Summary: First released in 1915, D.W. Griffith's Birth of a nation ignited worldwide controversy with its graphic depictions of racism and white supremacy in the post-Civil War South. Nearly 100 years later, Paul D. Miller also known as conceptual artist/musician/writer DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, creates a daring 'remix' of Griffith's epic to expose the film's true meaning and relates it to the...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment 2008

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Burroughs, William S.

Summary: Explores the life, work, and performance style of writer William S. Burroughs through a series of readings in Scandinavia.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Microcinema 2010

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Summary: Utilizing historical documents and interviews with scholars and churchmembers, this multi-part PBS documentary chronicles the formation and development of the Mormon Church.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Paramount 2007

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Summary: The 1960s was defined by a common effort to fight against injustice. Mike Gray, a Chicago filmmaker, used his camera to document the politics of the streets from the riots in the social upheaval, to the rising of two prolific groups fighting prejudice.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Facets Video 2007

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Summary: The big bang: At the height of the Roaring Twenties, music scouts armed with cutting-edge recording technology set out across America to capture the unsung voices of everyday folk. Blood and soil: America's poor--cotton field slaves, mine workers, sharecroppers--find freedom through music, creating gospel, protest songs, and Delta blues. Out of the many, the one: Exotic cultures spanning...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: Profiles the group of Los Angeles studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew--featuring Tommy Tedesco, guitar, Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, drums, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborne, bass--who played on many rock and pop hits during the sixties. Gifted, versatile, and possessing the knack for turning a simple tune into something memorable, the Wrecking Crew were the players who turned the Wall of Sound in...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Magnolia Home Entertainment 2015

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Summary: "Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama has helped create some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Rick Hall brought black and white together to create music for the generations. He is responsible for creating the 'Muscle Shoals sound' and the Swampers, the house band at FAME Studios that eventually...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2014

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Summary: In a cinematic sleigh-ride into the strange universe of alternative Christmas music, Mitchell Kezin delves into the minds of some of the world's most legendary Christmas music fanatics and hits the road to hang with his holiday heroes, including hip hop legend Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons of RUN-D.M.C., the Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, filmmaker John Waters, bebopper Bob Dorough, L.A. DJ and...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Oscilloscope Laboratories 2014

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Summary: A look at one of experimental theater's most influential figures, who collaborated on works with people such as Tom Waits and Philip Glass. Explore his life from his upbringing in Waco, Texas to the way of life he brought to the screen.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: New Yorker Video 2007

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Summary: An exploration of the power of cinema sound, as revealed by experts, a look at their actual process of creation and discovery.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2020

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Summary: The themes, images, and cultural vernacular of Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz continue to haunt David Lynch's filmography from his early short "The Alphabet" to his television series Twin Peaks: The Return. Is Lynch trapped in the Land of Oz? If so, what can we learn about his body of work by closely examining how it intersects and communicates with that legendary fantasy? In turn, what do...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2024

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Summary: In this documentary, Che Smith (a.k.a. Rhymefest, the Grammy-winning rapper) reunites with his father, an alcoholic living on the streets of Chicago, and struggles to deliver him to safety and an existence that is productive and meaningful, in essence, taking responsibility for the man who had abandoned him as a young child.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2016

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Summary: Aspiring filmmakers Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert set out to find a subject for their underground movie, one that will reflect the way it feels to be young and dissatisfied in postwar London. This unlikely partnership of two men from vastly different backgrounds was inspired by the burgeoning youth culture of the early 1960s. Lambert and Stamp searched for months and finally found in a band...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2015

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Summary: Ousmane Semb̀ne was a Senegalese dockworker and fifth-grade dropout who became the self-taught father of African cinema who fought enormous odds to return African stories to Africa.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2016

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: The feature-length documentary reveals the fascinating, far-reaching impact and appeal of the show with a compelling blend of rare footage, historical images, and behind-the-scenes stories while also exploring the dramatic talents of creator-producer-director Dan Curtis. Known as the "King of TV Horror," the Emmy-winning filmmaker followed the show with other iconic genre favorites including...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2019

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: In October 1942, Esther Stermer, the matriarch of a Jewish family in the Ukraine, leads her family underground to hide from the pursuing Nazis and stays nearly a year and a half. Their harrowing story of survival living in near total darkness in two cold, damp caves is one like no other ever told.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Magnolia Home Entertainment 2013

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: "We asked musiciains to cut a 78 record of an old song using one microphone, one blank lacquer disc and one 1930s PRESTO disc recorder... anywhere they chose... in one take.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2016

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: The show chronicles the unlikely partnership between Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. This revealing, compelling and often gritty story takes place in recording studios, humble homes and massive mansions, in criminal courts and in the highest corridors of corporate power. Featuring interviews with those who worked closely with Jimmy and Dr. Dre, including Bono, David Geffen, and more. The docu-series...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: "In 1974, Leon Gast traveled to Africa to film Zaire 74, a music festival planned to accompany an unprecedented sports spectacle: the Rumble in the Jungle, in which late-career underdog Muhammad Ali would contend with the younger powerhouse George Foreman for the boxing heavyweight championship title--'a fight between two blacks in a black nation, organized by blacks,' as a Kinshasa billboard...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2019

Copies Available at Woodmere

Amalric, Mathieu

Summary: Filmmakers discuss François Truffaut's book "Le cinéma selon Alfred Hitchcock" and its influence on their work.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment 2016

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: In the late 19th century, as America's teeming cities grew increasingly congested, the time had come to replace the nostalgic horse-drawn trolleys with a faster, cleaner, safer, and more efficient form of transportation. Ultimately, it was Boston, a city of so many firsts that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: Examines Banksy's story, from his roots in a criminal subculture to his rise as the leader of an art revolution.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2020

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: A portrait of David Hockney, legendary artist and an early icon for LGBTQ and AIDS activism.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2016

Copies Available at Woodmere

Summary: This film follows 6 students from Lincoln Alternative High School in Walla Walla, Washington. The principal and teachers embraced a non-punitive, trauma-informed model of teaching and discipline in order to counteract the chaos and violence present in the school. Using the ACE's model in the classroom helped the students understand their negative emotions and create an atmosphere for success.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2015

Copies Available at Woodmere