Gordon Henderson

The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging. The series is named after an epic poem by Roman philosopher Lucretius: "Dē Rērum Nātūrā" — On the Nature of Things.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's transcendent story suggests an ethical philosophy about life and a universal code of respect for humanity. With every new generation that discovers the fable, The Little Prince's inspiring legacy is cemented.

New and imaginative ways of programming Baroque repertoire that was never intended for the modern concert or CD formats are always welcome and Tafelmusik have found a corker here. Inspired by the 400th anniversary of Galileo first using his telescope, the Canadian orchestra's double-bassist Alison McKay has devised an hour-long 'Harmony of the Spheres' sequence which unpretentiously harnesses music by several Baroque greats with readings from Shakespeare, Ovid, Kepler and Galileo, and descriptions of lsaac Newton and the opulent Festival of the Planets mounted for a Dresden royal wedding in 1719. The whole is given in front of a suspended circle on to which astronomical images are projected, and the performers move around on a similarly patterned floor, playing from memory, intermingling and reforming (almost everyone gets a solo) amid changing lighting effects.

It required someone strong to rescue China from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. This film reveals how Deng Xiaoping, a strategic genius and the ultimate bureaucrat, used ancient wisdom and 14th Century systems to set China on the road to becoming a superpower.

Mom and Me is a personal and intimate documentary about a young filmmaker coming of age in extraordinary circumstances. It follows the complicated relationship between director Lena Macdonald and her mother, who was once a filmmaker herself, but ended up homeless, crack-addicted and on the streets. For ten years Lena filmed in the cold, hard streets of Toronto’s inner city and her story is raw, honest and unforgettable. Mom and Me is about addiction, prostitution and despair but it is also a story about family, the power of hope and the tenacity of love.