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Kanopy Films
Alvin Ailey: An Evening with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
In this brilliant studio recording, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the country’s boldest and most exciting dance company, brings its distinctive style home to you – dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet graceful and poetic. Divining was Judith Jamison’s first major work as a choreographer for Alvin Ailey. The dance evokes a strong feeling for African tribal ritual and is set to hauntingly rhythmic drum music. Revelations expresses Ailey’s intense feelings for his roots in the South. Here you’ll see Ailey’s vivid “blood memories” of the blues, spirituals, gospel music, ragtime and folk songs as well as the hard life of the Southern black during the Depression. Set to Modern Jazz, The Stack-Up takes place in modern-day Harlem. You’ll witness the cruel reality of urban street life as a young man is destroyed by drugs. Cry was choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1971 for Judith Jamison and is one of his most famous pieces. Created as a birthday present for his mother, it is Ailey’s tribute to black women. You can’t help feeling being moved by the struggle, the anger and most importantly, the celebration..
Edward Said On Orientalism
Based on Edward Said's influential book, On Orientalism, this engaging and lavishly illustrated video examines the context within which he conceived the book, as well as his cultural analysis of media representations of the Middle East and Islam. In a post-9/11 world, this video provides an indispensable perspective.
Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype
Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and among the most diverse -- accounting for one-sixth of all Americans and tracing their origins to more than 20 countries. They are also a rising force in American politics. Yet across the American media landscape, from the broadcast airwaves to cable television and Hollywood film, the reality and richness of the Latino experience are virtually nowhere to be found. In Latinos Beyond Reel, filmmakers Miguel Picker and Chyng Sun examine how US news and entertainment media portray -- and do not portray -- Latinos. Drawing on the insights of Latino scholars, journalists, community leaders, actors, directors, and producers, they uncover a pattern of gross misrepresentation and gross under-representation -- a world in which Latinos tend to appear, if at all, as gangsters and Mexican bandits, harlots and prostitutes, drug dealers, and welfare-leeching illegals. The film challenges viewers to think critically about the wide-ranging effects of these media stereotypes, and to envision alternative representations and models of production more capable of capturing the humanity and diversity of real Latinos.
What Are You?
In this revealing documentary, eleven people with a range of backgrounds discuss what it is like being of mixed racial heritage within the context of North America. Each of the participants presents their unique outlook on growing up mixed and the challenges they've faced in their lives.
No two experiences are identical when speaking about their journey of how each person came to perceive themselves. Many speak of the difference between how they saw themselves versus how the world at large treated them. There are several instances of being "othered" by friends and relatives alike or how seeds of doubt were planted at childhood to disrupt their own sense of self. The interviewees voice unique concerns about acceptance, culture, and society and how even their own self-identification undergoes shifts.
White Like Me: Race, Racism & White Privilege in America
White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today.
For years, Tim Wise's bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen -- to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about.
Swank Films
Get Out
Get Out /. Universal Pictures. Web.
A young black man meets his white girlfriend's parents at their estate, only to find out that the situation is much more sinister than it appears