Films with: Chowder, Ken

American experience.

Tells the story of the two founders of American conservation, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, and their historic battle over whether a remote valley in California, Hetch Hetchy, should be dammed and flooded to form a reservoir. The battle reflected the two sides of the conservation issue--absolute protection of wilderness lands versus careful management and use of nature to serve human needs.

DVD 12206

Frederick Law Olmsted designing America /

A biography of the man who made public parks an essential part of American life. He made enormous contributions to the American landscape, believing a park was both a work of art and a necessity for urban life. Olmsted's efforts to preserve nature created an "environmental ethic" decades before the environmental movement became a force in American politics.

DVD 11135

Have you heard from Johannesburg.

Long one of South Africa's most important and powerful allies, the United States becomes a key battleground in the anti-apartheid movement as African-Americans lead the charge to change the government's policy toward the apartheid regime. Strengthened through years of grassroots organizing during the civil rights movement, black leaders and their allies take on U.S. foreign policy on South Africa, directing campaigns in corporate boardrooms, universities, embassies, and finally in the U.S. Congress itself, where a stunning victory is won against the formidable opposition of President Ronald Reagan. African-Americans alter U.S. foreign policy for the first time in history, and the U.S., once the backbone of support for apartheid South Africa as its ally in the Cold War, finally imposes sanctions on Pretoria. European sanctions follow, and with them, the political isolation of the apartheid regime.

DVD 8581 v.5

Have you heard from Johannesburg?

"This is the story of the first-ever international grassroots campaign to successfully use economic pressure to help bring down a government. Recognizing the apartheid regime's dependence on its financial connections to the West, citizens all over the world, from employees of Polaroid to a General Motors director, from student account-holders in Barclay's Bank to consumers who boycott Shell gas, all refuse to let business with South Africa go on as usual. Boycotts and divestment campaigns bring the anti-apartheid movement into the lives and communities of people around the world, helping everyday people understand and challenge Western economic support for apartheid. Faced with attacks at home and growing chaos in South Africa, international companies pull out in a mass exodus, causing a financial crisis in the now-isolated South Africa and making it clear that the days of the apartheid regime are numbered"--Clarity Fims website.

DVD 8581 v.6

Have you heard from Johannesburg? Apartheid and the club of the West /

Six documentary stories chronicling the history of the global anti-apartheid movement that took on both the South African government and its international supporters, who considered South Africa an ally in the Cold War.

DVD 6779

Influenza, 1918

In the spring of 1918, an army private reported to a hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, an illness that doctors knew little about. By the end of WWI, America was ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 people.

DVD 13367

Through deaf eyes

"Explores almost 200 years of Deaf life in America and presents a broad range of perspectives on what it means to be deaf. The film is propelled by the stories of people, both eminent and ordinary, and sheds lights on events that have shaped Deaf lives: the creation of schools for deaf students, the debate about American Sign Language, the campaign for a deaf-friendly telephone (the TTY), the fight for a deaf president at Gallaudet University, and some very loud rock and roll" -- Container.

DVD 4734

War of 1812

A two-hour documentary looking at this important historic event from several perspectives, the American, Canadian, British and Native American. Contains some limited reenactments and major historians, authors, and experts.

DVD 8841

Wild by law

"Wild by law is the story of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the three men responsible for its passage: forester/philosopher Aldo Leopold, author of the bestselling A Sand County Almanac and the first to bring the word 'ecology' into standard usage; Bob Marshall, millionaire socialist and founder of the Wilderness Society; and Howard Zahniser, a tireless bureaucrat with a profound love of the wild places he seldom saw. Singly and together, these three fought against the current of American thought from the 1920s through the 1950s to attain what had once seemed an unfathomable victory. More than just the story of an historic struggle to preserve the natural world, Wild by law provides an invaluable overview of the roots of the environmental movement, offering a deeper understanding of one of the most important issues facing contemporary civilization"--Container.

DVD 12207