Sociology

This video examines the high-heeled pump and why so many women continue, despite the physical discomfort and damage, to wear these outrageous shoes.

Since its earliest days, Las Vegas has depended on women. It's a city where the female body is more an object of commerce than anywhere else in America. This video goes behind the Showgirls mythos to tell the true story of real women who live and work in Las Vegas, the mothers, maids, wives, casino executives and showgirls, who struggle against the sex-object stereotype.

Examines the operations of the Bronx Housing Court which annually mediates some 125,000 disputes between tenants and landlords, including evictions, rent strikes and housing code violations. The film also explores the social and economic causes for the growing problem of urban housing decay.

Tells the stories of poor people in Philadelphia who illegally take over or `squat' in abandoned houses in order to get places to live and to change housing policy locally and nationally. The film focuses on a 22-year-old single mother of three small children who becomes a leader in the national squatters movement, and includes numerous interviews with activists, real estate developers and government officials.

Examines gentrification, a process by which an underdeveloped neighborhood is `upgraded' by real estate speculation, with higher income individuals moving into and improving existing properties, but also displacing many of the neighborhood's longtime residents.

Depicts the efforts of Latino residents of New York's Lower East Side who have taken over their own buildings abandoned by landlords. Organizing themselves into Tenants' Associations, they undertake the repair and renovation of their decaying tenements and provide their own services.

Examines the plight of `squatters' in Brooklyn, NY as they try to claim buildings abandoned by the city and to transform them into habitable dwellings.

This video on the subculture of graffiti features interviews with numerous graffiti 'artists,' follows them on "bombing" expeditions, attends a national graffiti art conference, and records encounters between graffiti writers and adults angry about defacement of private and public property.

Filmmaker Nora Jacobson spent eight years documenting Hoboken's battles over gentrification, from boom in the '80s to bust in the '90s. This epic, dramatially engrossing documentary features a real-life cast of long-time residents, newly arrived Yuppies, tenants' organizers, real estate developers, street people, immigrants from around the world, and local politicians.

During the Sixties and early Seventies, banks, insurance companies, the City of New York, and many landlords drew a red-line around the Bronx and abandoned its neighborhoods. More than 12,000 fires burned each year, 300,000 people fled, and in the South Bronx 40% of the homes were destroyed.

A compilation historical documentary offering a critical look at the development of bombs and other weapons of mass destruction since WWII.

Chronicles the history of arms control and disarmament negotiations since WWII, discusses ways in which international conflicts can be most effectively resolved, and suggests how ordinary people can influence progress towards disarmament.

Employing an imaginative mix of song and dance, narrative, documentary, parody, and a TV game show, this video examines urban crime in America and how the atmosphere of pervasive fear that envelops our cities encourages racial antagonism.

Examines the Santa Fe Fiesta, America's oldest continuous community celebration, which commemorates the Spaniards' "bloodless reconquest" of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico in 1692.

Examines the political activism of the religious New Right, focusing on their anti-abortion efforts. Combining interviews with scenes filmed at anti-abortion conventions and demonstrations, the video provides a revealing, inside look at the movement and its philosophy as expressed by its leaders as well as its rank and file activists.

This remarkable, three-part video series thrusts viewers into the front lines of the struggle over abortion rights between members of Operation Rescue, pro-choice demonstrators, clinic staff and patients.

Examines U.S. immigration policy, its history as well as the current crisis, and shows how public opinion, human rights and political issues have historically influenced policy decisions.

Examines the Sanctuary Movement, a modern-day underground railroad in which American citizens, supported by churches, synagogues and other organizations, transport political refugees from Central America to places of refuge in the U.S.

Examines the situation of communes-small, voluntary social communities isolated from general society which share a common ideology and social purpose-in the U.S.

Completed shortly after his April 1989 suicide, this provocative and comic NYC deli encounter between Sixties radical-emeritus Abbie Hoffman (on the eve of his 50th birthday) and actress/filmmaker Nancy Cohen shows the self-proclaimed "Jewish Road Warrior" at his feisty, outspoken and humorous best. He comments on politics and youth in the '60s, '70s and '80s, men and women, food and sex, life underground and in prison, fleeting fame, midlife crises and death.