History

Films

Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi This beautifully crafted, poignant, and timely documentary explores the power of art to heal the trauma of torture. The film follows exiled Chilean musician Quique Cruz from the San Francisco Bay Area to Chile and back as he creates a multimedia installation and musical suite in an effort to heal the emotional wounds inflicted on him by the state-sponsored torture of the Pinochet regime.

Backbone of the World Set amid the majestic splendor of the northern Rockies, this innovative and inspiring documentary interweaves two compelling parallel stories: film director George Burdeau's journey home to live and work on the Blackfeet Reservation, and his tribe's determined struggle to protect its sacred lands and forge a new identity.

Bear's Hiding Place: Ishi's Last Refuge This documentary journey into the past follows a contemporary archaeological expedition to find and confirm the location of Wowunupo'mu Tetna, or Bear's Hiding Place, the last refuge of the Yahi and of Ishi before his dramatic appearance in 1911.

Beijing Conveys the texture and flavor of the venerable Chinese capital through a close-up look at a number of its inhabitants, both young and old, with varied and fascinating backgrounds. Their stories unfold against the backdrop of a timeless but rapidly changing metropolis.

Brownsville Black and White This poignant and powerful documentary explores the complex history of interracial cooperation, urban change, and social conflict in Brownsville, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, from the 1930s to the present.

California and the American Dream This incisive, thought-provoking four-part series explores the dynamics of culture, community, and identity in California, one of the most diverse places in the world. Each film provides a trenchant and highly discussible case study of divergent California social trends that are keenly evident all across America.

California's "Lost" Tribes This remarkable documentary explores the conflicts over Indian gaming and places them in the context of both California and Native American history. The film examines the historical underpinnings of tribal sovereignty and the evolution of tribal gaming rights over the last 30 years.

Chronicle of an American Suburb This fascinating, multifaceted documentary is an extraordinary portrait of one of America's quintessential postwar suburbs, Park Forest, Illinois, from its founding to the present.

Confederacy Theory This powerful and thought-provoking documentary explores the complexities of a controversy steeped in American history and racial divisiveness: the debate over the Confederate flag in South Carolina, the last state to fly the flag on its capitol.

Contrary Warriors This widely acclaimed documentary chronicles the Crow Indians' century-long battle for survival. In spite of every effort by the U.S. government to assimilate the people and acquire their tribal land, the Crows have persisted -- their language, family, and culture intact.

The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy This exceptional and compelling documentary, narrated by Alec Baldwin, examines the life and legacy of legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky.

Discovering Dominga This unforgettably dramatic and powerful documentary relates the extraordinary story of a young Iowa housewife who discovers she is a survivor of one of the most horrific massacres in Guatemalan history, committed in 1982 against Maya Indian villagers. The film follows her remarkable journey of transformation and discovery as she returns to Guatemala in search of her heritage and ultimately joins efforts to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice.

The Doon School Quintet This groundbreaking, five-part study of India's most prestigious boys' boarding school is a contemporary masterwork of renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall. Sometimes called "the Eton of India," Doon School has developed its own characteristic style and presents a curious mixture of privilege and egalitarianism. Each of the five films can stand on its own but taken together as a series the five films provide a unique and revelatory cultural portrait that will take its place among the classics of ethnographic cinema.

The Five Suns: A Sacred History of Mexico This much-honored animated film employs authentic pre-Columbian Aztec iconography to depict the most important creation myths and sacred stories of the Aztecs and other Nahuatl-speaking peoples of ancient central Mexico.

Food for Body and Spirit The Tao of cooking and eating -- the Way to health and well-being! This film investigates the impact of religious influences on Chinese culture and cuisine.

Ishi, the Last Yahi This widely acclaimed film recounts one of the most extraordinary and important stories in American history and explains its contemporary relevance with power and eloquence.

The Last Zapatista This remarkable documentary examines the profound and enduring legacy of Emiliano Zapata in contemporary Mexico. The film focuses on Emeterio Pantaleon, a 97-year-old Mexican farmer and one of the last living veterans who fought with Zapata during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to 1920.

Masters of the Wok Like Chinese cuisine and Chinese culture, this film is a study in contrasts. It explores the evolution of Chinese cuisine from basic peasant fare to highly refined and lavish imperial cooking.

Mi Puerto Rico This wide-ranging and much-honored documentary explores Puerto Rico's rich cultural traditions and untold history, revealing the remarkable stories of its revolutionaries and abolitionists, poets and patriots.

The New Los Angeles This engaging documentary explores the complexities of inclusion in Los Angeles -- the nation's largest "majority-minority" city and the city with the nation's largest divide between rich and poor.

The Peyote Road: Ancient Religion in Contemporary Crisis This widely acclaimed, landmark documentary was instrumental in the campaign to have Congress overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's 1990 "Smith" decision, which denied the protection of the First Amendment to the traditional sacramental use of peyote by Indian people.

Popol Vuh: The Creation Myth of the Maya This much-honored animated film employs authentic imagery from ancient Maya ceramics to create a riveting depiction of the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth and the foundation of most Native American religious, philosophical, and ethical beliefs.

Popol Vuh: The Creation Myth of the Maya (Spanish Version) This much-honored animated film employs authentic imagery from ancient Maya ceramics to create a riveting depiction of the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth and the foundation of most Native American religious, philosophical, and ethical beliefs. This is the Spanish-language version.

The Pornography of Everyday Life This trenchant and provocative documentary essay incorporates more than 200 powerful images from advertising, ancient myth, contemporary art, and popular culture to demonstrate how pornography (defined as the sexualized domination, degradation, and objectification of women and girls and social groups who are put in the demeaned feminine role) is in reality a prevalent mainstream worldview.

The Red Road to Sobriety The contemporary Native American Sobriety Movement is flourishing throughout the Indian communities of North America. This vital social movement combines ancient spiritual traditions with modern medical approaches to substance abuse recovery.

The Return of Navajo Boy (With 2008 Epilogue) Set in the stunning landscape of Utah's Monument Valley, this unforgettable, universally acclaimed documentary chronicles the extraordinary saga of how a rediscovered 1950s silent film reel leads to the return of a long-lost brother to his Navajo family.

The Seasons of the Salish Shot on location in Idaho and Montana, this lyrical documentary follows the traditional annual round of the Native peoples of the Northern Rockies and Inland Plateau.

The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet Featuring unique archival footage and exclusive interviews with former Tibetan resistance fighters and surviving CIA operatives, this powerful documentary reveals for the first time a hitherto unknown chapter in Tibet's recent history.

Still Revolutionaries This compelling documentary explores the lives of two women who were members of the Black Panther Party between 1969 and 1975.

A Stranger in My Native Land This profound, poetic, and ultimately immensely sad documentary may be the first of its kind about Tibet -- a vivid personal account of loss and disappointment as an exile discovers his country for the first time.

Suzhou Known for centuries as the center of Chinese culture and aesthetics, this Yangzi delta city has often been called the "Venice of the East" because of its many canals and bridges. This beautifully filmed portrait of the city leads the viewer through markets and teahouses, sweet shops and bookstores, rice paddies and fish stalls, and two of Suzhou's exquisite gardens.

Unfinished Symphony No public topic can ever be more timely than the debate over the nature and limits of liberty and the means by which citizens may oppose the policies of the government. And no documentary in recent memory so clearly and with such heartfelt eloquence poses the key questions and issues of this always-vital debate as does "Unfinished Symphony."

Water Farmers The Yangzi River delta region south of Shanghai is known as the water country. Hundreds of miles of canals traverse the land, linking towns and villages. Here, near the city of Shaoxing, water has completely shaped the local farmers' unique way of life.

Who Owns the Past? This outstanding documentary relates the powerful history of the American Indian struggle for control of their ancestral remains.

Wiping the Tears of Seven Generations In December 1990, 300 Lakota Sioux horseback riders rode 250 miles, in two weeks, through bitter, below-zero winter weather, to commemorate the lives lost at the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.

Xian This wide-ranging documentary presents a cultural history of the ancient Chinese imperial city, once the greatest capital in the world and the Eastern terminus of the famed Silk Road.