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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Naked lunch. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 2003, orig. 1991. 2 videodiscs (115 min.). Part-time pest-control man and full-time drug addict Bill Lee (Weller) seeks escape from his troubled existence in 1953 New York and flees to Interzone (a hallucinatory version of Tangiers) where reality and fantasy have merged. It's a strange, surreal landscape inhabited by mugwumps, half-alien, half-insect creatures, man-sized centipedes, carnivorous typewriters and bizarre humans. Compelled to make sense of this alien territory, he writes a book called "Naked lunch.". Directed by David Cronenberg. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1598
New Waterford girl. 2002, orig. 1999. 1 videodisc (97 min.). A 15-year-old dreams of getting out of her small, sheltered Catholic community to move to New York City. Her teacher is the only one who sees her potential and arranges a scholarship for her to attend an arts school in Manhattan, which her parents won't let her do. Then a 16-year-old moves in next door and the two come up with a plan to escape New Waterford ... in the only way possible. Directed by Allan Moyle. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1496
Next of kin. 2001, orig. 1984. 1 videodisc (72 min.). Peter Foster, a young WASP, is having problems with his family. He and his parents undergo video-therapy. At the hospital he sees tapes on Armenian family who gave up their infant son to a foster home 20 years ago. He then pretends to be their long lost son and is instantly accepted by a culture quite different from his own. Impersonating not only the perfect son but also a therapist trying to heal their psychic wounds, Peter attempts to prove that one's family should be a matter of choice and not birth. Directed by Atom Egoyan. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6093
Un zoo la nuit = Night Zoo. 1991. 1 videodisc (118 mins.). Sets a father-son relationship against the backdrop of Quebec's underworld. A former drug dealer is released from prison after two years. He had skimmed $200,000 and a cache of cocaine from his former partner, a corrupt cop, who is trying to get the money back. At the same time, the dealer's father wants to be reunited with his son. DVD 9640
Owning Mahowny. 2003. 1 videodisc (105 min.). Based on real events that occurred in between 1980 and 1981. Dan Mahowney is a quiet, unassuming assistant manager at a bank in Toronto. He is a compulsive gambler and runs up a massive debt with his bookie. Dan's bank responsibilities include approving loans. Needing to cover his debts, Dan starts approving loans to non-existent clients and adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to other accounts. As Dan's debts begin to grow into the seven figure range, his dealings become harder to hide, both from the authorities and from Belinda. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4799
Picture Claire. 2003. 1 videodisc (90 min.). In only a few hours, Claire's life will be turned upside-down. Escaping a group of vengeful drug dealers, she leaves town hoping to find Billy, the man of her dreams. Unfortunately, he is not everything he appears to be. Fighting against time, Claire must race to clear her name while trying to stay alive. Directed by Bruce McDonald. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1427
Privilege. The cinema of Peter Watkins. 2008, orig. 1967. 1 videodisc (103 min.). Steven Shorter is a rock music phenomenon. His popularity, carefully engineered by his corporate handlers, has reached dizzying proportions. When artist Vanessa Ritchie is hired to paint his portrait, she discovers that he is unhappy and unstable. (NOTE: Peter Watkins isn’t a Canadian filmmaker. This DVD is listed here because it includes Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor’s cinema verite classic Lonely Boy as an extra on the disc.) HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4566
The pyx. 2004, orig. 1973.. 1 videodisc (110 min.). Tells about a prostitute who is murdered following a Black Mass in which she eats a wafer from the pyx, a chain-suspended Roman Catholic "host" carrier. Directed by Harvey Hart. DVD on order
The quarrel. 1996, orig. 1990. 1 videodisc (90 min.). Two Holocaust survivors meet in Montreal in 1948. One is a deeply religious rabbi. The other, a journalist for a Yiddish newspaper, has turned his back on God. Now they have one afternoon to reconcile their differences, and renew their faith and friendship as they debate the existence of God and the role of religion, politics and morality in the life of man. Directed by Eli Cohen. DVD on order
Rabid. 2004, orig. 1977. 1 videodisc (91 min.). After a motorcycle accident and experimental surgery, Rose develops an unexplained lesion and a desire for human blood. Directed by David Cronenberg. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1445
Radiant city. 2008. 1 videodisc (85 min.). Go on an outing to the 'burbs. Amidst the fresh foundations of monster homes, surrealist filmmaker Gary Burns and journalist Jim Brown explore the dark side of suburbia and creates a provocative reflection on why we live the way we do. Shows a Canadian family as they struggle with existential despair and are exacerbated by the drabness of their suburban locale. DVD 6118
Roadkill. 2004, orig. 1989. 1 videodisc (85 min.). Ramona is sent to the wilds of northern Ontario to look for a renegade rock band that has been missing tour dates. On the way she meets a variety of characters, from a trainee serial killer who's finding it hard to get off the ground, to a film crew desperate for some live action gore, to a silent young man who refuses to speak as "he has nothing left to say any more." Directed by Bruce McDonald. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1397
Rude. Orig. 1995. 1 videodisc (90 min.). Set in the Jamaican community in inner-city Toronto, film tells three separate stories featuring (1) a young boxer (Richard Chevolieau) who participates in a gay-bashing, (2) a wall artist just out of jail on drug charges (Maurice Dean Wint) who finds his wife has become a cop and his brother is still dealing and (3) a young woman (Rachel Crawford) who has an abortion and also loses her lover. The stories are tied together by Rude (Sharon M. Lewis), the DJ on the local pirate radio station. Directed by Clement Virgo. DVD on order
Ryan. 2004. 1 videodisc (95 min.). Ryan: Creating a hand-animated three-dimensional world, Chris Landreth explores the life of Ryan Larkin, a pioneer in Canadian animation who now lives on welfare and panhandles for spare change. Alter egos: Incorporating the animated documentary Ryan, Laurence Green's film explores the paths of animators Ryan Larkin and Chris Landreth and the relationship that developed between the two men. Syrinx: Using animated charcoal sketches, the Greek legend of how Pan made his pipes is brought to life. Walking: The way people walk is observed. Street musique: A visual improvisation is created from the music performed by sidewalk entertainers. The end: An animator discovers he's a character in his own work. Bingo: Answers the question, What if a lie is told long enough and loud enough? DVD 1348
The saddest music in the world. MGM DVD. 2004. org. 2003. 1 videodisc (ca. 101 min.). Isabella Rossellini stars as a Depression-era beer baroness who sponsors a contest to find the world's saddest tune in this dark comedy. Directed by Guy Maddin. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1111
Scanners. 2001, orig. 1980. 1 videodisc (103 min.). Supernaturals with the power to destroy human beings through telepathy are bent on taking over the world while a young artist races against time to stop them. Directed by David Cronenberg. DVD on order
Shake hands with the devil: The journey of Roméo Dallaire. 2005. 1 videodisc (91 min.). The film captures (Ret'd) Lt. General Roméo Dallaire's return to Rwanda to relive his memories of the 1994 genocide while he was the commander of a U.N. peacekeeping force. It also portrays the West's view of Rwanda and how the international community and media abandoned the Rwandan people in their time of greatest need. DVD 2252
Shivers. 1998, orig. 1975. 1 videodisc (110 min.). Something sinister is going on in Starliner Towers, an idyllic high-rise apartment complex situated on a self-sufficient island in Montreal. A resident, Professor Dr. Emil Hobbs has been working on a experimental procedure wherein a parasite that will act as a replacement for a dying organ is introduced into the human body to assimilate that organ's functions. Well, not exactly. What he really was aiming for was a combination aphrodisiac and venereal disease that would turn the world into one mindless orgy. Now a strange disease that causes its victims to perform barbarous acts of violence and perverse sexual behavior is passing from resident to resident and is gaining virulence with each new day -- and the attrition rate is climbing. Directed by David Cronenberg. DVD 9625
SHORT cinema journal. 1997. 1 videodisc. Cafe bar: In this brushstroke animation a random meeting at a cafe becomes two people's "escape" from one another. -- Bride of Resistor: In this sequel to the kinetic animation film Mr. Resistor, the diminutive scrap heap hero returns to have his heart stolen by a plasticine mistress. -- Girl's own story: A girl's hopes are pierced by the barbs of early 60s life in a film that mirrors an entire society's loss of innocence. -- Depth solitude: A lyrical short film about loneliness and the extreme measures some will take to overcome it in which an underwater caretaker is smitten by a beautiful swimmer who frequents his aquatic terrain. Guy walks into a bar: A naive wannabe actor stumbles into a real life cowboy fantasy while driving across country. Vincent, the junkie chronicles: a work-in-progress documentary takes an unblinking look at the life of an addict. -- Big brass ring: Malcolm McDowell plays a controversial political icon who verbally spars with a beautiful journalist. -- La Jete: The themes of time and memory are intricately sewn into a eulogy to civilization. -- Eye like a strange balloon: A whimsical allegory on man's journey through time and space. -- The Making of Portrait of a Lady: A glimpse into the creative process of directing Henry James' tale of societal pressures and private passions. DVD 19
Speaking parts. The essential Egoyan. 2001, orig. 1989. 1 videodisc (92 min.). Tied together by the medium of video an aspiring actor, his obsessed hotel co-worker, and a television writer become enmeshed in a tangled web of psycho-sexual desire leading to death. Directed by Atom Egoyan. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6091
Spider. 2003. 1 videodisc (98 min.). Upon his release from a mental institution, Spider takes up residence in a halfway house. Paranoid, quiet, and forever making notes, Spider spends much of his time remembering his youth, specifically a horrific event from his childhood that occurred after he came to believe that his father was having an affair. Directed by David Cronenberg. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1109
Stardom. 2003, orig. 2000. 1 videodisc (103 min.). A naive, hockey playing tomboy, gets pulled from obscurity to become the super model of the media-mad world. Her rise and fall from stardom is captured by the paparazzi that hound her night and day. Along the way she uses man after man, until one day fate gives her a reality check and she finds herself asking the question - is it possible to be beautiful, rich, famous and happy too? Directed by Denys Arcand. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1209
Sucker punch. 2011. 1 videodisc (110 min.). Set in the 1950s, it tells the story of Baby Doll in a mental institution, where she creates an alternate reality. She plans to escape from that imaginary world, but to do that she needs to steal five objects before she is captured by an unknown adversary. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10038
The sweet hereafter. New Line platinum series. 1998. orig. 1997. 1 videodisc (ca. 116 min.). Following a tragic school bus accident, high-profile lawyer Mitchell Stephens descends upon a small town. With promises of retribution and a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of the grieving community, Stephens begins his investigation into the details of the crash. But beneath the town's calm, he uncovers a tangled web of lies, deceit and forbidden desires that mirrors his own troubled personal life. Gradually, we learn that Stephens has his own agenda, and that everyone has secrets to keep. Directed by Atom Egoyan. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5
Sweet movie. The Criterion Collection. 2007, orig. 1974. 1 videodisc (98 min.). Miss Canada wins the contest of the "most virgin" Miss Monde 1984 and the prize is marriage to a milk industry tycoon along with his 50 billion dollars fortune. During their honeymoon, Miss Canada does not accept the "golden" penis of her husband, and with the help of black man Jeremiah Muscle, she runs away to Paris. There she meets a Latin singer, El Macho, they have intercourse in the Eiffel Tower and get stuck together. She moves to a weird anarchic community and later becomes an actress working in a chocolate advertisement. Meanwhile, the revolutionary, pedophile, and mad killer Anna Planeta makes candy in her boat while sailing through the canals of a city that seems to be Amsterdam. She meets the sailor Potemkin and they have a torrid affair. Meanwhile, she uses her candies to seduce young boys and kill her lovers. In the middle of the story, what seems to be footage of a Nazi doctor and a slaughter in a war with many dead bodies is presented. Makavejev's bizarre and pointedly satirical vision is totally uncompromising and filled with shocking images, looking at sex in all its complexities. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4205
Tales from the Gimli Hospital. 2000, orig. 1988. 1 videodisc (68 min.). Set during a smallpox epidemic in the village of Gimli, Mantiboba near the turn of the century, this film explores the jealousy and madness instilled in two men who share a hospital room. The two men are friends at first, until they reveal their darkest secrets to each other. Directed by Guy Maddin. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 354
Things to come. 1999, orig. 1936. 1 videodisc (92 min.). After a twenty-five year war destroys civilization, a group of scientific supermen set out to build a new one. Decades later, their progress is threatened by a reactionary who urges the masses to rise up in protest. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2117
Thirty two short films about Glenn Gould . 2012, orig. 1993. 1 videodisc (94 min.). Thirty-two vignettes, spanning pianist Glenn Gould's life from age four until his death at fifty, give an impressionistic depiction of his life. Music Library DVD 236
Twilight of the ice nymphs. The Guy Maddin collection. 2002, orig. 1997. 1 videodisc (181 min.). A political prisoner returns to his home after several years of incarceration, falling desperately in love with a woman named Juliana on the boat trip home. Archangel (melodrama, 1990, b&w tinted): A tale of obsessive love in the arctic town of Archangel, where a Canadian soldier, a Belgian pilot, and a Russian nurse, all suffering from amnesia, become involved in a love triangle in which each believes the others to be someone else. The heart of the world (2000, b&w): A parody of silent Soviet propaganda films. Directed by Guy Maddin. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 355
Videodrome. 1998, orig. 1983. 1 videodisc (87 min.). Science fiction nightmare about a world where video can control and alter human life. Max Renn, a cable TV producer of soft-core pornography and hard-core violence, keeps searching for ever more sensational programming. He meets a mysterious supplier named Harlan who gives him access to an underground sex and violence network called "Videodrome" whose specialty is murder. Its transmissions have the power to induce a mind-altering brain tumor in viewers causing them to hallucinate. Directed by David Cronenberg. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 64*
Videodrome. Criterion collection. 2004, orig. 1983. 2 videodiscs (89 min.). A cable TV executive discovers an underground TV show called Videodrome, a hyperviolent torture show. His quest to find the origin of the show may result in the loss of his sanity. Directed by David Cronenberg. DVD 64
Le violon rouge = The red violin. 2003, orig. 1998. 1 videodisc (130 min.). Upon unearthing a one-of-a-kind, blood red violin, appraiser Charles Morritz uncovers the spectacular journey of the long-lost masterpiece - how it changed hands and the lives of all who touched it. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9542
Water. 2006. 1 videodisc (117 min.). A Hindu widow in 1938 could throw herself on her husband's funeral pyre, marry her husband's younger brother or live in poverty and self-denial from then on. When eight-year-old Chuyia is widowed, she is sent to a home in the Holy City of Varanasi where Hindu widows live in penitence. Her feisty presence affects the other residents, forcing each to confront their faith and society's prejudices, especially a young woman who has fallen in love with a follower of Gandhi. Directed by Deepa Mehta. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3498
When night is falling. 2008, orig. 1995.1 videodisc. (95 min.). The story of a teacher at a conservative religious college named Camille whose life is turned upside down when, through a chance encounter, she meets a beautiful circus performer named Petra. Walking an emotional high-wire between the familiar past and the forbidden future, Camille must choose between the love she cannot forget and the desire she cannot resist. Directed by Patricia Rozema. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4348
Where the truth lies. 2006. 1 videodisc (ca. 107 min.). Karen O'Connor, a young journalist known for her celebrity profiles, is consumed with discovering the truth behind a long-buried incident that affected the lives and careers of showbiz team Vince Collins and Lanny Morris. Directed by Atom Egoyan. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2942
The widow of Saint-Pierre = La Veuve de Saint-Pierre. 2000. 1 videodisc (108 min.). Based on a true story about revenge, fear and redemption. In 19th century St. Pierre, a convict sentenced to death strives to better himself in the eyes of the police chief's beautiful wife and that of the town that she has him working in. Since there is no guillotine or executioner, one of each has to be sent for from France. Directed by Patrice Leconte. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 269
Zero patience. 1994. 1 videodisc (100 min.). Film tells a tall tale of love and loss, sex and science, history and hysteria in the age of AIDS. Director John Greyson revives renowned Victorian Sir Richard Burton who constructs a sensationalist multimedia museum display focusing on Patient Zero, the gay French-Canadian flight attendant accused of bringing AIDS to North America. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10838