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2007 Annual Meeting | Film & Video Screenings
2007 Film & Video Screenings
Twenty-one films have been selected for inclusion in the 2007 film/video screening series, organized by Kyle Murphy, ASA Academic and Professional Affairs Program. The Hudson Suite on the 4th floor at the Hilton New York has been set aside for use as a Film/Video Screening room for showing these recent video and film releases throughout the 2007 Annual Meeting.
Please join us on Saturday, August 11, for a special day of films and videos focused on women in the world, co-sponsored by ASA, Sociologists for Women in Society, and Women Make Movies.
Come back on Monday, August 13, for a special day of films and videos that discuss issues related to race and ethnicity in the US, co-sponsored by ASA and the Association of Black Sociologists (ABS).
Full days of film-showing occur on Sunday and Tuesday as well, so read through the film descriptions below and check the viewing schedule to see when the films you want to see are being shown.
Films and Videos to be shown included in the daily screening schedule are:
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God Sleeps in Rwanda tells the story of five remarkable and representative women in a country that is made up of more than seventy percent women in the wake of the genocide. The film discusses the challenges and opportunities for women in contemporary Rwanda by telling the stories like that of a police woman who is HIV positive and raising four children by herself while attending night school to become a lawyer, a teenager who has become the head of the household for her four siblings, and a young woman who was orphaned as a teenager and becomes the top development official in her region. 28 minutes. 2004. A film by Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman. Women Make Movies: www.wmm.com.
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Maquilapolis follows Carmen Durán, one of the millions of women who labor for poverty wages in the maquiladoras of Tijuana. In a unique way, this film was conceived and created collectively by the filmmakers and the women whose stories are told resulting in a sound and captivating portrayal. Carmen suffers kidney damage and lead poisoning after years of exposure to toxic chemicals, and when the Sanyo plant where she worked closes down and tries to avoid paying the legally-mandated severance pay, she becomes a promotora, or grassroots activist. The film chronicles the fight of Carmen and other promotoras as they struggle to win the severance pay that they are owed and train other maquiladora workers on their legal rights. The portrayal of globalization and labor in the film is as powerful as the explication of the serious threats to human health and the environment that are the result of contemporary corporate practices. 68 minutes. 2006. A film by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre. California Newsreel: www.newsreel.org. |
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The Noble Struggle of Amina Wadud [Details] |
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The Noble Struggle of Amina Wadud recounts how Amina Wadud shocked parts of the Islamic community by leading a mixed-gender Friday prayer congregation in New York. Wadud is an African-American Muslim woman who is challenging some of the gender-specific traditions of contemporary Islam and explaining their relationship to racial justice and the promises of justice that she argues Islam contains. The film follows Wadud through the stresses, sacrifices, and joys of her life as a powerful and complex critic and supporter of aspects of Islamic tradition. 29 minutes. 2007. A film by Elli Safari. Women Make Movies: www.wmm.com. |
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Desire offers a poignant perspective on the complicated dynamics of race, class, and young womanhood in New Orleans. Working with filmmaker Julie Gustafson for more than five years, two teenagers from the Ninth Ward’s Desire housing projects, a working-class single mother, and two girls from a prestigious private high school make videos to capture the intimate dramas of their changing lives. The film offers a profile of young women who are vibrant survivors of personal circumstances and family battles and an eerie record of life in New Orleans before the tragedy of Katrina. By bringing these very different women together to make the film, a discussion of great importance is started that addresses the similarities and differences in the lives of young women across lines of race and class. 84 minutes. 2005. A film by Julie Gustafson. Women Make Movies: www.wmm.com.Bay. |
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Boy I Am takes head on the discussion and sometime controversy over female to male (FTM) transgender experiences. The film tackles the views held by some in the feminist and lesbian communities that FTM is at best a trend and at worst an anti-feminist act that taps into male privilege. Throughout the course of the film genuine dialogue is portrayed and a basic understanding of transgender experiences is provided for a general audience. Three young transitioning FTMs, Nicco, Norie, and Keegan, are followed through major parts of their lives and transitions in New York City. Their stories are combined with interviews and discussions with lesbians, activists, and theorists who engage with the contentious questions that are rarely discussed openly. 72 minutes. 2006. A film by Sam Feder and Julie Hollar. Women Make Movies: www.wmm.com. |
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The Shape of Water tells the stories of powerful, imaginative, and visionary women confronting the destructive development of the Third World with new cultures and a passion for change. The film travels to Senegal, Israel/Palestine, Brazil, and India where these new cultures, alongside old traditions, end female genital cutting, offer innovative forms of opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and show how women are spearheading the implementation of renewable resources and rainforest preservation by tapping trees to obtain rubber. The film also introduces a vast cooperative of rural women in India and, in the foothills of the Himalayas, to a farm, Navdanya, set up to preserve biodiversity and women’s role as seed keepers. By interweaving images, words, and the actions of Khady, Bilkusben, Oraiza, Dona Antonia, and Gila The Shape of Water offers fresh and nuanced insights into the lives of women in the Third World. 70 minutes. 2006. A film by Kum-Kum Bhavnani. www.theshapeofwatermovie.com. |
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Listen to Our Voices focuses on victims of domestic violence who share their stories about what happened to them when they left their abusive partners and became involved in contested child custody cases in the Alaska courts. Officers of the court who have extensive experience with these types of cases are also included in this complete picture of how victims can better prepare themselves for custody battles and what the courts need to do better to serve this clientele. The program also features Tanya Brown, Nicole Brown-Simpson’s sister who talks about her sister’s history of domestic violence while married to O.J. Simpson and how the Brown family’s fight for custody of the Simpson children focused international attention on the custody issue when domestic violence is a factor. 60 minutes. 2007. A film by Sharon K. Araji and Elisa Fleener. |
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In Debt We Trust discusses the massive debt burden that millions of Americans are struggling with and a presents a forecast of the fiscal crisis that faces our country when the ballooning national debt comes due. Inspired by Robert Manning’s book Credit Card Nation, the film showcases Manning’s insights about the impact of debt on young people and our society. It also suggests the kinds of practical efforts needed to empower the public with information to avoid the traps of debt and dependency. In Debt We Trust explains how the mall replaced the factory as America’s dominant economic engine and how big banks and credit card companies are lobbying congress and driving individuals into ever greater debt. 89 minutes. 2006. A film by Danny Schecter. www.indebtwetrust.com. |
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Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action [Details] |
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Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action tells the inspiring story of four battles in which Native American activists are fighting to preserve their land, sovereignty, and culture in the face of grave environmental threats. The film follows five extraordinary leaders who, with the support of their communities, reject the devastating affronts of multinational energy companies and the current dismantling of 30 years of environmental laws. They are dedicated to forcing change - to save their land, preserve their sovereignty and ensure the cultural survival of their people while energy companies try to extract the precious resources that are often situate on or near Native American reservation land. 89 minutes. 2005. A film by Roberta Grossman. Bullfrog Films: www.bullfrogfilms.com. |
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Working for Change portrays career alternatives which promote social change for the many people who are seeking ways to use their life’s work to change the world for the better, but who may have a limited vision of how this can be done. The film intends to open the imagination of young and old idealists and activists to the recognition that no matter what one’s aptitude or vocational inclination, it is possible to create ways to use one’s work to foster social change. The film profiles six practitioners, ranging across communications, business, agriculture, and organizing, and expands upon the commonly perceived possibilities. 120 minutes, 2006. A film by Josh Karan. jkpif@aol.com. |
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Tal Como Somos (Just the Way We Are) addresses the stigmatization of gender non-conformity and HIV/AIDS in the Latino community. The film is based on primary research regarding stigma, HIV-related sexual risk, and community involvement with Latino gay and bisexual men and transgender individuals conducted in Chicago and San Francisco from 2000-2005. The film tells the stories of several Latino gay and bisexual men and one transgender woman in four different cities: Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Their stories highlight the consequences of societal stigma based on sexual orientation and gender non-conformity. The film focuses, in particular, on their experiences within the contexts of religion, school, and family. 70 minutes. 2007. A film by J. Ramirez-Valles. Juneteenth Productions: www.juneteenthproductions.com. |
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Max Weber Visits America is a product of a project that has included over 30 years of research on the parts of Professors Larry Keeter and Stephen Hall of Appalachian State University to chronicle Max Weber’s visit to America and his relatives in Mount Airy, NC in 1904. In 1995 a monument was dedicated to that visit at the house in Mount Airy where he stayed and this documentary provides a narrative account of locating and interviewing two living eyewitnesses to Weber’s visit with his relatives. The film includes information about his contributions to modern sociology and footage of the monument with discussion of the dedication ceremony. 2004. 23 minutes. A film by Larry Keeter and Stephen Hall. |
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Black Gold tells the story of how retail sales of coffee exceed $80 billion annually, but that only a negligible amount of this revenue ever reaches the coffee farmer. The film explains how the majority of this money ends up as profits for the middlemen who sell to the four multinational corporations that dominate the coffee market. Black Gold sits in on the coffee auctions in Addis Ababa, London, and New York, where the fate of coffee-growing nations is decided. Tracing the efforts of Tadesse Meskela, founder of the Ethiopian Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, as he seeks to circumvent the commodity exchanges, the film shows coffee being sold directly to roasters willing to provide fair compensation, thus concretizing the concept of “Fair Trade”. 77 minutes. 2006. A film by Mark Francis and Nick Francis. California Newsreel: www.newsreel.org. |
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Street Fight chronicles the bare-knuckles race for Mayor of Newark, NJ between Cory Booker, a 32-year old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law School grad, and Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent and undisputed champion of New Jersey politics. Fought in Newark's neighborhoods and housing projects, the battle pits Booker against an old-style political machine that uses any means necessary to crush its opponents: city workers who do not support the mayor are demoted; "disloyal" businesses are targeted by code enforcement; a campaigner is detained and accused of terrorism; and disks of voter data are burglarized in the night. The battle sheds light on important American questions about democracy, power and -- in a surprising twist -- race. Both Booker and James are African-American Democrats, but when the mayor accuses the Ivy League educated Booker of not being "really black" it forces voters to examine how we define race in this country. 82 minutes. 2005. A film by Marshall Curry. Bullfrog Films: www.bullfrogfilms.com. |
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HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes [Details] |
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HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes presents filmmaker Byron Hurt, a life-long hip-hop fan, who was watching rap music videos on BET when he realized that each video was nearly identical. Guys in fancy cars threw money at the camera while scantily clad women danced in the background. As he discovered how stereotypical rap videos had become, Hurt, a former college quarterback turned activist, decided to make a film about the gender politics of hip-hop, the music and the culture that he grew up with. “The more I grew and the more I learned about sexism and violence and homophobia, the more those lyrics became unacceptable to me,” he says. “And I began to become more conflicted about the music that I loved.” The result is HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a riveting documentary that tackles issues of masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia in today’s hip-hop culture. The film includes interviews with famous rappers such as Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D and Jadakiss and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons; along with commentary from Michael Eric Dyson, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Kevin Powell and Sarah Jones and interviews with young women at Spelman College, a historically black school and one of the nation’s leading liberal arts institutions. 62 minutes. 2006. A film by Byron Hurt. www.bhurt.com. |
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NO! Confronting Sexual Assault in our Community [Details] |
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NO! Confronting Sexual Assault in our Community is a new documentary film about the impact of sexual violence on Black women and girls. As the incidents of violence and sexual assault continue on campuses and in communities across the country, this film can be used to support both women and men, regardless of race, as they learn to navigate the challenging terrain of sexuality --without violence. The film was created by an award-winning producer to shed light on the challenges and solutions to sexual assault in the African American community. NO! artfully combines socio-historical inquiry with messages from violence prevention advocates and first person testimonial from survivors. This film is a powerful tool that can be used to help students of all colors understand the complex dynamics of sexual assault. 94 minutes. 2006. A film by Aishah Shahidah Simmons. California Newsreel: www.newsreel.org. |
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What’s Race Got To Do With It? [Details] |
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What’s Race Got To Do With It? is a new 49-minute documentary film that goes beyond identity politics, celebratory history and interpersonal relations to consider social disparities and their impact on student success in today’s post-Civil Rights world. This new film chronicles the experiences of a diverse group of college students - in this case, over the course of a 16-week intergroup dialogue program - as they probe and confront each other about such issues as underrepresentation, the limitations of multiculturalism, social equity, affirmative action, and their own responsibilities for making a difference. This film shows the incremental learning and attitudinal change that can occur over the course of a sustained dialogue and by illuminating the stark differences that exist between students on the same campus. 49 minutes. 2006. A film by Jean Cheng. California Newsreel: www.newsreel.org. |
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By Invitation Only asks the question “what does it really mean to be the queen of the masked men?” Inclusion in New Orleans’ old line Carnival society remains “by invitation only,” but this new documentary gives viewers an unprecedented look at the inner workings of this insular world through the lens of one of its own. Questioning its racial exclusivity, filmmaker Rebecca Snedeker decided to forego the debutante tradition that was a birthright of women in her family – but still she could not ignore its hold on her identity. In this film, she follows another young woman’s ascension to her throne as a Mardi Gras queen, along the way revealing the tension between family and social status with both her own personal convictions and the winds of change in tradition-bound New Orleans. As Hurricane Katrina laid the cultural and racial complexities of the Crescent City bare, this film offers a probing and highly personal view into one of its oldest and most controversial traditions. 57 minutes. 2006. A film by Rebecca Snedeker. www.byinvitationonlythefilm.com. |
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Negroes with Guns is the story of a forgotten Civil Rights fighter who dared to advocate armed self-defense in the face of racist terrorism of the Jim Crow South. This remarkable film tells of the life and times of Robert F. Williams, the forefather of the Black Power movement, who broke dramatic new ground by internationalizing the African American struggle. Negroes with Guns is not only an electrifying look at a historically erased leader, but also provides a thought-provoking examination of Black radicalism and resistance and serves as a launching pad for the study of Black liberation philosophies. Insightful interviews with historian Clayborne Carson, biographer Timothy Tyson, Julian Bond, and a first person account by Mabel Williams, Robert’s wife, bring the story to life. 53 minutes. 2005. A film by Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts. California Newsreel: www.newsreel.org. |
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Hidden Sorrows presents the rarely told narratives of Gypsy survivors of Nazi persecution in Romania as they remember their experiences during WWII in the context of their lives today. During WWII, Gypsies were slated alongside Jews and other populations for extermination. In each country occupied or allied with Nazi Germany, their fate was similar. Nearly 500,000 are supposed to have perished due to systematic extermination, forced marches, starvation, exposure, diseases, and abuses. In Romania, the Gypsies’ experience critically altered their lives. Survivors share with viewers their shocking deportation from Romania to camps where they fought to survive by any means necessary. Hidden Sorrows reveals the continued struggle of Gypsies for equality in a society that views them as second-class citizens. It examines the present impoverishment of the survivors and their descendants as well as discrimination facing them daily. 57 minutes. 2005. A film by Michelle Kelso. michellekelso@yahoo.com. |
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Chavez Ravine tells the bittersweet story of how an American community was betrayed by greed, political hypocrisy, and good intentions gone astray. In 1949, photographer Don Normark stumbled on Chávez Ravine, a closely-knit Mexican-American village on a hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Enchanted, he stayed for a year and took hundreds of photographs, never knowing he was capturing on film the last images of a place that was about to disappear. The following year, the city of L.A. evicted the 300 families of Chávez Ravine to make way for a low-income public housing project. The land was cleared, homes, schools, and church razed to the ground. But the real estate lobby, sensing a great opportunity, accused the LA Housing Authority's Frank Wilkinson of being a communist agent. The city folded and instead of building the promised housing, it sold the land to baseball owner Walter O'Malley, who built Dodger Stadium on the site. Fifty years later, Normark's haunting black-and-white photographs reclaim and celebrate a lost village from a simpler time. 24 minutes. 2005. A film by Jordan Mechner. Bullfrog Films: www.bullfrogfilms.com. |
Viewing Schedules
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| 8:30-9:00 am |
God Sleeps in Rwanda |
| 9:05-10:20 am |
Maquilapolis |
| 10:25-10:55 am |
The Noble Struggle of Amina Wadud |
| 11:00 am-12:15 pm |
The Shape of Water |
| 2:30-3:55 pm |
Desire |
| 4:00-5:00 pm |
Listen to Our Voices |
| 5:05-6:15 pm |
Boy I Am |
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| 8:30-10:00 am |
In Debt We Trust |
| 10:15-11:45 am |
Homeland: Four Portraits... |
| 12:00-2:00 pm |
Working for Change |
| 2:15-3:30 pm |
Tal Como Somos |
| 3:45-4:10 pm |
Max Weber Visits America |
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| 8:30-9:25 am |
Negroes with Guns |
| 9:30 - 10:30 am |
HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes |
| 10:40 am -12:15 pm |
NO! Confronting Sexual ASsault in our Community |
| 2:30-3:30 pm |
What's Race Got To Do With It? |
| 3:35-4:35 pm |
By Invitation Only |
| 4:45-6:15 pm |
Street Fight |
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| 8:30-10:00 am |
Black Gold |
| 10:15 - 11:30 am |
The Shape of Water |
| 11:45 am -12:45 pm |
By Invitation Only |
| 1:00-2:00 pm |
Hidden Sorows |
| 2:15-3:40 pm |
Desire |
| 3:45-4:15 pm |
Chavez Ravine |
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Special Sessions
In addition to the regular screenings, there are two special sessions discussing important new films and a workshop providing helpful advice on including films in sociology courses.
Cornel West and Kim Hopper on Mitch Duneier’s new ethnographic film, “Sidewalk”
Monday, August 13, 10:30 am – 12:10 pm
Organizer and Presider: Harvey L. Molotch, New York University
Effectively Using Popular Film in Sociology Courses
Monday, August 13, 10:30 am – 12:10 pm
Organizer: Thomas J. Linneman, College of William & Mary
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?
Tuesday, August 14, 2:30 – 4:10 pm
Organizer: Larry Adelman, California Newsreel
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