The Mosque Next Door, Episode 1

TVF International

The end of the Muslim holy month sees the mosque on the frontline of a rising tide of Islamophobia, as the mosque community tackles misconceptions with surprising results.

Black Hollywood the Way It Was: Fading In – Part 2

Tony Brown Productions

This program begins with the decision by the NAACP to answer D. W. Griffith’s racist epic, The Birth of A Nation, by producing a film that would highlight and celebrate Black progress, The Birth of A Race. Fortunately, in that same year, 1915, Noble Johnson, an African American, established the Lincoln Motion Picture Company that made history with its first film, The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition, which became the first movie to portray Blacks in a positive image.

Goodbye, Sgt. Ross?

Tony Brown Productions

This program from Tony Brown's Journal discusses the role of the Black male lead on White-controlled television?

Who Was Stepin Fetchit

Tony Brown Productions

Who was the real man behind one of Hollywood’s most negative images, Stepin Fetchit? In this program from Tony Brown's Journal, Mel Watkins, author of Who Was Stepin Fetchit?, explains that Lincoln Perry was very different from the lazy, bug-eyed buffoon on screen.

The Most Downloaded Commercial: Ad Persuasion

Tricon Films Inc.

This episode of Ad Persuasion will show you last year’s most downloaded commercial, according to YouTube. The spot, for Folger’s coffee, is called ‘Happy Mornings’ and will make you wonder if you ever want to wake up again. Experts comment on this and five other ads, including contrasting ads for ESPN and Fox Sports.

Should You Really Play Video Games?

BBC Worldwide Learning

This BBC Horizon program seeks to find out if the brains and behavior of an entire generation are being shaped by the hours they spend playing video games. The film explores how developers engineer their games to make sure they reach the sweet spot between frustration and boredom for the gamer, and Horizon looks at some of the scientific tests being carried out around the world to understand the impact of gaming on behavior, physiology, and neurobiology. Do gamers who play the most violent games show more violent behavior? Are gamers better at spatial navigation? And just how addictive are video games?

The American Muslim Experience

Independent Production Fund

School Principal Safaa Zarzour says of his Muslim school: “Our vision and our dream is that there is something that is called American Muslim identity forming for those kids—just like any other religious or ethnic group.” Most immigrant and minority groups face the challenge of balancing the sometimes conflicting demands of faith and traditional culture with the pressures to assimilate into modern American society. This module explores that inherent conflict.

Teenage And Gay

BBC Worldwide Learning

Young gay people in the UK are increasingly discovering the self-awareness and confidence to come out while still in school. In recent years there has been a revolution in social acceptance, but coming out while still a teen is always fraught with difficulties and potential danger. This documentary follows five British teenagers as they come out, capturing intimate first-hand experiences, empathising with them as they seek acceptance for their sexuality. From the 14-year-old footballer who describes herself as a ‘butch lesbian’ to the transgender boy forced out of home and school, the programme features a cross-section of characters. Intimate, confessional and raw, Teenage and Gay celebrates their bravery, and exposes the ostracism and bullying they can suffer. NB. The UK TX version is called Underage and Gay. A BBC Production.

The Merchant of Venice with F. Murray Abraham (Shakespeare Uncovered, Series 3)

PBS

F. Murray Abraham, who has played two great Jewish "villain" Shylock, from William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," explains European anti-Semitism in Shakespeare's time.

The Feud

PBS

The feud between the Hatfields and McCoys is perhaps the most famous family conflict in American history. As legend has it, two neighboring families in the backwoods of Appalachia waged a crude and bloody war against each other over a stolen hog, an illicit romance, and longstanding grudges. Yet the events that took place near the end of the 19th century between the Hatfields and McCoys are part of a much richer and more complex narrative of the American experience. Anderson Hatfield and Randolph McCoy, the patriarchs of the legendary feud, were entrepreneurs seeking to climb up from hardship after fierce economic competition and rapid technological change had turned their lives upside down. When members of both families took their grievances to court, their dispute escalated into a war between two families and a struggle between two states. The Feud reveals more than an isolated story of mountain lust and violence between "hillbillies" - the Hatfield-McCoy feud was a microcosm of the tensions inherent in the nation's rapid industrialization after the Civil War.

European Extremists: A Continent Wrestles with Hate

Java Films

Nationalist, populist, and xenophobic movements are becoming significant political forces across Europe, with some gaining enough support to win parliamentary seats. This investigation traverses the continent and goes into the heart of extreme right-wing organizations for a frightening look into what can happen when fear, ignorance, and racism intersect. Viewers are taken to a German village dominated by nostalgia for the Third Reich, and to Hungary, where tattooed thugs conduct terrifying “patrols” of Roma areas. In France, the Bloc Identitaire exploits modern technology to spread a message of hate and fear, while across the channel, the English Defense League draws crowds of unruly supporters—all seemingly oblivious to the irony that they have become the type of fundamentalists they stand against. Contains harsh language. (57 minutes)

Angel Island: A Story of Chinese Immigration

NewsHour Productions

On Angel Island, the history is written on the walls. From 1910 until 1943, Chinese immigrants to America passed through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the Ellis Island of the West. Unlike other groups, the Chinese were legally discriminated against under an 1882 law called the Chinese Exclusion Act. This program looks at how two women—one an artist, the other a documentary filmmaker—are raising funds and awareness to have the old immigration station restored. Slated for destruction, the station was spared in 1970 when a park ranger discovered, beneath layers of paint, poems written by anxious detainees about their fears of deportation. (12 minutes)

The Theme of Evil

TeleTime

In the fourth part of an eight part lecture series on “Daniel Deronda,” Professor Ruth Wisse examines evilness in Henleigh Grandcourt and Mr. Lapidoth. An expert on Yiddish and Jewish literature and winner of the National Humanities Medal, Wisse discusses how Grandcourt symbolizes an aristocracy that loses its purpose before losing financial power. Bored, he exercises power over Gwendolen, who does not suspect his sadism. Mr. Lapidoth exploits Mirah’s loyalty to her father while fulfilling a negative Jewish stereotype. Wisse also identifies a third type of evil, that of anti-Jewish prejudice in British society that developed in response to internal problems such as universal alienism and insecurity. Through the novel, Eliot hoped to save England from adopting Germany’s anti-Semitism ideology.

Black Hollywood the Way It Was: Burnt Cork – Part 1

Tony Brown Productions

This program takes a glimpse into the archives of the motion picture industry and journeys back to the beginning with the invention of the first moving picture and follows the impact of African Americans in its development.

Black Hollywood the Way It Was: The Middle Years Part 3

Tony Brown Productions

This program picks up during the Depression years as black independent filmmakers struggle for survival. The depressed economy and strong competition from Hollywood studios forced all-black cast movies to take a back seat.

Black Hollywood the Way It Was: Fading Out – Part 4

Tony Brown Productions

This program takes a look at the early 1940s for Blacks in film. Many black roles took on a more dignified humanitarian trend, spearheaded by the NAACP. The War Department during this pre-war period funneled thousands of dollars into the production of films that displayed the dedication and character of the black soldier. Unfortunately, for the black independent film industry, the pre-war rationing of film to the larger companies, coupled with the dwindling number of black-owned theatres, made it difficult for black-cast films to compete with the new integrated Hollywood trend. Many of the black film companies went out of business toward the end of the 1940s as did many of the black actors who were their stars.

Blacks in White TV

Tony Brown Productions

This program from Tony Brown's Journal features a discussion with Dr. Fred MacDonald and Hal Williams about whether or not the Black male lead is too strong for White-controlled television.

History of Blacks In Radio

Tony Brown Productions

This program from Tony Brown's Journal turns back the pages of radio history to examine the treatment of Blacks during radio's Golden Age.

Stars on Hollywood

Tony Brown Productions

In this program from Tony Brown's Journal, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ben Vereen discuss their experiences of being Black in a hostile industry.

The Legacy of Race Movies

Tony Brown Productions

Before Hollywood discovered the diverse talents of black actors and directors, African-American audiences were flocking to theaters to see low-budget, black-produced films called “race” movies. This program from Tony Brown's Journal looks at these rare and mostly-forgotten films that were a testament to a small group of black pioneers and a piece of Americana.

Stereotyping and Diversity: Cutting Edge Communication Comedy Series

Seven Dimensions

In this video, Cutting Edge staff discuss stereotyping and diversity. Most of us resort to stereotyping when dealing with management, colleagues, suppliers, regulators and clients; everyone at some time is guilty of forming blanket opinions based on shallow perceptions. Carol winces when she sees Dion arriving for his first day on the job in nightclub gear. Sam and Sanjay mock Serena's apparent "singleton" status. Marcus sets up a stereotyping training session, asking everyone to wear a silly hat.

You See Monsters

TVF International

Across the world, the demonization of Muslims has taken on monstrous proportions, and Islam is represented as a threat to the Western way of life. But in the bottom right-hand corner of the world, in a country better known for its bikinis than its burqas, a new generation of Australian Muslims are asserting their own agency in the face of anti-Islamic bigotry – not with defensive or apologetic arguments, but on the front foot using the power of their imaginations to create works of art that are fighting racism with imagination and irreverence.

Shakespeare in Perspective: The Merchant of Venice

BBC Worldwide Learning

Wolf Mankowitz gives a personal view of The Merchant of Venice which, "more than any other in the English language, established the image of the Jew." He talks about his personal reaction to the play, being Jewish himself, and the effect the play had on the image of the Jew.

Big Noise Dispatches No. 7

MVD Entertainment Group

Dispatches No. 7 reports on the Middle East, increased military recruitment of Latinos, and the FBI's abuse of power.

Between Two Worlds

Doctoroff Media Group

In the early 1880s, abetted by the Chinese Exclusion Act, a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment swept across America. This program examines the exclusion years through the stories of Chinese Americans and their families who were kept apart by both ancient custom and U.S. law. These immigrants were trapped between countries, at home neither in the U.S. nor in China. The law of the land, which separated these families, also provided relief as Chinese Americans turned to the courts for justice. (89 minutes)

Women Leading Danish Mosque Challenge Patriarchy and Right-Wing Religious Control (2/24/18)

NewsHour Productions

Along with Scandinavia’s first female imam, Mariam mosque in Copenhagen is reinterpreting the Koran with a focus on women’s rights—including the right to marry outside the faith and file for divorce. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on how these Muslim women are not just fighting patriarchy, but those who use religion as justification for abuse.

The Sale Of The Century

BBC Worldwide Learning

William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate on whom Citizen Kane was based, was badly in debt in 1941. He decided to sell some of his antiques. The sale, held, bizarrely, in a New York department store, gave ordinary people a chance to buy unique items at unbeatable prices. With archive footage of the sale, this film traces the where-abouts and owners of some of those fabulous bargains.

Modern Moves

CNN

Cultivating talent can mean defying critics and stereotypes for dancers in Nairobi, Cape Town, and Kampala.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Films for the Humanities & Sciences

Was the legislation enacted to protect American workers or can it only be described as an overtly racist policy?