What's New (and Some HIGHLIGHTS) in Academic Video Online
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July 2021 Editor's Picks
World History
Shoah Twelve years in the making, SHOAH is Claude Lanzmann’s monumental epic on the Holocaust and features interviews with survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators in 14 countries. The film does not contain any historical footage but rather features interviews which seek to “reincarnate” the Jewish tragedy and also visits places where the crimes took place. It grew out of Lanzmann’s concern that the genocide perpetrated only 40 years earlier was already retreating into the mists of time, and that atrocity was becoming sanitized as History. His massive achievement – at once epic and intimate, immediate and definitive – is a triumph of form and content that reveals hidden truths while rewriting the rules of documentary filmmaking.
Thirty-five years after its original release, SHOAH remains nothing less than essential. (FILM PLATFORM) (Canada, United States Only)
Classical Music
One Voice: The Story of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir One Voice illuminates a group of people from diverse faiths, races, genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, and lifestyles, all with a common goal: to bring joy and inspiration to the stage through black gospel music. By coming from a place of inclusion and acceptance, choir members are able to bridge their differences, embracing the celebrations and challenges that arise along the way. (Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir) (worldwide)
Political Science | Comparative Government | Current Events
Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists The West Bank has been the white-hot center of global religious and political unrest for decades. Now, a subculture of Jewish ultra-nationalists are considering it their obligation to populate some of its most sensitive areas. In this film, the British filmmaker gets close to the people most involved with driving this extreme movement, finding them warm, humorous - and deeply troubling. (BBC) (worldwide)
LGBT Studies
- The Trans List The Trans List, directed by portrait photographer and filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and with interviews by trans author and advocate Janet Mock, explores the range of experiences lived by Americans who identify as transgender (an umbrella term for people whose gender identity does not conform to that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth). No two experiences of trans people are exactly alike. (Perfect Day Films) (worldwide)
- The Lodge This is a story about the first-of-its kind LGBTQ retirement community. The Lodge looks inside this unique experiment in gay/straight living to show us the daily lives, hopes, and fears of people in their 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. What you discover will surprise you. (Pam Walton Productions) (worldwide)
COVER/AGE The Affordable Care Act explicitly denies undocumented immigrants access to healthcare. While laws in California have now made healthcare available for undocumented young people, undocumented adults continue to be excluded. COVER/AGE follows an elderly caregiver and a policy advocate in the campaign to expand healthcare to include all people, regardless of immigration status or age. (Pawikan Films) (worldwide)
Health | Global Issues
Witness to the Pandemic: Acts of Heroism CNN correspondents report on the escalating public health crisis and meet the men and women who perform daily acts of heroism in an effort to save as many lives as possible. (CNN) (Worldwide)
Biology | Chemistry
Secrets in our DNA Millions have sent their DNA to be analyzed by private companies, which are revealing customers' ancestry and family connections, and reporting health risks. But what are the pitfalls and unintended consequences of sharing genetic data? (PBS) (North America)
Explore different facets of the popular sports competing in The Games this month with Academic Video Online.
- Boxing Game Face (Passion River Films) (worldwide)
- Olympics Newsreels Take a look back to past Olympics (worldwide)
- Putin’s Games (BBC) (worldwide)
- Freedom’s Fury (Fortissimo Films) (Excluding Angola; Cape Verde; Guinea-Bissau; Mozambique; Portugal; Sao Tome and Principe)
- Sports (BBC) (worldwide)
- Sports (CNN) (worldwide)
| Relevant to 2020 Academic Video Online customers: The annual Build by Choice selection process is now open! Each year, at no additional cost, you gain perpetual rights to eligible streaming video titles of your choice. Making your selections is simple. Do it right from our Admin Portal, with usage statistics to help guide your choices. And don’t forget – PBS content is now part of this program. |
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June 2021 Editor's Picks
Environmental Studies | Politics and Current Affairs
Climate Change Babies An inspiring film for trailblazing mothers and parents around the world takes a hopeful approach to the climate crisis by focusing on people taking action to secure a better future for their children. (Monde Films) (worldwide)
Anthropology | Women’s Studies
"Gray Is The New Blonde" is an award-winning documentary about the outdated views and attitudes towards women with gray hair. This empowering film will explore how the world has negatively viewed women with gray hair and more importantly how this is changing. (2020) (worldwide)
Disabilities Studies
WHEN I STUTTER reveals the humanity that exists within people who stutter. Over the course of nearly 5 years, this documentary shares the stories of nineteen people who stutter that run the range of human emotion from despair to hopefulness to ultimately, triumph. (Collective Eye) (worldwide)
Performing Arts | Theatre
Free Theatre: The 37-Year Experiment The inside story of Free Theatre: the colourful and controversial theatre company in Christchurch, New Zealand, which has been creating extraordinary productions for 37 years. The group has specialised in physical theatre, innovative forms of European drama, and collaborations with music and the visual arts. Since the Christchurch earthquakes it has developed new styles of performance to involve the community and interact with the city’s devastated landscapes. (Point of View Productions) (worldwide)
Art | Photography
Peter Peryer: The Art of Seeing For four decades Peryer pioneered and championed the art of photography and created a major body of work. The film has been described as 'a masterclass in photography' and a great testament to this artist's life. (Point of View Productions) (worldwide)
Allied Health | Health Policy | Nursing
Life Interrupted is a candid and intimate portrayal of life after a breast cancer diagnosis. Three unique survivors–including the filmmaker herself–journey from diagnosis through treatment, and life beyond. (Paula Mozen) (worldwide)
Black Studies | Media Studies
Mr. Soul An engrossing and emotional look into the life and times of Elias Haizlip, the visionary tv producer and host, whose groundbreaking show “Shout!” brought the many voices of African American culture to the forefront of mainstream media. (Film Platform) (worldwide)
- “Who’s on Top?” (narrated by George Takei) is the emotional story of members of the LGBTQ community who challenge stereotypes about gender and sexuality and demonstrate their diverse journeys in overcoming physical and figurative mountains. (Collective Eye) (worldwide)
- Ahead of the Curve Playing now in theatres is the inspiring real-life tale of Franco Stevens: revolutionary publisher and LGBTQ+ icon. Ahead of the Curve is a timely look into the courage, initiative and unbreakable hope behind the ground-breaking publication "Curve". This pre-internet magazine, dedicated to lesbian lifestyle, helped to pave the way to a more tolerant media landscape and its profound effects are felt to this day. (FILM PLATFORM) (worldwide)
- TransMilitary The 2018 SXSW Audience Award-winning feature film debut by Gabriel Silverman, Fiona Dawson, & Jamie Coughlin, TransMilitary follows the Emmy-nominated short film Transgender, at War and in Love. TransMilitary chronicles the lives of four individuals defending their country’s freedom while fighting for their own. They put their careers and their families’ livelihoods on the line by coming out as transgender to top brass officials in the Pentagon in hopes of attaining the equal right to serve. (worldwide)
- Tove Set from 1944 to 1956, the Swedish-language film shows how painter Tove Jansson finds worldwide success from an unexpected side project, in the midst of artistic struggles and an unconventional personal life. (Juno Films) (U.S. only)
- Literature: Hemingway Straight from the TV to your classrooms enjoy this 3 part PBS series. (North America)
- Black Studies | Language: Talking Black in America Follow the unique circumstances of the descendants of American slaves and their incredible impact on American life and language. (The Language & Life Project at NC State Univ.) (worldwide rights)
- Social Work: I Rise Go inside the lives of people working to create an antiracist American future. They film themselves doing the work, confronting the obstacles and achieving the victories that could add up to real change in the movement for racial justice. (PBS) (North America)
- Environmental Studies: River’s End Explore the global water crisis, using California as a microcosm. Learn how water politics that led to the draining of the Owens Valley by Los Angeles, made famous by the film Chinatown, continue to this day in ongoing efforts to take ever more water from Northern California's San Francisco Bay estuary. Except this time, the water grab is at the hands of industrial agriculture and its powerful corporate investors. (Film Platform) (worldwide rights)
- Business: Remote Working: How to Get It Right (The Economist) (worldwide rights)
- Education: Majority Minority: The Resegration of Public Schools (Florida State University) (worldwide rights)
- 9 additional films from California Newsreel including The Raising of America Series By the producers of Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? and RACE - The Power of an Illusion, is the ground-breaking documentary series, online learning hub and public engagement campaign which reframes the way Americans look at early child health and development. It illustrates how a strong start for all our kids leads not only to better learning, earning, and physical and mental health but also to a healthier, safer, better educated, more prosperous nation. (worldwide rights)
- Yellow Brotherhood
- A Family Gathering
- Death of a Shaman
- In No One’s Shadow: Filipinos in America
- and more.
Academic Video Online supports the research and teaching in the disciplines of behavioral and mental health, including video of therapy sessions, documentaries on the human condition, and educational video on the history of mental health and wellbeing. #MAHM. Highlights include:
- Bedlam Mental illness is not something most people are eager to talk about. Through intimate stories of patients, families, and medical providers, BEDLAM immerses us in America’s national crisis surrounding care of the severely mentally ill. Filmed over five years, it brings us inside one of the nation’s busiest psychiatric emergency rooms, into jails where psychiatric patients are warehoused, and to the homes – and homeless encampments – of mentally ill members of our communities. (FILM PLATFORM) (worldwide rights)
- Resilience The original research was controversial, but the findings revealed the most important public health findings of a generation. This documentary delves into the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the birth of a new movement to treat and prevent Toxic Stress. Now understood to be one of the leading causes of everything from heart disease and cancer to substance abuse and depression, extremely stressful experiences in childhood can alter brain development and have lifelong effects on health and behavior. (FILM PLATFORM) (worldwide rights)
- Bullied traces bullying and the effects of bullying, but also the methods and programs that have proven efficacious in reducing bullying in schools. From those people who live with the scars of having been bullied to those families who now grieve the loss of their child to suicide in the wake of brutal acts of bullying, the film examines the reasons why people bully and the fallout that occurs from that bullying. (Tom Kat Films) (worldwide rights)
- Diagnosing Mental Health Disorders: DSM-5™ and ICD-10 21 videos on mental health disorders from anxiety to neurocognitive disorders. (Microtraining Associates) (worldwide rights)
Newly added from PBS (North America only)
Education | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Dropout Nation A troubling and inspiring journey through the maze of an inner city high school, Dropout Nation investigates the causes, challenges, and potential solutions of a national emergency.
Astronomy | STEM
Mars 2020 NASA launches its most ambitious hunt for traces of life on Mars, landing a rover in a rocky, ancient river delta. The rover will stow samples for possible return to Earth and test technology that may pave the way for human travel to Mars.
Black Studies | Business & Economics
- BOSS: The Black Experience in Business From award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson comes a film that educates, informs, and examines more than 150 years of African American men and women who have embodied the qualities that are the heart of the American entrepreneurial spirit. (PBS)
- Finding Your Roots (Season 7) includes episodes on Glenn Close, Andy Cohen, Clint Black, Jane Lynch and more.
Human: The World Within (Season 1) includes episodes on Birth, Defend, Fuel, Pulse, React and Sense.
New from BBC (worldwide rights)Politics & Current Affairs
The Trump Show (3 episodes) When Donald Trump became president of the most powerful nation on Earth, he brought a bold new approach, honed from a career as a reality TV star and smart-talking businessman. The results turned the political world upside down.
Environmental Studies
A Perfect Planet (5 episodes) including Humans, Oceans, The Sun, Volcano, and Weather
Health Policy | Health Care Administration | EMT
Paramedics: On the Front Line, Series 4 (9 episodes)
Celebrate Earth Month
- KISS the Ground Directed by Josh and Rebecca Tickell. Narrated and featuring Woody Harrelson, Kiss the Ground is an inspiring and groundbreaking film that reveals the first viable solution to our climate crisis. Tribeca Film Festival, 2020 (FILM PLATFORM) (worldwide rights)
- Seeding Change 20 years ago, a young group of social entrepreneurs joined a movement to change the world through the pursuit of an alternative economic model and practice of conscious commerce. Seeding Change is about "triple bottom line" businesses that consider the social, environmental and financial impacts of their companies and address some of today’s most challenging issues. The award-winning documentary, Seeding Change, empowers viewers to be part of the solution by voting with their dollars and supporting the brands and products that align with their values. (FILM PLATFORM) (worldwide rights)
- Bill Gates On Tackling Climate Change And The Ongoing Pandemic Response Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has studied climate change for years, and he has prescriptions in his latest book, "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster." He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss. (NewsHour Productions) (worldwide rights)
- Heartland Local Food This film explores what makes food sustainable, how farmers’ markets build community, and why local food matters. By highlighting stories from several Kansas farmers, this documentary explores the challenges of growing food in ethical and sustainable ways. (Ozark Firefly Pictures) (North America only)
- MLK/FBI A sobering, unprecedented look into the FBI’s secret war against Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. Based on recently declassified files, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sam Pollard explores the US government's surveillance and harassment of one history’s most revered leaders. (FILM PLATFORM) (U.S./Canada)
- The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights The Powerbroker portrays the life of Whitney Young, once called “the inside man of the black revolution.” As Executive Director of the National Urban League from 1961 to 1971, he helped thousands of people struggling against discrimination. The Powerbroker chronicles the public and private trials of a man navigating a divided society in an explosive time. (Filmakers Library) (worldwide rights)
- Surge follows the record number of first-time female candidates in the historic, barrier breaking 2018 midterm elections, who ran and won due to their courageous vision of social justice, inclusivity, and female empowerment. (FILM PLATFORM) (worldwide rights)
- Black Like Me (PBS) (North America)
- The Area (Grasshopper Film) (North America)
- Bringin’ in Da Spirit (Third World Newsreel) (worldwide rights)
- How I Got Over (The Video Project) (worldwide rights)
- A Class Divided (PBS) (North America)
- A Dream Is What You Wake Up From (Third World Newsreel) (worldwide rights)
- More…
Magnolia Pictures is a leading independent film distributor with high-profile films like Freakonomics, Good Night and Good Luck, and Limelight. These and more are now being added in Academic Video Online to watch in Canada.
March 2021 Editor's Picks
New from Sony Pictures Classics (U.S. colleges/universities only)
We’ve added 21 titles this month including 3 Pedro Almodovar films. Other Sony Pictures Classics favorites now available.
- Run Lola Run
- All the Real Girls (Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel)
- Miles Ahead (Don Cheadle)
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Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops follows two police officers with the San Antonio Texas Police Department who are diverting people away from jail and into mental health treatment, one 911 call at a time. Directed by: Jenifer McShane (Worldwide)
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Winnie A fascinating look into one of the most misunderstood and intriguingly powerful contemporary female political figures. For the first time ever, the controversial life and contribution of Winnie Madikizela Mandela are properly considered, with exclusive intimate insight from both friends and enemies. (Worldwide excluding South Africa)
The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song (PBS) (North America Only)
- Episode 1: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of African American religion beginning with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the extraordinary ways enslaved Africans preserved and adapted their faith practices from slavery to emancipation.
- Episode 2: Discover how the Black Church expanded its reach to address social inequality and minister to those in need, from the Jim Crow South to the heroic phase of the civil rights movement and the Black Church’s role in the present.
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Misty Copeland: The first African-American female principal dancer talks about her incredible rise, the challenges of overcoming stereotypes, and her experiences performing in some of the most coveted roles of ballet. (Worldwide rights)
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Working from Home: New Reality (series): Richard Quest looks at best practices, top tech to keep you connected to the outside world, and how to take care of the mind and body as we all work from home. (Worldwide rights)
February 2021 Editor's Picks
NEW! Media Hosting Feature Enhancement
- Free for Academic Video Online subscribers, we now support the ability for you to upload a caption file (.SRT file) alongside a video file, in the Admin Portal! We know this is a vital accessibility need, and we are thankful to all the libraries who requested this enhancement. Please email Sarah Brennan with questions.
- Timon of Athens (Stratford Festival) Timon’s compulsive generosity makes him the most popular man in Athens – until his funds run out. Now, embittered by ingratitude, what will he do when his city comes under attack? This stirring production from the Stratford Festival is a heartbreaking masterpiece. (worldwide)
- Nasrin (Collective Eye) In the courts and on the streets, Nasrin has long fought for the rights of women, children, LGBTQ, religious minorities, journalists, artists, and those facing the death penalty. She was arrested in June 2018 and sentenced to 38 years in prison, plus 148 lashes. Even from prison, she has continued to challenge the authorities. Narrated by Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman and secretly filmed by women and men who risked arrest, the film features acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, journalist Ann Curry, exiled women’s rights activist Mansoureh Shojaee, and Nasrin’s equally courageous husband Reza Khandan. (worldwide)
- Poet Amanda Gorman On How She Prepared For Inauguration Day (Newshour Productions) The poet who will carry on a tradition and present her new work, "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration this week is already quite accomplished at the age of 22. Jeffrey Brown talked to Amanda Gorman to learn more, as part of our ongoing arts and culture series, "CANVAS." (worldwide)
- Herb and Dorothy (Grasshopper Film) Herb and Dorothy tells the amazing story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. (North America)
January 2021 Editor's Picks
ASIAN STUDIES | ANTHROPOLOGY | GLOBAL ISSUES
- AWARD WINNER! Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for 2020. One of only 25 films inducted which were “selected because of their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage”. (worldwide rights)
- Picture a Scientist (Women’s Studies | Science) A harrowing and timely look into the systemic discrimination against women in the fields of science. Picture a Scientist provides viewers with rare first-person accounts of the struggles undertaken by women scientists, their inner conflicts and the eventual comradery that helped them to come out with their stories. (FILM PLATFORM) (worldwide rights)
- 30+ additional Sony Pictures Classics films (U.S. colleges/universities only) including:
- Julieta Julieta lives in Madrid with her daughter Antía. They both suffer in silence over the loss of Xoan, Antía’s father and Julieta’s husband. But at times grief doesn’t bring people closer, it drives them apart. When Antía turns 18 she abandons her mother. Julieta looks for her, but all she discovers is how little she knows of her daughter. JULIETA is about the mother’s struggle to survive uncertainty. It also about fate, about guilt complexes and about that unfathomable mystery that leads us to abandon the people we love, erasing them from our lives as if they had never meant anything, as if they had never existed.
- Happy End A snapshot from the life of a bourgeois European family
- Paris Can Wait Eleanor Coppola's feature film directorial and screenwriting debut at the age of 81, stars Diane Lane as a Hollywood producer's wife who unexpectedly takes a trip through France, which reawakens her sense of self and her joie de vivre. Anne (Lane) long married to a successful but inattentive movie producer (Alec Baldwin), she finds herself taking a car trip from Cannes to Paris with a business associate of her husband (Arnaud Viard). What should be a 7-hour drive turns into a journey of discovery.
- Maria by Callas Tom Volf's film tells the life story of the legendary Greek/American opera singer completely in her own words. Told through performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs—nearly all of which have never been shown to the public—the film reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time.
- Stan & Ollie Laurel & Hardy, one of the world’s great comedy teams, set out on a variety hall tour of Britain in 1953. Diminished by age and with their golden era now behind them, they face an uncertain future. As the charm and beauty of their performances shine through, they re-connect with their adoring fans. The tour becomes a hit, but Stan & Ollie can’t quite shake the specter of Laurel and Hardy’s past.
- 165 new videos from The Economist (worldwide rights), each from 2-5 minutes in length, are ideal for classroom use and span from business and politics to health policy and environmental studies. Highlights include:
- Discovery in a Painting A marvelous exploration of Cezanne's "Still Life with Apples". (Grasshopper Film) (North America only)
- Animal Impossible Incredible facts and myths about the animal kingdom are put to the test. (BBC, series) (worldwide rights)
Computer Science | Technology | Sociology
iHUMAN A film by Tonje Hessen Schei. Are humans becoming obsolete? An in-depth look into the emergence artificial intelligence and its possible consequence. (FILM PLATFORM) (Not available in Norway, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom)
Black Studies| Social Work
Policing the Police 2020 Race, policing and the struggle to hold departments accountable. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb examines prospects for reform and returns to the case of one troubled department he first visited in 2016. (PBS) (North America)
PBS Great Performances (North America)
World Music | Classical Music Social Work
CHUT…! = SHUSH…! This is a charming documentary about a public library in France and the heroes who work there. (aaa production) (Worldwide rights)
Politics & Current Affairs
In the Face of Terror (series) How are western democracies to survive and adapt in this new age of terrorism? The stories of the ordinary people fighting for justice following acts of terror in Syria. (BBC) (Worldwide rights)
November 2020 Editor's Picks
New & Exclusive from FILM PLATFORM
- John Lewis: Good Trouble (Black Studies, Politics & Current Affairs) An intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’ life, legacy and more than 60 years of extraordinary activism. After Lewis petitioned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to help integrate a segregated school in his hometown of Troy, Alabama, King sent “the boy from Troy” a round trip bus ticket to meet with him. From that meeting onward, Lewis became one of King’s closest allies. He organized Freedom Rides that left him bloodied or jailed, and stood at the front lines in the historic marches on Washington and Selma. He never lost the spirit of the “boy from Troy” and called on his fellow Americans to get into “good trouble” until his passing on July 17, 2020. (U.S. only)
- White Noise (Politics & Current Affairs, Diversity) The Atlantic's first feature documentary is the definitive inside story of the movement that has come to be known as the alt-right. With unprecedented access, White Noise tracks the rise of far-right nationalism by focusing on the lives of three of its main proponents: Mike Cernovich, a conspiracy theorist and sex blogger turned media entrepreneur; Lauren Southern, an anti-feminist, anti-immigration YouTube star; and Richard Spencer, a white-power ideologue. As white-nationalist violence surges in America and across the world, White Noise represents an urgent warning about the power of extremism, and where it's going next. (U.S. Only)
- On the Record (Women’s Studies, Black Studies) A film by Oscar nominees Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, and first reported by The New York Times, On the Record presents the haunting story of former A&R executive Drew Dixon, whose career and personal life were upended by the alleged abuse she faced from her high-profile male bosses. The documentary follows Dixon as she grapples with her decision to become one of the first women of color, in the wake of #MeToo, to come forward to publicly accuse hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct. The film chronicles Dixon’s story, as well as those of fellow Simmons accusers Sil Lai Abrams and Sheri Sher, delving into the ways black women’s voices are too often silenced and ignored. (US/CAN only)
- Chicago 10 (Politics & Current Affairs, American Government, Film) Written and directed by Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture), Chicago 10 presents contemporary history with a forced perspective, mixing bold and original animation with extraordinary archival footage that explores the build-up to and unraveling of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. Set to the music of revolution, then and now, Chicago 10 is a parable of hope, courage and ultimate victory, the story of young Americans speaking out and taking a stand in the face of an oppressive and armed government.
If you missed our panel discussion with the founders of Partners in Health – subjects of the award-winning documentary, Bending the Arc (FILM PLATFORM) watch the recording. It was moderated by Tabitha Jackson, Director, The Sundance Film Festival and was an inspiration to all who attended.
Welcome Grasshopper Film to Academic Video Online (U.S. and North America Only) – Their independent, foreign and documentary films include highlights such as:
- Night School (Education) Indianapolis suffers from having one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country. Though Greg, Melissa, and Shynika have all had their setbacks as they’ve traveled to adulthood, they are optimistic about earning their high school diplomas and changing their lives.
- Havana, From On High (Diversity) The chronic shortage of housing in Central Havana has pushed the city upwards forcing some to make their homes on building rooftops. This wondrous documentary tells the story of these remarkable and resilient rooftop dwellers - a secret village, hidden from the clamor of the streets below - who have a privileged point of view on a society in the process of major transformation.
- The Area (Black Studies) In the heart of the South Side of Chicago, an 85-acre area abutting a railyard means different things to different people. For more than 400 African American families, it is home. For Norfolk Southern railroad company, it is space to expand its train-to-truck intermodal depot.
- Angels Are Made of Light (Education, Global Studies) A stirring and beautiful documentary from Academy Award nominated director James Longley (Iraq in Fragments), Angels Are Made of Light traces the lives of young students and their teachers at a school in the old city of Kabul. Interweaving the modern history of Afghanistan with present-day portraits, the film offers an intimate and nuanced vision of a society living in the shadow of war.
- In the Absence (Global Studies) 2020 Academy Award Nominee Best Documentary Short Subject. When the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice. This acclaimed documentary combines intimate interviews with archival footage and audio recordings for an investigation into a tragic incident which ultimately led to the impeachment and imprisonment of the country's president.
- Last Day of Freedom (Diversity, Mental Health, Criminal Justice) 2016 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, this extraordinary documentary is an investigation into some of the most pressing social issues of our time - racial bias, veteran’s rights, mental health care, criminal justice - through one man's heartbreaking story.
- The Organizer (Political Science, Diversity) Before its infamous demise, ACORN had been the largest community organization in the US, a national political powerhouse for the poor that transformed lives and communities. Featuring a wealth of archival footage, this is a comprehensive portrait of the organization and its founder, Wade Rathke, as well as an exploration of that much maligned & misunderstood occupation -- community organizing.
- Unbroken Glass (Social Work, Social Theory, Psychology) According to the National Institute of Mental Health, roughly 1% of the US population is affected by schizophrenia, and, there is a proven genetic component to the illness. Some research has also pointed to a link between “acculturative stress” – the kind of stress immigrants experience adjusting to a new life – and the onset of mental illness.
Multidisciplinary Documentaries
Welcome The Video Project. Over 200 multidisciplinary documentaries promote awareness and encourage action on social and global issues.
- In Organic We Trust
- Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story
- Forever Wild
- The Black Fatherhood Project
- How I Got Over
- Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things
- Oyler: One School, One Year
- Designing Health Communities (Series)
- From Flint: Voices from a Poisoned City
- The Price of the Prize; Ms. Scientist; Ambassadors of the Sky; Seeing Canada; Becoming Albertan; Seeing the USA
- And her newest release Breaking Loneliness
BELLINGCAT – TRUTH IN A POST-TRUTH WORLD (U.S. access) explores the promise of open source investigation, taking viewers inside the exclusive world of the “citizen investigative journalist” collective known as Bellingcat. In cases ranging from the MH17 disaster to the poisoning of a Russian spy in the United Kingdom, the Bellingcat team’s quest for truth will shed light on the fight for journalistic integrity in the era of fake news and alternative facts. (First Run Features, 2018)
- Access outside of the U.S. BELLINGCAT – TRUTH IN A POST-TRUTH WORLD (FILM PLATFORM)
Makematic. These short-form video series’ are optimized for classroom teachers and great for introductory courses. Highlights include:
- Critical Thinking (series); Education (series); Career Counseling (series): Creative Careers and Skillsumo
- Global citizenship (series): Think Like a Global Citizen, Global Icons, Sustainable Development Goals
In Search of Walt Whitman (series) This engaging 3-part series tells the story of Walt Whitman’s remarkable life (1819-1892), the turbulent era in which he lived, and the timeless poetry he created.