Summary: In 1991, Rick Walker was wrongly convicted of murder and spent the next 12 years in prison. This program tells the story of his exoneration and the political struggle to secure financial compensation for him from the state of California. In addition to an interview with Walker himself, the film presents detailed conversations with key players in his case and the partisan budget battle over...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program shows us how state government impacts virtually every moment of our lives. Day-to-day activities, from eating breakfast to driving a car, are impacted by state law. The program shows how, and shows which state agencies are responsible for making and enforcing the laws that govern these activities. The cycle of taxation, and how revenues from state taxes are used for many services...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Is a humane and painless execution method possible, and if so, would death penalty proponents support its use? Or is pain the whole idea? Examining what many see as the cruelty of current procedures, this program searches for a viable alternative. Experts in the death business-retired executioners, toxicologists, biomechanics specialists, and others-explain disturbing flaws in the use of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: One government service after another has been turned over to private business for a profit. In this program, Bill Moyers Journal and Expose: America's Investigative Reports examine a whistleblower's tale of military housing contracts gone awry as Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Eric Nalder reveals what happens when one private contractor drops the ball. In addition, Bill Moyers talks with...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: America's frenzied debate over government health insurance has eclipsed another, no less challenging, national health care crisis-the plight of people with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This Fred Friendly Seminar sheds light on barriers to treatment, ethical and legal dilemmas, and fragmented social policies that are creating a nightmare for families, filling...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Examining the use of torture over the past half-century, this program describes its horrific application in military and political settings and explores its profound human cost. Featuring interviews with confessed practitioners of the gruesome craft, the program exposes interrogation methods developed and carried out by French army officers against Algerian independence fighters, by British...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The laws of the criminal justice system are primarily framed by the Constitution, which sets the standards of due process. In this program, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges explain the differences between misdemeanors and felonies, the various degrees of crimes, and the elements of a crime. Investigation procedures in the gathering of evidence and statements are discussed. Legal experts and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program deciphers the legislative process by explaining how an idea metamorphoses into a law. In interviews, prominent legislators and lobbyists explain how a bill is conceived, moved through the House and Senate or killed in committee, amended, prepared for a vote, and sent for the President or Governor's signature.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This fast-paced and informative program shows students how the Constitution established the Executive Branch, and provided for the separation of powers and the relationship of the Executive Branch to the Legislative and Judicial Branches of the federal and state government. Specific roles of the Chief Executive are defined such as Commander-in-Chief, Foreign Policy Director, Legislative Leader,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores the history and anatomy of the ongoing political debate over the idea of shifting power and authority from the federal government to the states and individuals. The program goes back to the founding of the country and examines the split between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over how much power the federal government should have, through the Civil War, to the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: September 24th, 1789—the First United States Congress establishes the basic structure of the Federal Judiciary. With this act, the American legal system becomes an entity entwined with our fundamental notions of democracy and fair government, equal in power and authority to the Executive and Legislative branches. This program guides viewers through the history of the Judiciary and illustrates...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although the office of the President personifies American leadership, the Legislative branch was actually designed to hold at least as much power as the Executive, if not more. Many Founding Fathers envisioned Congress as the primary governing body, given its closeness, politically speaking, to the people. This program examines the origins, history, and activities of the U.S. House of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Many equate it with the Presidency, but the Executive branch of our government is far more complex than that. Containing departments and agencies that directly affect the health, safety, security, and prosperity of the American public, the Executive branch is an administrative mountain with the White House at its peak. This program expands on that description, familiarizing students with the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The size and shape of American government is due in no small part to Chief Justice John Marshall. This biography focuses on his contribution to the status of the Supreme Court, his implementation of judicial review, and his advocacy of strong central authority for the protection of the new nation and its ideals. Outlining Marshall's youth on the Virginia frontier, the program describes his...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Part of the Ken Burns America Collection, this incisive documentary profiles our government's legislative branch. Narrated by David McCullough, the program uses historic footage and interviews with veteran political observers-including David Broder, Alistair Cooke, and Cokie Roberts-to detail the first 200 years of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Incorporating readings from diary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1988
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the view of some political observers, Vice President Dick Cheney spent his career waging a secretive battle to expand the power of the presidency. This episode of Frontline examines behind-closed-doors ideological divisions within the second Bush administration over the power of the executive branch and the rule of law. Viewers are introduced to several controversies at the heart of Cheney's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Formed in 1966 as part of President Johnson's War on Poverty, Legal Services provides free legal assistance in civil matters to those who cannot afford counsel. Using New Jersey as a microcosm of the condition of the impoverished throughout America, this program highlights the crucial work of Legal Services and its basic premise: without equal access, there is no equal justice. Case studies...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This documentary zeroes in on the price candidates pay to win election to public office. Media drives campaigns; money drives media. As a result, modern political campaigns have become enormously expensive, with winners often decided by the size of their campaign expenditures. This video investigates where candidates get their money and what they trade in their quest for political power. This...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: For 80 years, one legal organization has supported the rights of the individual against the majority and the government, igniting rage in conservatives and liberals alike. That organization is the ACLU, and it has virtually molded our national ideal of liberty. Its history reads like a case study of freedom of expression and minority rights in the 20th century. This program, with commentary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program shows the process of lawmaking. Through dozens of interviews at state capitols across the United States, we meet officials in state legislatures and learn about their respective roles in the making of laws. We meet the speakers of the Senate and House, the minority leaders, the chief clerks; see caucuses, committees, and lobbyists in action; and develop an understanding of how they...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program focuses on those who choose to become legislators, and why. Many senators and representatives, from all walks of life, speak about what motivates them to seek public office. Interviews with factory workers, farmers, housewives, and policemen, who also serve in their state legislatures, dispel preconceptions about overly ambitious politicians. We learn that campaigning has become a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Every day, nearly 7,000 people die in America, and the rate of autopsies - the gold standard of death investigation - has plummeted. As a result, not only do murderers go free and innocent people go to jail, but the crisis in death investigation in America is also a threat to public health. Frontline correspondent Lowell Bergman reports the results of a joint investigation with ProPublica, NPR,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2001
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the early years of the 20th century, at a time when the U.S. Navy dominated Hawaii, Americans thought of the islands as a Pacific paradise. But in 1931, Thalia Massie, a young Navy wife, made a drastic allegation of rape against five non-white islanders, shattering the semblance of tranquility and fully exposing growing racial tensions. What unfolded in the following days and weeks was a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Former Vice President Dick Cheney's insistence that "we've got to spend time in the shadows" epitomized, for many Americans, the second Bush administration's approach to the war on terror. But how significant was the so-called dark side? This episode of Frontline examines decisions and divisions within the Bush team over the use of intelligence and counterterrorism tactics following the 9/11...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006