Film Resources

Film Resources
The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Wealth Divide

An eye-opening field guide to the wealth gap.
For every dollar owned by the average white family in the United States, the average family of color has less than a dime. Why do people of color have so little wealth? The Color of Wealth lays bare a dirty secret: for centuries, people of color have been barred by laws and by discrimination from participating in government wealth-building programs that benefit white Americans.


How Racism Harms White Americans  

Distinguished historian John H. Bracey Jr. offers a provocative analysis of the devastating economic, political, and social effects of racism on white Americans. In a departure from analyses of racism that have focused primarily on white power and privilege, Bracey trains his focus on the high price that white people, especially working class whites, have paid for more than two centuries of divisive race-based policies and attitudes. Whether he's discussing the pivotal role slavery played in the war for independence, the two million white Americans who died in a civil war fought over the question of slavery, or how business owners took advantage of the segregation of America's first labor unions and used low-wage, non-unionized black workers to undercut the bargaining power of white workers, Bracey's central point is that failing to acknowledge the centrality of race, and racism, to the American project not only minimizes the suffering of black people, but also blinds us to how white people have been harmed as well.

Red Cry Lakota Elders Take Back Their Strength
Red Cry is an original, feature-length documentary film chronicling the lives of Lakota elders and oyate (people) in the face of ongoing genocide against the Lakota by government and corporate interests.
The incendiary film is the result of a historic collaboration between traditional Tetuwan Lakota Elders  and Warriors from Pine Ridge Reservation and a growing group of native and non-native solidarity activists. In togetherness they are working to bring Lakota elders – particularly Grandmothers – to the world stage to speak with their own voices to the International community.
Shot in high-definition digital over the summer of 2012 by the Lakota Solidarity Project, Red Cry is the centerpiece of educational outreach for Wagunpi Woashake Ikicupi (Elders Take Back Their Strength) and Stand Behind the Lakota Grandmothers solidarity movement. Extensively researched, the documentary advances the struggles of the Lakota in their own words, from their unique perspectives.

Fatal Flood
In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River went on a rampage from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, inundating hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving a million homeless. In Greenville, Mississippi, efforts to contain the river pitted the majority black population against an aristocratic plantation family, the Percys, and the Percys against themselves. A dramatic story of greed, power and race during one of America's greatest natural disasters.  See timeline, video clips and more.


A Blackfeet Encounter
Exploring the only deadly clash between Native Americans and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, filmmakers trace the aftermath of the expedition's arrival and investigate the challenges and triumphs of the Blackfeet today, discovering a rich history and culture.


Girl Rising
Girl Rising tells the stories of 9 girls from around the world who face – and overcome – unbelievable obstacles on the path toward getting an education. Each girl’s story was written by an author and is narrated by a cast of great actresses, including Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Alicia Keys, and others. The cinematography is stunning and I really am excited to see the film, and to be involved in a global effort for girls’ education.


The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide
This site features a video of author Meizhu Lui as she addresses topics central to the book's theme.
For every dollar owned by the average white family in the United States, the average family of color has less than a dime. Why do people of color have so little wealth? The Color of Wealth lays bare a dirty secret: for centuries, people of color have been barred by laws and by discrimination from participating in government wealth-building programs that benefit white Americans.

Pray The Devil Back to Hell
Courageous Liberian women come together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.

Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone's brutal civil war come together for the first time in an unprecedented program of tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies.

Addresses the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

A powerful film about one of the world's most disturbing problems - over-fishing.

A documentary film about the national and personal debt crisis in the US.

Exposes the tragedy taking place in Darfur as seen through the eyes of an American witness who has since returned to the US to take action to stop it.

When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination.

Michael Franti, world-renowned musician and human rights worker, travels to IraqPalestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war.
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