ITEMS DVD Descriptions


Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
DOC DVD0397

Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well being of kids. DVD/Color/ 67 min.


Killing Us Softly 4
DOC DVD0478

In this new, highly anticipated update of her pioneering Killing Us softly series, the first film is 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 sterotypes- 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. 45 mins.


Offside
DOC DVD0480

The internationally award-winning film casually and caustically uncovers what binds us- and binds us-to the differences between our ways of life in the West and in modern day Iran. Fascinating, funny and tragic, it's "score one for the ladies!" raves J. Hoberman of The Village Voice. The Tehran soccer stadium roars with 100,00 cheering men- and only men. According to Islamic custom, women are not allowed, and the ambitious girls who manage to sneak in are caught and sent to a holding pen, guarded by male soldiers their own age. Duty makes the youngmen and women adversaries but duty can't overcome their chared dreams, their mutual attraction, and ultimately their overriding sense of national pride and humanity. 92 mins.


Inception Origin
DOC DVD0554

Acclaimed filmaker Chistopher Nolan directs an international cast inthis sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the best there is at extraction; stealing valuable secrets inside the subconscious during the mind's vulnerable dream state. His skill has made him a coveted player in industrial espionage but has also made him a fugitive and cost him dearly. Now he may get a second chance if he can do the impossible: inception, planting an idea rather than stealing one. If they succeed, Cobb and his team could pull off the perfect crime. But no planning or expertise can prepare them for a dangerous enemy who seems to predict their every move. An enemy only Cobb could have seen coming. 148 minutes


Buying the War
DOC DVD0309

The Bush administration marketed and sold the war in Iraq to the American people. How and why did the press buy it, and what does that say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda? In this program, veteran journalist Bill Moyers, award-winning producer Kathleen Hughes, and their investigative team piece together the reporting and political spin that shaped the public mind prior to, during, and following the 2003 invasion. Exposing the disappearance of a watchdog mentality in the mainstream newspaper and TV journalism, the documentary also highlights the work of intrepid Knight Ridder reporters who dug beneath the surface of administration claims - only to be drowned out by the drums of war. Further insight comes from journalists Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS Evening News; Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press; Bob Simon of 60 Minutes; and Walter Isaacson, former chairman of CNN. 87 mins / DVD / Broadcast Date 4/25/07


Communicating Betwen Cultures
DOC DVD0129

Communicating Between Cultures shows how to make some of these pratterns visible and improve communication. A series of cross-cultural situations show how even good intentions often go astray. 23 Mins.


Spellbound
DOC DVD0089

Spellbound follows the lives of eight young Americans who share one goal: to win the National Spelling Bee. Think this sounds boring? Prepare to be blown away. The Bee is as intense a competition as any olympic match, and for the spellers and their families, the stakes are just as high. the unbearable pressure becomes even more extraordinary as it is felt by ordinary teenagers. Watch as the Bee becomes a dramatic backdrop for the bigger story about kids and families today as we discover that within the roller coaster ride of the National Spelling Bee can be found the heart of America. DVD/Color/1 hour 37 min/not rated


Into The Arms Of Strangers
DOC DVD0091

Just prior to World War II, an extraordinary rescue operation aided the youngest victims of Nazi terror. Ten-thousand Jewish and other children were transported from German-held lands to foster homes and hostels in Great Britain. Some built new family ties. Some endured the Blitz. Some, amazingly, found ways to liberate their own parents from Hitler's tyranny. And all have unforgettable stories to tell. DVD/B&W & Color/117 min/Rated PG


Brothers Keeper
DOC DVD0093

On the morning of June 6, 1990, the village of Munnsville (pop. 499) was just another forgotten corner of rual America. But in the days and months that folowed, this New York farming community would become the center of one of the most celebrated and bizarre murder trials in U.S. history. Brother's Keeper tells the story of the "Ward Boys," four eccentric brothers who shared the same dilapidated two-room shack for over 60 years. Living in isolation, without heat or running water, these elderly bachelors had virtually no contact with the outside world - until one was found dead in the bed he shared with his brother. By day's end, Delbert Ward "confessed" to suffocating his ailing brother as an act of mercy, but Munnsville believed Delbert had been framed. Was Delbert, an uneducated hermit with a low IQ an innocent victim of police abuse? Was it a mercy killing - or was there another motive? Ten years after mesmerizing audiences and critics everywhere, Brother's Keeper - one of the most successful nonfiction films of all time - is back to grip the nation with this 10th Anniversary Edition. DVD/color/Aprox. 105 min/Not rated


One Day In September
DOC DVD0094

One Day in September is the incredible, story about the brutal massacre of Israeli athletes by a team of extreme Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. Finally, the unbelievable truth is revealed: how eight terrorists easily snuck into the Olympic Village and took 11 innocent athletes hostage, the tension-filled negotiations that followed and the shocking conclusion at a German airport that stunned the world. Featuring the frightening perspective of the only surviving terrorist and revelatory facts about what really happened on that dark night. DVD/Color/Approx 91 min/Rated R-Some graphic violent images


Dark Days
DOC DVD0095

In the pitch black of the tunnell, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn Station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground, it has been home for as long as twenty-five years. Deeply moving and suprisingly entertaining, Dark Days is an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness by revealing a thriving community living in tunnels beneath New York City and honestly capturing their resilence and strength in their struggle to survive. DVD/B&W/84 min/Not rated


Capturing The Friedmans
DOC DVD0096

Capturing the Friedmans, the most riveting, critically-acclaimed, and hotly debated film of the year, explores the elusive nature of truth through the prism of one of the strangest criminal cases in Amarican history. Despite their tendency to ham it up in front of home-movie cameras, the Friedmans are a seemingly normal middle-class family living in the affluent New York suburb of Great neck. One Thanksgiving, as the family gathers at home for a guiet holiday dinner, their front door explodes, splintered by a police battering ram. Officers rush into the house, accusing Arnold Friedman and his youngest son Jesse of hundreds of shocking crimes. The film follows their story from the public's perspective and through unique real footage of the family in crisis, shot inside the Friedman house. As the police investigate, and the community reacts, the fabric of the family begins to disinteegrate, revealing provocative questions about justice, family, and - ultimately - truth. DVD/Color/Approx 235 minutes/Not Rated


Sound and Fury
DOC DVD0097

If you could make your deaf child hear, would you? sound and Fury follows the intimate, heartrending tale of the Artinians, an extended family with deaf and hearing members across three generations. Together they conforont a technological device that can help the deaf to hear but may also threaten deaf culture and their bonds with each other. for the Artinians, both of whom are deaf, a surgical ear implant for their five-year old daughter Heather means a choice between two worlds: an unfamiliar hearing world and the deaf world, a robust culture in its own right united by a uniquely visual and artistic language. Heather Artinian a precocious, vivacious, and avidly curious about implant surgery is caught between her deaf parents and her hearing grandparents, as they argue passionately about her future. When all is done, Sound and Fury speaks volumes about the choices we make and the battles we fight in order to be heard. DVD/Color/Approx 80 min./not rated


Toxic Sludge Is Good For You
DOC DVD0100

While advertising is the visible component of the corporate system, perhaps even more important and pervasive is its invisible partner, the public relations industry. This video illuminates this hidden sphere of our culture and examines the way in which the management of "the public mind" has become central to how our democracy is controlled by political and economic elites. Toxic Sludge is good for you illustrates how much of what we think of as independent, unbiased news and information has its origins in the boardrooms of public relations companies. This video tracks the development of the PR industry from early efforts to win popular American support for World War I the role of crisis management in controlling the damage to corporate image. The video analyzes the tools public relations professionals use to shift our perceptions including a look at the coordinated PR campaign to slip genertically engineered food past public sctutiny. It urges viewers to question the experts and follow the money back to the public relations industry so as to challange its hold on democracy. DVD/45 min/No Rating


Ballad of Ramblin Jack
DOC DVD0110

From his unlikely roots as the son of a Jewish doctor in Brooklyn, to his ongoing wanderings as the last of the singing cowboys, Ramblin Jack has packed so many adventures into his life that he seems more myth that man. After running away to join the rodeo at the age of fifteen, he traveled and sang with Woody Guthrie and became friend and mentor to Bob Dylan. His music helped ignite a folk revolution in the '60s and has influenced some of the most popular musicians and performers of our day. DVD/Rated PG13/Approx 112 min/color


Bus 174
DOC DVD0111

On June 12, 2000, a bus filled with passengers was hijacked in Rio di Janeiro in broad daylight. The kidnapper, Sandro do Nascimento, terrozied his victims for four and a half hours as the whole country watched the drama bradcast live on Brazilian TV. Based on an extensive research of stock footage, interviews and official documents, Bus 174 is the careful investigation of the hijacking-focusing on Sandro do Nascimento, his childhood, and how unavoidably he was doomed to become a bandit. DVD/Color/widescreen/approx 120 min/rated R/In Portugese with English subtitles 2 copies available


Fog Of War
DOC DVD0112

Former Secretary of Defense, under President Kennedy and President Johnson, Robert S McNamara was one of the most controversial and influential political figures of the 20th century. As leader of the world's most powerful military force during this nation's most volatile period in recent years, McNamara offers new and often suprising insights into the bombing of Tokyo, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the effects of the Vietnam War. DVD/color/Approx 107 min/subtitles-French, Portguguese, Spanish, Japanese/Rated PG-13


Laramie Project
DOC DVD0136

In October 1998, 21 year-old Matthew Shepard was found savagely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in Laramie, Wyoming. It is a portrait of a town painfully forced to confront itself in the reflection glare of the national spotlight. How did this small town with a "live and let live" philosophy become a town where young men could commit such a crime? DVD/color/96 min/Not rated


Whats love got to do with it
DOC DVD0143

Experience for yourself the powerful true-life story of Tina Turner. the relationship of Ike and Tina forces Tina to leave the face the fear, pay the price and find the courage to bleive in herself. R/118min/color/stereo


Laramie Project (Second Copy)
DOC DVD0151

in October 1998, 21 year-old Matthew Shepard was found savagely beaten, tied to a fence and left to dtie in Laramie, Wyoming. "The Laramie Project" is a portrait of a town painfully forced to confront itself in the reflective glare of the national spotlight. Color / 96 Minutes


Persuaders
DOC DVD0156

Frontline takes an indepth look at the multi-dollar "persuasion industries" of advertising and public relations. To cut through mass media clutter and to overcome consumers' growing resistance to their pitches, marketers have developed new ways of intergrating their message into the fabric of out lives. Correspondent Douglas Rushkoff explores how the culture of marketing has come to shape the way Americans understand the world and themselves and how the techniques of the persuasion industries have migrated to politics, shaping the way our leaders formulate policy, influence public opinion, make decisions, and stay in power. Color/90min


A Working Team
DOC DVD0170

Months after his arrival, WCNC-TV news director Keith Connors feels he has assembled a winning team, but beneath the surface the newsroom family is riven by tensions. Promotions and demotions cause the reporters to question their director's motives. One reporter openly rebels after having to cover a story he felt was beneath him. Connors experiences the isolation of leadership's tough decisions as his team's cohesion crumbles. 2004/Color/ 58 min/Episode 3 of 5


Political Advertising
DOC DVD0171

Amidst the mudslinging, campaign promises and scare tactics, what is really being said in those highly produced political ads? In this program, Bill Moyers talks with one of America's leading political and media analysts, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication and author of Everything You think You Know About Politics....And Why You're Wrong. Through astute analysis, Jamieson deconstructs more than a dozen TV commercials currently used by politicians and public interest gropus, homing in on their visual and rhetorical methods to expose their actual agendas of issue advocacy. Together, Jamieson and Moyers discuss the significance of these ads in the contexts of future elections and American politics in general. Color/71 min


An Inside Look at the News Media
DOC DVD0172

Keeping people informed 24/7 demands a never endingstream of news items - each one filled with material to be edited, facts to be checked, and decisions to be made as the clock steadily ticks. thsi ABC News program takes an unvarnished look at the Chicago Tribune, ABC's World News Tonight, and WJLA, an ABC affiliate, providing insider insights into what goes on at America's newspapers and TV stations as they scramble to feed the beast. Color/ 22 min


Dreamworlds 3
DOC DVD0272

WARNING: This video features images of graphic and sexual violence. It is important that educators preview the film prior to screening it with their students. Dreamworlds 3, the highly anticipated update of Dreamworlds 2 (1995), examines the stories contemporary music videos tell about girls and women, and by extension boys and men, providing a meticulous analysis of how these narratives both reflect and shape individual and cultural attitudes toward femininity, masculinity, sexuality and race. Systematically dismantling music video's most persistent and disturbing stock representations, and setting them against cases of real-world violence, sexism and discrimination, the film inspires viewers to critically examine how the distorted images of the Dreamworld connect with the lives of real girls and women, as well as real boys and men. Originally produced in 1991, Dreamworlds was the video that launched the Media Education Foundation (MEF). Upon its release, the film became the subject of national media attention when MTV threatened a lawsuit over copyright infringement. The lawsuit was withdrawn, and MEF has continued to produce films that critique media for nonprofit, educational use. DVD/54 minutes


Jon Stewart on Humor and an Informed Public
DOC DVD0367

Jon Stewart is considered one of America's top social and comedic voices. In this program, veteran journalist Bill Moyers interviews Stewart, the long-standing anchor of the award-winning Daily Show with John Stewart, about why so many viewers get their news and analysis from his fake news show. Does humor have a role to play in ensuring an informed public? Also on the program, Josh Marshall, influential political blogger, gives his perspective on the role of politics in the recent firings of federal prosecutors and Bill Moyers remembers David Halberstam. DVD/55 minutes/No Rating


You Only Live Twice: Virtual Reality Meets Real World in Second Life
DOC DVD0368

Tens of thousands of people "live" there, and tens of millions of dollars are exchanged there. Welcome to SecondLife.com! After introducing viewers to this compelling virtual world, You Only Live Twice grapples with overlapping in-world/real-world issues ranging from cybersex and the psychological repercussions of virtual sex crimes, to intellectual property rights fraud, to taxation on hard cash made on virtual cross-border sales, to the medical use of Second Life as a schizophrenia simulator. Insights and opinions are provided by SL creator Phillip Rosedale; virtual property development millionaire Ailin Graef; Play Money author Julian Dibell; Lauren Gelman, of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society; New York University's Clay Shirky; Ted Castronova, author of Synthetic Worlds; and others. Contains mature themes and explicit imagery. DVD/47 minutes/Not Rated


Game Over: Gender
DOC DVD0473

Game Over is the first educational documentary to address the fastest growing segment of the media through engaging questions of gender, race, and violence. What are the messages of video games? Why are the vast majority of game players boys and men? Are video games desensitizing children to violence? How is race represented in video games? Are interactive video games different from television? What images of masculinity and power are offered? What images of women exist in the video game world? DVD/Color/41 minutes


Bigger Stonger Faster
DOC DVD0481

America is a country that prides itself on the superlative: we are the biggest, stongest, fastest nation in the world. It it any wonder so many of our heros are on performance enhancing drugs? Director Chris Bell combines an original mix of pop culture references, a diverse cast from elite athletes to US Congressmen, with an emotional family story to illustarte the image of a "nation on steroids." When you discover that your heros have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heros? 106 mins.


Brides Maids
DOC DVD0553

Thirty- something Annie (Kristen Wiig) has hit a rough patch but finds her life turned completely upside down when she takes on the Maid of Honor role in her best friend Lillian's (maya Rudolph) wedding. In way over her head but determined to succeed, Annie leads a hilarious hodgepodge of bridesmaides on a wild ride down the road to the big event. 125 minutes


Leadership In the Movies
DOC DVD0379

-Fifty one clips from the top movies of the last three years -Fourteen aspects of leadership responsiblity -For trainers, workshop leaders, principals, key executives, students and teachers -Guaranteed discussion starters..great for character education, leadership training sessions, teacher in-service workshops, and action planning meetings -Complete discussion guides for each clip -Stimulate positive action plans -Get your leaders thinking about the BIG PICTURE DVD/Not Rated/copyright 2003


Greatest Movie Ever Sold
DOC DVD0566

First, he was bugged by the almighty burger, now Oscar-nominated renegade filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is biting the hand that feeds him by exposing Hollywood's dirtiest little secret: the games they play to get advertisers' products strategically placed in movies and on television. Color/PG-13 rated/87 minutes First, he was bugged by the almighty burger, now Oscar-nominated renegade filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is biting the hand that feeds him by exposing Hollywood's dirtiest little secret: the games they play to get advertisers' products strategically placed in movies and on television. 87 mins.


Leadership in the Movies 2
DOC DVD0380

-Fifty-two clips from the top movies of the last three years -Fifteen aspects of leadership responsibility -For trainers, workshop leaders, principals, key executives, students and teachers -Guarantee discussion starters, great for charcater education, leadership training sessions, leader in service workshops and action-planning meetings -Complete discussion guides for each clip -Stimulate positive action plans -Get your leaders thinking about the BIG PICTURE DVD/Not Rated/copyright 2005


Leadership in the Movies 3
DOC DVD0381

-Fifty-three clips from the top movies of the last three years -Fifteen aspects of leadership responsibility -For trainers, workshop leaders, principals, key executives, students and teachers -Guaranteed discussion starters...great for character education, leadership training sessions, teacher in-service workshops, and action-planning meetings -Complete discussions guides for each clip -Stimulate positive action plans -Get your leaders thiking about THE BIG PICTURE DVD/Not Rated/Copyright 2006


Leadership in the Movies 4
DOC DVD0382

-Fifty-three clips from the top movies of the last two years -Fifteen aspects of leadership responsiblity -For trainers, workshop leaders, principals, teachers, administrators, students, and key executives -Guaranteed discussion starters...great for character education, leadership training sessions, teacher in-service workshops, and action-planning meetings -Complete discussion guides for each clip -Stimulate positive action plans -Get your leaders thinking about THE BIG PICTURE! DVD/Not Rated/Copyright 2008


Copyright Criminals
DOC DVD0464

Copyright Criminals examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, tracing the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry. For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a "borrowed melody" became a "copyright infringement." As artists find ever more inventive ways to insert old influences into new material, this documentary asks a critical question, on behalf of an entire creative community: Can you own a sound? DVD/Color/Documentary/53minutes/English


Heart Broken in Half
DOC DVD0506

Gangs are society's ultimate devil figure. They symbolize transgression and embody the deepest fears of middle-class citizens. Few filmakers have dared or been able to get behind the headlines to confront the human reality and complexity of street gangs in urban America. Challenging stereotypes, this documentary gives voice to the street youths and reveals their underground culture. Here is an intricate web of symbols and passions, territory and brotherhood, honor and all to often, death. (1990) Documentary, Color, Running Time: 58 mins


He Said
DOC DVD0492

Dr. Tannen is on the linguistics department faculty at Georgetown University. The program is divided into 7 parts: 1. Boys & Girls 2. Status & Connection 3. Directness & Indirectness 4. Public Talk & Private Talk 5. Ritual Opposition 6. Conversational Style 7. Conclusion The division of the program into sections will allow you to selectively view desired portions of the presentation, to pause for discussions between appropriate sections or to view the program in its entirety. Teacher guides also available. 50 min


Bus 174
DOC DVD0114B

On June 12, 2000, a bus filled with passengers was hijacked in Rio di Janeiro in broad daylight. The kidnapper, Sandro do Nascimento, terrozied his victims for four and a half hours as the whole country watched the drama bradcast live on Brazilian TV. Based on an extensive research of stock footage, interviews and official documents, Bus 174 is the careful investigation of the hijacking-focusing on Sandro do Nascimento, his childhood, and how unavoidably he was doomed to become a bandit. DVD/Color/widescreen/approx 120 min/rated R/In Portugese with English subtitles 2 copies available


Google and the World Brain
DOC DVD0683

The story of the most ambitious project ever conceived on the Interent. In 2002 Google began to scan millions of books in an effort to create a giant global library, containing every book in existence. They had an even greater purpose-to create a higher form of intelligence, something that HG Wells had predicted in his 1937 essay "World Brain". Ben Lewis uses the Google Books project as a frame to address a bigger issue of access to culture and knowledge in a digital era. Through this, the film voices an important alternative to the technological utopianism of our time. DVD/89 minutes


Art & Copy
DOC DVD0575

Meeting the inspiring cultural visionaries who revolutionized advertising during the industry's golden age in the 1960s by creating slogans to live by and ads we all remember. You may have never heard of them, but pop pioneers Lee Clow, Hal riney, George Lois, Mary wells, Jeff Goodby, Rick Silverstein, Phyllis K. Robinson, Dan Wieden, and David Kennedy have changed the way we eat, work, shop and communicate- often in ways we don't even realize. PBS. 89 mins.


Feeding the Beast: An inside Look at the News Media
DOC DVD0172B

Keeping people informed 24/7 demands a never-ending stream of news items-each one filled with material to be edited, facts to be checked, and decisions to be made as the clock steadily ticks. this ABC News program takes an unvarnished look at the Chicago Tribune, ABC's World News Tonight, and WJLA, an ABC affiliate, providing insider insights into what goes on at America's newspapers and TV stations as they scramble to feed the beast. 22 minutes, color


Frontline: Digital Nation
DOC DVD0583

Within a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn and socialize in ways that we are only beginning to understand. FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin (Growing Up Online) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (The Persuaders, Merchants of Cool), to continue her exploration of life on the virtual frontier by focusing her lens on what it means to be human in an entirely new world - a digital world. NOT RATED/90 minutes approx. run time