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FILM LIBRARY: O - S

Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story
by Eric Paul Fournier

Fred Korematsu was probably never more American than when he resisted, and then challenged in court, the forced internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Korematsu lost his landmark Supreme Court case in 1944, but never his indignation and resolve. "Of Civil Wrongs and Rights" is the untold history of the 40-year legal fight to vindicate Korematsu — one that finally turned a civil injustice into a civil rights victory.

This film is only available in our free lending library for Youth Views screenings.

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Omar & Pete
by Tod Lending

Omar and Pete are determined to change their lives. Both have been in and out of prison for more than 30 years — never out longer than six months. This intimate and penetrating film follows these two longtime African-American friends after what they hope will be their final release. Their lives take divergent paths in their native Baltimore as one wrestles with addiction and fear while the other finds success and freedom through helping others. With extraordinary cooperation from Maryland's innovative reentry programs — many run by former drug addicts and convicts themselves — "Omar & Pete" also provides a rare glimpse into an intense and very personal web of support.

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¡Palante Siempre Palante! The Young Lords
by Iris Morales

They were leaders of the Young Lords Party, the militant Puerto Rican civil rights organization based in New York. Today, many are notable mainstream journalists, including Juan Gonzalez, Felipe Luciano and Pablo Guzman. Iris Morales makes history come alive as veterans of the movement recall their fight for equality, jobs, health care, and education.

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A Panther in Africa
by Aaron Matthews

On October 30, 1969, Pete O'Neal, a young Black Panther in Kansas City, Missouri, was arrested for transporting a gun across state lines. One year later, O'Neal fled the charge, and for over 30 years, he has lived in Tanzania as one of the last American exiles from an era when activists considered themselves at war with the U.S. government. Today, this community organizer confronts very different challenges and finds himself living between two worlds — America and Africa, his radical past and his uncertain future. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) co-presentation.

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Prison Town, USA
by Katie Galloway and Po Kutchins

In the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison opened in rural America every 15 days. "Prison Town, USA" tells the story of Susanville, one California town that tries to resuscitate its economy by building a prison — with unforeseen consequences. Weaving the stories of a laid-off mill worker turned guard, a struggling dairy owner and an inmate's family stranded in Susanville, the film illuminates the legacy of an industry that is transforming rural America. A co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and KQED/Truly California.

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Promises
by B. Z. Goldberg and Justine Shapiro

What is it really like to live in Jerusalem today? Promises offers touching and surprisingly fresh insight into the Middle East conflict when filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg returns to his hometown to see what seven children — Palestinian and Israeli — think about war, peace, and just growing up. Living within 20 minutes of each other, these children are nevertheless locked in separate worlds.

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Rain in a Dry Land
by Anne Makepeace

How do you measure the distance from an African village to an American city? What does it mean to be a refugee in today's "global village?" "Rain in a Dry Land" provides eye-opening answers as it chronicles the fortunes of two Somali Bantu families, transported by relief agencies from years of civil war and refugee life to Atlanta and Springfield, Massachusetts. As the newcomers confront racism, poverty and 21st-century culture shock, the filmmaker Anne Makepeace (P.O.V.'s "Baby, It's You") captures their efforts to survive in America and create a safe haven for their war-torn families. Their poetry, humor and amazing resilience show us our own world through new eyes. A co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

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Refrigerator Mothers
by David E. Simpson, J.J. Hanley & Gordon Quinn

A mid-century medical nightmare is revealed in "Refrigerator Mothers." Autism is one of today's fastest growing disorders, affecting 1 in 500 people. It is now known to be a neurological condition, but from the 1950s through the 1970s the medical establishment mistakenly believed it had found the root cause of the disorder: poor mothering. Doctors presumed that the often obsessive behaviors of autistic children — rigid rituals, speech difficulty, self-isolation — stemmed from their mothers' emotional frigidity. The film explores the traumatic legacy of blame, guilt and self-doubt suffered by a generation of women who were branded "refrigerator mothers." An Independent Television Service (ITVS) Co-presentation.

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Regret To Inform
by Barbara Sonneborn and Janet Cole

In this Academy Award nominee, filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn is compelled to make a brave pilgrimage to the remote Vietnamese countryside where her husband died. She explores the meaning of war and loss on a human level and weaves interviews with Vietnamese and American widows into a vivid testament to the chilling legacy of war. These stories are stirring reminders that the battle scars are life-long, but that shared sorrow can inspire healing and reconciliation.

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Revolution '67
by Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno

"Revolution '67" is an illuminating account of events too often relegated to footnotes in U.S. history — the black urban rebellions of the 1960s. Focusing on the six-day Newark, New Jersey outbreak in mid-July, "Revolution '67" reveals how the disturbance began as spontaneous revolts against poverty and police brutality and ended as fateful milestones in America's struggles over race and economic justice. Voices from across the spectrum — activists Tom Hayden and Amiri Baraka, journalist Bob Herbert, Mayor Sharpe James and other officials, National Guardsmen and Newark citizens — recall lessons as hard-earned then as they have been easy to neglect since. A co-production with the Independent Television Service (ITVS), in association with WSKG.

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The Self-Made Man
by Susan Stern

Is it ever rational to choose death? On Independence Day at Stern Ranch in central California, 77-year-old solar-energy pioneer Bob Stern finds out he is seriously ill, and possibly dying. Meanwhile, an elderly in-law is slowly declining on artificial life support in a hospital. Bob decides to cheat that fate and take his own life. His family tries to stop him. But first, Bob sets up a video camera. Daughter Susan Stern ("Barbie Nation", P.O.V.) tells the story of her father’s quirky, inspiring life and the difficult end-of-life choices faced by an aging population. Part King Lear, part Western, "The Self-Made Man" is a true-life family drama about a controversial issue — Should we control how we die? A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

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Señorita Extraviada
by Lourdes Portillo

Someone is killing the young women of Juárez, Mexico. Since 1993, over 270 young women have been raped and murdered in a chillingly consistent and brazen manner. Authorities ignore pleas for justice from the victims' families and the crimes go unpunished. Most disturbingly, evidence of government complicity remains uninvestigated as the killings continue to this day. Crafting a film that is both a poetic meditation and a mystery, "Señorita Extraviada" is a haunting investigation into an unspeakable crime wave amid the disorders and corruption of one of the biggest border towns in the world. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) Co-Presentation.

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Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
by Zach Niles and Banker White

If the refugee is today's tragic icon of a war-ravaged world, then Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, a reggae-inflected band born in the camps of West Africa, represents a real-life story of survival and hope. The six-member Refugee All Stars came together in Guinea after civil war forced them from their native Sierra Leone. Traumatized by physical injuries and the brutal loss of family and community, they fight back with the only means they have — music. The result, as shown in "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars," is a tableau of tragedy transformed by the band's inspiring determination to sing and be heard. A Diverse Voices Project co-production.

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The Sixth Section
by Alex Rivera

"The Sixth Section" opens a surprising window on immigration in the twenty-first century. Following a group of Mexican immigrants from the tiny desert town of Boqueron who now work in upstate New York, the film documents their struggle to support themselves — and their hometown 2000 miles to the south. To do this, the men form a 'union' that raises money in the form of weekly donations of $10 or $20 from each of its members in New York. In the past few years the group has brought electricity, an ambulance and, most dramatically, a 2,000-seat baseball stadium to Boqueron. "The Sixth Section" is an intimate portrait of how the "American Dream" is being redefined by today's immigrants. A Diverse Voices Project Selection.

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The Smith Family
by Tasha Oldham

The Smiths of Salt Lake City may have America's most common surname, but their story is anything but ordinary. With two boys, a dog, a nice house and a strong commitment to the Mormon Church, Steve and Kim Smith believed they had achieved the American dream. But after nine years of marriage, shattering revelations of betrayal came — enough to test the strongest bonds of faith and love. When Steve confessed to infidelities with men, and they both find they are HIV+, Kim makes an unlikely choice. "The Smith Family" is a searing account of one family's struggle to preserve family and faith, while redefining forgiveness in the face of daunting tragedy.

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Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam
by Charley Trujillo and Sonya Rhee

Based on the 1991 American Book Award winner of the same name, Viet Nam War veteran Charley Trujillo and producer Sonya Rhee's "Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam" is the first documentary to recount the harrowing experience of a generation of Mexican-American boys who fought in Viet Nam. Raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California, their first journey away from their rural hometown was to the war-torn rice paddies of Viet Nam. Profoundly changed by the experience, the soldados returned with a new conception of themselves and their country — and of the particular challenges facing them as Chicanos. A Diverse Voices Project Selection.

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A Song for Daniel
by Jason DaSilva

"A Song for Daniel" compares a routine day of two nine-year-old boys — one living in Baghdad and the other, born and raised in New York City — and offers a profound examination of culture and place through the eyes of two Iraqi youth living on opposite sides of the world. This is a 9 minute short film.

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Speedo: A Demolition Derby Love Story
by Jesse Moss

This award-winning documentary looks at the promising racing career and troubled family life of Ed "Speedo" Jager, one of the nation's top demolition-derby drivers. Trapped in a failing marriage, Speedo channels life's frustrations onto the track, hoping to parlay his talents into a "real" racing career. The film captures Speedo's collisions and confrontations during one tumultuous year as he struggles to achieve his dreams on the track and succeed as a husband, a father and a man. When he falls for Liz, a racetrack official from New Jersey, his life takes a surprising turn.

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Standing Silent Nation
by Suree Towfighnia and Courtney Hermann

What does a family have to endure to create a future for itself? In April 2000, Alex White Plume and his Lakota family planted industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota after other crops had failed. They put their hopes for a sustainable economy in hemp's hardiness and a booming worldwide demand for its many products, from clothing to food. Although growing hemp, a relative of marijuana, was banned in the U.S., Alex believed that tribal sovereignty, along with hemp's non-psychoactive properties, would protect him. But when federal agents raided the White Plumes' fields, the Lakota Nation was swept into a Byzantine struggle over tribal sovereignty, economic rights and common sense. A co-presentation of Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT).

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State of Denial
by Elaine Epstein

"State of Denial" reveals the human experience behind one of the world's greatest tragedies — the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. With five million people infected and nearly two thousand new infections occurring daily, South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV in the world. The film takes viewers into the lives of six people struggling to survive with HIV in the face of social stigma, a severe lack of access to lifesaving treatments, and their president Thabo Mbeki's controversial denial of the connection between HIV and AIDS. A film of quiet outrage, "State of Denial" weaves the personal with the political in an uplifting portrait of ordinary people struggling to survive.

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Street Fight
by Marshall Curry

The 2006 Academy Award nominated "Street Fight" covers the turbulent campaign of Cory Booker, a 32-year old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law graduate running for mayor of Newark, N.J. against Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent twice his age. An urban David and Goliath story, the film chronicles the young man's struggle against the city's entrenched political machine, which routinely uses strong-arm tactics to hold onto power. The battle sheds light on important questions about democracy, power, poverty and race. When the mayor accuses the Ivy League-educated challenger of not being "really black," the campaign forces voters to examine how we define race in America. A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

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