Diversity Video Library

2 Days in October

Publisher: PBS
Format: DVD
Runtime: 90 mins

Based on the book They Marched Into Sunlight by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss, Two Days in October tells the story of two turbulent days in October 1967 when history turned a corner.

In Vietnam, a U.S. battalion unwittingly marched into a Viet Cong trap. Sixty-one young men were killed and as many wounded. The ambush prompted some in power to wonder whether the war might be unwinnable.

Half a world away, concerned students at the University of Wisconsin protested the presence of Dow Chemical recruiters on campus. When Madison police showed up, the demonstration spiraled out of control, marking the first time that a student protest had turned violent.

Told entirely by the people who took part in the harrowing events of those two days -- American soldiers, police officers, relatives of men killed in battle, protesting students, university administrators and Viet Cong fighters -- the film offers a window onto a moment that divided a nation and a war that continues to haunt us.

Affirmative Action Debate: WWU

Publisher: WWU, Viking Union
Format: VHS
Runtime:
Captions: No

A debate surrounding Affirmative Action and Initiative 200.

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)

Publisher: The Cinema Guild Inc.
Format: DVD
Runtime: 96 mins
Captions: No

The collateral impact of America’s secret war in Laos Is reflected in the extraordinary story of one family’s struggle for survival-in Laos and later in the U.S. Filmed over the course of 23 years, The Betrayal is the directorial debut of famed cinematographer Ellen Kuras in collaboration with the film’s subject and co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath.

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. clandestinely operated in the neighboring country of Laos. By 1973 a secret air campaign had dropped more bombs on Laos than were used during WWI and WWII combined. Recruited by the CIA to work intelligence along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Thavisouk’s father is exposed after America’s retreat and is imprisoned by the ruling Communist government. The entire family comes under suspicion and their mother is forced to raise Thavi and his nine younger siblings alone. At the age thirteen, Thavi escapes across the Mekong River to Thailand, and is joined two years later by his mother and seven of his siblings. After living in a refugee camp the family seeks asylum in America, and is soon deposited in a crowded tenement in Brooklyn. Left to their own means by the government, the family struggles to survive and stay together, pulled by two different cultures, terrorized by local gangs, and haunted by memories. Renowned for her achievement as a Director of Photography, Ellen Kuras has worked for such directors as Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind) and Spike Lee (Summer of Sam, 4 Little Girls), among many others, and is a three-time winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s prestigious Cinematography award.

A lyrical melding of memoir, cinema verite’ and historical inquiry, The Betrayal is an exquisitely crafted tale of a country and a family torn asunder, and the long and painful process of repair.

Body of War

Publisher: Docurama films
Format: DVD
Runtime: 87 mins
Captions: No

Paralyzed from the chest down after serving in Iraq for just one week, 25-year-old Tomas Young is forced to deal with the realities of war each and every day. For Tomas, learning to cope with his disability means finding his voice to speak out against the war in Iraq.

Directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro and set to the haunting vocals of Eddie Vedder, the multi award-winning Body of War splits its time between Tomas’s arduous daily reality in Kansas City, MO, and the harrowing legislative process that led up to the invasion of Iraq in 2002. Senatorial speeches and a running tally of pro-war votes that are inter-spliced with intimate footage of Tomas as he navigates through the acute physical and emotional impacts of his injury. A testament to the power of parallel images, the film adeptly juxtaposes the sanitized vantage point of Washington with raw personal experience. In the end, this contrast forces viewers to question the motives, methods, and ever-rising cost of the conflict in Iraq.

A deeply moving and bracingly honest film, Body of War narrates a story that must be heard-a story of courage, conviction and resistance.

Children of Abraham

Publisher: Compassionate Listening Project
Format: VHS
Runtime: 36 mins
Captions: No

"Children of Abraham compellingly documents the profound possibilities within a society in which friends and enemies alike attune themselves to the voice of the other. It should serve as an urgent reminder of how badly we transgress and how much we forfeit when we dismiss the power of listening as too simple. This is not a promotion of a naive quick fix, but rather a call to the wrenching but essential heroism that Jewish tradition says inheres in making one's enemy into one's friend."

Rabbi Gordon Tucker

In January of 1998, twenty-two Jewish Americans traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of Mid East Citizen Diplomacy's Compassionate Listening Project. Children of Abraham is a 34-minute broadcast-quality documentary which chronicles this journey.

The film follows the Jewish participants as they visit with and listen to Israelis and Palestinians - from leaders to refugees, and seek to understand the complexities of religious, political and human rights issues. Participants include Jewish leaders and professionals ranging from secular to observant.

This stunning documentary introduces the Compassionate Listening reconciliation model, and humanizes each Israeli and Palestinian portrayed. The film delivers a compelling message that conflict can be transformed through the simple act of listening.

The Color of Fear

Publisher: Lee Mun Wah, Stir Fry Production
Format: VHS
Runtime: 90 mins
Captions: No

The Color of Fear is an insightful, groundbreaking film about the state of race relations in America as seen through the eyes of eight North American men of Asian, European, Latino and African descent. In a series of intelligent, emotional and dramatic confrontations the men reveal the pain and scars that racism has caused them. What emerges is a deeper sense of understanding and trust. This is the dialogue most of us fear, but hope will happen sometime in our lifetime.

Crossing the Lines

Publisher: Compassionate Listening Project
Format: VHS
Runtime: 28 mins
Captions: No

Crossing the Lines contains interviews with Israelis and Palestinians filmed during the Compassionate Listening Delegations

Crips and Bloods: Made in America

Publisher: Bullfrog Films
Format: DVD
Runtime:  83 minutes
Captions: Yes

With unprecedented access into the worlds of active gangs, Crips and Bloods: Made in America is a compelling character-driven documentary which chronicles the decades-long cycle of destruction and despair that defines modern gang culture from the genesis of L.A.'s gang culture to the shocking, war-zone reality of daily life in South L.A., the film traces the rise of the Crips and Bloods, and their bloody four-decade long feud. Contemporary and former gang members offer their street-level testimony providing a stark portrait of modern-day gang life: the turf wars and territorialism, the inter-gang hierarchy and family structure, the rules of behavior, the culture of guns, death and dishonor.

Throughout the film ex-gang members, gang intervention experts, writers, activists, and academics analyze many of the issues that contribute to South L.A.'s malaise: the erosion of identity that fuels the self-perpetuating legacy of black self-hatred, the disappearance of the African-American father and an almost pervasive prison culture in which today one out of every four black men will be imprisoned at some point in his life.

Finally the gang members themselves articulate their enduring dream of a better life. They provide a message of home and a cautionary tale of redemption aimed at saving the lives of a new generation of kids, not just in South L.A. but anywhere in the world that gang violence exists.

Egalite for All: Toussaint Loverture and the Haitian Revolution

Publisher: Koval Films/PBS
Format: DVD
Runtime: 60 mins
Captions: Yes

It was the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French revolutionary ideas and used them to create the world’s first black republic. It elevated a former slave, Toussaint Louverture, to such international fame that admirers ranked him on par with George Washington. It was the Haitian Revolution, a movement of admirable aspirations…and appalling destruction.. Vaguely remembered today, the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 traumatized planters in the American South and inspired U.S. slaves. Égalité for All explores this history through music, voodoo ritual, powerful recreations, and insightful writers and historians

Equal Opportunity: The American Dilemma; A debate on Affirmative Action with Dinesh D'Souza and Tim Wise

Publisher: Evergreen, Office for Equal Opportunity
Format: VHS
Runtime: 1 hr 11 mins
Captions: No

Tim Wise and Dinesh D'Sousa debate the merits of Affirmative Action at The Evergreen State College. Includes statements and questions from the community audience of approximately 1200. D'Sousa, a political conservative, describes himself as antiracist and sympathetic to minorities. A first generation immigrant from India, he authored the highly controversial book Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (1991) and The End of Racism (1995). Tim Wise is an expert on racism and the political movements of the far right. He is the director of the youth Anti- Prejudice Project and speaks extensively around the country about racial tolerance and understanding. As assistant director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, he was instrumental in the political demise of neo-Nazi David Duke. He is the author of Little White Lies: The Truth About Affirmative Action and Reverse Discrimination.

Frontline: Secrets of the SAT

Publisher: PBS
Format: VHS
Runtime: 60 mins
Captions: No

With legal challenges to affirmative action spreading across this country, Frontline investigated the impact of standardized tests on racial diversity on college campuses.

Initiative 200 Debate, Tim Wise and Tim Eyman

Publisher: TVW, Tim Wise and Tim Eyman
Format: VHS
Runtime: 1 hr 34 min
Captions: No

Tim Eyman and Tim Wise debate the merits of anti-affirmative action Initiative 200 at the University of Washington. Includes statements and questions from the community. The initiative was passed by vote of the citizens of Washington State in November 1998. Tim Eyman was co-chairman of the campaign for Washington State Initiative 200 attacking affirmative action for women and people of color in public employment, education and contracting. Tim Wise is an expert on racism and political movements of the far right. He is the director of the youth Anti-Prejudice Project and speaks extensively around the country about racial tolerance and understanding. As assistant director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, he was instrumental in the political demise of neo-Nazi David Duke. He is the author of Little White Lies: The Truth About Affirmative Action and Reverse Discrimination.

Inside Burma: Land of Fear

Publisher: Bullfrog Films
Format: VHS
Runtime: 51 mins
Captions: No

John Pilger investigates the history and brutality of the military dictatorship in Burma. Inside Burma exposes the history and brutality of one of the world's most repressive regimes. Nearly the size of Texas, with a population of more than 40 million, Burma has rich natural resources probably unequaled in Asia. Yet Burma is also a secret country.

Isolated for the past 40 years, since a brutal military dictatorship seized power in Rangoon, this rich country has been relegated to one of the world's poorest, the assault on its people all but forgotten by the rest of the world.

Award-winning filmmakers John Pilger and David Munro go undercover to expose how the former British colony is ruled by a harsh, bloody and uncompromising military regime.

More than a million people have been forced from their homes and untold thousands killed, tortured and subjected to slavery.

Liberian Women Together as One

Publisher: Gilda L. Shepherd
Format: DVD
Runtime: 15 min
Captions: No

"Women Together as One" focuses on work Sheppard did with Liberian women refugees who live at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, West Africa. She worked with the refugees to organize and design classes for economic sustainability (computer literacy, adult literacy, cosmetology, catering, sewing and tie and dye workshops) and school scholarships for their children.

Lioness

Publisher: Room 11 Productions Film
Format: DVD
Runtime: 82 mins
Captions: No

How did a group of Army women-mechanics, supply clerks, and engineers-  end up fighting alongside the Marines in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq war? Directors Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers offer an unprecedented look at the war through the eyes of the first women in the U.S. history to be sent into direct ground combat in violation of official policy. Through intimate personal stories and scenes from their lives back home, the film creates a deeply moving portrait of love, faith, duty, and solidarity.

Long Night's Journey into Day

Publisher: California Newsreel
Format: DVD
Runtime: 91 mins
Captions: No

For over forty years, South Africa was governed by the most notorious form of racial domination since Nazi Germany. When it finally collapsed, those who had enforced apartheid's rule wanted amnesty for their crimes. Their victims wanted justice. As a compromise, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was formed. As it investigated the crimes of apartheid, the Commission brought together victims and perpetrators to relive South Africa's brutal history. By revealing the past instead of burying it, the TRC hoped to pave the way to a peaceful future.

Long Night's Journey Into Day follows several TRC cases over a two-year period. The stories in the film underscore the universal themes of conflict, forgiveness, and renewal.

Lourdes Arguelles

Publisher: Evergreen, Lourdes Arguelles
Format: VHS
Runtime:
Captions: No

Lourdes Arguelles received her Ph.D. at New York University from the Division of Behavioral Sciences, Center for Human Relations and Community Studies of the School of Education. Her concentrations were in Psychology and Sociology. She did post-doctoral work in law and psychiatry at Osgood Hall Law School at York University in Canada and in ethnic studies at the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA. Dr. Arguelles is a licensed marriage, child, and family therapist in the state of California. Her theoretical interests in the political economy and the spirituality of everyday life and her commitment to social and ecological justice and non-human animal welfare were shaped by the experience of the Cuban socialist revolution, by her studies with Buddhist teachers in India, Japan, Thailand, and Burma, and with a Chinese Qi-Qong master in the U.S. They were also greatly influenced by living and working with refugees and indigenous peoples throughout the world. Community, labor, and environmental organizing work in the inner cities of Montreal, New York, Miami, Florida, and in US-Mexico border cities and clinical practice with people living with HIV/AIDS, survivors of political and family torture, and with women of color and sexual minorities, have led her to an interest in the development of critical psychological modalities of care and ecologically-based educational practices, as well as to an interest in the field of gender and feminist studies. Dr. Arguelles' experience of growing up in an extended family system in the Caribbean and her life experiences in non-advanced industrial parts of the world have greatly contributed to her work in narrative research and storytelling pedagogy.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Publisher: Fork Films
Format: DVD
Runtime: 72 mins
Captions: No

Pray the Devil Back to Hell was released in 2009 but got precious little distribution.  The film chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.

Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.

A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverence of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting, and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

Rabbit in the Moon

Publisher: Emiko Omori, Sundance Film Award Winner
Format: VHS
Runtime: 85 mins
Captions: No

A documentary/memoir about the lingering effects of the World War II interment of the Japanese American community. Interwoven is the story of two sisters, both former internees, filmmaker Emiko Omori and writer Chizuko Omori, who questioned the absence of this vital history in their lives while searching for the memory of their mother. Includes historical footage and accounts from Japanese American who experienced interment and fought against it."

Regret to Inform

Publisher: Barbara Sonneborn and Sun Foundation Productions
Format: VHS
Runtime: 72 mins
Captions: No

Regret to Inform looks at the Vietnam War through the lenses of women who lived through it, nurses, U.S. and Vietnamese widows, women who were children at the time. The video jacket reads, "...has extraordinary power and beauty. It is a personal, haunting and redemption-filled journey that will forever change the way you think about war." Our viewers agree.

Reverend James Lawson at Temple Beth Hatfiloh

Publisher: The Evergreen State College
Format: DVD
Runtime: 120 minutes
Cations: No

Reverend James Lawson Jr’s talk at the Temple Beth Hatfiloh on 5/5/08.

Reverend James Lawson at Evergreen Hall I

Publisher: The Evergreen State College
Format: DVD
Runtime: 60 minutes
Captions: No

Reverend James Lawson Jr.’s lecture 5/5/08 at The Evergreen State College Lecture Hall I.

Slingshot Hip Hop

Publisher: Fresh Booza Productions
Format: DVD
Runtime: 94 minutes
Captions: No,
Languages: English, Arabic and Hebrew

Slingshot Hip Hop weaves together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank, and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. Follow Tamer, Suhell, and Mahmoud of DAM, the first ever Palestinian Hip Hop group, from their early awkward studio recordings, through the outbreak of the second Intifada, to fiery sold-out shows all over the world. Through DAM we meet Mahmoud Shalabi, an irreverent rapper from Akka, along with R&B singer Abeer and rap duo Arapeyat, rising female artists determined to express themselves.

Meanwhile, Mohammed, Kan”aan and Mezo of PR have begun emulating DAM. Trapped in Gaza, one of the most heavily populated places on Earth, PR longs to escape its confines and finally meet their fellow rappers. From Separation Walls to gender norms, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that divide them.m

The Sun Behind The Clouds

Format: DVD

Publisher: Zeitgeist Films

Runtime: 79 Minutes

Captions: Yes

Languages: English, Tibetan & Mandarin

A provocative and potent look at The Dalai Lama's ceaseless struggle for justice recognition for the Tibetan people, The Sun Behind The Clouds focuses on the pivotal and particularly tumultuous events of 2008. From Buddhist monks' protest in Lhasa on the 50^th anniversary of the Chinese invasion and the four-month march of exiled Tibetans through India to the Tibetan border, to the Beijing Olympics and the raucous talks between the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government, the film uncovers the growing rifts between younger Tibetans and their most respected spiritual leader.

While His Holiness advocates for the political autonomy within China rather than secession from it, a younger generation within Tibet has grown impatient and begun to chart a more confrontational course. Following the Dalai Lama's political life with unprecedented personal access, Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam and co-director Ritu Sarin, bring an impassioned focus to the myriad complexities in fining a peaceful solution based on compromise and dialogue.

Tattooed Under Fire

Publisher: Mo-Ti Productions

Format: DVD

Runtime:

Captions: No

 Tattooed Under Fire is a grippingly intimate, character-driven portrait of Iraq-bound and returning U.S. soldiers as they go under the tattoo needle-openly professing their pride, sharing their secrets and confessing their fears.

 The tattoos cross lines of gender, class, and political affinity revealing the inner lives of young men and women as they live through the horrors of the Iraq War.

The film's narrative moves from the early expectations and excitement of 18 and 20 year-olds through cynicism and anger, to a sense of a psychological aftermath that will never be erased. Each soldier's story is an evocative, poignant, and highly personal look at the human and cultural cost of war.

Waltz With Bashir

Publisher: Sony Pictures Classics

Format: DVD

Runtime: 90 minutes

Captions: Yes

 Inspired by actual events, Waltz with Bashir chronicles one man's descent into his own half-forgotten past. Filmmaker Ari Folman, an Israeli veteran of the First Lebanon War, encounters an old friend suffering from nightmares of conflict. Ari begins to wonder why his own memories are full of gaps. In an effort to uncover the truth, he reconnects with old friends and dares to confront the horrors of war. Hailed as innovative and devastating, Waltz with Bashir fuses animation and documentary to create an experience unlike anything you've ever witnessed.

When We Were Kids, We Went to War

Publisher: Bristol Production
Format: VHS
Runtime: 2 hrs
Captions: No

When We Were Kids...We Went to War is a powerful video for the classroom that shows the personal side of war as presented by WWII Veterans and civilians in their own words and from their unique viewpoint. History books tell us the names dates and places, while these people tell us about their feelings, thoughts, and everyday lives during the war. This documentary connects today's student with the fact that history is real, and the men and women who fought the war were real people about their age when they were called into service. --from http://wwiihistoryclass.com