Films with: Morris, Scott

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

From the ashes the life and times of Tick Hall /

Tick Hall, a landmark house designed by McKim, Mead & White and built in 1883 overlooking the ocean in Montauk, New York, was destroyed by fire in 1997. Dick Cavett and his wife Carrie Nye, its most recent owners, set out to recreate it from photos, memories and clues found in the ashes.

DVD 4648

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

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

White like me

White Like Me, based on the work of Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today.

DVD 9841