Films

Campus Progress brings compelling documentary and feature films to campuses across the country. If you are interested in hosting a screening, we will send you the film at no cost. We also can help bring speakers to your screening related to the film or the issues addressed in the film and provide refreshments and advertising for the screenings. Click here to request a film screening on your campus.

The Black List, Vol. 1
Directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders with interviews by Elvis Mitchell

The Black List, Vol. 1 presents dramatic portraits of some of today’s most fascinating and influential African-Americans, who share their stories and insights into the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in the United States. The Black List‘s interviewees come from a diverse collection of disciplines from the worlds of the arts, sports, politics, business and government, and include: Slash, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist; Toni Morrison, author and Nobel laureate; Keenen Ivory Wayans, film writer/director, creator of TV’s In Living Color; Vernon Jordan, lawyer and former president of the National Urban League; Serena Williams, eight-time Grand Slam tennis champion; Al Sharpton, pastor, activist and 2004 Presidential candidate; Thelma Golden, art curator at the Whitney Museum; Susan Rice, former Assistant Secretary of State and Barack Obama’s senior campaign advisor; Chris Rock, comedian, producer and director; Bill T. Jones, Tony Award-winning dancer; and others. It is the brainchild of renowned portrait photographer/filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and acclaimed NPR radio host, journalist and former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell.

Brick by Brick
Directed by Bill Kavanagh

Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story is a one-hour documentary about a contemporary American battle for civil rights. It follows three families in Yonkers, New York, in the midst of a bitter confrontation about the social realities, politics and law of racial discrimination in their housing policies and schools. Brick by Brick describes how, over forty years, one city created a ghetto through its policies. The film shows the decisions that led to isolation of poor people of color, many dwelling in segregated neighborhoods, dominated by public housing projects, and served by failing schools. The primary storytellers are local people, who have personal encounters with housing and educational discrimination. Their conflicts over taking care of their own families while looking for justice and respect make the subject of equal treatment under the law vivid. Rather than simply describing obstacles to opportunity, the dedicated activism of ordinary people who fight against them is also celebrated in this documentary. Brick by Brick poses questions that all Americans must ask about their own communities.


Debt Slapped
Directed by Tony Leahy

You are bombarded with advertising urgining you to live for today and student loan lenders and credit card issuers are all to happy to let you use their products to do it. Using credit cards and student loans can feel like free money, but you will have to pay back the money you borrow and then some. Debt can affect your choices now and in teh future. One out of ten college students will not graduate because of credit card debt and many more than that will be saddled with large student loans after college. The more debt you take on while in college, the harder it will be to get ahead after graudation. That’s being debt slapped. This DVD aims to educate about hte student debt explosion and teh factors behind it. Most importantly, the DVD teaches students how to make wise financial decisions that provide more options, not take them away.

The End of America
Directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern

From award-winning filmmakers Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern comes the provocative and expertly crafted film, The End of America, based on The New York Times best seller by the same name. In a stunning indictment of sweeping policy changes during the Bush years, author Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth) makes a chilling case that American democracy is under threat. With this galvanizing call to arms based on her recent book, she urges regular citizens to take back our legacy of freedom and justice.

God Grew Tired of Us
Directed by Christopher Dillon Quinn

Winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, God Grew Tired of Us explores the indomitable spirit of three “Lost Boys” from the Sudan who leave their homeland, triumph over seemingly insurmountable adversities, and move to America. Orphaned by a tumultuous civil war, John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach, and Panther Blor were among the 25,000 “Lost Boys” who traveled together for five years across the sub-Saharan desert to reach UN’s refugee camps in Kakuma, Kenya. A journey’s end for some, it was only the beginning for John, Daniel, and Panther, who, along with 3,800 other young survivors, were selected to resettle in the United States. From the trans-Atlantic flights that take them to America, to a supermarket visit where they encounter an endless bounty of food, the cameras observe three resilient young men in a complex and confusing western world. In time, John, Daniel, and Panther were able to build active and fulfilling new lives while remaining deeply committed to helping their friends and family left behind in Africa.

Race to Execution
Directed by Rachel Lyon

Race to Execution explores the deep and disturbing link between race and the death penalty in America. Following the stories of two death row inmates, Madison Hobley of Chicago, Illinois and Robert Tarver of Russell County, Alabama – the film interweaves their stories together with groundbreaking scholarship. Race to Execution reveals that once a victim’s body is discovered, the race of the victim and the accused deeply influence the legal process including how a crime scene is investigated, the deployment of police resources, the interrogation and arrest of major suspects, how media portrays the crime, and ultimately, jury selection and sentencing. Beyond DNA and beyond innocence, the shameful open secret of our capital punishment system is a matter of race.
Official Site >>

2009 Media That Matters Film Festival

The Media That Matters Film Festival is the premiere showcase for short films on the most important topics of the day. Local and global, online and in communities around the world, Media That Matters engages diverse audiences and inspires them to take action. In the seventh annual Media that Matters Film Festival, face the violence in Colombia, bear witness to genocide in Rwanda, and camp alongside the vigilantes on America’s border where “a movie becomes a movement.”
Official Site >>
Read the Campus Progress review >>

Life Support
Directed by Nelson George

Life Support, an HBO Films Presentation starring Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah, examines the African-American community’s HIV crisis through the eyes of a survivor who is a mother, ex-addict and AIDS activist. Inspired by the true story of director Nelson George’s sister and family, this poignant drama features a mix of actors and real people from the HIV/AIDS community to tell the story of one woman’s struggle to find meaning in misfortune.
Official Site >>

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Directed by Byron Hurt

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes takes an in-depth look at representations of manhood, sexism and homophobia in hip-hop culture. This groundbreaking documentary is a “loving critique” of disturbing developments in rap music culture. Leading rap and hip-hop artists including Mos Def, Busta Rhymes, Russell Simmons and others are interviewed and pressed to answer some difficult questions about the violent and sexually explicit content of many hip-hop songs and videos. Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is supported by a comprehensive national community engagement campaign designed to educate young consumers and media makers about issues of gender, race, and community values. The campaign supports media literacy and encourages young men and women to reflect on the impact of violent and sexual imagery on themselves, their relationships, and their communities.
Official Site >>
Read the Campus Progress review >>

 
Eyes on the Prize
Produced by Henry Hampton

Thirteen years since it last aired in 1993, Eyes on the Prize has returned to television. This landmark film features archival footage and contemporary interviews with participants in the struggle for Civil Rights. The series uses archival footage to record the growth of the American Civil Rights Movement, with special focus on the ordinary people who effected the change. To promote its return and to inspire students, Campus Progress took part in a promotion tour across the country.
Official Site >>

 
The Trials of Darryl Hunt
Produced and directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern

More than a decade in the making, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s The Trials of Darryl Hunt documents the aftermath of a brutal rape, and murder and harrowing wrongful conviction in the modern American South. The story unfolds from the point-of-view of three principal subjects: an enterprising investigative journalist, an unyielding defense attorney, and a wrongfully convicted man. The film offers an eye-opening, provocative and haunting examination of a community and a criminal justice system subject to racial bias and tainted by fear.
Official Site >>
The movie’s impact >>
Visit the Darryl Hunt Project site >>

 
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
Directed by Keith Beauchamp

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till is a compelling documentary that speaks to new evidence surrounding the murder of Emmett Louis Till. As a result, a new investigation was launched by the Department of Justice on May 10, 2004, to reopen the fifty-year-old case.
Official Site >>

 
The Education of Shelby Knox
Produced and directed by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt

The Education of Shelby Knox is a coming of age story about a teenage girl who joins a campaign for comprehensive sex education in the high schools of Lubbock, Texas. As Shelby is swept into the fight, she begins to question her conservative Southern Baptist upbringing; when the campaign broadens to include a fight for a gay-straight alliance, Shelby confronts her family and her pastor, in the end declaring herself a feminist and a liberal Christian.
Official Site >>
Read the Campus Progress review >>

 
This Divided State
Directed by Steven Greenstreet

This Divided State is a raw and riveting examination of the heated “red versus blue” rift in the nation, This Divided State begins in September 2004 with the presidential election fast approaching and the State of Utah ready to declare itself “Bush Country” once again. However, this complacent state of Republican majority was rocked when Utah Valley State College announced that liberal filmmaker Michael Moore would speak on their campus two weeks before the election. Within 24 hours of the announcement, a media frenzy descended upon the school as angry community members and religious leaders shouted protests, pointed fingers, and quoted Mormon scripture. Some even claimed Moore’s arrival would bring the Apocalypse.
Official Site >>
Read the Campus Progress review >>

Bum’s Paradise
Filmmakers Tomas McCabe and Andrei Rozen

Bums’ Paradise is a documentary that depicts the lives of the men and women who lived in the ten-year-old Albany Landfill community. It follows them through the eviction and documents them one month after the eviction. The film emphasizes their concepts of community as well as the amazing art that they created. Instead of being a documentary about homelessness, Bums’ Paradise considers the question: What if the homeless — the indigent, the bums — told their own stories? This is exactly what filmmakers Tomas McCabe and Andrei Rozen set out to explore with the Albany Landfill residents.
Official Site >>

Iraq Film Project

No End in Sight
In the Valley of Elah
Gunner Palace
The War Tapes
The Ground Truth
The Situation
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Baghdad ER
Last Letters Home
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Voices from Wartime