Related Guides
Databases
- 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.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume I-II: Foundational Films This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. I-II: Foundational Films contains classic and contemporary ethnographies, documentaries and shorts from every continent, providing teachers visual support to introduce and contextualize hundreds of cultural groups and practices around the world.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume III: Indigenous Voices This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. III: Indigenous Voices contains documentaries, feature films and shorts made by and for indigenous people and communities. Topics are simultaneously local and global, with particular emphasis on the human effects of climate change, sustainability, indigenous and local ways of interpreting history, cultural change, and traditional knowledge and storytelling.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume IV: Festivals and Archives This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. IV: Festivals and Archives contains award-winning titles from contemporary ethnographic film festivals. The collection also includes field recordings and edited films by students and faculty from universities and institutions around the world, including Berkeley Media and Manchester's Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Royal Anthropological Institute Teaching Edition This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Royal Anthropological Institute Teaching Edition contains a curriculum-aligned collection of videos and segments curated to support the teaching of introductory anthropology courses. Each video and segment within this collection are accompanied by a teaching guide providing background information, lesson plans, and classroom exercises and activities.
- 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.
- Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window Associated Press Images Collection is a searchable collection of recent and historical photos from the Associated Press, plus AP graphics, articles, and brief sound clips.
- ARTstor This link opens in a new window ARTstor is a database of images from museums, artists, libraries, colleges and universities, scholars, private collections, and photo archives available for teaching, education, and scholarship, with all images cleared for educational use.
Selected Films
- Øje for øje an eye for an eye (streaming, Academic Video Online) A Danish television documentary about the sentencing of Oliver Khristian to death for a murder he committed in Nacodoches, Texas. Members of the jury took the bible into the deliberation room and consulted it in order to reach their verdict. Khristian, his attorney, his parents, a juror, clergy people, reporters and others in Nacodoches present through their interviews a picture of the town and the pervasiveness of the fundamentalist influence there.
- My brother the Islamist (streaming, Academic Video Online) A young man sets out to understand why his brother has fundamentally changed his life and beliefs, filming their encounters over 12 months to discover more about the world he has chosen. Like himself, Robb Leech's step-brother Rich was an ordinary white middle-class boy from an English seaside town and, until a couple of years ago, they were almost inseparable. But then Rich moved away, and the family learned via a press story that he'd become a radical Islamist, changing his name to Salahuddin. Associating with jihadist fundamentalists, he believes the UK should be ruled by Sharia law.
- The World Before Her (streaming, Academic Video Online) The Miss India pageant is the ultimate glamour event in a country that has gone mad for beauty contests. Winning the coveted title means instant stardom, a lucrative career path and, for some girls, freedom from the constraints of a patriarchal society. As the beauty contestants move through beauty boot camp, Director Nicha Pahuja travels to another corner of India to visit a different camp for young girls, the women's wing of the militant fundamentalist movement.
- The Purity Myth: The Virginity Movement's War on Women (streaming, Kanopy) "The virginity movement" is an unholy alliance of evangelical Christians, right-wing politicians, and conservative policy intellectuals exploiting irrational fears about women's sexuality to roll back women's rights. Includes dad-and-daughter "purity balls," taxpayer-funded abstinence-only curricula, political attacks on Planned Parenthood, and recent attempts by legislators to de-fund women's reproductive health care and narrow the legal definition of rape.
- Persepolis (streaming, Academic Video Online) Based on her autobiographical graphic novels, Marjane Satrapi and co-screenwriter Vincent Paronnaud directed this Oscar-nominated animated film about a free-spirited Iranian girl who is sent to live in Austria when fundamentalists take over during the Islamic Revolution.
- Black Mountain (streaming, Academic Video Online) A once unremarkable site of multi-faith pilgrimage to a Sufi Saint has been transformed and its local history rewritten - the film documents the journey of Charlotte, a student undertaking her PhD research in India, who, whilst researching religious pilgrimages, stumbles upon the politicisation of a pilgrimage site in western India. The research suggests that the pilgrimage site of Kalo Dungar or Black Mountain, situated in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, provides a micro-example of current political issues in India today, where by the 'unity in diversity' of the country is slowly being broken-down destroying any hope of communal peace.
- Joseph's Tomb (streaming, Academic Video Online) Joseph's tomb has become a symbol of holiness for Israeli settlers and of tyranny for their Palestinian neighbours. It's seen more than its share of killing. It's a place both Israelis and Palestinians are willing to kill and die for. We were on the ground when the shots began and explain what's really behind the violence at this holy place. We see the extremism & obsession of the two sides.
- Zion's Christian Soldiers (streaming, Academic Video Online) Fundamentalist Christian evangelicals are among America's strongest supporters of Israel. As Bob Simon reports, that's because many believe the return of the Jews to their homeland is a precondition for the Second Coming of Christ.
- Islam is the solution (streaming, Academic Video Online) Threats, murders and bloody attacks in the name of Islam - the phenomenon can be seen throughout the Islamic world. ISLAM IS THE SOLUTION is a film about the background to Islamic fundamentalism. It is set in Egypt, a country now confronted by a powerful fundamentalist movement. The film shows meetings, open discussions with fundamentalist leaders and followers, pictures of attacks and fundamentalists on trial.
- Threat of the Faithful (streaming, Academic Video Online) The political landscape in Israel is being increasingly shaped by Orthodox Jews, but they are also changing social and cultural life in Israel. This program offers extraordinary access to secretive religious parties and documents their attempts to convert secular Jews to orthodox ways. Their techniques are similar to those used by other religious fundamentalist groups, like Hamas. Will their followers succeed in making Israel a fundamentalist state as well?
- Allahs Børn (streaming, Academic Video Online) Documentary about a fundamentalist Islamic school, or madrassa, in Pakistan. Shows the everyday lives of the students, some as young as five, as they learn the Koran. Also shows an anti-Western rally and the schooling of the students to be prepared to fight to defend Islam against the West.
- The Fundamental Question (streaming, Academic Video Online) This video investigates the phenomenon of rising Islamic fundamentalism in many forms and in many countries. In three parts, it considers the history and nature of the movement as seen by both supporters and dissidents. Is the Koran obsolete? Is Islamic fundamentalism merely a subversive political force masquerading as a religious move "back to the basics"? Terrorists, imams, writers, doctors, students, government officials, holy warriors, activists of every hue, victims of assassination attempts and analysts offer wide-ranging perspectives on this menacing "jihad."
- The Other Side of the Fence (streaming, Academic Video Online) The Other side of the Fence: Conversations with a Female Fundamentalist offers viewers a unique insider s perspective on the relationship between conservative Evangelical Christianity and anti-abortion activism. Extensive interviews with a leader of the movement to end legal abortion highlight her experiences as a woman in the anti-abortion movement and the Christian right.
- Onward Christian Soldiers (streaming, Academic Video Online) For fifteen years journalist Freke Vuijst has followed the growth of the Religious Right from a small special interest group to a major force in American politics. She first came across them in 1980 when several fledgling conservative Christian organizations held a training session on the art of influencing government. They tried to avoid coverage of this event and thus aroused her suspicions. Fifteen years later the group had grown into " a mighty army," with Pat Robertson at the helm. In this film, she traces the phenomenal growth and influence of the Christian Coalition, not only on American politics and diplomacy, but also on American culture.
- Family fundamentals (streaming, Academic Video Online) What happens when religiously conservative Christian parents have children who have "become homosexual?" Family Fundamentals is filmmaker Arthur Dong's personal attempt to answer that explosive question. Armed with a digital camera, Dong takes viewers into the private and public lives of three families who have responded to gay offspring by actively opposing homosexuality. "Heartfelt but evenhanded, Family Fundamentals is a battlefield report from America's disquieting culture war over gay issues" - Los Angeles Times. Family Fundamentals goes to the heart of today's debate over homosexuality, where the personal is inextricably - and dramatically - bound up in the political. In today's contemporary society, sometimes even the most liberal families must find it discomfiting when gay children come out. For fundamentalist Christian families, the event can be polarizing and devastating. Dong tackles his subject by looking into three divided families.
- Faggots are for Burning (streaming, Academic Video Online) "Deals with a young gay man's inner conflict with his sexuality and subsequent journey through the world of Christian fundamentalism in search of answers"
- God Loves Uganda (streaming, Kanopy) In GOD LOVES UGANDA, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams (Music by Prudence) explores the role of the American Evangelical movement in fueling Uganda's terrifying turn towards biblical law and the proposed death penalty for homosexuality. Thanks to charismatic religious leaders and a well-financed campaign, these draconian new laws and the politicians that peddle them are winning over the Ugandan public. But these dangerous policies and the money that fuels them aren't coming from Africa; they're being imported from some of America's largest megachurches.
- Jonestown: The Life & Death of Peoples Temple (streaming, Kanopy) This New York Times Critic's Pick tells the story of the people who followed cult leader Jim Jones to the remote jungles of Guyana, South America, in a misbegotten quest to build an ideal society. The 1960s ushered in intense social and cultural tumult; it was the Age of Aquarius, when change was in the air, and revolution was on the horizon. Some looked to free love, Black Power, or drugs. But for others, Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of Peoples Temple, offered the perfect balance of spiritual fulfillment and political commitment. Jones not only preached about integration and equality, but built an organization that provided food, clothing and shelter to his congregation and his community. On the surface, Jim Jones and the multi-racial Peoples Temple congregation espoused the values of a model society. But upon closer examination, something was amiss. In the summer of 1977, with the publication of an expose in New West magazine, the truth about Peoples Temple was exposed. Defectors and family members gave accounts of physical, sexual and drug abuse, financial corruption, and members being held against their will. On November 18, 1978, over 900 members of Peoples Temple died in the largest mass suicide/murder in history.
- Leitis in waiting (streaming, Academic Video Online) The story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga Leitis, an intrepid group of transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism in their highly religious and conservative South Pacific Kingdom. With unexpected humor and extraordinary access to the Kingdom's royals and religious leaders, this emotional journey reveals what it means to be different in a society ruled by tradition, and the challenge of being yourself without forsaking culture and tradition.
- The Hidden Half (Subtitled) (dvd) Fundamentalists in Iran objected to the sympathetic portrayal of those who fought against the Islamic Revolution in Tahmineh Milani's controversial film. It is a story of a woman remembering her affair with a married man in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Shah. Farsi dialog with English subtitles.
- Frontline: The Jesus Factor (dvd) As an evangelical Christian, President George W. Bush has something in common with the 46 percent of Americans who describe themselves as being "born again" or having a relstionship with Jesus Christ. Often has the President recounted praying about major decisions facing the nation, but this FRONTLINE program, produced by WGBH, questions to what extent does his spiritual beliefs impact or influence his political decision-making.
- Waiting for Armageddon (dvd) Are Evangelicals not just warning about the imminent end of the world, but eager to see the prophecy realized within their lifetimes? This explosive documentary takes into account Christian and Jewish perspectives on Biblical materials concerning the Rapture and the war of Armageddon, revealing fascinating insights on apocalyptic philosophies.
- Bill Moyers' God & Politics (dvd) Filmed during the Reagan era, the series shows how church continues to impact state in America. Episode 3 On Earth as it is in Heaven: for some evangelical Christians, it is not sufficient to have the right to freely practice their faith as they see fit. Reconstructionists believe that all areas of public life must be brought under Christian influence and rule. What would this attempt to set up the kingdom of God "on earth as it is in heaven" mean for religious liberty?
