Films & Videos


Sweatshops

Behind the Swoosh
Educating for Justice's 18-minute educational short film that details the month EFJ co-directors spent in Indonesia, living with Nike factory workers on $1.25 / day.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price - (5 DVDs for $50 with free shipping)
"Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" is a feature length documentary that uncovers a retail giant's assault on families and American values.

Environment

Blue Vinyl - ($26.95)
Winner of the Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundance, BLUE VINYL is a deeply personal and frighteningly vital exposé on the PVC industry.

Skeptical of her parents’ decision to “re-side” their Long Island home with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand set out with co-director Daniel B. Gold to discover the truth behind the potentially toxic effects of the material, which is used in building everything from automobiles to computers, medical equipment, and children’s toys. Helfand and Gold travel to the vinyl-manufacturing capital in Louisiana, enlist the help of a “green” builder in California, and journey as far as Venice, Italy--where 31 executives from a PVC-producing company await trial for manslaughter in a landmark conspiracy case.

An Inconvenient Truth - ($19.99)
If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade (former VP Al Gore) to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it.

Racism / Civil Rights

Citizen King - ($22.99)
Citizen King is a two-hour documentary from acclaimed filmmakers Orlando Bagwell and Noland Walker, which explores the last five years in the life of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Personal recollections and eyewitness accounts of friends, movement associates, journalists, law enforcement officers, and historians (including James Cone of Union Theological Seminary - mentor to EFJ Co-Director Leslie Kretzu) illuminate this little-known chapter in the story of America's most influential moral leader in the 20th century.

4 Little Girls - ($12.99)
Director Spike Lee uses this feature-length documentary to tell the story of the 1963 bombing of an Alabama African-American church -- an event that took the lives of four young girls and became a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights struggle. Lee's film examines the crime and its perpetrators as well as the four young victims (as described by friends and families). It also includes interviews with noted Civil Rights activists and journalists.

Global Trade

Blood Diamond - ($19.99 or $21.99 with bonus disc)
With 5 Academy Award nominations, Blood Diamond is set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990's Sierra Leone. Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) - an ex Mercenary from Zimbabwe - and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) - a Mende fisherman, are both African-born, but their histories as different as any can be, until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond that can transform their lives. Although the film includes a large dose of violence, the costs are clearly outweighed by the benefits. Themes include conflict diamonds, child soldiers, and government / industry collusion.

Bonus for Teachers: Amnesty International created an Educational Curriculum Guide for classroom use to be used in conjunction with the film.

Learn More: Amnesty International has created a Resources webpage on the issue of conflict diamonds, child soldiers, and more. A must-see resource for anyone interested in learning more.

Take Action: Global Witness and Amnesty International have teamed up and created the Blood Diamond Action Campaign, which gives information and action ideas.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - ($13.99)
Nominated for an Academy Award, ENRON is the inside story of one of history’s greatest business scandals, in which top executives of America’s 7th largest company walked away with over one billion dollars while investors and employees lost everything. Based on the best-selling book The Smartest Guys in the Room by FORTUNE reporters Bethany McClean and Peter Elkind and featuring insider accounts and incendiary corporate audio and videotapes, this documentary is a wake up call.


Life and Debt - ($26.99)
Life and Debt is an award-winning documentary, which examines the relationship between the cultures of the so-called "developed" and "developing" nations in the modern global market. Using Jamaica as its example, the film investigates the history of the International Monetary Fund and other lending institutions, and the effects of their policies on the day-to-day lives of the people living in their countries under their tutelage over the course of the past 25 years. In doing so, the director has combined traditional documentary style of reporting with a unique "tour guide" narration based on Jamaica Kincaid's A SMALL PLACE. The film's website is www.lifeanddebt.org.

Poverty

Born Into Brothels - ($25.00 with a portion of proceeds going to Kids with Cameras)
In Calcutta's red-light district lives a group of unforgettable children. Feisty, resilient and wickedly funny, they are the daughters and sons of prostitutes. Trying to evade a doomed future, the children embark on a transformational journey that teaches them how the transcendent power of art can offer hope - and help redirect these challenged lives.

War / Militarism

Fog of War - ($14.97)
"The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. MacNamara", the movie that finally won Errol Morris the best documentary Oscar, is a spellbinder. Morris interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and finds a uniquely unsettling viewpoint on much of 20th-century American history. Employing a ton of archival material, including LBJ's fascinating taped conversations from the Oval Office, Morris probes the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War--and finds a depressingly inconsistent policy. McNamara himself emerges as--well, not exactly apologetic, but clearly haunted by the what-ifs of Vietnam. He also mulls the bombing of Japan in World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis, raising more questions than he answers.

SOA: Guns and Greed - ($8.95)
Since its founding in 1946, the U.S. Army School of Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia, has trained more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers in commando tactics, psychological warfare and military intelligence. Rarely seen footage in this documentary shows how the combat-ready SOA graduates use their guns to protect the greed of large corporations and world financial institutions. Acting on their own or on orders from their governments, the soldiers target labor organizers, human rights advocates, educators, religious leaders and others who speak out against sweatshops and other enterprises of greed that exploit the country's people and resources. "SOA: Guns and Greed" presents powerful statements from students, labor leaders, veterans and church people involved in nonviolent protests to close the School of Americas.

International / Politics / Economic Justice

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
A thrilling insight into the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez, charting the last seven months in the run-up to the April 2002 coup d’etat against him, how the privately-owned media and his dramatic return to power some 48 hours later.The film's website is www.chavezthefilm.com.

Media

Outfoxed - ($6.99)
"Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" uses the inflammatory tactics of the Fox News Channel to demonstrate the conservative bias that's handed down by Fox's owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The documentary gathers interviews from media watchdogs and former Fox employees (including a former anchor, Jon Du Pre, who describes his flailing efforts to create a celebration for Reagan's birthday when the one he was sent to cover never materialized), but their overwhelming condemnation of Fox's skewed news practices isn't half as effective as footage taken directly from Fox itself--an appalling montage of pundit Bill O'Reilly telling guests to shut up; repeated efforts to paint Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as weak and waffling, while President Bush is captured in respectful, reverent images; and management memos dictating language, subject matter, and point of view. Outfoxed is unlikely to persuade Fox News fans to change their views, but it may spur outraged liberals to take action. --Bret Fetzer

Control Room - ($13.99)
A documentary on perception of the United States's war with Iraq, with an emphasis on Al Jazeera's coverage. Startling and powerful, Control Room is a documentary about the Arab television network Al-Jazeera's coverage of the U.S.-led Iraqi war, and conflicts that arose in managed perceptions of truth between that news media outlet and the American military.

Genocide

Hotel Rwanda - ($12.99 new or $5.99 previously viewed)
When the president of Rwanda died in a plane crash in April of 1994, Hutu militias massacred close to 1 million Tutsis in 100 days while the United Nations and the world closed their eyes. "Hotel Rwanda" is a film that details the inspiring story of a hotel manager in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. Paul Rusesabagina saved over 1,200 people by converting a 4-star hotel into a de facto refugee camp and fending off the Hutu militia.

Bonus for Teachers: In conjunction with Amnesty International, the directors have created a Teacher's Guide to the film that introduces genocide on a deeper level. In addition to the film, Paul Rusesabagina is currently on a speaking tour throughout the U.S. Most of his talks are free and open to the public. For his speaking schedule, contact APB Speakers.

The Mission - ($19.99)
In 1750, a Spanish Jesuit priest goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Guarani Indians of Paraguay. Robert DeNiro plays a slave hunter who is converted and joins the mission effort. Soon afterwards, Spain and Portugal sign a treaty, which redefines their territorial borders in the Americas. The end result of the treaty is that Spain (which has forsaken slavery) delivers the Indian land to Portugal (where slavery remains legal). To avoid the Jesuit order being expelled from Portugal, all Jesuit missions in South America are ordered closed by the Catholic Church, which means that the Indians living there will be abandoned to the slave traders. The film includes a cameo appearance by Jesuit peace activist Daniel Berrigan.

The Killing Fields - ($17.99)
Sydney Schanberg is a New York Times journalist covering the civil war in Cambodia. Together with local representative Dith Pran, they cover some of the tragedy and madness of the war. When the American forces leave, Dith Pran sends his family with them, but stays behind himself to help Schanberg cover the event. As an American, Schanberg won't have any trouble leaving the country, but the situation is different for Pran; he's a local, and the Khmer Rouge are moving in. The late Haing S. Ngor (playing Dith Pran) is a real-life doctor who had never acted before and who lived through the events depicted in the film. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

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