Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Inequalities / Race Relations / All Films

We Are The Warriors

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:15:24 GMT

We Are The Warriors
Buy Now: $320.00

For nearly 70 years, students and alumni of Wells High School in Maine have called themselves the “Warriors.” Their yearbook, the Abenaki, was named for the Indigenous people the town’s settlers first encountered in the 1600s. And the school mascot was a stoic Native American head in profile with braids and feathered headband. When, in 2017, public allegations emerged that Warriors fans made “Indian” whooping calls and donned “war paint,” the community began a process to decide whether to keep or drop their long-held mascot. We Are The Warriors follows the proceedings of the school district’s Mascot Advisory Committee and draws on interviews with residents of Wells, Maine to paint a profile of one community’s process as they confront their history and identity, challenging long-held misconceptions about the meanings behind their team’s name.

The film’s Co-Directors, both graduates of Wells High School, gathered interviews and insights from residents of Wells and Wabanaki people from what is now Maine, Québec, and the Canadian Maritimes. Revelations about the town’s brutal colonial history and difficult conversations about the actual impact of the use of the mascot were key to changing hearts and minds of committee members. The film highlights evolving opinions of residents with a secondary focus on the history of the region. After months of informed consideration, the committee votes to recommend that the school board retire the mascot.

We Are the Warriors serves as a case study for how one community contends with the legacy of settler colonialism and speaks to national issues regarding misunderstandings about the role and place of indigenous people in American society.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Maine Public Television, USA, 2024

Vermont Public Television, USA, 2024

Port Jefferson Documentary Series, USA, 2024
Tourmaline Prize for Best Feature made in Maine, 26th Maine Int'l Film Festival, USA 2023

Global Peace Film Festival, USA, 2023
Monadnock Int'l Film Festival, USA, 2023

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China Remix

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

China Remix
Buy Now: $295.00

This short documentary explores China's burgeoning African entertainment industry through the lives of three African hip-hop artists. Based in the southeastern city of Guangzhou – home to China's largest community of African immigrants – the film follows the entertainers as they try to find success in the face of challenging labor and immigration laws. The film follows the entertainers as they prepare for their shows, perform, and live their daily lives with their Chinese and African family members and friends, against the backdrop of the risk of deporation and ongoing prejudice.

"[A] fascinating film. ... [W]ith the Chinese state fervently pushing investment and development in countries throughout Africa, a new set of relationships is developing. The consequences of these relationships, both within and outside China, are just beginning to be explored, [China Remix] highlights relationships on a personal level [and] is a welcomed contribution."
–Tami Blumenfield, American Anthropologist

SELECTED SCREENINGS AND FESTIVALS

Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York

African Diaspora International Film Festival, New York

Africa World Documentary Film Festival, St. Louis, Missouri

Amakula International Film Festival, Kampala, Uganda

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Dollars and Dreams

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Dollars and Dreams
Buy Now: $320.00

Dollars and Dreams is a documentary film focused on the pursuits and challenges of numerous West African immigrants as they confront the idea of the American Dream and the reality of the New York experience. Including additional perspective from scholars, authors, and community leaders, the film creates a vibrant portrait of African achievement throughout the city, while exploring the complicated issues African immigrants face as they balance their deep connections to Africa and their enthusiastic commitments to America.

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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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Dinka Diaries

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dinka Diaries
Buy Now: $320.00

Dinka Diaries tells the story of some of America's most recent arrivals: Sudanese refugees who would have never dreamt a few years ago that they'd be living in America. Over the course of ten months, the film follows the lives of three Sudanese refugees who resettle in the Philadelphia area and adjust to the new American culture and way of life.

Dinka Diaries represents an important attempt to empower refugees by giving them the opportunity to represent themselves and their experiences through film.

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Freedom Never Dies

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Freedom Never Dies
Buy Now: $320.00

On Christmas night 1951, Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriette retired to bed in their white frame house tucked inside a small orange grove in Mims, Florida. Ten minutes later, a bomb shattered their house, their lives, and any notions that the South’s post-war transition to racial equality would be a smooth one. Harry Moore died that night, his wife nine days later. Harry T. Moore paved the way for the ‘60s civil rights movement by championing equal pay for black teachers, organizing the black vote and publicly condemning racist attitudes and actions of local, state and national officials. Despite a massive FBI investigation and repeated inquisitions, the murders of Harry and Harriette Moore have never been solved.

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Indian Self-Rule

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

Indian Self-Rule
Buy Now: $320.00

"When the 20th century began, most Americans who thought about Indians at all did so in the past tense. Like a photograph, the image and culture of Indian people were frozen in time. Yet for Indians, the 20th century was a time of recovery. Instead of a photograph, Indian life and culture was more like a motion picture, and the story line or plot moved on..."

— Roger Buffalohead, Historian

After centuries of struggle, the Indians of North America own less than 2% of the land settled by their ancestors. Indian Self-Rule traces the history of white-Indian relations from nineteenth century treaties through the present, as tribal leaders, historians, teachers, and other Indians gather at a 1983 conference organized to reevaluate the significance of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

The experiences of the Flathead Nation of Montana, the Navajo Nation of the Southwest, and the Quinault people of the Olympic Peninsula illustrate some of the ways Indians have dealt with shifting demands imposed upon them, from allotment to reorganization to termination and relocation. Particularly eloquent are Indian reflections upon the difficulties of maintaining cultural identities in a changing world and within a larger society that views Indians with ambivalence.

"Society wants...Indians to be like everyone else; and yet...wants Indians to be Indians."
— Sam Deloria, Director of the American Indian Law Center

Disclaimer on Naming:

Please be aware that this documentary may include outdated or potentially offensive language. Such terms are not endorsed by DER but are presented in their original context to promote awareness, education, and discussion. Learn more about DER’s efforts to use reparative language and honor the preferred names of Indigenous communities by clicking here.

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Inside/Outside Station 9

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

Inside/Outside Station 9
Buy Now: $340.00

A number of short sequences show some of the events and people in the daily lives of several policemen: their intervention in domestic quarrels, the handling of a hit-and-run case, the approaches taken toward loitering youths, a drunk and disorderly charge being made in Magistrate's Court, and the interrogation of a burglary suspect. Police force candidates are shown being interviewed by members of the police department. They discuss their reasons for wanting to be policemen and their thoughts about themselves and their jobs, placing the film in the context of the community from which the department draws its personnel.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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It's Now or Never!

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

It's Now or Never!
Buy Now: $295.00

In April 1997, the Makuxi Indians of North Roraima commemorate their struggle to have their land holdings recognized by the Brazilian government. Through testimonials, skits and animation, they re-create a history of forced labor and exploitation at the hands of whites.

Miners brought alcohol and disease to the indigenous community, but the Makuxi fought back. Through brave demonstrations and other tactics, they eventually regained their rights and land. Visitors and journalists witness this history lesson, and so do a new generation of Makuxi children, who are learning how vital it is to protect their cultural heritage.

Films in the Conflicts in the Amazon series

Free-For-All In Sararé

It's Now or Never!

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The Informant

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

The Informant
Buy Now: $295.00

This film focuses on a black burglary suspect who, during interrogation by police offers his services as an "undercover" informant - providing the police will suppress his charge.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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