This page contains all the individual videos WVC Library has streaming rights from Kanopy and DocuSeek and other individual streaming video vendors.
Environmental Studies
5x5: Voices of Change from the Forests of IndonesiaFive short films from Indigenous communities across Indonesia show their response to threats to their forests posed by miners, loggers, palm oil plantations and global warming. In the sixth film a Dayak Iban community inspires hope as it offers a simple solution to the global climate crisis.
Arrows Against the WindWest Papua, the "Amazon of Asia" is a vast tropical rainforest that has been occupied for 25,000 years. The Dani and the Asmat people have lived in spiritual harmony with the land for millennia. Now they are threatened by Indonesia's policy of assimilation and the destruction of their lands.
Before the Flood Part IPart I. The residents of the ancient Chinese cities of Fengjie clash with officials forcing them to evacuate their homes -- along with millions of other residents -- to make way for the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.
Before the Flood Part IIPart II. Yan Yu follows up his first film with Before the Flood II, a profile of the residents of Gongtan, a 1700-year-old village soon to be demolished and flooded during the construction of Three Gorges dams and reservoir.
Beijing Besieged By WasteDirector Wang Jiuliang traces the flow of garbage from his apartment to hundreds of toxic and illegal dumps grazed by sheep and plowed under by developers on the expanding edge of Beijing. He also discovers a determined community of scavengers who live in the wastelands.
Black Tide: Voices from the GulfAward-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger tracks the lives of Louisiana residents living in the aftermath of the largest offshore oil spill in American history.
Brazil's Women WarriorsIf Not Us Then Who? Film 6 of 7
400,000 women harvest the nuts of the babassu palm, which is used to produce soap, oil, bread, charcoal,and cosmetics, providing them a modest living. When access to the trees was denied, a movement began.
Building a Longhouse as a Cultural CenterIf Not Us Then Who? Film 2 of 7
Kynan Tegar, a young Indigenous filmmaker, documents a cultural revival and the consruction of a traditional longhouse for the first time in 50 years.
Come Hell or High WaterThe journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport.
Cooked: Survival by Zip CodeJudith Helfand investigates a tragic 1995 heat wave in which 739 citizens died, most of them poor,elderly, and African American. Behind the shocking headlines she finds, a “slow-motion disaster” fueled by poverty, economics, social isolation, and racism.
The Dyak Iban Way of FarmingIf Not Us Then Who? Film 3 of 7
Kynan Tegar, a young Indigenous filmmaker, defends the long-established use of controlled burning in sustainable farming in his Sungai Utik village in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
A Fierce Green FireAn exploration of the environmental movement, including grassroots and global activism, spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change.
Final StrawFor nearly a century, industrial farming has unleashed ecologically destructive ways of growing food across the planet, affecting economies, cultures, health, and biodiversity. This film highlights aspirational but achievable methods to create “natural farms” in this thought-provoking journey through Japan, Korea, and the United States.
Gold's Lethal Toll in IndonesiaSpotlights the alarming global rise of mercury pollution of air, water, and soil as well as severe disabilities, diseases, and death attributed to mercury poisoning in developing communities involved in small-scale gold mining, one of the major sources of mercury pollution worldwide.
Homecoming: Indigenous youth return to the landIndonesian Indigenous youth, aware of global warming and concerned about the future, return from the cities to their villages with plans for reforestation, organic farming and cultural revival.
Hope in a Changing ClimateDemonstrates that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems, to restore ecosystem functions in areas where they have been lost, to fundamentally improve the lives of people who have been trapped in poverty for generations and to sequester carbon naturally.
The Last MountainThe Last Mountain documents the struggles of a small West Virginia community fighting to preserve Coal River Mountain from mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining and to expose the impact of the coal industry on their lives and health.
Lessons of the Loess PlateauDocuments a remarkable paradigm shift: the rebirth of a self-sustaining ecosystem in the dry and remote Loess Plateau region of China.
Lifting the Veil on Polluters in ChinaIn central Beijing, a small but ambitious environmental NGO is calling on major international corporations including Apple, Walmart and Hugo Boss to take responsibility for suppliers who are fouling China's air and water as they produce goods for Western consumers.
Nature's Cleanup CrewTo us, it's garbage. To them, it's dinner.
There are some busy scavengers who live among us-- crafty critters who share our cities and recycle the mountains of food waste our messy society leaves behind.
Vultures, ants, foxes, opossums and others offer us many benefits, simply by sharing our space. NATURE'S CLEANUP CREW presents a cast of vital creatures, each beautiful in their own right. Without them, our waste would be piling up and we would be dealing with many deadly diseases.
Through the help of thoughtful and passionate scientists who have come to understand and love these creatures, we uncover just what makes scavengers tick. Debunking some myths along the way, we learn what adaptations they have evolved for this 'messy' job, what benefits they can provide us, and how us humans can work with them so they can do their job even better.
A New Moon Over TohokuA New Moon Over Tohoku is a moving story of love, survival, and Japanese tradition in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan. film chronicles the healing journey of both the Canadian-Japanese filmmaker and the Japanese residents affected by the disaster as Tohoku residents speak out for the first time, breaking away from their cultural silence to share their own stories.
People of a FeatherFeaturing stunning footage from seven winters in the Arctic, People of a Feather takes us through time into the world of the Inuit in the northern reaches of Canada.
Plastic ChinaReveals the unsafe conditions in which adults and children alike toil, as they seek to eke out a basic living by processing toxic plastic waste products.
The PollinatorsTHE POLLINATORS is a cinematic journey around the United States following migratory beekeepers and their truckloads of honey bees as they pollinate the flowers that become the fruits, nuts and vegetables we all eat. The many challenges the beekeepers and their bees face en route reveal flaws to our simplified chemically dependent agriculture system. We talk to farmers, scientists, chefs and academics along the way to give a broad perspective about the threats to honey bees, what it means to our food security and how we can improve it.
RiverBlueHost Mark Angelo documents the profound and alarming impact of textile factories serving the fast fashion industry in Western countries, on rivers in Bangladesh, China, India, and Indonesia. Leading clothing designers propose more sustainable methods.
Riverblue: Can Fashion Save the Planet?This film spans the globe to infiltrate one of the world’s most pollutive industries, fashion. Blue Jeans, one of our favorite iconic products has destroyed rivers and impacted the lives of people who count on these waterways for their survival.
Following international river conservationist, Mark Angelo and narrated by clean water supporter Jason Priestley, this RIVERBLUE examines the destruction of our rivers, its effect on humanity, and the solutions that inspire hope for a sustainable future.
A River Changes CourseSheds light on basic and fundamental challenges people face in the effort to eat, make a living, and have a meaningful family life amid Cambodia’s changing economic and environmental landscapes.
Searching for Sacred MountainJournalist Liu Jianqiang and conservation biologist Lü Zhi discover a new way of looking at environmental conservation on the Tibetan Plateau where Buddhist monks and villagers have preserved vast tracts of land for centuries.
Shelter in PlaceAn intimate portrait of a community battling against environmental pollution from Texas oil refineries and petrochemical plants.
Standing on Sacred Ground: Profit and LossFrom the rainforests of Papua New Guinea to Canada’s tar sands, Standing on Sacred Ground: Profit and Loss exposes industrial threats to native peoples’ health, livelihood, and cultural survival.
Sungal Utik: The Fight for RecognitionIf Not Us Then Who? Film 1 of 7
Kynan Tegar, a young local filmmaker describes a 20-year campaign to win recognition of the community's Indigenous rights.
Tar CreekThe story of the worst environmental disaster you've never heard of in northeastern Oklahoma. What was once the Quapaw Tribe’s reservation was taken and transformed into one of the largest lead and zinc mines on the planet. Today, Tar Creek is home to 40 square miles of environmental devastation, and its residents are fighting for environmental justice.
Thank You for the RainKisilu Musya, a Kenyan subsistence farmer, climate change fighter and video diarist collborates with Julia Dahr, a Norwegian filmmaker, on this award-winning documentary about the human cost of climate change.
The Toxic Price of Leather in IndiaShowcases some of the ecological, social, and public health crises resulting from the thriving leather industry in northern India.
A Tribute to Dona DijeA leader of the Babassu movement reflects on the central place of the babassu industry in the protection of women, culture, the forests, and the Amazon as a whole.
The True CostAn investigative look into the environmental costs of the fast fashion industry, from production—and the life of low wage workers in developing countries—to its after-effects such as river and soil pollution, pesticide contamination, disease and death.
Under the DomeThis daring documentary by Chai JIng a former reporter for China Central Television investigates the deadly fog that hung over China's cities. Initially supported by officials it was quickly banned when it was released, but not before 200 million viewers had seen it.
Waking the Green TigerSeen through the eyes of activists, farmers, and journalists, Waking the Green Tiger follows an extraordinary, unprecedented, and successful campaign to stop a huge dam project on the upper Yangtze river in the high mountains of southwestern China.
YindabadYindabad is a poignant chronicle of the dynamic struggles of the displaced indigenous peoples living by the Narmada River in India.
Youth UnstoppableFilmmaker Slater Jewell-Kemker was just 15 when she began documenting the untold stories of youth on the front lines of climate change who are refusing to let their futures slip away and are rising up to shape the world they will live in.
Anthropology
Myth of Naro as Told by DedeheiwaThis film presents a version of a myth, different from the Myth of Naro as Told by Kaobawa, in narrative detail and also in the individual raconteur's style. The myth concerns the jealousy of Naro the Ugly toward his brother Yanomamo, who is fragrant and beautiful and has two wives. Desiring the women, Naro kills his brother by blowing magical charms, and is eventually killed himself by a third brother and a variety of ancestors. This is the origin of harmful magic.
In telling the myth Dedeheiwa is, as always, a true performer, embellishing his words with gestures and evident delight at the drama and evocativeness of his tale. In another film, Kaobawa, also a village headman, tells the same myth in a gentle, more reflective style.
Biology
Let Them Eat DirtAllergies, obesity, asthma, diabetes, auto-immune and intestinal disorders are all on the rise, with the incidence of some diseases doubling every ten years. New research points to changes in the ecosystem of microbes that live on and inside every one of us -- our microbiomes -- as a major cause. But how could one's gut microbes increase the odds of developing conditions as radically different as asthma and diabetes?
Hosted by Good Morning America's Becky Worley, and based on the book of the same name by B. Brett Finlay, PhD and Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD, LET THEM EAT DIRT features families, doctors, and researchers who are sleuthing out what's harming our microbes -- and what we can do to reverse this dangerous trend.
The PollinatorsTHE POLLINATORS is a cinematic journey around the United States following migratory beekeepers and their truckloads of honey bees as they pollinate the flowers that become the fruits, nuts and vegetables we all eat. The many challenges the beekeepers and their bees face en route reveal flaws to our simplified chemically dependent agriculture system. We talk to farmers, scientists, chefs and academics along the way to give a broad perspective about the threats to honey bees, what it means to our food security and how we can improve it.
Ethnic Studies
Agents of Change: The Longest Student Strike in U.S. HistoryFrom the well-publicized events at San Francisco State in 1968 to the image of black students with guns emerging from the takeover of the student union at Cornell University in April 1969, the struggle for a more relevant and meaningful education became a clarion call across the country in the late 1960s. Through the stories of the young men and women who were at the forefront of these efforts, Agents of Change examines the untold story of the racial conditions on college campuses and in the country that led to these protests, revealing how unprepared these institutions were when confronted by demands for black studies programs, safer housing, fairer judicial proceedings, and changes to democratize the institutions. The film's characters were at the crossroads of change and controversy at a pivotal time in America's history.
Behind the Shield: The Power & Politics of the NFLCelebrated author and Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin tackles the myth that the NFL was somehow free of politics before Colin Kaepernick and other Black NFL players took a knee. BEHIND THE SHIELD digs deep into the history of the league, and navigates a stunning excavation of decades of archival footage and news media. Zirin traces how the NFL, under the guise of “sticking to sports,” has promoted wars, militarism, and nationalism; glorified reactionary ideas about manhood and gender roles; normalized systemic racism, corporate greed, and crony capitalism; and helped vilify challenges to the dominant order as “unpatriotic” and inappropriately “political.” The result is a case study not only in the power of big-time sports to disseminate stealth propaganda and reinforce an increasingly authoritarian status quo, but also the power of activist athletes to challenge this unjust status quo and model a different, more democratic vision of America.
Black Girl in SuburbiaFor many Black girls raised in the suburbs, the experiences of going to school, playing on the playground, and living day-to-day life can be uniquely alienating. BLACK GIRL IN SUBURBIA looks at the suburbs of America from the perspective of women of color. Filmmaker Melissa Lowery shares her own childhood memories of navigating racial expectations both subtle and overt-including questions like, "Hey, I just saw a Black guy walking down the street; is that your cousin?"
Through conversations with her own daughters, with teachers and scholars who are experts in the personal impacts of growing up a person of color in a predominately white place, this film explores the conflicts that many Black girls in homogeneous hometowns have in relating to both white and Black communities. BLACK GIRL IN SUBURBIA is a great discussion starter for Freshman orientation week and can be used in a wide variety of educational settings including classes in sociology, race relations, African American Studies, Women's Studies, and American Studies.
Horror Noire: A History of Black HorrorDelving into a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and finally embraced them, HORROR NOIRE traces a secret history of Black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre. Adapting executive producer Robin Means Coleman’s seminal book, HORROR NOIRE will present the living and the dead, using new and archival interviews from scholars and creators; the voices who survived the genre’s past trends, to those shaping its future.
Precious Knowledge: Fighting for Mexican American Studies in Arizona SchoolsPrecious Knowledge reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with interviews with teachers, parents, school officials, and the lawmakers who wish to outlaw the classes.
While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of high school, Tucson High’s Mexican American Studies Program has become a national model of educational success, with 93 percent of enrolled students, on average, graduating from high school and 85 percent going on to attend college.The filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom filming this innovative curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students who became engaged, informed, and active in their communities.
As the nation turns its focus toward a wave of anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, the issue of ethnic chauvinism becomes a double-edged weapon in a simmering battle making front page news coast to coast. When Arizona lawmakers pass a bill giving unilateral power to the State Superintendent to abolish ethnic studies classes, teachers and student leaders fight to save the program using texts, Facebook, optimism, and a megaphone. Lawmakers and politicians respond with a public relations campaign to discredit the students, claiming that a textbook used in the classes, Paulo Freire’s The Pedagogy of the Oppressed teaches victimization and sedition. Officials ask that the classroom’s Che Guevara posters be replaced with portraits of founding father Benjamin Franklin. Meanwhile, the students answer back by fighting for what they believe is the future of public education for the entire nation, especially as the Latino demographic continues to grow.
PrismFor PRISM, Belgian filmmaker An van. Dienderen invited Rosine Mbakam, from Cameroon, and Eléonore Yameogo from Burkina Faso, to work together on a film in which the differences in their skin color, and experiences as filmmakers, serve as points-of-departure to explore this provocative question.
Invented and standardized with white skin in mind, “the aesthetics and emulsions weren’t created for us,” the film director and actor Sylvestre Amoussou says in PRISM. And that underlying issue remains, even with digital technology: such white-centricity has meant that photographic media assume and privilege whiteness.
PRISM problematizes the objectivity of the camera and its inequality of power to tackle other inequalities based on skin color as well. And as the film deconstructs these issues, the filmmakers are also trying to reconstruct, by creating in a collaborative manner, and self-consciously attempting to overcome these biases. The film consists of three sections, one by each of the directors:
• Rosine’s scenes are the most personal. She wonders about how she and her family have been hurt by photography’s inability to accurately portray their skin tones. She also meets with two former film professors of hers about their focus, and the biases of the film “canon,” syllabi and curriculums.
• In Eléonore’s scenes, she interviews African actress Tella Kphomahou, discussing problems she encountered with the lighting of her skin while working in Europe. They also bring Sylvestre Amoussou into their conversation to discuss his philosophy towards making films that accurately portray Black skin.
• An’s scenes are more abstract. They are shot at the Belgian film school where she teaches, and in a studio where the setting evokes a “color-test” scene, with a white man and a woman of color.
But the film is more than just the sum of the different visions of the directors: recorded zoom conversations are woven into the film in which the directors discuss the issues, their viewpoints, and the very making of PRISM itself.
To tackle the issue of racism in Western filmmaking, PRISM takes what some see as simple technical problems, and while creating powerful counter-images and methods of working, explores their insidious personal, cultural, and historical ramifications.
Restitution? - Africa's Fight for its ArtA unique art-history saga, this film recounts the troubling story of the African artwork that fills European museums, and whose return is now being demanded by their countries of origin. Snatched up like trophies by colonizers, the works fertilized European art before acquiring recognition as universal masterpieces in their own right. But in Africa, their absence is still traumatic. Through the burning question of their possible restitution, the film invites us to reconsider both our cultural heritage and museums’ role in reinventing our relationship with Africa.
Sungal Utik: The Fight for RecognitionIf Not Us Then Who? Film 1 of 7
Kynan Tegar, a young local filmmaker describes a 20-year campaign to win recognition of the community's Indigenous rights.
Tar CreekThe story of the worst environmental disaster you've never heard of in northeastern Oklahoma. What was once the Quapaw Tribe’s reservation was taken and transformed into one of the largest lead and zinc mines on the planet. Today, Tar Creek is home to 40 square miles of environmental devastation, and its residents are fighting for environmental justice.
Unity MosqueAfter having to hide their relationship while making the Hajj, Imam El-Farouk and his husband Troy co-founded Unity Mosque in Toronto, one of the world's first Queer-affirming and gender-equal mosques. Though the mosque (and filmmaker) receive threats and hate speech, the mosque forges on, playing a life-saving role in the lives of its members.
Film Studies
Back to Burgundy: Ce qui nous lieAnticipating their father’s imminent death, three siblings reunite at their home in Burgundy to preserve the vineyard that ties them together in this tender and modern tale of familial strife and resilience from director Cédric Klapisch.
BarakaIn the months before the war in Iraq, Abdel and Umayr, two brothers are forced apart. Months later, with the war in full swing, they meet again, but neither of them are the same.
Modern TimesWith its barrage of unforgettable gags and sly commentary on class struggle during the Great Depression, MODERN TIMES — though made almost a decade into the talkie era and containing moments of sound (even song!) — is a timeless showcase of Chaplin’s untouchable genius as a director of silent comedy.
ParasiteWinner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film at the Academy Awards. Winner of Best Foreign Motion Picture – Foreign Language at the Golden Globe Awards. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Un héros très discret - A Self-Made HeroOne evening in November 1944, during the final months of a war he didn't fight, a man decides to become a hero. Or rather, to be taken for a hero… to invent a wonderful life for himself, more beautiful, more colourful than his own. In an era lending itself to all kinds of confusion, in the hard and strange Paris of the winter of' 44, he masters the art of lying, using omission and allusion to build a shadowy character like no other. After having succeeded in introducing himself into Resistance circles, he is called to an important post in the French-occupied zone of Germany. This man, who is actually another and one who had nothing, gains everything : honor, admiration, friendship, power, love… But for how long?
Mental Health
Beyond the Blues: Child and Youth DepressionStatistics reveal that depression in children and youth is on the rise. In fact, it has increased by one-third in the past 30 years. Untreated depression costs a teenager in many ways: lost eductional opportunities, lost social opportunities and lost time. Through the personal stories of three young people, this compelling documentary traces the journey of depression, from early signs and symptoms, to assessment, diagnosis and treatment. The documentary also helps shatter some stereotypes. Depressed kids don't just have a bad attitude--they have an illness. And the illness is treatable.
Religious Studies
Searching for Sacred MountainJournalist Liu Jianqiang and conservation biologist Lü Zhi discover a new way of looking at environmental conservation on the Tibetan Plateau where Buddhist monks and villagers have preserved vast tracts of land for centuries.
The Toxic Price of Leather in IndiaShowcases some of the ecological, social, and public health crises resulting from the thriving leather industry in northern India.
Unity MosqueAfter having to hide their relationship while making the Hajj, Imam El-Farouk and his husband Troy co-founded Unity Mosque in Toronto, one of the world's first Queer-affirming and gender-equal mosques. Though the mosque (and filmmaker) receive threats and hate speech, the mosque forges on, playing a life-saving role in the lives of its members.
Technology and Information Science
Classes and Object-Oriented ProgrammingLearn about an exciting approach to programming called object-oriented design, which bundles functions together with data into a series of objects, whose tools and properties can be defined in a single class. Try your hand at this powerful technique by constructing a bank account program.
Electricity and ElectronicsWhat is the difference between electricity and electronics? Begin your study of modern electronics by examining this distinction, and observe how electronics use the basic properties of electric circuits in a more sophisticated way. Witness firsthand how resistance is described with Ohm's law, and learn how to measure electric power.
The Internet of ThingsTechnology is quickly transforming our lives with marvelous tools: smart thermostats that automatically adjust the temperature of our homes, self-regulating insulin dispensers, medication management systems, and more. But these technologies come with a cost in terms of the data they aggregate. Who owns the data? How can it be used? What are the responsibilities of the data collectors?
The Transformability of InformationWhat is information? Explore the surprising answer of American mathematician Claude Shannon, who concluded that information is the ability to distinguish reliably among possible alternatives. Consider why this idea was so revolutionary, and see how it led to the concept of the bit—the basic unit of information.
Waste Land: An Art Collaboration in the World’s Largest Garbage DumpFilmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores" -- or self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores with garbage.
However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Walker (DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.
Horror Noire: A History of Black HorrorDelving into a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and finally embraced them, HORROR NOIRE traces a secret history of Black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre. Adapting executive producer Robin Means Coleman’s seminal book, HORROR NOIRE will present the living and the dead, using new and archival interviews from scholars and creators; the voices who survived the genre’s past trends, to those shaping its future.
Manufactured Landscapes: The Art of Edward BurtynskyA striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.
The film follows him through China, as he shoots the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. With breathtaking sequences, such as the opening tracking shot through an almost endless factory, the filmmakers also extend the narratives of Burtynsky’s photographs, allowing us to meditate on our impact on the planet and witness both the epicenters of industrial endeavor and the dumping grounds of its waste.
PrismFor PRISM, Belgian filmmaker An van. Dienderen invited Rosine Mbakam, from Cameroon, and Eléonore Yameogo from Burkina Faso, to work together on a film in which the differences in their skin color, and experiences as filmmakers, serve as points-of-departure to explore this provocative question.
Invented and standardized with white skin in mind, “the aesthetics and emulsions weren’t created for us,” the film director and actor Sylvestre Amoussou says in PRISM. And that underlying issue remains, even with digital technology: such white-centricity has meant that photographic media assume and privilege whiteness.
PRISM problematizes the objectivity of the camera and its inequality of power to tackle other inequalities based on skin color as well. And as the film deconstructs these issues, the filmmakers are also trying to reconstruct, by creating in a collaborative manner, and self-consciously attempting to overcome these biases. The film consists of three sections, one by each of the directors:
• Rosine’s scenes are the most personal. She wonders about how she and her family have been hurt by photography’s inability to accurately portray their skin tones. She also meets with two former film professors of hers about their focus, and the biases of the film “canon,” syllabi and curriculums.
• In Eléonore’s scenes, she interviews African actress Tella Kphomahou, discussing problems she encountered with the lighting of her skin while working in Europe. They also bring Sylvestre Amoussou into their conversation to discuss his philosophy towards making films that accurately portray Black skin.
• An’s scenes are more abstract. They are shot at the Belgian film school where she teaches, and in a studio where the setting evokes a “color-test” scene, with a white man and a woman of color.
But the film is more than just the sum of the different visions of the directors: recorded zoom conversations are woven into the film in which the directors discuss the issues, their viewpoints, and the very making of PRISM itself.
To tackle the issue of racism in Western filmmaking, PRISM takes what some see as simple technical problems, and while creating powerful counter-images and methods of working, explores their insidious personal, cultural, and historical ramifications.
Restitution? - Africa's Fight for its ArtA unique art-history saga, this film recounts the troubling story of the African artwork that fills European museums, and whose return is now being demanded by their countries of origin. Snatched up like trophies by colonizers, the works fertilized European art before acquiring recognition as universal masterpieces in their own right. But in Africa, their absence is still traumatic. Through the burning question of their possible restitution, the film invites us to reconsider both our cultural heritage and museums’ role in reinventing our relationship with Africa.
Child Studies
Beyond the Blues: Child and Youth DepressionStatistics reveal that depression in children and youth is on the rise. In fact, it has increased by one-third in the past 30 years. Untreated depression costs a teenager in many ways: lost eductional opportunities, lost social opportunities and lost time. Through the personal stories of three young people, this compelling documentary traces the journey of depression, from early signs and symptoms, to assessment, diagnosis and treatment. The documentary also helps shatter some stereotypes. Depressed kids don't just have a bad attitude--they have an illness. And the illness is treatable.
Youth UnstoppableFilmmaker Slater Jewell-Kemker was just 15 when she began documenting the untold stories of youth on the front lines of climate change who are refusing to let their futures slip away and are rising up to shape the world they will live in.
Fashion Design
Riverblue: Can Fashion Save the Planet?This film spans the globe to infiltrate one of the world’s most pollutive industries, fashion. Blue Jeans, one of our favorite iconic products has destroyed rivers and impacted the lives of people who count on these waterways for their survival.
Following international river conservationist, Mark Angelo and narrated by clean water supporter Jason Priestley, this RIVERBLUE examines the destruction of our rivers, its effect on humanity, and the solutions that inspire hope for a sustainable future.
The True CostAn investigative look into the environmental costs of the fast fashion industry, from production—and the life of low wage workers in developing countries—to its after-effects such as river and soil pollution, pesticide contamination, disease and death.
LGBTIQA+ Studies
Unity MosqueAfter having to hide their relationship while making the Hajj, Imam El-Farouk and his husband Troy co-founded Unity Mosque in Toronto, one of the world's first Queer-affirming and gender-equal mosques. Though the mosque (and filmmaker) receive threats and hate speech, the mosque forges on, playing a life-saving role in the lives of its members.
Politics
Agents of Change: The Longest Student Strike in U.S. HistoryFrom the well-publicized events at San Francisco State in 1968 to the image of black students with guns emerging from the takeover of the student union at Cornell University in April 1969, the struggle for a more relevant and meaningful education became a clarion call across the country in the late 1960s. Through the stories of the young men and women who were at the forefront of these efforts, Agents of Change examines the untold story of the racial conditions on college campuses and in the country that led to these protests, revealing how unprepared these institutions were when confronted by demands for black studies programs, safer housing, fairer judicial proceedings, and changes to democratize the institutions. The film's characters were at the crossroads of change and controversy at a pivotal time in America's history.
Blood and GoldBlood and Gold: Inside Burma’s Hidden War explores the intensification of violence as a cease-fire collapses and a civil war flares up between Burma’s government military forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the country’s Kachin State.
Sports
Behind the Shield: The Power & Politics of the NFLCelebrated author and Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin tackles the myth that the NFL was somehow free of politics before Colin Kaepernick and other Black NFL players took a knee. BEHIND THE SHIELD digs deep into the history of the league, and navigates a stunning excavation of decades of archival footage and news media. Zirin traces how the NFL, under the guise of “sticking to sports,” has promoted wars, militarism, and nationalism; glorified reactionary ideas about manhood and gender roles; normalized systemic racism, corporate greed, and crony capitalism; and helped vilify challenges to the dominant order as “unpatriotic” and inappropriately “political.” The result is a case study not only in the power of big-time sports to disseminate stealth propaganda and reinforce an increasingly authoritarian status quo, but also the power of activist athletes to challenge this unjust status quo and model a different, more democratic vision of America.
Women and Gender Studies
Abortion: Add to CartABORTION: ADD TO CART is a documentary exploring self-managed abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol and the emergence of telehealth. This short film examines the marketplace circumventing regulations to provide abortion pills over the internet. The film features two storytellers, Alice and Ari, who share their self-managed abortion experiences. Alice self-managed her abortion through Aid Access, a Dutch organization. Conversely, Ari, a trans-masculine non-binary storyteller, recalls a self-managed abortion experience before these resources were available. The film spotlights various organizations such as Plan C and If/When/How, who support those looking to self-manage. Doctors weigh in on the abortion pill and FDA regulations that prevent it from becoming widely available. ABORTION: ADD TO CART also investigates the emergence of telehealth, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what the future of abortion looks like.
Brazil's Women WarriorsIf Not Us Then Who? Film 6 of 7
400,000 women harvest the nuts of the babassu palm, which is used to produce soap, oil, bread, charcoal,and cosmetics, providing them a modest living. When access to the trees was denied, a movement began.
FatimaFatima lives on her own with two daughters to support: 15-year old Souad, a teenager in revolt, and 18-year old Nesrine, who is starting medical school. Inspired by a true story and the poetry of the North African writer Fatima Elayoubi, who immigrated knowing very little French and slowly taught herself the language. A patient, reflective study of a woman pressured by her children and her neighbors alike to assimilate into a culture of which she's wary.
In Her WordsNarrated by LGBTQ+ historian Lillian Faderman and illuminated through interviews with trailblazers like Jewelle Gomez (The Gilda Stories), Dorothy Allison (Bastard Out of Carolina), and Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet), In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction charts a literary journey from post-war lesbian pulp to modern bestsellers. Highlighting the successful and controversial, directors Lisa Marie Evans and Marianne K. Martin skillfully delve into stories that defined eras of lesbian writers, and the changing socio-political landscapes that encouraged an evolution of the genre. In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction pays loving tribute to this evolution of lesbian and queer fiction, told through a lens of broader American history. Starting in 1928, readers fell into The Well of Loneliness — a groundbreaking lesbian novel, albeit a tragic one. By the late 1990s, lesbian fiction had climbed out of the well and into a diverse world of stories and storytellers who were publishing increasingly multifaceted stories (some of them even happy ones). This film will inspire lit lovers of any age to return to old favorites, while igniting curiosity for a new literary tryst or two.
Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of WomenIn this new, highly anticipated update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series, the first in more than a decade, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes -- images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. By bringing Kilbourne's groundbreaking analysis up to date, Killing Us Softly 4 stands to challenge a new generation of students to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture and its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, and gender violence.
PersonaIn the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann plays a stage actor who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage. While isolated together there, the women perform a mysterious spiritual and emotional transference that would prove to be one of cinema’s most influential creations. Acted with astonishing nuance and shot in stark contrast and soft light by the great Sven Nykvist, PERSONA is a penetrating, dreamlike work of profound psychological depth.
Sungal Utik: The Fight for RecognitionIf Not Us Then Who? Film 1 of 7
Kynan Tegar, a young local filmmaker describes a 20-year campaign to win recognition of the community's Indigenous rights.
YindabadYindabad is a poignant chronicle of the dynamic struggles of the displaced indigenous peoples living by the Narmada River in India.
