Independent Television Service
Pub. Date
2016.
Description
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police,...
Pub. Date
[2003]
Description
"This new video documentary explores the complex psychological, cultural, legal and financial issues surrounding an important new trend: the home funeral movement. A family undertaking profiles several families who have made the decision to forgo the typical mortuary funeral and instead care for their loved ones at home"--Container label.
Pub. Date
2004
Description
This documentary on Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, traces the development of his art and political philosophy. Seuss's early work as a political cartoonist for PM newspaper and as a film propagandist with Frank Capra ultimately evolved into a career as a children's writer concerned with nurturing both literacy and social awareness.
Pub. Date
[2010]
Description
Follows the emotional struggles faced by Avery Klein-Cloud, an adopted African-American high-school track star who lives in Brooklyn with her two Jewish lesbian mothers and two adopted brothers, as she contacts her birth mother and begins to explore her sense of identity and race.
Pub. Date
c2006
Description
Convicted felons at Kentucky's Luther Luckett Correctional Complex rehearse for the Shakespearean production, The Tempest, as part of the Shakespeare Behind Bars Program. The play's underlying theme of forgiveness parallels themes of transformation and redemption in the lives of the prisoners.
Pub. Date
[2013]
Description
A character-driven documentary film that goes behind the doors of an American public hospital (Oakland, Ca.) struggling to care for a community of largely uninsured patients. Young victims of gun violence take their turn alongside artists and small business owners who lack insurance. The film weaves the stories of several patients--as well as the hospital staff charged with caring for them--as they cope with the complexity of the nation's public health...
Pub. Date
c2008
Description
Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa, to find out how the modest corn kernel conquered America. With the help of real farmers, powerful fertilizer, government aid, and genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hidden truths about America's modern food system.--From publisher description.
9) Tower
Pub. Date
[2017]
Description
On August first, 1966, a sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the iconic University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes in what was a previously unimaginable event. This documentary combines archival footage with animated re-enactments of the dramatic day, based entirely on first person testimonies from witnesses, heroes, and survivors, in a seamless and suspenseful retelling of the unfolding tragedy.
Pub. Date
c2014
Description
Considers the difference between black photographers who use the camera to define themselves, their people, and their culture and some white photographers who, historically, have demeaned African-Americans through racist imagery. A cornucopia of Americana that reveals deeply disturbing truths about the history of race relations while expressing joyous, life-affirming sentiments about the ability of artists and amateurs alike to assert their identity...
Pub. Date
2013
Description
Discusses the enduring appeal of soul food. Presents an overview of its history, covering its roots in Western Africa, its incarnation in the American South, and the role it plays in the health crisis in the African American community. Examines the socioeconomics of the modern American diet, and how the food industry profits from producing cheap calories while healthy options remain expensive and hard to find.
13) Street Fight
Pub. Date
[2007]
Description
Follows the 2002 race for Mayor of Newark, N.J. between 32-year-old Cory Booker and four-term incumbent Sharpe James. Fought in Newark's neighborhoods and housing projects, the election pits the young challenger against an old style political machine.
14) Country boys
Pub. Date
2005.
Description
Acclaimed producer David Sutherland returns to rural America to tell an epic tale of two boys coming of age in Kentucky's Appalachian hills, documenting their struggles to overcome hardship and poverty and find meaning in their lives. It begins in the autumn of 1999, when Chris and Cody begin attending the David School, an alternative high school for troubled teens in David, Kentucky. Cody finds a new sense of belonging, not only in his home life...
Pub. Date
[2019]
Description
Words from a Bear gives a thorough survey of Momaday's most prolific years as a doctorate fellow at Stanford University, his achievement of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1969, and his later works that solidified his place as the founding member of the 'Native American Renaissance' in art and literature, influencing a generation of Native American artists, scholars, and political activists.
Pub. Date
2010
Description
A documentary on the Mexican-American civil rights movement. The film tells the story of one key injustice, the refusal, by a small-town funeral home in Texas after World War II, to care for a dead soldier's body 'because the whites wouldn't like it,' and shows how the incident sparked outrage nationwide and contributed to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Pub. Date
[2017]
Description
Acclaimed director Steve James tells the saga of the Chinese immigrant Sung family, owners of Abacus Federal Savings of Chinatown, New York. Accused of mortgage fraud by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., Abacus becomes the only bank prosecuted after the 2008 financial crisis. The indictment and subsequent trial forces the Sung family to defend themselves, and their bank's legacy in the Chinatown community, over the course of a five-year...
19) Asian Americans
Pub. Date
[2020]
Description
This five-part series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, international relations, and cultural innovation. It is a timely, clear-eyed look at the vital role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. Their stories are a celebration of the grit and resilience of a people that reflects the experience of all Americans.
