Summary: Examines the life and legacy of African American poet, memoirist, and civil rights worker Maya Angelou, from her upbringing in the Depression-era South to her work with Malcolm X in Ghana to the recitation of her inaugural poem for President Bill Clinton. Includes Angelou's own words woven together with archival photographs and videos as well as interviews with Angelou's friends and family.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Peninsula

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD MAY

Summary: The extraordinary debut from documentarian Bing Liu weaves a story of skateboarding, friendship, and fathers and sons into a coming-of-age journey of courageous vulnerability.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2021

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC MIN

Summary: For over 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and damaged poor communities. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Filmed in more than 20 states, it captures heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels, the dealer to grieving mother, the narcotics officer to...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2013

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC HOU

Summary: Filmmaker Byron Hurt looks at the past and future of soul food, covering its roots in Western Africa, its incarnation in the American South, and the role it plays in the health crisis in the African American community. Examines the socioeconomics of the modern American diet, and how the food industry profits from producing cheap calories while healthy options remain expensive and hard to find.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: PBS 2013

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV SOU

Summary: Chronicles the emotional journey to understand and cope with the loss shared by the estimated 20,000 American children whose fathers were killed in Vietnam. Weaves interviews with home movies, stock footage, and family photos. Along her journey, Tragos uncovers a 30-year-old mystery, as she comes to know her father as a man. Some discoveries are almost too difficult to bear, it is ultimately...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Docurama 2004

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC BE

Summary: "Ice People heads out into the 'deep field' with noted scientists Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis, and two undergrad scientists-in-the-making, where they scour across hundreds of miles to find tiny, critical signs of life 20 million years old. The most authentic depiction of life on the ice ever put to film, Ice People conveys the vast beauty, the claustrophobia, the excitement and the stillness...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: [distr. by Neoflix] 2008

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC ICE

Summary: The powerful documentary examines the life of Muhammad Ali beyond the boxing ring to offer a personal perspective on the American sporting legend. Investigating Ali's spiritual transformation includes his conversion to Islam, resistance to the Vietnam War draft, and humanitarian work. The documentary connects Ali's transcendent life story to America' struggles with race, religion, and war in...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2014

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in TC Film Fest DVDs, Call number: DVD TCFF TRI

Summary: On March 8, 1971, eight ordinary citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, a town just outside of Philadelphia, took hundreds of secret files, and shared them with the public. In doing so, they uncovered the FBI's vast and illegal regime of spying and intimidation of Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. Despite conducting one of the most thorough investigations in...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2015

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in TC Film Fest DVDs, Call number: DVD TCFF NIN

Summary: On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Solo is a Senegalese cab driver working to provide a better life for his young family. William is a tough Southern good ol' boy with a lifetime of regrets. Solo's American dream is just beginning, while William's is quickly winding down. Despite their...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Lionsgate 2008

Copies Available at Fife Lake

1 available in Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD GOO

Summary: Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as an astonishing 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the largest human migration on the planet, an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Working over several years in classic verite, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Zeitgeist Films 2011

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN LAS

Summary: A spectacularly gripping documentary that unfolds like a great political thriller. It's the cross-cut tale of two men whose fateful meeting propelled them on divergent courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The Oath offers a rare window into a hidden realm and the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Zeitgeist Films 2010

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC OAT
1 available in TC Film Fest DVDs, Call number: DVD TCFF OAT

Summary: Noodling is the lost art of using your hands as bait to catch fish. Follow this group of Oklahoma fishermen as they catch 60 pound catfish with their bare hands, as has been done for hundreds of years.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Redline Entertainment 2002

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC OKI

Summary: "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2016

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV BLA

Summary: "Detroit's story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century: the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now, the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos. With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score,...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: New Video 2013

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC DET
1 available in TC Film Fest DVDs, Call number: DVD TCFF DET

Summary: On August first, 1966, a sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the iconic University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes in what was a previously unimaginable event. This documentary combines archival footage with animated re-enactments of the dramatic day, based entirely on first person testimonies from witnesses, heroes, and survivors, in a...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2017

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC TOW

Summary: "Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents--mostly elderly and black--died over the course of one week. As Cooked links the deadly heat wave's devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster of structural racism, it delves deep into one of our nation's biggest growth industries: Disaster Preparedness. Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand...

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2020

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in TC Film Fest DVDs, Call number: DVD TCFF COO

Summary: An intimate coming of age story which illuminates the challenges that many black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2018

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC FOR

Summary: Actress/advocates and New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof meet individuals who are doing work to empower women and girls everywhere. These are stories of challenge, transformation and hope.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Docuramafilms 2012

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC HAL