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Film List

1. The Concepts of Culture and Ethnicity
2. Culture and Research
3. Basic Processes Page
4. Culture and Developmental Processes
5. Personality, Emotion, and the Self in Cultural Context
6. Health, Stress, and Coping Across Cultures
7. Culture and Social Behavior
8. Intergroup Relations Page
9. Intercultural Interaction Page

The Concepts of Culture and Ethnicity

Animal Appetites (20 min., NAATA).
A humorous account of the 1989 trial of two Cambodian immigrants accused of killing a dog for food.

Gift of a Girl (24 min., Filmakers Library).
A powerful exploration of the complexities of female infanticide in southern India.

Going International, Part 1. Bridging the Culture Gap (30 min., Griggs Productions).
Cleanliness is one of several topics covered in this introduction to cross-cultural differences.

Guns, Germs, and Steel ( Two-disc DVD set, 165 min., PBS Video).
This film, based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning book by Jared Diamond, explores the global distribution of natural resources as the basis for differences in power across societies.

H-2 Worker (68 min., First Run/Icarus Films).
This award-winning documentary exposes the exploitation of Jamaican "guestworkers" in the Florida sugar industry and provides a jarring illustration of inequality in the distribution of global resources.

Preschool in Three Cultures (55 min., Yale University Press).
This video companion to the book of the same name presents a typical day in a Japanese, a Chinese, and an American preschool and provides a unique perspective on each from the teachers and staff of these schools. Students can easily identify instances of individualism and collectivism in this video.

A Question of Identity: What Is Race? (23 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This ABC News program follows a high school principal's investigation of his own DNA ancestry and ethnic identity.

Tales From the Map Room. Part 1. A Tissue of Lies. (30 min., BBC/Ambrose Video).
Examines the mechanics and politics of map-making.

Yidl in the Middle: Growing Up Jewish in Iowa (56 min., New Day Films).
In this autobiographical account, filmmaker Marlene Booth examines how she negotiated the multiple identity groups associated with being an Iowan, a Jew, and a woman.

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Culture and Research

Papua New Guinea: Anthropology on Trial (60 min., PBS Video).
In this video, NOVA travels to Papua New Guinea to speak with the subjects of Margaret Mead's research in that area. Through discussions with other anthropologists and the people they study, this film examines the insider and outsider perspectives.

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Basic Processes Page

American Tongues (1987, 56 min., Center for New American Media).
This entertaining film explores language-related attitudes and bias, focusing on regional, ethnic, and social class differences within the United States.

Cultural Bias in Education (28 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Cultural issues in standardized testing is one area explored in this look at obstacles to Latino/a academic advancement.

Divided We Stand (49 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This BBC production examines the logic behind theories linking race and intellectual abilities.

Intelligence (75 min., National Film Board of Canada).
This film explores definitions of intelligence based on encounters with a large variety of people and other living things.

Multilingual Hong Kong: A Sociolinguistic Case of Code-Switching (32 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Interviews with Hong Kong residents explore the phenomenon of language-mixing and its relation to cultural identity.

Sexism in Language: Thief of Honor, Shaper of Lies (20 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This video analyzes sexism in everyday language use, including song lyrics, newspaper reports, and conversation.

Skin Deep: The Science of Race (60 min., Filmakers Library).
This video uses interviews with scientific experts, authors, and experienced others to challenge the validity of genetic definitions of race.

You Must Have Been a Bilingual Baby (1991, 46 min., Filmakers Library).
David Suzuki narrates this video dealing with the process of bilingual language acquisition, forms of bilingual education, and the "bilingual brain" of interpreters.

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Culture and Developmental Processes

Acting Our Age (30 min., NAATA).
Residents of a home for elderly South Asians created this video with the help of a filmmaker to explore some of the cultural, generational, and everyday issues they and their peers face.

Beauty Before Age: Growing Older in Gay Culture (22 min., New Day Films).
An award-winning documentary that explores attitudes held by a diverse group of gay men about the process of aging.

Childhood. Part 1. Great Expectations (60 min., PBS/Ambrose Video).
This video uses examples from several different cultures to examine perspectives on birth and infancy.

Childhood. Part 5. Life's Lessons. (60 min., PBS/Ambrose Video).
This video uses examples from several different cultures to examine the "5-to-7 shift" when children move from home into the school, factory, or field and explores the role of schools in socializing children for future roles.

Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary (53 min., Transit Media).
Fourth-grade teacher turned filmmaker Laura Simon interweaves the stories of a 9-year-old student from El Salvador and two teachers of different backgrounds in an examination of the potential impact of California Proposition 187, which denies public education to undocumented immigrants.

The Flute Player (56 min., Center for Asian American Media).
In this Southwest Film Festival award winner, Arn Chorn-Pond looks back at his childhood in Cambodia's Killing Fields when his musical talent helped him survive.

Half the Sky: the Women of the Jiang Family (50 min., Bullfrog Films).
This film examines dramatic changes in gender roles in China through the story of four generations of women in the Jiang family.

Man Oh Man (18 min., New Day Films).
Explores the socialization of boys in American culture.

Nine Days of Hell (18 min., Filmakers Library). Depicts a Japanese "academic boot camp" where students learn to withstand the pressure of formal education in Japan.

No Loitering (57 min., New Day Films).
Set in the small town of Sitka, Alaska, home to a large Native American population, the video chronicles the struggles and creativity of a group of teenagers exploring possibilities and seeking respect in their community.

The Silver Age (24 min., Bullfrog Films).
This film explores the impact of increasing longevity in three cultures: Japan, India, and Tunisia.

Spirit of Dawn (29 min., New Day Films).
Depicts the changes in Native American education over time, from the boarding schools of the past—where children were prohibited from speaking their native languages or using their Indian names—to more culturally sensitive educational programs in use today.

Still Killing Us Softly (30 min., Cambridge Documentary Films).
Jean Kilbourne uses print media in the United States and Canada to explore images of women and the effect of these images on men.

Tapoori: Children of Bombay (26 min., Filmakers Library).
This film provides an intimate look at the lives of two Bombay street boys and can be used to illustrate one of the ways children cope with a lack of social support from family members.

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Personality, Emotion, and the Self in Cultural Context

Banana Split (37 min., NAATA).
This experimental video explores interracial dating patterns and issues of biracial identity.

Doubles: Japan and America's Intercultural Children . (58 min., Doubles Film Library).
Regge Life's documentary based on a series of moving interviews with people of Japanese and American parentage. Provides a variety of different cultural and generational perspectives.

Fat Chance (72 min., Canadian National Film Board).
Therapist and blues singer Rick Zakawich sets out to lose half of his 400 pounds and instead gains self-confidence and a new perspective on weight.

Gender and the Interpretation of Emotion (25 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
A look at empirical research on gender differences in the perception of emotional expression.

Hapa (26 min., NAATA).
In this first-person documentary, marathon runner and TV producer Midori Sperandeo explores aspects of her hapa (multiracial) identity.

The Human Face (30 min., University of California Extension).
Dane Archer examines communication through facial expression and several other properties of the human face (instructor's guide available).

Just Black? (57 min., Filmakers Library).
A series of interviews with young people of multiracial background examines issues of friendships, family, dating, and identity.

Living in the Hyphen: Cultural Identity in a Multiethnic Society (44 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This award-winning video examines the experiences of poet Fred Wah and six other Canadians of multiethnic backgrounds.

None of the Above (23 min., Filmakers Library).
Filmmaker Erika Surat Andersen explores her own mixed ethnic background and the experiences of others of different mixed ancestry in order to investigate being racially unclassifiable in today's race-conscious society.

A Question of Color (56 min., California Newsreel).
This documentary explores the interplay between racism and self-concept in terms of "color consciousness" about hair, skin color, and facial features among African Americans.

Two Lies (25 min., Women Make Movies).
A Chinese woman undergoes surgery to make her eyes appear less Asian and, she believes, more attractive—a decision that is challenged by her teenage daughter.

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Health, Stress, and Coping Across Cultures

Between Two Worlds: The Hmong Shaman in America (30 min., Filmakers Library).
A classic film about Hmong refugees who bring traditional healing practices to urban America.

Bolo Bolo (30 min., NAATA).
Documents the response of the South Asian community of Toronto to the AIDS crisis.

Despair (56 min., Filmakers Library).
This documentary presents multiethnic perspectives on the experience and treatment of depression.

Healers of Ghana (58 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This video explains how traditional healers and Western doctors have cooperated to improve health care delivery in central Ghana.

India Inhales (24 min., Bullfrog Films).
As an example of the impact of globalization on individuals, this film examines the strategies of global tobacco companies and the corresponding dramatic increase in smoking among India's children and young adults.

Multicultural Counseling (Vol 1, 28 min.; Vol 2, 44 min., Insight Media).
Seven vignettes focus on a variety of issues that arise when the client and counselor are culturally different. Volume 1 (Ethnic Issues) addresses situations involving race and ethnicity, whereas Volume 2 (Diversity Issues) deals with religion and gender.

Odo Ya! Life With AIDS (58 min., Filmakers Library).
Shows how Candomble, a Brazilian religion of African origin, has become a source of empowerment for a group of individuals dealing with AIDS.

Pins and Noodles (60 min., NAATA).
Videographer Paul Kwan journeys from San Francisco's Chinatown to Saigon, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in search of a cure for his own allergic skin reactions, encountering physicians from a variety of medical and cultural orientations.

Race and Psychiatry (25 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This film explores the role of cultural differences in the misdiagnosis and mistreatment of mental illness.

Seven Nights and Seven Days (58 min., Filmakers Library).
This film documents a healing ceremony involving trance states that is effectively used in Senegal to treat a case of postpartum depression.

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Culture and Social Behavior

And Thereafter: A Korean "War Bride" in an Alien Land (56 min., Filmakers Library).
This video presents a heartbreaking account of the life of 76-year-old Young-Ja Wike, one of 10,000 Korean women who married American G.I.s. This film was screened at several international film festivals.

The Effect of TV on Culture in India (30 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Explores how sudden widespread television viewing in India is changing perceptions about caste, class, and gender.

Fast Food Women (28 min., Appalshop Films).
This documentary examines the lives and working conditions of women who work in fast food restaurants in eastern Kentucky.

Heart of the Dragon, Part 10. Mediating (57 min., PBS/Ambrose Video).
A look at the mediation process used to resolve a dispute between a married couple in the People's Republic of China.

Keeping Up Appearances: The Culture of Conformity (24 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This film examines the willingness of humans to conform and the adaptive and maladaptive results of conformity.

Our Honor and His Glory: Honor Killing (28 min., Filmakers Library).
Documents two cases of honor killings, in which women are murdered by male relatives for tarnishing the family's moral reputation.

Paradise Bent (50min., Filmakers Library).
An exploration of the lives of Samoan fa'afafines, boys who are raised as girls, and how their traditional role has been impacted by Westernization.

The Politics of Love: In Black and White (28 min., California Newsreel).
This documentary provides a balanced approach to the joys, challenges, and social implications of interracial romance among college students.

Shake Hands With the Devil (91 min., California Newsreel).
This Sundance Film Festival award winner follows Canadian General Roméo Dallaire's return to Rwanda where, a decade earlier, he had headed a UN Peacekeeping mission.

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Intergroup Relations

American Sons (41 min., NAATA).
Interviews with Asian American men raise provocative issues about the impact of racism.

Assault on Gay America (60 min., PBS Video).
Frontline
's Forrest Sawyer interviews experts on sexual prejudice as well as the friends, family members, and accused killer of Billy Jack Gaither, who was murdered in a violent hate crime in Alabama in 1999.

Black to the Promised Land (95 min., First Run/Icarus Films).
This documentary explores the effects of intercultural contact as it follows 11 African American teens on a three-month sojourn on an Israeli kibbutz.

Blue Eyed (93 min., California Newsreel).
A summation of Jane Elliott's work in anti-racism training, including a demonstration of Elliot's powerful simulation, which involves dividing a group of participants into those with brown eyes and those with blue eyes.

Can You See the Color Gray? (54 min., University of California Extension).
Children and young adults respond to questions about race/ethnicity and prejudice.

Color Adjustment (33 min., California Newsreel).
Marlon Rigg's examination of 40 years of racial myths and stereotypes on American television.

Dreamworlds (55 min., Kinetic Films).
Presents a jarring content analysis of images of women in music videos. Contains some disturbing images from the film The Accused.

Ethnic Notions (56 min., California Newsreel).
Marlon Rigg's classic examination of the stereotyped images of African Americans used by White society to justify racism.

Faces of the Enemy (57 min., Catticus Corporation).
Sam Keen, author of a book by the same name, narrates this look at the creation of the enemy and enemy images. This video includes some disturbing material in which Keen investigates the role of enemy images in the brutal murder of an American family.

Hi-Tech Hate (45 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Filmmakers trace a network of Internet hate groups through several countries and conduct interviews with members of these groups as well as those who oppose them.

Hot Wax (49 min., California Newsreel).
This first volume of Real Stories from a Free South Africa explores the post-apartheid relationship between a Black beauty salon owner and her elderly White clients.

In Whose Honor (46 min., New Day Films).
Examines the practice of using American Indian mascots in sports through the story of Charlene Teters, who set out to protect her children from negative images of American Indians and found herself at the center of a controversy at the University of Illinois.

Invisible Revolution: A Youth Subculture of Hate (55 min., Filmakers Library).
This documentary profiles members of Anti Racist Action (ARA) and their violent clashes with white supremacist youth.

It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School (1996, 78 min., New Day Films).
An award-winning documentary that provides the perspective of schoolchildren on the issue of whether and how gay issues should be addressed in the schools. Teachers and students discuss how to respond to, and avoid teaching, gay stereotypes (study guide available).

Learning to Hate (39 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
In this second film in the Beyond Hate set, Bill Moyers uses examples from a variety of cultures to explore the formation of intergroup attitudes. The video includes appearances from Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel, Jimmy Carter, and others.

Natives: Immigrant Bashing on the Border (25 min., Filmakers Library).
This multi-festival film exposes a shocking level of anti-immigrant sentiment among Americans living along the California-Mexico border.

Promises (106 min., The Promises Film Project).
This Emmy Award–winning film documents the lives and views of seven Palestinian and Israeli children, some of whom ultimately agree to meet each other.

Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives (36 min., NAATA).
Explores the 1992 Los Angeles uprising from the perspective of the Korean women of the affected community.

Shattering the Silences: The Case for Minority Faculty (86 min., California Newsreel).
This video tells the story of eight university professors of diverse backgrounds in order to explore the obstacles specifically faced by faculty of color.

Silencio (9 min., NAATA).
The experiences of a young Filipino American adjusting to a predominantly White workplace are the focus of this short film.

Skin Deep (53 min., California Newsreel).
Filmmaker Francis Reid follows a diverse group of students through a racial awareness workshop in this powerful film.

Skinheads USA: The Pathology of Hate (54 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This video provides an in-depth look at a neo-Nazi Skinhead organization.

Slaying the Dragon (60 min., NAATA).
Uses film clips and interviews to explore the nature and effect of Asian stereotypes in the media, with an emphasis on the stereotypical portrayals of Asian women.

Some Questions for 28 Kisses (9 min., NAATA) and Game of Death (7 min., NAATA).
(On same videotape) Both explore media portrayals of Asian men, the latter using footage from Bruce Lee's last (unfinished) film.

Suspino: A Cry for Roma (72 min., Bullfrog Films).
This intense multi-festival film documents the persecution of the Roma (or Gypsies, as they were pejoratively called), the largest and perhaps most severely oppressed of Europe's minorities.

True Colors (19 min., Coronet/MTI Film and Video).
In this segment from the newsmagazine PrimeTime, cameras follow two men, one White and one Black, as they attempt to purchase goods, rent an apartment, and find a job. The results provide a clear demonstration of the subtlety of "modern racism" and the prevalence of White privilege in the United States.

The Two Nations of Black America (60 min., PBS Video).
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates interviews African American scholars about the growing success of Black professionals and the growing distance from inner-city Black communities.

Two Towns of Jasper and America's Racial Divide (23 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Two film crews—one Black and one White—interview residents of Jasper, Texas, about the brutal murder of James Byrd Jr. that took place there in a 1998 hate crime.

Understanding Prejudice (50 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Provides an overview of the phenomenon of prejudice including historical perspectives, key terms, and forms of prejudice.

Unequal Education (40 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Bill Moyers compares the daily school life of two middle school students in New York City to explore issues of inequality.

Visual History Testimonies (45 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This compelling selection of Holocaust survivors' video testimony is from the Shoah Visual History Foundation, established by Steven Spielberg after filming Schindler's List. A related film, Student Video Diaries & Workshop, documents students' reactions to viewing the testimony (25 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).

The Way Home (92 min., New Day films).
Eight ethnic councils women come together to discuss issues of oppression in the United States.

When Words Hurt (22 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This lively MTV program focuses on creating awareness about the distinction between unkind words and "hate speech."

Who Killed Vincent Chin? (82 min., Filmakers Library).
This Academy Award–nominated film explores the case of Vincent Chin, a young Chinese American beaten to death by a Chrysler Motors foreman, perhaps because he was mistaken for Japanese in a climate of threats from the Japanese automobile industry.

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Intercultural Interaction

a.k.a. Don Bonus (55 min., NAATA).
A video diary documenting the acculturation experiences of 18-year-old Sokly Ny (Don Bonus) and his family, who settled in the United States after escaping the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

The Aliens: Being a Foreign Student (35 min., Intercultural Press).
Interviews with six Dartmouth students from diverse backgrounds explore the challenges of adjusting to international study in the United States.

Becoming American (58 min., New Day Films).
This film documents the intense culture shock experienced by a Laotian family from a farming background as they transition from a refugee camp in Thailand to a new home in Seattle.

Black to the Promised Land (95 min., First Run/Icarus Films).
This documentary explores the effects of intercultural contact as it follows 11 African American teens on a three-month sojourn on an Israeli kibbutz.

Cold Water (48 min., Intercultural Press).
Twelve international students studying at Boston University discuss their experiences with cross-cultural adaptation and culture shock.

Crosstalk (50 min., Films for the Humanities and Sciences).
This film illustrates common intercultural communication failures in business through a look at the difficulties faced by Americans of Korean and Chinese ancestry.

Foreign Talk (11 min., NAATA).
Portrays an intercultural interaction between a Chinese American woman and two African American men in a commuter train.

A Great Wall (100 min., Pacific Arts Video).
In this entertaining video, a Chinese American family visits relatives in China and encounters a variety of intercultural communication challenges.

Heart of the Dragon, Part 10. Mediating (57 min., PBS/Ambrose Video).
A look at the mediation process used to resolve a dispute between a married couple in the People's Republic of China.

The Language of the Body (50 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
Part of Desmond Morris's The Human Animal series, this video explores gestures, proxemics, and facial expressions and their role intercultural misunderstandings.

Lost Boys of the Sudan (87 min., see www.lostboysfilm.com).
This Emmy-nominated documentary follows two Sudanese refugees on their extraordinary journey from hunger and physical danger in Africa to some very different threats to survival in the United States. This film was part of a successful community action campaign to recruit volunteers and raise funds to assist with the crisis in Darfur.

Managing Diversity in Business (60 min., Films for the Humanities & Sciences).
This diversity training video addresses key issues in the multicultural workplace.

Miss India Georgia (56 min., Urban Life Productions).
Issues of assimilation and ethnic identity are explored through the day-to-day experiences of four contestants in the Miss India Georgia Pageant.

Tales From Arab Detroit (45 min., New Day Films).
This video richly documents images from an immigrant Arab American community to show the interweaving of tradition and current trends.

A World of Differences: Understanding Cross-Cultural Communication (30 min., University of California Extension).
This video explores 14 dimensions on which cross-cultural misunderstandings may occur.

A World of Gestures: Culture and Nonverbal Communication (1991, 28 min., University of California Extension).
ESL students from a large number of countries explain and demonstrate gestures along such categories as friendship and love, aggression, sex, and suicide.

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