MEDIA DIVERSITY FORUM

A film on immigration: Sin País (Without Country)

About this film (Source: New Day Digital): Sin País (Without Country) attempts to get beyond the partisan politics and mainstream media's 'talking point' approach to immigration issues by exploring one family's complex and emotional journey involving deportation.

In 1992, Sam and Elida Mejia left Guatemala during a violent civil war and brought their one-year old son, Gilbert, to California.  The Mejia’s settled in the Bay Area and raised their family for the past seventeen years--until one morning immigration agents stormed the Mejia’s house, looking for someone who didn’t live there.

Sin País begins two weeks before Sam and Elida’s scheduled deportation date. After a passionate fight to keep the family together, Sam and Elida are deported back to Guatemala.

With intimate access and striking imagery, Sin País explores the complexities of the Mejia’s new reality of a separated family–parents without their children, and children trying to succeed in life without their parents.

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Ask Not: A documentary on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy

Click here to watch the trailer of this film

About the film (Source: PBS): Homosexuality is the last target of official discrimination in the U.S. armed forces. When President Bill Clinton took office in 1993, his campaign pledge to lift the ban on gays serving openly in the military became a heated issue, with military leaders, Christian fundamentalists and conservative Congress members expressing vehement opposition. A sociologist at Northwestern University proposed the "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy as a compromise . . . Read more

Change the Language, Change the Beliefs: Belinda Stillion Southard at TEDxUGA

TEDxUIllinois - Dr. Lisa Nakamura - 5 Types of Online Racism and Why You Should Care

InRealLife: Exclusive trailer for a documentary about teens and the internet

Click this link to watch the trailer

Reframing Normal . . .

Straightlaced

Trailer

Synopsis (Source :groundspark.org) - From girls confronting popular messages about culture and body image to boys who are sexually active just to prove they aren't gay, the students in Straightlaced illustrate the toll that deeply held stereotypes and rigid gender policing have on all of our lives.

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Sperm Donor X: A Different Conception

By Margaret Evans

(April 19, 2013) - Sperm Donor X: A Different Conception is a 56-minute documentary that is meant to open a critical dialogue on the changing nature of families in the United States. From the strangeness and humor of picking an anonymous donor to the creation of joyous families of both biological and adopted children, SPERM DONOR X: A Different Conception provides a powerful challenge to old ideas about making a family.

The film follows the director and three other women over years, as they move from fear and self-consciousness to gratitude and celebration. The women face a variety of issues as they deal with parents, finances, new and old boyfriends and a fundamentalist Baptist Church as they fulfill their wishes to not miss out on parenting. These women speak for thousands of others as this documentary adds depth and insight into the new options facing women today.

View the trailer

FILMS ON DIVERSITY
The 3 deadliest words In the world - "It's A Girl": Evan Grae Davis at TEDxGateway

(Source: TEDxTalks)

Three films on diversity

By Margaret Evans

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Megan Kamerick: Women should represent women in media (TED Talks)

Nadia Al-Sakkaf: See Yemen through my eyes

Out at work: An award-winning documentary on GLBT issues at workplace

About the documentary (Source: AndersonGold Film) In 1992 Cheryl Summerville, a cook at a Cracker Barrel restaurant outside Atlanta, received a termination paper stating that she was fired for "failing to demonstrate normal heterosexual values." Read more

A women's rights movie trailer: The Purity Myth (2011)

In this video adaptation of her bestselling book, pioneering feminist blogger Jessica Valenti trains her sights on "the virginity movement" -- an unholy alliance of evangelical Christians, right-wing politicians, and conservative policy intellectuals who have been exploiting irrational fears about women's sexuality to roll back women's rights. (Source: Media Education Foundation)

World children's festival 2011 in Washington D.C.

Source: International Child Art Foundation

More video footage is available on Amy Ione Online

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Read Me Differently
(Source: Read Me Differently, 2011) - Read Me Differently paints a portrait of three women bound by blood, but divided by a lack of understanding. . Read more

Native News: SKABEWIS'S News Channel
IndianCountryTv.com

Religion and Film
Yidl in the Middle: Growing up Jewish in Iowa
by Marlene Booth
(Source: New Day Film) - Yidl in the Middle looks at growing up "different" in America. In this film, filmmaker Marlene Booth probes her Iowa-Jewish roots. Through home movies, period photos, her high school reunion, and current interviews, Booth examines the complicated process of negotiating identity -- as an American, a Jew, and a woman. More details about this film.  

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Sexual Orientaion
Out at Work Trailer



Plotline: In 1992 Cheryl Summerville, a cook at a Cracker Barrel restaurant outside Atlanta, received a termination paper stating that she was fired for "failing to demonstrate normal heterosexual values." She was shocked to discover that in more than 40 American states it was legal to fire workers simply because of their sexual orientation.

OUT AT WORK chronicles the stories of a cook, an auto worker and a librarian as they seek workplace safety, job security and benefits for gay and lesbian workers. It was originally produced in 1996. But it was updated in 2009. It is a 56-minute, color film available in DVD format.

"Black is Beautiful" and the doll experiment


Source: The Black Institute



Maid in America
(PBS Independent Lens) - Maid in America is an intimate, eye-opening look at the lives of Latina domestic workers, who came to the U.S. to pursue their "American Dreams." Anayansi Prado is the director and Kevin Leadingham is the producer of this movie. Read more | For educational use


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No Dumb Questions


No Dumb Questions is a unique and engaging conversation starter for Anti-Bullying, Diversity, Accepting Difference, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Studies, Sociology, Psychology, Social Work, Education, Child Development, Family Studies, Sexual Education, Human Sexuality, and Healthcare topics (Source: Melissa Regan).

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Kissed by Lightening: Mohawak filmamker Shelley Niro's debut feature film

Read about Shelley Niro


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American Immigrant

By AD Avila
Produced for the Information Stories project: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age.
Originally posted on January 31, 2011

Diverse viewpoints
Youth Radio campaigns for saving public broadcasting

(Feb. 17, 2011, Source: youthradio.org) - At this moment, Congress is considering serious cuts in funding for all public broadcasting, even though more than half of all Americans enjoy NPR, PBS and other public media web sites every month. Read more
Repost on Huffington Post

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Race & achievement


Race & Achievement: Is there a performance gap?
By Renee Murphy
(WHAS11.com, Nov. 22, 2010)

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Gay rights debate: A FOX-Chicago TV report


Reaction from Americans
for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH)


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BASEBALL GIRLS


Synopsis
(Source: National Film Board of Canada) - This feature documentary has used "animation, archival stills and live-action footage to detail the history of women's participation in the largely male-dominated world of baseball and softball." Lois Siegel, who directed this film, is a freelance film director, writer and photographer. She teaches video production at the University of Ottawa. Click here to read more about this film.


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New PBS Documentary:
The Black Press and the Civil Rights Movement


A new PBS documentary about The Pittsburgh Courier by Ronald Love, former filmmaker for National Geographic magazine, is scheduled to appear on PBS stations throughout the country. Titled "Paper of Record: The Pittsburgh Courier, 1907-1965," the film has won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for excellence in the visual arts.

The documentary tells the story of the leading black newspaper of the last century. It was both a journal of African American life and a muckraking crusader in the vanguard of the civil rights movement.

Patrick Washburn, professor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and author of The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom, served as a consultant for the production. In the video below, Washburn discusses his role as historical consultant for the documentary.

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Gwen Ifill talks about her book
The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama

Overview of the Book(Source: Google Books), Random House, Inc.

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Toni Morrison discusses A Mercy with NPR correspondent

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"Amazing Grace: Just the Black Notes!"

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