Skip to Main Content

Streaming Video Guide

Learn more about streaming video options provided by the University Library

Platforms

The University Library works with the platforms listed on this page to supply streaming video content to support course instruction.

Panopto

Panopto LogoPanopto is a platform to store, stream, and share a selection of films owned and licensed by SCU.

Featured Films on Panopto

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps, and other sordid souls, is a place that reeks of death and hopelessness, where a lonely vampire is stalking the towns most unsavory inhabitants. But when boy meets girl, an unusual love story begins to blossom...blood red.

The first Iranian Vampire Western, Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night basks in the sheer pleasure of pulp. A joyful mash-up of genre, archetype and iconography, its prolific influences span spaghetti westerns, graphic novels, horror films, and the Iranian New Wave. Amped by a mix of Iranian rock, techno and Morricone-inspired riffs, its airy, anamorphic, black-and-white aesthetic and artfully drawn-out scenes combine the simmering tension of Sergio Leone with the surrealism of David Lynch.

A Song for Cesar

"Song for Cesar, the Movement and the Music" is a documentary built around the music, musicians, artists, and other important supporters who were instrumental in assisting Cesar Chavez and the UFW grow this movement.

A Woman and Her Car

One day, Lucie decides to write a letter to the man who abused her when she was a young girl. She then takes her camera, her car, and resolves to bring it to him in person. This award-winning short doc was started by Lucie but finished by her son, Loic, when he discovered the video tape of her journey ten years later.

Advocate

Lea Tsemel defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from non-violent demonstrators to armed militants. As a Jewish-Israeli lawyer who has represented political prisoners for five decades, Tsemel, in her tireless quest for justice, pushes the praxis of a human rights defender to its limits. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she's more than an attorney, she's an advocate.

Aquí y allá

A man (Pedro De los Santos) returns home to Mexico after many years in the U.S. He hopes to make a better life with his family and pursue his dream of starting a band.

Are You With Me

The documentary 'ben jij bij mij/are you with me' portrays Joke van den Broek (92 years), an imaginative woman living in the Netherlands. She used to work as a primary school teacher, and is a real story teller who sees a silver lining in everything. Joke still lives at home and can handle that just fine.

Arrangiarsi (Pizza...and the Art of Living) (Access ends June 15, 2027)

When Matteo's life falls apart, he moves into a 1985 VW van, traces his roots to Naples, birthplace of pizza, and discovers "arrangiarsi," the art of making something from nothing. He realizes he's not only "living the film," but needs to master arrangiarsi to survive.

Ask the Sexpert

A documentary about Dr. Mahinder Watsa, a 93-year old sex columnist for a daily newspaper in Mumbai. The film discusses the impact of his column, and attempts at censoring it for obscenity.

Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise (Access ends October 28, 2025)

On May 17, 1954, in its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the doctrine of "separate but equal," ending legal segregation in American education. Fifty years later, how close is America to fulfilling the promise of Brown?

Breaking the News

Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora wanted to do something radical about the white men dominating newsrooms. “70% of policy and politics editors are men, almost all of them are white,” says Emily. “These are the people deciding which stories are told, who is telling them, and whether they will be on the front page or the back page, if they get there at all.”  

So, Emily and Amanda along with Editor-at-Large Errin Haines and a scrappy group of fearless women and LGBTQ+ journalists band together to buck the status quo and launch The 19th*, a digital news start-up. Named after the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote, but with an asterisk to acknowledge the Black women and women of color who were omitted, the 19th’s work is guided everyday by the asterisk - asking who is being omitted from the story, and how can they be included.

Errin Haines covers politics and race, including breaking the first national story on the killing of Breonna Taylor. Emerging Latina reporter Chabeli Carrazana is based in Florida and reports on gender and the economy. LA-based Kate Sosin, a nonbinary reporter, covers LGBTQ+ stories, including the large numbers of anti-trans bills becoming law in states around the country. The film documents the honest discussions at The 19th* around race and gender equity, revealing that change doesn’t come easy, and showcasing how one newsroom confronts these challenges both as a workplace and in their journalism. But this film is about more than a newsroom. It’s about America in flux, and the voices that are often left out of the American story.

 

Close to Vermeer

Follow renowned Vermeer expert Gregor Weber, curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, as he sets up the largest ever Vermeer exhibition. Weber joins a number of Vermeer enthusiasts and experts who are using the latest techniques to search for what makes a Vermeer truly a Vermeer.

Coded Bias

"CODED BIAS explores the fallout of MIT media lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all. "--Coded bias website.

Complicit

Complicit follows Yi Yeting, a Chinese workers' rights activist, over three years on his quest to expose the dangerous working conditions in the Chinese factories producing electronics for the world market where one worker dies from exposure to toxic materials every five hours (that is the official number, the true number of death may be much higher) and his endeavor to improve these conditions

Concerning Violence

From the director of The Black Power Mixtape comes a bold and fresh visual narrative on Africa, based on newly discovered archive material covering the struggle for liberation from colonial rule in the late '60s and '70s, accompanied by text from Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth.

Daring to Resist

Actress Janeane Garofalo narrates this portrait of three teenage girls fighting genocide, taking risks they never dreamed possible: Faye Schulman, a photographer and partisan fighter in the forests of Poland (now Belarus); Barbara Rodbell, a ballerina in Amsterdam who delivered underground newspapers and secured food and transportation for Jews in hiding, and Shulamit Lack, who acquired false papers and a safe house for Jews attempting to escape from Hungary.

Daring to Resist is Produced and Directed by Barbara Attie and Martha Goell Lubell

Daughter of the Lake

Nelida is an Andean woman who talks to the water spirits. The discovery of a gold deposit threatens to destroy the lake she thinks of as her mother. To stop this from happening, Nelida joins the local farmers who fear being left without water in their fight against the biggest gold mine in Latin America.

Disgraced Monuments

"Filmmakers Laura Mulvey and Mark Lewis use rare archival footage and interviews with artists, art historians, and museum directors to examine the fate of Soviet-era monuments during successive political regimes, from the Russian Revolution through the collapse of communism. Mulvey and Lewis highlight both the social relevance of these relics and the cyclical nature of history". - Filmaffinity

Down a Dark Stairwell

When a Chinese-American police officer kills an innocent, unarmed Black man in a darkened stairwell of a New York City housing project, it sets off a firestorm of emotion and calls for accountability. When he becomes the first NYPD officer convicted of an on-duty shooting in over a decade, the fight for justice becomes complicated, igniting one of the largest Asian-American protests in history, disrupting a legacy of solidarity, and putting an uneven legal system into sharp focus.

Dreamworlds 3

Dreamworlds 3, the latest in Sut Jhally's critically acclaimed Dreamworlds series, takes a clarifying look at the warped world of music video. Ranging across hundreds of images and stories from scores of music videos, Jhally uncovers a dangerous industry preoccupation with reactionary ideals of femininity and masculinity, and shows how these ideals have glamorized a deeply sexist worldview in the face of the women's movement and the fight for women's rights. In the end, Dreamworlds 3 challenges young people to think seriously about how forms of entertainment that might seen innocuous and inconsequential can be implicated in serious real-world problems like gender violence, misogyny, homophobia, and racism.

East LA Interchange

East LA Interchange follows the evolution of working-class, immigrant Boyle Heights from one of the most diverse, multicultural areas in the United States to predominately Latino and a center of Mexican-American culture. The film shows how the neighborhood fought to survive the construction of the largest and busiest freeway interchange in the nation despite being targeted by government policies, real estate laws, and California planners. East LA Interchange explores the shifting face of community in the United States today and argues why it should matter to us all. The film features narration by Danny Trejo (Machete) and interviews with will.i.am (The Black Eyed Peas), Father Greg Boyle (Homeboy Industries), and Josefina López (Real Women Have Curves) as well as an original song by Raul Pacheco (Ozomatli).

Edith + Eddie

Edith and Eddie, ages 96 and 95, are America's oldest interracial newlyweds. A family feud threatens to disrupt the couple's happiness.

El Silencio de los Fusiles (When the Guns Go Silent)

After half a century of war and 8 million victims, the FARC, the oldest guerrilla in the world, agree to start a peace dialogue with its historic enemy: the Colombian State. Together they fight the toughest battle, the final one: the battle for peace.

Embrace of the Serpent

The story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of forty years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.

Empleadas y Patrones (Maids and Bosses)

The front doors of Panama’s expensive houses and apartments, where families and their domestic staff sometimes live together for many years, hide a at a world of ignorance and prejudice.

Far East Deep South

A Chinese-American family's search for their roots leads them to the Mississippi Delta, where they stumble upon surprising family revelations and uncover the racially complex history of the Chinese in the segregated South. FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH presents a personal and eye-opening perspective on race, immigration, and American identity. It sheds light on the history of Chinese immigrants living in the American South during the late 1800s to mid-1900s through the emotional journey of Charles Chiu and his family as they travel from California to Mississippi to find answers about his father, K.C. Lou. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local residents and historians who help them discover how deep their roots run in America. The film also explores the interconnected relationship between the Black and Chinese communities in the Jim Crow era and the generational impact of discriminatory immigration policies, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

First Person Plural

In 1966, Deann Borshay Liem was adopted by an American family and was sent from Korea to her new home. Growing up in California, the memory of her birth family was nearly obliterated until recurring dreams lead Deann to discover the truth: her Korean mother was very much alive. Bravely uniting her biological and adoptive families, Deann's heartfelt journey makes First Person Plural a poignant essay on family, loss, and the reconciling of two identities.

From Under the Rubble

The Samouni family is a peaceful, close-knit family of farmers in Gaza, 48 members of whom were killed when they were herded into a house by the Israeli Defence Force and then fired upon, as part of Israel's battle with Hamas in January 2009.

Fruit of Labor

Ashley, a Mexican-American teenager living in California, dreams of graduating high school and going to college. But when ICE raids threaten her family, Ashley is forced to become the breadwinner, working days in the strawberry fields and nights at a food processing company. A co-presentation of POV and VOCES, co-produced by POV and Latino Public Broadcasting. Official Selection, SXSW Film Festival.

Grandma's Tattoos

Grandma's Tattoos is a powerful documentary that reveals the fate of thousands of forgotten women, mostly teenagers and young girls, who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide but were forced into prostitution by their captors. Many of these women were tattooed as a permanent mark of their status.

Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories (Gurumbé: Canciones de Tu Memoria Negra

With the commercial exploitation of the American colonies, thousands of Africans are brought to Seville to be sold as slaves. Some are exported to the colonies and others stay in the city. The latter form part of a population of Afro-Andalusians, who over time manage to gain space in a society wrought with racial prejudices, whilst dealing with their situation as slaves. Music and dance will be part of their expression and the most important affirmation of their identity. From the outskirts of cities like Seville and Cadiz they give shape to the popular music of the time, together with other marginalised communities such as the gypsies, moors and Andalusians on the cities' peripheries. From the XIX century, the black population begins to disappear, partly being assimilated into parts of the community like that of the gypsies. In this same century we start to hear about a new type of music: Flamenco. Since its beginning theorists who have spoken about this art form have completely forgotten the fundamental contribution the Afro-Andalusians made to it.

Hafu - The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan (Access ends April 2, 2025)

HAFU is the unfolding journey of discovery into the intricacies of mixed-race Japanese and their multicultural experience in modern day Japan. The film follows the lives of five “hafus”–the Japanese term for people who are half-Japanese–as they explore what it means to be multiracial and multicultural in a nation that once proudly proclaimed itself as the mono-ethnic nation. For some of these hafus Japan is the only home they know, for some living in Japan is an entirely new experience, and others are caught somewhere between two different worlds.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, one in forty-nine babies born in Japan today are born into families with one non-Japanese parent. This newly emerging minority in Japan is under-documented and under-explored in both literature and media. HAFU - THE MIXED-RACE EXPERIENCE IN JAPAN seeks to open this increasingly important dialogue. The film explores race, diversity, multiculturalism, nationality, and identity within the mixed-race community of Japan. And through this exploration, it seeks to answer the following questions: What does it mean to be hafu?; What does it mean to be Japanese?; and ultimately, What does all of this mean for Japan?

Narrated by the hafus themselves, along with candid interviews and cinéma vérité footage, the viewer is guided through a myriad of hafu experiences that are influenced by upbringing, family relationships, education, and even physical appearance. As the film interweaves five unique life stories, audiences discover the depth and diversity of hafu personal identities.

Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405

The 2018 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject is an extraordinary portrait of artist Mindy Alper, whose astonishing body of work - drawings and sculptures of powerful psychological clarity - reveals a lifetime of struggle with debilitating mental illness.

Il Moro

Il Moro - The Moor is a short film about the untold story of Alessandro de’ Medici, the first Duke of Florence in 1530 and the first man of African descent to become a head of state in Renaissance Europe. While unveiling a true story from the past, the film aims to speak loudly of the situations that Black Europeans are still experiencing today and to celebrate today's Afro-European community in the history of the continent.

Indochina: Traces of a Mother (Access ends September 26, 2024)

Indochina: traces of a mother documents a little-known chapter in African, Asian and French colonial history and the personal story of Christophe, a Beninese-Vietnamese orphan that returns to Vietnam to look for his long-lost mother.

Injunuity

Injunuity is a collage of reflections on the Native American world, our shared past, our turbulent present, and our undiscovered future. From Columbus to the western expansion to tribal casinos, we are taught that the Native way, while at times glorious, is something of the past, something that needed to be replaced by a manifest destiny from across the ocean. But in a world increasingly short of real answers, it is time we looked to Native wisdom for guidance. It is time for some Injunuity. Injunuity is a mix of animation, music, and real thoughts from real people exploring our world from the Native American perspective. Every word spoken is verbatim, every thought and opinion is real, told in nine short pieces and covering such topics as language preservation, sacred sites, and the environment. But rather than simply revisit our history, the goal of Injunuity is to help define our future, to try and figure out the path that lies before us, to focus on where we are going as well as where we have been. Featuring the voices of William Harrison (Mountain Maidu), Monica Nuvamsa (Hopi, Acoma, Havasupai), Tom Phillips (Kiowa, Creek), Nazbah Tom, (Navajo/Dine), Randy Lewis (Colville), Lyz Jaakola (Anishinaabe) and Audiopharmacy.

Issei: The First Generation (Access ends September 1, 2027)

“Lost” 1984 documentary, rediscovered and restored, about Japanese men and women who, at the turn of the century, immigrated to the West Coast of the United States. These pioneers tell their own stories of struggles and triumphs in a new land.

 

Italy: Love It, or Leave It

Luca and Gustav are two young Italians who over the past few years have witnessed the exodus of many of their friends to Berlin, London or Barcelona. Creative, talented people who dont see a future in their country. They're fed up with the high cost of living, the lack of job security, the feudal university system, the generally reactionary attitudes and indifference to human rights, the clear sense that you dont get anywhere just on merit. Tired of a country that appears to be mired in quicksand can they find a reason to stay?

It's Criminal

It's Criminal is a documentary about privilege, poverty and injustice that asks viewers to think about who is in prison and why.

 

Jean-Jacques Dessalines: the Man who Defeated Napoleon Bonaparte (English Subtitles)

Dessalines is Haiti’s main founder. He was assassinated two years after the proclamation of independence. Today he is both a mythical and an unknown figure, used for better and for worse. This film reintroduces him in all his complexity and opens a debate on the Haitian crises and the colonial heritage. With analysis by Pierre Buteau, Jean Casimir, Michèle Pierre-Louis, Jean Alix René, Bayyinah Bello, Vertus Saint-Louis, Jhon Picard Byron, Lesly Péan, Daniel Elie and others.

Killing Us Softly 4

This highly anticipated update of Jean Kilbourne's influential and award-winning Killing Us Softly series, the first in more than a decade, takes a fresh look at American advertising and discovers that the more things have changed, the more they've stayed the same. Breaking down a staggering range of more than 160 print and television ads, Kilbourne uncovers a steady stream of sexist and misogynistic images and messages, laying bare a world of frighteningly thin women in positions of passivity, and a restrictive code of femininity that works to undermine girls and women in the real world. At once provocative and inspiring, Killing Us Softly 4 stands to challenge yet another generation of students to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, gender violence, and contemporary politics.

Kirikou and The Sorceress

This animated film exquisitely recounts the tale of tiny Kirikou born in an African village in which Karaba the Sorceress has placed a terrible curse. Kirikou sets out on a quest to free his village of the curse and find out the secret of why Karaba is so wicked. Lisa Nesselson of Variety (11/1/99) notes: 'KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS employs snappy visuals to tell a catchy story for all ages. A blend of African folktales 'KIRIKOU' has both humor and flair.' Kirikou depicts a precocious newborn infant who battles ignorance, and so-called evil, with endearing perseverance. This film speaks to the child within us all who yearns to express and defend the best in others and ourselves. KIRIKOU's stunning visuals are accented by a traditional music soundtrack by African music giant Youssou N'Dour of Senegal.

L'Uomo Piu Buono del Mondo: La Leggenda di Carlo Tresca

United States, early 1900s. Carlo Tresca is an Italian immigrant who leads strikes that last for months, publishes newspapers denouncing bosses and mafiosi, wins and loses dozens of trials for the freedom of his ideas and for immigrant workers in America. For almost forty years the FBI considered him among the most dangerous subversives. From Sulmona, Abruzzo, he is a trade unionist, journalist, socialist, revolutionary, anarchist, anti-fascist and anti-Stalinist, inconvenient for everyone. Perhaps he wanted to return to Italy to participate in the liberation of the country but a gunshot to the back kills him one winter evening. It's January 11, 1943. At his funeral in New York, a procession of eighty cars loaded with flowers and thousands of people. Workers, weavers, intellectuals, artists, writers mourn what was called "the best man in the world". Then on him, for years, silence descends.

Latinos Beyond Reel

Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and among the most diverse -- accounting for one-sixth of all Americans and tracing their origins to more than 20 countries. They are also a rising force in American politics. Yet across the American media landscape, from the broadcast airwaves to cable television and Hollywood film, the reality and richness of the Latino experience are virtually nowhere to be found.

In Latinos Beyond Reel, filmmakers Miguel Picker and Chyng Sun examine how US news and entertainment media portray -- and do not portray -- Latinos. Drawing on the insights of Latino scholars, journalists, community leaders, actors, directors, and producers, they uncover a pattern of gross misrepresentation and gross under-representation -- a world in which Latinos tend to appear, if at all, as gangsters and Mexican bandits, harlots and prostitutes, drug dealers and welfare-leeching illegals.

The film challenges viewers to think critically about the wide-ranging effects of these media stereotypes, and to envision alternative representations and models of production more capable of capturing the humanity and diversity of real Latinos. Features commentary from Charles Berg, Otto Santa Ana, Angharad Valdivia, Federico Subervi, Mari Castaneda, Chon Noriega, Isabel Molina, Alex Nogales, Juan Gonzalez, Moctesuma Esparza, Josefina Lopez, Alex Rivera, Luis Ramos, Lisa Vidal, and others.

Le Chant des Mariées (The Wedding Song) (Access ends December 21, 2025)

The Nazi occupation of Tunisia strains the bonds of friendship between a Muslim woman and a Sephardic Jewish woman who are both preparing for their marriages.

Leaving Home, Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank

A transformative artist and one of the most insightful chroniclers of American life, legendary Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank continues to fascinate generations of casual observers and aspiring photographers alike. LEAVING HOME, COMING HOME: A PORTRAIT OF ROBERT FRANK is the definitive account of Frank’s life and the unique ways his biography and art intersect to produce powerful, richly textured images.

Maka

Maka is a documentary about Geneviève Makaping, a Cameroonian-Italian anthropologist, writer and the first Black woman to be named the director of a newspaper in Italy. The film offers a detailed account of Makaping's perilous journey of migration from Cameroon across the desert and the ocean, her arrival in Italy in 1982 following the tragic death of her partner, her success as a journalist and television host, and her more recent relocation and current teaching job in Mantua. Maka focuses on questions of national belonging, and it reflects on how the perception of migration and race has changed since Makaping first came to Italy in the 1990s. The making of the film was also influenced by the anthropological research method defined by Makaping in her landmark text Reversing the Gaze. What if You Were the Other? (2001), Maka interrogates how our perception of Italy today changes when viewed from the perspective of a Black woman.

Miss America

Tracking the country’s oldest beauty contest—from its inception in 1921 as a local seaside pageant to its heyday as one of the country’s most popular events—MISS AMERICA paints a vivid picture of an institution that has come to reveal much about a changing nation. The pageant is about commercialism and sexual politics, about big business and small towns. But beyond the symbolism lies a human story—at once moving, inspiring, infuriating, funny, and poignant.

Combining rare archival footage, with a host of intimate interviews with distinguished commentators including Gloria Steinem, Margaret Cho, Isaac Mizrahi, former contestants and behind–the–scenes footage and photographs, the film reveals why some women took part in the fledgling event and why others briefly rejected it - how the pageant became a battle ground and a barometer for the changing position of women in society.

 

Monseñor: The Last Journey of Óscar Romero

In the 1970s, as El Salvador moved irrevocably closer to civil war, one man was known as the voice of the poor, the disenfranchised, the disappeared. Appointed Archbishop in 1977, Monsenor Oscar Romero worked tirelessly for peace, justice and human rights, while in constant personal peril. Using the power of the pulpit to denounce official corruption, he inspired millions with his nationally broadcast sermons, until in March of 1980, he was shot dead at the altar. With rare recordings and film footage, and a wide range of interviews with those whose lives were changed by Romero, including church activists, human rights lawyers, former guerrilla fighters and politicians, Monsenor is a timely portrait of the man's quest to speak the truth, though it cost him his life.

Monumental Crossroads

"Throughout the South of the United States, tempers flare up as confederate monuments are targeted for removal. During a 6000 mile road trip through the former Confederacy, this documentary explores the legacy of Southern Heritage. A myriad of supporters and opponents is met along the way: White, Black, North and South. Each with their own view on what's worth remembering and preserving. Is there a way past these crossroads?"
--IMDb

Motherload (2019)

Motherload is a crowdsourced documentary about a new mom's quest to understand and promote the cargo bike movement in a gas-powered, digital and divided world. As Liz explores the burgeoning global movement to replace cars with purpose-built bikes, she learns about the bicycle's history and potential future as the ultimate "social revolutionizer." Her experiences as a cyclist, as a mother, and in discovering the cargo bike world, teach Liz that sustainability is not necessarily about compromise and sacrifice and there are few things more empowering, in an age of consumption, than the ability to create everything from what seems to be nothing. MOTHERLOAD features unconventional production methods (including crowdsourcing from non-filmmakers), genre-bending storytelling (experimental/personal/doc), and themes of movement-building, activism and courage to "go against the grain."

My Brooklyn

My Brooklyn follows director Kelly Anderson's journey, as a Brooklyn gentrifier, to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood. The film documents the redevelopment of Fulton Mall, a bustling African-American and Caribbean commercial district that - despite its status as the third most profitable shopping area in New York City - is maligned for its inability to appeal to the affluent residents who have come to live around it. As a hundred small businesses are replaced by high rise luxury housing and chain retail, Anderson uncovers the web of global corporations, politicians and secretive public-private partnerships that drive seemingly natural neighborhood change. The film's ultimate question is increasingly relevant on a global scale: who has a right to live in cities and determine their future?

 

My Country (Access ends Feb. 19, 2026)

Two brothers — one American, one Italian, who’ve never met — take a road trip from Rome to the unknown but picturesque region of Molise on a journey to spread the ashes of their late father in the small town where he was born.

Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power

Robert F. Williams was the forefather of the Black Power movement and broke dramatic new ground by internationalizing the African American struggle. Negroes with Guns is not only an electrifying look at an historically erased leader, but also provides a thought-provoking examination of Black radicalism and resistance and serves as a launching pad for the study of Black liberation philosophies. Insightful interviews with historian Clayborne Carson, biographer Timothy Tyson, Julian Bond, and a first person account by Mabel Williams, Robert's wife, bring the story to life.

Robert Franklin Williams was born in Monroe, North Carolina in 1925. As a young man he worked for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit until he was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 where he learned to take up arms.

Back in Monroe, Williams married Mabel Robinson, a young woman who shared his commitment to social justice and African American freedom. After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Klan activity in Monroe skyrocketed, successfully intimidating African Americans and nearly shutting down the local chapter of the NAACP. Williams revived it to nearly 200 strong by reaching out to everyday laborers and to fellow Black veterans - men who were not easily intimidated. When repeated assaults on Black women in the county were ignored by the law, Williams filed for a charter from the NRA; the Black Armed Guard was born. During a 1957 integration campaign that faced violent white resistance, Williams' armed defense guard successfully drove off legions of the Klan and electrified the Black community.

In 1961, Freedom Riders came to Monroe, planning to demonstrate the superior effectiveness of passive resistance over armed self-defense. They were bloodied, beaten and jailed, and finally called on Williams for protection from thousands of rioting Klansmen. Despite the threatening mobs, Williams sheltered a white family from violence, only to be later accused of kidnapping them. Fleeing death threats, Rob and Mabel gathered their children, left everything behind and fled for their lives pursued by FBI agents on trumped-up kidnapping charges.

Williams and his family spent five years in Cuba where he wrote his electrifying book, Negroes With Guns and produced Radio Free Dixie for the international airwaves. They later moved on to China, where they were well received but always longed for their forbidden home. In 1969, Williams exchanged his knowledge of the Chinese government for safe passage to the States. Rob and Mabel lived their remaining days together in Michigan where he died in 1995. His body was returned at long last to his hometown of Monroe, N.C.

Neighbor

A homeless man uncovers a dirty little secret in Suburbia.

Nostalgia for the Light

Director Patricio Guzman travels to the driest place on earth, Chile's Atacama Desert, where astronomers examine distant galaxies, archaeologists uncover traces of ancient civilizations, and women dig for the remains of disappeared relatives.

Oaxacalifornia: El Regresso

An intimate portrait of three generations of a Mexican-American family in California, Oaxacalifornia: The Return revisits the Me̕ja family twenty-five years after they were first portrayed negotiating their place in a new environment, digging deep into the complexities of multigenerational immigrant identities and the nuances of both belonging and otherness to become a moving epic about the fabric of this nation.

Old People Driving

Old People Driving chronicles the adventures of Milton (age 96) and Herbert (age 99) as they confront the end of their driving years. Viewers join Herbert as he takes his last drive, hands over his keys, and comes to terms with the reality of life without a car. Milton, meanwhile, continues to drive every day and vows to do so until he feels he's no longer safe on the road. Through their stories, and a review of the latest traffic safety research, Old People Driving dispels some of the myths about elderly drivers without shying away from the fact that many people will outlive their ability to drive safely.  "Old People Driving puts a human face on the tremendously important issue of senior drivers. I recommend it for anyone seeking to help students understand the important and complex issues that surround aging."  -;Erika Falk, Psy.D., Director, Geriatric Assessment and Psychological Services, Institute on Aging

Plan A

In 1945, a group of Jewish holocaust survivors planned to poison the water system in Germany. The film tells the dangerous and bold secret-operation which was called Plan A.

Potentially Dangerous

During World War II, the U.S Government restricted the actions and freedoms of 600,000 Italian residents of the United States. All were declared "Enemy Aliens," and many were placed under curfew, banned from their workplaces, evacuated from their homes and communities, and even placed in internment camps. Many of these people had been in the United States for decades, had children born in their adopted country, and had sons serving in the U.S. Military. During that era, Italians made up the biggest foreign-born group in the country. As the Department of Justice would later say, "The impact of the wartime experience was devastating to the Italian American communities in the United States, and its effects are still being felt." Interned Italians were not changed with a crime or allowed legal representation. They were subjected to "loyalty hearings" and held for the duration of the war. The United States government considered them "Potentially Dangerous" not based on anything they had done, but on where they were born. Most Italians refused to speak about what happened to them. Even 80 years later, many have remained silent. Until now. Hear their stories for the first time in Potentially Dangerous.—Zach Baliva

Precious Knowledge

Precious Knowledge reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with interviews with teachers, parents, school officials, and the lawmakers who wish to outlaw the classes.

While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of high school, Tucson High’s Mexican American Studies Program has become a national model of educational success, with 93 percent of enrolled students, on average, graduating from high school and 85 percent going on to attend college. The filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom filming this innovative curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students who became engaged, informed, and active in their communities.

As the nation turns its focus toward a wave of anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, the issue of ethnic chauvinism becomes a double-edged weapon in a simmering battle making front page news coast to coast. When Arizona lawmakers pass a bill giving unilateral power to the State Superintendent to abolish ethnic studies classes, teachers and student leaders fight to save the program using texts, Facebook, optimism, and a megaphone.

Lawmakers and politicians respond with a public relations campaign to discredit the students, claiming that a textbook used in the classes, Paulo Freire’s The Pedagogy of the Oppressed teaches victimization and sedition. Officials ask that the classroom’s Che Guevara posters be replaced with portraits of founding father Benjamin Franklin. Meanwhile, the students answer back by fighting for what they believe is the future of public education for the entire nation, especially as the Latino demographic continues to grow.

Prisoner of Paradise

Kurt Gerron was a star in Germany's theater and cabaret scene in the 1920s and 1930s, performing with some of the country's best artists and entertainers of the time. But with the rise of Adolf Hitler, the acclaimed Jewish entertainer was relegated to the role of prisoner in a Nazi-run concentration camp. There he was forced to put his talents to use writing and directing a propaganda film that sang the praises of his captors. This documentary tells Gerron's shocking and tragic story.

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

Pushout: the criminalization of Black girls in schools is a feature length documentary, based on a book of the same name by Dr. Monique W. Morris, that takes a deep dive into the lives of Black girls and the practices, cultural beliefs and policies that disrupt one of the most important factors in girls' lives-education. The documentary underscores the challenges Black girls face with insight from experts across the country who have worked extensively in the field of social justice, gender quality and educational equality. These experts give context to the crisis and provide a roadmap for how our educational system and those who interact with Black girls can provide positive, rather than punitive, responses to behaviors that are often misunderstood or mis-represented. While the challenges facing Black boys in this country have garnered national attention, absent in that conversation has been how girls of color, particularly Black girls, are being impacted. Pushout addresses that crisis. We hear from girls with experiences that impacted them from as young as seven to as old as nineteen, as they described navigating a society that often marginalizes and dismisses them.

 

Race: The Power of an Illusion

The division of the world's peoples into distinct groups - "red," "black," "white" or "yellow" peoples - has became so deeply imbedded in our psyches, so widely accepted, many would promptly dismiss as crazy any suggestion of its falsity. Yet, that's exactly what this provocative, new three-hour series by California Newsreel claims. Race - The Power of an Illusion questions the very idea of race as innate biology, suggesting that a belief in inborn racial difference is no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the earth.

Yet race still matters. Just because race doesn't exist in biology doesn't mean it isn't very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.

Reckonings

They met in secret to negotiate the unthinkable -- compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Survivors were in urgent need of help, but how could reparations be determined for the unprecedented destruction and suffering of a people? Reckonings explores this untold true story set in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Revolution of the Heart: The Dorothy Day Story

A documentary on the Christian anarchist and co founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Roses in December

On December 2, 1980 lay missioner Jean Donovan and three American nuns were brutally murdered by members of El Salvador's security force. This "sensitive, marvelously constructed film" (Catholic New York) chronicles Jean's life, from her affluent childhood in Connecticut, to her decision to volunteer with the Maryknolls in El Salvador, to her tragic death. An award-winning classic for the ages, Roses in December is both an eloquent memorial to the commitment of this courageous young woman and a powerful indictment of U.S. foreign policy in Central America.

Seeking Asian Female

Steven is a 60-year-old white American man who works as a cashier in a garage and dreams of marrying a young Asian woman. Debbie, a Chinese American filmmaker, documents his obsessive search for potential brides over the Internet because she hopes to make an exposé about his "yellow fever." When Jianhua, or "Sandy," a 30-year-old woman from Anhui, China, agrees to Steven's online proposal and moves to California to be his fiancé, unexpected complications arise for all three: bride, groom and filmmaker. From one surprising turn to the next, as the two online pen pals attempt to overcome vast differences in age, language and culture for the sake of a real-life marriage, the filmmaker gets pulled deeper into their story. With comic and poignant twists and turns, this roller coaster relationship documentary becomes a challengingly honest love story for the ages.

Selling Lies

In 2016, an army of teenagers in Macedonia discovered a wildly lucrative game of posting false political clickbait news articles on Facebook for profit. By creating websites leading up to the presidential election that published sensationalized and misleading news stories about American politics, they generated a massive income and influenced the election. Selling Lies offers a rare glimpse inside the secret network behind these websites, including one notorious ringleader whose social media reach had vast implications on American readers, and explores how disinformation campaigns are continuing to strongly impact the U.S. today leading into the 2020 presidential election.

Señorita Extraviada

This film "unfolds like the unsolved mystery that it examines -- the kidnapping, rape and murder of over 350 young women in Juárez, Mexico ... [T]he film unravels the layers of complicity that have allowed these brutal murders to continue. Relying on what filmmaker Lourdes Portillo comes to see as the most reliable of sources -- the testimonies of the families of the victims -- this film documents a two-year search for the truth in the underbelly of the new global economy

Sleep Dealer

Set in the future, a young man looks for a better life outside his small rural village in Mexico-- but finds himself facing a technological dystopia when he attempts to cross the border.

Soldiers of Conscience (Access ends April 06, 2026)

Eight Iraq War soldiers face the most difficult moral decision of their lives:  to kill or not to kill. Each is torn between the demands of duty and the call of conscience. A realistic, yet optimistic look at war, peace, and the power of the human conscience.

Speaking in Tongues

Against the backdrop of “English-only” initiatives in 31 states, one school district is proving that speaking a foreign language can be an asset. SPEAKING IN TONGUES follows students from diverse backgrounds as they become bilingual in language immersion programs. Their stories traverse a number of perennial challenges facing America: economic inequality, de facto segregation, and increasing nativist backlash towards immigrants. As bilingualism begins to change the students, their families, and their communities, it emerges as a tool for shifting what it means to be an American and a global citizen in a rapidly changing world. To explore the contentious debates surrounding the “English-only” movement, the film turns to Ling-chi Wang, a nationally known civil rights activist who pioneered efforts to establish multilingual education in the United States, and leads the charge in this school district.

Standing on Sacred Ground

Indigenous communities around the world and in the U.S. resist threats to their sacred places—the original protected lands—in a growing movement to defend human rights and restore the environment.

In this four-part documentary series, native people share ecological wisdom and spiritual reverence while battling a utilitarian view of land in the form of government megaprojects, consumer culture, and resource extraction as well as competing religions and climate change.

Narrated by Graham Greene, with the voices of Tantoo Cardinal and Q’orianka Kilcher, the series exposes threats to native peoples’ health, livelihood, and cultural survival in eight communities around the world. Rare verité scenes of tribal life allow indigenous people to tell their own stories—and confront us with the ethical consequences of our culture of consumption.

Step By Step: Building A Feminist Movement, 1941-1977

Proving beyond a doubt that feminism began well before the 1960s, and that its players were not just the white middle class, this inspiring film follows the lives of eight Midwestern women, six of whom became founders of NOW. Set against a backdrop of decades of war, prosperity and reform, their stories beautifully illustrate the continuity and diversity of 20th-century feminism, as the participants describe the labor, civil rights, and political movements of the '40s and '50s that led them to take independent action for women. Using well-chosen archival footage, stills, music, and primary-source narration, producer Joyce Follet of the University of Wisconsin and consulting producer Terry Rockefeller (EYES ON THE PRIZE and AMERICA'S WAR ON POVERTY) offer a first-rate, panoramic-yet-personal view of the women on feminism's front lines.

Street Heroines

STREET HEROINES is an award-winning feature-length documentary celebrating the courage and creativity of women who despite their lack of recognition have been an integral part of the graffiti and street art movement since the beginning. With authentic vérité storytelling woven between an interview-driven narrative, STREET HEROINES juxtaposes the personal experiences of three emerging Latina artists from New York City, Mexico City, and São Paulo as they navigate a male-dominated subculture to establish artistic identities within chaotic urban landscapes.

Stonebreakers

Stonebreakers chronicles the heated conflicts around monuments that arose in the United States during the George Floyd protests and the 2020 presidential election and continue to reverbate in towns and cities across the nation.As statues of Columbus, Confederates and Founding Fathers fall from their pedestals, the nation's triumphalist myths are called into question. By exploring the shifting landscapes of American monumentality, the film interrogates the link between history and political action in a nation that must confront its past now more urgently than ever.

 

The Anonymous People

The Anonymous people is a feature documentary film about the 23.5 million Americans living in long-term recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction. Deeply entrenched social stigma and mass participation in widely successful anonymous 12-step groups have kept recovery voices silent and faces hidden for decades. The vacuum created by this silence has been filled by sensational mass media depictions of addiction that continue to perpetuate a lurid public fascination with the dysfunctional side of what is a preventable and treatable health condition. Just like women with breast cancer, or people with HIV/AIDS, courageous addiction recovery advocates are starting to come out of the shadows to tell their true stories. The moving story of the Anonymous people will be told through the faces and voices of the leaders, volunteers, corporate executives, and celebrities who are laying it all on the line to save the lives of others just like them. This passionate new public recovery movement is fueling a changing conversation that aims to transform public opinion, and finally shift problematic policy toward lasting recovery solutions.

The Ants and the Grasshopper (Access ends Feb. 1, 2025)

Anita Chitaya has a gift; she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and she can end child hunger in her village.  Now, to save her home from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real. Traveling from Malawi to California to the White House, she meets climate sceptics and despairing farmers. Her journey takes her across all the divisions shaping the US, from the rural-urban divide, to schisms of race, class and gender, to the thinking that allows Americans to believe they live on a different planet from everyone else. It will take all her skill and experience to help Americans recognize, and free themselves from, a logic that is already destroying the Earth.

The Atomic Cafe

The film recounts a defining period of 20th century history and serves as a chilling and often hilarious reminder of cold-war era paranoia in the United States juxtaposing Cold War history, propaganda, music and culture through a collage of newsreel footage, government produced educational and training films, military training films, advertisements, and fifties music, capturing a panicked nation, offering a fascinating and witty account of life during the atomic age and resulting cold war, when fall-out shelters, duck-and-cover drills, and government propaganda were all a part of our social consciousness.

The Conspiracy

The hateful conspiracy that just won't go away - that somehow a cabal of Jewish people control the world - sends filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin to detail 250 years of antisemitism.

The Corporation

One hundred and fifty years ago, the Corporation was a relatively insignificant entity. Today, it is a vivid, dramatic and pervasive presence in all our lives. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the Corporation is today's dominant institution. But history humbles dominant institutions. All have been crushed, belittled or absorbed into some new order. The Corporation is unlikely to be the first to defy history. In this complex, exhaustive and highly entertaining documentary, Mark Achbar, co-director of the influential and inventive Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, teams up with co-director Jennifer Abbott and writer Joel Bakan to examine the far-reaching repercussions of the Corporation's increasing preeminence. Based on Bakan's book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, the film is a timely, critical inquiry that invites CEOs, whistle-blowers, brokers, gurus, spies, players, pawns and pundits on a graphic and engaging quest to reveal the Corporation's inner workings, curious history, controversial impacts and possible futures. Featuring illuminating interviews with Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn and many others, THE CORPORATION charts the spectacular rise of an institution aimed at achieving specific economic goals as it also recounts victories against this apparently invincible force.

The Jew in the Lotus

In 1990, eight Jewish delegates traveled to Dharamsala, India, to meet with the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet and share 'the secret of Jewish sprititual survival in exile.'

The Land: An Adventure Play Documentary

The Land (2015) is a short documentary film about the nature of play, risk and hazard set in The Land, a Welsh "adventure" playground. At The Land children climb trees, light fires and use hammers and nails in a play-space rooted in the belief that kids are empowered when they learn to manage risks on their own.

The Mask You Live In

The Mask You Live In follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity.

Pressured by the media, their peer group, and even the adults in their lives, our protagonists confront messages encouraging them to disconnect from their emotions, devalue authentic friendships, objectify and degrade women, and resolve conflicts through violence. These gender stereotypes interconnect with race, class, and circumstance, creating a maze of identity issues boys and young men must navigate to become “real” men.

Experts in neuroscience, psychology, sociology, sports, education, and media also weigh in, offering empirical evidence of the “boy crisis” and tactics to combat it.

The Mask You Live In ultimately illustrates how we, as a society, can raise a healthier generation of boys and young men.

The Pearl Button

The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds the voices of the Earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of a mysterious button that was discovered in its seabed. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline, the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian indigenous people, of the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.

The Prison in Twelve Landscapes

An examination of the prison and its place -- social, economic and psychological -- in American society. Excavates the often-unseen links and connections that prisons and our system of mass incarceration have on communities and industries all around us-- from a blazing California mountainside where female prisoners fight raging wildfires to a Bronx warehouse that specializes in prison-approved care packages to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of new prison jobs to the street where Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson. Includes interviews with ex-convicts, prisoners and people who live near prisons.

The Queen (1968)

More than 40 years before RuPaul's Drag Race, this ground-breaking documentary about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant introduced audiences to the world of competitive drag. The film takes us backstage to kiki with the contestants as they rehearse, throw shade, and transform into their drag personas in the lead-up to the big event. Organized by LGBTQ icon and activist Flawless Sabrina, the competition boasted a star-studded panel of judges including Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, and Terry Southern.. But perhaps most memorable is an epic diatribe calling out the pageant's bias delivered by Crystal LaBeija, who would go on to form the influential House of LaBeija, heavily featured in Paris Is Burning (1990). A vibrant piece of queer history, The Queen can now be seen in full resplendence thanks to a new restoration from the original camera negative.

 

The Raising of America

THE RAISING OF AMERICA: EARLY CHILDHOOD AND THE FUTURE OF OUR NATION is a five-part documentary series that explores how a strong start for all our kids can lead to a healthier, stronger and more equitable America.

The science is clear: the environments and relationships infants and toddlers experience literally shape their developing brain architecture and is the foundation for future success in school and in life. But, too often, middle and low-income parents are hindered by social and economic forces beyond their control: lack of paid family leave and affordable quality childcare, stagnant wages and job insecurity, racial stigma and social exclusion. And when parents are stressed, their children pay the price.

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva

How did the willful daughter of a Himalayan forest conservator become Monsanto's worst nightmare? The Seeds of Vandana Shiva tells the remarkable life story of Gandhian eco-activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, how she stood up to the corporate Goliaths of industrial agriculture, rose to prominence in the ecological food movement, and is inspiring an international crusade for change. In her colorful sari and large scarlet bindi, Dr. Vandana Shiva is an arresting presence: She galvanizes crowds, advises government leaders, fields constant calls from the media-then then retreats from big-city buzz to work alongside small farmers across the developing world. Who is she? What is her mission? How did this woman from an obscure town in India become Monsanto's worst nightmare: a rebellious rock star in the global debate about who feeds the world?

The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl

This documentary recounts the life and work of German film director Leni Riefenstahl. The film recounts her career from dancer, actress, and film director in Nazi Germany. The film explores her disgrace after Germany's defeat in 1945 and tells of her work and life after the war. Leni Riefenstahl is best known for her film Triumph des willens.

Touba (Access ends September 7, 2026)

Touba reveals a face of Islam essential in these divisive times. It chronicles the Grand Magaal pilgrimage of 1 million Sufi Muslims to the holy city of Touba, Senegal. This observational film takes us inside the Mouride Brotherhood: one of Africa's most elusive organizations. Pilgrims travel from all over the world to pay homage to the life and teachings of Cheikh Amadou Bamba. His non-violent resistance to French colonial persecution in the late 19th century inspired a national movement: freedom of religious expression through pacifism. These are lessons the world can learn.

Unladylike2020

"UNLADYLIKE2020 calls into question American history as we know it, reaching back to the dawn of the 20th century to recognize unsung female leaders and women of color trailblazers. The series presents rich biographies of 26 trailblazing American women that everyone should know, who broke barriers in male-dominated fields over 100 years ago, such as politics, journalism, science, business, sports, and the arts, including the first woman to found a hospital on an American Indian reservation, serve in the U.S. Congress, become a bank president, earn an international pilot’s license, lead scientific expeditions in the Arctic, swim the English Channel, sing opera on the main stage at Carnegie Hall, or direct a feature-length movie.  Presenting history in a bold new way, UNLADYLIKE2020 brings these extraordinary stories of daring and persistence back to life through captivating original artwork and animation, rare archival imagery, and interviews with historians, descendants, and accomplished women of today, who reflect on the influence of these pioneers.   The UNLADYLIKE2020 collection includes short documentary films ranging in length from 9 to 12 minutes profiling 26 different women." -- Grasshopper Film

Unnatural Causes

UNNATURAL CAUSES is the acclaimed documentary series broadcast by PBS and now used by thousands of organizations around the country to tackle the root causes of our alarming socio-economic and racial inequities in health.

The four-hour series crisscrosses the nation uncovering startling new findings that suggest there is much more to our health than bad habits, health care, or unlucky genes. The social circumstances in which we are born, live, and work can actually get under our skin and disrupt our physiology as much as germs and viruses.

Uprooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance

UPROOTED is a feature-length documentary celebrating the history, lineage, and future progressions of jazz dance. With a stellar cast of leading industry experts, award-winning choreographers, and legendary performers, this groundbreaking documentary goes back to the roots in Africa and follows the evolution of this incredible dance form through every single decade and genre. Exploring and commenting on political and social influences, the film addresses topics such as appropriation, racism, socialism, and sexism. UPROOTED includes special appearances with Debbie Allen, George Faison, Chita Rivera, Camille A. Brown and Thomas F. DeFrantz and showcases the works of the Nicholas Brothers, Pepsi Bethel, Jack Cole, Katherine Dunham, Bob Fosse and Gene Kelly.

Up the Yangtze

In China, it is simply known as “The River.” But the Yangtze—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Canadian documentary filmmaker Yung Chang returns to the gorgeous, now-disappearing landscape of his grandfather’s youth to trace the surreal life of a “farewell cruise” that traverses the gargantuan waterway.

With Altmanesque narrative agility, a humanist gaze and wry wit, Chang’s Upstairs Downstairs approach beautifully captures the microcosmic society of the luxury liner. Below deck: A bewildered young girl trains as a dishwasher—sent to work by her peasant family, who is on the verge of relocation from the encroaching floodwaters. Above deck: A phalanx of wealthy international tourists set sail to catch a last glance of a country in dramatic flux. The teenaged employees who serve and entertain them—now tagged with new Westernized names like “Cindy” and “Jerry” by upper management—warily grasp at the prospect of a more prosperous future.

Singularly moving and cinematically breathtaking, UP THE YANGTZE gives a human dimension to the wrenching changes facing not only an increasingly globalized China, but the world at large.

Vado Verso Dove Vengo

People share stories of how their lives turned out as a result of making their respective choices from emigration, homecoming and staying put.

We Are All Related Here

In a remote western Alaskan village, an Indigenous community is at imminent risk of being displaced by climate change.

We Exist: Beyond the Binary

"One of the first films to document a growing community living life "beyond the binary" construct of gender. We exist offers a first-hand account of what it is like to exist other than male or female, while living within the confines of a world that is slow to catch up."--DVD jacket.

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

The body of an unidentified immigrant is found in the Arizona Desert. In an attempt to retrace his path and discover his story, director Marc Silver and Gael Garcia Bernal embed themselves among migrant travelers on their own mission to cross the border, providing rare insight into the human stories which are so often ignored in the immigration debate.

Womanhouse (1974)

A prodigious historical documentary about one of the most important feminist cultural events of the 1970s in the United States. "Womanhouse" was a feminist art installation and performance space organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, co-founders of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Feminist Art Program. Held in 1972 at 533 N. Mariposa Street, Los Angeles, Ca..

Swank Digital Campus

Swank Digital Campus LogoSwank Digital Campus provides a customizable academic streaming library of over 25,000 feature films, documentaries and foreign films from the largest movie studios, including Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, NBCUniversal, Columbia Pictures, Lions Gate, MGM, Miramax and many more. 

Kanopy

Kanopy LogoKanopy is a video-streaming platform dedicated to thoughtful and thought-provoking films. Founded in 2008, Kanopy was established to provide academic institutions with essential films that foster learning and conversation. Content providers include A24, PBS, California Newsreel, Paramount, Criterion Collection, HBO Documentary Films, Kino Lorber, Cohen Media Group, Cinema Guild, Bleeker Street, Media Education Foundation, Dos Vatos, First Run Features, New Day Films, and Psychotherapy.net.

Effective October 7, 2022, Santa Clara University Library expanded Kanopy access to include access to Kanopy's BASE Subscription titles in addition to films individually licensed per faculty request. Kanopy BASE Subscription content includes nearly 10,000 titles (many of which are exclusive to Kanopy) which cover multiple disciplines from diverse suppliers including PBS, California Newsreel, Kino Lorber, First Run Features, New Day Films, Film Movement, and SHOUT Factory.

Alexander Street Press

Alexander Street Logo

Alexander Street publishes more than 80 collections totaling many millions of pages, audio tracks, videos, images, and playlists. Collections across the curriculum—in literature; music; women's history; black history; psychological counseling and therapy; social and cultural history; drama, medical, theatre, film, and the performing arts; religion; sociology; and other emerging areas. SCU currently subscribes to the collection Counseling and Therapy in Video and also licenses videos individually.

Films on Demand

Films on Demand LogoFilms On Demand is a Web-based digital video delivery service that allows viewing of streaming videos from Films Media Group. Choose from thousands of high-quality educational titles in dozens of subject areas. Special features allow users the ability to organize and bookmark clips, create and share playlists, and personalize folders. Content providers include BBC, ABC News, NBC News, A&E Television Networks, Cambridge Educational, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

Docuseek

Docuseek LogoDocuseek streams essential independent, social-issue and environmental films to colleges and universities, providing exclusive access to content from renowned leaders in documentary film distribution. Participating distributors include Bullfrog Frilms, dGenerate Films, The Fanlight Collection, First Run Features, Icarus Films, Kartemquin Films, KimStim Films, MediaStorm, National Film Board of Canada, ScorpionTV, and Terra Nova Films.

Film Platform

Film Platform LogoFilm Platform collaborates with some of the industry’s leading filmmakers and content providers around the world to bring the finest documentary films to any audience willing and wanting to learn. The collection is meticulously curated by film experts and leading academics to showcase meaningful documentaries of social, political, and cultural importance. Film Platform works with an academic advisory board to ensure that each of our films upholds the highest educational standards and speaks directly to today’s most pressing academic topics and concerns.

Ambrose Video

Ambrose Video Logo

Ambrose Video has access to over 700 Educational videos including timely science and history topics. New releases include: Career Decisions: Physical Therapy, The Neuroscience of Addiction Extended Interviews, Behavioral Science, AP Human Geography, Great Directors, Great Authors of the British Isles and Great Irish Authors, BBC Classics such as all 37 BBC Shakespeare Plays, James Burkes' Connections, Ascent of Man and more.

Digitalia

Digitalia Film Library LogoDigitalia Film Library (streaming video) is a multilingual collection of films from Spain, France and other European countries, North American Classic films, and Latin American films from South America, Central America and Caribbean including Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and others.

Vendor Catalogs

The University Library also licenses films from the catalogs below to host on SCU's Panopto platform.

Grasshopper Film

Grasshopper FilmGrasshopper Film is a distribution company dedicated to the release of independent, foreign, and documentary film. Founded in December 2015 by Ryan Krivoshey.

Good Docs

Good Docs Logo

 "GOOD DOCS are films that do good in the world. Our award-winning collection engages and inspires students by featuring rarely heard stories about individuals and communities working towards a more equitable world. We champion creative expression and complex films that provoke critical thinking. GOOD DOCS represents established documentarians and passionate new filmmakers driven by their experiences as educators, academics, journalists, artists, social workers, community members, and activists." - Good Docs About Us

Women Make Movies

Women Make Movies Logo Women Make Movies - "Our acclaimed collection of nearly 700 films is used by thousands of cultural, educational and community organizations across North America and throughout the world. We work in collaboration with international film festivals, national broadcasters, and local community groups to deliver media that enriches public dialogue and changes lives. Our long-standing commitment to diversity shows in our catalog, more than half of which is produced by women from different cultures, as well as by LGBTQI women, older women, women with disabilities, and women of color." - WMM About Us Distribution

Cinema Guild

Cinema Guild LogoCinema Guild - Based in New York City, The Cinema Guild is a distributor of independent, foreign and documentary films. The company was founded by Philip and Mary-Ann Hobel, producers known for their work in documentaries and features, including Tender Mercies, winner of two Academy Awards.

Third World Newsreel

Third World Newsreel LogoThird World Newsreel (TWN) is an alternative media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation and dissemination of independent film and video by and about people of color and social justice issues.

It supports innovative work of diverse forms and genres made by artists who are intimately connected to their subjects through common bonds of ethnic/cultural heritage, class position, gender, sexual orientation and political identification. TWN promotes the self-representation of traditionally marginalized groups as well as the negotiated representation of those groups by artists who work in solidarity with them.

Ultimately, whether documentary, experimental, narrative, traditional or non-traditional, the importance of the media promoted by the organization is its ability to effect social change, to encourage people to think critically about their lives and the lives of others, and to propel people into action.