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A
- America's Brutal Prisons - Exposes the violence occurring inside prisons throughout America, where prisoners are routinely abused, even tortured, by prison guards.
- An American Love Story - An extraordinary 10-hour PBS series about a black man and a white woman who have struggled for thirty years against racial stereotypes and societal prejudice to keep their family together.
- Arguing the World - The lives of Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, and Irving Kristol.
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B
- Been Rich All My Life - Meet the Silver Belles -- former Apollo Theater showgirls who have danced and performed together for 70 years.
- The Big Game - The role of competitive sports, in this case basketball, in the community, for the coaches, and, most of all, for the players themselves.
- Blue End - Joseph Paul Jernigan was executed in Texas in 1993. He was then frozen in blue gelatin, planed off, millimeter by milimeter, and photographed. Now he lives forever as the Visible Human Project, the first completely digitized human being.
- Breaking the Ice, the Story of Mary Ann Shadd - The little known story of abolitionist, suffragette and integrationist Mary Ann Shadd, the first black female newspaper editor and the first black female attorney in North America.
- Bright Leaves - The new film from Ross McElwee, director of SHERMAN'S MARCH. The renowned filmmaker and native Carolinian journeys across the social, economic, and psychological landscapes of tobacco and family in North Carolina.
- Brotherhood of Hate - An investigation of a seemingly isolated murder in rural Arkansas, revealing the virulent, dangerous mentality of white supremacy in America, handed down from one generation to the next.
- ... But I Was a Girl - A biography of Frieda Belinfante (1905-1995), a remarkable woman who was the first female conductor to have her own symphony orchestra, first in the Netherlands and later in southern California.
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C
- The Camden 28 - A story of the "Catholic Left" and the anti-Vietnam War movement—priests and lay people who risked jail to break into draft boards and destroy government records.
- The Campaign - A mayoral race in middle America.
- Caught in the Crossfire - Chronicles three diverse Arab New Yorkers - a beat cop, a minister, and a high-level diplomatic correspondent - as they wrestle with their place in wartime America.
- Chore Wars - Do you say "I love you" with flowers - or by doing the dishes?! The place of chores in the battle of the sexes.
- Clara Lemlich - The story of the young, Jewish, Ukrainian-born woman who in 1909 sparked the 'Uprising of the 20,000' -- the first massive strike of New York City garment workers.
- Community of Praise - Examines faith working in the lives of a fundamentalist family.
- Conversations with Roy DeCarava - The life of the first black photographer to win a Guggenheim Fellowship.
- A Crime to Fit the Punishment - Visits blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers who came together to make the seminal labor film, SALT OF THE EARTH.
- Cul de Sac - An allegory for a working class suburb in decline, this film investigates the story of Shawn Nelson, who stole a tank and went on a rampage through the residential streets of Clairemont, CA.
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D
- Dear Dr. Spencer - From the early 1920s until his death in 1969, Dr. Robert Douglas Spencer practiced medicine in a small town in Pennsylvania, where he treated colds, set fractures - and performed illegal abortions.
- Dream Deceivers - About a young Nevada man who claimed he put a shotgun to his own head because a recording by the rock group Judas Priest told him to.
- Dreamland - Takes a sharp but disarming approach in examining the romance of gambling, and reveals the decidedly unromantic reality.
- Ducktators - A unique look at the use of cartoons during World War II.
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E
- Empathy - A blend of documentary and fiction drama, this wry, intriguing deconstruction of psychoanalysis raises playful and provocative questions about trust, power, and understanding.
- An Empire of Reason - What it would have been like if television had covered the ratification process of the US Constitution in 1781.
- The End of the Nightstick - An eye-opening investigation of institutional racism, brutality, and coverups in Chicago's police department.
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F
- Family Business - A prototypical American entrepreneur struggles to make his pizza business go.
- Finally Got The News - A film about the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, which was, "in many respects the most significant expression of black radical thought and activism in the 1960s." - Manning Marable, Prof. of History, Columbia Univ.
- First Kill - Compellingly brings out the contradictory feelings that war evokes - fear and anger, but also seduction, fascination and excitement. With Michael Herr (Apocalypse Now, Dispatches).
- For the Bible Tells Me So - Is it possible to reconcile homosexuality and biblical scripture? How five very average, very Christian, very American families of faith handle the realization of having a gay child.
- From The Ashes - Ten downtown artists relate their experiences of September 11, as they try to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives, and struggle to redefine the meaning of their art.
- From The Ashes - Epilogue - The sequel to From the Ashes - 10 Artists, for this film we return to the neighborhood around Ground Zero to see how the events of September 11th impacted local artists and their work a year later.
- From The Other Side - With technology developed for the military, the INS has stemmed the flow of illegal immigration in San Diego. But for the desperate, there are still the dangerous deserts of Arizona, where renowned filmmaker Chantal Akerman shifts her focus
- Fundi - Friend and advisor to Martin Luther King, FUNDI reveals the instrumental role that Ella Baker played in shaping the American civil rights movement.
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G
- Ghosts of Attica - The definitive account of America's most violent prison rebellion, its deadly suppression, the days of torture that ensued, and the almost 30 year legal case that followed.
- A Grin Without A Cat - Chris Marker's epic film-essay on the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Che, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left.
- Guns & Mothers - The contentious debate over gun control, as seen through the eyes of two mothers on opposite sides of the issue.
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H
- History Lessons - Experimenting with the form of historical documentary, an entertaining pastiche of cultural celluloid artifacts, appropriated historical footage, and dramatically composed skits focusing on lesbian life and revelry pre-Stonewall.
- Howard Finster: Man of Visions - A candid look at the unique Reverend Howard Finster, who, after forty five years of preaching, received instruction from God in 1976 to paint his spiritual messages.
- The Human Hambone - Celebrates the use of the human body as an instrument, and traces the roots of body music back to 18th-century American history, when slaves were forbidden to use drums, and turned to the body itself as a percussive instrument.
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I
- I Am Become Death: They Made the Bomb - Illuminating stories told by scientists who actually worked on the Manhattan Project.
- I Am Somebody - 1969 hospital workers struggle in Charleston, South Carolina.
- In Motion: Amiri Baraka - Biographical profile of the out-spoken African-American writer.
- An Injury To One - Reconstructs the long-forgotten murder of union organizer Frank Little in Butte, Montana, and draws a connection between the unsolved murder of Little, and the attempted murder of the town itself.
- The Internationale - Draws on people's stories of an emotionally charged radical song (the long-time anthem of socialism and communism) to celebrate the relationship between music and social change.
- The Intolerable Burden - One black family's commitment to a quality education, from the pre-1965 time of segregation, through desegregation, and through the recent period of resegregation. **Winner, John E. O'Connor Film Award, American Historical Association**
- Investigation of a Flame - An intimate look at the Catonsville Nine who on May 17, 1968 walked into a Catonsville, Maryland draft board office, grabbed hundreds of selective service records and incinerated them with homemade napalm.
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J
- John Cassavetes - A portrait of filmmaker John Cassavetes, the father of American independent film, shot during the making of Faces.
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K
- Knock Off - Juxtaposes the deified position logos occupy in our consumer-culture, with the lives of sweatshop workers who cannot afford the items they create.
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L
- The Last Angel of History - An engaging and searing examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing computer technology. (from the Jan., 1998 Catalog Supplement)
- The Last of the
New York Cigar Rollers - Three of the last of New York's cigar rollers; how they do it and the history behind their dying art.
- Last Summer Won't Happen - Shot in 1968, one year after the Summer of Love, this is a critical yet sympathetic examination of the anti-war movement in New York City.
- Let the Church Say Amen - The effects of church and religion on both urban and rural African-American life.
- Live Nude Girls Unite! - Follows Julia Query, a peepshow stripper and daughter of a feminist activist, on her raucous journey to help organize the only strippers union in the United States.
- The Lobby - How powerful is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)? This new documentary is an examination of the controversial 'Jewish Lobby'.
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M
- Machito - The Cuban band leader Frank "Machito" Grillo.
- Made Over in America - In a culture where bodies seem customizable, how do we perceive body image, and how are desires for a better self influenced by reality television and the makeover industry?
- Mars, The End of A Myth? - Through feature films and TV shows, striking NASA material, 3D animation and interviews with Paul Verhoeven, Ray Bradbury and others, traces the cultural history of Mars since ancient times.
- Mayan Voices: American Lives - Contrasts the experiences of Mayan families who came to Indiantown, Florida as refugees fleeing the violence in Guatemala in the early 1980s, with the struggles of those continuing to arrive in search of better lives.
- Middletown - This classic series, created by Emmy and Academy Award winner Peter Davis, explores both the continuity and the change embodied in the people and institutions of one Midwestern community: Muncie, Indiana.
- My American Family - 70-year-old Gaetano Merenda and his son (the filmmaker) travel to America for a reunion with relatives whose ancestors came from their small town in southern Italy more than a century ago.
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N
- New School Order - Captures the battles over social policy being fought out across the country via school boards.
- No Loans Today - Fringe banking in redlined, post-riot South Central Los Angeles.
- Notes on Marie Menken - The story of the "mother of avante-garde film"—the influential experimental filmmaker who inspired artists such as Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Kenneth Anger.
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O
- Oldtimers - A portrait of the community of elders who gather at Original McCarthy's, an historic but desolate bar in San Francisco's Mission District.
- One Bright Shining Moment - Retracing George McGovern's doomed presidential campaign of 1972, this film asks: could the ultimate political defeat of the American Century, also have been its high watermark?
- Other American Voices - A survey of critical perspectives on the change in the political mood in the United States after the attack of September 11, 2001.
- Our House - A groundbreaking documentary that explores what it's like to grow up with gay or lesbian parents, as Americans struggle to re-define family values.
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P
- The Paper - A year in the life of one of the country's biggest college newspapers, Penn State's The Daily Collegian, as it struggles with declining circulation and difficult choices about how to represent its diverse readership.
- Persons of Interest - The government calls them terrorists - they call themselves Americans. A unique and compelling film that gives voice to the human costs of the government's anti-terrorism campaign.
- The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover - A complex tale of art world profit, deception and crime, framed by O. Winston Link's stunning iconic photographs of the last of the American steam locomotives.
- Playing the News - Does the convergence online of current affairs (like the Iraq war) and computer games herald the future of news and entertainment? And if so, is it dangerous, or a new way to reach a young audience?
- The Price of Aid - An investigation of America's food aid programs for famine-stricken nations, a multi-million dollar business, which asks both U.S. and African government officials whether such aid creates more problems than it solves.
- The Prize of the Pole - Robert Peary's quest to plant an American flag at the North Pole came with enormous, and sometimes unacknowledged, costs. Now his great-grandson wants to set the record straight.
- Procedure 769: Witnesses to an Execution - The 1992 execution of Robert Alton Harris as seen through the eyes of the witnesses.
- Profits of Punishment - A critical look at America's booming private prison industry.
- Public Enemy - Four former leaders of the Black Panther Party reflect on the impact of their radical 60s civil rights movement, and the promise and limitations of attempting revolutionary change.
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R
- Red Hook Justice - Profiles an innovative court in a Brooklyn neighborhood plagued by poverty and crime that is at the center of a legal revolution - the community justice movement.
- Resist - Chronicles the history and mission behind The Living Theatre, one of the most significant companies in the history of American theatre and the avant garde.
- Rice and Peas - The experiences of a Trinidadian restaurant owner in Brooklyn.
- Robert, Mary, and Katrina - The astounding story of how one elderly couple faced and survived Hurricane Katrina. "[Their] story of struggle and survival from the wrath of Katrina grips the audience's emotions." - Educational Media Reviews Online
- Ross McElwee DVD Collection - This new collection includes six of McElwee's best films, four of which have never been available on DVD.
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S
- Sacco and Vanzetti - The definitive examination of one of the most famous court cases in American history, and a timely reminder of the fragility of our liberties in times of crisis.
- Second Time Around - The complexities of contemporary American marriage.
- Selling Sickness - Explores the unhealthy relationships between society, medical science and the pharmaceutical industry as it promotes not just drugs but also the latest diseases that go with them.
- Sermons and Sacred Pictures - Profiles Reverend L.O. Taylor, a Baptist minister and inspired photographer/filmmaker who documented the fabric of black American life prior to the civil rights movement.
- Seven Songs for Malcolm X - An homage to the inspirational African-American civil rights leader.
- Seventeen - High school seniors hurtling toward maturity experience joy, despair, and an aggravated sense of urgency.
- The Sixth Side of the Pentagon - Chronicle of the 1967 Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam protest march on the Pentagon, by documentary essayist Chris Marker.
- Societies Under The Influence - Argues that the "drug war" we read about in our newspapers everyday is a corrupt and pernicious front that protects our judicial system, big business, organized crime and American foreign agendas.
- South - The heart of this journey is the brutal murder of James Byrd, Jr in Jasper, Texas. But this is not an anatomy of his murder, rather, it is an evocation of how this event fits in to a landscape and climate as much mental as physical.
- Split Decision - The inspirational story of Jesus 'El Matador' Chavez, a talented young boxer whose promising career was cut short when the U.S. enacted new stricter immigration policies.
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T
- Teeth - An amusing but informative look at the psychological, social and economic issues surrounding the modern American obsession with straight, white teeth.
- They Chose China - Academy Award-nominated documentarian Shuibo Wang tells the controversial story of American POWs who after the Korean War refused repatriation, and stayed in China.
- Thin Ice - "To be Canadian and funny is difficult enough. To do it with the style and wit of Bruce McCall is remarkable." - Lorne Michaels, Producer, Saturday Night Live
- Time of the Locust - Critically examines American involvement in Vietnam through a compilation of American, Japanese and Vietnamese combat footage.
- To Be Seen - A lively study of visual culture, and an exploration of an age-old urban cultural phenomenon, street art. What is art's role in the context of public space and urban culture?
- A Touch of Greatness - Regarded as one of the most influential teachers in American history, Albert Cullum, in an era when Dick, Jane and discipline ruled America's classrooms, allowed Shakespeare, Sophocles and Shaw to reign in his fifth grade classroom.
- The Trials of Henry Kissinger - Focusing on his role in events in Vietnam, Indonesia and Chile, this film examines charges that the former Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner is also a war criminal.
- Troupers - A portrait of the world-renowned San Francisco Mime Troupe.
- The Two Worlds of Angelita - Follows a young Puerto Rican family's journey from a small town on the island to New York City's Lower East Side.
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U
- Unborn in the USA - Inside the pro-life movement. A riveting story told with more than 70 exclusive interviews with pro-life activists, and seldom-seen archival footage.
- The Uprising of '34 - The story of the General Strike of 1934, a massive but little-known strike by hundreds of thousands of Southern cotton mill workers.
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V
- Venus Boyz - An odyssey to transgendered worlds, where women become men - some for a night, others for their whole lives.
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W
- Walden - Images of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, set to passages from Thoreau's seminal American literary work.
- Wall Street - On the floor and behind the scenes of the New York Stock Exchange. A revealing and candid look at the people and culture that make up the biggest marketplace in the world.
- Wearing the Green: Longtermers of the New York State Prison System - Former Black Panther Eddie Ellis' odyssey through New York State's prison system.
- With God On Our Side - A balanced chronicle of the emergence of conservative Christians as a political force, and an in-depth look at Pres. Bush's connection with evangelicals, told largely in evangelical conservatives' own words.
- The World Is Watching - In the context of Nicaragua's Arias Peace Plan negotiations, this film demonstrates just how truly we should not believe all that we are told.
- The Writers of Today - A series of dialogues with five of the foremost writers of the twentieth century.
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