Recent videos of interest

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.