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.
If you'd like help linking streaming videos to your Canvas Course Reserves or reserving DVDs for you or your students, please contact
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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.
For more information take a look at the Streaming Video Guides and Browsing Collections.
Ladies and Gentlemen...Mr. Leonard Cohen . 1 online resource (1 video file (44 min.)). Produced in 1965, this classic Canadian documentary is an informal portrait of the Montreal poet, novelist, and songwriter Leonard Cohen. The celebrated Renaissance man was inducted into both the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame; he is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. Shot in black and white, the film captures Cohen as he reads his poetry to a rapt audience. It also depicts him alone and relaxing with family and friends. Ladies and Gentlemen...Mr. Leonard Cohen features four short films: I'm Your Man directed by Roslyn Schwartz, Poen directed by Josef Reeve, A Kite Is a Victim directed by Elizabeth Lewis, and Angel directed by Derek May. Streaming video.
Langston Hughes African Americans Who Left their Stamp on History. 1 online resource (1 video file (25 min., 44 sec)). African Americans Who Left their Stamp on History: African Americans Who Left their Stamp on History. An American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist, Langston Hughes was first recognized as an important literary figure during the 1920s, a period known as the "Harlem Renaissance," a cultural movement made famous because of the number of emerging black writers, poets and scholars. Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations and was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Embracing the common experience of black Americans, he was the bard of his people because he felt their joys and suffering himself. Hughes lived in several US cities, then traveled abroad extensively, first as a seaman, later as a war correspondent. Renowned for his folksy humor, his work was well received by a black audience who saw themselves in his characters. In 1934 Hughes first short story collection The Ways of White Folks, was published. It looked at the humorous and tragic interactions between races, but was tinged with pessimism. He went on to write countless works of poetry, prose and plays and had a popular column for the Chicago Defender. Hughes was a literary giant, always faithful to his belief that "most people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been." In 1960, the NAACP awarded Hughes the Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievement by a black American, calling him the "poet laureate of the Negro race.". Streaming video.
The Last Poets Made in Amerikkka. 1 streaming video file (52 min.). Woven into the roots of hip-hop, slam poetry, and other socially conscious forms of expression is the seminal work of the Last Poets, a confederation of musicians and spoken-word artists who began performing together in 1968. This film documents a 2011 concert and recording session in which the Poets reintroduce some of their best known compositions, displaying as much energy and passion as when they first took on the mantle of Black Power advocacy. Mingling the performance sequences with lyrics splashed across the screen in urban-cool graphics, the program also features a vivid parade of talking-head discussions that take viewers from the group's origins and the formative experiences of its individual members to the heady atmosphere of today's hip-hop scene. In the latter, the Last Poets remain dazzlingly relevant. Contains potentially offensive language and mature subject matter associated with artistic expression. Viewer discretion advised. Streaming video
Latin America Poetry, Film, and Theater. 1 online resource (1 video file (28 min., 20 sec.)). On this episode of Camera Three, Raquel Jodorowsky, Alexandro Jodorowsky, Estrella Artall, and members of the Theater of Latin America perform excerpts from The Fair of Opinion currently running in New York City. Augusto Boal, the artistic director, speaks on the unifying theme of the evening's performances. Streaming video.
A lesson from the best. 1 online resource (14 min.). Education in video: Inspirations. The 2004 Secondary School Teacher of the Year, Philip Beadle, is a highly creative teacher of English and Drama. Late to teaching, Philip draws inspiration from his former life working in a bank by day and singing in a rock band by night, and connects with pupils by using visual, audio and kinetic stimulus material in unique ways. We observe two lessons where the climate for learning is infectious. In the first, a class of Year 9 boys is at risk of underachievement. Philip invents an entertaining lesson format called argument tennis , in which we see the pupils engage in debate about the motives behind Macbeth's behaviour. In the second lesson Philip teaches GCSE poetry, using a combination of visual and audio material to engage the class's emotions and serve as the stimulus for their own poetry. Philip's results are exceptional, in the past three years his pupils have averaged 98% A-Cs, despite the school only recently having emerged from special measures. Streaming video.
Letters Not About Love. 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 58 minutes). Two contemporary poets, one from America (Lyn Hejinian), the other from Russia (Arkadii Dragomoshchenko) are asked to begin a correspondence based on a list of ordinary words such as 'home,' 'book,' 'poverty,' 'violence.' They reflect on each word, considering its conventional meaning and what it means to them personally. The resulting extraordinary five-year dialogue is by turns poignant, profound and funny. Both poets move seamlessly from present to past, a move echoed by the use of striking new and archival footage from both countries. As the film progresses and intimacy grows, both the similarities and differences between Russian and American ways of grasping the world are revealed. Letters Not About Love becomes both a fascinating portrait of two cultures and a compelling expression of the art of mutual understanding. Streaming video.
Li-Young Lee with Michael Silverblatt, Conversation, 29 March 2000. 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). Lannan Foundation videos: Lannan Foundation videos. "Li-Young Lee was born in 1957 in Jakarta, Indonesia, of Chinese parents. He and his family fled to the United States in 1964 from Indonesia, where his father was a political prisoner. Mr. Lee has written two books of poetry, Rose and The City in Which I Love You, and a memoir, The Winged Seed.". Streaming video.
The life and times of Allen Ginsberg. 2013, 2 videodiscs (ca. 84 min.). Depicts Allen Ginsberg, an American poet and social activist in the different decades of his life and activities; updated to include information about Ginserg's death. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2969 and Streaming video.
Looking for Langston a meditation on Langston Hughes (1902-1967) and the Harlem Renaissance with the poetry of Essex Hemphill and Bruce Nugent (1906-1987) in memory of James Baldwin (1924-1987). 2007, 1 videodisc (60 min. [i.e. 45 min.]). This self-described meditation on the life of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes addresses the possible, possibly imagined, life of the author as a gay man. Both documentary and fantasy, it blends archival footage with black and white paeans to a life that might have been--a Harlem nightclub from the 1920s, a London nightspot from the late eighties, various dream sequences--foregrounding gay sexual desire, constructed of a mélange of materials. Looking for Langston is not a mainstream film, but a short film, an avant-garde film, a gay film, and a black British film. Indeed, the prospect of viewing the film can be an off-putting one, considering its competing narrative lines as documentary, reclamation of an aspect of black history, rumination on the AIDS crisis, or pure fantasy. DVD 9753
Louder than a bomb. 1 streaming video file (99 min.). Follows the fortunes of four Chicago-area high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world's largest youth slam. Introduced by Oprah. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10110 and Streaming video.
Love in the time of cholera. 2008, 1 videodisc (139 min.). Florentino is a poetry-writing telegraph operator who lives in a Central American city. He spots the graceful Fermina while making his rounds, and finds himself in love. While Florentino's mother encourages the courtship, Fermina's father absolutely forbids it. Years pass, and the well-born Dr. Urbino treats Fermina for a case of cholera. When Urbino proposes, Fermina accepts. A distraught Florentino decides to wait. With the help of his uncle, he amasses wealth of his own. All the while, he drifts from woman to woman, never really finding what he is looking for in a woman. After five decades of waiting, he gets a second chance to win Fermina's heart. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4114
Lucille Clifton with Quincy Troupe, Conversation, 21 May 1996. 2011, 1 streaming video file (21 min.). Lannan Foundation videos: Lannan Foundation videos. Luciile Clifton reads from her work and is interviewed by Quincy Troupe on May 21, 1996. Streaming video.
Luis J. Rodriguez. 1 videodisc (55 min.). Lannan literary series. Luis J. Rodriguez is a poet, journalist and publisher who grew up in Watts and East Los Angeles. His writings give voice and dignity to those whose lives are scarred by violence, racism and poverty. He reads from his books of poetry, The Concrete River and Poems Across the Pavement, and from his memoirs, Always Running, La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. He read on Dec. 8, 1992, in Los Angeles and talked with Michael Silverblatt. DVD 13433