NOVA: First Flower
by Nova
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: NovaDirector: Nova
Brand: Wgbh Wholesale
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 56 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-31
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
Product features:
- In a vivid story, blooming with beauty and scientific mystery, NOVA goes hunting for the world s earliest flower. Although flowers have long been at the center of human life, gracing our gardens and expressing our emotions not to mention providing us with food, crops, and medicines the question of how flowers evolved has long baffled scientists. Charles Darwin called it an abominable mystery.
Movie Reviews of NOVA: First Flower
Movie Review: Informative but -- more importantly for me -- beautiful & inspiring!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a lot of great informative books on plants, especially garden and ornamental flowering plants, but I have no books that compare with the beauty of this presentation.
As the other review notes, this product covers two stories. It seems a little silly to me to present the search for the first flowering plant as two teams competing with each other for 'first' when the issue is really 'oldest yet known' but -- also noted in the other review -- plants are not considered as interesting as animals and even a documentary needs a story, preferably with conflict, to hold an audience.
For me the real heart of this video was the beautiful camera work in that Chinese mountain valley, full of a profusion of mixed wild flowers that we struggle to grow in our gardens. The scientists exploring this valley are obviously overwhelmed by the abundance and variety before them; that was all the story that thread needed, as far as I'm concerned.
I would gladly pay for a full hour (or two!) of shots from this valley. The music and pacing were such that it could stand in for an episode of Sunrise Earth as a drug-free tranquillizer for those evenings when I need to be someplace completely apart from work and money and conflict.
I also intend to change the way I design my ornamental plantings to reflect this example of how un-improved species flowers grow together, complementing each other in ways our modern versions cannot improve upon.
Summary of NOVA: First Flower
In a vivid story, blooming with beauty and scientific mystery, NOVA goes hunting for the world?s earliest flower. Although flowers have long been at the center of human life, gracing our gardens and expressing our emotions?not to mention providing us with food, crops, and medicines?the question of how flowers evolved has long baffled scientists. Charles Darwin called it "an abominable mystery."But now a tantalizing fossil that bloomed during the reign of the dinosaurs has surfaced in China. In First Flower, NOVA probes the controversy ignited by this unique fossil, and pursues the trail through the stunning lost world of China?s remote Hengduan Mountains. In this spectacular landscape?dubbed the "Mother of All Gardens"?lie the origins of dozens of plants we take for granted today, including forsythia, clematis, rhododendrons, dogwoods, primroses, and the regal lily. How did they reach our gardens? The detective story behind the evolution of our favorite flowers continues to unfold. Join NOVA on the trail of botany?s most beguiling mystery.
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