“Beyond Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” – Video Resources

Mary Sue Brown of ALA/SRRT’s Alternative Media Task Force (AMTF) has compiled a bibliography of “sources for, reviews of, and film subscriptions to alternative media in film,” titled, “Beyond Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” It is available in a six-page pdf on the AMTF website, and also here:

Beyond Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
ALA SRRT Alternative Media Task Force
Version: June 2007

Looking for progressive, ground breaking, captivating, issues oriented films? An ALA SRRT selected bibliography of sources for, reviews of, and film subscriptions to alternative media in film.

Arab Film Distribution www.arabfilm.com Arab Film Distribution has been the leading distributor of Arab films for over 15 years includes documentaries and feature films. A sampling includes the award winners The Letter: An American town and the “Somali Invasion”, Iraq in Fragments, Forget Baghdad, and Private.

Bullfrog Films www.bullfrogfilms.com Over the last 32 years, Bullfrog Films has become the leading US publisher of independently-produced, environmental videos that point the way to living healthily, happily, and with greater concern for the other inhabitants of this planet, and for our descendants. Notable works include China Blue a film that according to Variety “makes a stronger case against worker exploitation than any news item could” and Bombies which shows the terrible aftermath of dropping cluster bombs during the secret air war in Laos and the international campaign to ban them. Bullfrog Films are heavily discounted for public libraries. Call for information

California Newsreel www.newsreel.org California Newsreel – film and video for social change since 1968 – includes among its new releases Black Gold exposes the enormous profiteering of the coffee business (for every $2.00 cup of coffee, the farmer receives 1/5 cent.) and The Hero which tells the story of Angola, a nation attempting to reconstruct itself after 40 continual years of anti-colonial and civil warfare through the stories of a veteran who lost his leg, a prstitute who lost a child and an orphaned boy. Offers discounted prices for schools and public libraries.

Chelsea Green www.chelseagreen.com Publishes materials about the politics and practice of sustainable living. Watch for soon to be released DVDs.

DEFA www.umass.edu/defa DEFA or Deutsche Film Aktiengesellschaft, is the state run East German film studios where films were made from 1946 to 1990. University of Massachusetts professor of film and German studies, Barton Bog founded the DEFA Film Library in 1990 in order to make East German cinema more available and better known in the US. The collection includes feature films and documentaries. Significant titles include Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World, a 1932 banned by the Nazis in 1933 for its positive depiction of communism and for insulting Hitler, the judiciary and religion; Verdict on Auschwitz: The Frankfort Auschwitz Trial 1963 Р1965; and the Gleiwitz Case, a detailed reconstruction of the 1939 surprise attack by a Nazi unit on the radio station in Gleiwitz, which was blamed on Polisy forces and served as Hitler’s justification for marching into Poland.

Direct Cinema Limited www.directcinemalimited.com Direct Cinema Limited strives to present titles tnat are both entertaining and enlightening. Some of their award winning films include Land Mines, A Love Story; One Survivor Remembers, the story of Gerda Weissman Klein and her six year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty; Murder on a Sunday Morning; and Stealing America: Vote by Vote.

Fanlight Productions www.fanlight.com Fanlight Productions is a leading distributor of innovative film and video works on social issues of our time. Recent releases include Hold Your Breath, Hidden Wounds, and Outsider.

Frameline www.frameline.org Frameline’s mission is to support, develop, and promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer visibility through media arts. Included are Tongues United, Emmy award winning director Marlon Riggs account of Black gay life that describes the homophobia and racismt hat confront Black gay men and Mom’s Apple Pie about lesbian custody battles.

Docurama Film www.docuramafilmfestival.com Films from the Docurama Film Festivals I, II, and III. Includes such powerful films as Dark Circle( winner of the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Circle) which follows the trail of plutonium from the Rocky Flats Nuclear Power Plant in California, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Other titles from III – Gitmo: the New Rules of War, Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: the Fred Korematsu Story, and Well Founded Fear.

Docuseek www.docuseek.com Docuseek is a search site for independent documentary, social issue, and educational videos in the US and Canada. It allows you to simultaneously search eight leading distributors complete collection of over 3,200 titles.

Facets www.facets.org Facets is one of the world’s largest distributors of foreign, classic, cult, art, and hard to find videos. “We search the world for artistically important film on video – bypassing many mainstream releases to focus on the rare and unusual”.
Catalog of over 60,000 titles. Milos Stehlik, co-founder and director of Facets has given many workshops to librarians about collecting videos. He also instigated Facets “public programs”, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Children’s Film Festival. He serves on National Endowment for the Arts panels, the Rockefeller Foundation’s National Video Resources, the Illinois Arts Council and on juries of numerous international Film Festivals. The Seven Deadly Sins of Library Video Collecting should be in the hands of all librarians with responsibility for film collections. (This pamphlet may still e available from Facets 773-281-9075).

Films for the Humanities and Sciences www.films.com Films for the Humanities and Sciences includes some good social issues films – use key words to find them on the website. Among the notable works are Dying to Leave about human trafficking; The Empty ATM: Inside Argentina’s Broken Economy; and China’s Prosperity: Behind the Scenes of Progress. Films for the Humanities and Sciences is also a source for many if not all of Bill Moyers films including NOW, On Faith and Reason, Moyers on America and more.

First Run/Icarus Films www.frif.com First Run/Icarus Films is a major distributor of documentary films. Most of the films are independent productions intended to provide a fresh and informative view of our rapidly changing world. Notable titles include Hothouse, filmed inside Israeli high-security prisons, explores the lives and society of Palestinian prisoners, men and women, members and leaders of Fatah and Hamas and The Face of Evil, a history of the attempts to categorize the physiognomy of evil. From the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch to physiognomics, phrenology, eugenics, and anthropometrics. The cost of these films may be prohibitive for many libraries, however public libraries receive a 15% discount.

Folkstreams www.folkstreams.net A national preserve about American roots and cultures.

Indiepix www.indiepix.net Indiepix is an online service created for the broad independent film community at large – home video experts, information professionals, media arts specialists, and most importantly, committed supporters of independent film. DVD’s available from Indiepix include Farmingdale – a damming indictment on the treatment meted out to immigrants in the US; A Place Called Chiapas – a unique and balanced rreport on the obstacles faced by Mexico’s poorest residents and the uprising that brought their troubles to the world’s attention; and A State of Mind – Within the closed society of North Korea, British filmmaker Daniel Gordon documents the efforts of two school girls as they train for the large governmental spectacle, the Mass Games, in the capital city of Pyongyang.

Infowars www.infowars.com Featuring Alex Jones’ Bohemian Grove films.

Internet Infidels www.infidels.org Internet Infidels, an interesting website that includes in addition to films, books, articles, and a discussion board. As the name suggests the films lean to the irreverent. A sampling of titles include Ballot Measure 9, Coming Out Under Fire, and Blood in the Face – a look at the far right movement in the US, featuring footage and profiles on the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations movement, and the American Nazi Party.

LAVA www.latinamericanvideo.org LAVA works to facilitate the flow of media from south t onorth by archiving and distributing feature films and documentaries made by Latin American and Latino artists. Three recent Cuban documentary films include Conga Lessons at the Bay of Pigs, Woman is of the House and Man is of the Street and Marry Me.

Leftbooks www.leftbooks.com ‚ÄúBooks to change the world‚Äù also includes some noteworthy DVD‚Äôs including The Take ‚Äì A real life political thriller that documents the working class resistance in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Poison Dust ‚Äì Although thousands of Gulf War 1991 are suffering from depleted uranium poisoning, the US use of radioactive DU weapons has increased six-fold from 1991 – Gulf War II. (Includes details of a panel about Vieqes, Puerto Rico and a DVD ROM display of further DU reports; and Mission Against Terror ‚Äì award winning documentary tells the story of the ‚ÄúCuban 5″ who were imprisoned in the US for fighting against terrorism.

National Film Board of Canada www.nfb.ca/store With its groundbreaking point of view documentaries and creative animated shorts, the National Film Board of Canada has earned world-wide acclaim and won over 4000awards in countless film festivals and competitions. Since its inception in 1939, the NFB has produced over 10,000 films and is recognized as a place where innovation, risk taking, diversity, and quality are its hallmarks. Recent titles include The Lost Boys..Aparatheid’s Legacy, The War of 1812, and Asking Different Questions: Women and Science.

National Film Network www.nationalfilmnetwork.com National Film Network’s large international collection includes both full length and short documentaries. A sampling of titles include the Fourth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival, Landmark Consumer Rights Trials, Silence: In Search of Black Female Sexuality in America, and In the Arroyo.

New Day Films www.newday.com New Day Films describes their endeavor as the premier distribution cooperative for social issue media. Notable titles include Dirty Secrets: Jennifer, Everado and the CIA in Guatemala; Golden Venture, a journey into America’s immigration nightmare; Letters from the other side, post NAFTA immigration sotry told by the Mexican women lift behind; and The Last Atomic Bomb, a Nagasaki survivor’s wake-up call. Prices are reasonable, usually $50. Р$125. for public libraries with discounts for more than one title.

PBS www.shopPBS.com is the source for Frontline, Now, and the Edward R. Murrow Collection including Harvest of Shame and the McCarthy Years.

Progressive Films www.progressivefilms.org Progressive Films distributes films and videos that offer a progressive perspective, promote human rights, and are created to advance social justice, multiracial equality and environmental sustainability. A sampling includes Fed Up, an exploration of the unintentional effects of pesticides and the links between government and major biotechnology companies; Unconstitutional: the war on our Civil Liberties; and The Panama Deception, the untold story of the December 1989 US invasion of Panama, the events that led to it, the excessive force used, the enormity of the death and destruction, and the devastating aftermath. Reasonably priced.

Straightaway Movies www.straightawaymovies.com 22 years presenting American underground drama.

SubCine www.subcine.com SubCine describes itself as “the only source for Independent Latino Film and Video, an artist run and artist owned collective of Latino film and video makers – challenging, experimental, and progressive.Two recent multiple award winners are The Lost Reels of Pancho Villa and Palante, Siempro Palante! The Young Lords.

Video Project www.videoproject.com Video Project is a major source of social issues films. New releases include The Venus Theory – the impact of sudden climate change and One More Dead Fish – the plight of small scale fishermen in the age of globalization.

Women Make Movies www.wmm.com Women Make Movies is a multiracial, organization that produces, distributes, and exhibits independent films by and about women. New releases include Everyone Their Grain of Sand – the struggles of the citizens of Maclovio Rojas, as they battle their government‚Äôs attempts to evict them from their land to make way for corporate development; God Sleeps in Rwanda — five remarkable women as the rebuild their lives following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that left the country nearly 70% female; and Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night, an award winning documentary about outsourcing telephone support services to India ‚Äì a witty film about politics of identity and globalization.

Zeitgeist Films www.zeitgeistfilms.com Zeitgeist Films pioneers the world of filmmakers with unique personal vision. Recent documentaries include My Country, my Country Рan intimate portrait of Iraquis living under US occupation, Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, and Sophie Scholl:The Final Days Рstory of Germany’s most famous anti-Nazi heroine. Call for special public library rates.

Film Clubs and Subscriptions

Ironweed www.ironweedfilms.com Ironweed provides a monthly Progressive Film Festival for $14.95 a month – no handling or shipping costs. The package includes a feature length film and two or more short films. The February films include This DVD is Not Yet Rated, a raucous sleuth style investigation into how films are rated and how this affects the filmmakers who make them; Walleyball: Yeah, Yeah, We speak English, Just serve; The Competition; How to Poke Pole a Monkey Faced Eel; and Baby Squid: Born like the Stars.

Film Movement www.rbfilm.com Film Movement in association with Recorded books offers a subscription to first run, award winning films on DVD. The films arrive monthly with a poster and performance rights for a one time showing in the library. Recent titles include Gerardo Olivares’s The Great Match and Aaltra, an irreverent road movie of understated physical comedy and non-PC humor.

Reviews

Bright Lights Film Journal www.brightlightsfilm.com A popular-academic hybrid of movie analysis with a prime area of focus on the connection between capitalist society and the images that reflect, support, or subvert it.

Cineaste www.cineaste.com America’s leading magazine on the art and politics of cinema.

Film Comment www.filmlinc.com Published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

The Film Journal www.thefilmjournal.com Passionate and informed film criticism from an auteurist perspective

Film Journal International www.filmjournal.com

Film Quarterly www.filmquarterly.org Published by the University of California.

Images www.imagesjournal.com A journal of film and popular culture.

Jump Cut www.ejumpcut.org A review of contemporary media

Online Film Critics Society www.ofcs.com An international association of Internet-based film critics and journalists.

Screening the Past www.latrobe.edu.au An international, referred electronic journal of visual media and history.

Senses of Cinema www.sensesofcinema.com An online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema.

Sight and Sound www.bfi.org Informed commentary on world cinema.

Video Librarian www.videolibrarian.com now in its 21st year provides over 225 critical reviews each month. An additional 30 reviews are shown on its website. Subscribers may select the print only ($64. as of this printing) or print and online ($99. ) With the online version comes access to over 20,000 reviews. Video Librarian, as it states, alerts readers to upcoming new releases of special interest, documentary, and video movie titles.

Mary Sue Brown
ALA/SRRT
6/28/07