Films with:

Blood and oil

This film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines, showing how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years. As a result, the contemporary energy and military policies of the U.S. are virtually indistinguishable.

DVD 5018

Bystander moment transforming rape culture at its roots /

The Bystander moment, featuring leading anti-violence educator and author Jackson Katz, explores the role played by bystanders -especially friends, teammates, classmates, and co-workers - inperpetuating sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other forms of gender violence. In a riveting analysis illustrated with archival footage and clips from news, sports, and entertainment media, Katz gives special attention to peer culture dynamics -especially make peer culture dynamics across race and ethnicity - that help to normalize sexism and misogyny while silencing other men in the face of abuse. The Bystander Moment also stresses the crucial importance of appealing to people not as potential perpetrators or passive challenging and changing the sexist cultural norms that too often lead to gender violence. The result is an indispensable educational tool in the ongoing struggle to prevent sexism and misogyny and promote gender equality.

DVD 12892

Consumerism & the limits to imagination

"Consumer capitalism dominates our economy, our politics, and our culture, even though a growing body of research suggests it may be well past its sell-by date. In this illustrated presentation based on his latest critically acclaimed book, media scholar Justin Lewis makes a compelling case that consumer capitalism can no longer deliver on its promise of enhancing quality of life, and argues that changing direction will require changing our media system and our cultural environment. After showing how consumer capitalism has become economically and environmentally unsustainable, Lewis explores how our cultural and information industries make it difficult to envision other forms of human progress by limiting critical thinking and keeping us locked in a cycle of consumption. And he argues that change will only be possible if we take culture seriously and transform the very way we organize our media and communications systems."--Container.

DVD 10728

Guyland

In this powerful new film based on his bestselling book, sociologist Michael Kimmel maps the troubling social world where boys become men -- a new stage of development he calls "Guyland." Arguing that the traditional adult signposts and cultural signals that once helped boys navigate their way to manhood are no longer clear, Kimmel provides an astonishing glimpse into a world where more and more young men are trying desperately to prove their masculinity to other young men -- with frequently disastrous consequences for young women and other young men. Guyland offers a way for all of us -- parents, young men and women, community members, and professors and administrators -- to envision new ways to support young men as they navigate this often perilous world.

DVD 11494

Hijacking catastrophe 9/11, fear & the selling of American empire /

This film discusses how the events of 9/11/2001 have influenced United States politics, from advancing a pre-existing military agenda to rolling back civil liberties and social programs. This documentary features interviews with leading commentators on the events of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

DVD 2760

Mean world syndrome media violence & the cultivation of fear /

"For years, debates have raged among scholars, politicians, and concerned parents about the effects of media violence on viewers. Too often these debates have descended into simplistic battles between those who claim that media messages directly cause violence and those who argue that activists exaggerate the impact of media exposure altogether. 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 that cultivates a heightened state of insecurity, exaggerated perceptions of risk and danger, and an appetite for hard-line and repressive political solutions to social problems. A provocative and accessible introduction to cultivation analysis, media effects research, and the subject of media influence and media violence"--Container.

DVD 4621

Not just a game

"We've been told again and again that sports and politics don't mix. But the way sportswriter Dave Zirin sees it, this is wishful thinking. In this powerful documentary, Ziriin, the iconoclastic sports editor of The Nation magazine, takes viewers on a fascinating and uncompromising tour of the good, the bad, and the ugly of American sports culture -- showing how sports have helped both to stabilize and to disrupt the political status quo throughtout history. After first exploring how American sports, at their worst, have reinforced repressive political ideas and institutions by mindlessly glamorizing things like militarism, racism, sexism, and homophobia, Zirin excavates a largely forgotten -- and ultimately exhilarating -- history of rebel athletes who dared to fight for social justice beyond the field of play." -- Container.

DVD 7813

Pornland how the porn industry has hijacked our sexuality /

In this multimedia presentation based on her acclaimed book, leading anti-porn feminist and scholar Gail Dines argues that the dominant images and stories disseminated by the multibillion-dollar pornography industry produce and reproduce a gender system that undermines equality and encourages violence against women. In direct opposition to claims that porn has delivered a more liberated, edgy sexuality, Dines reveals a mass-produced vision of sex that is profoundly sexist and destructive - a vision that limits our ability to create authentic, equal relationships free of violence and degradation.

DVD 13002

Purity myth

The United States is obsessed with virginity from the media to schools to government agencies. The Purity Myth is an important and timely critique of about why this is so, and why it's problematic for girls and women. Analyzing cultural stereotypes and media messages, Jessica Valenti reveals the overt and hidden ways our society links a woman's worth to her sexuality rather than to values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. With intelligence and wit, this film exposes the legal and social punishments that women who dare to have sex endure, while presenting a powerful argument that evaluating girls and women on their sexuality needs to stop.

DVD 9185

Race, power & American sports featuring Dave Zirin /

Cultural historian Dave Zirin, whose influential blog and bestselling books have offered searing insights into the politics of American sports, examines the myriad ways sports culture has worked both to reproduce and challenge the wider culture's dominant ideas about race and racial difference. Interviewed by Communication scholar Sut Jhally, whose own work has sought to clarify the relationship between popular culture and racial attitudes, Zirin's analysis ranges from the emergence of professional sports in the 1800s to today's commercial media sports spectacles to show how athletes of color have posed a direct threat to traditional notions of whiteness, white male authority, and American ideals of masculinity. The film is richly illustrated throughout with archival and contemporary sports footage.

DVD 9706

Reel bad Arabs how Hollywood vilifies a people /

Throughout its history Hollywood has portrayed Arabs as buffoons or bandits. The video seeks to rectify this stereotyping by comparing it to other forms of racist imagery and by suggesting alternative narratives that treat the Arabs as human, not demons.

DVD 5020

This land is our land

"For more than three decades, transnational corporations have been busy buying up what used to be known as the commons -- everything from our forests and our oceans to our broadcast airwaves and our most important intellectual and cultural works. ... [David] Bollier shows how a bold new international movement steeped in democratic principles is trying to reclaim our common wealth by modeling practical alternatives to the restrictive monopoly powers of corporate elites."--Container.

DVD 8115

Tough guise 2 violence, manhood & American culture /

In this highly anticipated update of the influential and widely acclaimed Tough Guise, pioneering anti-violence educator and cultural theorist Jackson Katz argues that the ongoing epidemic of men's violence in America is rooted in our inability as a society to move beyond outmoded ideals of manhood. In a sweeping analysis that cuts across racial, ethnic, and class lines, Katz examines mass shootings, day-to-day gun violence, violence against women, bullying, gay-bashing, and American militarism against the backdrop of a culture that has normalized violent and regressive forms of masculinity in the face of challenges to traditional male power and authority. Along the way, the film provides a stunning look at the violent, sexist, and homophobic messages boys and young men routinely receive from virtually every corner of the culture, from television, movies, video games, and advertising to pornography, the sports culture, and US political culture. Tough Guise 2 stands to empower a new generation of young men - and women - to challenge the myth that being a real man means putting up a false front and engaging in violent and self-destructive behavior.

DVD 9960

Tough guise violence, media, and the crisis in masculinity /

Looks systematically at the relationship between the images of popular culture and the social construction of masculine identities in the U.S. at the end of the 20th century. Jackson Katz argues that there is a crisis in masculinity and that some of the guises offered to men as a solution (e.g., rugged individualism, violence) come loaded with attendant dangers to women, as well as other men.

DVD 3790

War made easy how presidents & pundits keep spinning us to death /

"Analysis of how governments bent on war-making have relied on a vast arsenal of propaganda techniques to overcome resistance at home and disapproval abroad ... Moving from Vietnam to Iraq, the film examines how news reports have become nearly indistinguishable from White House and Pentagon talking points, a problem that has become exacerbated by journalists who have grown accustomed to being fed information by official sources"--Container.

DVD 5019