Miscellaneous Subjects

All American High (60 min.)
HQ796 .A48 1986
Summary: "Captures on film a uniquely American experience - senior year in a suburban high school. Seen through the eyes of a foreign exchange student from Finland, the rites of passage that are familiar to every high school student in the U.S. take on an exotic flavor. From the first day of the year to the Senior Prom, [the film] presents new perspectives on the timeless social rituals of educational institutions in the United States" -- Container.

The American Ruling Class: A Dramatic-Documentary-Musical (90 min.)
HN90.E4 A44 2007
Summary: Is there an American ruling class, and if so, how do you join? Two hapless Yale grads embark on a star-studded journey of meetings with America’s establishment to unearth some uncomfortable answers and find out the truth about what the future really holds for them.

And the Pursuit of Happiness (81 min.)
JV6455 .A83 2007
Summary: "In 1986, Louis Malle (himself a transplant to the United States) set out to investigate the ever widening range of immigrant experience in America. Interviewing a variety of newcomers in middle- and working-class communities from coast to coast, Malle paints a generous, humane portrait of their individual struggles in an increasingly polyglot nation" -- Container.

Big Mama (40 min.)
HQ759.9 .S47 2001
Summary: "This film follows an 89-year-old grandmother [Viola Dees] for over a year as she struggles to prove to the Los Angeles child welfare system that she can care for her 9-year-old grandson [Walter Dees]" -- Opening screens.

The Big Sellout (95 min.)
HF1359 .B54 2006
Summary: "Traveling throughout both the developing and industrialized world, [the film] brings us face-to-face with the architects of the reigning world economic order, as well as with the people bearing the brunt of their policies. Shows how international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank demand draconian cuts in public spending, the privatization of public services and market liberalization as the path to economic development" -- Container. Shot on location between March 2003 and July 2005 in Bolivia, Great Britain, the USA, the Phillipines and South Africa

Boom: The Sound of Eviction (96 min.)
HT177.S38 B66 2002
Summary: Documentary that looks at the relationship between the dot-com boom and community displacement and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area in particular the Mission District. Examines how developers have come in and evicted long term tenants for short term investments. Includes interviews with senior citizens and families that have been evicted, dot-com workers, developers, the Mayor, and the community that challenged their new economic order.

Cashing In On Culture: Indigenous Communities and Tourism (29 min.)
G156.5.E26 H37 2002
Summary: Examines the issues and problems of ecotourism. Focuses on the Quechua-speaking Indians in Ecuador and looks at the cultural, economic and environmental issues for both indigenous communities and tourists.

China and Human Rights (40 min.)
JC599.C6 C55 2002
Summary: Includes excerpts from Escape from China, which provides the personal story of a leader of the Tiananmen Square uprising. Also includes analysis of the "most-favored-nation" US-China controversy and footage from inside a Chinese "slave ship" bound for New York.

A Conversation with Sue Rosser, Ph.D.; A Conversation with David Sadker, Ph.D. (60 min.)
LC212.82.C66 2001
Summary: In two separate interviews, Sue Rosser and David Sadker discuss methods to combat discriminatory practices in secondary education, focusing on the roles of guidance counselors.

Counseling the Multiracial Population: Couples, Individuals, Families (74 min.)
BF637.C6 C667 2002
Summary: Includes live counseling demonstrations with interracial couples, multiracial individuals, and multiracial families including a cross-racial adoptive family and cross-racial adoptee.

Cui-Heng: Generating China in Eleven Passages (42 min.)
JS7353.A2 C85 1993
Summary: Provides glimpses of the changing China, as typified by the modernization of the village of Cui-Heng in the Pearl River Delta: 1. Street edge passages -- 2. Wall passages -- 3. The Hitchcock passage: an excursion into banality -- 4. Ancestors' passages -- 5. Market passages -- 6. Coca-Cola passages -- 7. Acceleration passages -- 8. Museum passages -- 9. Learning passages -- 10. Style passages -- 11. The swing passage.

Culturally-competent Counseling and Therapy 2 videocassettes (160 min.)
RC455.4.E8 C86 1999
Summary: A series of vignettes demonstrating innovative approaches for multi-cultural counseling from culture specific perspectives.
Contents: [v. 1.] pt. 1 Innovative approaches to counseling African descent people (37 min.) -- pt. 2 Innovative approaches to counseling Asian-American people (37 min.) -- [v. 2.] pt. 3 Innovative approaches to counseling Latina/Latino people (25 min.) -- pt. 4 Innovative approaches to counseling Native American Indian people (34 min.) -- pt. 5 Innovative approaches from a White perspective (27 min.).

Difficult Dialogues (27 min.)
LB1033.5.D54 2000
Summary: Illustrates how nurturing honest inquiry and exchange among students has become an increasingly critical skill for instructors. Viewers will learn from faculty who are experienced in teaching multicultural curricula.

Escape from China (58 min.)
DS779.32 .E73 1993
Summary: Dramatization of the story of Zhang Boli, one of the 21 student leaders of the 1989 student democratic movement in Beijing, China that was crushed by military force. Describes his role in the movement, how he went into hiding for two years, and his escape to the U.S.

Fighting for a Breath (26 min.)
RC773 .F54 1995
Summary: Discusses how coal mining causes black lung disease and the struggle of victims of the disease to obtain black lung benefits.

For Man Must Work, or, The End of Work (52 min.)
HD6331 .F65 2000
Summary: Discusses how in the global economy, human resources are being replaced by technology, ending the mass labor force era and moving toward creating an elite corps of workers in the knowledge sector. Visits people with deteriorating living and working conditions in the United States, Canada, France, and Mexico.

From Swastika to Jim Crow (60min.)
LC2781.F765 2002
Summary: Before and during the Second World War Jewish scholars who escaped Nazi Germany and immigrated to the U.S. faced an uncertain future. Confronted with anti-Semitism at major universities and a public distrust of foreigners, a surprising number secured teaching positions at historically Black colleges in the South. In many cases they formed lasting relationships with their students and had an important impact on the communities in which they lived. This is a story of two cultures, each sharing a burden of oppression, brought together by the tragic circumstances of war.

Global Cities:Immigration and the World Ecomony (26 min.)
JV6217 .G56 2004 Disc 6
Summary: "The globalization of the world’s economy has brought about massive shifts in population--some welcomed, some meeting fear and resistance. This high-energy series tours five cities where such changes are evident, gathering perspectives from New York, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, and Mexico City. It also studies America’s increasingly divisive national debate over immigration."--Container.

Guidance Counselors Share Strategies for Encouraging Girls in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology in their Schools (58 min.)
LC212.82.G85 2001
Summary: David Sadker and four public school guidance counselors discuss the strategies that counselors and teachers can use to ensure gender fair school environments and assist girls and young women in making good academic and career choices regarding the fields of science, mathematics, and engineering. From the series Counseling for Gender Equity

Homeless in Paradise (50 min.)
HV4506.S36 H66 2006
Summary: Looks at some of the harder questions surrounding homelessness in Santa Monica, California (where the homeless make up 2-5% of the total population) by focusing on the stories of four affected people. As they survive on the streets, Rick, Donna, Simon, and Faye struggle with addiction and mental illness, while receiving support from a city in crisis. Experiencing homelessness through their eyes, we will come to understand a political and social system that draws controversy from all sides of the political arena.

Human Rights Commission: Human Wrongs Commission? (26 min.)
JC571 .H86 2002
Summary: Discusses the effectiveness of the United Nations in enforcing human rights and their inclusion of human rights violators in the Human Rights Commission governing body. Includes an extensive interview with Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In Our Own Image (41min.)
RB155.6 .I5 2004
Summary: A documentary on the ethical dilemmas faced by families with hereditary disorders whether or not to have a child who will inherit their disorder. Discusses how society deals with people who are "different," and the ethics of preventing children with certain genes from being born.

Inside America: Scenes of Everyday Life (4 videocassettes, 150 min. total)
E169.1 .I57 1999, pt.1-4
Summary: This video series introduces the viewer to American culture and institutions, such as the American government, employment in America, the various regional cultures, and traditional holidays.
Tape 1. (units 1-4) Services to the public – American government -- Growing up in America -- The school system
Tape 2. (units 5-7) Getting a job – Working -- Leisure
Tape 3. (units 8-10) The East coast -- The heartland -- The West
Tape 4. (units 11-13) Holidays (January-June) -- Holidays (July-November) -- The holiday season.

Kina Abner Sig = China Opens Up (28 min.)
NX180.C44 K56 2001
Summary: A view of China in transition through the eyes of its intelligentsia as they address the issue of freedom of expression and censorship. Among them are an author, a film director, a journalist, a dramatist, a composer and an artist each offering widely differing opinions about China's future. Some have developed into entrepreneurs, others still long for communism in its purest form. Artistic freedom is no longer considered as a force that threatens the system and there is a growing understanding in China that the state-sanctioned arts of the communist era are simplistic and irrelevant.

Mardi Gras: Made in China (73 min.)
HD9736.C62 M37 2006
Summary: Filmed on location in Fuzhou, China and New Orleans, Louisiana, the film follows "The Bead Trail" backwards from the bacchanalia at Mardi Gras to the factories in Fuzhou where the beads are made. The film comments on the inequities of globalization by Illuminating the clash of cultures by juxtaposing American excess and consumer culture against the harsh life of the Chinese factory worker.

Le Mozart Noir (53 min.)
DC137.5.S35 M69 2005
Summary: "Few people know that in 18th century France, a black man became not only an internationally recognized composer, but also a director of France’s leading orchestras. Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was born in Guadeloupe c.1739 to a slave mother and a French colonist father who brought the family to France when he was ten. His remarkable life story is recounted in this film, which shows how he overcame the adversities of class, race and society to distinguish himself as a violinist, composer and conductor. His musical compositions inspired Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven." -- Container.

Life and Debt (86 min.)
HC154 .L54 2003
Summary: This documentary portrays the relationship between Jamaican poverty and the practices of international lending agencies, such as the IMF, while addressing the consequences of globalization.

Love & Diane (154min.)
HV5833.N45 L688 2002
Summary: In the 1980s, the crack epidemic in American inner cities left a generation of parents addicted and their children in a cycle of foster care and group homes. This film documents one New York City family's struggle to become a family again ten years after their separation. Focuses on Diane, a former addict, and her daughter, Love, who is HIV positive and fighting for custody of her newborn son.

Mad Hot Ballroom (106 min)
GV1799 .M23 2005
Summary: In 1994, a ballroom dancing program was developed for New York City public schools that today has over 6,000 kids from 60 schools involved. Each year the program culminates with a competition for 10-11 year olds. This film follows students from three New York City public schools as they learn traditional ballroom styles in preparation for the competition. In doing so, the film documents the diverse cultural backgrounds and social conditions of the children, as well as how they develop friendships amongst one another.

Make Me a Match (60 min.)
BM713 .M35 2001
Summary: A look at the various methods modern Jewish singles use to meet & attract a mate, combining new technologies with centuries-old traditions to increase their chances of success.

Mark Hertsgaard on the World’s Love/Hate Relationship with America (37 min.)
E840.2 .M37 2004
Summary: Bill Moyers talks with journalist and author Mark Hertsgaard, who traveled the globe gauging foreigners’ ambivalence towards the United States. Hertsgaard shares his findings, published in his book, The eagle’s shadow : why America fascinates and infuriates the world, and comments on how America’s role is changing in the wake of September 11th. Originally broadcast on Dec. 13, 2002 as a segment of the television program Now with Bill Moyers.

Minefield: The United States and the Muslim World (44min.)
DS35.74.U6 M56 2001
Summary: Peter Jennings gives a tour of the political, religious, and cultural complexities of the Islamic world, by giving a country-by relations with the United States. A variety of diplomatic and military experts offer commentary.

Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night (27 min.)
HD2365 .N35 2005
Summary: A documentary film about the outsourcing of American jobs to India, as told from the perspective of an Indian immigrant living in the United States. Focuses especially on the cultural and linguistic training received by Indian employees in telephone-based industries.

Navajo Film Themselves (3 videocassettes, 45 min. each)
E99.N3 N337 1980 no.1-3
Summary: Silent films made by Navajo Native Americans living in or near the community of Pine Springs, Arizona. They were taught how to use the equipment, and they chose the subjects and aspects of themselves they wanted to express.
1. Two of a group of silent films made by Navajo Native Americans. Intrepid shadows is a highly symbolic look at the role that shadows play in Navajo religion. The Navajo silversmith documents the stages a Navajo silversmith goes through to produce a finished piece.
2. Three of a group of silent films made by Navajo Native Americans. A Navajo weaver follows Alta Kahn as she completes all of the necessary steps to weaving a blanket, from shearing the sheep to the actual weaving process. Old Antelope Lake showcases the various activities that occur around the lake, particularly focusing on a young man who lives near the lake. A third, untitled movie shows another woman completing the weaving process.
3. Two of a group of silent films made by Navajo Americans. The first film is about the digging of a water well. The second shows the preparations for a healing ceremony, from gathering plants to making sand paintings, and the actual ceremony.

The New Asylums (57 min)
RC451.4.P68 N49 2005
Summary: Fewer than 55,000 Americans currently receive treatment in psychiatric hospitals. Meanwhile, almost 10 times that number, nearly 500,000, mentally ill men and women are serving time in jails and prisons in the United States. As sheriffs and prison wardens become the unexpected and often ill-equipped caretakers of this burgeoning population, they raise a troubling new concern: have America’s jails and prisons become its new asylums? This program goes inside Ohio’s state prison system to explore the complex and growing issue of mentally ill prisoners.

Outriders (56 min.)
HC110.P6O98 1999
Summary: Beginning in June 1998, members of the Philadelphia-based Kensington Welfare Rights Union take a thirty-day bus trip across country to collect stories of the poor, homeless, and unemployed to be presented as evidence to the United Nations of economic human rights violations by the U.S. government.

Postville: When Cultures Collide (56min.)
F630.J5 P67 2001
Summary: Tells the story of how a small Iowa town (population 1,500) is dealing with multiculturalism. More than 300 Hasidic Jews relocated to Postville, Iowa from New York City and opened a kosher meat processing plant, where they employed approximately 400 Mexican immigrant employees. This program explores the struggles and rewards of multicultural communities possess.

Public Memory (58min.)
E159.P83 2003
Summary: Discusses the design, meaning and purpose of public memorials built to commemorate wars and tragedies. This documentary asks: why do are others forgettable, what do they really mean, and all memorials a specific group of memorials, including: the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Pan Am Flight 103 Memorial Cairn, the African-American lynching monument (the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial), among others. Examines what we can learn from controversial issues involved in memorializing the victims of crimes against humanity and terrorism.

A Question of Fairness (58min.)
HC110.I5 Q47 2004
Summary: Bill Moyers investigates the growing gap between rich and poor in the United States by focusing on three cases: the impact of the collapse of WorldCom due to the financial deregulation in the 1990s; and the attempt to reform Alabama's state income tax system.

Reducing Poverty: What Have We Done? (28min.)
HB171.E3162 2003 no.24
Summary: Examines the causes of income inequality and the role of social welfare policy. Analyzes government policies to reduce poverty.

Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border (26 min.)
F790.M5 R54 2005
Summary: This documentary shows the continuum between official border militarization and vigilante action. It tells the story of border tensions from the point of view of those affected and reveals the underlying motivations of the vigilantes through interviews and footage of their nighttime patrols.

Seeing is Believing : Handicams, Human Rights, & the News (59min.)
TR882.S44 2002
Summary: Discusses the history of the camcorder and illuminates the work and words of international journalists and media activists. Highlights the story of Joey Lozano who documents abuses against indigenous people in the Philippines; but does his work prevent violence of jeopardize lives?

Shadows in the Sun (57 min.)
D767.95 .S53 1995
Summary: Follows a group of Japanese war veterans and the survivors of the war dead on a visit to grave sites in Papua New Guinea. The veterans recall horrors of the New Guinea campaign, while the widows and the surviving children lament Japanese aggression and the sad fate of the war dead.

Slavery: A Global Investigation (79 min.)
HD4861 .S53 2000
Summary: This documentary explores the subject of modern day slavery as seen in four countries. In some villages of India, children are stolen from their families and are put to work making carpets and rugs. On the Ivory Coast of West Africa, young men are sold into slavery to work on cocoa plantations. The abuse of domestic workers in Washington D.C. and London, England is presented as well.

Survivors: Being Homeless in America (26 min.)
HV4505.S87 2001
Summary: Through interviews with homeless people, former homeless people, counselors, and social workers, this documentary examines homelessness in the United States. Discusses how physical and emotional abuse of children can lead to psychological problems that may end in a person being homeless. Challenges many of the stereotypes regarding the homeless and discusses the difficulties in recovering from being homeless.

Sweating for a T-shirt (23 min)
HD2339.H6 S94 1999
Summary: UCLA freshman Arlen Benjamin-Gomez and her mother Medea travel to Honduras to investigate unfair working conditions and practices of the clothing industry in factories owned by large Western companies, which sell billions of dollars of clothes in college stores. Executives and workers in Honduras give their views, and stateside, college students are interviewed about their level of awareness. Examples of effective action are presented.

T-shirt Travels (57 min.)
HD9940.Z33 T27 2001
Summary: What happens to all those old clothes you bring to the Salvation Army or Goodwill Industries? This comprehensive program is about Third World debt and secondhand clothes. The filmmaker traveled to Zambia and was amazed to find almost everyone wearing Calvin Klein, MTV and James Dean t-shirts. Huge bales of American secondhand clothing are sold to African importers, putting the African manufacturers out of business.

Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: The Other Side of Outsourcing (46min.)
HC435.2 .T56 2004
Summary: New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman examines how people, businesses, and governments are affected by the outsourcing of knowledge-based jobs. Mr. Friedman visits Bangalore, India to see how culture, government, geography, and economics came together to make the employees are trained to speak with American accents and catch phrases, Anglicized name for themselves to use while on the phone with operations that are being outsourced, such as high tech animation and video game production companies. Several people tell Friedman how community contributed to the easing of recent political tensions between India and Pakistan. Friedman notes that some have responded to the American influx with anger and violence, while many Indians have incorporated elements of the American way of life into their own lives while still maintaining their own values and culture. Friedman concludes that the spread of American culture is potentially making the world a safer and more stable place.

U.S.: China, Trade and Human Rights (28 min.)
HF1733.C5 U54 2002
Summary: Focuses on China's attempts to demonstrate "significant overall progress" in their human rights policies in order to receive "Most-Favored-Nation" status by the United States.

Vaquero: the Forgotten Cowboy (28 min.)
F395.M5 V37 2005
Summary: A look at the lives and culture of a small group of vaqueros living in South Texas.
Special feature: "La mujer en el rancho" (1993, 10 min.), a documentary film that examines the role of women in the ranching culture of South Texas from 1750 to the present.

Vartan Gregorian: Living in the Information Age (26 min.)
LC191.4.V37 1994
Summary: Brown University President Varton Gregorian shares his views on the information age and how education must show a direct connection between this information and life.

Visiones (180 min.)
N6538.H58 V57 2004
Summary: A look at the contributions of Latinos to the American artistic scene.
Contents: Disc 1. Episode 1. Nuyorican spoken word -- Episode 2. Miriam Colón ; Santeros -- Episode 3. La Virgen de Guadalupe; Willie Varela -- Disc 2. Episode 4. Rokafella’s hip hop ; The Miami sound ; Rudy Perez -- Episode 5. Taco shop poets ; The art of performance -- Episode 6. [Untitled].

We Feed the World (96 min.)
HD9000.5 .W4 2007 Summary: "Close to a billion of the nearly seven billion people on earth are starving today. But the food we are currently producing could feed 12 billion people. This is a film about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, the flow of goods and cash flow - a film about scarcity amid plenty"--Container.

The World According to Sesame Street (100 min.)
PN1992.77.S43 W67 2006
Summary: “Explores the behind-the-scenes drama, challenges, and rewarding outcome of producing local versions of the world’s most watched children’s television program. The film follows dedicated Sesame producers around the globe as they team with local producers to bring to life the shows in Bangladesh, Kosovo and South Africa" -- Container.

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