Cultural Studies

An unflinching look inside the contentious recall of an immigrant rights activist in California, and the fierce conflict it sparked within the Latino community, between recent and assimilated immigrants, over what it means to be an American.

The AIDS pandemic in Africa as seen through the eyes of two young girls, an American and South African teenager, featuring the music of the Dave Matthews Band and U2.

Revealing an aspect of Iranian society rarely exposed to the West, filmmaker Ata Hayati brings his cameras to Behesht Zahra, Tehran's biggest cemetery, to witness Iran's distinctive culture of death.

How does an American Indian tribe preserve its heritage while functioning in modern America? Long Journey Home tells the story of walking in two worlds through the family of Dee Ketchum, tribal chief of the Delaware Indians from 1998 through 2002.

This video chronicles the filmmaker’s quest to uncover the mystery of her Slovak identity and heritage. As a young girl growing up during the Cold War, she was curious about the 'strange' language spoken by her grandmother and the enigma that shrouds her past.

This ten-part series examines the history of the North American Indian, exploring their social, political and economic systems, as well as their art, religion, and educational values

This portrait of Margaret Randall—activist, poet, writer, teacher and photographer—comes at a particularly appropriate time, as patriotism is being equated in some quarters with keeping silent about important issues.

This video features an interview with Dr. Alexander lief, a gerontology specialist at Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital, who discusses his on-location study of the people living in the Andean village of Vilcabamba in Ecuador.

Beginning with cultures of prehistory and primitive dance forms, this film depicts the concert forms of native dancing in the works of Katherine Dunham. The second part of the film deals with folk dances of more than fifteen nations.

In this video, artist and art educator Betty LaDuke presents the lives and work of three American women artists of diverse heritages—Lois Mailou Jones, Mine Okubo, and Pablita Velarde.

Surveys the contemporary Chicano art movement by tracing its development during the height of Chicano political activism in the late Sixties and Seventies, blending archival footage with interviews with the artists and samples of their work, including photographs, murals, graphics, films, paintings, and ephemeral art.

Examines the adoption of Chinese children by U.S. parents, profiling six diverse families who share their adoption stories, meeting a parent who worked inside an orphanage before ever planning to adopt, one who lived through China's Cultural Revolution, and another who has spent over twenty years researching adoption in China. It is a video about building families, as well as overcoming cultural myths and misunderstandings.

This documentary examines one of the most significant holidays on the Mexican calendar, showing how it is celebrated today and tracing its historical background, which goes back 3,000 years.

This video profiles Frederick Brown, one of America’s most prolific expressionist painters, whose Soho loft studio in New York served as a gathering place for artists, musicians, writers, dancers and other creative personalities during the Sixties and Seventies.

Portrays the revival of Los Pastores (The Shepherd's Play), an ancient Christmas morality play that has long been part of Hispanic folk traditions in the American Southwest.

This entertaining documentary features a variety of African-American poets from all over America, who have gathered to perform at Kafe Kuumba in Indianapolis, a local cultural center sponsored by the Midtown Writers Association.

This documentary examines the tradition of both the Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Loyalist communities in Northern Ireland of painting huge murals on building walls, both as a way to celebrate cultural heroes or commemorate significant historical events as well as to demarcate their respective neighborhoods.

Examines the rise and fall of socialism in Albania, tracing the nation's history from its 1944 establishment as a communist republic by Enver Hoxha to its recent emergence from decades of authoritarian rule following Hoxha's death in 1985.

Examines the former Yugoslav Republic and newly independent country of Macedonia and its efforts to make the difficult transition from socialism to capitalism and to forge a democratic society in which ethnic minorities share equally in political and economic decision making.

Chronicles recent changes in Russia, from before the 1991 coup attempt and focusing on life today in post-Soviet Russia.