zealots in the western world.
Science and Democracy (2009)
One of democracy’s most important allies is science. This film looks at how science (like capitalism and religion) is necessary for democracy but not sufficient. It traces the early history of both science and democracy in tribal societies on all continents. It stresses the importance of enduring ideas of western civilization that first arose in Greece, in Rome and in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
The film explains how these ideas were profoundly modified in the western world’s Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment when modern experimental science was born. And why this is so important and often misunderstood today.
Capitalism and Democracy (2009)
Capitalism, like democracy, seems often to be under siege today. Learn in this vivid and controversial film how capitalism is necessary for democracy, but not sufficient.
In two parts, Part One explores the origins of capitalism and democracy. Part Two explains the connections of capitalism and democracy today and the prospects for tomorrow. Includes footage from over 35 countries on all continents as well as archival art works and photographs to illustrate the connections and prospects.
Religion and Democracy (2009)
Focuses on the current conflict between civilizations with Christian backgrounds and those with Islamic backgrounds.
Radical Islam is attacking democracy today. The Christian World for the most part is democratic today. Learn how religions have helped and hindered the paths to democracy in the past and how they help or hinder that path today. This film traces the early history of how both religion and democracy began in tribal societies on all continents. The film stresses the importance of enduring ideas of western civilization that first arose in Greece, in Rome and in the Judeo-Christian tradition. It also explains how these ideas were profoundly modified in the western world’s Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment and why this history is so important today.
A. Lincoln (A 3-act film play about Abraham Lincoln)
The most moving production ever on Lincoln and the Civil War. Tells the Lincoln story from his rise in Illinois to the Civil War Presidency.
