Video/DVD list for Dr J's courses:

IAS 105, 245, 246, and 247.

 

Africa

African Films webpage:   http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm

AMANDLA! A revolution in four part harmony / Kwela Productions in association with Bomb Films, HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films, The Ford Foundation and the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Tells the story of black South African freedom music and the central role it played against apartheid. Specifically considers the music that sustained and galvanized blacks for more than 40 years. Focuses on the struggle's spiritural dimension named for the Xhosa word for "power". An uplifting story of human courage, resolve and triumph.

AMISTAD

(Motion picture) DreamWorks Pictures presents in association with HBO Pictures ; directed by Steven Spielberg; chronicles the 1839 revolt on board the slave ship Amistad bound for America. Much of the story involves the court-room drama about the slave who led the revolt.


[CHINUA] ACHEBE: A WORLD OF IDEAS
Achebe discusses the role of the African storyteller, one who hears the music of history and weaves the fabric of memory, one obliged to be the people's collective sometimes to offend "the Emperor" in so doing. Achebe discusses his observations and criticisms of both African and Western politics and culture, the stages in his awakening to inaccurate and demeaning depictions of black Africans in works such as Conrad's Heart of Darkness, to his closing advice that the West: "listen to the weak." 30 min. Distributed by PBS Video, Public Affairs Television, WNET/New York and WWTTW/Chicago, Alexandria, VA; 1989.

CORY’S AFRICAN FILMS WEBPAGE:
 http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm 

CRY FREEDOM
Richard Attenborough’s 1987 riveting story of black activist Stephen Biko (Denzel Washington) and liberal white newspaper editor Donald Woods (Kevin Kline). Woods undertakes a perilous quest to expose the horrors of apartheid, escape South Africa, and bring Biko’s remarkable tale of courage to the world. Cry Freedom Originally released as a motion picture in 1987.

DAWN OF MAN Dawn of man a BBC/The Learning Channel co-production. A look at thre last 2.5 million years of human evolution, including homo erectus, homo heidelbergensis, and homo sapiens.

(THE) DIAMOND EMPIRE The diamond empire a BBC/WGBH-Frontline/ABC-TV-Impact Media/InCA co-production ; produced by Laurie Flynn; directed by Gavin MacFadyen. Central to the diamond's role as a romantic symbol is the belief that diamonds are one of the rarest, most precious gifts for a loved one. This documentary how the great myth about the scarcity of diamonds and their inflated value was created and maintained over the decades by the diamond cartel.

(THE) DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA
Non-European: Cultures & Literatures of Africa
Cora's African Films webpage:   http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm

EMPIRES

(Television program)Egypt's golden empire a Lion Television production association with PBS and Devillier Donegan Enterprises; series produced and directed by Richard Bradley; produced and directed by Richard Bradley. Examines Egypt's New Kingdom, 1560 B.C. to 1080 B.C.

KHARTOUM United Artists ; produced by Julian Blaustein; written by Robert Ardrey; directed by Basil Dearden. Originally produced as a motion picture in 1966. Chronicles Britain's crisis of being defeated in the Sudan and the subsequent retaliatory siege of Khartoum in 1883.

MAPANTSULA
Non-European: Cultures & Literatures of Africa
The first anti-apartheid film by, for and about black South Africans, Mapantsula (review from California Newsreel) was filmed inside Soweto and scored to the urban beat of "Township Jive" by directors Thomas Mogotlane and Oliver Schmitz, who deceived South African authorities into believing they were shooting a conventional gangster movie. Instead Mogotlane and Schmitz made an uncompromisingly honest anti-apartheid film endorsed by the ANC, banned by South African censors and acclaimed at film festivals worldwide. Panic, the central character (and acted by Thomas Mogotlane), is a mapantsula, Zulu term for petty crook and a popular rebellious figure in urban folklore and fiction. The 1988 film traces Panic’s transformation from irresponsible individualist to a man compelled to take a stand against an unjust system. (In English, Sotho and Afrikaans, with English subtitles.) See also American University's Cross-Cultural Film Guide to Mapantsula, and Internet Movie Database's entries on Mapantsula and the directors.
Cora's African Films webpage:   http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm 

MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON
Non-European: Cultures & Literatures of Africa
Bob Rafelson directed this powerful epic of explorers John Hanning Speke and Sir Richard Francis Burton’s quest to find the source of the River Nile during the mid-19th century. Spectacular adventure studs Mountains of the Moon (1990) based on William Harrison’s novel.
Cora's African Films webpage:   http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm

TRADING IN AFRICANS: THE DUTCH OUTPOST IN WEST AFRICA
Western World & Non-European: Cultures & Literatures of Africa
Cora's African Films webpage:   http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm 

SLAVE NARRATIVES  Found voices the slave narratives; ABC News ; Ted Koppel. Variant Title: Slave narratives. Originally broadcast on Jan. 12, 1999 as a Nightline program. Program tells of sound recordings made of interviews With former slaves in the 1930s and 1940s. Tapes have been digitally re-mastered and video includes transcript as subtitles. Slaves interviewed include Fountain Hughes (VA), Laura Smalley (TX), Harriet Smith (TX); interviewers include John Henry Faulk.

WEND KUUNI 
Non-European Cultures & Literatures: Africa
International award-winner Wend Kuuni ("God's Gift"; Burkina Faso, 1982; 70 min.), directed by Gaston Kabore, offers a "gentle fable" of a mute, memoryless orphan found and adopted by a village. Renamed "Wend Kuuni," or "God's Gift," the boy finds real community and recovers his ability to communicate among adopted family and village, even as flashbacks ironically reveal his mother's fate after rejection by her native community. Set before the coming of Islam and Christianity, unveiled through the rhythmic compositions of African oral storytelling, Kabore's fable offers lessons for contemporary Burkina Faso: traditional Mossi values yet have the power to heal and unify a modern African state torn by dislocation, refugees, and social conflict. In More, with English subtitles. La Direction du Cinema; Kino Video/California' Newsreel's Library of African Cinema < http://www.newsreel.org/topics/acine.htm >
Cora's African Films webpage:   http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm 

YEELEN
Non-European Cultures & Literatures: Africa
Cora's African Films webpage:   http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrfilms.htm

 

African American

 

A Time To Kill: The basic setup has the 10-year old daughter of Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), being raped and beaten by two rednecks. Taking the law into his own hands, Carl Lee guns down the pair in front of dozens of witnesses in the Canton, Mississippi courthouse. In the process, he also seriously injures a local deputy (Chris Cooper, star of John Sayles' Lone Star). With a team that includes a sleazy divorce specialist, Harry Rex Vonner (Oliver Platt), an energetic assistant, Ellen Roarke (Sandra Bullock), and his old mentor, Lucien Wilbanks (Donald Sutherland), Jake goes up against the local DA (Kevin Spacey). When the KKK become involved, Jake discovers that his life, and the lives of everyone close to him, including his wife (Ashley Judd) and daughter, are in danger. And the defense of Carl Lee Hailey has just begun...

ABRAHAM LINCOLN PRESERVING THE UNION
Biography (Television program)produced by Greystone Communications, inc., for A & E Network. An account of the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

BIRTH OF A NATION Multiculturalism: The first (1915) epic blockbuster silent film in the US, adapted from the novel The Clansmen which glorifies the terrorism of the KKK. This film (praised by president Woodrow Wilson) led to a crusade headed by the NAACP to have it banned for inciting race riots.

BLACK THEATRE: THE MAKING OF A MOVEMENT
American Multiculturalism: African American Literature

(THE) BUFFALO SOLDIERS The Buffalo Soldiers [produced by Bill Armstrong Productions. A photographic history of the two black cavalry regiments that served to keep peace on the frontier from 1867 to 1891. Also shown is the dedication ceremony at Fort Leavenworth of a monument to the buffalo soldiers by sculptor Eddie Dixon, with speeches by Gen. Colin Powell and other high ranking black officers of the U.S. Armed Forces.

DO THE RIGHT THING A Forty Acres and a Mule; produced, directed, and written by Spike Lee. This powerful visual feast combines humor and drama with memorable characters while tracing the course of a single day on a block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. It's the hottest day of the year, a scorching 24-hour period that will change the lives of its residents forever.

DOWN IN THE DELTA Down in the Delta Miramax Films and Showtime present an Amen Ra Films and Chris/Rose Productions. A troubled single mother from a tough Chicago neighborhood is sent to spend a summer at her family's home in rural Mississippi.

ELLA FITZGERALD SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR A co-production of Thirteen/WNET with Ex Nihilo in association with La Sept Arte and Avro; written and directed by Charlotte Zwerin; produced by Karen Bernstein. "The singer, her music, the definitive her. "Chronicles Ella's entire career, from her amateur night appearance at the Apollo Theater in New York to her unparalleled success on the stage and screen. The film includes never-before-seen performance footage interviews with many of the great musicians who worked with and admired [Ella Fitzgerald]".

EL HAJJ MALIK EL SHABAZZ This video traces Malcolm X's incredible odyssey: from a Harlem street hustler and self-edifying prison inmate; to a militant Muslim convert; to a self-made world leader, who before his mysterious assasination in 1965 found himself increasingly at odds with the philosophies of his former Muslim colleagues.

ETHNIC NOTIONS
Multiculturalism: An exploration of the evolution of stereotypes of
African Americans

EYES ON THE PRIZE I (LSS# HS1.002)(College Library #: E185.615 E9 1986)

.001 Awakenings (1954-56) Murder of Emmett Till & Montgomery Bus Boycott
.002 Fighting back (1957-62) Integration of Little Rock High & of U. of Mississippi
.003 Ain't scared of your jails (1960-61) Sit-ins in Nashville and Freedom Rides
.004 No easy walk (1962-64) Campaigns in Albany, Birmingham, Washington DC
.005 Mississippi--is this America? (1962-64) Voting rights and political struggles
.006 Bridge to freedom (1965) Selma marches.

EYES ON THE PRIZE II (LSS #: HS1.003) (College Library #: E185.615 E942 1989)

.001 The time has come (1964-66) Malcolm X, SNCC "black power" campaign
.002 Two societies (1965-68) SCLC campaign in Chicago, northern riots
.003 Power! (1967-68) Carl Stokes, black mayor of Cleveland, Black Panthers
.004 The promised land (1967-68) Poor people's campaign, King's assassination
.005 Ain't gonna shuffle no more (1964-72) Black pride, black studies, black unity
.006 A nation of law? (1969-71) FBI attacks on Black Panthers, Attica prison riots
.007 The keys to the kingdom (1974-80) Anti-busing riots in Boston, Affirmative Action in Atlanta
.008 Back to the movement (1979-83) Miami riot, Chicago election of Washington

FANNIE LOU HAMER EVERYDAY BATTLE History on Video production; produced, written, and directed by Rex Barnett. A video biography about civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer. Reports the details of Hamer's tough early years in Mississippi, her unexpected rise to national prominence, through her last years, often spent alone and ignored. Georgia congressman John Lewis discusses her legacy.

FOUR LITTLE GIRLS  Multiculturalism: Spike Lee’s examination of the pain and pathology of racial terrorism in Birmingham Alabama in 1963. Although the central event of the film -- the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama where four little girls were killed -- took place on September 15, 1963, the only surviving records of the victims exist as a series of black- and-white photographs. It is Lee's job as a film maker to imbue these images with life, and that's a task he easily accomplishes. This is probably the best conventional documentary since Anne Frank Remembered. By calling upon the recollections of friends and family members, Lee fleshes out the girls' photos, turning them into more than just the smiling faces of civil rights martyrs, and thus lending greater weight to the eventual account of what happened on that sad day in the heart of the segregated South.

GLORY Tristar Pictures presents a Freddie Fields production, an Edward Zwick film ; directed by Edward Zwick; African Americans enlist in the Northern army to "fight for freedom". Two idealistic young Bostonians lead the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, America's first Black regiment to distinguish itself during the Civil War. Untold story of well documented African American bravery in fighting for their freedom during the Civil War.

IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE American experience (Television program), William Greaves Productions ; WGBH Educational Foundation. The American experience. Born into slavery in Mississippi at the end of the Civil War, Wells became a school teacher and journalist. Her personal sense of integrity and justice carried her into a lifelong crusade against racism, sexism, and lynching. Toni Morrison reads passages from Ida's memoirs as part of the way the story is told.

THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY  Surprisenly very entertaining 1950 bio of Jackie Robinson (who plays himself) and his struggle to become the first black baseball player in the majors. Robinson gives a very good, low key performance of what it took to integrate the "All American Game".. Ruby Dee as his wife is also very good as are the supporting players. The film only runs 75-minutes, which means it's not as thick with information as I would have liked but the movie runs at a great speed and shows the importance of Robinson very well. Hopefully Spike Lee will get his Robinson story off the ground someday.

(THE) LAND WHERE THE BLUES BEGAN Association for Cultural Equity; produced by Alan Lomax]; a production of the Mississippi Authority for Public Television. Researching the meaning of the Blues in the Mississippi delta region, with criticism by African Americans of their socioeconomic exploitation and oppression.

MIDDLE PASSAGE

MALCOLM X: MAKE IT PLAIN American experience (Television program) WGBH ; produced and directed by Orlando Bagwell ; co-produced by Judy Richardson. The story of political philosopher and visionary, Malcolm X, as told through the memories of people who had close personal and working relationships with him. The man who never stopped growing and evolving as a human being.

PRESENTING FREDERICK DOUGLASS A Bill Moyers' journal (Television program) produced by Betsy McCarthy; A presentation of the theatrical performance featuring the actor Fred Morsell in his recreation of the leading Black abolitionist's famous speech on slavery and human rights, "The lesson of the hour" (1894), held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. where the words were first spoken 100 years ago.

RAISIN IN THE SUN
 American Literature; African-American Literature: "One of the most powerful films to grace the 1961 screen." I'd say that time has proven this to be one of the most powerful films to hit the screen in any year. The character Walter Lee is a man driven to the edge of insanity by the prospect of seeing his dream slip right through his fingers. A dream that he thinks is his only way up from the grips of segregation. Sidney Poitier, plays this part flawlessly. Ruby Dee also gives a  stunning, emotional performances as the family members deal with not only Walter Lee's downward spiral, but also with their own issues and frustrations.

RECONSTRUCTION TO PRESENT TIMELINE                             http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline4.htm

THAT’S BLACK ENTERTAINMENT That's Black entertainment produced by Barbara L. Kaye. Variant Title: African-American contributions in film and music, 1903-1944. Vol. 1 covers the history of Black filmmaking from its earliest days through the twenties, focusing on the movies that were made and the production. Companies that produced them and includes three short films. Vol. 2 compiles a vintage video collection of three-minute music videos called "soundies" that were originally screened on a visual jukebox called Panorams during the 1940s.

(THE) RODNEY KING CASE WHAT THE JURY SAW Inside Ca. v. Powell; via Court TV. Condensation of the cable television coverage of the trial; includes the amateur videotape of the LA police assault on an unarmed motorist as presented in evidence to the jury.

(TONI) MORRISON - INTERVIEW
American & African American Literature

THAT’S BLACK ENTERTAINMENT Produced by Barbara L. Kaye. Variant Title: African-American contributions in film and music, 1903-1944. Vol. 1 covers the history of Black filmmaking from its earliest days through the twenties, focusing on the movies that were made and the production companies that produced them. v. 2, The soundies era : Black music video's from the 1940's.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Pakula-Mulligan Productions, Inc. and Brentwood Productions, Inc; screenplay by Horton Foote; produced by Alan Pakula; directed by Robert Mulligan. Originally released as a motion picture in 1962. When a Southern white woman accuses a black man of rape, outcome of the trial is a foregone conclusion and no lawyer except Peck will defend him. Peck's defense costs him friendships but earns him the respect of his two children.

THE TUSKEEGEE AIRMEN African American pilots fighting on two fronts during the second world war.  The true story of the African-American 332nd Fighter Group, and the obstacles they faced in their efforts to fly during WWII. When the black cadets arrive at Alabama's Tuskegee Army Air Field, they are full of determination and eagerness, but run into the racism of the times, once clearing all the hurdles, they are hit with a racist senator who has no faith in the soldiers. But thanks in part to Eleanor Roosevelt, the men are sent to North Africa to serve in the war. Eventually white pilots specifically request that the 332nd fly with them on an important mission and the 332nd finally achieves recognition, and they go on to make history as an ace escort squadron.

WILD WOMEN DON'T HAVE THE BLUES
African American Literature

(THE) WONDERFUL WORLD OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG Jazz history and performers: The wonderful world of Louis Armstrong Smoking Dog Productions. Spanning New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Hollywood, and Europe and over 70 years of musical innovation, his biography is the rags to riches chronicle of jazz legend Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong;

(THE) WORLD ACCORDING TO JOHN COLTRANE.
Jazz history and performers: produced by Toby Byron, Richard Saylor ; written by Robert Palmer, Toby Byron. "The definitive and only authorized film on John Coltrane"--Container.

Asian/ Asian Americans/Pacific Islander

CONQUEST OF HAWAII

Conquest of Hawaii; History Sunday (Television program). "One of the most remote places on earth, the Hawaiian Islands were thrust into the spotlight of history by Pearl Harbor, and the Pacific archipelago became America's 50th state in 1959. From the voyages of the ancient Polynesians to the current independence movement, this feature-length special examines America's tropical treasures. Meet some of the many larger-than-life figures who have called Hawaii home and examine the influence of people like Captain Cook and the legendary king Kamehameha, who used courage, luck, determination, deceit and strategic brilliance to bind the islands into one nation.

MEMORIES OF A GEISHA

Geisha is an old Japanese way of life, which has almost phased out now. That is all I knew about the subject before I went to watch it (Discovery Channel info.). However, I must say that the movie captures the essence of what a Geisha is all about very well. There are a couple of famous faces in cameo roles in the movie, like Ken Watanabe (Katsumotu in Last Samurai), Michelle Yeoh and Li Gong.
The story revolves around Sayuri, who as a young girl was sold to a Geisha house in Kyoto by her starving parents. Raised for the profession in which there is dirty competition to take away the biggest patrons, Sayuri’s beauty becomes the cause of all her troubles and provokes her temporary fall in life and a bad name.

 

GHANDI

Overshadowing even Ben Kingsley’s astonishing, transcendent performance in his first major screen role is a larger, more formidable presence: that of Mohandas K. Gandhi himself. Richard Attenborough’s ambitious, Oscar-winning biographical epic is solid rather than inspired moviemaking, but the greatness of its subject and the force of his principles are so palpably realized that Gandhi achieves real transcendence. The film depicts Gandhi as a lifelong pacifist and egalitarian who rejected war and the Indian caste system with its "untouchables. Attenborough captures the force of the literally revolutionary principle of nonviolent resistance that Gandhi pioneered and championed, which would later inspire such figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

JEWEL IN THE CROWN
 (8 vols.)
Global: British colonialism in India

RED SORGHUM
Non-European: Asian Culture & Literature

SLAYING THE DRAGON

Multiculturalism: An exploration of the stereotyping of Asian women in Hollywood.

Snow Falling on Cedars

One of the darkest aspects of 20th century American domestic policy - the internment of thousands of Japanese American citizens in concentration camps during the 1940s. After Pearl Harbor, paranoia was high, and anyone who even appeared Japanese became a target. Without adopting a didactic tone, and by setting many of the flashbacks in and around the Japanese American community during the war years, this movie illustrates not only the broad spectrum of obvious rights violations that occurred in this time, but some of the more insidious ones as well (such as when Federal agents collected religious symbols from Japanese American households). Many of the scenes depicting men and women being herded into the camps are intentionally framed to evoke images of what the Nazis were doing to the Jews in Europe at the same time.

 

Who Killed Vincent Chin? Is available for viewing during business hours through Asian American Studies office, 303 Ingraham Hall (follow link above) and can be checked out from the Education School library: CIMC PreK-12 Stacks (LTy) Call Number: HT1521 .W4 1988

ASIAN AMERICAN WEB PAGES (dr. J's homepage link:     http://www.ed.wright.edu/diversity/asianamerican.htm

ASIAN AMERICAN video web pages.                                                                       http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/AsianAmvid.html

 Latino/Latino American

Quest for a Homeland . General background & New Mexico struggles.
The Struggle in the Fields. About United Farmworkers strike & boycott
Taking Back the Schools. About East Los Angeles high school boycotts. (Shown in class 10/15/02)
Fighting for Political Power. About La Raza Unida.

A DAY WITHOUT A MEICAN

Commissioned by Chicago's Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum as a half-hour short and expanded to feature length, Sergio Arau's mockumentary envisions the chaos that would ensue if every Mexican in California were to vanish without a trace. Athletes, undocumented farm workers, businessmen, television personalities, nannies, actors, busboys … all just gone. An eerie pink fog isolates the state from the rest of the world, the governor is unreachable in Washington and his second-in-command is among the vanished, so Senator Abercrombie (John Getz), who won his seat on an anti-immigration platform, becomes acting governor and must confront the truth head on.

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

Like Water for Chocolate, the new erotic Mexican film fable, is an impressive achievement. The film's title refers to the traditional Aztec means of making chocolate: the water must be at a furious boil to ensure the rich chocolate when the beans are thrown in. It's used as a metaphor to describe a person who's on the verge of boiling--actually sizzling. Set on the Mexican-Texan border, circa l9l0s, during the Mexican Revolution, the movie tells surrealistically the erotic and humorous tale of Tita (Lumi Cavazos), the youngest of three daughters of a nasty matriarch on a remote ranch. The handsome Pedro is passionately in love with Tita and wants to marry her. But there is an obstacle: Tradition dictates that the youngest daughter can never marry, because she has to cook and take care of her mother until she dies! To remain close to his true love, Pedro marries Tita's oldest sister.

 

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES  

The story of Ana (played by America Ferrera), a Latina teenager, during the summer of her 18th year. Ana is beautiful. Hourglass figure with melon breasts, full lips and long thick hair. She's intelligent and strong willed but is being held back by her family, especially her mother who constantly berates her because of her physical appearance. Most importantly this film's success and the success of the characters are not contingent on Ana losing weight and finding true love to be happy. Real Women Have Curves is a movie not only for Latina women but, for girls and women everywhere battling the views of others about how they should feel about their bodies.
 

ROBIN HOOD OF EL DORADO

Motion picture (1936) unusually sympathetic portrayal of the take over of California from the Mexican inhabitants and the courageous efforts of a Mexican farmer turned freedom fighter who leads an effort to resist this foreign occupation and conquest.

STAND AND DELIVER

Story of Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at East Los Angeles' Garfield High School, who refuses to write off his inner-city students as losers. Escalante pushes and inspires 18 students who were struggling with math to become math whizzes. The reaction of the high school examining board is a lesson in institutionalized racism.

LATINO WEB RESOURCES

http://www.ed.wright.edu/diversity/hispanicslatino.htm

  Indigenous American

BLACK ROBE (SCC)

Black robe; Samuel Goldwyn Company; Alliance Communications & Samson Productions present a Robert Lantos production. A young, idealistic Jesuit priest nicknamed Black Robe by his Algonquin Indian guides, is assigned to go up river into the Canadian wilderness to convert the Huron Indians. His young aide and translator, Daniel, falls in love with Annuka, the daughter of the Algonquin chief. Torn between his own desires and ideals of the priesthood, Laforgue's faith is tested, and his life and the outcome of the mission imperiled, as the expedition faces extinction.

IN THE WHITE MAN’S IMAGE

Boarding schools sponsored by the US government were established after the Civil War for Indian youth, taking away their language, names, memories, and cultural knowledge. . After the forced removal of children as young as six from their families and transporting them hundreds of miles away – these original Americans, now victimized by colonial subjugation, once formally educated, were cast into a "shadow world" between their indigenous and the Euro-American culture which continued to reject them as people of color.

THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE

This drama is set in 1935 when an orphaned eight-year-old Cherokee boy in Tennessee goes to live with his grandparents in the Smoky Mountains. Little Tree's Granma (Tantoo Cardinal) is determined to teach him "the way" — the Cherokee understanding of Spirit, nature, and family. Writer and director Richard Friedenberg has adapted Forest Carter's bestselling 1986 novel for the screen with a keen attention to its affirmation of Native American spirituality. There is fluidity and tenderness in Joseph Ashton's performance as Little Tree, an eager learner whose spirit is stifled when state authorities force him to attend Notched Gap Indian School. However, when the time is right, he makes his way home. The Education of Little Tree pays homage to the wisdom of spiritual elders who help us find our place in the world.

 

PAHASAPA (SCC)

The struggle for the Black Hills/ produced and directed by Mel Lawrence; Examines the relationship of Native Americans to the Black Hills as a sacred place. Explores the history of the Black Hills both before and during white settlement, and government relations with Native Americans since i.e. the theft of the sacred Black Hills by the US government from the first landlords.

THE WAY WEST I - IV  -American Experience (SCC)

(Television program) Episodes 1 - 4, Westward, the course of empire takes its way a Steeplechase film production in association with Channel Four Television; WGBH/Boston. Episode one charts the frantic opening decades of expansion, from the 1840s through the Civil War. In 1849, the Gold Rush sent hundreds of thousands of people rushing across the continent to California and Oregon. Thereafter, the ever-quickening pace of expansion would lead to a series of bloody confrontations between Native Americans and whites.

 

Middle Eastern

(THE) LAND AND THE PEOPLE (DR. J'S)

Another view of: Isreal’s occupation of Palestine revealing the unseen and largely unreported interaction between the occupier and the occupied.

(THE) ROAD TO WAR

(THE) SHELTERING SKY
Western World & Non-European Literature: Middle East

UMM KULTHUM

Non-European Cultures & Literatures: Middle East

WEDDING IN GALILEE


Non-European Cultures & Literatures: Middle East

WHERE IS THE FRIENDS HOME?


Non-European Cultures & Literatures: Middle East

 

Multiculturalism

AFFLUENZA (SCC)

Classism: -producers, John de Graaf, Vivia Boe; writer, John de Graaf ; a co-production of KCTS. Uses personal stories, expert commentary and old film clips to illustrate the causes and consequences of consumerism in American society.

AMERICAN History X (SCC)

This HBO video is not a comprehensive look at racism, hatred, or inner city violence however, it does examine the various ways these elements tear at the fabric of a family. The film emphasizes that actions have consequences, and that attaining redemption isn't as easy as saying "I'm sorry."  The price for learning lessons too late can be, and often is, brutal.

APOCOLYPSE NOW (SCC)

 Global Studies and War:   The Vietnam War seen through a medicated fog:    Apocalypse Now is an epic hallucination of the Vietnam War, based on Conrad's 'Heart Of Darkness'. Sheen's addled American captain Willard journeys through the jungle on a special mission to terminate flipped-out renegade US colonel Kurtz (Brando), who is waging his own, unsanctioned war with an army of locals, oddballs and AWOLs in Cambodia. But his mission becomes a screaming trip into madness, paved by a cast dragged from Hollywood's Narcotics Anonymous. Hopper plays a photojournalist disciple of Kurtz, while Duvall plays Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, a surf-obsessed maniac who rains down fire on Vietnamese villages to a soundtrack of Wagner's 'Ride Of The Valkyries'.

BEYOND HATE (SCC)

Hatred may play an important role in the human mind. Hatred is explored on a multi-national level and its origins sought. Bill Moyers serves as host.

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (SCC)

Bowling for Columbine; A Salter Street Films and VIF 2 production, a Dog Eat Dog Films production ; producer: Michael Moore. Special features include: exclusive interview with Michael Moore on his Oscar win and acceptance speech, "Return to Denver/Littleton" featurette, teacher's guide, Michael Moore's "Action Guide," "The Charlie Rose Show" with Michael Moore, music video, photo gallery, and more. Originally released as a motion picture in 2002. The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed.

BLUE EYED (SCC)

The social construction of isms: Jane Elliot’s, the teacher made famous for her exercises with school age children in the late 1960’s, now conducts a workshop with adults to raise their awareness and knowledge of the social construction of "isms" in US society.

(A ) CIVIL ACTION

Corporate Power and Oppression:   Jan Schlichtman, (John Travolta) a tenacious young lawyer, is confronted with the litigation of a lifetime in this unbelievable real-life story. Several families in the small town of Woburn, Massachusetts, have suffered the tragic losses of their children to the cancer known as leukemia. After having their claim rejected by most law firms in town, these citizens approach Schlichtmann with the possibility that the deaths of their children may have had to do with Woburn's drinking water supply being contaminated by a couple of local businesses. The rub lies in the fact that these businesses are offshoots of two of the most powerful national corporations in the country! Schlichtmann must push his skill and craftiness as a lawyer to the limit in order to oust his opponents, who are working with a limitless bankroll. Based on the great fact-based novel.

 

CRASH (SCC)

Racism collides with its targets during one thirty-six-hour period in Los Angeles. Alive with bracing human drama and blistering wit, the film benefits from the strong directing debut of Paul Haggis, the screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby. In the style of Magnolia, Haggis and co-writer Bobby Moresco weave many stories (too many) into the narrative. But the rage sticks, as do the emotions underlying it. The district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his wife (Sandra Bullock, Ludacris, Larenz Tate , Michael Pena, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Don Cheadle .  The acting is dynamite, notably by Dillon and Newton in their shocking second encounter. Despite its preachy moments, the film is a knockout. In a multiplex starved for ambition, why kick a film with an excess of it?
 

(THE) COLOR OF FEAR (SCC)  

Racism: The color of fear a film / by Lee Mun Wah ; produced and directed by Lee Mun Wah ; co-producer, Monty Hunter. Examines the pain and anguish that racism has caused in the lives of North American men of Asian, European, Latin and African descent. Out of their confrontations And struggles to understand and trust each other emerges an emotional and insightful portrayal into the type of dialogue most of us fear, but hope will happen in our lifetime.

THE INSIDER

Corporate Power:  Based on a 1995 Vanity Fair article, the film recounts how 60 Minutes commentator Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) and his producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) were blackballed into dumping a segment on tobacco-industry defector Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) because CBS execs were in the midst of a multibillion dollar merger with the corporation that owned Wigand.

 

IT’S ELEMENTARY (SCC)  

Homophobia: Exploration of the efforts to educate children in elementary and middle school about the issues faced by gays and lesbians. Questions of appropriate interventions with young children, teen suicide and vilolence related to sexual orientation, and how clear children can be as to the injustice of denying human and citizenship rights based upon one's sexual orientation. 

FAHRENHEIT 451  

Science Fiction: Social construction and control:
Based on the 1953 novel by Ray Bradbury about a society in which books become the most dangerous and feared thing. The story revolves around a professional whose job has become to burn books and how he is able to adjust his lens and "fight the powers that be".

FAHRENHEIT 911 (SCC)

Corporate Power and The Media: One of the most controversial and provocative films of the year, Fahrenheit 9/11 is Academy Award–winning filmmaker Michael Moore‘s angry examination of the Bush administration‘s actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11. Considering the presidency of George W. Bush and where it has led the U.S., he looks at how and why Bush and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saudi connection to 9/11, Bush‘s own connections to the family of Osama bin Laden and the background to the war in Iraq.
 

IN THE SHADOW OF THE REICH: Nazi medicine (SCC)

Multiple Oppression and State Power : The complicity of medical personnel in the torture and euthanasia of the "unfit"  differently-abled, homosexualas, Gypsies, Jews, Africans and others mostly in and also within European countries conquered by the facists during WWII. Excellent examples of the social construction and dehumanization of "the other".

Far From Heaven

A repressed housewife (Julianne Moore), a closeted gay husband (Dennis Quaid) and a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert) - in devious traps of Eisenhower-era racial, class and sexual conventions. A seemingly perfect '50s couple fall from a heaven of prosperity and prominence into a hell of secret deviance, taboos and social disgrace. As usual in this kind of story, a good woman suffers amid bourgeois splendor. The marriage and impeccable household of socialite Cathy Whitaker (Moore) and husband Frank (Quaid) is dissolving, as Frank succumbs more and more to a secret homosexual life in movie theaters and gay bars. As Frank strays, the devoted Cathy finds a possible consolation in her handsome gardener, Ray (Haysbert), an ideal lover in every way except - at least in the eyes of their genteel, bigoted neighbors - for his race.
 


OUT OF IRELAND
Immigration: The Irish coming to and arriving in America

PEOPLE LIKE US:  SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA (SCC)

Classism: Attitudes and indicators of class in America, great comparison of the attitudes of and about a range of classes within the US. Explores class socialization, attitudes, perceptions, and behavior.  

PHILADELPHIA (SCC)

Homophobia: Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in brillianlty acted roles as the injured plaintiff and reluctant lawyer going to trial to fight against corporate action taken against the plaintiff because of his categories. against a lawyer discovered to have AIDS. Excellent exploration of individual and corporate heterosexism.

 

Racism 101

Racism: The basics of racism and education in America.

SCHINDLER'S LIST (SCC)

Schindler's list an Amblin Entertainment production; producers, Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen and Branko Lustig ; director, Steven Spielberg; The true story of the enigmatic Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party & war profiteer, who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. Examines Nazi persecution primarily of European Jews and the efforts of an ally to assist those "others’ being persecuted.

(THE) SHADOW OF HATE (SCC)


 A film / by Charles Guggenheim; produced by Guggenheim Productions, Inc. for Teaching Tolerance, the Southern Poverty Law Center. A historical overview of religious, ethnic, and Racial intolerance in the United States, beginning with colonial times and continuing to the present day, and focusing on such atrocities as the 19th century massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, the World War Two internment of Japanese-Americans, and the Leo Frank lynching in Georgia in 1913.

SEARCHING FOR THE PROMISED LAND

American Multiculturalism: Immigrant Literature

SICKO (SCC)

Sicko" is Micheal Moore's best, most focused movie to date -- much more persuasive than "Fahrenheit 9/11 " -- and not just because the director turns the dial down on his own faux-folksy persona. Moore has a thesis he can get his arms around this time. Resolved: The US health-care system is a disaster, built to punish the sick and enrich corporations. Other countries do it better -- a lot better. Why is that, and how do we change? It's only on the last point that Moore falters. Go ahead, feel smug; you live in Massachusetts, where affordable universal insurance becomes law on Sunday. "Sicko" unleashes its scorn not just on insurance companies, but on HMOs, Big Pharma, and the politicians they own.

SOPHIE’S CHOICE (SCC)

ITC Films, Inc. Sophie Zawistowska, the tragic Polish Catholic beauty who, having survived Auschwitz, has settled in America after World War II. The time is 1947. Stingo, a 22 year-old aspiring writer from rural Virginia, is drawn to Sophie and Nathan--a madly romantic couple whose instability and flamboyance utterly capture this young man's imagination.

(THE) SPEECHES OF JOHN F. KENNEDY (SCC)

MPI Home Video; producer, Darrell Moore. John F. Kennedy was the first President to utilize the medium of television; every speech contained in this tape reverberates with his special charisma. You will see all the major addresses, from his 1960 Presidential campaign through his three controversial years in office.

WHO SHOT PRESIDENT KENNEDY?

Power and Privilege: Nova (Television program) Robert Richter Productions in association with WGBH Boston; Cataloged from contributor's data. Originally shown on the television program: Nova. Uses such sophisticated techniques as photo enhancement and computer modeling to help find out who may have really shot John Kennedy.



Women Studies

AGE OF INNOCENCE

American Literature, Women's Studies

DREAMWORLDS 2 (SCC)

Gender desire/sex/power in music video / written, edited & narrated by Sut Jhally. Warning: this video contains a very brutal and shocking scene of sexual violence. Cassette label. A controversial video that MTV tried to ban. Portrays the impact that sex and violence in media have on society and culture in our everyday life. Shows scenes from over 165 music videos to show how the media portrays masculinity, femininity, sex, and sex roles. Includes a scene of a brutal gang rape from the movie, The Accused.

(THE) GENDER WARS

 Produced by Partridge Films for The Learning Channel; written ... by Desmond Morris. Look at the recent struggle for equality between the sexes. Originally, there was a primitive balance between the sexes, but when people left the village for the city, the natural balance disappeared. Find out the origin of honeymoons and other tools of male dominance like wedding rings and female circumcision. Travel to Finland for the annual wife-carrying contest celebrating the capture of women from other villages. Follow the rise of feminism, from turn-of-the-century suffragettes to the National Organization for Women.

GREAT WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY

 Produced by Kevin Stead; script by Scott Harris. Why did Abigail Adams urge her husband to "remember the ladies"? Why was Harriet Tubman called the "Moses" of her people? Who founded the American RedCross? These are but a few of the questions answered in this video.

KILLING US SOFTLY I – III (SCC)

Women’s studies: Jean Killbourne’s video exposing how advertisers objectify girls and women targeting the entire society with their mainstream pornography. Information is given of the impact on the objectification of women on young girls and the financial motivations of the advertisement industry to continue to use women’s bodies to sell commodities.

MEN, SEX AND RAPE

ABC News special presentation; Peter Jennings reporting ; producer/director, Craig Leake. Title on cassette: Peter Jennings reporting: Men, sex and rape. This presentation explores the issues between men and women concerning rape, by listening and talking to men about rape.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

In 1931, three Aboriginal children are forcibly removed from their homes as part of a mandatory government program. The politically-influenced community system targeted half-castes, Australian children with white fathers and Aborigine mothers. The government, largely personified here by the prim Mr. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), seeks to appeal to the kids’ white blood, fostering values and cultural lessons that would benefit the children in their adult years. Three bi-racial girls, however, want no part of it after being transported 1,200 miles away to the government camps.   When the opportunity arises, Molly convinces her sister and cousin to run, not realizing how far from home they are.
 

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES  


The story of Ana (played by America Ferrera), a Latina teenager, during the summer of her 18th year. Ana is beautiful. Hourglass figure with melon breasts, full lips and long thick hair. She's intelligent and strong willed but is being held back by her family, especially her mother who constantly berates her because of her physical appearance. Most importantly this film's success and the success of the characters are not contingent on Ana losing weight and finding true love to be happy. Real Women Have Curves is a movie not only for Latina women but, for girls and women everywhere battling the views of others about how they should feel about their bodies.

 

ROSIE THE RIVETER

Women's Studies:  During World War II, an important social transformation took place in American society. As men left for the armed forces, millions of moms, daughters, and sisters joined the labor force working in factories due to the high demand of wartime productions. Features newsreels, propaganda, documentaries, movies, music, and humor from that period to show how traditional American ideals, lifestyles, morals, and ethics changed dramatically during World War II

WHALE RIDER (SCC)

South Pacific Pictures, in association The New Zealand Film Production Fund, The New Zealand Film Commission. The Whangara people believe their ancestor Paikea was saved from drowning by riding home on the back of a whale. The tribal group has since granted leadership positions to the first-born males, believing them to be descendants of Paikea. But then a young mother dies in childbirth along with her newborn male son. His twin sister survives and the little girl, Pai, is brought up by her grandparents. Learning the skills of chiefdom from her uncle, Pai shows that she possess a natural leadership ability.