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Suggested Videos & Websites
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"Irresistible to Tourists, Has Venice Become Unwelcoming to its Inhabitants?" (2017). 7min.
Venice has long been a city of trade and travelers, but Venetians now feel tourism is squeezing them out. The city is currently losing about 1,000 residents every year as the cost of housing rises and mass tourism poses a threat to food, culture and the Venetian way of life. Special correspondent Christopher Livesay reports on what's behind the depopulation.
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"Metropolis: Venice" (2012). 30min.
In Metropolis Venice, presenter Julian Davison explores the history of one of the world’s most extraordinary cities through its architecture. From its beginnings as a tiny group of settlements in a muddy lagoon, to its rise as one of the most powerful commercial empires the world has ever known, Venice offers an up an incredible array of architectural wonders that start with its very foundations.
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"Saving Venice" (2022). 53min.
Rising sea levels and sinking land threaten to destroy Venice. Leading scientists and engineers battling the forces of nature to try to save this historic city for future generations. Discover the innovative projects and feats of engineering currently underway, including a hi-tech flood barrier, eco-projects to conserve the lagoon, and new efforts to investigate erosion beneath the city.
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"The Venetian Dilemma" (2006). 1hr 13min.
With stunning imagery, The Venetian Dilemma portrays the fragile urban ecology of Venice besieged by 14 million tourists who far outnumber the local residents. By tracking four Venetians who are trying to make a life in this unique historic place, the themes of urban gentrification and tourist impact are raised--a problem not only for Venice but for many other urban areas.The thread of the film is debate among ordinary Venetians and their charismatic deputy mayor, Roberto D'Agostino, about the pros and cons of plans to diversify the city?s economy by redeveloping a degraded industrial area and connecting it to the mainland by an underwater subway. Opponents of such plans doubt that the promised jobs will arrive, and believe that the subway will only serve to bring more tourists to Venice. Meanwhile, local residents face a daily struggle for a decent quality of life. Produce vendor Danilo Palmieri battles to maintain his livelihood; career woman and mother Michela Scibilia fights for day care; writer and environmentalist Paolo Lanapoppi campaigns against fast tourist-serving motorboats that are destroying the very foundations of Venice. The documentary celebrates what makes Venice distinctive historically, not only as a beautiful city, but one that fostered a "civilized" life style. Now, an untrammeled tourist industry has transformed it into little more than a staged urban theater, verging on a Disneyland. And the grand city-building schemes offer no guarantees that they will be the solution.
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"Venice" (2005). 26min.
A city outside of time, whose unreality is woven from the marriage of earth, water and light.
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"Venice" (2017). 53min.
Following the striking revelations of Rome’s Invisible City, historian Dr Michael Scott embarks on a new adventure to explore the hidden treasures of three more of Italy’s astonishing cities – Naples, Venice and Florence – bringing a fascinating new insight into 2,000 years of history. Drawing on cutting-edge technology, including ultra-high-definition 3D scans, CGI and drone cameras, the series reveals the secret spaces of these extraordinary cities in vivid detail. Innovative new underwater scans of the Bay of Naples reveal the sunken world of a Roman holiday resort, submerged by ancient earthquakes, then it’s on to Venice to explore what lies beneath its magnificent palazzos. In Florence, new 3D images of the great cathedral ‘il Duomo’ reveal the beauty and complexity of the pioneering engineering behind the world’s biggest brick dome – a bold feat of ingenuity that defined the Renaissance. Using the latest 3D scanning technology, Alexander Armstrong and Dr Michael Scott explore the watery wonderland of Venice. They uncover how a city built in a swamp became one of the most powerful in medieval Europe and dive into its canals to experience how the city remains standing. Plus, they reveal how the city's beauty once masked a ruthless secret state and a world of excess and vice.
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"Venice Is Drowning" (2020). 12min.
A report on Venice, the northeastern Italian city made up of a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and surrounded by water. Due to unprecedented rising sea levels caused by climate change, flooding in Venice has become worse and more frequent; climate scientists warn this should be a global example. This last November, record breaking tides and dangerous winds caused much destruction in the city. Venetians worry their homes and cultural landmarks face increasing risk due to this manmade climate change. Includes interviews with Toto Bergamo Rossi, who is known as the unofficial mayor of Venice; Luigi Brugnaro, mayor of Venice; Pierpaolo Campostrini, who helps manage the Basilica of St. Mark; Fortunato Ortombina, artistic director of La Fenice theater; Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University; Alessandro Soru, lead enigineer of project Moses; and Shaul Bassi, a professor of English literature at Venice’s Ca’Foscari University.
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"Venice Under Threat" (2017). 46min.
Founded in the fifth century, Venice is built over approximately a hundred islands linked by canals and more than 300 bridges. Flooding occurs with increasing freqency, and the water levels rise each time at an alarming rate. Both politicians and scientists are keeping a close watch on this UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the race is on to implement an engineering project designed to protect the lagoon during high tides. This vast project, called MOSE, consists of a highly sophisticated series of dykes that divert water away from the city. This program looks at the engineering details of the project and what resources have been mobilized to bring this one of a kind construction to fruition.
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