To aid in the selection of video's for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas. If you'd like to suggest a new filmography or ask that an existing one be updated, please contact mediaservices@american.edu.
Anthropology and American Studies
Art and Art History
Business and Public Administration
Communications and Journalism
Economics
Education
Film Studies, Film Genres and National Cinema
Foreign Languages and Area and Regional Studies
Health and Fitness
History
International Service, US Foreign Policy and Peace and Conflict
Jewish Studies
Justice and Law
Literature
Math, Statistics and Computer Science
Performing Arts
Philosophy and Religion
Physical Sciences and Environmental Science
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology
Women's and Gender Studies
Titles available on DVD and streaming video as of March 2011.
Most streaming videos listed are available exclusively to AU students, staff and faculty after an online authentications by AUID#.
Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the ALADIN catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible. For complete up-to-date holdings (including VHS tapes) please refer to the library ALADIN catalog (www.catalog.wrlc.org).
A class divided. 1985. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., an elementary school teacher in a small Iowa town decided to introduce ideas about racism and discrimination to her all-white class. This classic Frontline episode recounts Jane Elliott's bold experiment and its provocative approach-awarding special privileges to her blue-eyed students while discriminating against those whose eyes were brown. The program tracks down Mrs. Elliott's former third-graders to learn what effect those early lessons about ignorance and injustice had on their lives. Distributed by PBS Distribution. Streaming video.
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A class divided. 2004. 1 videodisc (60 min.). Documents a reunion of Iowa teacher Jane Elliott and her third-grade class of 1970, subjects that year of an ABC News television documentary entitled "The eye of the storm." Shows how her experimental curriculum on the evils of discrimination had a lasting effect on the lives of the students. VHS 2103 and DVD 4446
Color-Blind Fighting Racism in Schools. 1999. (26 min.). As school populations become more and more diverse, racial intolerance is shoving its way to prominence. In this provocative program, five students from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds speak with candor about racial harassment at their high school in an effort to encourage teenagers to examine their own attitudes and behaviors. The greatest danger of racism is that it will go unaddressed-until it becomes headline news. This video, ideal as a discussion-starter both in classrooms and at workshops, helps to ensure that this will not be the case. Streaming video.
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Crisis in Our Inner Cities. 1995. (56 min.). This program examines the tragic story of nine-year-old James Darby, who sent a letter to President Clinton asking him to stop the violence in his city as part of a classroom project. Nine days after he sent the letter, Darby was shot walking home from a local park. Successful community efforts such as Cleveland Works and Beat the Streets show how local businesses, religious organizations, and individuals can help at-risk youths divide their time between attending school and community service, building self-esteem and the skills to help restructure their lives. Streaming video.
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Educating to end inequity. 2000. (54 min.). This program addresses teachers' efforts to level the educational and social playing fields for their students by examining public school reform and its relationship to social change. Educators who taught on the western frontier in the late 19th century and in the South during desegregation are spotlighted, along with contemporary instructors working with Native Americans in New Mexico and inner-city youth in New York. Visionaries including Joseph Abeyta, of the Santa Fe Indian School; Ann Cook, of Urban Academy; and retired North Carolina school principal Kat Crosby consider cultural identity, teaching for diversity, performance-based assessment, and other topics. Streaming video.
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Educating to end inequity. Only a teacher: Only a teacher. 2001. 1 videodisc (56 min.). "This program addresses teachers' efforts to level the educational and social playing fields for their students by examining public school reform and its relationship to social change. Educators who taught on the western frontier in the late 19th century and in the South during desegregation are spotlighted, along with contemporary instructors working with Native Americans in New Mexico and inner-city youth in New York.". DVD 6293
Hispanic Education at the Crossroads. 1996. (44 min.). Education is intrinsic to success in our society. But for members of Hispanic groups, good education may be hard to come by, because of either language barriers or under-performing schools. This program, hosted by actor Edward James Olmos, examines how Hispanic American children are faring in the educational system, with an emphasis on bilingual education. Two such programs in California and in New York are examined; students and teachers evaluate their effectiveness. Streaming video.
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Prom night in Mississippi. 2009. 1 videodisc (89 min.). In 1997, actor Morgan Freeman, a resident of the small town of Charleston, Miss., offered to pay for the senior prom at Charleston High School under one condition: the prom must be racially integrated. His offer was ignored. In 2008 he offered again, and the offer was accepted, changing the tradition of two separate proms for blacks and whites that had endured since the high school was integrated in 1970. Shows the problems and lessons learned as the event was planned and held. With comments from Morgan Freeman, students, and others. Intended to explore attitudes of racial intolerance that still persist today. In 2008, Charleston High School had 415 students, 70% black and 30% white. DVD 7235
Prom Night in Taylor County, Georgia Separate and Equal? 2003. (22 min.). Breaking with the tacit practice of separate, student-sponsored proms, teens at a racially diverse high school in Georgia recently tried having only one dance, for all students. One year later they scrapped the idea. Is this a black-and-white case of racism, or is it somehow grayer than that? In this ABC News program, anchor Chris Bury and correspondent Jim Wooten give a balanced report on attitudes toward race in Taylor County as they play out in the halls of learning. How do parallel proms, class presidents, and cheerleading squads reconcile with an otherwise multiracial student body and consolidated, title-winning sports teams? Streaming video.
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