Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Research Guide
Audio/Video (AV) Materials

Search the Library Catalog by subject or keyword, then click on "Modify Search" and limit the search by "Material Type," such as "videos, films, slides" or "spoken recording." The "Location" box will indicate whether materials are located in W.E.B. Du Bois Library Reserves, Special Collections, or another part of the Library.

Suggested AV Materials in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning

Citizens Protecting America's Parks
"This program encourages all Americans to work together to protect and preserve our nation's parks and reserves."

Claiming Open Spaces
"Explores African-American culture as it clashes with the design of the modern American city. The film is both a critical examination of the design and histories of American urban open space, as well as a celebration of leisure, recreation and resistance."

Creatures of the Mangrove
Shows the unique and complex ecosystem of a Borneo rainforest, including mangrove trees with roots above ground and salt-excreting leaves, proboscis monkeys, mudskippers, fiddler crabs and other creatures that have adapted to life between the land and the sea.

Figure in a Landscape 
Motion picture about the work of J. B. Jackson, historian of the American-built environment. Jackson taught for many years at Harvard, and is widely regarded as the founder of landscape studies in the U.S.

The Flow of Time: 500 Million Years of Geohistory in the Connecticut River Valley 
"Journey into the past as recorded in rocks and landscape, featuring drifting continents, dinosaur footprints, armored mud balls, the Eastern Border fault, and Lake Hitchcock. With animations, dinosaurs, rift valleys, drifting continents, armored mud balls, and ice ages "come alive" as your host, Professor Richard Little, takes you on a geological tour of Western New England's exciting geological heritage."

The Garden and the Grid
"Americans have struggled to marry the ideal city to the pragmatism of the easily subdivisible iron plan. Discusses city planning, urban renewal and new concepts such as pedestrian-scaled urbanism, like Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia."

Ground Water
Animated drawings illustrate ground water in wells, seepages, springs, and geysers, incuding the great plains artesian systems, and the formation of geysers and caverns. Depicts petrified trees, fossils, gorge crystals, and iron ore deposits as supporting evidence that ground water may deposit, and carry away, minerals.

Land of Plenty, Land of Want
"A fundamental dilemma faces farmers throughout the world: How do they feed Earth's growing population without endangering the environment? Explores the farming systems of Zimbabwe, France, China, and the United States."

Plant Pathogenic Fungi
"Describes fungi that cause plant disease. Symptoms of infected plants, plate cultures of the fungi, and microscopic feature of the fungi are shown. Phytopthora, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Sclerotium, and Sclerotinia are among the fungi discussed."

Politicized Space
"Filmed on location ... this program examines how civic planning was tailored to suit the varying political agendas of republican Florence, ducal Milan, and ducal Florence...The program shows how architecture, heraldic imagery, commissioned artworks, and even religious iconography can be used to reinforce the public status of governing parties"

Le Public et le Privé. 1, La Ville Musulmane (Public and Private Life. 1, The Muslim Town)  
Describes the early Arab temporary dwellings which gave way to the magnificent architecture of Arabian culture. Find out what it was like to live during the Abbasid dynasty, grand oases of refinement and innovation. Focuses on key centers, including the mosque and the souk, and the roles of the prince, doctors of the law, and  leaders of social groups.

Seas of Grass
"Investigates the serious threats to one of our most treasured natural resources. Grasslands cover almost one-third of the Earth's surface, house nearly a billion people, and are in grave danger of disappearing." Includes Inner Mongolia, Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, and the American West.

Understanding Cities: Rome, Impact of an Idea 
In the sixteenth century, Pope Sixtus V commissioned Domenico Fontana to lay out a network of streets connecting Rome's most important churches. This program explores Sixtus' urban planning scheme, showing how his vision transformed the city. Noted city planner Edmund Bacon discusses the history and renewal of Rome, and explores the factors that influenced the character of this urban area.

The Urban Explosion
"Four megacities are investigated to see how they are meeting a major challenge of the twenty-first century: how to shelter and sustain the world's exploding urban population without destroying the delicate balance of our environment. Visit Mexico City, Istanbul, Shanghai, and New York City."

Water:The Lifeblood of Kyoto
"Explores the importance of Kyoto's spring water in all aspects of life, from religious rituals, to tea ceremony, kimono making, tofu making, and landscaping. It also considers the effect of urbanization on the decreasing water table."