Recent videos of interest

... OR explore our most recent video orders

The subject lists on the left offer a sampling of recent videos ordered since 2011 which might be of interest to Anthropology, Sociology, Women's & Sexuality Studies, and more. Select one of the categories to browse and explore.

Our ten most recent videos of interest

• 100% woman: world of sports will never be the same
  A post-operative transsexual, Canadian Michelle Dumares has provoked outrage by entering the sport of women's mountain bike racing.... Explores complex issues of gender identity. Might work well with CBC's Too Fast To Be a Woman
• 5 broken cameras
  A deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Burnat and Davidi.
• 533 statements
  A road trip documentary about queer Canadian women. During the summer of 2004, Tori Foster took her camera across the country to talk to 20 lesbian women about what it's like to be queer where they live. The documentary follows her journey through all ten provinces.
• 8th fire
  A provocative, high-energy journey through Aboriginal country showing why we need to fix Canada's 500 year-old relationship with Indigenous peoples -- a relationship mired in colonialism, conflict and denial. Episode 1 - INDIGENOUS IN THE CITY . Episode 2 - IT'S TIME . Episode 3 - WHOSE LAND IS IT ANYWAY? Episode 4 - AT THE CROSSROADS.
• A history of punishment
  This program looks at the history of punishment, beginning with early compensatory forms of justice, Hammurabi's Code, and the Law of Moses. Contemporary forms of punishment, including the death penalty, are discussed, along with the ways in which these sentences reflect what society values.
• A Question of Madness: The Furiosus
  A documentary on the life of assassin Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who changed the course of South African history.
• A tent on Mars | Une tente sur Mars
  Thirty years after the closing of the Schefferville's mining colony, and after taking over the town abandoned by non natives, the Innus are facing a new challenge: the reopening of the iron mines.
• Afghan women: a history of struggle
  Examines the drafting of the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights. [Looks at] the pivotal role women's struggle for equality has played in the country's tumultuous political history and debunk the myth that current U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has liberated Afghan women from the tyranny of fundamentalism.
• Against a trans narrative
  “Trans filmmaker Jules Rosskam's provocative and personal experimental documentary investigating dominant constructions of trans-masculine identity, gender, and the nature of community.”
• Alanis Obomsawin films
  A collection of Alanis Obomsawin films in DVD, streaming video and VHS format.

Activism & Human Rights

[Our most recent acquisitions only. Use the search box above to find more.]

• 5 broken cameras
  A deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Burnat and Davidi.
• A Question of Madness: The Furiosus
  A documentary on the life of assassin Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who changed the course of South African history.
• Afghan women: a history of struggle
  Examines the drafting of the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights. [Looks at] the pivotal role women's struggle for equality has played in the country's tumultuous political history and debunk the myth that current U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has liberated Afghan women from the tyranny of fundamentalism.
• An encounter with Simone Weil
  What response does seeing human suffering demand of us? Filmmaker Julia Haslett seeks an answer in the controversial French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-1943), whose life and work took on this question in a dramatic way. Driving her obsession with Weil is the interwoven story of suffering within Haslett's own family.
• BAS! : Beyond the red light
  13 young girls sold into Mumbai's infamous network of gated brothels confront the inner and outer perils of life after rescue. The film explores the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing these young traumatised girls through a very intimate and honest lens where they are the storytellers.
• Bhopal: the search for justice
  “This documentary explores the continuing cover-up, analyzes the prospect for environmental and human justice in Bhopal, and exposes the responsibility of the multinational corporations”
• Budrus
  Tells the story of a Palestinian father and daughter who united Arab and Israeli factions to create a non-violent movement and save their village from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier
• Constitute!: women's constitutional activism
  The largest social mobilization of women in Canadian history in the 20th century. Led by the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution, women and other activists across the country fought to gain stronger equality provisions entrenched in the newly repatriated Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
• Courting justice
  Illustrates how the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa partially lived up to its goals of promoting justice and human rights. Essential to keeping these promises, indeed mandated by the constitution, is a judiciary that includes women. By 2008, 18 percent of the superior court judges were women. This film is their story.
• Cultures of resistance
  In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. From Burma, where non-violent monks take on a dictatorship, to Brazil, where musicians transform guns into guitars, and myriad places in between, Cultures of Resistance celebrates the people standing up to exploitation and violence ...
• Dangerous living: coming out in the developing world
  “Explores the lives of gay and lesbian people in non-Western cultures, where most occurrences of oppression receive no media coverage at all”
• Earth Keepers
  Mikael Rioux, a young activist committed to the environment and worried about the legacy he will leave to his son, travels the world on a quest for concrete solutions to the problems faced by our planet. He meets the exceptional men and women behind innovative projects for the future of society.
• Egypt : we are watching you
  In 2005, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose National Democratic Party has been the dominant political force for 24 years, announced that Egypt would hold multi-party presidential elections. Unable to sit by while their country is on the brink of change, three women activists start a grassroots campaign to empower the public and hold their government accountable...
• END:CIV - Resist or Die
  Examines our culture's addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: 'If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?'
• Fambul tok: a film about forgiveness
  Explores a culture that believes true justice lies in redemption and healing for individuals, and that forgiveness is the surest path to restoring dignity and building strong communities. Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone's brutal civil war come together for the first time in tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. By reviving their ancient practice of fambul tok (family talk) Sierra Leoneans are building sustainable peace at the grassroots level
• Finding our way: moving beyond Canada's apartheid = Neba wheti hon'a e kwuznata
  Stories of conflict between Indigenous people, governments and industry: “... documentary film in 3 chapters with and about the Burns Lake band and the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, two First Nations bands located in central B.C., Canada”
• Flow
  “A look at the world's water crisis and how the causes of the depleting water supply are connected to pollution, human rights, and even politics.”
• Freedom of expression: resistance and repression in the age of intellectual property
  “Through news clips, film excerpts, music, legal cases, satire, and a wide range of other examples and illustrations, the concerns regarding traditional copyright laws' infringing on freedom of expression are examined and critiqued.”
• From under the bushy trees: [how can aid be delivered with justice and dignity?]
  Filmed in Powell River, B.C., as well as in Chad, Africa… Focuses on Gerri Graber, founder of Willing Hearts International Society Canada, and her efforts to build a school for the orphans of AIDS victims. Lynn Whitehouse, Canada's Honourary Consul for Chad, offers insights into the challenges of bringing aid to Africa.…
• Ghosts of Rwanda
  “Frontline marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide with a documentary chronicling one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Illustrated are the failures that enabled the slaughter of 800,000 people to occur unchallenged by the world.”
• How to survive a plague
  The story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful nation, and stopped AIDS from becoming a death sentence. This improbable group of activists bucked oppression and infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, helping to identify promising new medication and treatments and move them through trials and into drugstores in record time.
• In search of Gandhi
  'What does it mean to actually live in the world's largest democracy? Adopting the conventions of a road-movie, the film crew travels down the famous trail of Gandhi's salt march, stopping at the same villages and cities where Gandhi and his followers raised their call for independence... '
• Invoking justice
  In Southern India, family disputes are settled by Jamaats, all male bodies which apply Islamic Sharia law to cases without allowing women to be present, even to defend themselves. Recognizing this fundamental inequity, a group of women in 2004 established a women's Jamaat, which soon became a network of 12,000 members spread over 12 districts. Despite enormous resistance, they have been able to settle more than 8,000 cases to date, ranging from divorce to wife beating to brutal murders and more.
• Iron Ladies of Liberia
  Chronicles the historic first year in office of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa.
• Kiviaq versus Canada
  Zacharias Kunuk travels to Edmonton to meet Kiviaq, Canada's first Inuit lawyer, former Golden Gloves boxing champion, city alderman, and the only Inuk to play with the Edmonton Eskimos football team. Kiviaq is currently suing the federal government of Canada with a claim demanding equal rights for Inuit, whom, he argues, are neither defined in law nor granted the same privileges as other aboriginal people.
• L'affaire Coca-Cola = The Coca-Cola case
  Colombia is the trade union murder capital of the world. Since 2002, more than 470 workers' leaders have been brutally killed, usually by paramilitaries hired by private companies intent on crushing the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands is the poster boy for American business: Coca-Cola. A searing indictment of a major corporate brand, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a riveting legal game of cat and mouse via the U.S. federal court and the Stop Killer Coke! campaign.
• Liberty, equality, accommodation
  DVD only. The Herouxville Code of Conduct informed newcomers that women were not to be excised, stoned or burned alive. A storm of voices and opinions greeted that announcement and generated a unique expression of direct democracy. The film is about this unprecedented collective experience.
• Moolaade
  Motion Picture. It is the time for the young girls of a village to be purified by ritual circumcision. Colle has kept her daughter from being circumcised, and several of the girls go to her for refuge. Colle agrees to help them, and she invokes moolaade, a form of sanctuary.
• Mountains that take wing
  DVD only. Internationally renowned scholar, professor and writer Angela Davis, and 89-year-old grassroots organizer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Yuri Kochiyama share intimate conversations about personal histories and influences that shaped them and their shared experiences in some of the most important social movements in 20th century United States.
• Paraiso for sale
  Depicts the struggles of local Bocas del Toro residents against land displacement by the escalating development of real estate housing for the growing population of American settlers.
• Passionate politics: the life and work of Charlotte Bunch
  Brings Charlotte Bunch's story to life, from idealistic young civil rights organizer, to lesbian feminist activist to internationally recognized leader. Charlotte's story is told by women from Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean who have worked with her to put women's rights on the global human rights agenda. Interwoven throughout the film are excerpts from Charlotte's personal letters that illuminate her determination to create a more just world.
• Pink saris
  DVD only.“The 'Pink Gang' is a group of women who wear pink saris as a symbol of their revolt against their society. They are victims of domestic violence, rape and social exclusion. Their champion is Sampat Pal Devi, who takes up their cases of social injustice.”
• Poetry of resilience
  In a small gathering in a Massachusetts town, 27 poets have come together for the first time to share their experiences as survivors of political atrocities. The poets' tales all vary, but they are united by the drive to bear witness to their past and to continue the process of healing. This documentary features six international poets who individually survived Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China's Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Iranian Revolution.
• Professor Norman Cornett: 'since when do we divorce the right answer from an honest answer?'
  Alanis Obomsawin pays tribute to Dr. Norman Cornett, a popular Religious Studies professor dismissed by McGill University in 2007. Addressing subjects as varied as palliative care and First Nations issues, Cornett won the respect of students with his unconventional approach.
• Rape for who I am
  'Interweaves the experiences of four [South African lesbian] women, victims of rape, as they prepare for an annual Gay Pride celebration. With courage and a remarkable resilience, they describe the immense prejudices they have had to endure in their townships.'
• Rock the boat: saving America's wildest river
  When satirical writer and avid kayaker George Wolfe organizes a boating expedition down the entire 52-miles of the notorious Los Angeles River, he and his motley crew become entangled in a legal controversy of national proportions. With startling images of the LA River, insightful interviews and a soft spot for humor, Rock the Boat looks at the challenges society faces in providing clean water to urban populations, and delivers a bright alternative to the current spate of doomsday docs.
• Saving face
  Every year in Pakistan, many women are known to be victimized by brutal acid attacks, with numerous cases going unreported. With little or no access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally scarred. Many reported assailants, typically a husband or someone else close to the victim, receive minimal punishment from the state. Plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad left his prominent London practice to return to his home country and help the victims of such attacks.
• Seoul train
  Seoul Train, with its footage of the secretive 'underground railroad', exposes the reality for North Koreans as they try to escape their homeland and China. The film also looks at the geopolitics behind the growing and potentially explosive humanitarian crisis.
• Sex positive
  Looks at the life of Richard Berkowitz, an AIDS activist who was at the forefront of the safe sex movement. With Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, a virologist and AIDS doctor, and Michael Callen, a musician and activist, Berkowitz helped the gay community recognize the importance of safe sex practices.
• Songs of freedom : compelling stories of courage and hope by Jamaican gays and lesbians
  Takes us inside the world of Jamaican gays and lesbians and tells... stories of individuals courageously carving out meaningful lives, despite the taboo against their sexual identity.
• Strong Coffee
  The coffee co-operative Cafe Femenino, created by a group of Peruvian women to bring financial independence for themselves.
• Suspino: a cry for Roma
  DVD only. 'Examines the persecution and discrimination inflicted upon European Roma. Focuses on Romania, where Europe's largest concentration of Roma are considered ‘public enemies’-- and Italy, where the Roma are classified as nomads and forced to live in camps while being denied human rights available to refugees and foreign residents.'
• Tales from the G20
  In June 2010, leaders from the twenty largest economies met in Toronto with representatives of corporate interests to discuss the policies that would shape the world for everyone else.This documentary traces the overt breakdown in civil liberties that occurred during the G20 Summit, from unmarked vans with snatch squads of plainclothes police to the pre-emptive arrest of activists now facing years in prison for organizing demonstrations. Directed by Open Media Initiative and uploaded to Vimeo for free viewing ...
• The end of immigration? / La fin de l'immigration
  DVD only. Montreal filmmakers look at the regressive immigration policies of the Canadian state and the people most affected.
• The experimental Eskimos
  Documents an extraordinary attempt at social engineering. The film follows Peter Ittinuar, Zebedee Nungak and Eric Tagoona, who, as 12-year-old boys, were shipped South in the early 1960s from their homes in the Canadian Arctic to attend public schools in Ottawa. All three went on to become activists and leaders, paving the way for aboriginal rights in Canada and around the world.
• The price of sex
  This inquiry into a dark side of immigration reveals the experiences of Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Mimi Chakarova traveled from post-communist Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece, and Dubai to uncover the harrowing personal accounts of women trafficked into modern-day sexual slavery.
• The Pruitt-Igoe myth
  Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which the projects resided, while tracing personal and poignant narratives of those who lived in them.
• Toilet training: law and order (in the bathroom)
  Addresses the persistent discrimination, harassment, and violence that people who transgress gender norms face in gender segregated bathrooms. Using the stories of people who have been harassed, arrested or beaten for trying to use bathrooms, this groundbreaking film focuses on bathroom access in public space, in schools, and at work.
• Under Rich Earth
  In the remote mountain valley in Ecuador, farmers face eviction from their land to make way for a massive mining project. As the company's men move deeper into the valley, the tension between the mineros and the opposition reaches a breaking point. Abandoned by the police and ignored by their government, the farmers prepare to stand down the invaders on their own. Their resistance leads to a remarkable and historic confrontation with a band of mysterious armed men hiding in the cloud forest. In Spanish with ...
• United in anger: a history of ACT UP
  Feature-length documentary that [explores] ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a grassroots perspective--how a small group of men and women of all races and classes, came together to change the world and save each other's lives. The film takes the viewer through the planning and execution of a half dozen exhilarating major actions including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation, with a timeline of many of the other zaps and actions that forced the U.S. government and ...
• Water on the table
  Water on the Table features Maude Barlow, considered 'an international water warrior' for her crusade to have water declared a human right... [The film] presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue that water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it.
• We are legion: the story of the Hacktivists
  takes us inside the complex culture and history of Anonymous. The film explores early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater, and then moves to Anonymous’ own raucous and unruly beginnings on the website 4Chan. Through interviews... the film traces the collective’s evolution from merry pranksters to a full-blown, global movement.
• What are we doing here? has foreign aid hurt Africa?
  DVD only.Challenging viewers to rethink traditional humanitarian approaches, this film follows four young Americans as they experience firsthand the scope and intractability of Africa's suffering….Discussions focus on HIV/AIDS, armed conflict, child sponsorship, U.S. farm policies, and the role of NGOs.
• Where the water meets the sky
  A group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent.
• Why Democracy? Series
  DVD only. Ten one-hour films focused on contemporary democracy, made by filmmakers from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Liberia, USA, Bolivia, Denmark, Egypt, Pakistan and Russia. For more info see: www.whydemocracy.net
• Wiebo's War
  Wiebo's War tells the story of a man's epic battle with the oil and gas industry and asks provocative questions about an individual's civil liberties.
• ¡¿Revolución!?
  A political documentary examining the concept of revolution as created by Hugo Chavez. Using Don Quixote as his inspiration, Chavez is redefining Venezualan society with his 'Bolivian Revolution'. The documentary asks if there are a series of guidelines for a democratic and peaceful revolution. To answer the question, filmmaker, Gervais, interviews pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez militants, politicians and citizens within and without the barrios of Venezuala's cities. Note that this film CAN be used for classroom ...

Cinema Politica Selections

Selected films from those shown at Concordia's Cinema Politica screenings. All Canadian-directed films from 2011 onwards should eventually be included.

• 5 broken cameras
  A deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Burnat and Davidi.
• A tent on Mars | Une tente sur Mars
  Thirty years after the closing of the Schefferville's mining colony, and after taking over the town abandoned by non natives, the Innus are facing a new challenge: the reopening of the iron mines.
• Attention féministes!
  [French version with option English subtitles]. Portrait de jeunes feministes contemporaines. A une epoque ou on a declare la mort des ideologies, ces jeunes croient encore en un monde meilleur! A travers leur engagement personnel et social, nous decouvrons le nouveau visage du feminisme, celui des filles et des gars des generations X et Y. Un mouvement dynamique, un mode d’action a la fois drole, pertinent, sexy et combatif, demontrant qu'il y a encore plein de manieres de revendiquer l'egalite.
• BAS! : Beyond the red light
  13 young girls sold into Mumbai's infamous network of gated brothels confront the inner and outer perils of life after rescue. The film explores the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing these young traumatised girls through a very intimate and honest lens where they are the storytellers.
• Big boys gone bananas
  First there was a film about banana workers saying the Dole Food Company had made them infertile. Then Dole attacked the filmmakers. Now it's time for a new film! The true story about a Swedish filmmaker and a banana corporation. Dirty tricks, lawsuits, manipulation, and the price of free speech.
• Blue gold: world water wars
  Wars of the future will be fought over water, as they are today over oil, as the source of all life enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling fresh water supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive.
• Budrus
  Tells the story of a Palestinian father and daughter who united Arab and Israeli factions to create a non-violent movement and save their village from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier
• Call Me Salma | Appelez-moi Salma
  A documentary film about love and loss. In the crowded back alleys of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Salma enters the mysterious and rich world of transexuality.
• Carbon Rush
  Incinerators burning garbage in India. Hundreds of hydroelectric dams in Panama. Biogas extracted from palm oil in Honduras. Eucalyptus forests harvested for charcoal in Brazil. What do these projects have in common? They are all receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created somewhere else. But what impact are these offsets having? Are they actually reducing emissions? And what about the people and the communities where these projects have been set up?
• Carts of Darkness
  In the community of North Vancouver, local bottle collectors have turned the act of binning into a thriving subculture of shopping cart racing. Murray Siple, a former snowboarder and sport film director injured in a serious car accident ten years ago, returns to filmmaking to capture their story.
• Crude Sacrifice: you can't reclaim humanity
  Looks at how the community of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is affected by the exploitation of Canada's Tar Sands and how the federal and provicial governments are dealing with local concerns.
• Cultures of resistance
  In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. From Burma, where non-violent monks take on a dictatorship, to Brazil, where musicians transform guns into guitars, and myriad places in between, Cultures of Resistance celebrates the people standing up to exploitation and violence ...
• Dangerous living: coming out in the developing world
  “Explores the lives of gay and lesbian people in non-Western cultures, where most occurrences of oppression receive no media coverage at all”
• Debt Trap
  The average Canadian is shouldering a personal debt load greater than their total yearly net income. This program examines why the average Canadian is sinking deeper in debt, by looking at the stories of several individuals and families who are struggling with: credit card debt, mortgage debt, and repayment of lines of credit, student loans, and payday loans. Looks beyond blaming individual consumers, to examine the roles of lending institutions, the corporate sector, and governments in understanding the current ...
• Diamond Road
  A documentary following the path of diamonds, both geographically and historically. Details the widespread and complex interrelationship of trade and effort involving the diamond industry, from impovershed day-laborers in Sierra Leone, to craftsmen in India, to dealers, jewelers and gemologists in New York City, all attended by the marketing and sales strategies that have made the diamond trade what it is today.
• Dream Listener | Porteur de rêves | Portador de sueños
  'I wrote my dream on cardboard, went out into the street and held the cardboard dream in front of me. At the end of the day I abandoned the cardboard dream. Over the year one hundred and ninety-four dreams were written on cardboard and shared this way...' A Montreal artist explores issues of homelessness through dreams on the street.
• Earth Keepers
  Mikael Rioux, a young activist committed to the environment and worried about the legacy he will leave to his son, travels the world on a quest for concrete solutions to the problems faced by our planet. He meets the exceptional men and women behind innovative projects for the future of society.
• END:CIV - Resist or Die
  Examines our culture's addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: 'If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?'
• Ghosts
  Three Arab-Canadian men are detained and tortured for months and years in Syria and Egypt. Upon their release they return to Canada struggling to find some answers as to why they were detained and tortured. An internal inquiry into their cases, the Iacobucci Inquiry, reveals that the Canadian government was complicit in their detention and torture. The camera team follows the lives and cases of the men for a year and a half as the men fight to leave the horror of torture behind them.
• Girls Rock!
  At RocknRoll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it's OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that 'it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are'.
• Herman's house
  Herman Wallace has spent 40 years imprisoned in solitary confinement in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell for a crime many believe he never committed. The injustice of solitary confinement and the transformative power of art are explored.
• How does it feel?
  Like many people, Kazumi was daunted by the idea of singing in public. But at 58, he has decided to use his awe-inspiring singing voice to channel his cerebral palsy (CP). As Kazumi draws from his exuberant, poignant and painful experiences, performer and teacher Fides Krucker guides him to embrace his inner artist. Kazumi's one-man show features songs like Smokey Robinson's 'Tracks of My Tears,' which take on new and unexpected meaning in this moving account of self-discovery and transformation through the ...
• Iron Ladies of Liberia
  Chronicles the historic first year in office of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa.
• Kiviaq versus Canada
  Zacharias Kunuk travels to Edmonton to meet Kiviaq, Canada's first Inuit lawyer, former Golden Gloves boxing champion, city alderman, and the only Inuk to play with the Edmonton Eskimos football team. Kiviaq is currently suing the federal government of Canada with a claim demanding equal rights for Inuit, whom, he argues, are neither defined in law nor granted the same privileges as other aboriginal people.
• L'affaire Coca-Cola = The Coca-Cola case
  Colombia is the trade union murder capital of the world. Since 2002, more than 470 workers' leaders have been brutally killed, usually by paramilitaries hired by private companies intent on crushing the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands is the poster boy for American business: Coca-Cola. A searing indictment of a major corporate brand, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a riveting legal game of cat and mouse via the U.S. federal court and the Stop Killer Coke! campaign.
• L'art en action | Art in action
  French version with English subtitles. A documentary about the Socially Acceptable Acts of Terrorism from a Montreal artist collective.
• Living downstream
  Follows Sandra Steingrabe during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey - the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move. At once Sandra's personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land , and water.
• Malls r us
  Combining nostalgia, dazzling architecture, pop culture, economics and politics, 'Malls r us' examines North America's most popular and profitable suburban destination-- the enclosed shopping center-- and how for consumers they function as a communal, even ceremonial experience and, for retailers, sites where their idealism, passion, and greed merge.
• Petropolis
  The Athabasca tar sands in Alberta are an oil reserve the size of England. Extracting crude oil that lies beneath the unspoiled wilderness requires a massive industrialized effort, effecting catastrophic damages on land, air, water, and climate. Peter Mettler shows us this extraordinary view from above, filming primarily from a helicopter to capture this breathtaking, unparalleled view of the world's largest industrial, capital and energy project.
• Pink Ribbons
  Breast cancer has become the poster child of cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless people walk, run and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labelled a 'dream cause,' has become obscured by a shiny, pink story of success.
• Portrait of resistance: the art and activism of Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge
  Recognized internationally as pioneering artist-activists, Condé and Beveridge's creative collaboration spans four decades: from their rejection of market-driven New York art scene in the 1970’s, through their return to Canada, and the evolution of their innovative community-based art practice. [This film] illuminates the alternative path they took, and intimately captures the artists as they create provocative staged photographs — about the environment, the rights of workers and the current global financial ...
• Scarlet road
  "Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression, Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long overlooked clientele— people with disabilities. ..Rachel’s philosophy is that human touch and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence." Also available as a DVD: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/783787692 [for a film with a different lens on a similar topic, see also Want: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/706443158]
• Seeking the Current | Chercher le courant
  A “road movie” on a river. Nicolas Boisclair and Alexis de Gheldere canoe the entire 500 km course of the pristine Romaine River before Hydro-Québec begins construction of four hydroelectric plants. In parallel, accompanied by actor Roy Dupuis, they explore various renewable green energies and their profitability by interviewing experts across Québec. French with English subtitles
• Sex Slaves
  Explores the multi-billion dollar world of sex trafficking. Goes to the villages of Ukraine and Moldova, where girls are lured and then sold and forced into prostitution in brothels and discotheques all over Europe. Follows Viorel, a Ukrainian man, on a mission to find his pregnant, trafficked wife in Turkey. The film explores the global trafficking problem through personal stories and unfettered access to traffickers and the people used as human chattel.
• Sisters in law
  Kim Longinotto production. A documentary record of a courtroom in Kumba, Cameroon, where a female prosecutor and judge work to put an end to their community's tacit acceptance of child abuse, wife beating and rape.
• Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada
  [Streaming film via NFB Campus. To access from outside the Concordia network, first register at nfb.ca/campus/go. Ignore the billing/price information; find and select Concordia University, Montreal, QC as your institution.] Feminism has shaped the society we live in. But just how far has it brought us, and how relevant is it today? This feature documentary zeroes in on key concerns such as violence against women, access to abortion, and universal childcare, asking how much progress we have truly made on these ...
• Tales from the G20
  In June 2010, leaders from the twenty largest economies met in Toronto with representatives of corporate interests to discuss the policies that would shape the world for everyone else.This documentary traces the overt breakdown in civil liberties that occurred during the G20 Summit, from unmarked vans with snatch squads of plainclothes police to the pre-emptive arrest of activists now facing years in prison for organizing demonstrations. Directed by Open Media Initiative and uploaded to Vimeo for free viewing ...
• The Big Wait: A Film About The Doctor Shortage in Canada
  The doctor shortage is getting critical and one town is desperately trying to recruit physicians. At the same time, three internationally trained doctors are trying to get licensed to practice medicine in their new country.
• The end of immigration? / La fin de l'immigration
  DVD only. Montreal filmmakers look at the regressive immigration policies of the Canadian state and the people most affected.
• The experimental Eskimos
  Documents an extraordinary attempt at social engineering. The film follows Peter Ittinuar, Zebedee Nungak and Eric Tagoona, who, as 12-year-old boys, were shipped South in the early 1960s from their homes in the Canadian Arctic to attend public schools in Ottawa. All three went on to become activists and leaders, paving the way for aboriginal rights in Canada and around the world.
• The Frog Princes
  A Concodia theatre troupe is working tirelessly to put on a play. The challenges they face are a part of the usual drama behind any live show. There’s the backstage politics, the forgotten lines, the missed cues, the romances and the rivalries. But for this troupe, the stakes are a bit higher – each cast member faces intellectual, developmental and mental health disabilities.
• The hole story: June 1, 2011
  The history of mining in Canada is the story of astronomical profits made with disregard for the environment and human health. Using striking images, rare archival footage, interviews and their trademark humorous social commentary, the directors make a clear case against the way mining has been done in Canada. French version: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/805656615
• The light bulb conspiracy: the untold story of planned obsolescence
  Traces the untold story of Planned Obsolescence, the deliberate shortening of product life spans to guarantee consumer demand, from its beginnings in the 1920s.
• The price of sex
  This inquiry into a dark side of immigration reveals the experiences of Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Mimi Chakarova traveled from post-communist Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece, and Dubai to uncover the harrowing personal accounts of women trafficked into modern-day sexual slavery.
• The Pruitt-Igoe myth
  Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which the projects resided, while tracing personal and poignant narratives of those who lived in them.
• The Regretters
  Regretters gives heartfelt voice to two transgendered people who underwent sex change surgery to become women. Now, years later, they would like to return to their original, masculine selves. Through their experiences we learn how very complicated gender identity is; morphing from one gender to another is not accomplished solely by sexual reassignment surgery.
• Under Rich Earth
  In the remote mountain valley in Ecuador, farmers face eviction from their land to make way for a massive mining project. As the company's men move deeper into the valley, the tension between the mineros and the opposition reaches a breaking point. Abandoned by the police and ignored by their government, the farmers prepare to stand down the invaders on their own. Their resistance leads to a remarkable and historic confrontation with a band of mysterious armed men hiding in the cloud forest. In Spanish with ...
• United States of Africa
  African hip hop pioneer Didier Awadi is on a quest to craft an album that pays tribute to the great black revolutionary leaders and their struggle to realize a dream: a united, independent Africa. In this epic musical and political journey, Awadi visits some 40 countries to collaborate with hip hop activist artists, including Smockey (Burkina Faso), M-1 of Dead Prez (United States) and ZuluBoy (South Africa).
• Water on the table
  Water on the Table features Maude Barlow, considered 'an international water warrior' for her crusade to have water declared a human right... [The film] presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue that water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it.
• Where the water meets the sky
  A group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent.
• Where the water meets the sky
  A group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent... [Their film] involves an issue that is traumatic for them all, and rarely spoken about: the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS.
• Wiebo's War
  Wiebo's War tells the story of a man's epic battle with the oil and gas industry and asks provocative questions about an individual's civil liberties.
• Women Art Revolution [W.A.R]
  History of the feminist art movement in the late 20th century, including interviews with many of the participants
• You are on Indian land
  Originally produced in 1969. Documents the demonstration of Mohawk Indians, living in Canada, as they protest payment of import duties on personal purchases made in the United States, claiming exemption under the provisions of the Jay Treaty of 1794.
• ¡¿Revolución!?
  A political documentary examining the concept of revolution as created by Hugo Chavez. Using Don Quixote as his inspiration, Chavez is redefining Venezualan society with his 'Bolivian Revolution'. The documentary asks if there are a series of guidelines for a democratic and peaceful revolution. To answer the question, filmmaker, Gervais, interviews pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez militants, politicians and citizens within and without the barrios of Venezuala's cities. Note that this film CAN be used for classroom ...

Crime & Justice

• A history of punishment
  This program looks at the history of punishment, beginning with early compensatory forms of justice, Hammurabi's Code, and the Law of Moses. Contemporary forms of punishment, including the death penalty, are discussed, along with the ways in which these sentences reflect what society values.
• A Question of Madness: The Furiosus
  A documentary on the life of assassin Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who changed the course of South African history.
• Bhopal: the search for justice
  “This documentary explores the continuing cover-up, analyzes the prospect for environmental and human justice in Bhopal, and exposes the responsibility of the multinational corporations”
• Courting justice
  Illustrates how the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa partially lived up to its goals of promoting justice and human rights. Essential to keeping these promises, indeed mandated by the constitution, is a judiciary that includes women. By 2008, 18 percent of the superior court judges were women. This film is their story.
• Cruel and unusual: transgender women in prison
  A documentary about transgender women convicted and incarcerated in men's prisons in the United States. Interviews with lawyers and prison custodians reveal the level of violence these women have to face from the inmates, as well as from the authorities which do not recognize their condition as a medical disorder.Special features: 'Sexual violence in prison for transgender women' (5 min.); 'Protective custody' (3 min.); 'Hormone therapy' (5 min.); 'Family issues' (4 min.); 'Legal cases: Ophelia' (5 min); 'Legal ...
• Flipping the world: drugs through a blue lens
  An honest look at the world of youth and drug addiction as told by those who have been there. Seven culturally diverse high school students meet with members of the Odd Squad – Vancouver police officers who, since 1998, have been filming people addicted to drugs.
• Ghosts
  Three Arab-Canadian men are detained and tortured for months and years in Syria and Egypt. Upon their release they return to Canada struggling to find some answers as to why they were detained and tortured. An internal inquiry into their cases, the Iacobucci Inquiry, reveals that the Canadian government was complicit in their detention and torture. The camera team follows the lives and cases of the men for a year and a half as the men fight to leave the horror of torture behind them.
• Herman's house
  Herman Wallace has spent 40 years imprisoned in solitary confinement in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell for a crime many believe he never committed. The injustice of solitary confinement and the transformative power of art are explored.
• In the name of the family: honour killings in North America
  DVD only. Award-winning director Shelley Saywell brings her consummate documentary skills and passion for human rights to challenge the traditions that lie behind the heartbreaking tragedies committed against young girls caught between two cultures in North America.
• Invoking justice
  In Southern India, family disputes are settled by Jamaats, all male bodies which apply Islamic Sharia law to cases without allowing women to be present, even to defend themselves. Recognizing this fundamental inequity, a group of women in 2004 established a women's Jamaat, which soon became a network of 12,000 members spread over 12 districts. Despite enormous resistance, they have been able to settle more than 8,000 cases to date, ranging from divorce to wife beating to brutal murders and more.
• Kiviaq versus Canada
  Zacharias Kunuk travels to Edmonton to meet Kiviaq, Canada's first Inuit lawyer, former Golden Gloves boxing champion, city alderman, and the only Inuk to play with the Edmonton Eskimos football team. Kiviaq is currently suing the federal government of Canada with a claim demanding equal rights for Inuit, whom, he argues, are neither defined in law nor granted the same privileges as other aboriginal people.
• L'affaire Coca-Cola = The Coca-Cola case
  Colombia is the trade union murder capital of the world. Since 2002, more than 470 workers' leaders have been brutally killed, usually by paramilitaries hired by private companies intent on crushing the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands is the poster boy for American business: Coca-Cola. A searing indictment of a major corporate brand, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a riveting legal game of cat and mouse via the U.S. federal court and the Stop Killer Coke! campaign.
• Le jeu de la mort | Game of death
  Back in the 60s, Stanley Milgram's scientific experiment demonstrated that a large majority of people were ready to administer unbearable electric shocks to another man when encouraged to do so by an authority. The experiment is re-enacted in the form of a TV game show, where 80 participants are asked to follow its despicable rules, despite the candidate's strong yelling complaints. Will they obey the TV host's orders and inflict massive electric shocks? Or will they stop before it's too late? (see also: Obedience ...
• Rape for who I am
  'Interweaves the experiences of four [South African lesbian] women, victims of rape, as they prepare for an annual Gay Pride celebration. With courage and a remarkable resilience, they describe the immense prejudices they have had to endure in their townships.'
• Rize
  A documentary portrayal of inner city youth in Los Angeles, Calif. who though surrounded by drug addiction, gangs and impoverishment, have developed a unique style of dance that evolves on a daily basis.
• Sin by silence
  From behind prison walls, the film reveals the lives of extraordinary women who advocated for a future free from domestic violence. Inside California's oldest women's prison, the first inmate-initiated and led group in the U.S. prison system was created by inmate Brenda Clubine to help abused women speak out and realize they are not alone.
• Sisters in law
  Kim Longinotto production. A documentary record of a courtroom in Kumba, Cameroon, where a female prosecutor and judge work to put an end to their community's tacit acceptance of child abuse, wife beating and rape.
• Staying alive: [Canada's controversial safe injection site]
  'Insite', located in Vancouver's notorious downtown eastside, has been controversial since it first opened its doors in 2003. An exemption from federal drug laws was granted to allow addicts to bring their drugs onto the premises and inject them; Insite provides clean needles and medical supervision.
• The grey area: feminism behind bars
  Through a series of class discussions, headed by students from Grinnell College, a small group of female inmates at a maximum security women's prison in Mitchellville, Iowa, share their diverse experiences with motherhood, drug, addiction, sexual abuse, murder, and life in prison.
• The reckoning: the battle for the International Criminal Court
  Rome Conference of 1998 was the culmination of 50 years of effort by the part of those seeking a humane world. Representatives from 140 governments and numerous NGOs were at the conference to establish the International Criminal Court (the ICC).
• Toilet training: law and order (in the bathroom)
  Addresses the persistent discrimination, harassment, and violence that people who transgress gender norms face in gender segregated bathrooms. Using the stories of people who have been harassed, arrested or beaten for trying to use bathrooms, this groundbreaking film focuses on bathroom access in public space, in schools, and at work.
• Turning away
  Turning Away is not another 'day in the life of a street kid'. Instead, it is a thorough examination of why young people end up on the street, what keeps them there and what it takes to escape. We follow the subjects over time and we will see how they deal with what most people would consider the simplest challenges.
• Two spirits
  Fred Martinez was a [young] nádleehí, or a male-bodied person with a feminine essence, who was murdered in a hate crime at the age of sixteen. Discusses the traditional Native American perspective on gender and sexuality and the need for a balanced interrelationship between the feminine and masculine.
• Where we were not. Part one : feeling reserved, Alexus' story
  Alexus' Story is the first part of a four part animated documentary about criminalization in Canada. Where We Were Not is being made in collaboration with a group of women Jessica has worked with, and formed friendships with while creating art projects in prisons and centres for marginalized people. Narrated by an abolitionist activist, a First Nations transgendered woman, and two women serving life sentences, this project gives a first hand account of the Canadian injustice system.

Economic Issues

• Big boys gone bananas
  First there was a film about banana workers saying the Dole Food Company had made them infertile. Then Dole attacked the filmmakers. Now it's time for a new film! The true story about a Swedish filmmaker and a banana corporation. Dirty tricks, lawsuits, manipulation, and the price of free speech.
• Blue gold: world water wars
  Wars of the future will be fought over water, as they are today over oil, as the source of all life enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling fresh water supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive.
• Bonsai people
  Filmed on location in Bangladesh, demonstrates the positive effects of micro-loans by the Grameen Bank on several rural Bangladeshi families including their ability to empower women to become leaders in their families and their communities. Demonstrates how Nobel Peace Price winner, Muhammad Yunus, in partnership with world businesses, uses the power of 'microcredit' and 'social business' to unleash human potential through purposely designed social/business ventures.
• Carts of Darkness
  In the community of North Vancouver, local bottle collectors have turned the act of binning into a thriving subculture of shopping cart racing. Murray Siple, a former snowboarder and sport film director injured in a serious car accident ten years ago, returns to filmmaking to capture their story.
• China heavyweight
  Profiles the ever-changing Chinese economic landscape through the view of the sport of boxing. Filmmaker Yung Chang follows boxing coach Qi Moxiang as he travels across China's Sichuan province recruiting young fighting talent from impoverished farms and villages. Selected boys and girls are taken to national training centers in hopes of becoming Olympic heroes, but can they leave their families behind to become boxing's finest?
• Crude Sacrifice: you can't reclaim humanity
  Looks at how the community of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is affected by the exploitation of Canada's Tar Sands and how the federal and provicial governments are dealing with local concerns.
• Debt Trap
  The average Canadian is shouldering a personal debt load greater than their total yearly net income. This program examines why the average Canadian is sinking deeper in debt, by looking at the stories of several individuals and families who are struggling with: credit card debt, mortgage debt, and repayment of lines of credit, student loans, and payday loans. Looks beyond blaming individual consumers, to examine the roles of lending institutions, the corporate sector, and governments in understanding the current ...
• Diamond Road
  A documentary following the path of diamonds, both geographically and historically. Details the widespread and complex interrelationship of trade and effort involving the diamond industry, from impovershed day-laborers in Sierra Leone, to craftsmen in India, to dealers, jewelers and gemologists in New York City, all attended by the marketing and sales strategies that have made the diamond trade what it is today.
• END:CIV - Resist or Die
  Examines our culture's addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: 'If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?'
• Flow
  “A look at the world's water crisis and how the causes of the depleting water supply are connected to pollution, human rights, and even politics.”
• L'affaire Coca-Cola = The Coca-Cola case
  Colombia is the trade union murder capital of the world. Since 2002, more than 470 workers' leaders have been brutally killed, usually by paramilitaries hired by private companies intent on crushing the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands is the poster boy for American business: Coca-Cola. A searing indictment of a major corporate brand, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a riveting legal game of cat and mouse via the U.S. federal court and the Stop Killer Coke! campaign.
• Malls r us
  Combining nostalgia, dazzling architecture, pop culture, economics and politics, 'Malls r us' examines North America's most popular and profitable suburban destination-- the enclosed shopping center-- and how for consumers they function as a communal, even ceremonial experience and, for retailers, sites where their idealism, passion, and greed merge.
• Meltdown: the secret history of the global financial collapse
  Episode 1. The men who crashed the world -- episode 2. A global tsunami -- episode 3. Paying the price -- episode 4. After the fall
• Seeking the Current | Chercher le courant
  A “road movie” on a river. Nicolas Boisclair and Alexis de Gheldere canoe the entire 500 km course of the pristine Romaine River before Hydro-Québec begins construction of four hydroelectric plants. In parallel, accompanied by actor Roy Dupuis, they explore various renewable green energies and their profitability by interviewing experts across Québec. French with English subtitles
• Strong Coffee
  The coffee co-operative Cafe Femenino, created by a group of Peruvian women to bring financial independence for themselves.
• Tales from the G20
  In June 2010, leaders from the twenty largest economies met in Toronto with representatives of corporate interests to discuss the policies that would shape the world for everyone else.This documentary traces the overt breakdown in civil liberties that occurred during the G20 Summit, from unmarked vans with snatch squads of plainclothes police to the pre-emptive arrest of activists now facing years in prison for organizing demonstrations. Directed by Open Media Initiative and uploaded to Vimeo for free viewing ...
• The Big Wait: A Film About The Doctor Shortage in Canada
  The doctor shortage is getting critical and one town is desperately trying to recruit physicians. At the same time, three internationally trained doctors are trying to get licensed to practice medicine in their new country.
• The light bulb conspiracy: the untold story of planned obsolescence
  Traces the untold story of Planned Obsolescence, the deliberate shortening of product life spans to guarantee consumer demand, from its beginnings in the 1920s.
• The Pruitt-Igoe myth
  Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which the projects resided, while tracing personal and poignant narratives of those who lived in them.
• Unnatural causes: is inequality making us sick?
  DVD only. A seven-part documentary series arguing that health and longevity are correlated with socioeconomic status; people of color face an additional health burden, and our health and well-being are tied to policies that promote economic and social justice. Each of the half-hour program segments, set in different racial/ethnic communities, provides a deeper exploration of the ways in which social conditions affect population health and how some communities are extending their lives be improving them.
• Water on the table
  Water on the Table features Maude Barlow, considered 'an international water warrior' for her crusade to have water declared a human right... [The film] presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue that water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it.
• Where credit is due
  Against a backdrop of oppression and civil war in Guatemala, three women's groups of the Kaqchikel Presbytery are using micro-credit loans for businesses that include agricultural projects and textiles.... a good illustration of how beneficial micro-credit can be for sustainable human development.
• Wiebo's War
  Wiebo's War tells the story of a man's epic battle with the oil and gas industry and asks provocative questions about an individual's civil liberties.

Ethnicity, Race & Racism

• Beauty lies
  DVD only. “Filmmaker Karen Chapman explores her feelings about her natural hair as a young black woman in a media-driven world, revealing layers of insecurities. Beauty Lies questions the ideals, motivations and images of beauty in the media that could be seen as manifesting a 'white standard' of beauty”
• Bombay calling
  DVD only. Filmmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal dive into the bustling world of late nights, long hours and hard partying. The result is a compelling insider's look at youth culture in India, and a growing number of young people who choose to follow the American dream...Indian style.
• Cultural anthropology: our diverse world
  DVD only. A 17-part cultural anthropology 'course' on DVD.] Takes a cross-cultural approach to diverse subject areas, including subsistence patterns, political organization, the family, social organization, economics, kinship, language, the arts, and religion.
• In the name of the family: honour killings in North America
  DVD only. Award-winning director Shelley Saywell brings her consummate documentary skills and passion for human rights to challenge the traditions that lie behind the heartbreaking tragedies committed against young girls caught between two cultures in North America.
• KZ
  DVD only. Tourists, tour guides and locals at a former concentration camp in Austria. “Through its unflinching depiction of daily modern life in the small Austrian town of Mauthausen, KZ reveals the lasting legacy and impact of the Holocaust on individuals of all generations, nationalities and religions.”
• Les fleurs à la fenêtre (on veut bien l'amour) / Flowers at the window (we want love)
  DVD only. “..three Cameroonian young women who are using the Internet to meet white men in the hope that these men will change their lives for the better.”
• Liberty, equality, accommodation
  DVD only. The Herouxville Code of Conduct informed newcomers that women were not to be excised, stoned or burned alive. A storm of voices and opinions greeted that announcement and generated a unique expression of direct democracy. The film is about this unprecedented collective experience.
• Lost boys of Sudan
  DVD only. “The journey of two teenage Sudanese boys, orphaned by their war torn country, who traveled to America looking for a safer environment and learning to cope with the unfamiliar complexities of contemporary American society.”
• Made in India: a film about surrogacy
  DVD only. The human experiences behind the phenomena of 'outsourcing' surrogate mothers to India. Shows the journey of an infertile American couple, an Indian surrogate and the reproductive outsourcing business that brings them together. Weaving together these personal stories within the context of a growing international industry, MADE IN INDIA explores a complicated clash of families in crisis, reproductive technology, and choice from a global perspective.
• Me broni ba
  DVD only.“Combines montages of hair salons in Ghana with various images of Western pop culture, invoking a clash of cultures and communities… [Explores] the legacy, changes, and ongoing effect that European Colonialism has dealt to African culture.”
• Mountains that take wing
  DVD only. Internationally renowned scholar, professor and writer Angela Davis, and 89-year-old grassroots organizer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Yuri Kochiyama share intimate conversations about personal histories and influences that shaped them and their shared experiences in some of the most important social movements in 20th century United States.
• Multiracial identity
  DVD only. Multiracial people are the fastest growing demographic in America, yet there is no official political recognition for mixed-race people. [This film] explores the social, political, and religious impact of the multiracial movement and the lived experience of being multiracial Clinging to a racial identity -- Miscegenation in the U.S. -- Tragic mulatto -- Interracial marriage and racial categories -- The multiracial Reaney family -- Non black and white multiracial heritages.
• Namrata
  DVD only. “Namrata Gill - whose story was one of many real-life inspirations for Deepa Mehta's feature film Heaven on Earth - describes her six years in an abusive relationship, and how difficult leaving can be when you are part of a close-knit immigrant community.”
• NeverPerfect
  DVD only. “Traversing historical and contemporary notions of beauty, stereotypes and iconography within Asian and popular cultures, this film incorporates a rich selection of archival footage and commentary from numerous voices which ignites lively debate on the phenomena as they pertain to race and gender identity.”
• Pink saris
  DVD only.“The 'Pink Gang' is a group of women who wear pink saris as a symbol of their revolt against their society. They are victims of domestic violence, rape and social exclusion. Their champion is Sampat Pal Devi, who takes up their cases of social injustice.”
• Poetry of resilience
  DVD only. In a small gathering in a Massachusetts town, 27 poets have come together for the first time to share their experiences as survivors of political atrocities. The poets' tales all vary, but they are united by the drive to bear witness to their past and to continue the process of healing. This documentary features six international poets who individually survived Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China's Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Iranian Revolution.
• Rex vs. Singh: four versions
  DVD only. "Between 1909 and 1929, an inordinate number of men tried for sodomy in Vancouver were Sikhs. In 1915, two Sikh mill-workers, Dalip Singh and Naina Singh, were entrapped by undercover police in Vancouver and accused of sodomy. This experimental video stages scenes from the trial, told four times: first as a period drama, second as a documentary investigation of the case, third as a musical agit-prop, and fourth, as a deconstruction of the actual court transcript."
• Suspino: a cry for Roma
  DVD only. 'Examines the persecution and discrimination inflicted upon European Roma. Focuses on Romania, where Europe's largest concentration of Roma are considered ‘public enemies’-- and Italy, where the Roma are classified as nomads and forced to live in camps while being denied human rights available to refugees and foreign residents.'
• Tales of sand and snow
  DVD only. In a quest to understand his own cultural identity and rediscover the spiritual values of his own people, Canadian emigré Hyacinthe Combary, an African native, turns to another indigenous culture, from the snows of North America. ... [A] cinematic dialogue between the Gourmantché of Burkina Faso, who read their people's future in the sand-patterns of the desert, and the Atikamekw of Québec, who connect with the spirits through snow-encased sweat lodges. Both cultures have been victims of colonization, ...
• The body beautiful
  DVD only. Originally produced in 1991. This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah's brave excursion into her mother's scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy.
• The end of immigration? / La fin de l'immigration
  DVD only. Montreal filmmakers look at the regressive immigration policies of the Canadian state and the people most affected.
• The M word
  DVD only. A history and critique of multiculturalism in Canada. “The M Word records the history of various immigrant groups who are not officially recognized in the history books. It also interviews a number of prominent Canadians to take the pulse of multiculturalism today, including Haroon Siddiqui, Allan Gregg, Candy Palmater, Jack Jedwab, and Uzma Shakir.”
• The spectre of hope
  DVD only.“Photographer Sebastião Salgado's collection, ‘Migrations’… addresses Salgado's work, the impact of globalization, and the power of the image.“
• The split horn: the life of a Hmong Shaman in America
  DVD only. Shows the life and culture of the Thao family, Hmong Americans in Appleton, Wisconsin, and a shaman's struggle to maintain his ancient traditions.
• They think I'm Chinese / On me prend pour une chinoise!
  DVD only. A journey into the inner world of five adopted teenage girls. Girls who were in the first wave of Chinese children adopted in Quebec in the 1990s are now in their teens. Nicole Giguère focused her lens on five of them and accompanied them throughout their emotionally charged transition to adulthood. In their quest for identity, how do these young Quebeckers experience their differences? Includes original French version and French version with subtitles.
• Tiara
  dvd only.Are beauty pageants on the radar of today's young women? Tiara discovers that they certainly are in Asian communities in Canada. Tiara explores the connection between the desires of young women from the Chinese, Filipino and South Asian communities for validation of their appearance in the midst of popular media's narrow representation of beauty.
• Tracked down by our genes
  DVD only. Shows how the Human Genome Project, 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.
• Unnatural causes: is inequality making us sick?
  DVD only. A seven-part documentary series arguing that health and longevity are correlated with socioeconomic status; people of color face an additional health burden, and our health and well-being are tied to policies that promote economic and social justice. Each of the half-hour program segments, set in different racial/ethnic communities, provides a deeper exploration of the ways in which social conditions affect population health and how some communities are extending their lives be improving them.
• Unveiled Views: Muslim women artists speak out
  DVD only. In this revealing documentary five extraordinary women talk about their occupations, aspirations, and the rights and status of women in their Muslim countries.
• Walk a mile: the immigrant experience in Canada
  DVD only. “A series of four television segments. … [describes] the shared hardships newcomers face when striving to settle in Canada. The series puts a human face on the immigrant experience and illustrates the newcomer's frustrations, worries and progress toward becoming full participants in Canadian society.”
• What are we doing here? has foreign aid hurt Africa?
  DVD only.Challenging viewers to rethink traditional humanitarian approaches, this film follows four young Americans as they experience firsthand the scope and intractability of Africa's suffering….Discussions focus on HIV/AIDS, armed conflict, child sponsorship, U.S. farm policies, and the role of NGOs.
• Why Democracy? Series
  DVD only. Ten one-hour films focused on contemporary democracy, made by filmmakers from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Liberia, USA, Bolivia, Denmark, Egypt, Pakistan and Russia. For more info see: www.whydemocracy.net
• Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I love you, mommy)
  DVD only. An intimate and honest film about an eight-year old Chinese adoptee's journey from Guangzhou, China to Long Island, New York. Fang Sui Yong, aka Faith Sadowsky, was abandoned at age 2, lived in an orphanage, and then was taken in by a loving Chinese foster family. Sui Yong's life is suddenly upended when she is adopted by the Sadowskys, a Jewish family in New York. Over the next 17 months, we witness Sui Yong's struggle to adapt to her new life in America and watch her slowly lose ties to everything ...

Ethnography

• An ecology of mind: a daughter's portrait of Gregory Bateson
  An Ecology of Mind is a film portrait of Gregory Bateson, celebrated anthropologist, philosopher, author, naturalist, systems theorist, and filmmaker, produced and directed by his daughter, Nora Bateson
• Araya
  Originally produced in 1959. Explored is a day in the lives of three families living in Araya, an arid peninsula in Venezuela. For centuries since its discovery by the Spanish, the region's salt was collected and stacked into radiant white pyramids. Captured are the breathtaking and unforgettable images from the salineros toiling to build the mountains of salt, a fisherman hauling in huge teeming nets, and a young girl and her grandmother laying 'flowers' of shells on windswept graves.
• Cultural anthropology: our diverse world
  DVD only. A 17-part cultural anthropology 'course' on DVD.] Takes a cross-cultural approach to diverse subject areas, including subsistence patterns, political organization, the family, social organization, economics, kinship, language, the arts, and religion.
• Okimah
  Originally released in 1998. Follows Cree hunters on the most important event of the season, the annual goose hunt. Okimah is at once a homage to generations of Cree hunters, a loving look at a cultural tradition and a plea for responsible stewardship of our resources.
• People of the seal. Eskimo summer + Eskimo winter
  An examination of the lives of the Netsilik Eskimos of the Canadian Artic, their work and play, and the ways in which they cope with the frigid climate of the north during the winters. In this 1971 video, we accompany one family on their journey inland from the ice, where they spent their winter. Then we join them as they build a new kayak, lay in a supply of fish, and hunt caribou.
• Savage memory: how do we remember our dead?
  In 1915, Bronislaw Malinowski set out to document the 'exotic' practices of a small group of islanders off the coast of Papua New Guinea. With extensive data on sex, magic and spirits of the dead, his work set the stage for anthropologists for decades to come and brought him fame as one of the founding fathers of anthropology. Four generations and almost one hundred years later, his great grandson travels to the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea and looks at the very controversial legacy Malinowski left ...
• Song of Eskasoni
  Produced in 1993. The village of Eskasoni on Cape Breton Island is the home of Micmac poet Rita Joe. The revival of Native traditions and spirituality in Eskasoni inspires much of her writing.
• Sweetgrass
  An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, and vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.
• The sacred science
  Follows eight people from the developed world with a variety of common and serious ailments who embark on a challenging, one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle. Working with a handful of shamans experienced in the harvesting and preparation of traditional plant medicines, as well as ritual exercises, these men and women seek to overcome Parkinson's disease, cancer, alcoholism, diabetes and depression.
• The spirit of ethnography
  Originally produced in 1974. Takes a humorous look at the field of cultural anthropology. Chronicles the field research of a fictitious ethnographer embarking on his first field experience.
• The washing of tears
  The Mowachaht, whale hunters and fishermen who had lived at Friendly Cove for thousands of years are uprooted from their homeland and move to Vancouver Island, to a new site under the walls of a pulp mill. They suffered extremes of pollution, violence, alcohol abuse ... Then in the 1990's, in defiance of the agony of their history and to overcome the grief of the present, the Mowachaht and their neighbors the Muchalaht revived their songs and dances and by reclaiming their culture, rediscover their pride.
• Urban elder
  Originally produced in 1997. Cree Indian Vern Harper tells how he reaches into the past to integrate traditional native culture into city life, including the tradition of elder. Follows Vern to sweat lodge purification ceremony, ballet rehearsal of his daughter, healing ceremony, political march and counseling sessions with native prisoners at Warkworth Federal Prison.
• Val: an Oak Park story
  For thirty plus years Val has offered her customers an incredible array of recorded music from classical to rap, both new and used. In addition, the collective knowledge of Val and her staff makes it possible to carry on an informed conversation about music and recordings. Val's Halla has become part of the disappearing commercial landscape of small businesses run by knowledgeable people interested in what they sell. In this film, Val talks about the changing role of the record store and muses about what Oak ...
• Vine of the Soul: Encounters with Ayahuasca
  Explores the mystery of ayahuasca shamanism, offering insights into the nature of spirituality, mystical experience and self-healing through a heightened state of consciousness.

Feminist Issues & Debates

• 533 statements
  A road trip documentary about queer Canadian women. During the summer of 2004, Tori Foster took her camera across the country to talk to 20 lesbian women about what it's like to be queer where they live. The documentary follows her journey through all ten provinces.
• Afghan women: a history of struggle
  Examines the drafting of the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights. [Looks at] the pivotal role women's struggle for equality has played in the country's tumultuous political history and debunk the myth that current U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has liberated Afghan women from the tyranny of fundamentalism.
• American Experience: the Pill
  Featuring personal accounts from the first generation of women to have access to the Pill, this films show how harnessing female hormones into a little pill unleashed a social revolution unlike any other in our history. Originally broadcast on PBS in Jan. 2003 as a segment of The American experience.
• Attention féministes!
  [French version with option English subtitles]. Portrait de jeunes feministes contemporaines. A une epoque ou on a declare la mort des ideologies, ces jeunes croient encore en un monde meilleur! A travers leur engagement personnel et social, nous decouvrons le nouveau visage du feminisme, celui des filles et des gars des generations X et Y. Un mouvement dynamique, un mode d’action a la fois drole, pertinent, sexy et combatif, demontrant qu'il y a encore plein de manieres de revendiquer l'egalite.
• BAS! : Beyond the red light
  13 young girls sold into Mumbai's infamous network of gated brothels confront the inner and outer perils of life after rescue. The film explores the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing these young traumatised girls through a very intimate and honest lens where they are the storytellers.
• BDSM: It's Not What You Think!
  Confronts stigma and stereotype surrounding kink and fetish play through leading voices within the BDSM community. With intimate interviews and playful vignettes this film targets progressive outsiders and guides them through the minefield of misconceptions and prejudice that kinksters must routinely face.
• Beauty lies
  DVD only. “Filmmaker Karen Chapman explores her feelings about her natural hair as a young black woman in a media-driven world, revealing layers of insecurities. Beauty Lies questions the ideals, motivations and images of beauty in the media that could be seen as manifesting a 'white standard' of beauty”
• Bonsai people
  Filmed on location in Bangladesh, demonstrates the positive effects of micro-loans by the Grameen Bank on several rural Bangladeshi families including their ability to empower women to become leaders in their families and their communities. Demonstrates how Nobel Peace Price winner, Muhammad Yunus, in partnership with world businesses, uses the power of 'microcredit' and 'social business' to unleash human potential through purposely designed social/business ventures.
• Buying Sex
  "... Buying Sex carefully guides the viewer through a wide spectrum of disagreement, exploring the many points of view in this age-old yet contemporary debate. Articulate and impassioned formerly prostituted women and sex workers make their claims for and against the proposed changes, while policy-makers, lawyers and even male consumers also offer insight and commentary on this vexing issue. Respecting the differences of ideology and opinion as Canada works its way toward an uneasy consensus, the film challenges ...
• Constitute!: women's constitutional activism
  The largest social mobilization of women in Canadian history in the 20th century. Led by the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution, women and other activists across the country fought to gain stronger equality provisions entrenched in the newly repatriated Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
• Courting justice
  Illustrates how the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa partially lived up to its goals of promoting justice and human rights. Essential to keeping these promises, indeed mandated by the constitution, is a judiciary that includes women. By 2008, 18 percent of the superior court judges were women. This film is their story.
• Cover girl culture
  Former Elite International fashion model, Nicole Clark, calls for a necessary change, integrity and responsible media for our youth. This is an examination of how advertising and the cult of celebrity have deeply and negatively impacted teens and young women. The film juxtaposes ads and interviews with editors from top fashion magazines with revealing interviews of parents, teachers, psychologists, body image experts, and the girls themselves.
• Covered [Snakegirl Productions]
  Explores the world of heavily tattooed women and female tattoo artists in the United States. Takes a larger, sociological perspective on what it means to be a heavily tattooed woman in today's society -- from the perspectives of the women themselves. Features dozens of tattoo artists.
• Dish: Women waitressing and the art of service
  Dish delves into Toronto's diners, Montreal's “sexy restos”, Paris haute eateries, and Tokyo's fantasy “maid bars” in an insider's look at gender, power, and the art of service.
• End of Men
  2011 DocZone: 'In the past 100 years, the ideals of masculinity have been largely unchanged. Men are rugged individuals, resilient, brave and loyal. Running like a spine through these archetypes is one defining theme: a man is the provider and protector of his family. In the not too distant past, most men had a sense of certainty that they could fulfill those roles.... But for many men the economic crisis that began in 2008 meant that fulfilling those masculine roles was suddenly a lot harder... Men are facing ...
• F-word
  New DVD version, originally produced in 1994. Presents various definitions of feminism as defined by feminists, opponents of feminism, and ordinary men and women.
• Flesh
  “Several women with different points of view including a cattle rancher, a vegetarian, a meat-lover, and a Hooter's waitress are interviewed in this discussion of how women and animals are treated by popular culture in a society obsessed with flesh.”
• G.I.M.P. boot camp: gimp/civilian, imprinting, mastering, public outreach
  In accepting the fictional CRIP (Citizens Recognizing Inspirational People) Award, co-filmmaker Danielle Peers explains and illustrates her four-step program aimed at helping gimps, people who are only partially physically disabled, cope with the social stigma associated with their condition. The program also targets stereotypes about physical disability held by 'normal' people
• Girl and a gun
  Presents a female perspective on an object whose history is deeply bound up with men and masculinity. Filmed throughout the US, this documentary delves into the psyche of the American gun world to investigate how women relate to guns and gun culture. Reaching far beyond Hollywood's hypersexualized femme fatales, the film candidly explores the modern American woman through intimate portraits encompassing issues of protection, power, feminism, and violence.
• Girls Rock!
  At RocknRoll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it's OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that 'it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are'.
• Grrrl love and revolution: Riot Grrrl NYC
  'Filmmaker Abby Moser was at the heart of the NYC Riot Grrrl movement, filming them between 1993 and 1996, creating an invaluable archive for students learning the history of feminism. She captured the excitement of the times, and the articulate self-awareness of its members. She also documents their frustration with a mainstream media which dismissed feminism as a hobby, and the group’s own difficulties respecting the race and class divisions amongst themselves.' from WMM website.
• Guerrillas in our midst
  Guerrillas in our midst presents a savvy exploration of the machinations of the commercial art-world during its boom in the 1980s, and brings the Guerrilla Girls to the screen. This anonymous group of art terrorists has succeeded in putting racism and sexism on the agenda in the art-world since 1985, and their witty and creative tactics have changed the face of political and cultural activism.
• I had an abortion
  Produced by Jennifer Baumgardner and Gillian Aldrich. Features several women, aged 21 to 85, who have had abortions and captures their stories and experiences.
• In the name of the family: honour killings in North America
  DVD only. Award-winning director Shelley Saywell brings her consummate documentary skills and passion for human rights to challenge the traditions that lie behind the heartbreaking tragedies committed against young girls caught between two cultures in North America.
• Invoking justice
  In Southern India, family disputes are settled by Jamaats, all male bodies which apply Islamic Sharia law to cases without allowing women to be present, even to defend themselves. Recognizing this fundamental inequity, a group of women in 2004 established a women's Jamaat, which soon became a network of 12,000 members spread over 12 districts. Despite enormous resistance, they have been able to settle more than 8,000 cases to date, ranging from divorce to wife beating to brutal murders and more.
• Juggling gender: politics, sex and identity - Still juggling
  Contains the original 1992 documentary which features Jennifer Miller, juggler and director of Circus Amok. Miller discusses her life and struggle as a lesbian woman who happens to have a moustache and beard. Scenes show a gay rights parade and Miller interacting with friends, family, and strangers. Pt. 2 -Still juggling, still bearded features Miller 15 years after the original documentary, discussing changes in her life and in society. Pt. 3 - Sideshow by the seashore includes scenes of Circus Amok performances.
• Keepers of the fire
  Presents the stories of aboriginal women who have participated in important aboriginal struggles in Canada. Mohawk women tell of their role in the 1990 crisis at Oka. Haida women reminisce about their stand on the picket lines and their arrests in the action that stopped logging on Lyell Island in the Queen Charlottes. Maliseet women recall their campaign, lasting eight years, that changed the Indian Act to accord status and rights to all Indian women. Native women in Toronto who run a native women's shelter ...
• Ladies of the gridiron
  When most think of American Football, they imagine raw, unbridled demonstrations of athletic might pushed to the max, but rarely do those images involve women. The Quake is a professional women's tackle football team out to break the glass ceiling of this traditionally all-male sport. These women embody the same dogged determination as their male counterparts, but without the money or fame. And beyond that, they must deal with a societal prejudice that keeps them on the periphery of professional sports, having ...
• Les fleurs à la fenêtre (on veut bien l'amour) / Flowers at the window (we want love)
  DVD only. “..three Cameroonian young women who are using the Internet to meet white men in the hope that these men will change their lives for the better.”
• Lesbian National Parks and Services Presents: Endangered Species
  That formidable force of conservation officials, Lesbian National Parks and Services, presents three portraits of lesbian species in crisis. These public service announcements point to the perils of habitat loss and poaching. The Marxist Feminist, the Lesbian Separatist and the Bull-Dykus Americanus are featured in this parody of nature education. In full uniform as Lesbian Rangers, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan patrol parklands, challenging the general publics ideas of tourism, recreation, and the 'natural' ...
• Lesbiana - a parallel revolution
  A parallel revolution was born out of the feminist movement of the 1970's, coming to an end around 1995. Filmmaker Myriam Fougère takes us on a journey to meet the lesbian writers, philosophers and activists who were key players in creating a revolutionary sisterhood. From Montréal to Texas, by way of New York, Myriam encounters lesbians who chose to live only among women.
• Made in India: a film about surrogacy
  DVD only. The human experiences behind the phenomena of 'outsourcing' surrogate mothers to India. Shows the journey of an infertile American couple, an Indian surrogate and the reproductive outsourcing business that brings them together. Weaving together these personal stories within the context of a growing international industry, MADE IN INDIA explores a complicated clash of families in crisis, reproductive technology, and choice from a global perspective.
• Me broni ba
  DVD only.“Combines montages of hair salons in Ghana with various images of Western pop culture, invoking a clash of cultures and communities… [Explores] the legacy, changes, and ongoing effect that European Colonialism has dealt to African culture.”
• Menocracy
  Something's rotten in our state of democracy. Follow the journey of a woman and the spirit of a sassy Suffragette who, in trying to find out why our system fails to represent women, discover that it fails everyone but our political elites. A film about how to catch up to the rest of the world's democracies in the march to gender fairness and governments that reflect society.
• Miss HIV
  Explores the international collision of HIV/AIDS policies while following the journey of two HIV-positive women who entered the annual Miss HIV Stigma-Free pageant in Botswana. Filmed across Africa and at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto this explosive EthnoGraphic film shares both sides of an ideology struggle.
• Miss Representation
  Explores how mainstream media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions in America and challenges the media's limiting and often disparaging portrayals of women, which make it difficult for the average girl to see herself as powerful.
• Moolaade
  Motion Picture. It is the time for the young girls of a village to be purified by ritual circumcision. Colle has kept her daughter from being circumcised, and several of the girls go to her for refuge. Colle agrees to help them, and she invokes moolaade, a form of sanctuary.
• Mountains that take wing
  DVD only. Internationally renowned scholar, professor and writer Angela Davis, and 89-year-old grassroots organizer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Yuri Kochiyama share intimate conversations about personal histories and influences that shaped them and their shared experiences in some of the most important social movements in 20th century United States.
• My Feminism
  [DVD update of a popular VHS from 1997]. Interviews with feminist leaders including Bell Hooks, Gloria Steinem, and Urvsahi Vaid are intercut with documentary sequences to explore the past and present status of the women's movement. Discussing the unique contributions of second wave feminism, they explore their racial, economic and ideological differences and shared vision of achieving equality for women. Introduces feminism's key themes while exposing the cultural fears underlying lesbian baiting, backlash, ...
• Namrata
  DVD only. “Namrata Gill - whose story was one of many real-life inspirations for Deepa Mehta's feature film Heaven on Earth - describes her six years in an abusive relationship, and how difficult leaving can be when you are part of a close-knit immigrant community.”
• NeverPerfect
  DVD only. “Traversing historical and contemporary notions of beauty, stereotypes and iconography within Asian and popular cultures, this film incorporates a rich selection of archival footage and commentary from numerous voices which ignites lively debate on the phenomena as they pertain to race and gender identity.”
• Passionate politics: the life and work of Charlotte Bunch
  Brings Charlotte Bunch's story to life, from idealistic young civil rights organizer, to lesbian feminist activist to internationally recognized leader. Charlotte's story is told by women from Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean who have worked with her to put women's rights on the global human rights agenda. Interwoven throughout the film are excerpts from Charlotte's personal letters that illuminate her determination to create a more just world.
• Pink Ribbons
  Breast cancer has become the poster child of cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless people walk, run and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labelled a 'dream cause,' has become obscured by a shiny, pink story of success.
• Pink saris
  DVD only.“The 'Pink Gang' is a group of women who wear pink saris as a symbol of their revolt against their society. They are victims of domestic violence, rape and social exclusion. Their champion is Sampat Pal Devi, who takes up their cases of social injustice.”
• Saving face
  Every year in Pakistan, many women are known to be victimized by brutal acid attacks, with numerous cases going unreported. With little or no access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally scarred. Many reported assailants, typically a husband or someone else close to the victim, receive minimal punishment from the state. Plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad left his prominent London practice to return to his home country and help the victims of such attacks.
• Scarlet road
  "Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression, Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long overlooked clientele— people with disabilities. ..Rachel’s philosophy is that human touch and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence." Also available as a DVD: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/783787692 [for a film with a different lens on a similar topic, see also Want: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/706443158]
• Sex Slaves
  Explores the multi-billion dollar world of sex trafficking. Goes to the villages of Ukraine and Moldova, where girls are lured and then sold and forced into prostitution in brothels and discotheques all over Europe. Follows Viorel, a Ukrainian man, on a mission to find his pregnant, trafficked wife in Turkey. The film explores the global trafficking problem through personal stories and unfettered access to traffickers and the people used as human chattel.
• Shelley Niro compilation
  Shelley Niro (born 1954) is a Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from New York and Ontario. Contents: Overweight with crooked teeth (5:00 min., 1997) -- The shirt (5:55 min., 2003) -- Sky woman with us, Shelley Niro (7:00 min., 2002) -- Tree (5:00 min., 2006) -- The flying head (5:00 min., 2008) -- Hunger (6:03 min., 2008) -- rechargin' (2:49 min., 2007)
• Sin by silence
  From behind prison walls, the film reveals the lives of extraordinary women who advocated for a future free from domestic violence. Inside California's oldest women's prison, the first inmate-initiated and led group in the U.S. prison system was created by inmate Brenda Clubine to help abused women speak out and realize they are not alone.
• Sisters in law
  Kim Longinotto production. A documentary record of a courtroom in Kumba, Cameroon, where a female prosecutor and judge work to put an end to their community's tacit acceptance of child abuse, wife beating and rape.
• Song of Eskasoni
  Produced in 1993. The village of Eskasoni on Cape Breton Island is the home of Micmac poet Rita Joe. The revival of Native traditions and spirituality in Eskasoni inspires much of her writing.
• Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada
  [Streaming film via NFB Campus. To access from outside the Concordia network, first register at nfb.ca/campus/go. Ignore the billing/price information; find and select Concordia University, Montreal, QC as your institution.] Feminism has shaped the society we live in. But just how far has it brought us, and how relevant is it today? This feature documentary zeroes in on key concerns such as violence against women, access to abortion, and universal childcare, asking how much progress we have truly made on these ...
• Strong Coffee
  The coffee co-operative Cafe Femenino, created by a group of Peruvian women to bring financial independence for themselves.
• Subjectified: nine young women talk about sex
  Through nine in-depth interviews about sex and sexuality, this documentary lets women do the talking, trading easy answers and stereotypes for brutal honesty. The stories may sound familiar: young moms, abstinent Christians, lesbians, survivors of assaults and STDs. But outside the world of reality TV and sound bites, women approach their lives in complex and unexpected ways: sometimes hilarious, sometimes sobering, and always heartfelt.
• The body beautiful
  DVD only. Originally produced in 1991. This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah's brave excursion into her mother's scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy.
• The evolution of Dad
  We are told by American culture that fatherhood is important, but the real, underlying message is: 'Back to work, dads!' How did this happen? What can be done about it? And why are the dads who are extra-involved with their families typically castigated as not being manly enough or sufficiently committed to their work? [The film] explores these questions and many more, cutting to the core of one of the most invisible, yet important, issues of our time: fatherhood.
• The feminist initiative
  The passion, pitfalls and promise of a diverse group of women working to establish the world's first feminist political party in Sweden in the spring of 2005… In the face of internal discord, public backlash, and a worrisome lack of funds, the Feminist Initiative forges a new path towards parliament, raising critical questions along the way…
• The grey area: feminism behind bars
  Through a series of class discussions, headed by students from Grinnell College, a small group of female inmates at a maximum security women's prison in Mitchellville, Iowa, share their diverse experiences with motherhood, drug, addiction, sexual abuse, murder, and life in prison.
• The price of sex
  This inquiry into a dark side of immigration reveals the experiences of Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Mimi Chakarova traveled from post-communist Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece, and Dubai to uncover the harrowing personal accounts of women trafficked into modern-day sexual slavery.
• The story of the Coast Salish knitters
  Originally produced in 2000. For almost a century, the Coast Salish knitters of southern Vancouver Island have produced Cowichan sweaters from handspun wool. These distinctive sweaters are known and loved around the world, but the Aboriginal women who make them remain largely invisible. Combines rare archival footage with the voices of three generations of woolworkers.
• The world before her
  In the lobby of a modest Bombay hotel, 20 young women from across India arrive for an intense, month-long beauty boot camp. They are the hand-picked contestants for the Miss India pageant, the ultimate glamour event in a country that has gone mad for beauty contests. Winning the coveted title means instant stardom, a lucrative career path and, for some girls, freedom from the constraints of a patriarchal society. But as the popularity of pageants has exploded, so have the controversies surrounding them.
• Tiara
  dvd only.Are beauty pageants on the radar of today's young women? Tiara discovers that they certainly are in Asian communities in Canada. Tiara explores the connection between the desires of young women from the Chinese, Filipino and South Asian communities for validation of their appearance in the midst of popular media's narrow representation of beauty.
• To Brooklyn and back: a Mohawk journey
  The Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec occupied a 10 square block area in the North Gowanus section of Brooklyn, which became known as Little Caughnawaga. The men, skilled ironworkers, came to New York in search of work and brought their wives, children and often, extended family with them. The story of the Mohawk ironworkers is an important one and is one that has been told and continues to be told through documentaries, newspaper and magazine articles. Yet the stories of Kahnawake Mohawk women who lived in Brooklyn ...
• Toilet training: law and order (in the bathroom)
  Addresses the persistent discrimination, harassment, and violence that people who transgress gender norms face in gender segregated bathrooms. Using the stories of people who have been harassed, arrested or beaten for trying to use bathrooms, this groundbreaking film focuses on bathroom access in public space, in schools, and at work.
• Unveiled Views: Muslim women artists speak out
  DVD only. In this revealing documentary five extraordinary women talk about their occupations, aspirations, and the rights and status of women in their Muslim countries.
• Want - a femmegimp production
  Loree Erickson's short film Want explores issues surrounding sex, sexuality and disability, as well as the difficulties in navigating the world at large... Want opens with explicit scenes of Erickson and her partners, but the film also includes more mundane activities like navigating supermarkets and public transit. Shows sexuality as another aspect of being able to live a full life, not something that should be relegated to a minor concern (if it is included within a full understanding of disabled people's ...
• Webcam girls
  “This Canadian documentary examines women that live in front of their web-cameras. Some of the pioneers and outlaws of the femcam frontier are Ducky, sexologist and burlesque queen; Dionne, ethical porn producer; Ana Voog, the first art/life webcam; and Terri, internet cultural critic.”
• Where credit is due
  Against a backdrop of oppression and civil war in Guatemala, three women's groups of the Kaqchikel Presbytery are using micro-credit loans for businesses that include agricultural projects and textiles.... a good illustration of how beneficial micro-credit can be for sustainable human development.
• Where the water meets the sky
  A group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent.
• Where the water meets the sky
  A group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent... [Their film] involves an issue that is traumatic for them all, and rarely spoken about: the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS.
• Where we were not. Part one : feeling reserved, Alexus' story
  Alexus' Story is the first part of a four part animated documentary about criminalization in Canada. Where We Were Not is being made in collaboration with a group of women Jessica has worked with, and formed friendships with while creating art projects in prisons and centres for marginalized people. Narrated by an abolitionist activist, a First Nations transgendered woman, and two women serving life sentences, this project gives a first hand account of the Canadian injustice system.
• Women Art Revolution [W.A.R]
  History of the feminist art movement in the late 20th century, including interviews with many of the participants
• Women who make America
  The story of how women have helped shape America over the last fifty years through one of the most sweeping social revolutions in American history, in pursuit of their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy.
• Wonder Women! the untold story of American superheroines
  From the birth of the 1940s comic book heroine, Wonder Woman, to the blockbusters of today, [this film] looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society's anxieties about strong and healthy women. Reveals the complicated negotiations girls and women face as they attempt to achieve confidence, strength, and agency in a society often at odds with those goals.

First Nations and Indigenous

• 8th fire
  A provocative, high-energy journey through Aboriginal country showing why we need to fix Canada's 500 year-old relationship with Indigenous peoples -- a relationship mired in colonialism, conflict and denial. Episode 1 - INDIGENOUS IN THE CITY . Episode 2 - IT'S TIME . Episode 3 - WHOSE LAND IS IT ANYWAY? Episode 4 - AT THE CROSSROADS.
• A tent on Mars | Une tente sur Mars
  Thirty years after the closing of the Schefferville's mining colony, and after taking over the town abandoned by non natives, the Innus are facing a new challenge: the reopening of the iron mines.
• Alanis Obomsawin films
  A collection of Alanis Obomsawin films in DVD, streaming video and VHS format.
• Cave of forgotten dreams
  Follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. An unforgettable cinematic experience that provides an unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago, almost twice as old as any previous discovery.
• Crude Sacrifice: you can't reclaim humanity
  Looks at how the community of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is affected by the exploitation of Canada's Tar Sands and how the federal and provicial governments are dealing with local concerns.
• Cry Rock
  “Less than fifteen Nuxalk language speakers and storytellers remain in Bella Coola, British Columbia, today. One of these elders is the director Banchi Hanuse's 80-year-old grandmother. In a technologically obsessed century, it would seem easier to record Nuxalk stories for future generations, but Hanuse resists...”
• Finding our way: moving beyond Canada's apartheid = Neba wheti hon'a e kwuznata
  Stories of conflict between Indigenous people, governments and industry: “... documentary film in 3 chapters with and about the Burns Lake band and the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, two First Nations bands located in central B.C., Canada”
• Harold of Orange
  Originally released in 1984. A satirical comedy that explores the interaction of American Indians and philanthropic organizations. Draws on trickster myths common to many Indian tribes to dispel Hollywood stereotypes of the 'wild Indian' and the 'noble savage.'
• In celebration of Nunavut series: Life in the settlements
  A collection of 60 videos comprised of 107 films made between 1942 and 1996, on life in the Arctic from first contact to today. While some of these archival films reflect the colonialist attitudes of their era, they remain important historical documents.
• Journey to Nunavut : the Kreelak story
  Originally produced in 1999. Tells the story of a Caribou Inuit family who were Canada's last nomads, from their early life hunting on the tundra to when they take the reins of the new territory of Nunavut on April 1, 1999.
• Kanata: legacy of the children of Aataentsic
  Originally produced in 1999. Huron-Wendat filmmaker René Siouï Labelle retraces the path of his ancestors, surveys their territories and reflects upon the identity of the Wendat nation.
• Keepers of the fire
  Presents the stories of aboriginal women who have participated in important aboriginal struggles in Canada. Mohawk women tell of their role in the 1990 crisis at Oka. Haida women reminisce about their stand on the picket lines and their arrests in the action that stopped logging on Lyell Island in the Queen Charlottes. Maliseet women recall their campaign, lasting eight years, that changed the Indian Act to accord status and rights to all Indian women. Native women in Toronto who run a native women's shelter ...
• Kiviaq versus Canada
  Zacharias Kunuk travels to Edmonton to meet Kiviaq, Canada's first Inuit lawyer, former Golden Gloves boxing champion, city alderman, and the only Inuk to play with the Edmonton Eskimos football team. Kiviaq is currently suing the federal government of Canada with a claim demanding equal rights for Inuit, whom, he argues, are neither defined in law nor granted the same privileges as other aboriginal people.
• Nanook revisited
  The filmmakers revisit Inukjuak, the Inuit village where Flaherty filmed Nanook of the North. Examines the realities behind the ground-breaking documentary and the changes since it was made almost 70 years ago. Shows the reactions of the Inuit living in the village, to the film, and also looks at the inaccuracies and staged scenes in the original.
• Okimah
  Originally released in 1998. Follows Cree hunters on the most important event of the season, the annual goose hunt. Okimah is at once a homage to generations of Cree hunters, a loving look at a cultural tradition and a plea for responsible stewardship of our resources.
• Our spirits don't speak English: Indian boarding school
  Imagine you are a child, taken from your home, your family, taken from everything you know. In 1869, the U.S. government enacted a policy of educating Native American children in the ways of western society. By the late 1960's, more than 100,000 had been forced to attend Indian Boarding School.
• Passage
  The report of deceased Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin and his crew succumbing to madness and cannibalism was brought back to England by Scottish doctor John Rae. Unable to accept this horrific news, Franklin's widow and author Charles Dickens waged a bitter campaign successfully discrediting Rae and marking the Inuit people with the label of murderous cannibals.
• Pelts: politics of the fur trade
  NFB film originally produced in 1989. 'Canada's oldest industry, fur trade is facing challenges. Examines the morality of killing animals for fur.'
• Power
  When Hydro-Quebec announces its intention to proceed with the enormous James Bay II hydroelectric project, the 15,000 Cree who live in the region decide to stand up to the giant utility. Power is the compelling, behind-the-scenes story of the Cree's five-year battle to save the Great Whale river and their traditional way of life.
• Reconquering the conquest
  Originally produced in 1993. French-speaking Canadians battle for a unilingual French-speaking Quebec. At the same time, the Cree people battle the Quebec government over territory in the north. Can a single federal state survive if it contains a couple of nations and two major language groups? Part of the Nationalism: Blood and Belonging series.
• Reservation soldiers
  “Filmed over several years, Reservation Soldiers focuses on the relationship between the Canadian military and aboriginal youth.“
• Richard Cardinal: cry from a diary of a Métis child
  Original version date: 1986. A moving tribute to Richard Cardinal, a Métis adolescent who committed suicide at 17, in 1984. Removed from his home at age 4 because of family problems, he was then moved between 28 foster homes, group homes and shelters in Alberta for the next 13 years. His diary upon which this film is based is a sad legacy of a troubled youth, his life and death, and Alberta's child welfare system. His death prompted an inquiry into and reform of Alberta's child welfare system.
• Shelley Niro compilation
  Shelley Niro (born 1954) is a Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from New York and Ontario. Contents: Overweight with crooked teeth (5:00 min., 1997) -- The shirt (5:55 min., 2003) -- Sky woman with us, Shelley Niro (7:00 min., 2002) -- Tree (5:00 min., 2006) -- The flying head (5:00 min., 2008) -- Hunger (6:03 min., 2008) -- rechargin' (2:49 min., 2007)
• Song of Eskasoni
  Produced in 1993. The village of Eskasoni on Cape Breton Island is the home of Micmac poet Rita Joe. The revival of Native traditions and spirituality in Eskasoni inspires much of her writing.
• Tales of sand and snow
  DVD only. In a quest to understand his own cultural identity and rediscover the spiritual values of his own people, Canadian emigré Hyacinthe Combary, an African native, turns to another indigenous culture, from the snows of North America. ... [A] cinematic dialogue between the Gourmantché of Burkina Faso, who read their people's future in the sand-patterns of the desert, and the Atikamekw of Québec, who connect with the spirits through snow-encased sweat lodges. Both cultures have been victims of colonization, ...
• The Blood records
  A haunting tale of disease and loss set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1944 in the heart of the Canadian prairies. Explores the world of a young girl, ill with tuberculosis. Struggling to escape her diseased body, her spirit roams freely throughout the long days and nights, reminiscing about her family, fearful of the fate of a beloved older brother who is fighting in The War, missing her native language (French) which is now foreign to her tongue after two years in the English hospital....
• The experimental Eskimos
  Documents an extraordinary attempt at social engineering. The film follows Peter Ittinuar, Zebedee Nungak and Eric Tagoona, who, as 12-year-old boys, were shipped South in the early 1960s from their homes in the Canadian Arctic to attend public schools in Ottawa. All three went on to become activists and leaders, paving the way for aboriginal rights in Canada and around the world.
• The gift
  Originally released in Canada in 1998. An exploration of the intertwined lives of people and corn, illustrating the traditional, spiritual, economic and political importance of corn in the lives of indigenous peoples throughout North America, from the Six Nations of southern Ontario and New York to the Mayas of Mexico.
• The gift of diabetes
  Filmmaker Brion Whitford is an Ojibway who lives with the pain of advanced diabetes. As his health worsened, his interest in his own culture grew. Follows Brion's struggle to regain his health by learning about the medicine wheel, a holistic tool grounded in Aboriginal understanding of the interconnectedness of all dimensions of life. Also explores the historical trauma of colonization and how it continues to affect Aboriginal people's psychological and physical well being.
• The invisible nation
  Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie spotlight an often ignored people whom they lived beside but knew little about. Their turbulent history, brought to the screen for the first time, dates back over 5,000 years. But the next century may well be their last. For too long, they have lived in abject conditions, sometimes worse than in Third World countries. Yet the two filmmakers didn't have to travel thousands of kilometres to find these people. The Algonquin nation lives right here in Quebec.
• The Other side of the ledge
  Originally issued as a motion picture in 1972. Presents an articulate denial of many facets of the white man's version of Canadian history.
• The People of the Kattawapiskak River
  Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary exposes the housing crisis faced by 1,700 Cree in Northern Ontario, a situation that led Attawapiskat’s band chief, Theresa Spence, to ask the Canadian Red Cross for help. With the Idle No More movement making front page headlines, this film provides background and context for one aspect of the growing crisis.
• The story of the Coast Salish knitters
  Originally produced in 2000. For almost a century, the Coast Salish knitters of southern Vancouver Island have produced Cowichan sweaters from handspun wool. These distinctive sweaters are known and loved around the world, but the Aboriginal women who make them remain largely invisible. Combines rare archival footage with the voices of three generations of woolworkers.
• The washing of tears
  The Mowachaht, whale hunters and fishermen who had lived at Friendly Cove for thousands of years are uprooted from their homeland and move to Vancouver Island, to a new site under the walls of a pulp mill. They suffered extremes of pollution, violence, alcohol abuse ... Then in the 1990's, in defiance of the agony of their history and to overcome the grief of the present, the Mowachaht and their neighbors the Muchalaht revived their songs and dances and by reclaiming their culture, rediscover their pride.
• To Brooklyn and back: a Mohawk journey
  The Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec occupied a 10 square block area in the North Gowanus section of Brooklyn, which became known as Little Caughnawaga. The men, skilled ironworkers, came to New York in search of work and brought their wives, children and often, extended family with them. The story of the Mohawk ironworkers is an important one and is one that has been told and continues to be told through documentaries, newspaper and magazine articles. Yet the stories of Kahnawake Mohawk women who lived in Brooklyn ...
• Two spirits
  Fred Martinez was a [young] nádleehí, or a male-bodied person with a feminine essence, who was murdered in a hate crime at the age of sixteen. Discusses the traditional Native American perspective on gender and sexuality and the need for a balanced interrelationship between the feminine and masculine.
• Urban elder
  Originally produced in 1997. Cree Indian Vern Harper tells how he reaches into the past to integrate traditional native culture into city life, including the tradition of elder. Follows Vern to sweat lodge purification ceremony, ballet rehearsal of his daughter, healing ceremony, political march and counseling sessions with native prisoners at Warkworth Federal Prison.
• Usiimmaluguq | Broken promises : the High Arctic relocation
  In 1953, Inuit from Port Harrison, now Inukjuak, Quebec, were relocated to new settlements in Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, in the Northwest Territories, only one of a series of relocations. A slump in the fur market, the Inuit's chief source of income, and a need to increase settlement in the Arctic to protect Canada's sovereignty, were factors in the government's decision. Archival footage and interviews with survivors tell of the hardships the Inuit endured.
• You are on Indian land
  Originally produced in 1969. Documents the demonstration of Mohawk Indians, living in Canada, as they protest payment of import duties on personal purchases made in the United States, claiming exemption under the provisions of the Jay Treaty of 1794.

Food, Environment, Sustainability

• A tent on Mars | Une tente sur Mars
  Thirty years after the closing of the Schefferville's mining colony, and after taking over the town abandoned by non natives, the Innus are facing a new challenge: the reopening of the iron mines.
• An ecology of mind: a daughter's portrait of Gregory Bateson
  An Ecology of Mind is a film portrait of Gregory Bateson, celebrated anthropologist, philosopher, author, naturalist, systems theorist, and filmmaker, produced and directed by his daughter, Nora Bateson
• Bhopal: the search for justice
  “This documentary explores the continuing cover-up, analyzes the prospect for environmental and human justice in Bhopal, and exposes the responsibility of the multinational corporations”
• Big boys gone bananas
  First there was a film about banana workers saying the Dole Food Company had made them infertile. Then Dole attacked the filmmakers. Now it's time for a new film! The true story about a Swedish filmmaker and a banana corporation. Dirty tricks, lawsuits, manipulation, and the price of free speech.
• Blue gold: world water wars
  Wars of the future will be fought over water, as they are today over oil, as the source of all life enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling fresh water supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive.
• Carbon Rush
  Incinerators burning garbage in India. Hundreds of hydroelectric dams in Panama. Biogas extracted from palm oil in Honduras. Eucalyptus forests harvested for charcoal in Brazil. What do these projects have in common? They are all receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created somewhere else. But what impact are these offsets having? Are they actually reducing emissions? And what about the people and the communities where these projects have been set up?
• Crude Sacrifice: you can't reclaim humanity
  Looks at how the community of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is affected by the exploitation of Canada's Tar Sands and how the federal and provicial governments are dealing with local concerns.
• Earth Keepers
  Mikael Rioux, a young activist committed to the environment and worried about the legacy he will leave to his son, travels the world on a quest for concrete solutions to the problems faced by our planet. He meets the exceptional men and women behind innovative projects for the future of society.
• END:CIV - Resist or Die
  Examines our culture's addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: 'If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?'
• Flesh
  “Several women with different points of view including a cattle rancher, a vegetarian, a meat-lover, and a Hooter's waitress are interviewed in this discussion of how women and animals are treated by popular culture in a society obsessed with flesh.”
• Flow
  “A look at the world's water crisis and how the causes of the depleting water supply are connected to pollution, human rights, and even politics.”
• Gardens of destiny
  Dan Jason is an organic gardener on Salt Spring Island of the Canadian west coast and the head of the Seed and Plant Sanctuary for Canada, a network of gardeners from around the world working to preserve as much plant diversity as possible. This film explores Dan's garden and seed world and investigates, with several sustainable development specialists, such issues as genetic engineering, terminator seeds, and the pitfalls of industrial agriculture in North America.
• Lesbian National Parks and Services Presents: Endangered Species
  That formidable force of conservation officials, Lesbian National Parks and Services, presents three portraits of lesbian species in crisis. These public service announcements point to the perils of habitat loss and poaching. The Marxist Feminist, the Lesbian Separatist and the Bull-Dykus Americanus are featured in this parody of nature education. In full uniform as Lesbian Rangers, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan patrol parklands, challenging the general publics ideas of tourism, recreation, and the 'natural' ...
• Living downstream
  Follows Sandra Steingrabe during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey - the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move. At once Sandra's personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land , and water.
• Nature's invitation
  A documentary about Canada’s quest to get new immigrants in touch with nature. It also explores the consequences of a life devoid of nature.
• Petropolis
  The Athabasca tar sands in Alberta are an oil reserve the size of England. Extracting crude oil that lies beneath the unspoiled wilderness requires a massive industrialized effort, effecting catastrophic damages on land, air, water, and climate. Peter Mettler shows us this extraordinary view from above, filming primarily from a helicopter to capture this breathtaking, unparalleled view of the world's largest industrial, capital and energy project.
• Power
  When Hydro-Quebec announces its intention to proceed with the enormous James Bay II hydroelectric project, the 15,000 Cree who live in the region decide to stand up to the giant utility. Power is the compelling, behind-the-scenes story of the Cree's five-year battle to save the Great Whale river and their traditional way of life.
• Queen of the sun: what are the bees telling us?
  A documentary on colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon involving the mass disappearance of honeybees from their hives. Includes interviews with beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva.
• Rock the boat: saving America's wildest river
  When satirical writer and avid kayaker George Wolfe organizes a boating expedition down the entire 52-miles of the notorious Los Angeles River, he and his motley crew become entangled in a legal controversy of national proportions. With startling images of the LA River, insightful interviews and a soft spot for humor, Rock the Boat looks at the challenges society faces in providing clean water to urban populations, and delivers a bright alternative to the current spate of doomsday docs.
• Seeking the Current | Chercher le courant
  A “road movie” on a river. Nicolas Boisclair and Alexis de Gheldere canoe the entire 500 km course of the pristine Romaine River before Hydro-Québec begins construction of four hydroelectric plants. In parallel, accompanied by actor Roy Dupuis, they explore various renewable green energies and their profitability by interviewing experts across Québec. French with English subtitles
• Strong Coffee
  The coffee co-operative Cafe Femenino, created by a group of Peruvian women to bring financial independence for themselves.
• The gift
  Originally released in Canada in 1998. An exploration of the intertwined lives of people and corn, illustrating the traditional, spiritual, economic and political importance of corn in the lives of indigenous peoples throughout North America, from the Six Nations of southern Ontario and New York to the Mayas of Mexico.
• The hole story: June 1, 2011
  The history of mining in Canada is the story of astronomical profits made with disregard for the environment and human health. Using striking images, rare archival footage, interviews and their trademark humorous social commentary, the directors make a clear case against the way mining has been done in Canada. French version: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/805656615
• Under Rich Earth
  In the remote mountain valley in Ecuador, farmers face eviction from their land to make way for a massive mining project. As the company's men move deeper into the valley, the tension between the mineros and the opposition reaches a breaking point. Abandoned by the police and ignored by their government, the farmers prepare to stand down the invaders on their own. Their resistance leads to a remarkable and historic confrontation with a band of mysterious armed men hiding in the cloud forest. In Spanish with ...
• Water on the table
  Water on the Table features Maude Barlow, considered 'an international water warrior' for her crusade to have water declared a human right... [The film] presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue that water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it.
• Wiebo's War
  Wiebo's War tells the story of a man's epic battle with the oil and gas industry and asks provocative questions about an individual's civil liberties.
• Windfall
  A group of residents of Meredith, NY discover the impacts that a 400-foot high windmill could bring to their community, but become divided over how they see wind power affecting the future of the community.

Health, Abilities, Addictions

• American Experience: the Pill
  Featuring personal accounts from the first generation of women to have access to the Pill, this films show how harnessing female hormones into a little pill unleashed a social revolution unlike any other in our history. Originally broadcast on PBS in Jan. 2003 as a segment of The American experience.
• Fit: episodes in the history of the body
  Originally produced in 1991. Combines archival images and research to chart the development of American attitudes towards, and definitions of, physical fitness and the human body.
• Flipping the world: drugs through a blue lens
  An honest look at the world of youth and drug addiction as told by those who have been there. Seven culturally diverse high school students meet with members of the Odd Squad – Vancouver police officers who, since 1998, have been filming people addicted to drugs.
• G.I.M.P. boot camp: gimp/civilian, imprinting, mastering, public outreach
  In accepting the fictional CRIP (Citizens Recognizing Inspirational People) Award, co-filmmaker Danielle Peers explains and illustrates her four-step program aimed at helping gimps, people who are only partially physically disabled, cope with the social stigma associated with their condition. The program also targets stereotypes about physical disability held by 'normal' people
• How does it feel?
  Like many people, Kazumi was daunted by the idea of singing in public. But at 58, he has decided to use his awe-inspiring singing voice to channel his cerebral palsy (CP). As Kazumi draws from his exuberant, poignant and painful experiences, performer and teacher Fides Krucker guides him to embrace his inner artist. Kazumi's one-man show features songs like Smokey Robinson's 'Tracks of My Tears,' which take on new and unexpected meaning in this moving account of self-discovery and transformation through the ...
• How to survive a plague
  The story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful nation, and stopped AIDS from becoming a death sentence. This improbable group of activists bucked oppression and infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, helping to identify promising new medication and treatments and move them through trials and into drugstores in record time.
• I had an abortion
  Produced by Jennifer Baumgardner and Gillian Aldrich. Features several women, aged 21 to 85, who have had abortions and captures their stories and experiences.
• Living downstream
  Follows Sandra Steingrabe during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey - the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move. At once Sandra's personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land , and water.
• NeverPerfect
  DVD only. “Traversing historical and contemporary notions of beauty, stereotypes and iconography within Asian and popular cultures, this film incorporates a rich selection of archival footage and commentary from numerous voices which ignites lively debate on the phenomena as they pertain to race and gender identity.”
• Pink Ribbons
  Breast cancer has become the poster child of cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless people walk, run and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labelled a 'dream cause,' has become obscured by a shiny, pink story of success.
• Positive youth
  Looks at the daily lives of four HIV infected or affected young men and women.
• Scarlet road
  "Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression, Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long overlooked clientele— people with disabilities. ..Rachel’s philosophy is that human touch and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence." Also available as a DVD: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/783787692 [for a film with a different lens on a similar topic, see also Want: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/706443158]
• Sex positive
  Looks at the life of Richard Berkowitz, an AIDS activist who was at the forefront of the safe sex movement. With Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, a virologist and AIDS doctor, and Michael Callen, a musician and activist, Berkowitz helped the gay community recognize the importance of safe sex practices.
• Staying alive: [Canada's controversial safe injection site]
  'Insite', located in Vancouver's notorious downtown eastside, has been controversial since it first opened its doors in 2003. An exemption from federal drug laws was granted to allow addicts to bring their drugs onto the premises and inject them; Insite provides clean needles and medical supervision.
• Still around
  A feature-length compilation of 15 short films about surviving and thriving with HIV/AIDS as we mark the 30th anniversary of one of the world's most substantial health pandemics.
• The Big Wait: A Film About The Doctor Shortage in Canada
  The doctor shortage is getting critical and one town is desperately trying to recruit physicians. At the same time, three internationally trained doctors are trying to get licensed to practice medicine in their new country.
• The Blood records
  A haunting tale of disease and loss set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1944 in the heart of the Canadian prairies. Explores the world of a young girl, ill with tuberculosis. Struggling to escape her diseased body, her spirit roams freely throughout the long days and nights, reminiscing about her family, fearful of the fate of a beloved older brother who is fighting in The War, missing her native language (French) which is now foreign to her tongue after two years in the English hospital....
• The body beautiful
  DVD only. Originally produced in 1991. This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah's brave excursion into her mother's scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy.
• The downside of high
  Tells the stories of three young people from British Columbia who believe - along with their doctors - that their mental illness was triggered by marijuana use. Modern growing techniques have dramatically increased the amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - ramping up the threat to the developing teenage brain.
• The Frog Princes
  A Concodia theatre troupe is working tirelessly to put on a play. The challenges they face are a part of the usual drama behind any live show. There’s the backstage politics, the forgotten lines, the missed cues, the romances and the rivalries. But for this troupe, the stakes are a bit higher – each cast member faces intellectual, developmental and mental health disabilities.
• The gift of diabetes
  Filmmaker Brion Whitford is an Ojibway who lives with the pain of advanced diabetes. As his health worsened, his interest in his own culture grew. Follows Brion's struggle to regain his health by learning about the medicine wheel, a holistic tool grounded in Aboriginal understanding of the interconnectedness of all dimensions of life. Also explores the historical trauma of colonization and how it continues to affect Aboriginal people's psychological and physical well being.
• The sacred science
  Follows eight people from the developed world with a variety of common and serious ailments who embark on a challenging, one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle. Working with a handful of shamans experienced in the harvesting and preparation of traditional plant medicines, as well as ritual exercises, these men and women seek to overcome Parkinson's disease, cancer, alcoholism, diabetes and depression.
• The vaccine war
  Originally produced for Frontline; broadcast on Apr. 27, 2010. Lays bare the science of vaccine safety and examines the increasingly bitter debate between the public health establishment and a formidable populist coalition of parents, celebrities, politicians and activists who are armed with the latest social media tools ... and are determined to resist pressure from the medical and public health establishments to vaccinate, despite established scientific consensus about vaccine safety.
• Tracked down by our genes
  DVD only. Shows how the Human Genome Project, 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.
• Turning away
  Turning Away is not another 'day in the life of a street kid'. Instead, it is a thorough examination of why young people end up on the street, what keeps them there and what it takes to escape. We follow the subjects over time and we will see how they deal with what most people would consider the simplest challenges.
• United in anger: a history of ACT UP
  Feature-length documentary that [explores] ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a grassroots perspective--how a small group of men and women of all races and classes, came together to change the world and save each other's lives. The film takes the viewer through the planning and execution of a half dozen exhilarating major actions including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation, with a timeline of many of the other zaps and actions that forced the U.S. government and ...
• Unnatural causes: is inequality making us sick?
  DVD only. A seven-part documentary series arguing that health and longevity are correlated with socioeconomic status; people of color face an additional health burden, and our health and well-being are tied to policies that promote economic and social justice. Each of the half-hour program segments, set in different racial/ethnic communities, provides a deeper exploration of the ways in which social conditions affect population health and how some communities are extending their lives be improving them.
• Vine of the Soul: Encounters with Ayahuasca
  Explores the mystery of ayahuasca shamanism, offering insights into the nature of spirituality, mystical experience and self-healing through a heightened state of consciousness.
• Want - a femmegimp production
  Loree Erickson's short film Want explores issues surrounding sex, sexuality and disability, as well as the difficulties in navigating the world at large... Want opens with explicit scenes of Erickson and her partners, but the film also includes more mundane activities like navigating supermarkets and public transit. Shows sexuality as another aspect of being able to live a full life, not something that should be relegated to a minor concern (if it is included within a full understanding of disabled people's ...
• We were here
  'A deep and reflective look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of this unimaginable crisis'--IMDb. Concordia Copy accompanied by two folders: We Were Here Learning Guide and The HIV Timeline: 1980-2010.
• Where the water meets the sky
  A group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent... [Their film] involves an issue that is traumatic for them all, and rarely spoken about: the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS.

Language, Culture, Religion

• Bombay calling
  DVD only. Filmmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal dive into the bustling world of late nights, long hours and hard partying. The result is a compelling insider's look at youth culture in India, and a growing number of young people who choose to follow the American dream...Indian style.
• Covered [Snakegirl Productions]
  Explores the world of heavily tattooed women and female tattoo artists in the United States. Takes a larger, sociological perspective on what it means to be a heavily tattooed woman in today's society -- from the perspectives of the women themselves. Features dozens of tattoo artists.
• Cry Rock
  “Less than fifteen Nuxalk language speakers and storytellers remain in Bella Coola, British Columbia, today. One of these elders is the director Banchi Hanuse's 80-year-old grandmother. In a technologically obsessed century, it would seem easier to record Nuxalk stories for future generations, but Hanuse resists...”
• Cultural anthropology: our diverse world
  DVD only. A 17-part cultural anthropology 'course' on DVD.] Takes a cross-cultural approach to diverse subject areas, including subsistence patterns, political organization, the family, social organization, economics, kinship, language, the arts, and religion.
• Fambul tok: a film about forgiveness
  Explores a culture that believes true justice lies in redemption and healing for individuals, and that forgiveness is the surest path to restoring dignity and building strong communities. Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone's brutal civil war come together for the first time in tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. By reviving their ancient practice of fambul tok (family talk) Sierra Leoneans are building sustainable peace at the grassroots level
• Flesh and blood
  What's the Ukrainian word for sex? Filmmaker Marusya Bociurkiw explores this question in the humorous and provocative Flesh and Blood. A queer bar in Kyiv reveals drag queens in traditional Ukrainian costume; a trip to the suburbs introduces us to transsexual Lena and bisexual Oksana, who live with Oksana's two husbands and her grandmother in what they call a poly-family.
• Fortunate son
  Autobiographical documentary by the son of Greek immigrants living in Canada. After overcoming a severe drug problem, and motivated by a search for happiness with his new fiancee, filmmaker Tony Asimakopoulos turns his gaze on his complicated, painful relationship with his overbearing mother and ailing father, and the patterns of dysfunction they share. A film about faith, despair, renewal, and the different kinds of love in a family. Follows the filmmaker from his childhood home in Montreal, to the Greek villages ...
• In the name of the family: honour killings in North America
  DVD only. Award-winning director Shelley Saywell brings her consummate documentary skills and passion for human rights to challenge the traditions that lie behind the heartbreaking tragedies committed against young girls caught between two cultures in North America.
• KZ
  DVD only. Tourists, tour guides and locals at a former concentration camp in Austria. “Through its unflinching depiction of daily modern life in the small Austrian town of Mauthausen, KZ reveals the lasting legacy and impact of the Holocaust on individuals of all generations, nationalities and religions.”
• Liberty, equality, accommodation
  DVD only. The Herouxville Code of Conduct informed newcomers that women were not to be excised, stoned or burned alive. A storm of voices and opinions greeted that announcement and generated a unique expression of direct democracy. The film is about this unprecedented collective experience.
• Lost boys of Sudan
  DVD only. “The journey of two teenage Sudanese boys, orphaned by their war torn country, who traveled to America looking for a safer environment and learning to cope with the unfamiliar complexities of contemporary American society.”
• Made in India: a film about surrogacy
  DVD only. The human experiences behind the phenomena of 'outsourcing' surrogate mothers to India. Shows the journey of an infertile American couple, an Indian surrogate and the reproductive outsourcing business that brings them together. Weaving together these personal stories within the context of a growing international industry, MADE IN INDIA explores a complicated clash of families in crisis, reproductive technology, and choice from a global perspective.
• Moolaade
  Motion Picture. It is the time for the young girls of a village to be purified by ritual circumcision. Colle has kept her daughter from being circumcised, and several of the girls go to her for refuge. Colle agrees to help them, and she invokes moolaade, a form of sanctuary.
• Professor Norman Cornett: 'since when do we divorce the right answer from an honest answer?'
  Alanis Obomsawin pays tribute to Dr. Norman Cornett, a popular Religious Studies professor dismissed by McGill University in 2007. Addressing subjects as varied as palliative care and First Nations issues, Cornett won the respect of students with his unconventional approach.
• Questions nationales : National matters
  Brings new perspective to the Quebec sovereignty issue. In particular, it addresses the question of why Quebec has yet to achieve independence forty years after the movement began, when so many other countries have succeeded in achieving this goal during the same period. To answer this question, the film considers the cases of the Scots (UK) and the Catalans (Spain), who, like the Québécois, have had to think hard about the advantages or risks of independence over autonomy and to grapple with the 'unknowns' ...
• Reconquering the conquest
  Originally produced in 1993. French-speaking Canadians battle for a unilingual French-speaking Quebec. At the same time, the Cree people battle the Quebec government over territory in the north. Can a single federal state survive if it contains a couple of nations and two major language groups? Part of the Nationalism: Blood and Belonging series.
• Tales of sand and snow
  DVD only. In a quest to understand his own cultural identity and rediscover the spiritual values of his own people, Canadian emigré Hyacinthe Combary, an African native, turns to another indigenous culture, from the snows of North America. ... [A] cinematic dialogue between the Gourmantché of Burkina Faso, who read their people's future in the sand-patterns of the desert, and the Atikamekw of Québec, who connect with the spirits through snow-encased sweat lodges. Both cultures have been victims of colonization, ...
• Talking Canadian eh?
  'Talking Canadian is not so much a history lesson as an often-amusing look at our accent, intonation and vocabulary, how Canadians speak today, and how we will talk in the future.'
• The Blood records
  A haunting tale of disease and loss set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1944 in the heart of the Canadian prairies. Explores the world of a young girl, ill with tuberculosis. Struggling to escape her diseased body, her spirit roams freely throughout the long days and nights, reminiscing about her family, fearful of the fate of a beloved older brother who is fighting in The War, missing her native language (French) which is now foreign to her tongue after two years in the English hospital....
• The M word
  DVD only. A history and critique of multiculturalism in Canada. “The M Word records the history of various immigrant groups who are not officially recognized in the history books. It also interviews a number of prominent Canadians to take the pulse of multiculturalism today, including Haroon Siddiqui, Allan Gregg, Candy Palmater, Jack Jedwab, and Uzma Shakir.”
• The split horn: the life of a Hmong Shaman in America
  DVD only. Shows the life and culture of the Thao family, Hmong Americans in Appleton, Wisconsin, and a shaman's struggle to maintain his ancient traditions.
• They think I'm Chinese / On me prend pour une chinoise!
  DVD only. A journey into the inner world of five adopted teenage girls. Girls who were in the first wave of Chinese children adopted in Quebec in the 1990s are now in their teens. Nicole Giguère focused her lens on five of them and accompanied them throughout their emotionally charged transition to adulthood. In their quest for identity, how do these young Quebeckers experience their differences? Includes original French version and French version with subtitles.
• Unveiled Views: Muslim women artists speak out
  DVD only. In this revealing documentary five extraordinary women talk about their occupations, aspirations, and the rights and status of women in their Muslim countries.
• Vine of the Soul: Encounters with Ayahuasca
  Explores the mystery of ayahuasca shamanism, offering insights into the nature of spirituality, mystical experience and self-healing through a heightened state of consciousness.
• Why quilts matter : history, art and politics
  A nine-part television series on the history, significance, and culture of quilts. Episode 1. Quilts 101 : antique and contemporary quilts (26:30) -- Episode 2. Quilts bring history alive (26:47) -- Episode 3. The quilt marketplace (26:47) -- Episode 4. What is art ?(25:50) -- Episode 5. Gee's Bend: the most famous quilts in America? (26:35) -- Episode 6. How quilts have been viewed and collected (25:50) -- Episode 7. Empowering women one quilt at a time (26:04) -- Episode 8. Quilt nation : 20,000,000 and counting ...
• Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I love you, mommy)
  DVD only. An intimate and honest film about an eight-year old Chinese adoptee's journey from Guangzhou, China to Long Island, New York. Fang Sui Yong, aka Faith Sadowsky, was abandoned at age 2, lived in an orphanage, and then was taken in by a loving Chinese foster family. Sui Yong's life is suddenly upended when she is adopted by the Sadowskys, a Jewish family in New York. Over the next 17 months, we witness Sui Yong's struggle to adapt to her new life in America and watch her slowly lose ties to everything ...

Media and Popular Culture

• Animania
  “Explores Japanese anime and teens' interest in it as a hobby.”
• Beauty lies
  DVD only. “Filmmaker Karen Chapman explores her feelings about her natural hair as a young black woman in a media-driven world, revealing layers of insecurities. Beauty Lies questions the ideals, motivations and images of beauty in the media that could be seen as manifesting a 'white standard' of beauty”
• Beyond good and evil: children, media and violent times
  ....[E]xposes how the media has been used to earn public support for the U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq. ... Examines how the 'good and evil' rhetoric, in both the entertainment and the news media, has helped children to dehumanize the enemies, justify their killing and treat the suffering of innocent civilians as necessary sacrifice.
• Consuming kids : the commercialization of childhood
  Interviews with health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders. Focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world.
• Covered [Snakegirl Productions]
  Explores the world of heavily tattooed women and female tattoo artists in the United States. Takes a larger, sociological perspective on what it means to be a heavily tattooed woman in today's society -- from the perspectives of the women themselves. Features dozens of tattoo artists.
• Flesh
  “Several women with different points of view including a cattle rancher, a vegetarian, a meat-lover, and a Hooter's waitress are interviewed in this discussion of how women and animals are treated by popular culture in a society obsessed with flesh.”
• Freedom of expression: resistance and repression in the age of intellectual property
  “Through news clips, film excerpts, music, legal cases, satire, and a wide range of other examples and illustrations, the concerns regarding traditional copyright laws' infringing on freedom of expression are examined and critiqued.”
• Girl and a gun
  Presents a female perspective on an object whose history is deeply bound up with men and masculinity. Filmed throughout the US, this documentary delves into the psyche of the American gun world to investigate how women relate to guns and gun culture. Reaching far beyond Hollywood's hypersexualized femme fatales, the film candidly explores the modern American woman through intimate portraits encompassing issues of protection, power, feminism, and violence.
• Grrrl love and revolution: Riot Grrrl NYC
  'Filmmaker Abby Moser was at the heart of the NYC Riot Grrrl movement, filming them between 1993 and 1996, creating an invaluable archive for students learning the history of feminism. She captured the excitement of the times, and the articulate self-awareness of its members. She also documents their frustration with a mainstream media which dismissed feminism as a hobby, and the group’s own difficulties respecting the race and class divisions amongst themselves.' from WMM website.
• Le jeu de la mort | Game of death
  Back in the 60s, Stanley Milgram's scientific experiment demonstrated that a large majority of people were ready to administer unbearable electric shocks to another man when encouraged to do so by an authority. The experiment is re-enacted in the form of a TV game show, where 80 participants are asked to follow its despicable rules, despite the candidate's strong yelling complaints. Will they obey the TV host's orders and inflict massive electric shocks? Or will they stop before it's too late? (see also: Obedience ...
• Malls r us
  Combining nostalgia, dazzling architecture, pop culture, economics and politics, 'Malls r us' examines North America's most popular and profitable suburban destination-- the enclosed shopping center-- and how for consumers they function as a communal, even ceremonial experience and, for retailers, sites where their idealism, passion, and greed merge.
• Militainment Inc
  “Militainment, Inc. offers a glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and 'reality television' in its glamorization of war. … the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle?”
• Miss Representation
  Explores how mainstream media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions in America and challenges the media's limiting and often disparaging portrayals of women, which make it difficult for the average girl to see herself as powerful.
• Nanook revisited
  The filmmakers revisit Inukjuak, the Inuit village where Flaherty filmed Nanook of the North. Examines the realities behind the ground-breaking documentary and the changes since it was made almost 70 years ago. Shows the reactions of the Inuit living in the village, to the film, and also looks at the inaccuracies and staged scenes in the original.
• NeverPerfect
  DVD only. “Traversing historical and contemporary notions of beauty, stereotypes and iconography within Asian and popular cultures, this film incorporates a rich selection of archival footage and commentary from numerous voices which ignites lively debate on the phenomena as they pertain to race and gender identity.”
• Pink Ribbons
  Breast cancer has become the poster child of cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless people walk, run and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labelled a 'dream cause,' has become obscured by a shiny, pink story of success.
• Rize
  A documentary portrayal of inner city youth in Los Angeles, Calif. who though surrounded by drug addiction, gangs and impoverishment, have developed a unique style of dance that evolves on a daily basis.
• Tagged
  'This playfully smart short doc lets the audience decide: Is it 'hip to be chipped,' as a proposed marketing slogan claimed, or could RFID [Radio Frequency Identification] implants accelerate a slide down the slippery slope from surveillance society to totalitarian nightmare?'
• The mean world syndrome
  “The Mean World Syndrome, based on the groundbreaking work of media scholar George Gerbner, urges us to think about media effects in more nuanced ways. Ranging from Hollywood movies and prime-time dramas to reality programming and the local news, the film examines how media violence feeds a fear-charged cultural environment…”
• Tiara
  dvd only.Are beauty pageants on the radar of today's young women? Tiara discovers that they certainly are in Asian communities in Canada. Tiara explores the connection between the desires of young women from the Chinese, Filipino and South Asian communities for validation of their appearance in the midst of popular media's narrow representation of beauty.
• United States of Africa
  African hip hop pioneer Didier Awadi is on a quest to craft an album that pays tribute to the great black revolutionary leaders and their struggle to realize a dream: a united, independent Africa. In this epic musical and political journey, Awadi visits some 40 countries to collaborate with hip hop activist artists, including Smockey (Burkina Faso), M-1 of Dead Prez (United States) and ZuluBoy (South Africa).
• Val: an Oak Park story
  For thirty plus years Val has offered her customers an incredible array of recorded music from classical to rap, both new and used. In addition, the collective knowledge of Val and her staff makes it possible to carry on an informed conversation about music and recordings. Val's Halla has become part of the disappearing commercial landscape of small businesses run by knowledgeable people interested in what they sell. In this film, Val talks about the changing role of the record store and muses about what Oak ...
• Videocracy
  documentary film which examines the high-glitz, lowbrow, celebrity-obsessed culture promulgated by Silvio Berlusconi's monopolistic media empire. The film analyzes the power of television broadcasting in Italy and how it affects the behavior and choices of the Italian population.
• We are legion: the story of the Hacktivists
  takes us inside the complex culture and history of Anonymous. The film explores early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater, and then moves to Anonymous’ own raucous and unruly beginnings on the website 4Chan. Through interviews... the film traces the collective’s evolution from merry pranksters to a full-blown, global movement.
• Webcam girls
  “This Canadian documentary examines women that live in front of their web-cameras. Some of the pioneers and outlaws of the femcam frontier are Ducky, sexologist and burlesque queen; Dionne, ethical porn producer; Ana Voog, the first art/life webcam; and Terri, internet cultural critic.”
• Why quilts matter : history, art and politics
  A nine-part television series on the history, significance, and culture of quilts. Episode 1. Quilts 101 : antique and contemporary quilts (26:30) -- Episode 2. Quilts bring history alive (26:47) -- Episode 3. The quilt marketplace (26:47) -- Episode 4. What is art ?(25:50) -- Episode 5. Gee's Bend: the most famous quilts in America? (26:35) -- Episode 6. How quilts have been viewed and collected (25:50) -- Episode 7. Empowering women one quilt at a time (26:04) -- Episode 8. Quilt nation : 20,000,000 and counting ...

Politics & International Issues

• 5 broken cameras
  A deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Burnat and Davidi.
• A Question of Madness: The Furiosus
  A documentary on the life of assassin Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who changed the course of South African history.
• Afghan women: a history of struggle
  Examines the drafting of the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights. [Looks at] the pivotal role women's struggle for equality has played in the country's tumultuous political history and debunk the myth that current U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has liberated Afghan women from the tyranny of fundamentalism.
• An encounter with Simone Weil
  What response does seeing human suffering demand of us? Filmmaker Julia Haslett seeks an answer in the controversial French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-1943), whose life and work took on this question in a dramatic way. Driving her obsession with Weil is the interwoven story of suffering within Haslett's own family.
• Bombay calling
  DVD only. Filmmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal dive into the bustling world of late nights, long hours and hard partying. The result is a compelling insider's look at youth culture in India, and a growing number of young people who choose to follow the American dream...Indian style.
• Budrus
  Tells the story of a Palestinian father and daughter who united Arab and Israeli factions to create a non-violent movement and save their village from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier
• China heavyweight
  Profiles the ever-changing Chinese economic landscape through the view of the sport of boxing. Filmmaker Yung Chang follows boxing coach Qi Moxiang as he travels across China's Sichuan province recruiting young fighting talent from impoverished farms and villages. Selected boys and girls are taken to national training centers in hopes of becoming Olympic heroes, but can they leave their families behind to become boxing's finest?
• Constitute!: women's constitutional activism
  The largest social mobilization of women in Canadian history in the 20th century. Led by the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution, women and other activists across the country fought to gain stronger equality provisions entrenched in the newly repatriated Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
• Courting justice
  Illustrates how the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa partially lived up to its goals of promoting justice and human rights. Essential to keeping these promises, indeed mandated by the constitution, is a judiciary that includes women. By 2008, 18 percent of the superior court judges were women. This film is their story.
• Crude Sacrifice: you can't reclaim humanity
  Looks at how the community of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is affected by the exploitation of Canada's Tar Sands and how the federal and provicial governments are dealing with local concerns.
• Cultures of resistance
  In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. From Burma, where non-violent monks take on a dictatorship, to Brazil, where musicians transform guns into guitars, and myriad places in between, Cultures of Resistance celebrates the people standing up to exploitation and violence ...
• Egypt : we are watching you
  In 2005, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose National Democratic Party has been the dominant political force for 24 years, announced that Egypt would hold multi-party presidential elections. Unable to sit by while their country is on the brink of change, three women activists start a grassroots campaign to empower the public and hold their government accountable...
• Fambul tok: a film about forgiveness
  Explores a culture that believes true justice lies in redemption and healing for individuals, and that forgiveness is the surest path to restoring dignity and building strong communities. Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone's brutal civil war come together for the first time in tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. By reviving their ancient practice of fambul tok (family talk) Sierra Leoneans are building sustainable peace at the grassroots level
• Finding our way: moving beyond Canada's apartheid = Neba wheti hon'a e kwuznata
  Stories of conflict between Indigenous people, governments and industry: “... documentary film in 3 chapters with and about the Burns Lake band and the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, two First Nations bands located in central B.C., Canada”
• Flow
  “A look at the world's water crisis and how the causes of the depleting water supply are connected to pollution, human rights, and even politics.”
• From under the bushy trees: [how can aid be delivered with justice and dignity?]
  Filmed in Powell River, B.C., as well as in Chad, Africa… Focuses on Gerri Graber, founder of Willing Hearts International Society Canada, and her efforts to build a school for the orphans of AIDS victims. Lynn Whitehouse, Canada's Honourary Consul for Chad, offers insights into the challenges of bringing aid to Africa.…
• Ghosts
  Three Arab-Canadian men are detained and tortured for months and years in Syria and Egypt. Upon their release they return to Canada struggling to find some answers as to why they were detained and tortured. An internal inquiry into their cases, the Iacobucci Inquiry, reveals that the Canadian government was complicit in their detention and torture. The camera team follows the lives and cases of the men for a year and a half as the men fight to leave the horror of torture behind them.
• Ghosts of Rwanda
  “Frontline marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide with a documentary chronicling one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Illustrated are the failures that enabled the slaughter of 800,000 people to occur unchallenged by the world.”
• Human terrain: war becomes academic
  Human Terrain' is two stories in one. The first exposes the U.S. effort to enlist the best and the brightest of American universities in a struggle for the hearts and minds of its enemies ... The other story is about a brilliant young scholar who leaves the university to join a Human Terrain team.
• In search of Gandhi
  'What does it mean to actually live in the world's largest democracy? Adopting the conventions of a road-movie, the film crew travels down the famous trail of Gandhi's salt march, stopping at the same villages and cities where Gandhi and his followers raised their call for independence... '
• Iron Ladies of Liberia
  Chronicles the historic first year in office of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa.
• KZ
  DVD only. Tourists, tour guides and locals at a former concentration camp in Austria. “Through its unflinching depiction of daily modern life in the small Austrian town of Mauthausen, KZ reveals the lasting legacy and impact of the Holocaust on individuals of all generations, nationalities and religions.”
• L'affaire Coca-Cola = The Coca-Cola case
  Colombia is the trade union murder capital of the world. Since 2002, more than 470 workers' leaders have been brutally killed, usually by paramilitaries hired by private companies intent on crushing the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands is the poster boy for American business: Coca-Cola. A searing indictment of a major corporate brand, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a riveting legal game of cat and mouse via the U.S. federal court and the Stop Killer Coke! campaign.
• Liberty, equality, accommodation
  DVD only. The Herouxville Code of Conduct informed newcomers that women were not to be excised, stoned or burned alive. A storm of voices and opinions greeted that announcement and generated a unique expression of direct democracy. The film is about this unprecedented collective experience.
• Menocracy
  Something's rotten in our state of democracy. Follow the journey of a woman and the spirit of a sassy Suffragette who, in trying to find out why our system fails to represent women, discover that it fails everyone but our political elites. A film about how to catch up to the rest of the world's democracies in the march to gender fairness and governments that reflect society.
• Militainment Inc
  “Militainment, Inc. offers a glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and 'reality television' in its glamorization of war. … the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle?”
• Paraiso for sale
  Depicts the struggles of local Bocas del Toro residents against land displacement by the escalating development of real estate housing for the growing population of American settlers.
• Pelts: politics of the fur trade
  NFB film originally produced in 1989. 'Canada's oldest industry, fur trade is facing challenges. Examines the morality of killing animals for fur.'
• Poetry of resilience
  DVD only. In a small gathering in a Massachusetts town, 27 poets have come together for the first time to share their experiences as survivors of political atrocities. The poets' tales all vary, but they are united by the drive to bear witness to their past and to continue the process of healing. This documentary features six international poets who individually survived Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China's Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Iranian Revolution.
• Questions nationales : National matters
  Brings new perspective to the Quebec sovereignty issue. In particular, it addresses the question of why Quebec has yet to achieve independence forty years after the movement began, when so many other countries have succeeded in achieving this goal during the same period. To answer this question, the film considers the cases of the Scots (UK) and the Catalans (Spain), who, like the Québécois, have had to think hard about the advantages or risks of independence over autonomy and to grapple with the 'unknowns' ...
• Saving face
  Every year in Pakistan, many women are known to be victimized by brutal acid attacks, with numerous cases going unreported. With little or no access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally scarred. Many reported assailants, typically a husband or someone else close to the victim, receive minimal punishment from the state. Plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad left his prominent London practice to return to his home country and help the victims of such attacks.
• Seoul train
  Seoul Train, with its footage of the secretive 'underground railroad', exposes the reality for North Koreans as they try to escape their homeland and China. The film also looks at the geopolitics behind the growing and potentially explosive humanitarian crisis.
• Sex Slaves
  Explores the multi-billion dollar world of sex trafficking. Goes to the villages of Ukraine and Moldova, where girls are lured and then sold and forced into prostitution in brothels and discotheques all over Europe. Follows Viorel, a Ukrainian man, on a mission to find his pregnant, trafficked wife in Turkey. The film explores the global trafficking problem through personal stories and unfettered access to traffickers and the people used as human chattel.
• Sisters in law
  Kim Longinotto production. A documentary record of a courtroom in Kumba, Cameroon, where a female prosecutor and judge work to put an end to their community's tacit acceptance of child abuse, wife beating and rape.
• Suspino: a cry for Roma
  DVD only. 'Examines the persecution and discrimination inflicted upon European Roma. Focuses on Romania, where Europe's largest concentration of Roma are considered ‘public enemies’-- and Italy, where the Roma are classified as nomads and forced to live in camps while being denied human rights available to refugees and foreign residents.'
• The Big Wait: A Film About The Doctor Shortage in Canada
  The doctor shortage is getting critical and one town is desperately trying to recruit physicians. At the same time, three internationally trained doctors are trying to get licensed to practice medicine in their new country.
• The end of immigration? / La fin de l'immigration
  DVD only. Montreal filmmakers look at the regressive immigration policies of the Canadian state and the people most affected.
• The feminist initiative
  The passion, pitfalls and promise of a diverse group of women working to establish the world's first feminist political party in Sweden in the spring of 2005… In the face of internal discord, public backlash, and a worrisome lack of funds, the Feminist Initiative forges a new path towards parliament, raising critical questions along the way…
• The M word
  DVD only. A history and critique of multiculturalism in Canada. “The M Word records the history of various immigrant groups who are not officially recognized in the history books. It also interviews a number of prominent Canadians to take the pulse of multiculturalism today, including Haroon Siddiqui, Allan Gregg, Candy Palmater, Jack Jedwab, and Uzma Shakir.”
• The price of sex
  This inquiry into a dark side of immigration reveals the experiences of Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Mimi Chakarova traveled from post-communist Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece, and Dubai to uncover the harrowing personal accounts of women trafficked into modern-day sexual slavery.
• The Pruitt-Igoe myth
  Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which the projects resided, while tracing personal and poignant narratives of those who lived in them.
• The reckoning: the battle for the International Criminal Court
  Rome Conference of 1998 was the culmination of 50 years of effort by the part of those seeking a humane world. Representatives from 140 governments and numerous NGOs were at the conference to establish the International Criminal Court (the ICC).
• The world before her
  In the lobby of a modest Bombay hotel, 20 young women from across India arrive for an intense, month-long beauty boot camp. They are the hand-picked contestants for the Miss India pageant, the ultimate glamour event in a country that has gone mad for beauty contests. Winning the coveted title means instant stardom, a lucrative career path and, for some girls, freedom from the constraints of a patriarchal society. But as the popularity of pageants has exploded, so have the controversies surrounding them.
• United States of Africa
  African hip hop pioneer Didier Awadi is on a quest to craft an album that pays tribute to the great black revolutionary leaders and their struggle to realize a dream: a united, independent Africa. In this epic musical and political journey, Awadi visits some 40 countries to collaborate with hip hop activist artists, including Smockey (Burkina Faso), M-1 of Dead Prez (United States) and ZuluBoy (South Africa).
• Water on the table
  Water on the Table features Maude Barlow, considered 'an international water warrior' for her crusade to have water declared a human right... [The film] presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue that water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it.
• What are we doing here? has foreign aid hurt Africa?
  DVD only.Challenging viewers to rethink traditional humanitarian approaches, this film follows four young Americans as they experience firsthand the scope and intractability of Africa's suffering….Discussions focus on HIV/AIDS, armed conflict, child sponsorship, U.S. farm policies, and the role of NGOs.
• Where credit is due
  Against a backdrop of oppression and civil war in Guatemala, three women's groups of the Kaqchikel Presbytery are using micro-credit loans for businesses that include agricultural projects and textiles.... a good illustration of how beneficial micro-credit can be for sustainable human development.
• Why Democracy? Series
  DVD only. Ten one-hour films focused on contemporary democracy, made by filmmakers from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Liberia, USA, Bolivia, Denmark, Egypt, Pakistan and Russia. For more info see: www.whydemocracy.net
• ¡¿Revolución!?
  A political documentary examining the concept of revolution as created by Hugo Chavez. Using Don Quixote as his inspiration, Chavez is redefining Venezualan society with his 'Bolivian Revolution'. The documentary asks if there are a series of guidelines for a democratic and peaceful revolution. To answer the question, filmmaker, Gervais, interviews pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez militants, politicians and citizens within and without the barrios of Venezuala's cities. Note that this film CAN be used for classroom ...

Sexuality & Gender Issues

• 100% woman: world of sports will never be the same
  A post-operative transsexual, Canadian Michelle Dumares has provoked outrage by entering the sport of women's mountain bike racing.... Explores complex issues of gender identity. Might work well with CBC's Too Fast To Be a Woman: https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/2011/toofast/
• 533 statements
  A road trip documentary about queer Canadian women. During the summer of 2004, Tori Foster took her camera across the country to talk to 20 lesbian women about what it's like to be queer where they live. The documentary follows her journey through all ten provinces.
• Against a trans narrative
  “Trans filmmaker Jules Rosskam's provocative and personal experimental documentary investigating dominant constructions of trans-masculine identity, gender, and the nature of community.”
• BDSM: It's Not What You Think!
  Confronts stigma and stereotype surrounding kink and fetish play through leading voices within the BDSM community. With intimate interviews and playful vignettes this film targets progressive outsiders and guides them through the minefield of misconceptions and prejudice that kinksters must routinely face.
• Beauty before age
  “Explores the power of youth and beauty in the gay community through interviews with gay men from ages 19 to 77.”
• Buying Sex
  "... Buying Sex carefully guides the viewer through a wide spectrum of disagreement, exploring the many points of view in this age-old yet contemporary debate. Articulate and impassioned formerly prostituted women and sex workers make their claims for and against the proposed changes, while policy-makers, lawyers and even male consumers also offer insight and commentary on this vexing issue. Respecting the differences of ideology and opinion as Canada works its way toward an uneasy consensus, the film challenges ...
• Call Me Salma | Appelez-moi Salma
  A documentary film about love and loss. In the crowded back alleys of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Salma enters the mysterious and rich world of transexuality.
• Conceiving family
  Following the [Canadian] filmmaker's recent journey into parenthood, the film takes us inside the lives of five gay and lesbian couples who... break through the legal systems, societal prejudices, and personal fears inherent in starting a family through adoption.
• Cover girl culture
  Former Elite International fashion model, Nicole Clark, calls for a necessary change, integrity and responsible media for our youth. This is an examination of how advertising and the cult of celebrity have deeply and negatively impacted teens and young women. The film juxtaposes ads and interviews with editors from top fashion magazines with revealing interviews of parents, teachers, psychologists, body image experts, and the girls themselves.
• Covered [Snakegirl Productions]
  Explores the world of heavily tattooed women and female tattoo artists in the United States. Takes a larger, sociological perspective on what it means to be a heavily tattooed woman in today's society -- from the perspectives of the women themselves. Features dozens of tattoo artists.
• Cruel and unusual: transgender women in prison
  A documentary about transgender women convicted and incarcerated in men's prisons in the United States. Interviews with lawyers and prison custodians reveal the level of violence these women have to face from the inmates, as well as from the authorities which do not recognize their condition as a medical disorder.Special features: 'Sexual violence in prison for transgender women' (5 min.); 'Protective custody' (3 min.); 'Hormone therapy' (5 min.); 'Family issues' (4 min.); 'Legal cases: Ophelia' (5 min); 'Legal ...
• Daddy and papa
  Explores the personal, cultural, and political impact of gay men who are making a decision that is at once traditional and revolutionary: to raise children themselves. Taking us inside four gay male families, this documentary traces the critical issues that inevitably intersect their private lives, the ambiguous place of interracial families in America.
• Dangerous living: coming out in the developing world
  “Explores the lives of gay and lesbian people in non-Western cultures, where most occurrences of oppression receive no media coverage at all”
• Diagnosing difference
  “...featuring thirteen transgender and genderqueer scholars, artists, and activists discussing the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis on their lives and communities”
• Dish: Women waitressing and the art of service
  Dish delves into Toronto's diners, Montreal's “sexy restos”, Paris haute eateries, and Tokyo's fantasy “maid bars” in an insider's look at gender, power, and the art of service.
• End of Men
  2011 DocZone: 'In the past 100 years, the ideals of masculinity have been largely unchanged. Men are rugged individuals, resilient, brave and loyal. Running like a spine through these archetypes is one defining theme: a man is the provider and protector of his family. In the not too distant past, most men had a sense of certainty that they could fulfill those roles.... But for many men the economic crisis that began in 2008 meant that fulfilling those masculine roles was suddenly a lot harder... Men are facing ...
• Ferron: girl on a road
  Before the Indigo Girls and before Ani DiFranco, there was Ferron, whose plaintive and poetic songs provided the soundtrack for an entire generation of lesbians. Part performance film, part biopic, [this film] traces the life, the songs, the loves, the heartbreaks, and the pioneering path carved by a true Canadian folk legend.
• Flesh
  “Several women with different points of view including a cattle rancher, a vegetarian, a meat-lover, and a Hooter's waitress are interviewed in this discussion of how women and animals are treated by popular culture in a society obsessed with flesh.”
• Flesh and blood
  What's the Ukrainian word for sex? Filmmaker Marusya Bociurkiw explores this question in the humorous and provocative Flesh and Blood. A queer bar in Kyiv reveals drag queens in traditional Ukrainian costume; a trip to the suburbs introduces us to transsexual Lena and bisexual Oksana, who live with Oksana's two husbands and her grandmother in what they call a poly-family.
• Girl and a gun
  Presents a female perspective on an object whose history is deeply bound up with men and masculinity. Filmed throughout the US, this documentary delves into the psyche of the American gun world to investigate how women relate to guns and gun culture. Reaching far beyond Hollywood's hypersexualized femme fatales, the film candidly explores the modern American woman through intimate portraits encompassing issues of protection, power, feminism, and violence.
• Girls Rock!
  At RocknRoll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it's OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that 'it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are'.
• Hermaphrodites speak
  Covers the first retreat weekend of the Intersex Society of North America in 1997. Seven participants, two assigned as men and four as women, and one individual who identifies as neither male or female but as a third gender, tell their stories of growing up intersexed and their feelings of social isolation. They express resentment towards the medical establishment and the current standard medical treatment for hermaphroditic children.
• How to survive a plague
  The story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful nation, and stopped AIDS from becoming a death sentence. This improbable group of activists bucked oppression and infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, helping to identify promising new medication and treatments and move them through trials and into drugstores in record time.
• Juggling gender: politics, sex and identity - Still juggling
  Contains the original 1992 documentary which features Jennifer Miller, juggler and director of Circus Amok. Miller discusses her life and struggle as a lesbian woman who happens to have a moustache and beard. Scenes show a gay rights parade and Miller interacting with friends, family, and strangers. Pt. 2 -Still juggling, still bearded features Miller 15 years after the original documentary, discussing changes in her life and in society. Pt. 3 - Sideshow by the seashore includes scenes of Circus Amok performances.
• Ladies of the gridiron
  When most think of American Football, they imagine raw, unbridled demonstrations of athletic might pushed to the max, but rarely do those images involve women. The Quake is a professional women's tackle football team out to break the glass ceiling of this traditionally all-male sport. These women embody the same dogged determination as their male counterparts, but without the money or fame. And beyond that, they must deal with a societal prejudice that keeps them on the periphery of professional sports, having ...
• Lesbian National Parks and Services Presents: Endangered Species
  That formidable force of conservation officials, Lesbian National Parks and Services, presents three portraits of lesbian species in crisis. These public service announcements point to the perils of habitat loss and poaching. The Marxist Feminist, the Lesbian Separatist and the Bull-Dykus Americanus are featured in this parody of nature education. In full uniform as Lesbian Rangers, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan patrol parklands, challenging the general publics ideas of tourism, recreation, and the 'natural' ...
• Lesbiana - a parallel revolution
  A parallel revolution was born out of the feminist movement of the 1970's, coming to an end around 1995. Filmmaker Myriam Fougère takes us on a journey to meet the lesbian writers, philosophers and activists who were key players in creating a revolutionary sisterhood. From Montréal to Texas, by way of New York, Myriam encounters lesbians who chose to live only among women.
• Miss HIV
  Explores the international collision of HIV/AIDS policies while following the journey of two HIV-positive women who entered the annual Miss HIV Stigma-Free pageant in Botswana. Filmed across Africa and at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto this explosive EthnoGraphic film shares both sides of an ideology struggle.
• Out in the Silence
  The announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson's wedding to another man ignites a firestorm of controversy and a quest for change in the small Pennsylvania hometown he left long ago. Drawn back by a plea for help from the mother of a gay teen being tormented at school, Wilson takes viewers on an exhilarating journey through love, hate, and understanding in rural America.
• Rape for who I am
  'Interweaves the experiences of four [South African lesbian] women, victims of rape, as they prepare for an annual Gay Pride celebration. With courage and a remarkable resilience, they describe the immense prejudices they have had to endure in their townships.'
• Rex vs. Singh: four versions
  DVD only. "Between 1909 and 1929, an inordinate number of men tried for sodomy in Vancouver were Sikhs. In 1915, two Sikh mill-workers, Dalip Singh and Naina Singh, were entrapped by undercover police in Vancouver and accused of sodomy. This experimental video stages scenes from the trial, told four times: first as a period drama, second as a documentary investigation of the case, third as a musical agit-prop, and fourth, as a deconstruction of the actual court transcript."
• Scarlet road
  "Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression, Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long overlooked clientele— people with disabilities. ..Rachel’s philosophy is that human touch and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence." Also available as a DVD: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/783787692 [for a film with a different lens on a similar topic, see also Want: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/706443158]
• Sex positive
  Looks at the life of Richard Berkowitz, an AIDS activist who was at the forefront of the safe sex movement. With Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, a virologist and AIDS doctor, and Michael Callen, a musician and activist, Berkowitz helped the gay community recognize the importance of safe sex practices.
• Sex Slaves
  Explores the multi-billion dollar world of sex trafficking. Goes to the villages of Ukraine and Moldova, where girls are lured and then sold and forced into prostitution in brothels and discotheques all over Europe. Follows Viorel, a Ukrainian man, on a mission to find his pregnant, trafficked wife in Turkey. The film explores the global trafficking problem through personal stories and unfettered access to traffickers and the people used as human chattel.
• She's a boy I knew
  'Vancouver filmmaker Gwen Haworth documents her male-to-female gender transition partially through the voices of her family, best friend, and wife.'
• Songs of freedom : compelling stories of courage and hope by Jamaican gays and lesbians
  Takes us inside the world of Jamaican gays and lesbians and tells... stories of individuals courageously carving out meaningful lives, despite the taboo against their sexual identity.
• Still around
  A feature-length compilation of 15 short films about surviving and thriving with HIV/AIDS as we mark the 30th anniversary of one of the world's most substantial health pandemics.
• Subjectified: nine young women talk about sex
  Through nine in-depth interviews about sex and sexuality, this documentary lets women do the talking, trading easy answers and stereotypes for brutal honesty. The stories may sound familiar: young moms, abstinent Christians, lesbians, survivors of assaults and STDs. But outside the world of reality TV and sound bites, women approach their lives in complex and unexpected ways: sometimes hilarious, sometimes sobering, and always heartfelt.
• The Aggressives
  “Intimate interviews with transgendered lesbians (5 African American, 1 Asian) living in New York City who define themselves as ‘aggressives.’ They exhibit masculine appearances and behaviors, but do not aspire to be men. Shows their daily lives and their participation in the underground lesbian ‘ball scene.”
• The body beautiful
  DVD only. Originally produced in 1991. This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah's brave excursion into her mother's scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy.
• The evolution of Dad
  We are told by American culture that fatherhood is important, but the real, underlying message is: 'Back to work, dads!' How did this happen? What can be done about it? And why are the dads who are extra-involved with their families typically castigated as not being manly enough or sufficiently committed to their work? [The film] explores these questions and many more, cutting to the core of one of the most invisible, yet important, issues of our time: fatherhood.
• The Men's Story Project: building strength, creating peace
  Shows the powerful debut presentation of the Men's Story Project - a new performance/dialogue project exploring social ideas about masculinity for the purpose of health and justice.The stories address platonic love between men; struggles with Islam, Christianity, homophobia and HIV/AIDS; disability and sexuality; testicular cancer and personal wholeness; images of African American masculinity; a journey from perpetrating domestic violence to becoming an anti-violence activist; men's public restroom rituals; ...
• The origins of AIDS: did scientists inadvertently cause the AIDS epidemic?
  An exploration of a theory of how AIDS was introduced to the human population. Illustrates the thesis presented in Edward Hooper's book The river : journey to the source of HIV and AIDS, and expands on it with new reporting. Many believe the answer lies in the research undertaken by scientist Hilary Koprowski, who between 1957 and 1960, injected his experimental polio vaccine into almost one million people in the former Belgian Congo. The film interviews scientists and journalists, as well as Africans who worked ...
• The price of sex
  This inquiry into a dark side of immigration reveals the experiences of Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Mimi Chakarova traveled from post-communist Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece, and Dubai to uncover the harrowing personal accounts of women trafficked into modern-day sexual slavery.
• The Regretters
  Regretters gives heartfelt voice to two transgendered people who underwent sex change surgery to become women. Now, years later, they would like to return to their original, masculine selves. Through their experiences we learn how very complicated gender identity is; morphing from one gender to another is not accomplished solely by sexual reassignment surgery.
• The world before her
  In the lobby of a modest Bombay hotel, 20 young women from across India arrive for an intense, month-long beauty boot camp. They are the hand-picked contestants for the Miss India pageant, the ultimate glamour event in a country that has gone mad for beauty contests. Winning the coveted title means instant stardom, a lucrative career path and, for some girls, freedom from the constraints of a patriarchal society. But as the popularity of pageants has exploded, so have the controversies surrounding them.
• Toilet training: law and order (in the bathroom)
  Addresses the persistent discrimination, harassment, and violence that people who transgress gender norms face in gender segregated bathrooms. Using the stories of people who have been harassed, arrested or beaten for trying to use bathrooms, this groundbreaking film focuses on bathroom access in public space, in schools, and at work.
• Two spirits
  Fred Martinez was a [young] nádleehí, or a male-bodied person with a feminine essence, who was murdered in a hate crime at the age of sixteen. Discusses the traditional Native American perspective on gender and sexuality and the need for a balanced interrelationship between the feminine and masculine.
• United in anger: a history of ACT UP
  Feature-length documentary that [explores] ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a grassroots perspective--how a small group of men and women of all races and classes, came together to change the world and save each other's lives. The film takes the viewer through the planning and execution of a half dozen exhilarating major actions including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation, with a timeline of many of the other zaps and actions that forced the U.S. government and ...
• Want - a femmegimp production
  Loree Erickson's short film Want explores issues surrounding sex, sexuality and disability, as well as the difficulties in navigating the world at large... Want opens with explicit scenes of Erickson and her partners, but the film also includes more mundane activities like navigating supermarkets and public transit. Shows sexuality as another aspect of being able to live a full life, not something that should be relegated to a minor concern (if it is included within a full understanding of disabled people's ...
• We were here
  'A deep and reflective look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of this unimaginable crisis'--IMDb. Concordia Copy accompanied by two folders: We Were Here Learning Guide and The HIV Timeline: 1980-2010.
• Webcam girls
  “This Canadian documentary examines women that live in front of their web-cameras. Some of the pioneers and outlaws of the femcam frontier are Ducky, sexologist and burlesque queen; Dionne, ethical porn producer; Ana Voog, the first art/life webcam; and Terri, internet cultural critic.”
• Where the water meets the sky
  A group of women in a remote region of northern Zambia learn how to make a film, as a way to speak out about their lives and to challenge the local traditions which have, until now, kept them silent... [Their film] involves an issue that is traumatic for them all, and rarely spoken about: the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS.
• Where we were not. Part one : feeling reserved, Alexus' story
  Alexus' Story is the first part of a four part animated documentary about criminalization in Canada. Where We Were Not is being made in collaboration with a group of women Jessica has worked with, and formed friendships with while creating art projects in prisons and centres for marginalized people. Narrated by an abolitionist activist, a First Nations transgendered woman, and two women serving life sentences, this project gives a first hand account of the Canadian injustice system.

Youth

• 8th fire
  A provocative, high-energy journey through Aboriginal country showing why we need to fix Canada's 500 year-old relationship with Indigenous peoples -- a relationship mired in colonialism, conflict and denial. Episode 1 - INDIGENOUS IN THE CITY . Episode 2 - IT'S TIME . Episode 3 - WHOSE LAND IS IT ANYWAY? Episode 4 - AT THE CROSSROADS.
• Animania
  “Explores Japanese anime and teens' interest in it as a hobby.”
• Attention féministes!
  [French version with option English subtitles]. Portrait de jeunes feministes contemporaines. A une epoque ou on a declare la mort des ideologies, ces jeunes croient encore en un monde meilleur! A travers leur engagement personnel et social, nous decouvrons le nouveau visage du feminisme, celui des filles et des gars des generations X et Y. Un mouvement dynamique, un mode d’action a la fois drole, pertinent, sexy et combatif, demontrant qu'il y a encore plein de manieres de revendiquer l'egalite.
• Beyond good and evil: children, media and violent times
  ....[E]xposes how the media has been used to earn public support for the U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq. ... Examines how the 'good and evil' rhetoric, in both the entertainment and the news media, has helped children to dehumanize the enemies, justify their killing and treat the suffering of innocent civilians as necessary sacrifice.
• Bombay calling
  DVD only. Filmmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal dive into the bustling world of late nights, long hours and hard partying. The result is a compelling insider's look at youth culture in India, and a growing number of young people who choose to follow the American dream...Indian style.
• Carts of Darkness
  In the community of North Vancouver, local bottle collectors have turned the act of binning into a thriving subculture of shopping cart racing. Murray Siple, a former snowboarder and sport film director injured in a serious car accident ten years ago, returns to filmmaking to capture their story.
• China heavyweight
  Profiles the ever-changing Chinese economic landscape through the view of the sport of boxing. Filmmaker Yung Chang follows boxing coach Qi Moxiang as he travels across China's Sichuan province recruiting young fighting talent from impoverished farms and villages. Selected boys and girls are taken to national training centers in hopes of becoming Olympic heroes, but can they leave their families behind to become boxing's finest?
• Consuming kids : the commercialization of childhood
  Interviews with health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders. Focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world.
• Flipping the world: drugs through a blue lens
  An honest look at the world of youth and drug addiction as told by those who have been there. Seven culturally diverse high school students meet with members of the Odd Squad – Vancouver police officers who, since 1998, have been filming people addicted to drugs.
• Girls Rock!
  At RocknRoll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it's OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that 'it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are'.
• Positive youth
  Looks at the daily lives of four HIV infected or affected young men and women.
• Reservation soldiers
  “Filmed over several years, Reservation Soldiers focuses on the relationship between the Canadian military and aboriginal youth.“
• Richard Cardinal: cry from a diary of a Métis child
  Original version date: 1986. A moving tribute to Richard Cardinal, a Métis adolescent who committed suicide at 17, in 1984. Removed from his home at age 4 because of family problems, he was then moved between 28 foster homes, group homes and shelters in Alberta for the next 13 years. His diary upon which this film is based is a sad legacy of a troubled youth, his life and death, and Alberta's child welfare system. His death prompted an inquiry into and reform of Alberta's child welfare system.
• Rize
  A documentary portrayal of inner city youth in Los Angeles, Calif. who though surrounded by drug addiction, gangs and impoverishment, have developed a unique style of dance that evolves on a daily basis.
• Staying alive: [Canada's controversial safe injection site]
  'Insite', located in Vancouver's notorious downtown eastside, has been controversial since it first opened its doors in 2003. An exemption from federal drug laws was granted to allow addicts to bring their drugs onto the premises and inject them; Insite provides clean needles and medical supervision.
• Surviving :) the teenage brain
  This Nature of Things documentary delves deep into the science of the teenage brain to discover evolution's masterpiece. The film combines cutting-edge scientific research, YouTube clips of outrageous teen behaviour and a graphic-novel approach to reveal new research on the immense power and potential of the teen brain. Find out how these all-important years nurture the judgment, adaptation and innovation that ensure the survival of the species.
• The downside of high
  Tells the stories of three young people from British Columbia who believe - along with their doctors - that their mental illness was triggered by marijuana use. Modern growing techniques have dramatically increased the amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - ramping up the threat to the developing teenage brain.
• The world before her
  In the lobby of a modest Bombay hotel, 20 young women from across India arrive for an intense, month-long beauty boot camp. They are the hand-picked contestants for the Miss India pageant, the ultimate glamour event in a country that has gone mad for beauty contests. Winning the coveted title means instant stardom, a lucrative career path and, for some girls, freedom from the constraints of a patriarchal society. But as the popularity of pageants has exploded, so have the controversies surrounding them.
• They think I'm Chinese / On me prend pour une chinoise!
  DVD only. A journey into the inner world of five adopted teenage girls. Girls who were in the first wave of Chinese children adopted in Quebec in the 1990s are now in their teens. Nicole Giguère focused her lens on five of them and accompanied them throughout their emotionally charged transition to adulthood. In their quest for identity, how do these young Quebeckers experience their differences? Includes original French version and French version with subtitles.
• Tiara
  dvd only.Are beauty pageants on the radar of today's young women? Tiara discovers that they certainly are in Asian communities in Canada. Tiara explores the connection between the desires of young women from the Chinese, Filipino and South Asian communities for validation of their appearance in the midst of popular media's narrow representation of beauty.
• Turning away
  Turning Away is not another 'day in the life of a street kid'. Instead, it is a thorough examination of why young people end up on the street, what keeps them there and what it takes to escape. We follow the subjects over time and we will see how they deal with what most people would consider the simplest challenges.
• Two spirits
  Fred Martinez was a [young] nádleehí, or a male-bodied person with a feminine essence, who was murdered in a hate crime at the age of sixteen. Discusses the traditional Native American perspective on gender and sexuality and the need for a balanced interrelationship between the feminine and masculine.
• Why quilts matter : history, art and politics
  A nine-part television series on the history, significance, and culture of quilts. Episode 1. Quilts 101 : antique and contemporary quilts (26:30) -- Episode 2. Quilts bring history alive (26:47) -- Episode 3. The quilt marketplace (26:47) -- Episode 4. What is art ?(25:50) -- Episode 5. Gee's Bend: the most famous quilts in America? (26:35) -- Episode 6. How quilts have been viewed and collected (25:50) -- Episode 7. Empowering women one quilt at a time (26:04) -- Episode 8. Quilt nation : 20,000,000 and counting ...

NFB Campus

The NFB Campus subscription offers access to all free NFB films, plus a selection of films available to educational subscribers only.

Marjorie & Gerald Bronfman Sociology Library Collection

Video acquisitions purchased 2006-2014 thanks to the Marjorie & Gerald Bronfman Sociology Fund.

• 8th fire
  A provocative, high-energy journey through Aboriginal country showing why we need to fix Canada's 500 year-old relationship with Indigenous peoples -- a relationship mired in colonialism, conflict and denial. Episode 1 - INDIGENOUS IN THE CITY . Episode 2 - IT'S TIME . Episode 3 - WHOSE LAND IS IT ANYWAY? Episode 4 - AT THE CROSSROADS.
• A history of punishment
  This program looks at the history of punishment, beginning with early compensatory forms of justice, Hammurabi's Code, and the Law of Moses. Contemporary forms of punishment, including the death penalty, are discussed, along with the ways in which these sentences reflect what society values.
• A Question of Madness: The Furiosus
  A documentary on the life of assassin Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who changed the course of South African history.
• American Experience: the Pill
  Featuring personal accounts from the first generation of women to have access to the Pill, this films show how harnessing female hormones into a little pill unleashed a social revolution unlike any other in our history. Originally broadcast on PBS in Jan. 2003 as a segment of The American experience.
• An ecology of mind: a daughter's portrait of Gregory Bateson
  An Ecology of Mind is a film portrait of Gregory Bateson, celebrated anthropologist, philosopher, author, naturalist, systems theorist, and filmmaker, produced and directed by his daughter, Nora Bateson
• Animania
  “Explores Japanese anime and teens' interest in it as a hobby.”
• Araya
  Originally produced in 1959. Explored is a day in the lives of three families living in Araya, an arid peninsula in Venezuela. For centuries since its discovery by the Spanish, the region's salt was collected and stacked into radiant white pyramids. Captured are the breathtaking and unforgettable images from the salineros toiling to build the mountains of salt, a fisherman hauling in huge teeming nets, and a young girl and her grandmother laying 'flowers' of shells on windswept graves.
• BDSM: It's Not What You Think!
  Confronts stigma and stereotype surrounding kink and fetish play through leading voices within the BDSM community. With intimate interviews and playful vignettes this film targets progressive outsiders and guides them through the minefield of misconceptions and prejudice that kinksters must routinely face.
• Beauty before age
  “Explores the power of youth and beauty in the gay community through interviews with gay men from ages 19 to 77.”
• Beauty lies
  DVD only. “Filmmaker Karen Chapman explores her feelings about her natural hair as a young black woman in a media-driven world, revealing layers of insecurities. Beauty Lies questions the ideals, motivations and images of beauty in the media that could be seen as manifesting a 'white standard' of beauty”
• Bhopal: the search for justice
  “This documentary explores the continuing cover-up, analyzes the prospect for environmental and human justice in Bhopal, and exposes the responsibility of the multinational corporations”
• Bonsai people
  Filmed on location in Bangladesh, demonstrates the positive effects of micro-loans by the Grameen Bank on several rural Bangladeshi families including their ability to empower women to become leaders in their families and their communities. Demonstrates how Nobel Peace Price winner, Muhammad Yunus, in partnership with world businesses, uses the power of 'microcredit' and 'social business' to unleash human potential through purposely designed social/business ventures.
• Buying Sex
  "... Buying Sex carefully guides the viewer through a wide spectrum of disagreement, exploring the many points of view in this age-old yet contemporary debate. Articulate and impassioned formerly prostituted women and sex workers make their claims for and against the proposed changes, while policy-makers, lawyers and even male consumers also offer insight and commentary on this vexing issue. Respecting the differences of ideology and opinion as Canada works its way toward an uneasy consensus, the film challenges ...
• Cave of forgotten dreams
  Follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. An unforgettable cinematic experience that provides an unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago, almost twice as old as any previous discovery.
• China heavyweight
  Profiles the ever-changing Chinese economic landscape through the view of the sport of boxing. Filmmaker Yung Chang follows boxing coach Qi Moxiang as he travels across China's Sichuan province recruiting young fighting talent from impoverished farms and villages. Selected boys and girls are taken to national training centers in hopes of becoming Olympic heroes, but can they leave their families behind to become boxing's finest?
• Conceiving family
  Following the [Canadian] filmmaker's recent journey into parenthood, the film takes us inside the lives of five gay and lesbian couples who... break through the legal systems, societal prejudices, and personal fears inherent in starting a family through adoption.
• Constitute!: women's constitutional activism
  The largest social mobilization of women in Canadian history in the 20th century. Led by the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution, women and other activists across the country fought to gain stronger equality provisions entrenched in the newly repatriated Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
• Courting justice
  Illustrates how the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa partially lived up to its goals of promoting justice and human rights. Essential to keeping these promises, indeed mandated by the constitution, is a judiciary that includes women. By 2008, 18 percent of the superior court judges were women. This film is their story.
• Cover girl culture
  Former Elite International fashion model, Nicole Clark, calls for a necessary change, integrity and responsible media for our youth. This is an examination of how advertising and the cult of celebrity have deeply and negatively impacted teens and young women. The film juxtaposes ads and interviews with editors from top fashion magazines with revealing interviews of parents, teachers, psychologists, body image experts, and the girls themselves.
• Covered [Snakegirl Productions]
  Explores the world of heavily tattooed women and female tattoo artists in the United States. Takes a larger, sociological perspective on what it means to be a heavily tattooed woman in today's society -- from the perspectives of the women themselves. Features dozens of tattoo artists.
• Crude Sacrifice: you can't reclaim humanity
  Looks at how the community of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is affected by the exploitation of Canada's Tar Sands and how the federal and provicial governments are dealing with local concerns.
• Cruel and unusual: transgender women in prison
  A documentary about transgender women convicted and incarcerated in men's prisons in the United States. Interviews with lawyers and prison custodians reveal the level of violence these women have to face from the inmates, as well as from the authorities which do not recognize their condition as a medical disorder.Special features: 'Sexual violence in prison for transgender women' (5 min.); 'Protective custody' (3 min.); 'Hormone therapy' (5 min.); 'Family issues' (4 min.); 'Legal cases: Ophelia' (5 min); 'Legal ...
• Cry Rock
  “Less than fifteen Nuxalk language speakers and storytellers remain in Bella Coola, British Columbia, today. One of these elders is the director Banchi Hanuse's 80-year-old grandmother. In a technologically obsessed century, it would seem easier to record Nuxalk stories for future generations, but Hanuse resists...”
• Dangerous living: coming out in the developing world
  “Explores the lives of gay and lesbian people in non-Western cultures, where most occurrences of oppression receive no media coverage at all”
• Dish: Women waitressing and the art of service
  Dish delves into Toronto's diners, Montreal's “sexy restos”, Paris haute eateries, and Tokyo's fantasy “maid bars” in an insider's look at gender, power, and the art of service.
• Ferron: girl on a road
  Before the Indigo Girls and before Ani DiFranco, there was Ferron, whose plaintive and poetic songs provided the soundtrack for an entire generation of lesbians. Part performance film, part biopic, [this film] traces the life, the songs, the loves, the heartbreaks, and the pioneering path carved by a true Canadian folk legend.
• Finding our way: moving beyond Canada's apartheid = Neba wheti hon'a e kwuznata
  Stories of conflict between Indigenous people, governments and industry: “... documentary film in 3 chapters with and about the Burns Lake band and the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, two First Nations bands located in central B.C., Canada”
• Fit: episodes in the history of the body
  Originally produced in 1991. Combines archival images and research to chart the development of American attitudes towards, and definitions of, physical fitness and the human body.
• Flesh
  “Several women with different points of view including a cattle rancher, a vegetarian, a meat-lover, and a Hooter's waitress are interviewed in this discussion of how women and animals are treated by popular culture in a society obsessed with flesh.”
• Flipping the world: drugs through a blue lens
  An honest look at the world of youth and drug addiction as told by those who have been there. Seven culturally diverse high school students meet with members of the Odd Squad – Vancouver police officers who, since 1998, have been filming people addicted to drugs.
• Flow
  “A look at the world's water crisis and how the causes of the depleting water supply are connected to pollution, human rights, and even politics.”
• Fortunate son
  Autobiographical documentary by the son of Greek immigrants living in Canada. After overcoming a severe drug problem, and motivated by a search for happiness with his new fiancee, filmmaker Tony Asimakopoulos turns his gaze on his complicated, painful relationship with his overbearing mother and ailing father, and the patterns of dysfunction they share. A film about faith, despair, renewal, and the different kinds of love in a family. Follows the filmmaker from his childhood home in Montreal, to the Greek villages ...
• Four feet up
  “An intimate portrayal of child poverty in Canada by award-winning photographer and documentary filmmaker Nance Ackerman”
• G.I.M.P. boot camp: gimp/civilian, imprinting, mastering, public outreach
  In accepting the fictional CRIP (Citizens Recognizing Inspirational People) Award, co-filmmaker Danielle Peers explains and illustrates her four-step program aimed at helping gimps, people who are only partially physically disabled, cope with the social stigma associated with their condition. The program also targets stereotypes about physical disability held by 'normal' people
• Gardens of destiny
  Dan Jason is an organic gardener on Salt Spring Island of the Canadian west coast and the head of the Seed and Plant Sanctuary for Canada, a network of gardeners from around the world working to preserve as much plant diversity as possible. This film explores Dan's garden and seed world and investigates, with several sustainable development specialists, such issues as genetic engineering, terminator seeds, and the pitfalls of industrial agriculture in North America.
• Girl and a gun
  Presents a female perspective on an object whose history is deeply bound up with men and masculinity. Filmed throughout the US, this documentary delves into the psyche of the American gun world to investigate how women relate to guns and gun culture. Reaching far beyond Hollywood's hypersexualized femme fatales, the film candidly explores the modern American woman through intimate portraits encompassing issues of protection, power, feminism, and violence.
• Girls Rock!
  At RocknRoll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it's OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that 'it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are'.
• Hermaphrodites speak
  Covers the first retreat weekend of the Intersex Society of North America in 1997. Seven participants, two assigned as men and four as women, and one individual who identifies as neither male or female but as a third gender, tell their stories of growing up intersexed and their feelings of social isolation. They express resentment towards the medical establishment and the current standard medical treatment for hermaphroditic children.
• House of numbers
  AIDS denialist film. “What is HIV? What is AIDS? What is being done to cure it? Canadian filmmaker Brent Leung explores these questions.”
• How to read and understand a research study
  “This program … outlines the structure of a scientific paper, defines important terms, considers the information that statistics provide about the value of a study, and shows how to evaluate the quality of information presented in a research study.
• Human terrain: war becomes academic
  Human Terrain' is two stories in one. The first exposes the U.S. effort to enlist the best and the brightest of American universities in a struggle for the hearts and minds of its enemies ... The other story is about a brilliant young scholar who leaves the university to join a Human Terrain team.
• I had an abortion
  Produced by Jennifer Baumgardner and Gillian Aldrich. Features several women, aged 21 to 85, who have had abortions and captures their stories and experiences.
• In the name of the family: honour killings in North America
  DVD only. Award-winning director Shelley Saywell brings her consummate documentary skills and passion for human rights to challenge the traditions that lie behind the heartbreaking tragedies committed against young girls caught between two cultures in North America.
• Invoking justice
  In Southern India, family disputes are settled by Jamaats, all male bodies which apply Islamic Sharia law to cases without allowing women to be present, even to defend themselves. Recognizing this fundamental inequity, a group of women in 2004 established a women's Jamaat, which soon became a network of 12,000 members spread over 12 districts. Despite enormous resistance, they have been able to settle more than 8,000 cases to date, ranging from divorce to wife beating to brutal murders and more.
• Juggling gender: politics, sex and identity - Still juggling
  Contains the original 1992 documentary which features Jennifer Miller, juggler and director of Circus Amok. Miller discusses her life and struggle as a lesbian woman who happens to have a moustache and beard. Scenes show a gay rights parade and Miller interacting with friends, family, and strangers. Pt. 2 -Still juggling, still bearded features Miller 15 years after the original documentary, discussing changes in her life and in society. Pt. 3 - Sideshow by the seashore includes scenes of Circus Amok performances.
• L'affaire Coca-Cola = The Coca-Cola case
  Colombia is the trade union murder capital of the world. Since 2002, more than 470 workers' leaders have been brutally killed, usually by paramilitaries hired by private companies intent on crushing the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands is the poster boy for American business: Coca-Cola. A searing indictment of a major corporate brand, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a riveting legal game of cat and mouse via the U.S. federal court and the Stop Killer Coke! campaign.
• Ladies of the gridiron
  When most think of American Football, they imagine raw, unbridled demonstrations of athletic might pushed to the max, but rarely do those images involve women. The Quake is a professional women's tackle football team out to break the glass ceiling of this traditionally all-male sport. These women embody the same dogged determination as their male counterparts, but without the money or fame. And beyond that, they must deal with a societal prejudice that keeps them on the periphery of professional sports, having ...
• Le jeu de la mort | Game of death
  Back in the 60s, Stanley Milgram's scientific experiment demonstrated that a large majority of people were ready to administer unbearable electric shocks to another man when encouraged to do so by an authority. The experiment is re-enacted in the form of a TV game show, where 80 participants are asked to follow its despicable rules, despite the candidate's strong yelling complaints. Will they obey the TV host's orders and inflict massive electric shocks? Or will they stop before it's too late? (see also: Obedience ...
• Les fleurs à la fenêtre (on veut bien l'amour) / Flowers at the window (we want love)
  DVD only. “..three Cameroonian young women who are using the Internet to meet white men in the hope that these men will change their lives for the better.”
• Liberty, equality, accommodation
  DVD only. The Herouxville Code of Conduct informed newcomers that women were not to be excised, stoned or burned alive. A storm of voices and opinions greeted that announcement and generated a unique expression of direct democracy. The film is about this unprecedented collective experience.
• Living downstream
  Follows Sandra Steingrabe during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey - the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move. At once Sandra's personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land , and water.
• Lost boys of Sudan
  DVD only. “The journey of two teenage Sudanese boys, orphaned by their war torn country, who traveled to America looking for a safer environment and learning to cope with the unfamiliar complexities of contemporary American society.”
• Made in India: a film about surrogacy
  DVD only. The human experiences behind the phenomena of 'outsourcing' surrogate mothers to India. Shows the journey of an infertile American couple, an Indian surrogate and the reproductive outsourcing business that brings them together. Weaving together these personal stories within the context of a growing international industry, MADE IN INDIA explores a complicated clash of families in crisis, reproductive technology, and choice from a global perspective.
• Menocracy
  Something's rotten in our state of democracy. Follow the journey of a woman and the spirit of a sassy Suffragette who, in trying to find out why our system fails to represent women, discover that it fails everyone but our political elites. A film about how to catch up to the rest of the world's democracies in the march to gender fairness and governments that reflect society.
• Militainment Inc
  “Militainment, Inc. offers a glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and 'reality television' in its glamorization of war. … the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle?”
• Moolaade
  Motion Picture. It is the time for the young girls of a village to be purified by ritual circumcision. Colle has kept her daughter from being circumcised, and several of the girls go to her for refuge. Colle agrees to help them, and she invokes moolaade, a form of sanctuary.
• Mountains that take wing
  DVD only. Internationally renowned scholar, professor and writer Angela Davis, and 89-year-old grassroots organizer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Yuri Kochiyama share intimate conversations about personal histories and influences that shaped them and their shared experiences in some of the most important social movements in 20th century United States.
• Multiracial identity
  DVD only. Multiracial people are the fastest growing demographic in America, yet there is no official political recognition for mixed-race people. [This film] explores the social, political, and religious impact of the multiracial movement and the lived experience of being multiracial Clinging to a racial identity -- Miscegenation in the U.S. -- Tragic mulatto -- Interracial marriage and racial categories -- The multiracial Reaney family -- Non black and white multiracial heritages.
• Namrata
  DVD only. “Namrata Gill - whose story was one of many real-life inspirations for Deepa Mehta's feature film Heaven on Earth - describes her six years in an abusive relationship, and how difficult leaving can be when you are part of a close-knit immigrant community.”
• Nature's invitation
  A documentary about Canada’s quest to get new immigrants in touch with nature. It also explores the consequences of a life devoid of nature.
• NeverPerfect
  DVD only. “Traversing historical and contemporary notions of beauty, stereotypes and iconography within Asian and popular cultures, this film incorporates a rich selection of archival footage and commentary from numerous voices which ignites lively debate on the phenomena as they pertain to race and gender identity.”
• Out in the Silence
  The announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson's wedding to another man ignites a firestorm of controversy and a quest for change in the small Pennsylvania hometown he left long ago. Drawn back by a plea for help from the mother of a gay teen being tormented at school, Wilson takes viewers on an exhilarating journey through love, hate, and understanding in rural America.
• Paraiso for sale
  Depicts the struggles of local Bocas del Toro residents against land displacement by the escalating development of real estate housing for the growing population of American settlers.
• People of the seal. Eskimo summer + Eskimo winter
  An examination of the lives of the Netsilik Eskimos of the Canadian Artic, their work and play, and the ways in which they cope with the frigid climate of the north during the winters. In this 1971 video, we accompany one family on their journey inland from the ice, where they spent their winter. Then we join them as they build a new kayak, lay in a supply of fish, and hunt caribou.
• Pink Ribbons
  Breast cancer has become the poster child of cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless people walk, run and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labelled a 'dream cause,' has become obscured by a shiny, pink story of success.
• Pink saris
  DVD only.“The 'Pink Gang' is a group of women who wear pink saris as a symbol of their revolt against their society. They are victims of domestic violence, rape and social exclusion. Their champion is Sampat Pal Devi, who takes up their cases of social injustice.”
• Poetry of resilience
  DVD only. In a small gathering in a Massachusetts town, 27 poets have come together for the first time to share their experiences as survivors of political atrocities. The poets' tales all vary, but they are united by the drive to bear witness to their past and to continue the process of healing. This documentary features six international poets who individually survived Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China's Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Iranian Revolution.
• Queen of the sun: what are the bees telling us?
  A documentary on colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon involving the mass disappearance of honeybees from their hives. Includes interviews with beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva.
• Questions nationales : National matters
  Brings new perspective to the Quebec sovereignty issue. In particular, it addresses the question of why Quebec has yet to achieve independence forty years after the movement began, when so many other countries have succeeded in achieving this goal during the same period. To answer this question, the film considers the cases of the Scots (UK) and the Catalans (Spain), who, like the Québécois, have had to think hard about the advantages or risks of independence over autonomy and to grapple with the 'unknowns' ...
• Research design
  Explains when experiment-based research is appropriate and teaches the basics of designing and conducting an experiment. It considers pros and cons of this methodology, looks at different experimental methods, and discusses sampling and data collection.
• Research ethics
  This program examines ethical issues in social and natural sciences research and in health research. It covers such topics as plagiarism, crediting and citing sources, falsification of data, the use of human and animal subjects, informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest.
• Reservation soldiers
  “Filmed over several years, Reservation Soldiers focuses on the relationship between the Canadian military and aboriginal youth.“
• Rize
  A documentary portrayal of inner city youth in Los Angeles, Calif. who though surrounded by drug addiction, gangs and impoverishment, have developed a unique style of dance that evolves on a daily basis.
• Rock the boat: saving America's wildest river
  When satirical writer and avid kayaker George Wolfe organizes a boating expedition down the entire 52-miles of the notorious Los Angeles River, he and his motley crew become entangled in a legal controversy of national proportions. With startling images of the LA River, insightful interviews and a soft spot for humor, Rock the Boat looks at the challenges society faces in providing clean water to urban populations, and delivers a bright alternative to the current spate of doomsday docs.
• Savage memory: how do we remember our dead?
  In 1915, Bronislaw Malinowski set out to document the 'exotic' practices of a small group of islanders off the coast of Papua New Guinea. With extensive data on sex, magic and spirits of the dead, his work set the stage for anthropologists for decades to come and brought him fame as one of the founding fathers of anthropology. Four generations and almost one hundred years later, his great grandson travels to the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea and looks at the very controversial legacy Malinowski left ...
• Saving face
  Every year in Pakistan, many women are known to be victimized by brutal acid attacks, with numerous cases going unreported. With little or no access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally scarred. Many reported assailants, typically a husband or someone else close to the victim, receive minimal punishment from the state. Plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad left his prominent London practice to return to his home country and help the victims of such attacks.
• Scarlet road
  "Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression, Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long overlooked clientele— people with disabilities. ..Rachel’s philosophy is that human touch and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence." Also available as a DVD: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/783787692 [for a film with a different lens on a similar topic, see also Want: https://concordiauniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/706443158]
• Sex positive
  Looks at the life of Richard Berkowitz, an AIDS activist who was at the forefront of the safe sex movement. With Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, a virologist and AIDS doctor, and Michael Callen, a musician and activist, Berkowitz helped the gay community recognize the importance of safe sex practices.
• Shelley Niro compilation
  Shelley Niro (born 1954) is a Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from New York and Ontario. Contents: Overweight with crooked teeth (5:00 min., 1997) -- The shirt (5:55 min., 2003) -- Sky woman with us, Shelley Niro (7:00 min., 2002) -- Tree (5:00 min., 2006) -- The flying head (5:00 min., 2008) -- Hunger (6:03 min., 2008) -- rechargin' (2:49 min., 2007)
• Sin by silence
  From behind prison walls, the film reveals the lives of extraordinary women who advocated for a future free from domestic violence. Inside California's oldest women's prison, the first inmate-initiated and led group in the U.S. prison system was created by inmate Brenda Clubine to help abused women speak out and realize they are not alone.
• Sisters in law
  Kim Longinotto production. A documentary record of a courtroom in Kumba, Cameroon, where a female prosecutor and judge work to put an end to their community's tacit acceptance of child abuse, wife beating and rape.
• Songs of freedom : compelling stories of courage and hope by Jamaican gays and lesbians
  Takes us inside the world of Jamaican gays and lesbians and tells... stories of individuals courageously carving out meaningful lives, despite the taboo against their sexual identity.
• Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada
  [Streaming film via NFB Campus. To access from outside the Concordia network, first register at nfb.ca/campus/go. Ignore the billing/price information; find and select Concordia University, Montreal, QC as your institution.] Feminism has shaped the society we live in. But just how far has it brought us, and how relevant is it today? This feature documentary zeroes in on key concerns such as violence against women, access to abortion, and universal childcare, asking how much progress we have truly made on these ...
• Subjectified: nine young women talk about sex
  Through nine in-depth interviews about sex and sexuality, this documentary lets women do the talking, trading easy answers and stereotypes for brutal honesty. The stories may sound familiar: young moms, abstinent Christians, lesbians, survivors of assaults and STDs. But outside the world of reality TV and sound bites, women approach their lives in complex and unexpected ways: sometimes hilarious, sometimes sobering, and always heartfelt.
• Surviving :) the teenage brain
  This Nature of Things documentary delves deep into the science of the teenage brain to discover evolution's masterpiece. The film combines cutting-edge scientific research, YouTube clips of outrageous teen behaviour and a graphic-novel approach to reveal new research on the immense power and potential of the teen brain. Find out how these all-important years nurture the judgment, adaptation and innovation that ensure the survival of the species.
• Sweetgrass
  An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana's breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, and vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.
• Tagged
  'This playfully smart short doc lets the audience decide: Is it 'hip to be chipped,' as a proposed marketing slogan claimed, or could RFID [Radio Frequency Identification] implants accelerate a slide down the slippery slope from surveillance society to totalitarian nightmare?'
• The Aggressives
  “Intimate interviews with transgendered lesbians (5 African American, 1 Asian) living in New York City who define themselves as ‘aggressives.’ They exhibit masculine appearances and behaviors, but do not aspire to be men. Shows their daily lives and their participation in the underground lesbian ‘ball scene.”
• The evolution of Dad
  We are told by American culture that fatherhood is important, but the real, underlying message is: 'Back to work, dads!' How did this happen? What can be done about it? And why are the dads who are extra-involved with their families typically castigated as not being manly enough or sufficiently committed to their work? [The film] explores these questions and many more, cutting to the core of one of the most invisible, yet important, issues of our time: fatherhood.
• The feminist initiative
  The passion, pitfalls and promise of a diverse group of women working to establish the world's first feminist political party in Sweden in the spring of 2005… In the face of internal discord, public backlash, and a worrisome lack of funds, the Feminist Initiative forges a new path towards parliament, raising critical questions along the way…
• The gift of diabetes
  Filmmaker Brion Whitford is an Ojibway who lives with the pain of advanced diabetes. As his health worsened, his interest in his own culture grew. Follows Brion's struggle to regain his health by learning about the medicine wheel, a holistic tool grounded in Aboriginal understanding of the interconnectedness of all dimensions of life. Also explores the historical trauma of colonization and how it continues to affect Aboriginal people's psychological and physical well being.
• The grey area: feminism behind bars
  Through a series of class discussions, headed by students from Grinnell College, a small group of female inmates at a maximum security women's prison in Mitchellville, Iowa, share their diverse experiences with motherhood, drug, addiction, sexual abuse, murder, and life in prison.
• The M word
  DVD only. A history and critique of multiculturalism in Canada. “The M Word records the history of various immigrant groups who are not officially recognized in the history books. It also interviews a number of prominent Canadians to take the pulse of multiculturalism today, including Haroon Siddiqui, Allan Gregg, Candy Palmater, Jack Jedwab, and Uzma Shakir.”
• The mean world syndrome
  “The Mean World Syndrome, based on the groundbreaking work of media scholar George Gerbner, urges us to think about media effects in more nuanced ways. Ranging from Hollywood movies and prime-time dramas to reality programming and the local news, the film examines how media violence feeds a fear-charged cultural environment…”
• The Men's Story Project: building strength, creating peace
  Shows the powerful debut presentation of the Men's Story Project - a new performance/dialogue project exploring social ideas about masculinity for the purpose of health and justice.The stories address platonic love between men; struggles with Islam, Christianity, homophobia and HIV/AIDS; disability and sexuality; testicular cancer and personal wholeness; images of African American masculinity; a journey from perpetrating domestic violence to becoming an anti-violence activist; men's public restroom rituals; ...
• The price of sex
  This inquiry into a dark side of immigration reveals the experiences of Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Mimi Chakarova traveled from post-communist Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece, and Dubai to uncover the harrowing personal accounts of women trafficked into modern-day sexual slavery.
• The Pruitt-Igoe myth
  Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which the projects resided, while tracing personal and poignant narratives of those who lived in them.
• The sacred science
  Follows eight people from the developed world with a variety of common and serious ailments who embark on a challenging, one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle. Working with a handful of shamans experienced in the harvesting and preparation of traditional plant medicines, as well as ritual exercises, these men and women seek to overcome Parkinson's disease, cancer, alcoholism, diabetes and depression.
• The spirit of ethnography
  Originally produced in 1974. Takes a humorous look at the field of cultural anthropology. Chronicles the field research of a fictitious ethnographer embarking on his first field experience.
• The split horn: the life of a Hmong Shaman in America
  DVD only. Shows the life and culture of the Thao family, Hmong Americans in Appleton, Wisconsin, and a shaman's struggle to maintain his ancient traditions.