I saw a preview of this video earlier this year. I, too, found it barely relevant to the history of beads, and wrote an extensive critique that was passed along to the authors. I pointed out that they were perpetuating the myth that Manhattan was purchased for beads (and the movie-makers even knew which beads - chevrons!) and directed them to Peter Francis' award-winning research debunking the myth.

I also thought the extensive documentation of the Dipo puberty rites should have been in a separate film just on the anthropology of that culture. I kept waiting in vain for some sort of a discussion of the types of beads that were used, and why they were chosen, etc. I am not offended by nudity but I found the film exploitive of the young girls who probably had no say in whether their private images were published for a global audience.

Yes Dan, my reaction was the same as yours - the film seems to be a pitiful excuse to show extended sequences of semi-nude teen and younger girls.

Finally, the title, "The Glass Bead Game" is a rip-off of the title of a Herman Hesse novel and is also totally irrelevant to the subject(s) they presented.

Anyway, the authors had a typical "shoot the messenger" response to my review (which I was asked to do by a third party BTW) which basically was, "Who is this person who is criticizing our work?" instead of addressing any of the comments.