Related Guides
Find Films
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window Academic Video Online delivers more than 67,000 titles spanning a range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. It includes documentaries, films, demonstrations, and other content types. Films in the Boston University Libraries catalog are licensed to Boston University for educational and research use only, for BU students, faculty, and staff.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window Kanopy is a provider of documentaries, training films, and theatrical releases available as streaming video. Clips from the videos can be embedded in presentations or shown in class. Films in the Boston University Libraries catalog are licensed to Boston University for educational and research use only, for BU students, faculty, and staff.
- BU Libraries Search (BULS) This link opens in a new window BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of academic material provided by the library. The material covered by the search includes books, journals, scores, video and audio recordings, and other physical items held by the library. The search also covers ebooks and ejournals owned by the library, as well as online material provided by the library from a variety of sources.
Browse Selected Films
- Crash Course Sociology: Economic Systems: The Labor Market (Streaming, Academic Video Online) This week we'll see how economies can be broken down into the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. We'll look at the three stages of economic revolution that brought us to the modern post-industrial era. We'll also explore two types of economic models: capitalism and socialism.
- Men at Work: Voices from Detroit's Underground Economy (streaming, Academic Video Online) After decades of factory layoffs and amid aftershocks of the current economic crisis, more than a third of Detroit's remaining population and nearly half of its children live below the poverty line.
- 60 minutes. The world's greatest fakes (streaming, Academic Video Online) In 2004, Bob Simon traveled to China to report on the widespread practice of counterfeiting consumer goods.
- This is life with Lisa Ling. 21st century brothel (streaming, Academic Video Online) Lisa Ling travels to the most famous legal brothel, Dennis Hof's Moonlite BunnyRanch, to meet women who make a living off lust.
- Umbrella = 傘 (streaming, Academic Video Online) Workers, peasants, soldiers, students and merchants were five groups of Chinese society in the 1950s, after the so-called elimination of the exploited class. Borrowing this concept, the umbrella is taken as the clue to rediscover changes in various social classes after economic reform, and to analyze social problems in China. Workers making umbrellas, merchants selling umbrellas, students looking for jobs in the rain. Umbrella is used as a metaphor that can be seen everywhere. As the raindrop, what we see is sometimes clear, sometimes untraceable.
- Nailed It (streaming, Academic Video Online) Visit any strip mall in the United States, and there's bound to be a Vietnamese nail salon. While ubiquitous in cities across the country, few Americans know the history behind the salons and the 20 Vietnamese refugee women, who in 1975 sparked a multibillion dollar industry that supports their community to this day. Weaving powerful personal stories with insightful interviews, Nailed It, a new documentary by director Adele Free Pham, captures an unforgettable and often hilarious saga born of tragedy, charting the rise, struggle, stereotypes, and steady hold Vietnamese Americans have on today's multiethnic $8 billion dollar nail economy.
- Inequality for All (dvd) No amateur when it comes to discussions of the U.S. economy, former Secretary of Labor (under President Bill Clinton) Robert Reich takes on the widening gap between rich and poor in this provocative documentary. Taking on the role of advocate for the 99%, Reich outlines his case for how material wealth, when concentrated among a very few of the privileged due to misguided government policies, effectively decimates the middle class.
- The Inside Job (dvd) Did powerful bankers bet against the American people and win big? Think you have the cause-and-effect mysteries of the 2008 financial crisis nailed down? You may have your conclusions challenged by this eye-opening and opinionated documentary that explores the world of high finance with bracing clarity and shocking revelations, examining the complex evolution of bad mortgages into profitable investment.
- The Price of Aid (dvd) Discusses this complex issue in a global context, including the role of the international media in identifying famine crises, how America's export of genetically modified foods creates problems for African agriculture and public health, how foreign aid is involved in trade competition between the U.S. and European countries, and how assistance provided by the European Commission fo Humanitarian Aid differs from U.S. policies.
- Selling Sickness (dvd) SELLING SICKNESS exposes the unhealthy relationship between society, medical science and the pharmaceutical industry. The film features commentary from paid medical consultants to the drug companies, patients, researchers, patient advocates, advertisers, attorneys, and psychiatrist Dr. David Healy, a critic of the pharmaceutical industry. SELLING SICKNESS also visits trade shows and professional conferences to show how the pharmaceutical industry promotes the use of its drugs within the medical community.
- The Take (dvd) "In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory ... All they want is to re-start the silent machine, but this simple act- "the take"--Threatens to turn the globalization debate on its head.
- The Big Short (dvd) In the mid-2000s, hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) took a hard look at the subprime mortgage market...and saw the tidal wave of borrower defaults to come. As a handful of financial industry insiders watched him bet billions against the very stability of the banks, they felt themselves torn between knowing the consequence of collapse...and getting themselves a very lucrative piece of that action.
- Middletown: The Complete Series (dvd) Examining the American identity through an exploration of small-town life in Muncie, Indiana, this series of films produced for PBS explores the fascinating details of local politics, high school sports, religion, and other cultural traditions. The productions take as their inspiration the influential sociological studies conducted by Robert and Helen Lynd during the Depression era
- Magnitogorsk: Forging the New Man (dvd) Magnitogorsk: Forging the New Man is about the fortunes of three generations living in the shadow of Russia's most breathtaking industrial project of the thirties.
Podcasts
- David Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Chronicles David Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Chronicles is a bimonthly podcast that looks at capitalism through a Marxist lens.
- Hackathons and the "new" economy Sharon Zukin and Max Papadantonakis, PhD program in sociology, City University of New York, have made a podcast about their recently published article on hackathons, tech companies, and precarious work in the new economy.
- Are cryptocurrencies the future of money? (LSE IQ) Bitcoin was the first decentralised cryptocurrency, and hundreds of others have been created since. In this episode of LSE IQ, Sue Windebank asks, are cryptocurrencies the future of money, a speculative bubble that will burst, or something else?
- SOC410: The Political Economy of the Music Industry The music industry is a fascinating setting to understand the power of pop culture AND political economy. (Yup, like that Karl Marx kinda of political economy!) So Dr. David Arditi joins us to explore how power and institutions influence the music we listen to, and the art that musicians create.
- Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism podcast Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism Podcast is a monthly program devoted to bringing you quality, engaging stories that explain how capitalism has changed over time. We interview historians and social and cultural critics about capitalism’s past, highlighting the political and economic changes that have created the present. Each episode gives voice to the people who have shaped capitalism – by making the rules or by breaking them, by creating economic structures or by resisting them.
- The Economics Detective podcast Hi! I’m Garrett Petersen, a Ph.D. candidate in the economics department at Simon Fraser University. In my spare time, I run the Economics Detective podcast and blog.
- Pitchfork Economics podcast "Venture capitalist Nick Hanauer takes a rigorous look into modern-day economic inequality and its inner workings. He invites different political and economic thinkers with each episode to spark the discussion about who gets what and why. These weekly, 30- minute episodes are a valuable resource for anyone trying to understand inequality."
- Planet Money podcast The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.
- Informal Economy Podcasts (WIEGO) WIEGO’s podcast explores some of the most pressing issues faced by the world’s informal workers. It features experts from around the globe.
- The Wealth Gap: Addressing Economic Inequality in the U.S. (Washington Post) Wealth inequality has always existed, but the extremes we see today are dramatic. In this episode, we look at what’s driving economic inequality in the U.S. and examine how race and zip code affect prosperity.
- Economic Inequality in 10 Minutes or Less (Less is Less) This bonus episode serves as a crash course on economic inequality in America. It defines pay inequality, income inequality, and wealth inequality; while incorporating the intersection of gender and race that makes inequality the complex phenomenon that it is.
- Freakonomics Radio Discover the hidden side of everything with host Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything, plus the true stories of minimum wage, rent control, and the gender pay gap.
