All review items as of September 7, 2008. [most recent items only]
The following item(s) are available for review (in order received). If you would like to review an item, click the "request" link beside that item and complete our request form -- one request at a time please.
Directed by Rhoda Grauer; Produced by Shanty Harmayn
2006 Rasinah: The Enchanted Mask. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: Watching the lithe, expressive movements of Javanese masked dancer Rasinah, one would never believe a 72-year old woman is behind the mask! She is a master of an ancient form of mask dance called Topeng Cirebon, which originated in West Java, Indonesia. Rooted in Islamic mysticism, the spiritual significance of the masks and dances was restricted to "specialist families," who for centuries passed on their unique heritage from generation to generation. By the late 1900's the popularity of Topeng Cirebon had faded -- its mystical masters forgotten.; Once one of the most popular of the Topeng artists, Rasinah had been reduced to poverty as the taste for this traditional art form waned. Two young men became enraptured by tales of a hidden national treasure living in a remote village. They set out to find Rasinah to rescue her dance from extinction. Not having danced in twenty years and afraid that she was now too old, she hesitates. But once she holds the mask, her body moves again like a young dancer and she is off on an incredible journey of renewal.; The film captures ancient rituals, spirit-infested graveyards, and enchanted masks. Fortunately, Rasinah's granddaughter, Erli, is able to carry on the age-old tradition. This colorful documentary shows the history, function and meaning of these masked dances.
Listed: 08/12/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3333]
1991 Becoming a Woman in Okrika. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: This visually stunning film documents an extraordinary coming of age ritual in a village in the Niger Delta. It suggests the conflict Third World women face between traditions and the values of the modern world.; The rite, called Iria, consists of elaborately painting the young women's bodies with beautiful designs; subjecting their bodies to public scrutiny by the elder women; methodically fattening them; and teaching them the responsibilities of womanhood. After an elaborate celebration, they run a race pursued by young men and their leader, representing a mythological personage who is armed with sticks. By passing through this rite, the women let go of girlish fantasies and prepare for childbearing.;
Listed: 08/12/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3331]
1998 Chronicle of a Savanna Marriage. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: For fifteen years, the filmmaker has monitored Nayiani's life, a Masai on the savanna of southern Kenya. The story begins in 1979 when Nayiani is fourteen, and has been promised in marriage to the son of her father's good friend. Nayiani undergoes circumcision, a procedure that both boys and girls go through to be considered adults.; The years immediately after he wedding prove difficult ones for Nayiami. She continuously longs to return to her family. But gradually, as time passes, she grows accustomed to her new home. Eventually, her husband Lekumok brings home additional wives, since his herd of cattle is now so large that he needs and can afford additional women in his household. Nayiami welcomes the companionship and help. Even on the savanna, time does not stand still. The family feels the encroachment of the Nairobi government on different aspects of their lives. Here is a unique view of the life and culture of the Masai.
Listed: 08/12/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3330]
2008 India; The Untouchables. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: It is common knowledge that untouchables occupy the lowest place in the Hindu caste system. Today it is illegal in India to discriminate against Dalits, which literally means "the oppressed," the term now commonly used to refer to India's former untouchables. Despite the legal abolition of untouchability a half-century ago, they continue to be the target of systematic discrimination and comprise a highly disproportionate percentage of India's illiterate, landless and jobless population. Dalits number 260 million Hindus, making caste discrimination one of the world's biggest human rights issues.; The film describes several examples of caste discrimination. In a small town in India, a few Dalits swam in the part of the lake "reserved" for their upper caste neighbors who sued in protest. The Court ruled that the Dalits were within their rights. The upper caste people were furious with the decision and took revenge by throwing excrement in the well used by the Dalits. Professor V. Thorat argues that there are only two ways for Dalits to change their lives: to obtain an education or to move to a different area in India and convert to Islam because as a Muslim, they are treated as equals.;
Listed: 08/12/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3329]Klawiter, Maren
2008 The Biopolitics of Breast Cancer: Changing Cultures of Disease and Activism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Breast - Cancer - Political aspects - United States; Biopolitics - United States; Breast Neoplasms; Cultural Characteristics; Feminism Politics
Listed: 08/08/2008 »» Request this book
[3328]Gopal, Sangita & Sujata Moorti
2008 Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Motion pictures - India; Motion picture music - India
Listed: 08/08/2008 »» Request this book
[3327]Arnold, Denise Y. & Christine Ann Hastorf
2008 Heads of State: Icons, Power, and Politics in the Ancient and Modern Andes. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press.
Subject: Indians of South America - Andes Region - Politics and government; Indians of South America - Andes Region - Kings and rulers; Indians of South America - Andes Region - Antiquities; Kings and rulers - Andes Region - History; Head - Political aspects - Andes Region; Head - Religious aspects - Andes Region; Andes Region - Antiquities; Andes Region - Politics and government
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3326]Davis, Miriam C.
2008 Dame Kathleen Kenyon: Digging Up the Holy Land. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press.
Subject: Women archaeologists - Israel - Biography; Kenyon, Kathleen Mary, Dame; Israel - Antiquities
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3324]Grattan, John & Robin Torrence (eds.)
2007 Living Under the Shadow: Cultural Impacts of Volcanic Eruptions. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press.
Subject: Archaeology and natural disasters - Congresses; Volcanoes - Social aspects - History - Congresses; Social change - History - Congresses; Human ecology - History - Congresses; Human beings - Effect of environment on - History - Congresses
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3323]Sasaki, Masamichi S. (ed.)
2008 Elites: New Comparative Perspectives. Leiden; Boston, Massachusetts: Brill.
Subject: Elite (Social sciences) - Cross-cultural studies
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3322]
2008 Social Capital in Europe: Similarity of Countries and Diversity of People? Multi-level Analyses of the European Social Survey 2002. Leiden; Boston, Massachusetts: Brill.
Subject: Social capital (Sociology) - Europe; Europe - Social conditions
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3321]
2008 Civil-Military Cooperation in Response to a Complex Emergency: Just Another Drill?. Leiden; Boston, Massachusetts: Brill.
Subject: Security, International ; Civil-military relations; Conflict management - Case studies
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3320]Brooks, James, Christopher R.N. DeCorse, & John Walton (eds.)
2008 Small Worlds: Method, Meaning, and Narrative in Microhistory. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School for Advanced Research Press,.
Subject: Anthropology - Miscellanea; History - Miscellanea; Methodology
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3319]Wakeham, Pauline
2008 Taxidermic Signs: Reconstructing Aboriginality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Indians of North America - Museums; Indians of North America - Material culture - Exhibitions; Indians of North America - Antiquities - Exhibitions; Museum techniques - North America; Taxidermy - North America
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3318]Gould, Jeffrey L. & Aldo Lauria-Santiago
2008 To Rise in Darkness: Revolution, Repression, and Memory in El Salvador, 1920-1932. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Subject: Massacres - El Salvador - History - 20th century; Collective memory - El Salvador - History - 20th century; El Salvador - History - Revolution, 1932
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3317]White, Bob W.
2008 Rumba Rules: the Politics of Dance Music in Mobutu's Zaire. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Subject: Popular music - Political aspects - Congo (Democratic Republic); Popular music - Social aspects - Congo (Democratic Republic) ; Music and state - Congo (Democratic Republic) - History - 20th century; Mobutu Sese Seko, 1930-1997
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3316]Esposito, Roberto
2008 Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Biopolitics; Political science - Philosophy
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3315]Feldman, Ilana
2008 Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority, and the Work of Rule, 1917-1967. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Subject: Representative government and representation - Gaza Strip; Gaza Strip - Politics and government - 20th century
Listed: 08/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3314]Directed by Jenny Phillips, Anne Marie Stein and Andrew Kukura
2007 The Dhamma Brothers. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Behind the high security towers and double row of barbed wire and electrical fence at Donaldson Correction Facility dwells a host of convicts who will never see the light of day. But for some of these men, a spark is ignited when it becomes the first maximum-security prison in North America to hold an extended Vipassana retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting ten days. ; The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates who enter into this arduous and intensive program. This film, with the power to dismantle stereotypes about men behind prison bars also, in the words of Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), "gives you hope for the human race.";
Listed: 07/21/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3312]Rietmeijer, Saskia & Bart Drolenga
n.d. Buying the Spirit: Voodoo in Haiti. : Filmakers Library.
Subject: Nearly everyone in Haiti believes in voodoo. This powerful documentary takes us into the hidden world of voodoo practitioners and offers unique insight into a frequently misunderstood religion. Haitians turn to priests like Vladimir Bernadel or to secret voodoo societies for support and protection. Vladimir has problems of his own. He needs money to retire but his business is declining and the thirty family spirits he normally commands will no longer do his bidding. And his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend wants to kill him. His problems began after he "bought" a spirit and made him master of his own family spirits. These spirits won't accept an outsider and now only work when they want to. We witness a top secret ceremony, as voodoo priests set fire to a cross in a graveyard and call upon a powerful spirit to kill Vladimir's rival. ; Yves and Odette Theophile belong to the secret society Ayan Pata because they believe it gives them strength. In the past year, five of their children died, their business collapsed and all their savings were used for the funerals. Ayan Papa offered them aid which they used to start a small business ; The personal tales of Vladimir and Yves reveal two very different aspects of voodoo. Vladimir uses it to gain wealth and power while Yves turns to it for comfort after the deaths of his children. Their stories offer an objective view of the religion that is so important to so many. Does it really deserve its maligned reputation? ;
Listed: 07/11/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3311]Kramer, Karen
1998 Breaking Leaves: Herbal Medicine in Haiti. : Filmakers Library.
Subject: In the Haitian countryside, where people have little access to doctors, hospitals, or conventional medicine, peasants have learned to use local leaves, herbs, and therapeutic massage as a way of curing simple ailments. This video follows several men and women as they take us into the bush to look for leaves that they need for healing. We then follow then home where they explain and demonstrate their way of preparing the poultice or infusion.; Narrated by the people themselves –and with beautiful songs about the importance of leaves woven throughout – this poetic film gives unique insight into the culture.;
Listed: 07/11/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3309]Produced and directed by Annemarie Gallone
n.d. Love and Sex in China. Filmakers Library.
Subject: As China changes at an awesome rate, becoming more industrialized, urban and westernized, this film explores how this has impacted traditional relationships between men and women. Our guide is a young journalist, Yang Li Ne, whose parents have just divorced and whose own marriage is unraveling. ; She speaks about love and sex with young Bejingers, as well as older couples from the villages. Many of the young are afraid of commitment and are cynical about love and marriage. Money, not love, they say, is the basis for marriage. Prostitution is rampant; an estimated 6% of the national revenue comes from prostitution. Older couples reflect on the vanishing traditions that have given their marriages stability. ; A young gay man who was hesitant to be identified describes the homophobia in Chinese society and the secrecy with which gay and lesbians must lead their lives. He talks about the difference between making love and having sex. ; Examples of China's traditional erotic art, which was nurtured by the imperial court, are laced through the film. This documentary would be rated R. ;
Listed: 07/11/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3307]Paula Salvador
2007 Build Green. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: In a refreshing hour, Build Green shows how by taking advantage of the sun, the wind, and the rain, as well as dirt, straw and waste, homeowners and developers can reduce their personal contribution to climate change by building structures that are healthier for the occupants, economical to run, and even fun to live in.; David Suzuki sets out across Canada to discover the latest in green construction. On British Columbia's Salt Spring Island, Suzuki visits the rammed earth house of rock star Randy Bachman. Rammed earth is a traditional building technique that, with modern advances, has become viable and popular in many different climate regions. The technique minimizes site disturbance, the importation of construction materials and and the use of toxic substances. ; In Build Green, Canada's best architects show us round their latest green projects. From retrofitting an aging Montreal housing complex with state-of-the-art sustainable energy systems, to laying up hay for strawbale houses, to building transportable "mini-homes" with their own small power plant, Build Green takes a close look at the materials and technologies we'd be foolish not to adopt as standard practice in construction.;
Listed: 07/01/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3304]Cheney, Ian & Curt Ellis
2007 The Greening of Southie. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: In the traditionally Irish-American working-class neighborhood of South Boston, MA, a new kind of building has taken shape. From wheatboard cabinetry to recycled steel, bamboo flooring to dual-flush toilets, the Macallen building is some-thing different: a leader in the emerging field of environmentally friendly design.; But Boston's steel-toed union workers aren't sure they like it. And when things on the building start to go wrong, the young developer has to keep the project from unraveling.; Building Boston's first LEED Gold-certified building turns out to be harder than anyone thought. Yet among the I-beams and brickwork emerges a small cadre of unlikely environmentalists who come to connect their work with the future of their children ;
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3303]
n.d. The Maasai and Agents of Change. Filmakers Library.
Subject: Here is a rare opportunity to see life among the Maasai as filmed by one of their own warriors. The filmmaker and narrator is a Maasai who is studying at a United States college. He returned to Kenya to film the lifestyles and colorful ceremonies of his people before their culture becomes extinct. We learn that the traditional pastoral and nomadic life is under attack by outside forces who want to impose a money economy and privatize of land. The traditional way of ruling by a council of elders is being supplanted by elected officials (and even in Maasai land there are complaints on the accuracy of the voting cards!) The community is divided among those who voice their intense displeasure at the erosion of traditions and those who feel that the Maasai must change if they are to survive in today’s world. The Maasai speak frankly to the filmmaker since he is one of their own.
Listed: 06/26/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3301]
n.d. India: Medical Tourism. Filmakers Library.
Subject: India’s booming private healthcare system is expected to be worth billions of dollars in the decades to come, as westerners flock to India to get healthy. Fed up with long lines and exorbitant fees at home, these patients can now fly to the subcontinent and go straight to the front of the line for cheap operations in newly built, hi-tech hospitals.; Averill Dollery who lives in Worcestershire in the U.K.suffers from chronic pain; a pinched nerve in her back is destroying her quality of life. Averill can’t get an operation to fix her back because the National Health Service considers that her weight problem would make the spinal surgery she requires too dangerous. But salvation is at hand - in the form of India’s Doctor Prathap Reddy. Reddy is a cardiologist, a medical entrepreneur and the driving force behind the Apollo Hospital empire. All Averill has to do to get help is sign up, pay up and get on a plane to New Delhi. ; But for the many millions of Indians who live in abject poverty the health system barely functions. India’s overstretched and under resourced public health system is failing its people. With the rapidly growing private sector catering to prosperous medical tourists, the health care of ordinary Indians is being neglected.
Listed: 06/26/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3300]
1994 Fire Eyes: Female Circumcision. Filmakers Library.
Subject: This powerful and important film is the first to present an African viewpoint on a culturally explosive issue.; Somali filmmaker Soraya Mire knows firsthand about the traditional African practice of female genital mutilation. At thirteen she was subjected to it and spent the next twenty years recovering physically and emotionally from its cruel legacy. Fire Eyes explores the socio-economic, psychological, and medical consequences of this ancient custom which affects more than 80 million women worldwide.; In this film several women who have been subject to this "rite of passage" voice varying points of view on perpetuating the practice. While a few courageous women would spare their daughters this suffering, others fear their daughters would be unmarriageable. The troubling fact is that female circumcision is a women's ritual upheld by mothers, grandmothers and aunts, to conform to the male expectation for a chaste wife.; Testimony from doctors detail the various forms of female circumcision and the horrendous ob/gyn problems that result. Dr. Groesbeck Parham, an African American, studied with a Sudanese doctor in Khartoum. He observes, "When you are confronted with a situation rooted in such deep cultural mores, you have to be careful not to become arrogant. But I think it is a practice that needs to be revamped." An extraordinary documentary for Women's Studies, Anthropology, African Studies, Public Health and Human Rights programs.;
Listed: 06/26/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3299]A Film by Monica Delgado and Michael Van Wagenen
1996 Spirit Doctors. Filmakers Library.
Subject: Folk healing has been part of the Mexican culture since pre-Columbian days. This tradition still flourishes in the Mexican American communities of the lower Rio Grande Valley. This film follows three healers in their daily work. Josefa, a traditional curandera, uses a variety of herbal and spiritual techniques. She is shown giving blessings, performing ritual cleansings and communicating the wandering soul of the dead man. Maria heals her patients by channeling the spirit of Mexico's most famous healer who died sixty years ago. Trini is a traditional partera, or midwife. She plays an important role in the community where one third of all births take place outside of the hospital.; Filmmaker Monica Delgado is herself a descendant of a curandera and partera. These cameo portraits show how traditional beliefs flourish in Mexican American culture.;
Listed: 06/17/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3296](unattributed)
n.d. The Emperor's Birthday: The Rastafarians Celebrate. Filmakers Library.
Subject: When Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was overthrown in August, 1975, by Colonel Mengistu, sixty of his cabinet members were executed and he was never seen again. Yet there remained the belief among many Rastafarians that he was still alive. They continued to worship him as the Lion of Judah and considered him the Black Christ.; The Emperor's Birthday, using old footage and interviews, sifts through the sequence of events that led to a Rastafarian movement in Ethiopia, England and the Caribbean. It shows that the movement was both political and spiritual. Curiously, the Emperor was mostly indifferent to them.; In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. Haile Selassie appealed unsuccessfully to the League of Nations for help. In reaction to this abandonment, there was an outpouring of support for him from people of African descent in the West. Marcus Garvey from Jamaica declared Africa for Africans and urged repatriation. Jazz in Harlem echoed with a longing for Africa.; The film traces the preparations being made for the celebration of the Emperor's one hundredth birthday. We meet Rastas who had made arduous journeys from all over the world, and learn of the struggle with poverty faced by the ones who have settled in Ethiopia. This is probably as close a look as outsiders will get at a gentle, spiritual people who are closely identified with the African soul and whose ways have always aroused suspicion.;
Listed: 06/17/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3295]Produced by Harriett Skye and Stefano Saraceni
1994 The Right to Be. Filmakers Library.
Subject: Harriet Skye, a 61-year old Lakota woman from the Standing Rock, ND Reservation, just graduated N.Y.U. Film School. This film is about her pilgrimage back to her people. Having seen Indians misrepresented in the media, she wanted to produce honest, realistic portrayals of her tribe.; She visits United Tribes Community College where the principal, David Gipp, describes the "Spirit Program," a course where students learn about their tradition. We see the Sioux Tribal Council in session discussing the high unemployment rate which has a depressive effect on the community. Harriett was allowed to film the very private Sweat Ceremony held in her honor.; She sees how the U.S. Government dam on the Missouri River flooded prime land on the reservation and concludes: "The 'Custer mentality' is alive and well. They don't use guns anymore; they come in three-piece suits and use the law, the water. The only things that has helped us is that we hung on to our belief system. That's why we're still here today.";
Listed: 06/17/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3293]Hartmut Bitomsky
2007 Dust. NY: Icarus films.
Subject: In examining the many types of dust, including microscopic particulates invisible to the naked eye, DUST hears from a variety of scientists-botanists, biologists, meteorologists, and astronomers-who investigate the environmental and health consequences of dust, from Sahara sandstorms and the Oklahoma dust bowl of the Thirties to the toxic dust generated by the 9/11 demolition of the WTC towers. By closely examining a subject that surrounds us in our daily lives, but to which we rarely pay serious attention, DUST provides us with a new appreciation of the many ways in which dust affects our bodies, our environment, and even the cosmos.
Listed: 06/17/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3290]A film by John Pilger
2007 The War on Democracy. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: In his second inaugural address, President Bush pledged to "bring democracy to the world". In a speech lasting 23 minutes, he mentioned the words 'democracy' and 'liberty' 21 times. Most of the world, it is fair to say, will have recoiled, many in fear...; Bush's speech was significant because it finally emptied noble concepts like 'democracy' of their true meaning - government, of, by and for the people. Never before have people in the west shown such disenchantment with the democracy they vote for and the version they get. Never before has most of humanity registered such alarm at the ambitions of a great power.; The War on Democracy demonstrates the brutal reality of the America's notion of 'spreading democracy'; that, in fact, America is actually conducting a war on democracy, and that true popular democracy is now more likely to be found among the poorest of Latin America whose grassroots movements are often ignored in the west.;
Listed: 06/10/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3287]Directed by Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand
2007 Everything's Cool. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: EVERYTHING'S COOL is a "toxic comedy" about the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action - Global Warming. The good news: America finally gets global warming; the chasm is closing and the debate is over. The bad news: the United States, the country that will determine the fate of the globe, must transform its fossil fuel based economy fast, (like in a minute).; While the industry funded naysayers sing what just might be their swan song of scientific doubt and deception, a group of self-appointed global warming messengers are on a life or death quest to find the iconic image, proper language, and points of leverage that will help the public go from understanding the urgency of the problem to creating the political will necessary to push for a new energy economy. Hold on -- this is bigger than changing your light bulbs.;
Listed: 06/10/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3286]DeSalle, Rob & Ian Tattersall
2008 Human Origins: What Bones and Genomes Tell Us about Ourselves. College Station: Texas A & M University Press.
Subject: Human evolution Human beings - Origin; Human genome; Human remains (Archaeology)
Listed: 06/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3285]Noland, Carrie & Sally Ann Ness (eds.)
2008 Migrations of Gesture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Gesture
Listed: 06/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3283]Gow, David D.
2008 Countering Development:: Indigenous Modernity and the Moral Imagination. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Subject: Indians of South America - Colombia - Cauca (Dept.) - Economic conditions; Indians of South America - Colombia - Cauca (Dept.) - Government relations; Indians of South America - Commerce - Colombia - Cauca (Dept.) ; Economic development - Colombia - Cauca (Dept.) ; Sustainable development - Colombia - Cauca (Dept.); Cauca (Colombia : Dept.) - Economic conditions
Listed: 06/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3282]Gidwani, Vinay K.,
2008 Capital Interrupted: Agrarian Development and the Politics of Work in India. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Agriculture - Economic aspects - India - Gujarat; Capitalism - India - Gujarat - History; Patidars - Social conditions; Patidars - Economic conditions; Capitalism - Philosophy
Listed: 06/01/2008 »» Request this book
[3281]Director, Adam Taub
2007 La Quinceañera. Horizon Line Documentary.
Subject: Many important events in Ana Maria’s life have been disappointing. Will her Quince Años (fifteenth birthday) be any different? Her mother and five siblings are determined that it will be: hoping and struggling to make her Quinceañera a special day, despite a lack of support from her father. Exploring issues of family, faith, and coming of age, “La Quinceañera” is a touching portrait of a Mexican family's love and devotion to each other.
Listed: 04/24/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3267]Gleason, Judith & Elisa Mereghetti
1993 The King does not Lie: The Initiation of a Shango Priest. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: This film shows the Afro-Cuban religion, Santeria, whose New World practitioners have too often been maligned out of ignorance and prejudice and even harassed by authorities. In this intimate documentary we see a contemporary Puerto Rican community of "santeros" gather for the initiation of a priest of Shango, the "Thundergod" of the traditional Yoruba religion.; As we follow the initiate through a series of ritual events, a new perspective on ancient rites is revealed. The religion originated in Africa and the chants are sung in Yoruba. Rituals like these are the basis of ceremonies performed in churches and temples of established religions. Sacred stones washed in sacred, leafy waters become the energy for ritual purification and empowerment. The anointment of head, feet and stones with the blood of sacrifice ensures atonement.; On the third day the community gathers to witness the divination session in which the initiate receives his new name, "Oba Ko Puro", translated from Yoruba as "The King Does Not Lie." With the name, comes the story of the initiate's transfer of allegiance from an outer/worldly to inner/spiritual authority. Combining ritual narration with poetic translation from Lucumi/Yoruba chants provides the viewer with an understanding of the literal and figurative dimensions of the ceremony. A film of special interest to students of comparative religion, ritual, and Afro-Caribbean culture.;
Listed: 04/14/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3265]Young, Melissa & Mark Dworkin
2001 How can I keep on Singing?. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: This evocative film is a tribute to both the pioneering and Native American women in the West at the turn of the last century. Their stories offer glimpses of everyday life, and help recover the historical contributions of women. Striking images of the landscape are woven together with historical photographs and re-enactments of women's daily activities, and an unforgettable musical score. The women and girls who cooked, cleaned, taught, did laundry and milked the cows endured unbelievable hardships. In Jana Harris' story "Cattle-Killing Winter" a settler woman describes the terrible blizzard that hit in the winter of 1889-90. In a particularly poignant story, a mother tries to teach her eldest daughter how to run the household as they lie buried in an avalanche.In another segment of the film, Mourning Dove of the Colville tribe writes "My birth happened in the year 1888...I was born long enough ago to have known people who had lived in the ancient way, before everything started to change." While describing her love of the summer gathering expeditions, she also conveys her experience in a residential Indian school. Acclaimed Canadian poet Jeannette Armstrong of the Penticton Indian Band takes us on a berry picking expedition with three generations of Okanagan women.
Listed: 04/011/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3263]O'Connor, Geoffrey
1990 Contact: The Yanomami Imdians of Brazil. VHS / DVD color 28 minutes.
Subject: This documentary, shot in one of the most remote corners of the Brazilian Amazon, graphically depicts the devastating impact of contact with the outside world on an isolated indigenous tribe, the Yanomami Indians. They are considered to be the last major Stone Age people in the Amazon.; Since 1987, as the result of the incursion of Brazilian gold miners, an estimated fifteen percent of the Yanomami Indians have died from malaria and related diseases to which they have little resistance. Further, the mining operations have polluted rivers and scared away game animals thereby destroying the Yanomami's traditional ecosystem. Although the Brazilian government is ostensibly trying to protect the Indians, such efforts are undermined by the fact that their mineral-rich ancestral land is coveted by mining interests.; This frontier section of the Brazilian Amazon is labeled a national security zone and off limits to all unauthorized persons, including anthropologists. Producer Geoffrey O'Connor was smuggled into Yanomami territory so that he could record the plight of these endangered peoples.;
Listed: 04/14/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3261]Woolf, Aaron, Ian Cheney, & Curt Ellis
2007 King Corn: You are what you Eat. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: KING CORN is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.; In KING CORN, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat - and how we farm.;
Listed: 04/14/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3260]Borrel, Philippe and Gilbert Charles
2007 Tracked Down by Our Genes. Brooklyn, New York: Icarus Films.
Subject: In 2003 the Human Genome Project, culminating a 13-year effort, announced that they had succeeded in identifying the more than 20,000 genes in human DNA. Having decoded the “book of life,” scientists would now be able to understand better how the human organism works, paving the way for improved treatment of diseases and the development of new medicines and healthcare techniques. ; TRACKED DOWN BY OUR GENES shows how this scientific breakthrough, which has provided a map through the labyrinth of heredity, allowing us to trace our ancestors’ footprints, has ushered in a new age of genetic awareness, with hundreds of companies offering tests to determine ancestry, paternity, and hereditary diseases. ; In addition to such benefits, however, there is increasing concern about the potential abuse of this scientific knowledge, such as the national databases of genetic information on millions of individuals being used in forensic investigations by police departments worldwide. In exploring this new frontier between social science and biology, TRACKED DOWN BY OUR GENES features interviews with leading geneticists, microbiologists, anthropologists, sociologists, police, civil-liberties lawyers, and genetic rights activists. ; Those interviewed in the film include Dr. Mark Shriver of Penn State University, Dr. Jonathan Beckwith of the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Troy Duster of New York University, Matt Thomas of DNAPrint Genomics, Gina Paige of African Ancestry, Sheldon Krimsky of Tufts University, Jeremy Rifkin of the Foundation on Economic Trends, ACLU attorney Barry Steinhardt and Sharon Terry of the Genetic Alliance. ; Through interviews with those involved in the development and use of new genetic technologies, TRACKED DOWN BY OUR GENES illuminates the ethical and legal issues generated by the genomic revolution as well as its possible dangers, including racial profiling, government control and genetic discrimination.
Listed: 04/11/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3259]Davenport, Nina
2008 Operation Filmmaker. Brooklyn, New York: Icarus Films.
Subject: In 2004, American actor Liev Schreiber saw an MTV segment on Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed, whose dreams of becoming a filmmaker had been thwarted by the bombing of his university during "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Schreiber, then preparing to film his directorial debut, Everything is Illuminated, in Prague, invited Muthana to work as a production assistant on the film.; Nina Davenport was hired to document Muthana's experience as an intern on the Hollywood movie. But Schreiber's well-intentioned gesture doesn't result in the inspiring story everyone had hoped for, as differing expectations and agendas clash. In particular, Muthana begrudgingly performs or shirks responsibility for the tasks assigned to him, repeatedly squandering a golden opportunity.; For OPERATION FILMMAKER, Davenport chronicled Muthana's story over a two-year period, from his work in Prague as a P.A. on Schreiber's Holocaust drama and later on Doom, a sci-fi film starring "The Rock," to a stint at a London film school, periodically contrasting his experiences abroad with scenes of Muthana's family and friends in wartorn Baghdad.; While documenting Muthana's relationships with the producers, crews and stars of both films-characterized by a psychologically fascinating stew of good intentions, bad faith, liberal guilt, and opportunism. Davenport herself eventually becomes embroiled in the young man's perennial financial difficulties and visa problems. In its continuing but futile search for a "happy ending," OPERATION FILMMAKER exposes the often mutually manipulative relationships between filmmakers and their subjects.;
Listed: 04/10/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3255]
1993 The Hamar Trilogy: Part 3 Our Way of Loving. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: From the renowned Under the Sun series of BBC, this trilogy focuses on the Hamar, an isolated people of southwestern Ethiopia whose traditional lifestyle has been barely touched by the war and the famine in the north. The films concentrate on the powerful and outspoken Hamar women, particularly Duka who in the films matures from a young unmarried girl to a wife and mother with two young children. The twenty-year relationship of the anthropologist with the Hamar people allowed for a remarkably spontaneous portrayal.; Duka is now a mother with a two-year-old daughter and a six-month-old baby boy. Her life is dominated by caring for them and her husband, Sago. Although Sago and Duka seem to have an affectionate marriage, he beats her when provoked. Like every Hamar woman, she accepts this behavior for she believes it is a man's way of loving.; The film witnesses Sago's cousin's ceremonial initation into manhood. At the ceremony Duka and the other women sing and dance themselves into a frenzy before being ritually whipped until their backs bleed. As they return home, Sago and Duka talk about their hopes for their children. Later, we see Sago and Duka's reaction to seeing television for the first time, as they watch the earlier film of their courting days.;
Listed: 04/011/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3253]
1993 The Hamar Trilogy: Part 2 Two Girls go Hunting. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: From the renowned Under the Sun series of BBC, this trilogy focuses on the Hamar, an isolated people of southwestern Ethiopia whose traditional lifestyle has been barely touched by the war and the famine in the north. The films concentrate on the powerful and outspoken Hamar women, particularly Duka who in the films matures from a young unmarried girl to a wife and mother with two young children. The twenty-year relationship of the anthropologist with the Hamar people allowed for a remarkably spontaneous portrayal.; This tells the story of Duka and her young friend Gardi, as they prepare to marry men they have never met. For Hamar girls, marriage means huge sacrifices and is full of longing, sadness and excitement. The film follows the build-up to the marriages, from the all night vigil with her girlfriends, to her farewells when she is taken away at dawn to the village of her husband's family. The new mother-in-law shaves the bride's hair, butters her body and prepares her for the first traumatic weeks in a new home.;
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3252]
1993 The Hamar Trilogy: Part 2 Two Girls go Hunting. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: From the renowned Under the Sun series of BBC, this trilogy focuses on the Hamar, an isolated people of southwestern Ethiopia whose traditional lifestyle has been barely touched by the war and the famine in the north. The films concentrate on the powerful and outspoken Hamar women, particularly Duka who in the films matures from a young unmarried girl to a wife and mother with two young children. The twenty-year relationship of the anthropologist with the Hamar people allowed for a remarkably spontaneous portrayal.; This tells the story of Duka and her young friend Gardi, as they prepare to marry men they have never met. For Hamar girls, marriage means huge sacrifices and is full of longing, sadness and excitement. The film follows the build-up to the marriages, from the all night vigil with her girlfriends, to her farewells when she is taken away at dawn to the village of her husband's family. The new mother-in-law shaves the bride's hair, butters her body and prepares her for the first traumatic weeks in a new home.;
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3251]
1993 The Hamar Trilogy: Part 2 Two Girls go Hunting. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: (not listed)
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3250]
1993 The Hamar Trilogy: Part 1 The Women who Smile. New York: Filmakers Library.
Subject: From the renowned Under the Sun series of BBC, this trilogy focuses on the Hamar, an isolated people of southwestern Ethiopia whose traditional lifestyle has been barely touched by the war and the famine in the north. The films concentrate on the powerful and outspoken Hamar women, particularly Duka who in the films matures from a young unmarried girl to a wife and mother with two young children. The twenty-year relationship of the anthropologist with the Hamar people allowed for a remarkably spontaneous portrayal.Duka, a young unmarried Hamar girl learns what awaits her in life from the older women of her tribe. Their often humorous conversations range from teenage pregnancy and growing old to relationships with men. Although the men are dominant, the women are not servile and on occasion will mock the posturing of the men. The women's high spirits are revealed during the harvest celebrations and the blessing ceremony for a new baby. Young women avoid the watchful eyes of their elders as they flirt and dance.; In 'the women who smile', Duka, a young unmarried Hamar girl learns what awaits her in life from the older women of her tribe. Their often humorous conversations range from teenage pregnancy and growing old to relationships with men. Although the men are dominant, the women are not servile and on occasion will mock the posturing of the men. The women's high spirits are revealed during the harvest celebrations and the blessing ceremony for a new baby. Young women avoid the watchful eyes of their elders as they flirt and dance.;
Listed: 04/011/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3249]
2006 No Bigger than a Minute. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: "My name is Steven. I am 48 years old and I'm a dwarf." So begins Steven Delano's unusual new documentary, NO BIGGER THAN A MINUTE. What follows is neither an academic discourse on the life and times of America's "little people," nor a project in self-affirmation in the face of social discrimination -- though the film includes healthy doses of both of these. "No Bigger Than a Minute" has tongue-in-cheek re-enactments, a music score structured after Delano's own mutated DNA sequence, short-statured Hollywood stars such as Peter Dinklage ("The Station Agent") and Meredith Eaton ("Family Law") and musicians, rappers, comedians, novelists, doctors and ordinary folk.; NO BIGGER THAN A MINUTE also follows the twists in the story of dwarfism today. Scientists have isolated the genetic mutations for the majority of dwarf cases, and, most astoundingly, have developed tests that detect these mutations in the earliest stages of a fetus's development. The question is inescapable: Is dwarfism a chronic handicap to be eliminated? Or is it valuable human diversity?;
Listed: 04/011/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3247]Larkin, Brian
2008 Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Subject: Mass media and technology - Nigeria - History; Mass media and culture - Nigeria - History; Nigeria - Civilization - 20th century
Listed: 04/03/2008 »» Request this book
[3243]
2008 Argentina: Turning Around. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: In the 90s Argentina embraced globalization, but instead of making everyone rich the economy collapsed. The eyes of the world were on Argentina as a desperate people turned to each other for mutual support in a remarkable outpouring of grassroots organizing. Now, several years later, have there been fundamental changes, or is it business as usual?; From the producers of Argentina: Hope in Hard Times, comes a new film that re-visits worker-run factories, and talks with journalists, economists, and unemployed workers. ARGENTINA: TURNING AROUND provides an intimate view of the new models of work, politics and community development that are now underway, as people re-invent their society to offer a better life for all.;
Listed: 03/15/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3241]
2007 Agent Orange: A Personal Requiem. Brooklyn, New York: Icarus Films.
Subject: As a young man in the late Sixties, Greg Davis served for three years in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. The area where he was stationed was one of many throughout the country sprayed by the military, as part of its counterinsurgency strategy, with millions of gallons of defoliants, including Agent Orange, which contains dioxin, the most toxic chemical known to man.After his military service, Davis married and worked for decades as a photojournalist for Time and other publications worldwide. In 2003, at the age of 54, he died from liver cancer, believed to be the result of his exposure to Agent Orange. Produced by Davis's widow, AGENT ORANGE chronicles the history of this lethally toxic herbicide, tracing its effects not only on her husband and other U.S. servicemen but also on the environment and continuing generations of Vietnamese.More than three decades after the spraying of Agent Orange was discontinued, dioxin still contaminates the Vietnamese environment and its traces can now be found in the body of everyone living in the country. AGENT ORANGE concludes by discussing a 2005 lawsuit on behalf of Vietnamese victims, naming Dow Chemical and Monsanto among 37 other firms, brought before a Federal Court in New York City.
Listed: 02/18/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3223]
2006 Cuba: The Accidental Revolution, Part 2 'Health Care System'. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: In Health Care System we learn that Cuba has been blockaded since 1961, but today Cuba has the highest quality of life in the region, the highest life expectancy, and one of the highest literacy rates in all of Latin America.; With the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, Cuba lost the foreign exchange needed to pay for expensive drugs and medicines. As a result, much of Cuba's medicine today is based on medicinal plants. These are grown on farms, processed in small labs and made available to patients through an extensive network of medical clinics. Today Cuba's advances in alternative medicine could have important consequences for other countries around the world.; Cuba boasts other firsts as well: The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana is regarded as the flagship biosciences lab in the developing world. Cuban scientists are working on an HIV vaccine, a meningitis vaccine, a Hepatitis C vaccine, and other pharmaceuticals.; Cuba has also embarked on a program of medical internationalism. There are 25,000 Cuba doctors serving in 68 poor countries around the world. The Latin American School of Medical Science has 10,000 students from developing countries primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. They are educated for free with the understanding they will return to their home countries to practice.;
Listed: 02/17/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3222]
2006 Cuba: The Accidental Revolution; Part 1 'Sustainable Agriculture'. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Sustainable Agriculture examines Cuba's response to the food crisis created by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989. At one time Cuba's agrarian culture was as conventional as the rest of the world. It experienced its first "Green Revolution" when Russia was supplying Cuba with chemical and mechanical "inputs." However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 ended all of that, and almost overnight threw Cuba's whole economic system into crisis. Factories closed, food supplies plummeted. Within a year the country had lost over 80% of its foreign trade. With the loss of their export markets and the foreign exchange to pay for imports, Cuba was unable to feed its population and the country was thrown into a crisis. The average daily caloric intake of Cubans dropped by a third.; Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. Without fuel and machinery parts, Cubans turned to oxen. Without fuel to transport food, Cubans started to grow food in the cities where it is consumed. Urban gardens were established in vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back yards. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable agriculture ever undertaken. By 1999 Cuba's agricultural production had recovered and in some cases reached historic levels.;
Listed: 02/17/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3221]Finnström, Sverker
2008 Living With Bad Surroundings: War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Subject: Acoli (African people) - Social life and customs War and society - Uganda - Northern Province
Listed: 02/09/2008 »» Request this book
[3209](unattributed)
2007 Wolves in Paradise: Ranchers and Wolves in the New West. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Set in the soaring mountains and majestic valleys of southwest Montana, Wolves in Paradise is a tale of survival as ranchers face the challenge of living with wolves in the decade after the top predator was reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.The documentary follows the growing wolf packs as they leave the sanctuary of the park and make their first incursions into Paradise Valley. "How can we have the rancher and the wolf together? That's the part we need to get figured out, all right. That's the tough one," says Paradise Valley rancher Martin Davis. Davis copes with the frustration of running livestock in wolf country, while fending off another threat to his way of life: encroaching development. His traditional, family outfit is contrasted with the vast Sun Ranch in nearby Madison Valley, operated as a conservation experiment that tries to accommodate both wolves and cattle with unexpected, dramatic results.Meanwhile, as the action plays out in the remote reaches of Greater Yellowstone, a surprising alliance grows between traditional enemies -- livestock growers and conservationists -- who find common ground in the need to protect open space from developers in this last, wild corner of the West.;
Listed: 01/28,2008 »» Request this film/video
[3207]Birth, Kevin
2008 Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Subject: Folk music - Trinidad and Tobago - History and criticism; Music - Social aspects - Trinidad and Tobago; Trinidad and Tobago - Social life and customs
Listed: 01/28/2008 »» Request this book
[3205]Augoyard, Jean François
2007 Step by Step: Everyday Walks in a French Urban Housing Project. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: City and town life - France; Sociology, Urban - France; Urbanization - France; City planning - France
Listed: 12/20/2007 »» Request this book
[3196]Produced and directed by David Edwards, Maliha Zulfacar, Gregory Whitmore
2006 Kabul Transit. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: In the broken cityscape of Kabul, Afghanistan, amid the dust and rubble of war, Westerners and Afghans adjust to the uncertain possibilities of peace. Kabul Transit shuttles through the broken streets of the city, moving between public space and private, listening in on conversations, posing questions, probing the darker alleys mainstream media avoids. The result is a unique cinematic experience - a shifting mosaic of encounters and raconteurs, captured glances and telling gestures, all beautifully shot and woven together by the music and the found sounds of a city sluggishly coming to life. Rejecting the usual device of narration and portraiture, the film asks the viewer to experience Kabul as a newly arrived visitor would - with a freshness born of apprehension on finding oneself in a place that is at once hauntingly strange and altogether familiar.
Listed: 11/26/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3182]Tristan Quinn
2005 Dead Mums Don't Cry. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: DEAD MUMS DON'T CRY documents one woman's remarkable struggle to stop mothers in her country from dying. She's Grace Kodindo - an obstetrician in the poverty-stricken central African country of Chad. Women in Chad have a 1 in 11 chance of dying during pregnancy or in childbirth. The risk for women in the UK is 1 in 5100.Cutting maternal mortality by 75% by 2015 was one of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by 189 countries in 2000. Five years on, progress is far behind schedule - and this film reveals it's slowest on the goals that affect women and children.But DEAD MUMS DON'T CRY shows there is reason for hope. A few poor countries have succeeded in saving mothers' lives. BBC reporter Steve Bradshaw and Grace Kodindo travel to Honduras, which has cut maternal mortality far faster than some wealthier neighbors. A key reason is that influential men and women cared enough to make the issue a priority.
Listed: 12/11/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3181]Francine Strickwerda and Laurel Spellman Smith
2004 Busting Out. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: BUSTING OUT is a disarmingly honest and intimate exploration of our society's fascination with women's breasts. Directors Strickwerda and Spellman Smith unflinchingly examine the good, the bad and the ugly sides of this American icon, delving into the history and politics of breast obsession in the US. From breast-crazy men shouting "Flash those racks!" to the fears of breast cancer and the disparate attitudes of cultures worldwide, the directors leave no stone unturned in their quest to demystify the American breast. ; BUSTING OUT combines personal story-telling with devastating analysis, sad case histories with humor, and frank talk of sexual subjects with the sweet innocence of a young girl shopping for her first bra. Told from the point of view of Strickwerda who lost her mother to breast cancer as a child, BUSTING OUT will challenge both women and men to question our obsession with breasts, and to gain a healthier perspective.
Listed: 11/12/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3180]Michelle Metivier
2005 Fighting Fire with Fire. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Monster forest fires, big enough to be seen from space and hot enough to create their own weather, used to be a once-in-a-decade nightmare. But now, they're an everyday summer reality across vast stretches of North America. Authorities in Canada and the United States are bracing for increasing infernos each fire season. A timely documentary, Fighting Fire with Fire takes audiences onto the fire line and brings them face-to-face with raging fires that are literally unstoppable. This provocative film raises questions about conventional methods of fighting fire, and whether decades of suppressing fire have simply made matters worse. The long-standing lesson taught by Smokey the Bear goes out the window as a new controversial approach to fighting fire is examined.Fighting Fire with Fire ventures into the forests of Banff National Park, where the park wardens are deliberately setting fires known as "prescribed burns." They are taking accepted practice (if it's on fire, put it out), and doing the exact opposite. One goal is to try and prevent bigger, hotter, faster fires; another is to regenerate the land, creating conditions for flora and fauna to thrive.As viewers discover in Fighting Fire with Fire, this little-known phenomenon is working. Experts explain that fire has always been part of our landscape, but forces like global warming and "hit it hard, hit it fast" fire management policies have conspired to create infernal blazes.
Listed: 11/12/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3175]
2007 Arid Lands. Oley PA: Bullfrog.
Subject: Arid Lands is a documentary feature about the land and people of the Columbia Basin in southeastern Washington state. Sixty years ago, the Hanford nuclear site produced plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and today the area is the focus of the largest environmental cleanup in history. It is a landscape of incredible contradictions: coyotes roam among decommissioned nuclear reactors, salmon spawn in the middle of golf courses, wine grapes grow in the sagebrush, and federal cleanup dollars spur rapid urban expansion.; Arid Lands takes us into a world of sports fishermen, tattoo artists, housing developers, ecologists, and radiation scientists living and working in the area. It tells the story of how people changed the landscape over time, and how the landscape affected their lives. Marked by conflicting perceptions of wilderness and nature, Arid Lands is a moving and complex essay on a unique landscape of the American West.;
Listed: 10/08/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3157]Ben-Rafael, Eliezer et al.
2006 Building a Diaspora: Russian Jews in Israel, Germany, and the USA. Leiden; Boston: Brill.
Subject: Jewish diaspora; Jews - Identity; Jews, Russian - Israel - Social aspects; Jews, Russian - Germany - Social aspects; Jews, Russian - United States - Social aspects; Jews; Diaspora; Soviet-Union; Israel (state)
Listed: 10/05/2007 »» Request this book
[3156]Oren Bendavid-Val
2006 Last Season: Portrait of a Trawler. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: Last Season is a portrait of the ground fish trawler Isabel S. from New Bedford, MA. Jeff, the captain, learned fishing from his father, local legend 'Fearless Freddy' Hatfield. Brian, the cook, is a biker and a recovering alcoholic. Lo, the deckhand, is a refugee from Vietnam who has rediscovered Buddhism.; We accompany them to the once-ample fishing areas of Georges Bank and the Nantucket Shoals, where they haul in nets, and do the backbreaking and bloody work of hand-cutting thousands of pounds of cod and other fish on a pitching trawl deck. ; The boat is revealed as a social microcosm. Captain Jeff, the son of an esteemed local captain, is at the top of the order, and Lo, who arrived in the U.S. after a harrowing escape from a Viet Cong jail, is at the bottom.; Fishing is a complicated and sometimes deadly business. Detailed knowledge of the ocean floor and the habits of fish is crucial to success. But, as Captain Jeff acknowledges as the Isabel S. returns with its catch, "Sometimes a lot of it is a little luck".;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3155]Jayasinhji Jhala
2006 Shaktima No Veh. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: The Goddess Shaktima is the most popular goddess in the region of Saurashtra known as Jhalavad. This documentary presents the story of Shaktima as performed by the tradictional muslim Bhavai troupe led by Amrit Kalu Rudatala of Kankavati village. Baisabgarh village, sponsored this event on July 11th, 2004.; Shaktima is beloved of all castes and her story is sung, recited, painted and performed in the many towns and villages. Known as the maker of Jhalavad, as the powerful mother, and the protector of children, she rides the great lion, is the subduer of the demon Babrabhoot and weds the warrior hero Harpal, himself an incarnation of the God Shiv. Large and small temples to her stand all over the land and celebrate her glory.; The play presents Hindu notions of time: cosmic time, legendary time, historical time and contemporary time. The Goddess is presented in many apsects, as demoness, as queen, as maker of polity, as mother and protector of children, and finally as the earth mother herself. The hero Harpal demonstrates his ability to contest the will of the divine, subdue demonic foes and establish a royal lineage that gives order, security, and stablity to the multicaste and multi-religious society of this land.; Shot in accordance with local norms, the film presents the play in its entirety with the viewer positioned frontally as a Hindu worshipper before a puja shrine. It shows the use of song, prayer, poetry and speech to demonstrate the variety of speech acts and to illustrate that Gujarati, Sanskrit and Dingal langauages are locally understood. This underlines that even peasants are multilingual in this area.; This film will be useful to students of film, theater, music, religion and anthropology and to students of Indic poetry and aesthetics.;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3154]Rick Widmer
2007 American Fair. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: American Fair is an intimate study of the hard-working farmers of York County, Maine, facing a vanishing way of life, their knowledge of land and beast, commitment to tradition and community - interdependent and pulling together.; At the 140th fair in Acton, farmers congregate in the spirit of both co-operation and rivalry. Families show off their finest handicrafts, agricultural produce and livestock. Teamsters compete to see whose animal is the strongest and whose daughter the most beautiful. Through the voices of farmers and townspeople, vendors and carnival workers, a portrait of a community joining together in celebration of the honest, hard-working agricultural traditions of the region is revealed. Fathers and sons, knowledge of land and beast, carnival workers and strange stories, country girls, ox-pulling, dairy showing, beauty pageants, a pig scramble and more! This feature-length ethnographic documentary quietly reveals the agricultural heritage of the region and opens our eyes to a wholesome side of American culture - as people of the earth.;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3153]Jeremy Rocklin
2007 Dollars and Dreams: West Africans in New York. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: Dollars and Dreams is a documentary film focused on the pursuits and challenges of numerous West African immigrants as they confront the idea of the American Dream and the reality of the New York experience. Including additional perspective from scholars, authors, and community leaders, the film creates a vibrant portrait of African achievement throughout the city, while exploring the complicated issues African immigrants face as they balance their deep connections to Africa and their enthusiastic commitments to America.;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3152]Ernesto Livon-Grosman
2006 Cartoneros. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: Cartoneros follows the paper recycling process in Buenos Aires from the trash pickers who collect paper informally through middlemen in warehouses, to executives in large corporate mills. The process exploded into a multimillion dollar industry after Argentina's latest economic collapse. The film is both a record of an economic and social crisis and an invitation to audiences to rethink the value of trash.;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3149]Joe Sousa
2006 Festa. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: The Feast of the Blessed Sacrament is a four-day extravaganza that attracts crowds of up to 200,000 to the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. This documentary film takes viewers on a journey from the excitement of the modern feast to the very roots of the Catholic celebration on the beautiful Portuguese island of Madeira. Along the way, Festa examines the surprising differences between the "old world" and "new world" feasts as well as the challenges that organizers on both sides of the Atlantic face in the midst of a rapidly modernizing world and changing cultural values.; In the end, this is a simple story about the power of tradition, the bonds of family, and the contributions of immigrant communities to both their new home and to the land that they left behind.;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3148]Catarina Mourao
2006 On Edge. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: The film focuses on daily life in a poor housing estate in Porto and, in particular, on a group of children aged between 8 and 14. It follows their life outdoors always inventing new games. Parents are seldom home and children have space and freedom to create their own rules, games of power many times copying the models they know from home. Sometimes things get really tough, other times there is a feeling of harmony and melancholy in the neighbourhood.; This is a special summer: people are expecting the European Football Cup and the possible victory of the Portuguese team will raise the morale of a country in full recession. Kids and adults are hypersensitive, feelings go over the top. TVs are put outdoors and the games of the European cup are followed by children and adults as an almost religious ritual; Rui, one of the characters is a 13 year old boy who unlike all the other kids of his age doesn't like football and fighting. He prefers to take refuge in a dream like world surrounded by dinosaurs and other animals from the forest.;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3145]Produced by Lawrence Hott and Diane Garey
2006 John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
Subject: The story of John James Audubon is a dramatic and surprising one. He saw more of the North American continent than virtually anyone of his time, and came to stand for America - the America of wilderness and wild things. Audubon was a self-taught artist and a self-made man whose life was rife with action and contradiction. He played the debonair European when he visited the American frontier, and then the wild woodsman in the drawing rooms of Europe. ; As an artist and a naturalist his achievements are monumental. The Birds of America - an astonishing collection of 435 life-size prints - was the largest book printed in the 19th century. Audubon was not only the artist; he was the writer, publisher and promoter. His early subscribers included the kings of England and France.; Audubon continued to draw, creating a smaller folio of even more birds, and embarking on a major study of mammals. This book, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of America, was only half-done in 1846, when he turned the work over to his son. His eyesight was failing, as was his mind.;
Listed: 10/01/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3144]Valentine, David
2007 Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category. Durham: Duke University Press.
Subject: Transgenderism; Transgender people - Social conditions; Gender identity ; Transgenderism - Research; Anthropology
Listed: 09/14/2007 »» Request this book
[3135]Bejarano, Cynthia L.,
2007 ¿Qué onda?: Urban Youth Culture and Border Identity. Tucson : University of Arizona Press.
Subject: Mexican Americans - Southwest, New - Ethnic identity; Mexicans - Southwest, New - Ethnic identity; Urban youth - Southwest, New - Social conditions; High school students - Southwest, New - Social conditions; Mexican Americans - Southwest, New - Social conditions; Mexicans - Southwest, New - Social conditions; Ethnicity - Southwest, New; Ethnicity - Mexican-American Border Region; Southwest, New - Ethnic relations; Mexican-American Border Region - Ethnic relations
Listed: 08/31/2007 »» Request this book
[3131]Diedrich, Lisa
2007 Treatments: Language, Politics, and the Culture of Illness. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Sick - Psychology; Patients' writings - History and criticism; Diseases and literature; Medicine in Literature; Attitude to Death; Attitude to Health; Autobiography
Listed: 08/31/2007 »» Request this book
[3130]Ziegler, Catherine
2007 Favored Flowers : Culture and Economy in a Global System. Durham, North Carolina : Duke University Press.
Subject: Cut flower industry
Listed: 08/31/2007 »» Request this book
[3128]Directed by Laura Pacheco, Produced by John de Graaf and Laura Pacheco
2006 The Motherhood Manifesto. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Only four countries in the world - Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States - fail to provide paid maternity leave to all workers? Canada now guarantees a full year of paid parental leave and California recently became the first state in the U.S. to provide such paid leave? Businesses that create flexible work environments find that productivity goes up, they attract more talent, turnover is reduced and their bottom line is improved?Moving personal stories combined with humorous animation, expert commentary and hilarious old film clips tell the tale of what happens to working mothers and their families in America. See how enlightened employers and public policy can make paid family leave, flexible working hours, part-time parity, universal healthcare, excellent childcare, after-school programs and realistic living wages a reality for American families.The film is based on the book The Motherhood Manifesto by Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
Listed: 08/07/2008 »» Request this film/video
[3126]Clyne, Richard J.
1999 Coal People: Life in Southern Colorado's Company Towns, 1890-1930. Denver: Colorado Historical Society.
Subject: Coal mines and mining - Colorado - History; Coal miners - Colorado - History
Listed: 05/26/2007 »» Request this book
[3093](unattributed)
2007 Mesoamerica Electronic Encyclopedia. Mexico: Armella Spitalier Cultural Foundation.
Subject: Prospective reviewers must select individual CD's. See: http://foamarketing.com/products.aspx for details.
Listed: 05/24/2007 »» Request this multimedia/software
[3090]Brooks, Ethel Carolyn
2007 Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women's Work. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Anti-sweatshop movement; Protest movements - International cooperation; Women - Developing countries - Social conditions; Women - Developing countries - Economic conditions; Working class women; Social conflict
Listed: 04/14/2007 »» Request this book
[3080]Xavier Villetard
2007 Forever Lenin . Brooklyn, New York: Icarus Films.
Subject: How and why did Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, became a mummy? After the 1924 death of the Bolshevik Revolution's leader, Stalin and other Soviet officials decided to preserve Lenin's body for public display in a mausoleum in Red Square. A team of scientists, biochemists and forensic pathologists, working in a laboratory beneath the mausoleum, developed a means to restore Lenin's temporarily embalmed corpse, which had begun to rot two months after his death, and a system of periodic chemical treatments to permanently preserve the body.
Listed: 05/16/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3079]Boellstorff, Tom
2007 A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia. Durham: Duke University Press.
Subject: Homosexuality, Male - Indonesia; Ethnology - Indonesia; Gay men - Indonesia - Social conditions; Indonesia - Social conditions
Listed: 04/19/2007 »» Request this book
[3077]J.R. Whitesel and Joseph W. Zarzynski
2005 The Lost Radeau: North America's Oldest Intact Warship. Pepe Productions /Bateaux Below, Inc. Documentary.
Subject: (not listed)
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3068]Sarasin, Jacques
2006 On the Rumba River. Brooklyn, New York: Icarus Films.
Subject: In the Democratic Republic of the Congo today, nearly sixty years after his first hit record, Wendo Kolosoy, affectionately known as "Papa Wendo," remains a well-known and beloved musician. Renowned for his development of Congolese rumba-a popular musical style that blends rumba, beguine, waltz, tango, and cha cha cha-Wendo is still active, now in his 80's, continuing to perform and to record albums of his distinctive songs and dance music. The film's exploration of the history and continuing popularity of Congolese rumba is set against a backdrop of political turmoil that has afflicted this African nation for decades, from the repressive regime (1965-1997) of Mobutu Sese Seko, an ongoing civil war, and a fragile contemporary peace. ;
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[3067]Directed by Ashley Sabin
2007 Kamp Katrina. Carnivalesque Films: www.carnivalesquefilms.com.
Subject: Kamp Katrina is a verité documentary set in post-Katrina New Orleans. The film follows Ms. Pearl, a 56-year-old Upper 9th Ward resident and Native American, over the course of 6 months. The story begins one month after Hurricane Katrina when Ms. Pearl rides her bicycle to a temporary community space in Washington Square Park. An organizer urges people to open their homes to individuals displaced by the hurricane. Ms. Pearl enthusiastically offers her backyard and 14 people immediately move into "Kamp Katrina," their self-made tent community.
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[3064]Nornes, Abeì Mark
2007 Forest of Pressure: Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Ogawa, Shinsuke, 1936-1992 - Criticism and interpretation
Listed: 03/19/2007 »» Request this book
[3060]Nieuwenhuys, E.C. (ed.)
2006 Neo-Liberal Globalism and Social Sustainable Globalisation. Leiden; Boston: Brill.
Subject: Globalization - Congresses; Sustainable development - Congresses; Neoliberalism - Congresses
Listed: 03/19/2007 »» Request this book
[3059]Rodriguez, Sylvia
2006 Acequia: Water-Sharing, Sanctity, and Place. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School for Advanced Research Press.
Subject: Human ecology - New Mexico - Taos Region; Indigenous peoples - Ecology - New Mexico - Taos Region; Stream ecology - New Mexico - Taos Region; Water-supply - New Mexico - Taos Region; Water resources development - New Mexico - Taos Region; Communication in water resources development - New Mexico - Taos Region; Water - Symbolic aspects - New Mexico - Taos Region; Taos Pueblo (N.M.) - Environmental conditions; Taos Region (N.M.) - Environmental conditions
Listed: 03/19/2007 »» Request this book
[3058]Conley, Tom
2007 Cartographic Cinema. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Subject: Maps in motion pictures
Listed: 03/06/2007 »» Request this book
[3053]Director: Chris Walker
2001 The Other Side. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Over the last century, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans have crossed the border to the United States in pursuit of permanent jobs and a better life. But that journey has become increasingly dangerous and the costs are starting outweigh the benefits. The Other Side tells the story of the villagers who have had enough and now are trying to make sure their children will no longer have to migrate to realize their dreams.
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[3051]Director: Paul M. Rickard
2005 Aboriginal Architecture. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Aboriginal Architecture offers a fascinating in-depth look into the diversity of North American Native architecture. Featuring expert commentary and stunning imagery, this program provides a virtual tour of seven Aboriginal communities - Pueblo, Mohawk, Inuit, Crow, Navajo, Coast Salish and Haida - revealing how each is actively reinterpreting and adapting traditional forms for contemporary purposes.
Listed: 02/02/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3049]Producer/Director: Will Parrinello
2006 Dreaming of Tibet. Bullfrog Films.
Subject: ; In isolated communities around the world, Tibetan exiles have created a virtual Tibet where they have endured, and even flourished, in the face of overwhelming adversity. The film looks at the lives of three extraordinary Tibetan exiles who are working for the survival of their culture, and captures the difficult challenges they face and the hope they bring to their daily lives in spite of great hardship and loss.
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[3048]Paul Jay and Nelofer Pazira
2003 Return to Kandahar. Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Landing in Kabul, 13 years after her family left Russian occupied Afghanistan, Nelofer unravels her past and the history of her country while searching for a childhood friend. Nelofer journeys across a broken land, smashed by years of anarchy under the Northern Alliance, the Taliban, and now by America’s ‘war on terror’. Return to Kandahar shows a country once again in the grip of warlords.
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[3047]Director: Gillian Darling Kovanic
2003 Suspino: A Cry for Roma. Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Takes an unflinching look at the persecution that continues to plague Europe’s largest and most vilified minority. The Roma (or Gypsies as they are pejoratively called) have become scapegoats for Eastern Europe’s nascent democracies. The film focuses on Romania where the Roma are considered ‘public enemies’, and Italy, where they are classified as nomads and relegated to living in camps where they are denied basic human rights available to refugees and foreign residents.;
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[3045]Richard Duplock
1998 Teme TTeme. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: A moving parable about progress and the values of family life set the beautiful dry lands regions of northern Ethiopia. Tells the story of a 12 year old boy who runs away from from his father's desertified farm to pursue an education in the city of Addis Ababa. He falls in with a gang of street children and discovers the error of his ways.;
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[3044]Tom Weidlinger
2006 Swim for the River. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: Christopher Swain braved whitewater, sewage, snapping turtles, hydroelectric dams, Homeland Security patrols, factory outfalls, and PCB contamination to become the first person to swim the entire length of the Hudson River from the Adirondack Mountains to New York City. His extaordinary venture calls attenton to the plight of the Hudson. We also see how ordinary citizens can affect the environment through the choices they make.
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[3042](unattributed)
2006 Chicago: City of the Big Shoulders. Bullfrog Films. 4 part series: Edens Lost and Found.
Subject: This film is one of a four part series - Edens Lost and Found - that focuses on four cities - Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle - which face a range of demographic, economic and environmental challenges. The films showcase strategies that contribute to a sustainable ecosystem - including open space and public parks, urban forestry, watershed management, public art, waste disposal, recycling, green architecture, environmental justice, neighborhood development, and mass transit alternatives.
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[3041](unattributed)
2007 Seattle: The Future is Now. Edens Lost and Found Series. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Subject: This film is one of a four part series - Edens Lost and Found - that focuses on four cities - Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle - which face a range of demographic, economic and environmental challenges. The films showcase strategies that contribute to a sustainable ecosystem - including open space and public parks, urban forestry, watershed management, public art, waste disposal, recycling, green architecture, environmental justice, neighborhood development, and mass transit alternatives.
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3040](unattributed)
2006 Los Angeles: Dream a Different City. Bullfrog Films. 4 part series: Edens Lost and Found.
Subject: This film is one of a four part series - Edens Lost and Found - that focuses on four cities - Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle - which face a range of demographic, economic and environmental challenges. The films showcase strategies that contribute to a sustainable ecosystem - including open space and public parks, urban forestry, watershed management, public art, waste disposal, recycling, green architecture, environmental justice, neighborhood development, and mass transit alternatives.
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3039](unattributed)
2006 Philadelphia: The Holy Experiment. Bullfrog Films. 4 part series: Edens Lost and Found.
Subject: This film is one of a four part series - Edens Lost and Found - that focuses on four cities - Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle - which face a range of demographic, economic and environmental challenges. The films showcase strategies that contribute to a sustainable ecosystem - including open space and public parks, urban forestry, watershed management, public art, waste disposal, recycling, green architecture, environmental justice, neighborhood development, and mass transit alternatives.
Listed: »» Request this film/video
[3038]Ragobert, Thierry and Isy Moregenztern
2005 The Bible Unearthed: The making of a Religion. Brooklyn, New York: Icarus Films.
Subject: The bible is both a religious and historial work; but how much is myth and how much is history? Based on the book 'The Bible Revealed' by Israel Finkelstein (Tel Aviv Univeristy) and Neil Silberman (Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation), the 'Bible Unearthed' is a four-part series that presents the latest scientific research into this question.
Listed: 01/21/2007 »» Request this film/video
[3035]