Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / North America / United States / Massachusetts / All Films

Conversations with Jean Rouch

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Conversations with Jean Rouch
Buy Now: $295.00

This intimate, revealing film of conversations between Jean Rouch and a number of filmmakers and friends including John Marshall is unlike any past films on Rouch's life and work. It was shot over a two-year period, 1978-80 by his friend, Ann McIntosh, who taught video under Ricky Leacock at MIT. There are some fascinating insights as he discusses his methodology with students at Harvard and Hampshire College in western Massachusetts. He also reflects on war and the role he played as an engineer in France during WWII and lighter moments vacationing with his wife.

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Down the Project

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Down the Project
Buy Now: $320.00

Sixty years ago, the "projects" were considered to be the most desirable housing stock for low-to-low-middle-income Americans. Today, this same housing has become stigmatized, beset by financial and social problems, and may be phased out.

This film, made in the 1980s, remains the classic portrait of a government program besieged on all sides. In two 30-minute sections, the film presents a concise social history of a housing movement and its opponents, then examines the social dilemmas of the developments these forces produced. Spokespeople include residents, public housing advocates from the 1930s, developers, administrators and politicians.

Down The Project: The Crisis of Public Housing presents the story of two projects that housed working families, both white and black, in the 1940s. In later years, crippled by lower budgets and the needs of poorer populations, they came to be regarded as eyesores, as danger zones. How did these changes occur? How did public housing begin? Which forces lobbied for it and against it? How do the people living in this housing see it?

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Edward O. Wilson

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Edward O. Wilson
Buy Now: $320.00

Edward O. Wilson, the Pelligrino University Professor and Honorary Curator of Entomology at Harvard University, is one of the world's most distinguished and controversial scientists. Through his books and lectures, Wilson has changed the way scientists and nonscientists alike view the natural world by fueling their enthusiasm for science and showing them its immediacy for their everyday lives. Wilson's devotion to natural history, his broad humanistic approach to learning, and a gift for storytelling have made him one of the most popular teachers at Harvard and lecturers around the world. In this warm and engaging biographical portrait Wilson offers insight into the scientific process, relating how an interest in studying ants and social insects led him to establish the field of sociobiology and to promote the study of biodiversity. He compares scientists to mythmakers and examines the role of imagination in scientific inquiry. Wilson’s passionate concern for the preservation of our natural heritage has placed him in the forefront of environmental activism. As a young boy growing up in the deep South, Wilson began to dream of going to the "Big Tropics, the Amazon, New Guinea, of discovering new kinds of plants and animals." This urge to explore propelled him from a childhood interest in collecting insects to a career that has encompassed studies in the biology of social insects, ecology, biogeography, sociobiology, and environmental conservation. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the National Medal of Science (1976), the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1990), and two Pulitzer Prizes. Prof. Wilson's books include The Insect Societies, Sociobiology: the New Synthesis, On Human Nature, The Diversity of Life, Biophilia, Naturalist, and The Future of Life.

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Hyman Bloom: The Beauty of All Things

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Hyman Bloom: The Beauty of All Things
Buy Now: $320.00

Painter Hyman Bloom is one of the forefathers of abstract art in America. His career flourished in the 1940's and 50's garnering the highest praise in both art and popular press. His intense beliefs about composition and masterful command of color were breathtaking and are admired by artists to this day. But Hyman's decision to continue exploring figurative work when the art world was moving towards total abstraction and his habitual disdain for the public eye brought him from being one of the infamous "Bad Boys from Boston" to a man little known in the mainstream art scene. Weaving interviews, archival photos, never before seen sketchbooks from the 1930s to the present this film chronicles an artist blessed with longevity and creativity who continued to work hard at his craft even as he approached his 95th birthday.

Born in Brunaviski, Latvia, Bloom grew up in an orthodox Jewish family in the West End of Boston - a neighborhood since vanished. The film highlights a body of work that is a vibrant manifestation of Bloom's imagination and his dedication to envision what others didn't dare. He painted rabbis and Christmas trees, cadavers and autopsies, séances and the astral plane, the woods of Maine and the shimmer of opalescent pottery. Told with humor and irony Bloom's story is not a bitter one. It is a triumph of art and of the spirit.

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Irma Caceres: The Goddess of Truth

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

Irma Caceres: The Goddess of Truth
Buy Now: $295.00

Teenage years are fraught with problems, tension and uncontrollable emotions. For an adolescent to also be an immigrant - in other words, an outsider - the problem is even more complex. Yet, there are very few resources at hand to help teachers and school administrators deal with this issue in the classroom.

This video provides a vehicle for engaging students in classroom discussions about what it means to be "different" and shows us the unique contributions that can be made by everyone when given the opportunity. It also demonstrates the practical use and positive results of using media as teaching tool.

"Through this video, I want that everybody and the whole world gets to know me for who I am, a good person, and a good human being. My project is about my life, my problems, for me it's a total release... and my big wish is to show my life on the Big Screen."

Irma is a young student from Honduras who, in addition to confronting the challenges of being an immigrant, also has learning and emotional disabilities that isolate her in high school. She was in an ESL (English as a Second Language) program when she met two young documentary filmmakers (Julie Criniere and Chih-Lan Lu) who came to help one of her teachers develop a documentary video curriculum. Recognizing the opportunity they presented, in the course of one semester's work, Irma used the video as an opportunity to learn about herself and communicate with the outside world.

The documentary flows seamlessly between the layers of Irma's fantasy realm and the reality of her life. The making of the video was a process of self-discovery through which emerges the powerful voice of a young woman who wants to transform the world she lives in through the poetic use of the medium of film.

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If It Fits

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:44:00 GMT

If It Fits
Buy Now: $320.00

The once thriving industrial town of Haverhill, Massachusetts on the Merrimack River now resembles, in the words of one of the film's subjects, "a ghost town where you expect to see tumbleweeds come rolling down Main Street." This film examines a dying industrial town and its politicians' search for votes over such issues as municipal spending, rising taxes, the revitalization of depressed areas, and attracting new industry.

The film's central event is the 1976 Mayoral election. Election scenes are intercut with comments from Haverhill residents, members of a local foundation, political scientist Frances Fox Piven, the president of the local union, and the shoe manufacturers themselves. The oral history which surrounds the election footage is a reservoir of information about Haverhill's present condition as well as its past.

"If It Fits examines a dying industrial town and its politicians' search for votes over such issues as municipal spending, rising taxes, the revitalization of depressed areas, and attracting new industry... The oral history which surrounds the election footage is a reservoir of information about Haverhill's present condition as well as its past. A wonderful example of gently observed cinéma vérité filmmaking and skillful editing."
– David Tamés, Kino-Eye, "One Hundred Documentary Films v.2" (PDF)

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

American Film Festival Finalist

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Last Season

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Last Season
Buy Now: $295.00

Last Season is a portrait of the ground fish trawler Isabel S. from New Bedford, MA. Jeff, the captain, learned fishing from his father, local legend 'Fearless Freddy' Hatfield. Brian, the cook, is a biker and a recovering alcoholic. Lo, the deckhand, is a refugee from Vietnam who has rediscovered Buddhism.

We accompany them to the once-ample fishing areas of Georges Bank and the Nantucket Shoals, where they haul in nets, and do the backbreaking and bloody work of hand-cutting thousands of pounds of cod and other fish on a pitching trawl deck.

The boat is revealed as a social microcosm. Captain Jeff, the son of an esteemed local captain, is at the top of the order, and Lo, who arrived in the U.S. after a harrowing escape from a Viet Cong jail, is at the bottom.

Fishing is a complicated and sometimes deadly business. Detailed knowledge of the ocean floor and the habits of fish is crucial to success. But, as Captain Jeff acknowledges as the Isabel S. returns with its catch, "Sometimes a lot of it is a little luck".

"[Last Season] is impressive and the idea behind it significant because it gives a viewpoint from the fishermen's perspective on fishing. I am sure ... it will contribute much to improving fishery management.”
— Brian J. Rothschild, Dean, University of Massachusetts

"...These men are in the midst of important and dramatic lives, and Mr. Bendavid-Val very skillfully makes those lives part of our own. He must have done some lengthy preliminary work on this boat because they speak to him with trust, honesty, and candor. And they begin a story that promises both depth and beauty... Mr. Bendavid-Val is offering us men's lives... at a time when their destinies pertain not just to their immediate families and communities, but to perplexities confronting both this nation and the world.”
— Richard Adams Carey, author of Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman

“Bendavid-Val's filming aboard the Isabel S. would be make for a good discussion in an anthropology of film course.” — Thomas Stevenson, Anthropology Review Database

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Voices of the Waters Festival, Bangalore, India, 2007

Summer Screenings, Somerville Community Access Television, MA, 2007

Green Wave 21st Century European Environment Festival, Bulgaria, 2007

Roshd International Film Festival, Iran, 2007

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The Last Window

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

The Last Window
Buy Now: $295.00

When Charles J. Connick Associates closed their doors in 1986, they left a legacy of 15,000 stained glass windows in more than 5000 churches, libraries and other public buildings. Founded on the principles of a medieval craft guild, this Boston studio was closely allied with Ralph Adams Cram, Dean of the Gothic revival in American architecture, and in it's heyday, between 1920 and 1950, employed and trained scores of artisans. The Last Window, narrated by Jonathan Fairbanks, Curator of American Decorative Arts Museum of Fine Arts Boston, follows the studio's final commission from design to installation; the artisans' commentary establishes the historical, aesthetic, and social context in which they work. Many examples of Connick windows are included, taking the film outside the studio to show the contrast between the workers' relationship with the art and that of the patrons and users.

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A Media Archaeology of Boston

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

A Media Archaeology of Boston
Buy Now: $320.00

Using the Boston region as a laboratory for exploring different modes of urban representation across both history and media, A Media Archaeology of Boston exhibits a carefully-selected excavation of the city's spaces through a montage of short films, photographs, postcards, and soundscapes of the larger metropolitan area. Far from a comprehensive survey, A Media Archaeology of Boston aims to provoke new experiences of the city and, simultaneously, to challenge everyday perceptions of it.

Unlike Los Angeles or New York, whose image has been meticulously produced and systematically canonized through mass and independent media, Boston is a place where media practice has taken place on the margins of central venues of production and distribution. From industrial films by the Ford Motor Company to discharged advertising reels of local businesses to state-sponsored documentaries by experimental filmmakers investigating the harbor's environmental health, Media Archaeology of Boston provides insight into a city that expands beyond its celebrated historical landscape to encompass a multiplicity of perspectives toward diverse parts of the metropolitan area.

Integrating content, form, time, place, and medium in our curatorial process, we aim to construct a more complex, subjective matrix of multiple perspectives on Boston, without any claims of objectivity or comprehensiveness. The DVD opens up this collection of documentations to the audience and invites participation in the construction of new stories, of new narratives. A Media Archaeology of Boston, above all, remains an open and incomplete collection that presents a map of possibilities.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, 2009

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Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000
Buy Now: $295.00

In the 1960s, the Nashua River in New Hampshire and central Massachusetts was one of the 10 most polluted in the country, clogged with multicolored, toxic sludge from nearby paper mills.

Around that time, housewife Marion Stoddart moved to the area with her family, so close to the river they could smell its noxious fumes. At a low point in her life, she decided to fight her own emptiness by taking on the biggest challenge she could find - cleaning up the Nashua.

Her dramatic success in mobilizing the community showed people that change was possible, even though they'd lost hope. Marion's efforts helped get the Massachusetts Clean Rivers Act passed so that companies weren't allowed to pollute rivers like the Nashua anymore. In the process, she won a United Nations award, was profiled in National Geographic, and had a widely-read children's book written about her. Her secret? An ordinary person can do extraordinary things when they refuse to give up.

Thanks to Marion, children in the Nashua River Watershed and around the world have come to understand that one person can make a difference, even when the odds seem impossible.

“Individuals like Marion Stoddart--who are able, against great odds, to effect significant environmental change within their lifetimes--are one of our best teaching tools and opportunities to inspire.”
— Professor Ninian Stein, San Jose State University

“A grassroots crusader for the Nashua River, Marion Stoddart serves alongside Rachel Carson as a powerful example of an individual's capacity to muster vast environmental change even in the face of industrial and political inertia. Edwards' film captures Stoddart's determination and single-mindedness with nuance and perspective, offering not only the story of her victories, but the personal and family risks she took to achieve them.”
— Caitlin Boyle, Founder, Film Sprout

“Work of 1000 is more than just a documentary detailing the success of environmental activism in changing things for the greater good; It is the story behind the success - that a person, a housewife in the 1960s - can do the work of a thousand and make a difference in the world. It's a powerful message; one we can all learn from.”
— Daniel Edmonds, Vox Magazine

“Having the screening of Work of 1,000 followed by an interview with Marion Stoddart was a compelling lifetime experience. When you learn what one 'ordinary' person can and did do, you are moved and inspired. ”
— Owen Smith Shuman, Director, Groton Public Library

"Americans feeling distraught as they watch thousands of gallons of oil pour into the Gulf of Mexico every day might take heart from this story about Massachusetts environmental visionary, Marion Stoddart.”
— John Dyer, Boston Globe

“Marion's story and the results of her work give me hope for the future.”
— Patricia B. Campbell, Ph.D. Researcher in Science and Math Education Equity

“This film provides unique learning opportunities and will enhance interest in the environmental science and engineering fields and leadership development for all.”
— Larisa Schelkin, Executive Director of the DOME Foundation

"Thanks to Susan Edwards' new documentary Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000, we get to meet one of America's most dedicated environmentalists.”
— Pamela Burke, The Woman's Eye

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Short Documentary, Silent River Film Festival, USA, 2012

Best Documentary Short, Rivers' Edge Festival, Paducah, KY, 2011

AT&T Award for Environmental Stewardship and Conservation, Arpa International Film Festival, 2011

Projecting Change Award, Project Change Film Festival, Vancouver Canada, 2011

Speak Out Award, 44th Annual Humbolt Film Festival, Arcata, CA, 2011

Best Short Documentary, Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, New Zealand, 2010

Best "Call To Action", Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, Venice, CA 2010

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