An observational documentary which looks at Sydney’s first community Aboriginal radio station, 88.9 Radio Redfern. Set against a backdrop of contemporary Aboriginal music, 88.9 Radio Redfern offers a special and rare exploration of the people, attitudes and philosophies behind the lead up to a different type of celebration of Australia’s Bicentennial Year. Throughout 1988, 88.9 Radio Redfern became an important focal point for communication and solidarity within the Aboriginal community. The film reveals how urban blacks are adapting social structures such as the mass media to serve their needs.
Lee Grant's acclaimed 1989 investigation of domestic violence in American Homes. Battered is the powerful, if harrowing portrait of a life lived in constant fear of the people closest to you. Intimate interviews with the victims and children of the cycle are combined with the eye opening and heart breaking stories of the abusers themselves to take you deeper into every facet of these American lives.
James Baldwin was at once a major 20th century American author, a Civil Rights activist and, for two crucial decades, a prophetic voice calling Americans, black and white, to confront their shared racial tragedy.
This Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles everyday life in Aiken, S.C. -- ground zero for America's hydrogen bomb-making facility, the Savannah River Plant. Through interviews with residents, politicians, activists and factory workers, the incisive film looks at the consequences of living in the shadow of nuclear weapons and the illegal dumping of radioactive waste. Actress Jane Alexander narrates.
The film evolves around questions of identity, popular memory and culture. While focusing on aspects of Vietnamese reality as seen through the lives and history of women resistance in Vietnam and in the U.S, it raises questions on the politics of interviewing and documenting.
"An experimental documentary on Reverend L.O. Taylor, a black Baptist minister from Memphis, Tennessee who was also an inspired filmmaker with an overwhelming interest in preserving the social and cultural fabric of his own community in the 1930′s and 40s. I combine his films and music recordings with my own images of Memphis neighborhoods and religious gatherings" -Sachs
This film gives an intimate look at a way of life of which most of us have seen only glimpses. Dance was once at the heart of Yupik Eskimo spiritual and social life. It was the bridge between the ancient and the new, the living and the dead and a person's own power and the greater powers of the unseen world.
A locomotive journey traversing the North to the South of the German Democratic Republic on the eve of its dissolution. Labourers, punks, mothers, intellectuals, young and old are implored to reflect on their life choices, the sacrifices they've made, and their place in the world. Despite everything, hope persists.
This profile of storied trumpeter of jazz, Tiny Davis, and her cohort pianist-drummer, Ruby Lucas, is an amalgam of artifacts about the two women, accompanied with poetry by Cheryl Clarke.
The men in FINDING OUR WAY range in age from twenty-seven to seventy-one and come from a variety of backgrounds: a writer, an insurance agent, a clergyman, and the owner of a dry cleaning store. They are heterosexual, gay, and bisexual. FINDING OUR WAY is a first step toward creating new role models and moving beyond the stereotypes surrounding male sexuality. The program helps men feel less afraid of closeness with other men and encourages both men and women to talk more openly about their sexuality.
How did ancient Egyptians build the Great Pyramid at Giza, joining two million blocks of heavy stone with amazing precision? Who were the leaders who built these enormous structures, and what did these tombs signify? Host David Macaulay explores the history, mythology, and religions of Egypt's people, combining live footage and animation. Take a rare look at the mummy of Ramses II and buried treasure in the sacred Valley of the Kings.
Titian’s genius and significance in European art are undisputed. Trained at the Giovanni Bellini workshop and influenced by working together with Giorgione, he came to a masterly use of colour, light and shade. His oeuvre contains everything his times demanded: drama, carnal lust, religious fervour, mythology and portraits. Didier Baussy-Oulianoff takes us to the places where the renaissance artist devised his works and worked for the most influential courts.
The Pasta’ay, which means "the festival of the legendary little people," is a significant ritual held every other year in the Saisiat aborigine group in Taiwan. Every ten years, they hold the Great Ritual. This film focuses on the Great Ritual in 1986. It tries to convey the Saisiat people’s affection for and belief in the legendary little people. At the same time, the film brings into light Saisiat people’s ambivalence towards tourist invasion, and their dilemma of being caught between tradition and modernization. Structured by the Pasta’ay songs’ movements, the film breaks down to 15 chapters. It carefully juxtaposes the visual with the aural elements, which are conveyed in the conceptual dichotomy between “the real” and “the artificial.”
The work of Jean Piaget has become the foundation of current developmental psychology and the basis for changes in educational practice. David Elkind, author of The Hurried Child and Miseducation, and a student of Jean Piaget, explores the roots of Piaget’s work and outlines important vocabulary and concepts that structure much of the study of child development. Using both archival film of Dr. Piaget and newly shot sequences of Dr. Elkind conducting interviews with children of varying ages, this film presents an overview of Piaget’s developmental theory, its scope and content.
Made over a span of eight years, this documentary is structured as a conversation between anthropologist Mabel Prelorán and Zulay Saravino, who has left her Ecuadorian mountain village to explore opportunities in Los Angeles. Working the land and making textiles to sell, Zulay’s industrious family sent all of their daughters to school — at the time an unusual move in Quinchuqui — and raised an intelligent, independent daughter whose literacy, business sense and introduction to the Preloráns led her to try her luck in the States. Devoted to her village, she relates a mesmerizing account of Otavaleñan traditions and reflects on her experiences in the US.
Goddess Remembered is a salute to 35,000 years of "pre-history," to the values of ancestors only recently remembered and to the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. This documentary features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Luisah Teish, Starhawk, Charlene Spretnak and Jean Bolen, who link the loss of goddess-centered societies with today's environmental crisis.
A 36-minute overview of one of mankind's greatest achievements. In the early 1930s, America was in the depths of a tragic economic depression. Yet the people of that troubled era constructed Hoover Dam, still one of the great wonders of the world.
This historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China’s vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.