Movies At Random: Nanking

Today’s movie at random is the documentary Nanking (HU DVD 4367), which won a 2008 Peabody award. This well-regarded anti-war film is one of many crucial documentaries in our collection. The use of film storytelling to document, witness, and communicate plays such an important role in our history. It’s definitely worth checking out. Here’s our … Continue reading “Movies At Random: Nanking”

Today’s movie at random is the documentary Nanking (HU DVD 4367), which won a 2008 Peabody award. This well-regarded anti-war film is one of many crucial documentaries in our collection. The use of film storytelling to document, witness, and communicate plays such an important role in our history. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Here’s our summary:

Tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China in the early days of World War II and focuses on the efforts of a small group of unarmed Westerners who established a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries.

And the poster:

Let us know what you think.

Movies At Random: Before the Nickelodeon

Yay Monday! The last Movie At Random of July is Before the Nickelodeon: the early cinema of Edwin S. Porter (HU DVD 13148). Here’s our summary: Between the years 1894 to 1908, Edwin S. Porter was the leading American filmmaker. Follows his movie career, from his first job installing Thomas Edison’s Vitascope machines in New … Continue reading “Movies At Random: Before the Nickelodeon”

Yay Monday! The last Movie At Random of July is Before the Nickelodeon: the early cinema of Edwin S. Porter (HU DVD 13148).

Here’s our summary:

Between the years 1894 to 1908, Edwin S. Porter was the leading American filmmaker. Follows his movie career, from his first job installing Thomas Edison’s Vitascope machines in New York, through his business as a film exhibitor, to his job as head of Edison’s movie studio. There he created story films: Jack and the Beanstalk, The Life of an American Fireman, and The Great Train Robbery. By 1909, his film technique was old fashioned. Fired by Edison, he continued making films until 1915, but he had been left behind by new directors with new techniques.

And instead of the trailer, here’s Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, based on the hysterical Winsor McCay comic:

Happy viewing!

Movies At Random: Sound And Fury

Today’s movie at random is Sound and Fury (HU DVD 681), an important documentary about deaf culture and the impact of cochlear implants. We also have streaming access to the follow up film, Sound and Fury: 6 years later. DC has such an interesting deaf community, and while this documentary is a little outdated, it’s … Continue reading “Movies At Random: Sound And Fury”

Today’s movie at random is Sound and Fury (HU DVD 681), an important documentary about deaf culture and the impact of cochlear implants. We also have streaming access to the follow up film, Sound and Fury: 6 years later. DC has such an interesting deaf community, and while this documentary is a little outdated, it’s still a very interesting look at this divisive issue.

Here’s our summary:

If you could make your deaf child hear, would you? Sound and fury is the intimate, heart-rending tale of the Artinians, an extended family with deaf and hearing members across three generations. Together they confront a technological device that can help the deaf to hear but may also threaten deaf culture, and their bonds with each other.

And here’s the trailer:

Happy viewing!

Movies At Random: Obit.

Welcome to another Monday. Today’s Movie At Random is the 2016 documentary Obit. : an inside look at life on the New York Times obituaries desk (HU DVD 14789). Not as depressing as it sounds! Vanessa Gould won much praise with the origami documentary Between the Folds in 2008, and Obit was well regarded as well. Here’s … Continue reading “Movies At Random: Obit.”

Welcome to another Monday. Today’s Movie At Random is the 2016 documentary Obit. : an inside look at life on the New York Times obituaries desk (HU DVD 14789). Not as depressing as it sounds! Vanessa Gould won much praise with the origami documentary Between the Folds in 2008, and Obit was well regarded as well.

Here’s our summary:

At a time when the free press is under threat, OBIT. takes a rare look inside one of the United States’ foremost journalistic institutions, The New York Times. The steadfast writers of the paper’s Obituaries section approach their work with journalistic rigor and narrative flair, each day depositing the details of a handful of extraordinary lives into the cultural memory. Going beyond the byline and into the minds of those chronicling the recently deceased, OBIT. is ultimately a celebration of life that conveys the central role journalism plays in capturing and reporting vital pieces of our history.

And here’s the trailer:

Happy viewing!

Can He Ever Be a Better Man?

This week we got in a really interesting documentary called A Better Man (DVD 14907) directed by a domestic abuse counselor who was herself a victim, Attiya Khan. It’s not Home Use, but I’m still really curious about it because the way it was made sounds so interesting. In the film, Khan and her abuser, … Continue reading “Can He Ever Be a Better Man?”

This week we got in a really interesting documentary called A Better Man (DVD 14907) directed by a domestic abuse counselor who was herself a victim, Attiya Khan. It’s not Home Use, but I’m still really curious about it because the way it was made sounds so interesting.

In the film, Khan and her abuser, who is identified as Steve, meet to discuss and come to terms with the two years of abuse Khan suffered while dating Steve twenty years prior. They sometimes have a facilitator, and also revisit their high school. It’s a little hard to explain the background, so just read the Wikipedia article.

The project itself is asking a question about justice. Typically this type of engagement is thought of as a form of restorative justice, which has been explored in a variety of types of offences, and reduces relapses to crime. It’s usually claimed that both the victim and perpetrator come away feeling better about the process and results than when the offender is merely fined or sent to prison. It’s worth reading a bit about the history of this type of justice, as many people have never considered an alternative to what is called retributive justice (basically, our prison system).

Here’s the trailer:

At one point in the trailer, Khan talks about running from the house screaming and no one on her street coming to help her. There’s a lot of isolation and terror involved in abuse like this. One of the reasons I’m curious about this documentary is that in some form or another, forgiveness is an ongoing negotiation in domestic abuse even as it occurs. Society forgives the abuser by un-seeing victims. Victims forgive their abusers by going back.

In the current #metoo movement, one of the most depressing things is the amount of un-seeing uncovered by these incidents that basically everyone knew about. (I mean, jesus, conductors??) Part of the reason domestic violence is so heartbreaking is that the victim and the victim’s social environment often becomes collaborators in concealing the crime. And, it’s kind of problematic to talk about restorative justice here: in many ways, abusers are intermittently “better men.” They feel shame, even as they cause grievous injury, but that shame is often somehow divided from their “true self.” The process of restitution is shallowly engaged every time a promise or an apology is made. Even victims of horrible abuse are capable of believing that their partners can and will be “better men.” People who live outside abusive relationships sometimes imagine them to be constant, epic battles waged behind closed doors. Often, they are relatively normal relationships with an element of violence that has simply become normalized, be it daily, weekly, or even much more infrequently.

I’m curious what the takeaway presented actually is. You can celebrate the conversation here, but when this type of abuse is current and not an issue twenty years in the past, what is the relationship between the resolution in the film and the resolution needed for current abuse?

I don’t know! Gotta watch the movie.

The Last Command and The Act of Killing

We’ve gotten a lot of new movies already in 2018, but one of my favorites so far is a set of three silent films by Josef Von Sternberg. While these films are campus use only (DVD 14852 – 14854), they are truly worth watching and can be viewed by students in our screening room. One … Continue reading “The Last Command and The Act of Killing”

We’ve gotten a lot of new movies already in 2018, but one of my favorites so far is a set of three silent films by Josef Von Sternberg. While these films are campus use only (DVD 14852 – 14854), they are truly worth watching and can be viewed by students in our screening room.

One of the films, The Last Command, has an interesting connection to a 2012 documentary, The Act of Killing. In The Last Command, an exiled Russian general turned Hollywood extra lands a role playing a version of his former czarist self, bringing about his emotional downfall. Most of the film covers his acts during the Russian Revolution, including a love affair with a revolutionist. In the film’s stunning conclusion, he encounters shadows from his past as he reenacts them, and is transported by them.

In The Act of Killing (HU DVD 12262), the filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love. Again, film making becomes a kind of question, and a way of interrogating the cruelties and injustices of the past.

These two films are both interesting examples of a very different kind of self-witnessing through performance. In a way, they echo community-based theater, including the focus on process in addition to final product. The act of creating is powerful: these films address the power of acting on an actor, even when acknowledged as an act. Both are highly recommended, especially for students of film and theater.

#BlackLivesMatter documentary now available streaming

Films on Demand is a useful database for finding documentaries on a range of subjects, from the environment to teaching math. Now you can add timely social issues to that list as well: you can now stream #BlackLivesMatter, one of the first feature-length documentaries produced about the ongoing protests of racial inequality and police violence. … Continue reading “#BlackLivesMatter documentary now available streaming”

Films on Demand is a useful database for finding documentaries on a range of subjects, from the environment to teaching math. Now you can add timely social issues to that list as well: you can now stream #BlackLivesMatter, one of the first feature-length documentaries produced about the ongoing protests of racial inequality and police violence.

This is (at least as far as I know) the first documentary in our collection about the Black Lives Matter protests. Although there have been countless critical essays and videos on the topic, this succinct, powerful documentary captures snapshots of the protests around the country and and contextualizes them with history and stories from protestors.

We recommend previewing this film if you’re teaching, learning, or just curious about the movement. Video can chronicle social change better than any words, and a well-produced documentary like #BlackLivesMatter is an especially great example.

Kanopy Highlights: Social justice documentaries

Still from Concerning Violence About a year ago, we rolled out Kanopy, a streaming service that includes hundreds of films from the Criterion Collection and more. We’re happy to see classes and students taking advantage of this great video resource, and we want to spotlight some of the most popular titles from this collection. This … Continue reading “Kanopy Highlights: Social justice documentaries”

Still from Concerning Violence

About a year ago, we rolled out Kanopy, a streaming service that includes hundreds of films from the Criterion Collection and more. We’re happy to see classes and students taking advantage of this great video resource, and we want to spotlight some of the most popular titles from this collection.

This week, we’re focusing on powerful documentaries for social justice.

You can click the link on any of these films to watch them instantly, in your browser, for free with your AU login.


5 Broken Cameras – “5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005.”

Body Typed series – “Body Typed is series of award-winning short films that uses humor to raise serious questions about the marketplace of commercial illusion and unrealizable standards of physical perfection.”

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.”

In Whose Honor? – “What’s wrong with American Indian sports mascots? This moving, award-winning film is the first of its kind to address that subject. In Whose Honor? takes a critical look at the long-running practice of “honoring” American Indians as mascots and nicknames in sports.”

Screaming Queens – “Screaming Queens tells the little-known story of the first known act of collective, violent resistance to the social oppression of queer people in the United States – a 1966 riot in San Francisco’s impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood, three years before the famous gay riot at New York’s Stonewall Inn.”

Watch HBO documentaries for free through Films On Demand

from Citizen U.S.A. You probably know HBO for Game of Thrones and their other hit shows, but they’re also known as a powerhouse of prestigious documentaries, like the Academy Award-winning Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1. Films On Demand just signed a deal with HBO to stream their collection of documentary films, and as part of … Continue reading “Watch HBO documentaries for free through Films On Demand”

from Citizen U.S.A.

You probably know HBO for Game of Thrones and their other hit shows, but they’re also known as a powerhouse of prestigious documentaries, like the Academy Award-winning Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1.

Films On Demand just signed a deal with HBO to stream their collection of documentary films, and as part of the AU community, you can watch them for free! Follow this link to the HBO section of the Films On Demand website to see what all they have. Notable titles include the veterans stories of Alive Day Memories, Arab Spring documentary In Tahrir Square, citizenship road trip Citizen U.S.A., and a look at the life of a single mother in Paycheck to Paycheck. (And don’t forget When the Levees Broke!)

These are great film – not just to watch for your own enjoyment, but for coursework and scholarship. HBO documentaries have great educational value, and using one is a fun, productive way to mix up a presentation or research.

Checking your perspective on making a documentary

SOC’s great film program often has AU students creating their own documentaries and heading out into the local community to capture a slice of life (take the Community Documentary class!). We love that AU students get to collaborate with DC to tell their stories, but there’s a potentially fraught dynamic with having college students marching … Continue reading “Checking your perspective on making a documentary”

SOC’s great film program often has AU students creating their own documentaries and heading out into the local community to capture a slice of life (take the Community Documentary class!). We love that AU students get to collaborate with DC to tell their stories, but there’s a potentially fraught dynamic with having college students marching into town to film a struggling neighborhood for class project.

Filmmaker Edward Martinez addresses this in a new article, “Navigating the River: The Hidden Colonialism of Documentary.” Martinez found himself falling into the usual traps of making a socially unconscious, potentially exploitative documentary – specifically, reducing its subjects to just standing in for their achievements rather than being actual human beings. This was never their intention, but the tropes of documentaries can encourage filmmakers to create that sort of accidentally condescending film that reinforces power imbalances. To make the problem clearer, Martinez asks “Have you ever seen a documentary about rich white people made by poor black people?”

These are problems that clearly don’t only affect student films, but out friends in SOC would do well to learn from Martinez’s example of a time his crew attempted to film without permission. What started a confrontation (and borderline assault) with a member of the public eventually turned into an opportunity to have a genuine conversation. Don’t be the person using someone else’s community to set up their tripod.