Life With Principle: FILM COMPONENTS

LIFE WITH PRINCIPLE: THOREAU'S VOICE IN OUR TIME allows for great flexibility in teaching and programming. This film can be viewed in its entirety in 56 minutes. Because it is divided into six thematic sections, it can also be used one section at a time along with the corresponding sections from the Study Guide and Thoreau Curriculum. Each section contains a short introduction about Thoreau's ideas and contemporary interviews to spur discussion about the significance of those ideas for our own lives and choices.

• Hearing that Different Drummer; Being Awake, Aware, and Alive;
• Examining Desperate and Deliberate Lives; Living in Society; Living in Nature;
• Confronting the Mean and the Sublime
  

BONUS FEATURES

• THOREAU'S CONCORD/WALDEN POND, an historical documentary, is organized into the same six thematic sections. This gives historical background for each and provides a visual introduction to the author's home town - 12 minutes.
  
  
• PROFILES IN CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE examines how Maathai in Kenya, Makiguchi in Japan and Mandela in South Africa have used this philosophy and practice to confront injustice -12 minutes.
  
  
• WORLD LEADERS demonstrates the impact of Thoreau's ideas on Tolstoy, Gandhi, King, Mandela, and Ikeda - 4 minutes.
  
  
• THE BOAT MEN, BILL AND BEN is an animated short which encompasses six thematic vignettes, one around each of the six sections. They combine to make a surprising story as a center for conversation, dealing with two markedly different lifestyles.

Life With Principle: DVD-ROM CONTENT

• The Study Guide THE STUDY GUIDE is intended to give you an overall plan for integrating all the rest of the material on this DVD: film footage, current text, and historical documents. It follows the sequence of the film and the numbers given by each entry (13:45) refer to the time elapsed on the Life With Principle film. We will point to particular places in the other components of the DVD where you will find projects and information keyed to that part of the film.
  
  
• The Thoreau Curriculum for Life With Principle THE THOREAU CURRICULUM FOR LIFE WITH PRINCIPLE is organized into the same six thematic sections as the Life With Principle film. The Curriculum provides you with a framework for connecting Thoreau's writings to the issues and questions introduced in the interviews and footage in the main film. Each of the six thematic sections is organized into the following areas: Preparation; Investigation; Reflection and Interpretation; Expression and Action:
  • Hearing that Different Drummer
  • Being Awake, Aware, and Alive
  • Examining Desperate and Deliberate Lives
  • Living in Society
  • Living in Nature
  • Confronting the Mean and the Sublime
    
    
• The Commentary
  Thoreau Scholar Bradley P. Dean (1954-2006) wrote this summary of Thoreau's ideas related to each theme to accompany the film and other teaching resources. Dr. Dean published numerous scholarly articles on Henry David Thoreau. His three books were Faith in a Seed and Wild Fruits, both edited from Thoreau's manuscripts, and Letters to a Spiritual Seeker, a collection of Thoreau's letters to H.G.O. Blake.
  
  
• The Thoreau Society Bulletins
  This publication of the Thoreau Society contains sixty years of articles about Thoreau's life, literature, legacy and the landscapes that inspired them. Educators from the Society have compiled a list of the best selections for classroom use.
  
  
• Thoreau's Writings
  This link brings you an alphabetical listing of Thoreau's key works that you can download.