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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1958-1969: not a dinner party-the cultural revolution. 1 streaming video file (61 min.). Part three of the series China: Through Mao's Eyes examines the origins of the Cultural Revolution, Mao's orchestration of it, the political and economic shockwaves it created, and its human cost. Rarely seen archival footage of young Red Guard operatives raiding and ransacking a home-combined with present-day interviews featuring former Red Guards and their victims-create an in-depth portrayal of the tumultuous period. One commentator links the Cultural Revolution with the entrepreneurial freedom that China's government now fosters. Based on Philip Short's definitive biography Mao: A Life. Streaming video.
1970 and beyond: Mao is not dead. 1 streaming video file (59 min.). Part four of the series China: Through Mao's Eyes details the watershed Nixon-Mao diplomacy, Mao's death and its aftermath, and the legacy of his rule and philosophy. Scenes showing an aged and infirm Mao meeting with foreign emissaries and CPC assemblies reveal his determination to shape policy and preserve his imposing image as long as possible. Today's citizens who look back nostalgically on Mao's reign are contrasted with a young, materialistic, sexually uninhibited generation-although the program makes clear that the Chairman still inspires awe and reverence throughout Chinese society. Based on Philip Short's definitive biography Mao: A Life. Streaming video.
Ba jiu dian zhong de tai yang = Morning sun. 2005, 1 videodisc (117 min.). This film attempts in the space of a two-hour documentary film to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes--and reflected in the hearts and minds--of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating in the film's conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of high-Maoist China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period. DVD 7079.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. 1 online resource (streaming video file) (107 minutes). Based on the best-selling novel set during China's cultural revolution, this acclaimed film is about two young men, university students, who are sent to a remote mountain village for a Maoist re-education, to purge them of their decadent Western education. Amid the back-breaking work and stifling ignorance of the community, the local beauties are the only respite from their miserable life. But none compare to the granddaughter of the region’s tailor. With a secret cache of forbidden books, they set about to woo her. Streaming video.
La chinoise. 2008, 1 videodisc (93 min.). Paris, 1967. Disillusioned by their suburban lifestyles, a group of middle-class students, led by Guillaume and Veronique, form a smal Maoist cell and plan to change the world by any means necessary. After studying the growth of communism in China, the students decide they must use terrorism and violence to ignite their own revolution. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4444.
Declassified: Chairman Mao. 1 streaming video file (45 min.). This episode of Declassified examines Mao Zedong: a brilliant tactician, political and economic theorist, and a statesman who ruled a billion people for three decades. In death he has become divine, worshiped as a god in a godless country. Streaming video.
The Demise of the Prophets. 1 streaming video file (52 min.). This program covers the following topics: intellectuals and the new models like communist Cuba; birth of the Maoist intellectual, with Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir distributing Maoist tracts in the street; the revolutions in Iran and Cambodia, whose excesses led the intellectuals to a new cause - human rights; the death of Sartre; and the death of Chinese support for communism, as seen at Tiananmen Square. Streaming video.
Lucanamarca. 2008, 1 videodisc (69 min.). A documentary on events following the decades-long civil insurrection in Peru. After the capture of Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Maoist-inspired revolutionary movement Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is created to visit local communities and address the tragedies that occurred during hostilities. Chief among these communities is Lucanamarca, a rural town that experienced the single worst episode of violence, in which 69 adults and children were killed, in response to the killing of a local Sendaro Luminoso field commander. The arrival of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to exhume the bodies of the Lucanamarca victims for fact-finding stirs up strong memories of the violence, conflicting stories of who was involved, and enmity between those who supported or opposed the revolutionaries. DVD 8132.
Mao Tse-Tung, 1969. 1 streaming video file (59 min.). This historical documentary tracks the rise of Chairman Mao during the revolution and illustrates the Communist Party's struggle and cultural upheaval. Streaming video.
Maostalgia. 1 streaming video file (47 min.). In this program, Niall Ferguson asks how China manages to live under a Communist government but with a thriving capitalist economy. He travels to the new supercity of Chongqing and to the rural backwaters of Anhui to talk with survivors of Mao's regime, new billionaires, and Maoist nationalists, and finds the way China is governed now is eerily similar to the way it was under the First Emperor. Streaming video.
Memories of paradise. 1 online resource (51 min.). The legendary Peruvian town of Paradise was once a tropical utopia. After an earthquake in the 1970 s buried the city of Yungay, killing 70,000, the survivors were given government aid to settle a new town in the jungle which they called Paradise. Here they dreamed of creating a better future for their families. In the beginning, the peasants grew corn, coffee and other crops. When the economic aid ended, the residents turned to coca cultivation. The valley became the source of 60% of the world's coca leaves. Then the town was taken over by drug lords and the people s dreams soured. Drugs were flown out of the valley s seven airports as local authorities turned a blind eye in exchange for bribes. Suddenly the Shining Path Maoists burst into the town of Paradise. At first, they protected the dealers in exchange for a share of the profits. But soon they launched an audacious bid to take over the market and started terrorizing the residents. Hundreds were killed in a legendary battle which prompted the government to launch a full-scale assault on the Maoists. Paradise was destroyed, but the original settlers are starting to come back to rebuild. Memories of Paradise gives a fresh perspective on the complexities of terrorism and the "drug wars.". Streaming video.
Prelinger Archives. 1 streaming video file (25 min.). Cold War-era anti-Chinese propaganda film featuring footage of revolutionary activities and combat, 1921-1964. Streaming video.
Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army (Long Version). 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 57 min.). Streaming video.
The WPA Film Library Pro-Communist Propaganda, ca. 1949. 1 streaming video file (2 min.). Pro-Soviet commentary on China relations and Maoism. Streaming video.
Xiao cai feng a tailor made romance = Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress. 2005, 1 videodisc (111 min.). Set in the early 1970s during the later stages of China's Cultural Revolution, two city-bred teenage best friends are sent to a backward mountainous region for Maoist re-education. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9499.