Recent videos of interest

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.