To aid in the selection of videos for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas.
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This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.
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The war briefing. 2008. (60 min.). Examines the policy choices the next president will face as he inherits an overstretched military, frayed alliances, and wars on two fronts. Features strategists and diplomats discussing how to correct past failures and how to shape a realistic foreign policy approach in the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Presents on-the-ground reporting from the deadliest battlefield in the mountains of Afghanistan and follows the trail to the militant safe havens deep inside the Pakistani tribal areas. DVD 1085
War made easy: How presidents & pundits keep spinning us to death. 2007. (73 min.). "Analysis of how governments bent on war-making have relied on a vast arsenal of propaganda techniques to overcome resistance at home and disapproval abroad ... Moving from Vietnam to Iraq, the film examines how news reports have become nearly indistinguishable from White House and Pentagon talking points, a problem that has become exacerbated by journalists who have grown accustomed to being fed information by official sources"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5228 and Streaming video
War photographer. 2003. 1 videodisc (ca. 96 min.). James Nachtwey has been very close to the subjects he photographs and has been that way for over 20 years - a time period in which he has not missed a single war. Follow as James goes from Kosovo to the West Bank to Indonesia as he searches for pictures he can publish. This committed, shy man, is considered one of the bravest and most important war photographers of our time. DVD 717
War Spin: The Media and the Iraq War. 2003. 1 streaming video (46 min.). Some stories are simply too good to be true. In this program, John Kampfner, political editor for the New Statesman (London), skewers heroic reports of the ambush, capture, and rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, calling them misrepresentations designed to bolster wavering support for the Iraq War. Kampfner also scrutinizes the controversial practice of embedding members of the news media in military units and questions the sincerity and overall informational value of the daily CentCom briefings in Doha. An ideal springboard for discussions about propaganda, media ethics, and journalism in the modern combat zone. Original BBCW broadcast title: War Spin. Streaming video
Winter soldier. 2005. 1 videodisc (95 min.). Vietnam veterans speak about atrocities committed upon Vietnamese soldiers and civilians during their time in the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam. Through testimony given at the Winter Soldier Investigation held by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971, press conferences, and interviews with individual participants, the film graphically portrays the effect of U.S. government policy and practice, which turned soldiers into animals bent on destruction and Vietnamese into "gooks"--Non-human "targets" for murder, rape, and mutilation. The veterans struggle to come to terms with the devastation they caused so that others will not make the same mistake again. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2600
Witness to Hate: Reporting on al Qaeda. 2005. 1 streaming video (22 min.). As Islamist extremists pumped bullets into BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, he looked into their faces and...saw pure hatred, ruthless hatred.Fluent in Arabic, respectful toward Islam, and very at home in Saudi Arabia, Gardner had been reporting on al Qaeda activity when he and his cameraman were gunned down. In this ABC News program, Gardner recounts with quiet courage the events of that terrible day and the challenges he has faced along the road to partial recovery. For insights into anti-Western feelings in the Middle East and a vivid first-person account of reporting the war on terror, this video is not to be missed. Streaming video
WMD: Weapons of mass deception. 2005. 1 videodisc (98 min.). "There were two wars going on in Iraq, one was fought with armies of soldiers, bombs and a fearsome military force. The other was fought alongside it with cameras, satellites, armies of journalists and propaganda techniques. One war was rationalized as an effort to find and remove WMDs, Weapons of Mass Destruction; the other was carried out by even more powerful WMDs, Weapons of Mass Deception." -- container. DVD 1415
The world at war. 2004. 11 videodiscs (ca. 1194 min.). An extraordinary collection of newsreel, propaganda, and home-movie footage drawn from the archives of 18 nations, including color close-ups of Adolf Hitler taken by his mistress, that present an unvarnished perspective of the war's pivotal events. Penetrating interviews with eyewitness participants - from Hitler's secretary to Alger Hiss to ordinary citizens who stood outside the battle lines - and spine-tingling, first-hand accounts to an already unforgettable experience. DVD 2481-2491
The world is watching. 1988. 59 min. Explores the ways that print and broadcast media coverage of the conflict in Nicaragua affects the public’s perceptions and policy development in the United States and other countries. DVD 6779
The world stopped watching. 2003. 1 videodisc (82 min.). Peter Raymont's 1987 documentary "The World Is Watching" followed four journalists at work in Nicargua during the height of the Contra war against the Sandinistas. Thirteen years later in "The World Stopped Watching" Raymont follows journalists Bill Gentile and Ry Ryan during their return to Nicaragua to track down the people they interviewed before and learn how the country has meanwhile changed for better or worse. DVD 8250
World War II: The Propaganda Battle. 1984. 1 streaming video (52 min.). The outbreak of World War II saw two motion picture experts from Germany and the United States battle each other with as much ferocity as any army or navy. Their respective missions: to ignite a public desire to wage and win a global conflict. This Bill Moyers program contains an interview with Fritz Hippler, chief filmmaker for the Nazi Party. Hippler unrepentantly claims to have spoken to the "soul of the masses" through films like The Eternal Jew, which asserted a righteous justification for genocide. Moyers also discusses America's response, which put a renowned filmmaker to work for the Allied cause-director Frank Capra, noted for his gentle, humane films about ordinary folk standing up to oppression. Streaming video
The year of living dangerously. 1983. 1 videodisc (115 min.). Set in Indonesia during the 1965 coup d'etat against President Sukarno. Guy Hamilton (Gibson), an ambitious Australian reporter on his first overseas assignment, is befriended by a short Eurasian cameraman Billy Swan (Hunt playing in male drag) with connections in high places. Hamilton soon gains an entree to the rebel leaders, as well as insight into Jakarta's grim realities. Sigourney Weaver plays Jill Bryant, a British attache, with whom Hamilton pursues a romance. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 295