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A Class Divided
In 1970, a public school teacher in Riceville, Iowa, divided her all-white, all-Christian third-graders into blue and brown-eyed groups for a lesson in discrimination. On successive days, each group was treated as inferior and subjected to discriminatory treatment. This FRONTLINE reunites the teacher and the class after 15 years to relate the enduring effects of their lesson. Of interest is when the experiment is used in at a professional conference of corrections officials. This is highly recommended by the Coordinator of Educational Outreach. Ideal for two 30 minute sessions. (60 minutes)
Age of Hope: Optimism Reigns as the New Century Begins
From WGBH's People's Century series.
The dawn of the twentieth century was forged in hope and optimism - few could have imagined the magnitude of the changes that were about to overtake them. From 1900 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, AGE OF HOPE interviewees - from Europe, Asia, and the United States, and boasting an average age of 102 - recount the part they played in the century's early history. Whether fighting on the barricades of the failed Russian Revolution of 1905 or campaigning for votes for women; attending the first meeting of the African national Congress in South Africa or witnessing the sinking of the Titanic, all remember the progress they lived through, the changes they fought for - and the clash of forces and ideas before World War I.
60 minutes.
Angry Harvest
In the winter of 1942-43, a Jewish family leaps from a train going through Silesia. They are separated in the woods, and Leon, a local peasant who's now a farmer of some wealth, discovers the woman, Rosa, and hides her in his cellar. Leon's a middle-aged Catholic bachelor, tormented by his sexual drive. He doesn't tell Rosa he's seen signs her husband is alive, and he begs her to love him. Rosa offers herself to Leon if he'll help a local Jew in hiding who needs money. Leon pays, and love between Rosa and him does develop, but then Leon's peasant subservience and his limited empathy lead to tragedy. At the war's end, a ray of sunshine comes from an unexpected place.
106 minutes. DVD only
Basic Institncts 5: The Milgram Experiment Re-Visited
Do people listen to those in positions of authority, even if what they are telling them is wrong? That question was at the heart of the famous Stanley Milgram psychology experiments and still remains today. From the events at Abu Ghraib to Nazi Germany, people have always struggled to understand why seemingly ordinary people can sometimes do bad, or even terrible, things.
Primetime working with a major university, conducts the experiment again to see whether people's responses have changed since the original Milgram experiment in 1961. Chris Cuomo reports on Primetime: Basic Instincts; Pondering the atrocities of Nazi Germany, psychologist Stanley Milgram stunned the world with a study that showed the average person would go along with orders from an authority figure to administer painful, even dangerous electric shocks to a fellow human being. Two-thirds of Milgram's participants delivered shocks as they heard cries of pain, warnings of heart trouble, and then finally silence.
The public response to the experiment was enormous, providing insight into human nature that no one had understood before. But not long after, strict guidelines about human experimentation in psychological experiments shelved any further studies. ; But Primetime wanted to know: Would ordinary people today still follow orders blindly? After approaching psychologist Dr. Jerry Burger from Santa Clara University in California, Primetime was able to find a way to replicate Milgram's study in a modified way. With approval from the American Psychological Association, the collaboration between Primetime and Santa Clara University is the first time in over 40 years the landmark study has been re-created.; The report takes audiences through today's version of the Milgram experiment.
Participants are told they are taking part in a learning and memory study. They are paid $50 dollars to partake and told the money is theirs to keep even if they quit the experiment early. Participants are told to test word pairs on 'Ken', who is supposedly wired up in another room but is actually a control subject not being shocked. If 'Ken' gets a word pair wrong, participants are to punish him with an electric shock. The more words 'Ken' gets wrong, the higher the shocks go. And at 150 volts, 'Ken' shouts 'I don't want to go on, my heart is bothering me!' but participants are then told by the authority figure that they must go on. Though many are clearly uncomfortable, the majority of people do continue and then the experiment is stopped.
But there are people who refuse to continue to shock the subject. Primetime looks at what makes some continue and other stand up to authority.; One participant tells Cuomo, 'I was doing what I was supposed to do, and I'm there to help conduct an experiment so I'm just doing my part. Dr. Jerry Burger tells Cuomo that 'the typical response is to turn toward the experimenter and, if not say something, at least give a look that says, 'what should I do?' And of course, when an expert tells them, 'not a problem, this is nothing to worry about, continue,' the rational thing to do in that situation is to continue.'
ABC Primetime. 34 minutes. DVD only.
Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary
The astonishing true story of Hitler's private secretary coming to terms with working alongside unspeakable evil after remaining silent for nearly sixty years. (87 min)
The Boat Is Full
This Swiss film is the haunting story of a group of Jewish refugees who escape from Nazi Germany and seek asylum in Switzerland. Soon the village in which they are hiding becomes aware of their true identity and their depoortation seems imminent. They are forced back to the German border - not by the Nazis, but by ordinary Swiss civilians who are indifferent to the plight of refugees. Switzerland's immigration policies were so stringent that by 1942 the country was declared "a full lifeboat." The struggle of those who sought freedom is explored in depth and with comapssion. (JHS/MS+). Color. (104 min)
Bringing Down A Dictator
In the year 2000, in a war barely noticed outside Yugoslavia, the indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic fought to hold power. He controlled a battle-hardened army, a tough police force, and most of the news media. But he underestimated his opponents, led by a student movement called Otpor! (Serbian for "resistance"), who attacked the regime with ridicule, rock music, and a willingness to be arrested. Their courage and audacity inspired others to overcome their fear and join the fight. Otpor! students were the shock troops in what became an army of human rights and pro-democracy activists who systematically
undermined police and army loyalty to Milosevic and forced him to call early elections. When Milosevic refused to accept his defeat at the polls, the people responded with a general strike. As normal life ground to a halt, Serbs by the hundreds of thousands descended on the capital on October 5 to seize the parliament in a dramatic triumph for democracy. This PBS-produced film narrated by Martin Sheen reveals how ordinary people can overthrow a genocidal dictator and deliver him to justice. This is highly recommended by the Coordinator of
Educational Outreach as a vehicle to address issues of resistance and individual
responsibility. (56 minutes)
For the classroom, go to http://www.pbs.org/weta/dictator/classroom/
Communities in Dialogue: Healing the Wounds of War
This film is about people taking action to stop the cycles of war and violence that have fractured and sometimes destroyed their communities. focusing especially on the aftermath of the was in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s, it portrays the work of Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization engaged in conflict transformation projects around the world. With footage from Karuna Center;s six-year training in Bosnia-Herzegovina, this film reveals the healing that can emerge when survivors of violent conflicts engage in authentic, inter-communal dialogue, reweaving relationships as they move together toward a more peaceful future.
DVD. 40 minutes.
Eagles Over Auschwitz: "The Triumph of the Return"
Eagles Over Auschwitz is the compelling story of the historic flyover of Auschwitz-Birkenau by three Israeli F-15s. Meet Yitzhak Cohen, a survivor of the camp, and Al Weber, and American Jewish aviator who flew over Auschwitz on a bombing mission with the 15th Army Air Force on September 13, 1944. Hear their personal reflections of that time and watch with the officers of the IDF as the F-15s fly over the camp on September 4, 2004. Produced by Yad Vashem. 26 minutes.
Europa Europa: A True Story
This is a fascinating true story of Solomon Perel, a courageous German-Jewish teenager who survived WWII by concealing his true identity and by living as a Nazi for seven harrowing years through three countries. On the eve of his Bar Mitzvah in 1938 his sister is killed by Nazis, and so begins Solly's odyssey that becomes an unbelievable epic of survival. In German and Russian with English subtitles. (HS+). Color. (115 min)
Faithful Under Trials: Jehovah's witnesses in the Soviet Union
On three nights in early April 1951, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses from Ukraine, Moldavia, and the Baltic lands - men, women, and children - were loaded into boxcars and exiled to Siberia. This mass deportation marked a critical moment in the prolonged ideological attack on Jehovah's Witnesses. Why did the powerful Soviet government regard the Witnesses as a threat? How did they survive and prosper despite decades of unrelenting persecution? In this video, historians and eyewitnesses recount the enlightening and inspiring story.
54 minutes
For The Living
Reaching across time and place, For the Living follows the creators of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as they journey for the nation's capital to the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the forests of Poland, and the streets of Warsaw in their efforts to create a permanent, living reminder of the Holocaust. Their struggle to tell a story that is impossible to understand leads them beyond the world of two dimensional displays to unusual and resonating artifacts and, finally, to the voices of the victims themselves. (General Audiences). Color. (57 min)
The Fuhrer Gives a City to the Jews
Nazi propaganda film on Theresienstadt. Teachers should exercise caution with this film. It is a carefully staged film proporting the "good treatment" of Jews. Many of those seen in this highly deceptive film were sent, shortly after the filming was ending, to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The film was produced during the summer of 1944 by Germany's Ministry of Propaganda about theresienstadt, the model ghetto established by the Nazis in 1941. It was intended to be used to show the International Red Cross and the world that Jews were being well treated in the camps. This is the only film known to have been made by the Germans inside any operating concentration camps; it is, however, an elaborately staged film presenting a completely false picture of camp life. Only a few survived to attest to the falsity of the film, which has renewed significance in the face of Holocaust denial. This film is incomplete and the restoration segment of all extant fragments was done by the National Center for Jewish film. German with English sub-titles. (HS+). B/W. (23 min.)
Hanna's War
The harrowing, true story of the martyrdom of Hanna Senesh, "Israel's Joan of Arc." Forsaking her secure life on a Palestinian kibbutz during World War II, Senesh volunteers for a suicide mission that takes her back to Hungary. This somber but inspiring account of real-life heroism stars Ellen Burstyn, Maruschka Detmers, and Anthony Andrews. (General Audiences). Color. (148 mins.)
Heil Hitler! Confessions Of A Hitler Youth
A shocking true story based on the book by Alfons Heck, recalling how he became a high-ranking member of the Hitler Youth during World War II. Along with 8,000,000 other German children, he pledged his life to Hitler as an impressionable 10-year-old. Could it happen today? "Of course," says Heck. For general audiences; High school and college students. (JHS?MS?HS). Color & B/W. (30 min.)
FOR KSC CAMPUS USE ONLY.
Here Am I, Send Me: The Journey of Jonathan Daniels
"One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry and career for civil rights was performed by Jonathan Daniels." - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
In the spring of 1965, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a 26-year-old student at an Episcopal seminary, became one of the many young Americans who answered the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s call to help register African-American voters in Alabama.
By the following August, Daniels was dead, shot by a sheriff's deputy. His last act was pulling a young black woman out of the line of fire.
Here Am I, Send Me: The Journey of Jonathan Daniels is an outstanding and inspiring documentary narrated by acclaimed actor Sam Waterston. Scripted largely in Daniels' own written words, it features stirring television footage and interviews with leaders from the civil rights era.
57 minutes
In Our Own Hands: The Hidden Story Of The Jewish Brigade In WW II
His Majesty's Jewish Brigade - the only all-Jewish fighting unit in the war goes into combat against the Nazis. After the war, these young Jewish soldiers mastermind one clandestine operation after another. Later, in 1948, Brigade veterans help organize and lead the fledgling Israel Defense forces in that country' War of Independence. (General Audience). Color. (85 min)
Incedent at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story
In 1975, armed FBI agents illegally entered the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Gunfire erupted - a Native American and two FBI agents fell dead. After the largest manhunt in FBI history, three men were apprehended - only one, Leonard Peltier, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. this is his story.
From the very beginning, Peltier's case has been dogged with controversy. Were the charges trumped up, was the evidence falsified, were witnesses pressured to change their testimony? Many people, among them some of today's greatest legal minds, believe that Peltier is an innocent man.
Twelve years ago, Robert Redford visited Leonard Peltier in prision. Today, after years of sturggle with the FBI and the prison system, he and director Michael Apted present a riveting examination of the case and the real story of what may be one of the most outrageous abuses of justice in American history. VHS. 90 minutes.
Innocence In An Age of Infamy
Tells the compelling stories of teens caught in the most pivotal moment of the twentieth century - World War II. Not the history of textbooks but rather the stories of scrapbooks, this 4-part series weaves original photographs and rare footage with firsthand accounts of teens who came of age during WWII. It offers a glimpse of common lives in an uncommon time.
Vol. 1: Paul and Edith Lavender: Before Paul narrowly escaped the Nazis, he delivered groceries to the house of Anne Frank (20 min)
Vol. 2: Kennie Namba: volunteered to fight for liberty, even while his family was held in a Japanese-American 'relocation' center (20 min)
Vol. 3: Les and Eva Aigner: Les saw his mother and sister for the last time at the gates of a Nazi death camp. Eva and her sister narrowly escaped execution by the grace of a sympathetic German guard. (20 min)
Vol. 4: Armin Lehman: served as Hitler's last message runner in the final hours of the Third Reich. In fact he almost died with Hitler in his underground bunker (20 min)
Invisible Children
What started out as a film-making adventure in Africa, transformed into much more, when the three young American's
(Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole) original travels took a divine turn, and they found themselves stranded in
Northern Uganda. They discovered children being kidnapped nightly from their homes and subsequently forced to become
fight as child soldiers. This film is dedicated to exposing this tragic, and amazingly untold story.
Even at this moment, in Uganda, Children as young as 8 are methodically kidnapped from their homes by a rebel group
called the "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA). The abducted children are then desensitized to the horror of brutal violence
and killing, as they themselves are turned into vicious fighters. Some escape and hide in constant fear for their lives.
Most remain captive, and grow to maturity with no education other than life "in the bush" and fighting in a guerilla war. Of
the many ramifications that a 20 -year-long war can cause, the film "Invisible Children: Rough Cut" highlights what the
community refers to as "NIGHT COMMUTERS." We watch thousands of children "commute" out of fear, from their villages
to nearby towns each night in order to avoid the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) abductions. They sleep in public places,
vulnerable, and without supervision.
This film focuses in on 4 young boys: Jacob, Thomas, Tony, and Boni. Through their eyes, we relive the terror of
abduction, courage of survival, the heartbreak of losing a brother, and the innate joy- found only in a child. The three
filmmakers (Jason, Bobby, and Laren) were amazed to find many things in common between these kids and kids in
America, themselves included.
As the three left Northern Uganda, they were appalled by what they had seen, and yet, in awe of the resilience and hope
they found in these children, and this community. The filmmakers thought: How could such an atrocity exist for such a long
time, without the world knowing?
Believing that the "invisible children's" story could inspire others to do something, as it did them, they created a
documentary, which we now know as the "Invisible Children: Rough Cut". DVD. 55 minutes.
Jehovah's Witnesses Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault
As the Nazi killing machine engulfed Europe with terror, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses suffered brutal persecution. Why? Because they sttod firm in their beliefs and boldly spoke out against the cruelty of Nazism. They were among the first to be thrown into Nazi concentration camps. "The goal was to destroy this religious group," says Dr. Detlef Garbe. Hitler vowed to smash this small Christian group. But they could not be silenced. In this video, 10 historians from Europe and North America, and more than 20 Witness survivors, join in relating a story of courage and triumph that must be told.
78 minutes
Jehovah's Witnesses: Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault
As the Nazi killing machine engulfed Europe with terror, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses suffered brutal persecution. Why? Because they stood firm in their beliefs and boldly spoke out against the cruelty of Nazism. In this video, 10 historians from Europe and North America and over 20 witness survivors, join in relating a story of courage. (JHS/MS+). Color. (78 min.)
Jews and Christians: A Journey of Faith
This award winning two hour television documentary examines how contemporary Jews and Christians perceive each other, confront prejudice and stereotypes, how they can understand and respect one another despite their differences, and continue to work toward achieving mutual respect and understanding.
The video is based on the book Our Father Abraham: The Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Marvin R. Wilson, Ph.D. and is produced by Auteur Productions with Connecticut Public Television, the presenting station to Public Television. It is a documentary that explores common beliefs, traditions and rituals shared by Judaism and Christianity. Winner of the Silver Angel Award 2001 for excellence in media.
For use by churches, synagogues, universities, high schools, and libraries. 1:56
Killing Fields
In august 1914, the people of europe were swept into the first of the wars that would make this century the bloodiest ever. Seventy million soldiers from more than twenty countries marched off enthusiastically to do their duty.
In Killing Fields, soldiers from all sides remember the trenches and the tactics - and the terrible nature and scale of the slaughter that shattered the old world order. In the end, four empires collapsed and nine million gave their lives. Some would become ardent pacifists while others were determined to seek retribution - and many would find themselves fighting another war only two decades later.
DVD only. 56 minutes. WGBH.
Lost Boys of Sudan
Lost Boys of Sudan is an Emmy-nominated feature-length documentary that follows two Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America. Orphaned as young boys in one of Africa's cruelest civil wars, Peter Dut and Santino Chuor survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in Kenya along with thousands of other children. From there, remarkably, they were chosen to come to America. Safe at last from physical danger and hunger, a world away from home, they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American suburbia.
Lost Boys of Sudan directed by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk, won an Independent Spirit Award and screened theatrically in 70 cities across the U.S. to strong audience and critical praise. The film was broadcast nationally on the PBS series POV in the fall of 2004 and earned two national Emmy nominations.
DVD. 87 minutes.
Lost in Laconia
During a time when people who were branded and stigmatized as "feebleminded" and a danger to society were banished to a life of isolation and total segregation, thousands of children and adults were institutionalized in large state operated institutions throughout the country. In the case of New Hampshire, that place was the Laconia State School. This documentary traces the history of the institution from its initial beginnings as the New Hampshire School for the Feebleminded in the early 1900's until its closure in 1991.
The purpose of this film is to provide a thought-provoking and inspirational documentary that examines the social values and cultural ideals of the twentieth century relative to individuals who were labeled feebleminded, deficient, and idiots and to their families who sought to care for them in the way society dictated.
67 minutes. DVD
Lost Peace: Ideals for a United World Fail
From WGBH's People's Century series.
"The morning of November 11, 1918, Harry met me about 100 yards from the battery position...He had a piece of white paper, just about as big as your hand. It says "Cease firing on all fronts - 11.11.18 General John Pershing.' I thought that was the prettiest piece of paper I ever saw." - Macinlay Wooden, American soldier
The First World War bathed the new century in blood: Nine million lost their lives in a merciless war of attrition. A whole generation was traumatized by the horror of the trenches - and vowed that war would be a thing of the past.
LOST PEACE revisits the popular hopes and experiences in the years following World War I - and the looming threat of a new nationalism: despite Woodrow Wilson's promise of a "people's peace," old prejudices refused to die and nationalist passions again began to rise. Defeated nations were left out in the cold, resentful and unreconciled. Fascism and militarism spread while pacifist movements fought an increasingly unsuccessful rearguard action to preserve the dream of peace. By the late 1930s, people had to choose between avoiding war at all costs, or taking up arms to resist aggression. Fifty-five million lives were about to be lost in second world war.
60 minutes.
Mosley
While Hitler was raising an army, he was also raising the hopes of Oswald Mosley, England's own Fascist leader. As a young army officer in the First World War, Mosely discovered a camaraderie among working men that would inspire him to enter politics - not a characteristic reflected in his loyalties. Mosley would stand for the right, stand for the left, and then for the extreme right forming the British Union of Fascists.
This powerful tale tells of one man's ruthless rise to power, dispassionately fighting the nation's leaders while reserving his passion for sleeping with their wives. His charm seduced many, and those not easily seduced soon found themselves persuaded by the violent actions of his Blackshirt army.
This is the rise and fall of a man who would govern, a man who would rule, a man who brought a nation to its feet not to its knees...
4 parts
Part I: Young Man in a Hurry (1918-1920)
Part II: Rules of the Game (1924-1927)
Part III: Breaking the Mold (1929-1933)
Part IV: Beyond the pale (1933-1940)
240 total minutes. Color. 1997.
Mr. Klien
The story of an art dealer, Robert Klein, a French Catholic in 1942 Vichy France who takes advantage of desperate Jews fleeing the country by purchasing their art masterpieces for a fraction of their worth. The twist? The Nazis arrest him when he is mistaken for a Jewish leader, another Robert Klein, using his identity to cover for his own anti-Nazi resistance activities. The first Klein becomes obsessed with the search for the second. Eventually his search becomes a trap and into it he falls. French dubbed in English. Fiction. For mature audiences. (HS+). Color. (124 min.)
Music Box
Courtroom drama which follows an attorney who agrees to defend her Hungarian immigrant father against charges of war crimes committed 50 years earlier. As she searches for evidence to establish innocence, she also examines her doubts about his past. VHS and DVD. (126 min)
My Knees Were Jumping
A documentary account of the Kindertransport by which a few thousand Jewish children were evacuated to Great Britain from Germany and Austria. A group of Jews and Quakers help save the lives of many children between December 1938 and August 1939. Most children never saw their parents again. This is the true story of children uprooted from their homes into the Holocaust. Narrated by Joanne Woodward. (General Audience). B/W & color. (72 min)
Never Forget
More than 30 years after World War II, deniers challenge Mel Mermelstein, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, to prove in a court of law that anyone was gassed at Auschwitz. Starring Leonard Nimoy, this stirring film, based on a true story, tells of one man's fight for justice. Mel Mermelstein (Leonard Nimoy) must convince a U.S. Court to take judicial notice of the Holocaust for the first time in U.S. judicial history. Mel accepts the challenge as his duty as a survivor of Auschwitz. (HS+). Color. (94 min.)
The Revolt Of Job
In a World War II era parable of the Biblical story of Job, the tragedy of a Hungarian Jewish family during the Holocaust is explored in this celebrated film. As the Nazis invade Hungary, an older Jewish couple adopts a gentile orphan boy to survive them. Made in Hungary. In Hungarian with English subtitles. Not rated but for mature audiences. (Adult). Color. (97 min.)
The Shop On Main Street
This evocative fable, starring Ida Kaminska, relates the tale of Tano, a peasant who is appointed the "Aryan controller" of a shop run by an elderly, hald-deaf Jewish woman unaware of the Nazi occupation of their small town in 1942 Czechoslovakia. The Jewish shop owner sees her business confiscated by the Germans and handed over to a non-Jew, Tano. The relationship between the two grows into a close one, with the man put in charge of her shop eventually trying to protect her, albeit with tragic consequences. Tano, in an attempt to protect the kindly old woman from deportation, accidently kills her and hangs himself in remorse. Czech with English subtitles. (Adult). B/W. (126 min.)
Station Of Sorrow
This drama focuses on the new stationmaster at Bobigny where the Jews of Paris are herded onto freight trains that bore them to the death camps. In a midnight encounter with a survivor who comes to mourn, the stationmaster learns that the mysterious sounds that wake him in the night are the sounds of the round-up, echoing through the decades. French with English subtitles. (JHS/MS+). Color. (28 min.)
Sunshine
When great-grandpa Sonnenschein (the name means "sunshine") bottled the cure-all elixir "A Taste of Sunshine," he established a family fortune and assumed his sons would continue the business. But great-grandpa's sons - and family members to come - had very different hopes and dreams. Ralph Fiennes plays not one, but three roles in this compelling and acclaimed epic about a Jewish family caught in the upheavals and false hopes of the war-swept 20th century. A distinguished cast joins Fiennes, including william Hurt as a war survivor whose new post as a communist official gives him power over his former enemies.
DVD only. 180 minutes. R.
The Forgotten Refugees
The Forgotten Refugees: A documentary about the mass exodus of Jews from Arab countries and Iran in the 20th century.
The Forgotten Refugees explores the history and destruction of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities, some of which had existed for over 2,500 years. Employing extensive testimony of survivors from Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Iran, the film recounts the stories - of joy and of suffering - that nearly a million individuals have carried with them for so long.
Segments on the contributions of Middle Eastern Jews to politics, business and music, testify to the enormously rich cultures which fleeing Jews left behind. The film weaves personal stories with dramatic archival footage of rescue missions, historic images of exodus and resettlement, and analysis by contemporary scholars, to tell the story of how and why the Arab world's Jewish population declined from one million in 1945 to several thousand today.
2005. 45 minutes. DVD only.
The Hunting Party
A young journalist, a seasoned cameraman and a discredited war correspondent embark on an unauthorized mission to find the no. 1 war criminal in Bosnia; they find themselves in serious jeopardy when they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad and their target decides to come after them. Written by Anonymous
After discrediting himself, ace Journalist, Simon Hunt, stops appearing on the U.S. National media, leaving his assistant, Duck, to be promoted. Now years later Duck, along with Franklin Harris and Benjamin Strauss, the son of the Network's Vice-President, have landed in Bosnia during the fall of 2000, 5 years after the Bosnian war. It is here that Duck will get to meet Simon, who will convince him to join him to hunt down war criminal Boghdanovic, who is on the most wanted list and carrying a 5 million dollar reward for systemically killing tens and thousands of Muslims (ethnic cleansing). Duck and Benjamin join Simon and journey out of Bosnia to travel to Montenegro. It is here they will meet with UN Official, Eknath Bharwani, who is not even aware of indictment details for Boghdanovic, and is quite content following instructions to not go anywhere near the last known location of the culprit. The trio will soon find out that the UN, NATO, The Hague, CIA amongst others are not only intent on keeping this war criminal's whereabouts a secret, but will oppose anyone who even tries to locate him. The trio find themselves in a soup when Boghdanovic and his henchman, a Psycho who has a tattoo on his forehead, find them and begin torturing them as they suspect them of being CIA Agents. The question remains who will come to their rescue? Written by rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)
In 1995, the reckless but efficient war correspondent Simon Hunt and his cameraman Duck are covering the war in Bosnia. After a massacre in a Muslin village, Simon has a meltdown live on TV; he is fired and discredited by the network and disappears in the world of journalism while Duck is promoted, working for the famous anchor Franklin Harris. Five years later, while covering the peace in Bosnia with Franklin and the son of the network's VP Benjamin Strauss, Duck is visited by Simon who convinces his friend to chase the most wanted war criminal Boghdanovic a.k.a. The Fox, who has a five million dollar reward, for an interview. Ben joins the group in a journey to Celebici, in the border of Republic Srpska and Montenegro. However, Simon discloses the real intention of their hunting while they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad getting into serious trouble.
DVD, R
The Judge and the General
When in 1998 Chilean judge Juan Guzmán was assigned the first criminal cases against the country's ex-dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, no one expected much. Guzmán had supported Pinochet's 1973 coup against the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and had worked as a judge during Pinochet's dictatorship. The filmmakers trace Guzmán descent into what he calls "the abyss," where he uncovers the past - including his own role in the tragedy. A cautionary tale about violating human rights in the name of "higher ideals."
DVD, 83 minutes.
The The Wave
The Wave powerfully re-creates the classroom experiment in which a high school teacher formed his own "Reich" to show why the German people could so willingly embrace Nazism. It raises critical questions about individualism and conformity: How can peer pressure usurp individual rights? When does dedication to the group cross the line from loyalty to fanaticism? (VHS, 46 min; DVD 102 minutes)
The White Ribbon
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years just before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery. Like a Twilight Zone episode directed by Antonioni, The White Ribbon weaves an unsettling and enigmatic spell. Michael Haneke's film is set just before World War I in a village in northern Germany, where a series of strange occurrences take place over several months. These occurrences are sinister and cruel and often involve the children of the village--not merely as victims (although child abuse seems to be a far-from-isolated event) but also as perpetrators. At least that's the way it appears. Nothing is completely spelled out in Haneke's scheme, which hints and insinuates and thoroughly gets under the viewer's skin over the course of 144 edgy minutes. We might notice the children are of an age that will make them mature participants in the horror of Germany in the 1930s and '40s, but even this is left as an unemphasized point. Since Haneke is an expert at denying explicit conclusions for his projects (see also Caché and Funny Games for more on the subject), we shouldn't be surprised that he withholds the answers to the questions he poses, or that the film is even more powerful because of this withholding. Adding to the effect is Christian Berger's Oscar-nominated black-and-white cinematography, which has a ghostly quality appropriate to the topic. In the end, all the strange happenings of the village are absorbed into the town's rhythm of life--which might be the most disturbing conclusion of all. --Robert Horton
DVD, 144 minutes, R
The World at War
Unsurpassed in depth and scope, its 26 hour-long programs feature an extraordinary collection of newsreel, propaganda, and home-movie footage drawn from the archives of 18 nations, including color close-ups of Adolf Hitler taken by his mistress, that present an unvarnished perspective of the war's pivotal events. Penetrating interviews with eyewitness participants--from Hitler's secretary to Alger Hiss to ordinary citizens who stood outside the battle lines--add spine-tingling, first-hand accounts to an already unforgettable viewing experience.
Total War
The Second World War was the first modern conflict in which millions more civilian died than soldiers. As economic production became esstential to military success, civilians were conscripted into factories - and suddenly became fair game. In Total War, eyewitnesses from Britain, Germany, Russia, Korea, Japan, and the United States tell the story of the civilians-children, sisters, brothers-who suffered and died in the Second World War. Residents of Plymouth, Tokyo, and Hamburg remember the air raids; Russian peasants recall the siege of Leningrad; japanese soldiers and Korean slave-laborers describe the brutality of war in Asia. throughout, the interviewees remember the extraordinary suffering of a people's war like none before.
This program includes material that may not be appropriate for younger viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.
DVD only. 56 minutes.
Total War: World War II and the Home Front
The Second World War was the first modern conflict in which millions more civilians died than soldiers. As economic production became essential to military success, civilians were conscripted into factories -- and suddenly became fair game. In Total War, eyewitnesses from Britain, Germany, Russia, Korea, Japan, and the United States tell the story of the civilians -- children, sisters, brothers -- who suffered and died in the Second World War. Residents of Plymouth, Tokyo, and Hamburg remember the air raids; Russian peasants recall the siege of Leningrad; Japanese soldiers and Korean slave-laborers describe the brutality of war in Asia. Throughout, interviewees remember the extraordinary suffering of a people's war like none before. The people remember: Rosie the Riveter, shipbuilding, Pearl Harbor, air raids, the Blitz, the Siege of Leningrad, the atom bomb. DVD. Viewing time: 1 hour.
A Walk Through The 20th Centry: "The Democrat and the Dictator"
The time is 1933 to 1945, the years in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler dominated the world stage and directed its action. Bill Moyers traces the public careers of FDR and Hitler and draws penetrating comparisons between them. (JHS/MS+). Color. (58 min)
We Were Marked With A Big A
Three gay Holocaust survivors - Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim, Kurt von Ruffin, and Paul Gerdhard Vogel - tell their stories. 1991. 44 mins. English subtitles. From USHMM. (Non-Circulating)
When the Mountain Trembles
Though promoted as "the astonishing story" of Nobel Peace Prize winner and Quiche Indian Rigoberta Menchú, the documentary is actually more the story of the Guatemalan people at large, specifically the struggles of the poor and peaceful Mayan and Quiche Indian population that came to be labeled "subversives" by a draconian government.
The film won several independent film awards, and earns its stead among other political truth-telling documentaries, including Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. The explanation of the role the Reagan administration played in providing money, arms and training to the corrupt Guatemalan government has relevance to countless other American interventions in foreign affairs. The filmmakers reveal both the complexities and the tragedies of the Guatemalan situation; scenes of Indians digging through massive garbage dumps for useful scraps are juxtaposed with those of government-sponsored beauty pageants in which Indians are proudly paraded in native costumes. Footage of breast-feeding Indians making camp in the jungle to avoid being found (and killed) is equally as compelling as the images from protests and brutalities that occurred in the cities.
DVD 90 minutes
Women, War and Peace
Women, War & Peace is a bold new five-part PBS television series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men's domain.
The vast majority of today's conflicts are not fought by nation states and their armies, but rather by informal entities: gangs and warlords using small arms and improvised weapons. The series reveals how the post-Cold War proliferation of small arms has changed the landscape of war, with women becoming primary targets and suffering unprecedented casualties. Yet they are simultaneously emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict. With depth and complexity, Women, War & Peace spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Colombia to Liberia, placing women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security, and reframing our understanding of modern warfare.
Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard, Women, War & Peace is the most comprehensive global media initiative ever mounted on the roles of women in war and peace. The series will present its groundbreaking message across the globe by utilizing all forms of media, including U.S. and international primetime television, radio, print, web, and worldwide community screenings, and will be accompanied by an educational and outreach initiative designed to advance international accountability in regard to women and security. Women, War & Peace is a co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films.
The five episodes in the series:
I Came to Testify is the moving story of how a group of 16 women who had been imprisoned and raped by Serb-led forces in the Bosnian town of Foca broke history's great silence - and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law. Their remarkable courage resulted in a triumphant verdict that led to new international laws about sexual violence in war.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the astonishing story of the Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war, and won a once unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003.
When the U.S. troop surge was announced in late 2009, women in Afghanistan knew that the ground was being laid for peace talks with the Taliban. Peace Unveiled follows three women in Afghanistan who are risking their lives to make sure that women's rights don't get traded away in the deal.
The War We Are Living travels to Cauca, a mountainous region in Colombia's Pacific southwest, where two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women are braving a violent struggle over their gold-rich lands. They are standing up for a generation of Colombians who have been terrorized and forcibly displaced as a deliberate strategy of war.
War Redefined, the capstone of Women, War & Peace, challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men's domain through incisive interviews with leading thinkers, Secretaries of State and seasoned survivors of war and peace-making. Interviewees include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee; Bosnian war crimes investigator Fadila Memisevic; and globalization expert Moisés Naím.
4 hours. DVD.
Zamir: Jewish Voices Return to Poland
In the summer of 1999, the Zamir Chorale of Boston celebrated its thirtieth anniversary as well as the centenary of the Zamir movement with a concert tour of Eastern Europe. Performances were given in synagogues and churches, concert halls and museums, restaurants and courtyards, cemeteries and concentration camps. In Warsaw, Lodz, Auschwitz, Krakow, Prague, Terezin and Vienna we gave honor to the dead and hope to the living. Now, you can share our journey.
A documentary film of our trip, Zamir: Jewish Voices Return to Poland, produced by Spy Pond Productions, was broadcast in August 2000 on PBS and premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Through this film, viewers across the country stood with us at Auschwitz and Terezin as we honored the memories of the dead, and joined the overflow audiences that greeted us in Krakow and Prague. Many of them shared their reactions with us.
Our live concert recording, The Songs Live On , is a companion to the songs in the video and is a witness to the excitement and spiritual intensity of our odyssey. You can preview three tracks from the CD right here on our website: LeDor VaDor by Cantor Meir Finkelstein, Al Mishkavi Beleilot from Yehezkel Braun's setting of Shir haShirim and Hava Nagila.
The Zamir Chorale of Boston
Joshua Jacobson, director
Approximate running time 1 hour/color/Not Rates
DVD.
