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.
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Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould. 2011. 1 videodisc (113 min.). An unprecedented array of never-before-seen footage of Gould, photographs, and excerpts from his private home recordings and diaries, plus personal interviews with Gould's most intimate friends and lovers, some who have never spoken about him publicly before, to reconstruct his thoughts on music, art, society, love, and life. An enigmatic musical poet, world-renowned pianist Glenn Gould continues to captivate 27 years after his untimely death. DVD 8310
Ginger snaps. 2003. 1 videodisc (108 min.). Ginger (Isabelle) and Brigitte (Perkins), are two dysfunctional 15-year-old sisters trapped in the Canadian suburbs. Introverted and misanthropic, they are obsessed with mayhem, torture and death until they get a taste of the real thing. Bitten by a wild animal, Ginger begins to mutate into a sexually agressive woman with some nasty canine tendencies. Is it a virus? Is it a curse? Or the first step towards becoming a werewolf. Brigitte must fight to save Ginger and their classmates. Directed by John Fawcett. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6111
Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed. 2004. 1 videodisc (93 min.) Brigitte is infected with the werewolf curse and needs injections of wolfsbane to control it. When she is found laying in the snow, the police assume she is a drug addict and lock her in rehab without her life-saving wolfsbane. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6112
Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning. 2004. 1 videodisc (94 min.) In the 19th century the Fitzgerald sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, take refuge at Fort Bailey, home of the Northern Legion Trading Company. But the ground is cursed, and no one leaves for fear of the monstrous beasts lurking in the area. Now Ginger and Brigitte’s vow to stay "together forever" gets tested as one of the sisters slowly slips into a darkening fate. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6113
Goin down the road. Signature Collection. 2000, orig. 1997. 1 videodisc (90 min.). A story of two down-and-outers who have left an economically depressed region to seek their fortunes in the thriving city. Directed by Donald Shebib. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1477
La grande séduction = Seducing Doctor Lewis . 2005. 1 videodisc (109 min.). St. Marie-La-Mauderne is a tiny fishing village. For eight years the locals have stood in line for weekly welfare checks, remembering the good old days when the catch was good. A small company wants to build a factory on the island, but only if a full-time doctor lives in St. Marie. The situation seems hopeless until a young doctor in Montreal has an unfortunate incident with a traffic cop and finds himself on a boat to the faraway village. In order to convince Dr. Lewis to stay, the town resorts to just a bit of seductive subterfuge. Directed by Jean-Francois Pouliot. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4063
Guy Maddin's my Winnipeg. 2008. 1 videodisc (80 min.). A personal portrait of filmmaker Guy Maddin's hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4986
Hard core logo. 2001, orig. 1996. 1 videodisc (92 min.). A Vancouver-based punk rock band gets back together to do a benefit concert for a friend. After the benefit, the band decides to go out on the road for a reunion tour. Lies, deceit and cheating are all just part of the lifestyle. Directed by Bruce McDonald. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7660
Highway 61. 2006, orig. 1991. 1 videodisc (99 min.). A naive, small-town barber gets in way over his head when he finds a frozen human body, and meets a screwball "refugee from a heavy-metal road crew," who falsely identifies the body as her brother, and begs him to drive her and the coffin to New Orleans. Directed by Bruce McDonald. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10999
A history of violence. New Line platinum series. 2006. 1 videodisc (95 min.). Tom is a loving, well-respected family man from a small Indiana town. When two criminals show up at his diner, Tom is forced to take action and thwart the robbery attempt. Suddenly heralded as a local hero who took the courage to stand up to crime, people look up to Tom as a man of high moral regard. But all the media attention attracts the likes of the mob, who show up at Tom's doorstep. Is it a case of mistaken identity or does Tom have a history that no one knows about? Directed by David Cronenberg. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1864
Hobo with a shotgun. 2011. 1 videodisc (86 min.). A hobo who rides the rails lands in a bleak and lawless town overrun with crime. After witnessing a series of atrocities, he buys a shotgun, embarking on a mission to clean up the town, with extreme prejudice. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8679
Les invasions barbares = Barbarian invasions. 2004. 1 videodisc (99 min.). Examines the varying personal politics - economic and sexual - at play among an aging group of friends, lovers, and ex-spouses. Remy and Louise are divorced. Their son Sebastien lives in capitalist splendor in London. Their estranged daughter sails boats throughout the world. But the slightly estranged family is brought together by Remy's losing battle with terminal cancer, and the hedonistic, ex-radical father and straight-laced son have to overcome their differences. It's not easy for a narrow-minded professor to reconcile with his equally stubborn son. But soon, father and son find themselves gathering with their wide and colorful circle of family and friends to conform their differences, confess their secrets, and celebrate life. Directed by Denys Arcand. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1228
It's all gone Pete Tong. 2005. 1 videodisc (92 min.). Based on a true story. Follows the tragic life of legendary British DJ Frankie Wilde. From one of the best DJ's alive through his subsequent battle with a hearing disorder, culminating in his mysterious disappearance from the scene. Directed by Michael Dowse. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6075
I've heard the mermaids singing. 2000, orig. 1987. 1 videodisc (81 min.). Comedy about an organizationally impaired temporary assistant who gets her first pemanent job at the age of 31 working for a curator of an art gallery. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6107
Incendies. 2011. 1 videodisc (130 min.). After the death of their mother, a set of twins make a life-altering discovery. The pair travels to the Middle East on a mission to uncover the truth about the father they thought was dead who is still very much alive, and the brother they never knew existed. Along the way they will piece together the story of the woman who brought them into the world, discovering a tragic fate as well as the courage of an exceptional woman. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3563
L'instinct de mort = Mesrine: killer instinct. Mesrine Sage: Part 1. 2011, orig. 2008. 1 videodisc (113 min.). The first of two parts charts the outlaw odyssey of Jacques Mesrine, the legendary French gangster of the 1960s and 1970s who came to be known as French Public Enemy No. 1 and the Man of a Thousand Faces. Infamous for his bravado and outrageously daring prison escapes, Mesrine carried out numerous robberies, kidnappings, and murders in a criminal career that spanned continents until he was shot dead in 1979 by France's notorious anti-gang unit. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8341
Jésus de Montréal = Jesus of Montreal. 2004, orig. 1989. 1 videodisc (119 min.). A Montreal shrine seeks to inspire its congregants by modernizing its staging of the Passion play. A promising cast of vibrant young actors are signed on - one fresh from perfume commercials, another from the pornographic film industry, and another who had an affair with the basilica's priest - quickly drive the production on to become a smash hit. But as the play enjoys the success, the actors become more and more challenged to separate their real lives from their lives onstage. Directed by Denys Arcand. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1210
Johnny Tootall. 2005. 1 videodisc (93 min.). Johnny Tootall, a young Native American man discharged from the Bosnian War, returns to his home on Vancouver Island to resolve his personal and spiritual crises. Directed by Shirley Cheechoo. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2355
Keyhole. 2012. 1 videodisc (93 min.). In a house haunted with memories, gangster and father Ulysses Pick arrives home after a long absence towing the body of a teenage girl and a bound and gagged young man. His gang waits inside his house, having shot their way past police. There is friction in the ranks. Ulysses, however, is focused on one thing: journeying through the house, room by room, and reaching his wife Hyacinth in her bedroom upstairs. His odyssey becomes an emotional tour as more is revealed about the Pick family. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10435
Kitchen party. 2003, orig. 1998. 1 videodisc (83 min.). A group of teenagers come together to indulge in that great Canadian pastime, the house-party, and find themselves literally confined to the kitchen trapped by an extraordinary well-manicured carpet in the living room. Elsewhere, the parents of these kids have a dinner party of their own, where suburban pretense slowly melts away exposing childish obsessions. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6195
Last night. 2000, orig. 1998. 1 videodisc (95 min.). At the stroke of midnight, the world is going to end. With time running out, a crazy group of big city dwellers is determined to go out with a bang. Directed by Don McKellar. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1396
Léolo. 2005, orig. 1993. 1 videodisc (107 min.). Léolo Lozone is a 12-year-old dreamer living in the slums of Montreal with the hilarious ability to recreate the world according to his imagination. Whether it's dealing with his scatter-brained brother or plotting the murder of his grandfather, Léolo is an incorrigible misfit touched with a lovable streak of madness. From a wild romance with his sexy next door neighbor to incredible visits to the bottom of the sea, Léolo takes refuge in a fantasy world of poems and dreams where he can triumph over even the strangest of tragedies. Directed by Jean-Claude Lauzon. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1684
Lilies. 1996. 1 videodisc (ca. 96 min.). "In 1952, a Catholic bishop makes an exceptional visit to a prison to hear a dying inmate's confession. Once inside the chapel, the bishop is taken hostage by Simon, a childhood friend. With the aid of his fellow inmates, Simon's version of the events that took place forty years earlier are reenacted. The action moves seamlessly through time between the crude prison and the actual events of 1912. The drama culminates on the tragic night when both men's fates were decided."--Container. Directed by John Greyson. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10849 and Streaming video
Little mosque on the prairie. 2006. 2 videodiscs (200 min.). A comic look at a small Muslim community living side by side with the residents of a small prairie town. "Little Mosque on the prairie is a humorous look at relationships, family, love, the generation gap and balancing Muslim beliefs and traditions in a prairie setting"--Container. TV series. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5017
Lost and delirious. 2001. 1 videodisc (104 min.). The story of three adolescent girls and their experience with first love and the discovery of sexual passion. Directed by Lea Pool. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4349
Love & human remains. 2011, orig. 1993. 1 videodisc (100 min.). David (Thomas Gibson) is an actor in the longest running role of his career as a waiter. Candy (Ruth Marshall) is a book reviewer who hates to read. In their ever-hopeful and often hilarious search for new partners, these lovers-turned-platonic roommates discover that sometimes it's easier to get killed than it is to find romance. Directed by Denys Arcand. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10779
M. Butterfly. 2009, orig. 1993. 1 videodisc (101 min.). In the 1960s Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat, meets Song Liling, a Beijing Opera star. They begin an intimate love affair that will last over almost 20 years before the diplomat discovers that he cannot believe anything about the beguiling, secretive singer. Song is in fact a man, who plays female roles in the opera, and who, as a woman, developed the love affair with Gallimard in order to spy for the Chinese government. Directed by David Cronenberg. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5847
Margaret's museum. 2001, orig. 1995. 1 videodisc (115 min.). Margaret MacNeil likes being an outcast, swearing like a man, shocking people, making it clear she isn't about to become a coal-miner's wife. Margaret falls in love with Neil Currie, who promises to stay out of the mines, but when he loses his job, the mines are the only alternative. When tragedy finally strikes, Margaret surprises the town with a strange act of defiance. Directed by Mort Ransen. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1403
A married couple. Criterion Collection: The actuality dramas of Allan King: Eclipse, series 24. 2010, orig. 1969. 1 videodisc (96 min.). A documentary focusing on the relationship between Billy and Antoinette Edwards, an eccentric married couple, also capturing a time in which long-existing gender roles were beginning to dissolve. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9887
Martyrs. 2009. 1 videodisc (96 min.). A young girl is horribly abused and years later, with the help of another abused girl, she sets out seeking revenge on her tormentors. Little do they know of the truly unimaginable horrors that await them. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10112
Mécaniques célestes = Celestial clockwork. 2007, orig. 1995. 1 videodisc (83 min.). A beautiful young woman abruptly leaves her life in Venezuela for Paris, to pursue her long-lived dream to be a singer. Along the way she encounters an eclectic assortment of bizarre characters including a gay clairvoyant, an eccentric psychoanalyst, a Puerto Rican witch doctor and a jealous roommate determined to bring her down. But Ana is determined to get what she wants, no matter what it takes. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10781
Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and company. Criterion Collection: The actuality dramas of Allan King: Eclipse, series 24. 2010, orig. 2005. 1 videodisc (112 min.). Follows the lives of eight patients suffering from dementia and memory loss at a home for the Jewish elderly in Toronto. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9890
Michel Brault, oeuvres 1958-1974 = Michel Brault, works 1958-1974 DISC 1. La collection Memoire: Collection Maemoire (Montraeal, Quaebec). 2005. 1 videodisc (176 min.). Les raquetteurs: A candid view of participants and spectators at a rally of snowshoers held in Sherbrooke, Quebec. La lutte: Views of some of Montreal's back-street wrestling parlors where well-muscled tyros are drilled, and then to the Montreal Forum for a view of a Carpentier-DeNucci versus Costello-Kalmikoff tag-team match. Shows the grappling, punching, squirming acrobatics of the ring, and the intense involvement of the crowd. Quaebec-U.S.A. ou l'invasion pacifique: With an eye to humour, this film shows the people of Quaebec taking a look at American tourists who have come to Quaebec to take a look at them. Pour la suite du monde: The story of the revival of a traditional whale hunt on the Ile-aux-Coudres in the St. Lawrence River. The aging participants attempt to reconstruct the tactics of their forefathers. DVD 4341
Michel Brault, oeuvres 1958-1974 = Michel Brault, works 1958-1974 DISC 2. La collection Memoire . 2005. 1 videodisc (164 min.). Les enfants du silence: A film about children suffering from deafness, and the importance of early detection. Le temps perdu: A glimpse into the private world of young people. Informal discussion shows that they are involved in the frivolity of youth, but are also concerned with the adult world of religion, sex and interpersonal relationships. Geneviáeve: Describes the elation and disillusionment of first love as experienced by two girls who are infatuated with the same boy at a Quâebec winter carnival. Entre la mer et l'eau douce: Claude is a young man who leaves his small town on the North Shore for the big city, Montreal. He meets Geneviáeve, a young waitress, and they fall in love. Claude enters a singing contest that launches his music career. As he becomes more famous, he must work out how Geneviáeve will fit into his new life. DVD 4342
Michel Brault, oeuvres 1958-1974 = Michel Brault, works 1958-1974 DISC 3. La collection Memoire. 2005. 1 videodisc (189 min.). Les enfants de Nâeant: Morbihan is one of the poorest regions in Britanny. Joseph, a 33-year-old farmer, can no longer live off the land. He is hired at the fancy new plant that has just opened. He enters the world of rote work. Fortunately he can go home to his farm every evening, far from the large urban centers where workers must usually live. âEloge du chiac: Taking the form of a conversation between a young teacher at a French school in Moncton and her students, the film shows how hard it is for francophones to preserve their language in a society where English is everywhere, and has been for centuries. L'Acadie l'Acadie?!?: A filmed account, day by day, of the uprising of Acadian students in 1968/69 at the University of Moncton, in search of the right to speak French at the University and in Moncton. DVD 4343
Michel Brault, oeuvres 1958-1974 = Michel Brault, works 1958-1974 DISC 4. La collection Memoire. 2005. 1 videodisc (133 min.). Le bras de levier et la riviáere: A group of vacationing teenagers decides to find out how the principle of the lever arm is applied in several everyday life situations. Les Ordres: Based on true incidents which occurred in Quâebec during the October Crisis of 1970. Tells the story of over 450 people, who, under the War Measures Act, were taken into custody and jailed without warrants and for no apparent reason. DVD 4344
Michel Brault, oeuvres 1958-1974 = Michel Brault, works 1958-1974 DISC 5. La collection Memoire. 2005. 1 videodisc (155 min.). Le cheval de Troie de l'esthâetique: Michel Brault reflects on his career, his work with Claude Jutra, Jean Rouch, Pierre Perrault, Roland Barthes, and the beginning of French production at the National Film Board. Le direct avant la lettre: With commentary by Roger Blais, Jean-Claude Labrecque, Fernand Dansereau, Jacques Giraldeau, Michel Brault and others, this film explores the beginning of cinâema vâeritâe, and traces the history of a movement which had a profound impact on filmmaking in Quâebec. DVD 4345
Mon oncle Antoine = My uncle Antoine. 2001, orig. 1971. 1 videodisc (104 min.). A story set in a Quebec asbestos town in the early 1940s before the days of miners' unions. Uncle Antoine owns the general store and is the local undertaker, with his nephew Benoit as an occasional helper. On Christmas Eve a combination of events forces Benoit to face the harsher realities of life. Directed by Claude Jutra. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 457
Monsieur Lazhar. 2012. 1 videodisc (94 min.) At a Montreal public grade school, an Algerian immigrant is hired to replace a popular teacher who committed suicide in her classroom. While helping his students deal with their grief, his own recent loss is revealed. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10377
Montreal Main. 2009, orig. 1974. 1 videodisc (88 min.). In Frank Vitale's autobiographical study, he plays a photographer living among the assorted outcasts, junkies, and artists populating Montreal's Main, the low-rent bohemian district of Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Quieter and more introspective than most of his friends, Frank becomes smitten by Johnny, a fourteen-year-old from the suburbs. But the relationship is doomed by the startling degree of hypocrisy and possessiveness that boils over among the group when they discover the intensity of Frank's feelings about the boy. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10151