documentary films

Examines the twentieth century through the perspectives of social scientists whose statistical work measuring the lives of American citizens created successes, controversies, and failures. Includes interviews with Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Betty Friedan, Milton Freeman, and George Gallup Jr. among others.

Documents the experiences of students and townspeople in Charleston, Mississippi, as they planned and held an integrated prom for high schoolers, which was paid for by actor Morgan Freeman; and explores attitudes of racial intolerance that still persist in the early twenty-first century.

Presented by CBS News correspondent Dan Rather, Murrow's Harvest of Shame is among the most famous television documentaries of all time. Richly photographed and arrestingly poignant, this long-acclaimed 1960 expose on the plight of migrant farm workers resonated deeply for a nation unfamiliar with such brutally honest depictions of living conditions that, as Murrow remarks, "wrong the dignity of man.".

Documents the Estonians between 1986 and 1991, as they took to the streets to sing forbidden songs in an effort to free themselves of the Soviet occupation.

NOVA reveals how venom causes the body to shut down, arteries to bleed uncontrollably, and limbs to go black and die. But nature's most destructive and extreme poisons could contain the building blocks for a new generation of advanced drugs that could treat heart attack, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and cancer. Follow two scientists on their expeditions to track down and capture the planet's most deadly creatures, risking life and limb just to tease out milligrams of venom and get it to the lab.

This documentary "exposes a huge health and environmental scandal in our modern industrial system of meat and poultry production ... In the U.S. and elsewhere, the industry is dominated by dangerous uses of arsenic, antibiotics and growth hormones and also by the dumping of massive amounts of sewage in fragile waterways affecting the nearby towns and its citizens. This film documents the vast catastrophic impact on the environment and public health, as well as focuses on the individual lives damaged and destroyed"--Container.

A documentary about a school project that taught an entire community about the Holocaust. The students of Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee collected a paper clip for each person who died in the Holocaust.

Follows the crew of the California based Arrowhead Hotshots, a wildland firefighting crew as they tackle the 2000 summer wildfire season.

"Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids."--Container.

Examines conflict in the Middle East from the Ottoman Empire's entry into World War I in October 1914 to the Allied Victory and declaration of a new Turkish Republic in 1923 as well as the hostilities that have plagued the region ever since.