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	The Angel That Stands By Me: Minnie Evans' Paintings Minnie Evans is the embodiment of the visionary artist. She is an 88-year-old Black painter in North Carolina who has created a rich world of mythical animals, religious symbols, and natural beauty. See also Visions of Paradise.
	Boneshop of the Heart This highly original and thought-provoking film explores a rich vein of visual expression and American individuality through incisive portraits of five contemporary southern folk artists, four of whom are African-American.
	Can You See the Color Gray? This unusual documentary is sure to provoke discussion and self-reflection in any course that deals with racial differences and stereotypes. It shows numerous people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds as they grapple with probing questions about their racial attitudes and their feelings about their own ethnicity.
	Clementine Hunter: American Folk Artist This outstanding video profiles the life and work of one of America's greatest African-American folk artists.
	Death in the Hood This hard-hitting, thought-provoking documentary uses Portland, Oregon, as a case study to examine how the acceptance of a "gangster" attitude and the spread of crack cocaine has led to a dramatic increase in youth homicides among African Americans.
	Dreams of a City: Creating East Palo Alto East Palo Alto is a racially and ethnically diverse low-income community located south of San Francisco. In 1992 it gained widespread notoriety as "the nation's murder capital." This incisive, in-depth case study digs beneath the media cliches to examine the dreams and goals of the community's residents and show what happens when they decide to begin taking control of their future.
	Fences & Neighborhoods Atlanta's political and business leaders promised to cooperate with community groups and use the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to foster widespread urban revitalization, particularly in the city's poor, African-American neighborhoods. This probing documentary explores the reality behind those promises.
	Forgotten Fires This riveting exploration of the devastating consequences of racial hatred shines a profoundly revealing light into the darkest reaches of America's heart and soul. The film investigates the burning of two African American churches in rural South Carolina by a young convert to the Ku Klux Klan.
	Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore This powerful historical documentary, narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, explores the life and times of America's first assassinated Civil Rights leader.
	From Fields of Promise Ossie Davis and John O'Neal narrate this outstanding, widely acclaimed historical documentary. The film chronicles the story of the African-American farmers of Gee's Bend, Alabama. First as slaves, then as "freed men," and finally as landowners, the Black farmers of Gee's Bend and their descendants have lived on and farmed the same land since 1845.
	The Gods of Beauty Mona Boulware Webb is a fascinating African-American "outsider" or "visionary" artist and mystic. For the past 30 years, she and her "extended family" of artists and friends have transformed her house in Madison, Wisc., into a total art environment.
	A Jewel in History: The Story of Homer G. Phillips Hospital This thought-provoking documentary may provide the best introduction available on video to the history of African- American health care in America, chronicling the development, contributions, and systematic closure of African-American hospitals throughout the US.
	Ota Benga: A Pygmy in America This wrenching documentary relates one of the saddest episodes in the shameful history of racism in America. In 1904 the pygmy, Ota Benga, was "bought" in his native Congo by the explorer, Samuel Verner, and brought to this country to be one of many "anthropological" attractions at the St. Louis World's Fair.
	Pizza Pizza Daddy-O Provides a fascinating and historically important anthropological and folkloric record of eight unrehearsed and unstaged jumprope and singing games played by fourth-grade African-American girls on a school playground in Los Angeles.
	A Principled Man: Rev. Leon Sullivan From Appalachia to Philadelphia and from the corporate board rooms of America to the shanty towns of apartheid South Africa, Rev. Leon Sullivan has maintained his integrity and his ideals while helping create an international revolution in race relations and human rights.
	Sermons and Sacred Pictures This multi-award-winning documentary profiles the life and work of Reverend L.O. Taylor, a black Baptist minister from Memphis, Tenn.
	Still Revolutionaries This compelling documentary explores the lives of two women who were in the Black Panther Party between 1969 and 1975.
	Trading Fours This inspiring and thought-provoking documentary relates the remarkable story of Fernando Pullum's jazz band at Washington Preparatory High School, a predominantly African American school located in South Central Los Angeles.
	Urban Tribe This keenly observed documentary profiles an African-American natural hair salon in Chicago. Biko, the articulate and energetic proprietor, specializes in natural-hair styling of "locs" (otherwise known as dreadlocks) and braids, sculpting complex and magnificent arrangements of hair that can be interpreted as political and cultural statements.
	Video Letter to the President This powerful and honest short video features six inner-city African-American high school students who, through the lens of a video camera, try to tell the President of the United States what they need in order to achieve their dreams and find success in life.

Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore

In 1951, after celebrating Christmas Day, civil rights activist Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriette retired to bed in their white frame house tucked inside a small orange grove in Mims, Florida. Ten minutes later, a bomb shattered their house and ended their lives; it also shattered any hope that the South was ready -- without a bloody fight -- to give up centuries of white supremacy for a new era of racial equality.

This powerful historical documentary, narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, explores the life and times of America's first assassinated Civil Rights leader. Combining murder mystery, incisive biography, and an eye-opening investigative account of Jim Crow Florida, the film sheds new light on one of this country's earliest and most fearless fighters for civil rights.

Harry T. Moore was an enigmatic leader. He was a distinguished school teacher and Executive Director of the Florida chapter of the NAACP whose passionate crusade for equal rights could not be discouraged -- either by the white power structure or the more cautious factions of his own movement. Although Moore's assassination was an international cause celebre in 1951, it was overshadowed by later events in the Civil Rights movement and eventually almost forgotten.

Moore paved the way for the '60s Civil Rights movement. He was a tireless organizer and an ardent champion of equal pay for black teachers and voter registration; during his tenure in the Florida NAACP he raised the number of Florida's black voters to twice that of any other Southern state. He was also an eloquent and prolific letter writer, constantly petitioning government officials to right the many injustices committed against his people, including numerous instances of lynching and police brutality. It was his outspoken fervor about one of these cases, the notorious case of the Groveland Four -- black youths accused, under murky circumstances, of raping a white woman -- that many believe finally pushed the local Klan to silence him once and for all.

The fascinating story unfolds through archival footage and photographs, music and narration, and interviews with Moore's surviving daughter, authors and journalists, former NAACP leaders Julian Bond and Myrlie Evers-Williams, and many others. Through the testimony of numerous historians, FBI agents, and many of MooreÕs contemporaries, the film examines the still- unsolved bombing that killed Moore and his wife. Although the bomb was undoubtedly set by Florida Klansmen, the actual perpetrators were never brought to justice.

"Freedom Never Dies" paints a vivid picture of the ugly history of race relations in Florida -- the state that to this day, despite its image of palm trees, Mickey Mouse, and prosperity, boasts the second-highest number of Klan chapters in the nation.

The film was produced by Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts for the Documentary Institute of the Univ. of Florida. It features The Ballad of Harry Moore, with lyrics by Langston Hughes, performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock.

85 min. Color 2001 Catalog #38508
Sale: video $275, Rental: video $95

"Everyone must see this film! If you've never heard of Harry T. Moore, this film will not let you forget who he was and what he lived and died for. The film tells many stories at once: It is about a courageous individual committed to justice, an aggrieved but close-knit black community willing to stand up to Florida's white supremacists, a local grassroots movement whose vision was way ahead of its national leaders. It is also a love story about a couple whose dedication to their people and to each other cost them their lives. This is a Must for courses in African American studies and American history, and for any courses dealing with civil rights, discrimination, racism, or ethnic studies." -- Robin D.G. Kelley, Prof. of History and Africana Studies, New York Univ.

"I would say this to a whole new generation of young people who have never heard of Medgar Evers or Harry T. Moore: Learn as much as you can about these people, for they were the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement." -- Myrlie Evers- Williams, former Chair, NAACP

San Luis Obispo Intl. Film Festival Independent Film Competition Award
PBS National Broadcasts

A Jewel in History: The Story of Homer G. Phillips Hospital

Ota Benga: A Pygmy in America

This wrenching documentary relates one of the saddest episodes in the shameful history of racism in America. In 1904 the pygmy, Ota Benga, was "bought" in his native Congo by the explorer, Samuel Verner, and brought to this country to be one of many "anthropological" attractions at the St. Louis World's Fair. After the Fair, the pygmy toured with Verner until the explorer's bankruptcy, when Ota Benga was sent to New York's Bronx Zoo.

The Zoo administrators shared a then-common hierarchical view of races and saw the pygmy as representative of a halfway stage in man's evolution from the apes. They put Ota Benga on display in the "monkey cage" with chimpanzees and orangutans. The exhibition was an enormous success and attracted large crowds to the Zoo, but under pressure from religious groups the Zoo ultimately decided to get rid of its controversial attraction. Ota Benga was released and shuttled in isolation between religious institutions, performing odd jobs to survive. Ten years later he committed suicide in Virginia by shooting himself in the chest.

"Ota Benga: A Pygmy in America" recounts this sorrowful tale with reserve and understatement, increasing its powerful effect and underscoring the parallels between this now-forgotten chapter from our recent past with contemporary events and attitudes. The film will provoke reflection and animated discussion in a wide variety of courses in African American studies, cultural anthropology, and American history and studies, as well as sociology and psychology classes dealing with racial attitudes and relations. It was produced by Alfeu Franca.

16 min. Color 2002 Catalog #38555
Sale: video $175, Rental: video $60

"An excellent documentary for classroom use, packing a powerful punch in 16 fast-paced minutes. The film captures an important moment in American history, when Social Darwinism and entertainment collided and colluded to crystallize ideas about racial superiority and inferiority. More importantly, it demonstrates how blurred the line is between anthropological 'other' and zoological 'animal.' Finally, the way it connects contemporary forms of 'difference' to historical forms helps to explain why racism continues to dog democracy." -- Lee D. Baker, Assoc. Prof. of Cultural Anthropology, Duke Univ.

African Studies Assn. honoree
Margaret Mead Film Festival honoree
Film Arts Foundation Festival of Independent Cinema honoree
"It's All True" Intl. Documentary Film and Video Festival (Brazil) honoree

A Principled Man: Rev. Leon Sullivan

Still Revolutionaries

Trading Fours

For most teenagers, band class is merely a diversion from the tedium of high school. But in predominantly African American South Central Los Angeles, playing in the high school band can be a matter of survival. This inspiring and thought-provoking documentary relates the remarkable story of Fernando Pullum's jazz band at Washington Preparatory High School. In the past four years this extraordinary teacher and motivator has sent 134 of his 135 students to college on scholarships.

The film focuses on three of Pullum's students who are struggling to find focus and passion in a neighborhood that is pulling them toward apathy and self-destruction. Raylene, a senior, has spent her teen years bouncing from foster home to foster home but has discovered her identity through the saxophone and the study of jazz music. Brian, a freshman, is close to being kicked out of the band because of truancy. However, he knows that he must find the self-discipline to stick with the program because this is his only shot at college and a music career. Deris, also a freshman, must fight his clownish instincts if he expects to stay in the band. He is a talented drummer, but he resists Mr. Pullum's strict behavior guidelines and may suffer as a result.

This uplifting film opens a rare window on the bleak educational environment of South Central Los Angeles to illustrate one bright and shining light of passion and success. The film will engage students and stimulate discussion of a variety of topics in courses on education, sociology, and African-American studies. It was produced by Gabriel Rhodes.

19 min. Color 2001 Catalog #38534
Sale: video $150, Rental: video $60

"A valuable film that will be especially useful for classes in African-American studies, education, or sociology, this short but effective documentary tells the story of an inner-city high school jazz band and what the band experience means for both the students and the band teacher. One of those rare documentaries that is both informative and inspirational." -- Gerald Early, Prof. of African-American Studies and Merle Kling Prof. of Modern Letters, Washington Univ.

"Devoid of dogma, this is an unobscured look at education, race, and the lives of African-American children in South Central Los Angeles. In a field beset by continual crisis, the film examines a program that works well and probes the effects it has on the students. The main portion of the film consists of interviews that will be useful to research and discussion in the fields of sociology and education. The portrayals of inner-city adolescents and their statements present a view that has been rarely represented in scholarly or academic films of this length. Appropriate for public, high school, and academic libraries." -- Philip Blank, Librarian, Duke Univ.

Urban Tribe

This keenly observed documentary profiles an African-American natural hair salon in Chicago. Biko, the articulate and energetic proprietor, is a former social worker who left his job because he was asked to wear a suit to the office instead of the traditional African attire he prefers. In his salon, Urban Tribe, there are no hair-straightening services. He specializes in natural-hair styling of "locs" (otherwise known as dreadlocks) and braids, sculpting complex and magnificent arrangements of hair that can be interpreted as political and cultural statements.

Biko views the desire to have hair "like theirs" as a misguided attempt to assimilate into white culture. An appointment with Biko is a short course in African-American cultural identity and pride. The film focuses on Biko's interactions with three of his customers.

Sade is a transgender social worker. Wearing her hair in locs makes her feel like an "African Queen." Phyllis is a consultant for an African-American public relations firm. She has embraced "natural hair" as a result of her love for swimming. She no longer wishes to "play Barbie" at the swimming pool. She describes the embarrassment that can be caused when water comes in contact with hair-straightening chemicals.

Rosie works in a predominantly white office. She is just beginning to wear her hair naturally and she worries about the impact of that in her workplace. She brings her eight-year-old daughter to Biko for natural-hair styling and in the process they discuss issues of assimilation, cultural survival, and the passing of a legacy of self-hatred to a new generation.

"Urban Tribe" will engage students and stimulate discussion of a variety of topics in courses in African-American studies, multiculturalism and diversity, sociology, and social psychology. It was produced by Jennifer Halliday.

26 min. Color 2001 Catalog #38537
Sale: video $195, Rental: video $75