Related Guides
Databases
- 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.
- Ethnographic Sound Archives Online This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Sound Archives Online brings together over 2,000 hours of previously unpublished historic field recordings from around the world, alongside their supporting field notes and ethnographers' metadata, opening new paths for the study of music in its cultural context.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Featured Films
- Palestinian Women: A Guide To Cultural Resistance (streaming, Academic Video Online) From Jerusalem to Haifa, stopping by Acre, Bethlehem and Ramallah, we travel across Israel and the West Bank to meet with Palestinian women shaping the cultural landscape. This documentary sheds light on these activists, feminists, entrepreneurs, artists, who are striving to build a future in a divided and much disputed country.
- Holy Rights (streaming, Academic Video Online) Safia, a deeply religious Muslim woman from Bhopal in Central India, driven by her belief that because of the patriarchal mindset of the interpreters of 'Sharia', Muslim women are denied equality and justice in the community. She joins a program that trains women as Qazis, (Muslim clerics who interpret and administer the personal law), which is traditionally a male preserve. The film documents her journey as she struggles and negotiates through hitherto uncharted territory, exploring the tensions that arise when women try to change the status quo and take control of narratives that so deeply affect their lives.
- Women and Islam: Islam Unveiled (streaming, Academic Video Online) What does the veil mean to Muslim women? Is it a symbol of repression or faith? Journalist Samira Ahmed travels from her home in Britain to the Middle East, Asia, Malaysia and Africa interviewing a wide variety of men and women -- spiritual leaders, educators, and activists to understand the roots of the Islamic view of women. Are the harsh laws regarding women fundamental to the Koran or have they been grafted on to the religion long after the prophet Mohammed's death?
- Women and Islam: Part II (streaming, Academic Video Online) his wide ranging exploration of women in the Muslim world grapples with the questions of whether there can be democracy in an Islamic state, and how can Muslim women maintain their spiritual connection to the religion without giving up their independence. The film explores issues of circumcision, arranged marriage and polygamy. It shows that some Muslim women are prepared to challenge the mullahs in order to reconcile Islam with modernity.
- Women Only Jihad (streaming, Academic Video Online) his documentary follows a vocal campaign by a group of British Muslim women and men demanding better access for women in mosques and combating traditional patriarchal values.
- Muslim Women Talk About Sex (streaming, Academic Video Online) n today's Arab-Muslim culture, the most taboo subject for women is sex. In this film, eight enlightened Muslim women living in France speak out frankly about their sexual education and experiences in relation to Islamic tradition.
- I Wasn't Always Dressed Like This (streaming, Academic Video Online) The veil is an object that tends to instigate profound and diverse feelings. Its practice and meaning have been greatly abused throughout history. Within the context of the West the question one might ask: 'In a free country, why are women choosing to veil?' In a very intimate and meditative mode, three Muslim women reflect around issues of cultural memory, identity, self-censorship, feminism, politics and media.
- Afghanistan through Women's Eyes (streaming, Academic Video Online) Afghanistan through Women's Eyes offers an intimate portrait of Afghanistan's silenced women as we see the conflict and history of Afghanistan through their eyes. The film visits the secret schools, orphanages and clinics of RAWA, the Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association, a feminist group that has been working both inside and outside of Afghanistan for many years, struggling for women's rights. Their revolution is through ideas, education and health, and they will not let their voices go unheard.
- Winds of Change and Chador (streaming, Academic Video Online) Islamic societies are generally known for their restrictions on women's rights and freedoms; for example, polygamy, honor killings and the enforcement of wearing the Hijab and Chador. Since all cultural traits are created because of social needs in the region, is it right for outsiders to judge this practice? How do people currently living in the region accept these customs? What do today's Islamic women think of these traditions? What is the image of Islamic women in this ever-changing world?
- Afghan Ladies' Driving School (streaming, Academic Video Online) Mr Mamozai's Driving School is the first driving school in Kabul to teach both men and women how to drive. And probably the only driving school for women in the world that is run by men who don't really think women should drive at all. But then the driving instructors at Mr Mamozai's are all ex-Taliban, so clearly this is no ordinary driving school.
- Chahinaz: What Rights For Women? (streaming, Academic Video Online) Chahinaz is a young Algerian college student studying architecture who loves her country but feels suffocated by the weight of its tradition and religion, specifically as spelled out in the government's stringent Family Law. How can you change society in a country where the law officially sanctions inequality between men and women? The filmmakers chose her to explore this issue. She questions women across several continents, using her computer, comparing her situation with theirs.
- Mum, I'm A Muslim (streaming, Academic Video Online) Director Dominique Walker takes the viewer on a journey through the world of Islamic converts to discover what it's really like for a white British woman to become a Muslim.
- Divorce Sharia Style (streaming, Academic Video Online) From a terraced house in East London the Sharia Council presides over hundreds of cases every year, mainly marital disputes. The Sharia Council is a parallel legal system that remains unknown to many people, although it has existed for years. This documentary takes us inside the workings of Sharia law in a Western society, especially as it affects women seeking divorce.
- Zanzibar Soccer Queens (streaming, Academic Video Online) In the Muslim country, Zanzibar, women's activities are severely curtailed. This is a portrait of a feisty group of women who have defied the cultural constraints by playing a man's game, soccer, and giving reign to their competitive spirit. The women talk about the difference soccer has made in their daily lives.
- Covered Girls (streaming, Academic Video Online) The film documents the daily experience of Kiren who coaches her high school basketball team, Amnah who has a black belt in Karate, and Tavasha who is cutting a CD of original rap songs. Their traditional clothing allows them to understand prejudices and to speak out about their faith, especially after 9/11, when people spat upon, pushed and threatened them. They are quite happy that their dress allows men to look at them as people instead of as sex objects. The film follows the girls from a Harlem recording studio to a Brooklyn mosque, revealing typical teenagers suddenly caught in a tug-of-war between religious extremism and the American dream.
- In Bed with the Arab Spring (streaming, Academic Video Online) Women played a major role in the revolutions that swept across the Middle East, some even becoming icons of the new opportunities that surfaced when the older, oppresive regimes were overthrown. However, the days of the Arab Spring also marked a shocking and unchecked surge in sexual harassment cases suffered by women in Egypt.
- Prostitution Behind the Veil (streaming, Academic Video Online) Prostitution Behind the Veil explores the lives of two Iranian prostitutes in an uncompromising but sympathetic manner. This cutting-edge film illustrates how prostitution functions in a country where it is banned and where adultery sometimes results in capital punishment.
- Daughters Of Allah (streaming, Academic Video Online) Modern Palestinian women face dramatic choices. Trapped between a stalled peace process and an increasingly strong Islamic movement, many of these women find themselves confronted by a host of new challenges. Filmed on the West Bank and in Gaza, the documentary penetrates deeply into a facet of Palestinian life that has hitherto been concealed. It includes interviews with militant but heavily veiled female activists, one of whom speaks out on what she sees as the role of women in a free Palestinian homeland.
- Feminism Inshallah: A History of Arab Feminism (streaming, Kanopy) The struggle for Muslim women's emancipation is often portrayed stereotypically as a showdown between Western and Islamic values, but Arab feminism has existed for more than a century. This groundbreaking documentary recounts Arab feminism's largely unknown story, from its taboo-shattering birth in Egypt by feminist pioneers up through viral Internet campaigns by today's tech-savvy young activists during the Arab Spring.
- The Veil Unveiled (Teacher's Edition) (streaming, Academic Video Online) In Yemen, the land of Queen Saba, a wide variety of veils can be found. In the capital Sana'a, the women, although at first sight appearing to all be wearing but black, distinguish themselves one from the other through this diversity. Each veil not only carries its own symbolism, but the variety of ways of wearing each becomes a form of expression. It becomes a game of what one hides and what one unveils
- Sahar's Wedding (streaming, Academic Video Online) This film, directed by Hanna Musleh, takes a look at a wedding in a Palestinian village south of Bethlehem during the first Intifada.
- (un)veiled: Muslim Women Talk About Hijab (streaming, Academic Video Online) (un)veiled introduces the audience to ten Muslim women from various backgrounds who now live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in a discussion about hijab, the headscarf.
- Bhutto: Democracy Was Her Greatest Revenge Against Extremism (streaming, Kanopy) The epic story of Benazir Bhutto, the first woman in history elected to lead a Muslim nation. A favored daughter of the family often called the “Kennedys of Pakistan,” Benazir was elected Prime Minister after her father was overthrown and executed by his own military. Her time in power saw acts of courage and controversy as she broke the Islamic glass ceiling, fought for the rights of women, and tried to quell the fires of religious extremism, while battling accusations of corruption.
- Benazir Bhutto: Walking The Tightrope (streaming, Academic Video Online) This documentary explores a complex woman who some see as a calculating, fearless politician and others as a charming ambassador for her country, devoted to her husband and children
- Duel in Pakistan: Benazir Bhutto between the Mosque and the Military (streaming, Academic Video Online) At only 35 years of age, Benazir Bhutto becomes the first woman to run an Islamic Republic. But the duel continues and eleven years later, General Musharraf prompts another coup d'etat and Benazir will spend several years in prison and eventually in exile. Eight years later, in October 2007, with support from Washington, she returns to Pakistan to stand in the January 2008 elections.
- Dream Weavers (streaming, Academic Video Online) In the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, Berber women who are carpet weavers at night reflect on their knowledge, their traditions, their lives, and their future. Mothers, daughters, grandmothers, all work hard, doing housework and making traditional carpets. Being in self-sustaining economy, they remain without financial independence. They are fiercely determined to lift themselves from the condition they are in, and to offer schooling as well as a future to their children.
- Family Ties (streaming, Academic Video Online) This film is centered around the mother of a large extended family of Jordanians living in Amman. We meet women who have different views of the traditional role of wives and mothers, a Tunisian girl who longs to find her own apartment, and a Jordanian woman who is a commercial pilot flying jets.
- A girl in the river : the price of forgiveness (streaming, Kanopy) "This documentary follows the story of Saba, a young woman from the Punjab region of Pakistan, who was shot and left for dead by her father and uncle after marrying Qaiser, a man once promised to her by her family. Told through the lens of a true love story, the film is a scathing examination of the contradictions between modernism and tradition within Pakistani society, as Saba struggles with pressures to "forgive" the relatives who tried to kill her - a pronouncement that would set them free."
- Brave Girls (streaming, Academic Video Online) For Karishma, Apsana and Samira, going to school to complete their secondary education represented a seismic shift in worldview and a radical reappraisal of what their lives could become. Suddenly, a life trapped within four walls, fulfilling societal expectations came into question when the possibility of a life outside of the house became palpable. But as final exams approached, their families began preparations for their weddings. Immediately, they were forced to choose between their quickly
- Freedom Fields (streaming, Academic Video Online) FREEDOM FIELDS follows three women and their football team in post-revolution Libya, as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the Arab Spring begin to fade. Through the eyes of these accidental activists, we see the reality of a country in transition, where the personal stories of love and aspirations collide with History.
- We are not Princesses (streaming, Kanopy) Feminine wisdom, passed through the ages, connects the inner lives of a group of women providing them with a sense of belonging. Through intimate verite footage, the film illustrates that which is invisible to the eye: The thoughts, memories and dreams of these mothers, sisters and wives as they grapple daily with past traumas and future uncertainty. It is, through the inspiration of drama from long ago and the creation of a social group, that Antigone, the ancient Greek heroine, ignites the spirits of these Syrian women living as refugees in Beirut.
- Bastards: Outcast in Morocco (streaming) Documents one woman's fight to have her sham marriage recognized and her daughter legitimized by the Moroccan judicial system. It is also a complex and compelling portrait of Moroccan society and its attitudes to women, female sexuality, their position in society and access to education. Through Rabha's story, the Moroccan judicial system is laid open and the contemporary issues facing Islamic women are exposed as they seek to reconcile their desire for increased independence with religious and family traditions.
Featured Digital Library
- Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) The Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) offers free and open access to the rich cultural legacy of the Middle East and North Africa by bringing together collections from a wide range of cultural heritage institutions. Developed by an engineering team from CLIR and Stanford Libraries, the platform federates and makes accessible data about collections from around the world.
