Urban Studies

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.

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.

An offbeat documentary portrait of Lily Dale, New York, one of America's oldest spiritualist communities, where just about everyone is a psychic or a medium who claims to be able to communicate with the dead. The video includes interviews with several mediums in Lily Dale and shows them as they give private readings, perform public healings, and take part in outdoor services where they receive messages "from the spirit side of life."

This video examines the world of New York City's hot-dog vendors, revealing their lifestyles, hopes and dreams, and the political struggle in which New York's Mayor Rudy Giuliani is attempting to restrict their access to the city's streets. It features interviews with a wide variety of vendors, and members of the city's Vendor Review Panel and Business Improvement District.

This video tells the story of Springfield Park, a housing estate built in the early Sixties in West Belfast, made up of both Catholic and Protestant families who lived side by side in harmony.

From the first concept to the final rivet, The Statue of Liberty was the creation of volunteers. Strange to say, no government was involved. This documentary tells the exciting story of who was involved: hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens from all walks of life, even children, gave their small earnings to realize Miss Liberty, first in France and then in the U.S. It took 14 years to consummate.

Examines the plight of homeless children through interviews with more than a dozen youngsters living on the streets of California's Bay Area.

Examines the hectic lifestyles of "fast track" couples, members of the Baby Boom generation whose desire to succeed--at the office, in social circles and through their children's accomplishments--leads to living in a state of chronic stress.

Documents the efforts of a group of American volunteers--including architects, artists, teachers and psychologists--in building and operating a primary school in a poor Tiajuana neighborhood.

Chronicles one season in the life of the Morningside High School basketball team, the defending California state champs, whose school is situated in a crime-ridden L.A. neighborhood.