Jane Sloan Media Librarian jsloan@rci.rutgers.edu

Research Resources: Subject Research Guides: Media Collections:
New Acquisitions - February 2006

Accattone The scrounger 2003

Presents a vivid picture of the Roman slums through a story of a pimp, his friends, his enemies and his girls.

1 videodisc (116 min.)

MEDIA 10-535

Ajayu 1996

Death in the Aymara culture is an experience in which the mourners, the community, the souls participate together. Age-old rituals mixed with Catholic symbols assimilated by the people frame the story of Andres and his young daughter Leonora, who upon drowning in Lake Titikaka, must find their way to Korimarca (the Aymara Heaven) with help from the members of the community to which they belonged.

1 videocassette (29 min.)

MEDIA 2-7253

American me 1992

Inspired by a true life story, this is the story of a vicious Latino prison gang leader, Santana, who becomes the leader of the Mexican Mafia while in Folsom prison and is doomed by his past to a life of harsh, unforgiving violence after his release from jail.

1 videocassette (125 min.)

DANA 2184

Argentina, growth or disappearance 2003

A documentary dealing with the aftermath of December 2001, when Argentina exploded with fury over the government's handling of the severe economic crisis that gripped the country.

1 videocassette (ca. 55 min.)

MEDIA 2-7245

Avanti 2003

A man travels to Italy to claim his dead father's body, and discovers he has been conducting an affair there for years. Things get complicated when he falls for the woman's daughter.

1 videodisc (144 min.)

MEDIA 10-518

A Bahia do afoxé filhos de Gandhy 2005

A captivating gilmpse into the Afoxé Filhos de Gandhy, a Bahia carnival group established in 1949 by stevedores which took their name as homage to Mahatma Gandhi.

1 videodisc

MEDIA 10-547

Bure Baruta Baril de poudre = Cabaret Balkan 2000

Various individuals cross paths in Belgrade during the Balkan Wars in this dark comedy from Yugoslavia.

1 videocassette (102 min.)

MEDIA 2-7255

Cain adolescente 2001?

A young man tries to find his place in a tragic world of poverty and confusion.

1 videocassette (102 min.)

MEDIA 2-7226

Capoeira arte e malicia 1993

Demonstrates the arts and movements of capoeira, accompanied by folk music. Capoeira is a martial arts dance developed in Brazil by African slaves. It experienced a cultural resurgence after a period during which it was associated primarily with Brazilian youth gangs.

1 videocassette (9 min.)

MEDIA 2-7241

Cazadores de utopiás Hunters of utopias 1995

Documentary of the political and military situation in Argentina during the 1970's.

2 videocassettes (150 min.)

MEDIA 2-7233 cassette 1

Cazadores de utopiás Hunters of utopias 1995

Documentary of the political and military situation in Argentina during the 1970's.

2 videocassettes (150 min.)

MEDIA 2-7234 cassette 2

Chircales 200

Considers the lives and work of poor brickmakers living in remote areas of Colombia. Shows how they are bound to their employers by serf-like bonds and by impoverished lives.

1 videocassette (42 min.)

MEDIA 2-7243

Le Chene The oak 1994

Set in Romania during the last days of the Communist dictatorship, the beautiful, recklessly defiant Nela, after the death of her father, runs off to the country, where she and a brilliant, rudely irreverent doctor conduct a makeshift love affair while trying to survive in a disentegrating society.

1 videocassette (105 min.)

MEDIA 2-7223

Circe 2004?

This Argentine classic is a dark and foreboding vision of love and death. The plot centers on Delia and three men doomed to love her.

1 videocassette (90 min.)

MEDIA 2-7237

Coraje Courage 1998

Story based on the last months in the life of Maria Elena Moyano, a leader of a women's organization in a slum outside of Lima. Known as Mother Courage, she stood up against the violence and terrorism that plagued her village. She was killed by the Shining Path for her work.

1 videocassette (110 min.)

MEDIA 2-7252

Covek nije tica ljubavni film = The man is no bird : a love story 2000

A middle-aged engineer comes to a factory to install machinery and falls in love with a young local girl. Presents a harsh look at love and life in a small industrial town set in eastern Serbia.

1 videocassette (80 min.)

MEDIA 2-7221

The dentist 1932

A comedy short in which Fields struggles with a golf game, several dentist patients, and his daughter, who wants to run away with the ice man.

1 videocassette (ca. 25 min.)

MEDIA D-316

El Coraje del pueblo Courage of the people 1971

This film is a dramatic reenactment of the historic 1967 massacre of 'The Night of San Juan' when the Bolivian army launched a surprise nighttime attack upon striking tin miners and their families. It achieves a special dramatic power and authenticity through the participation of actual witnesses and survivors of the original events.

1 videocassette (90 min.)

MEDIA 2-2697

El ojo limpio Gabriela Mistral a 50 anos del Nobel = The clean eye 1995

Audio of a 1938 speech made by Gabriela Mistral, accompanied by video and still images.

1 videocassette (25 min.)

MEDIA 2-7254

Emigrants through time Emigrantes en el tiempo 2002

Documents Chile's Jewish community of some 20,000 by presenting insight into the everyday life of three of its members.

1 videocassette (55 min.)

MEDIA 2-7246

La expedición punitiva The punitive expedition 1999

Survivors of the American Punitive Expedition into Mexico against Pancho Villa describe their experiences.

1 videocassette (60 min.)

MEDIA 2-7248

Frans Hals of Antwerp 1988

This film draws the viewer in to a complex appreciationof Frans Hals' art and its place in the social and cultural context of his times.

1 videocassette (55 min.)

DANA 2185

Gaitán, si! otro no 1998

Filmmaker María Valencia Gaitán documents the life of her uncle, Colombian populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán.

1 videocassette (52 min.)

MEDIA 2-7240

Gorilla bathes at noon 2000

Examines the Soviet Union's collapse through the goofball misadventures of one Russian soldier stranded in East Berlin after the fall of the wall. Makavejev shows us part of the sea of change in Eastern Europe by following the absurdly optimistic Major Victor Borisovich after his entire army unit deserts.

1 videocassette (80 min.)

MEDIA 2-7218

Harem 2002

During the reign of the Ottoman Empire, hundreds of women were brought as slaves to the imperial harem at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Most would spend their lives as the personal property of the Sultan, but some would learn that sex equals power. A feature-length look at a vanished world that long captivated the West. These are the stories of the women who dared to use their skills of seduction to gain power and prestige and the unexpected inner workings of the Ottoman harem.

1 videodisc (ca. 100 min.)

MEDIA 10-540

Il bidone The swindle 2000

An aging swindler, ringleader of a trio of petty thieves who impersonates priests to cheat peasants, finally realizes the futility of his life.

1 videodisc (91 min.)

MEDIA 10-529

Il gattopardo The leopard 2004

Recounting the years of Italy's Risorgimento-when the aristocracy lost its grip and the middle classes rose and formed a democratic Italy.

3 videodiscs (185 min.)

MEDIA 10-527

Il Grido Outcry 2000

A man is bereft when his married lover of seven years decides suddenly to leave him when her husband dies. He takes their child and wanders for a year, but realizes he can love only her.

1 videodisc (116 min.)

MEDIA 10-528

Il Vangelo secondo Matteo The gospel according to Saint Matthew 2003

"The birth, life, teachings and death on the cross of Jesus Christ presented almost as a cinema-verité documentary. Pasolini's second feature ... is an attempt to take Christ out of the opulent church and present him as an outcast Italian peasant"--Container.

1 videodisc (142 min.)

MEDIA 10-537

Irma la Douce 2001

Comedy about a young Parisian policeman and his romance with a prostitute.

1 videodisc (143 min.)

MEDIA 10-515

La isla de los ninos perdidos The island of lost children 2001

"A documentary about ten young inmates who participate in a video course inside Nicaragua's largest prison. The young men discuss the protocols among the inmates, the conditions inside the prison, and how they ended up there.".

1 videocassette (82 min.)

MEDIA 2-7247

Keten van liefde Chain of love 2001

"A film about the Philippines' second largest export product-- maternal love-- and how this export affects the women involved, their families in the Philippines, and families in the West"--Container.

1 videocassette (50 min.)

MEDIA 2-7212

Kiarasa yo sati The agouti's peanut 2005

Examines the everyday work and recreation of the Panar`people, who blend their traditional ways with the influences of official Brazilan culture. This documentary encourages viewers to question the simple dichotomy of tradition vs. modernity.

1 videocassette (52 min.)

MEDIA 2-7238

Lamerica 2004

A visually arresting tale of moral conflict and the journey that leads to atonement.

1 videodisc (116 min.)

MEDIA 10-513

Legado Legacy 2001

In August 1889, the steamship Wesser docked in Argentina, carrying the country's first group of Jewish immigrants, who were fleeing the Tsarist regime in Russia. They bought agricultural land, built schools, synagogues, and became the "Jewish gauchos." The granddaughter of one of those immigrants describes the struggles of her ancestors in the new world. This documentary recounts the story of those pioneers, based on interviews with the oldest members of today's Jewish community.

1 videocassette (72 min.)

MEDIA 2-7224

Legado Legacy 2001

In August 1889, the steamship Wesser docked in Argentina, carrying the country's first group of Jewish immigrants, who were fleeing the Tsarist regime in Russia. They bought agricultural land, built schools, synagogues, and became the "Jewish gauchos." The granddaughter of one of those immigrants describes the struggles of her ancestors in the new world. This documentary recounts the story of those pioneers, based on interviews with the oldest members of today's Jewish community.

1 videocassette (72 min.)

MEDIA 2-7225

Lepa sela lepo gore Pretty village, pretty flame 1998

The film starts in the Belgrade army hospital where casualties of Bosnian civil war are treated. In the hospital they remember their youth and the war. The main focus is on two young boys, Halil, a Muslim, and Milan, a Serb, which have grown up together near a deserted tunnel linking the Yugoslav cities of Belgrade and Zagreb. They never dare go inside, as they believe an ogre resides there. Twelve years later, during the Bosnian civil war, Milan, who is trapped in the tunnel with his troop, and Halil, find themselves on opposing sides, fatefully heading toward confrontation.

1 videodisc (125 min.)

MEDIA 10-514

The Lindisfarne Gospels 2005

The story of the creation of the Lindisfarne Gospels which were written and illuminated about AD 698. Includes images from other manuscripts of the period. Shows the process of making and decorating an illuminated manuscript.

1 videodisc (35 min.)

ART 05

Ljubavni slucaj, ili, tragedija sluzbenice PTT Love affair, or, the case of the missing switchboard operator 2000

"A young telephone operator falls in love with Ahmed, a rat catcher, and lives with him until she is seduced by a younger and obviously more glamorous postman. But Ahmed becomes jealous and accidentally kills her"--Container.

1 videocassette (ca. 70 min.)

MEDIA 2-7220

Lo sceicco bianco The white sheik 2003

Ivan Cavalli brings his new wife Wanda to Rome on the least romantic honeymoon in history--a rigid schedule of family meetings and an audience with the Pope. But Wanda, dreaming of the dashing hero of a photo-strip cartoon, drifts off in search of the White Sheik, thus setting off a slapstick comedy.

1 videodisc (82 min.)

MEDIA 10-534

Los inundados The flooded 200

"A gently ironic story of the events that befall a peasant family forced to relocate after a flood. Moved from pillar to post, eventually ending up in an abandoned railway car, the family becames a symbol of the strength of Argentina."--Distributor website.

1 videocassette (87 min.)

MEDIA 2-7230

Los niños invisibles Invisible children 2003

In a small town in Colombia in the 1950s three eight-year-olds attempt to make themselves invisible by following the directions in a book of black magic. Fifty years later one of these children tells the story of their adventures.

1 videocassette (92 min.)

MEDIA 2-7239

Macu the policeman's woman 1987

Based on a real-life, highly sensationalized murder case, this is the story of Ismael Ramírez, a middle-aged police captain, and his child bride, Macu. This story serves to highlight the injustice inherent in a system that assumes wives are the property of their husbands.

1 videocassette (90 min.)

MEDIA 2-7227

Made in Thailand 1999

A documentary about women factory workers in Thailand and their struggle to organize unions.

1 videocassette (33 min.)

MEDIA 2-7215

Maid in America 2004

This video takes a look into the lives of three Latina immigrants working as nannies and housekeepers in Los Angeles. The issue of worker' rights is introduced in the film.

1 videocassette (58 min.)

MEDIA 2-7214

Montoneros una historia 1995

In the early 1970s, followers of the exiled leader General Juan Perón formed an armed urban guerilla movement to reinstate his rule-- the Montoneros. This gripping documentary tells the Montoneros' story through the eyes of Ana, who joined the group as a young woman, and other former members.

1 videocassette (90 min.)

MEDIA 2-7228

Negroes with guns Rob Williams and Black Power 2005

Documentary "of Robert F. Williams, a Civil Rights fighter who dared to advocate armed self-defense against the racist terrorism of the Jim Crow South."--container.

1 videocassette (53 min.)

MEDIA 2-7259

Nevinost bez zastite Innocence unprotected 1996

Film is a collage combining the first Serbian talkie, a melodrama lust vs. true love, with interviews some twenty years later with its acrobat star and others who made the film and with wartime newsreels.

1 videocassette (78 min.)

MEDIA 2-7219

No man's land 2002

Set in the trenches of the Bosnian-Serb conflict this video follows the story of three soldiers caught between two fighting lines.

1 videocassette (98 min.)

MEDIA 2-7222

Nunca más Never again 2001

This documentary focuses on internal displacement and testimonies of victims of the armed paramilitary group in communities in Uraba, Antioquia and Chocó, Colombia.

1 videocassette (56 min.)

MEDIA 2-7250

O herói The hero 2005

The story of Vitorio a war hero, and the people he encounters, who are attempting to rebuild their lives at the same time Angola, a nation torn apart by forty years of uninterrupted war, is trying imperfectly but courageously to piece itself back together.

1 videocassette (97 min.)

MEDIA 2-7260

O sertão das memórias Landscapes of memory 1997

Part religious allegory and part political commentary, this film follows the struggles of two elderly peasants as they undertake an enigmatic pilgrimage through the Sertao, the arid, desert-like region in northeast Brazil known for grinding poverty and political corruption.

1 videocassette (98 min.)

MEDIA 2-7232

Ojos que si ven el cine de Lombardi = Within sight 2003

Shows the historic, political and social situation of Peru during the last two decades, seen through the cinema of Francisco Lombardi.

1 videocassette (60 min.)

MEDIA 2-7235

One, two, three 2003

A comedy about an American executive stationed in West Berlin who tries to break up the marriage of his boss' daughter to a young Communist, or risk losing his chance for advancement.

1 videodisc (109 min.)

MEDIA 10-516

Prohibido 1997

"Based on interviews with theater directors, journalists, academics, and visual artists, this documentary tells the story of Argentina's Dirty War from the perspective of the arts"--Container.

1 videocassette (105 min.)

MEDIA 2-7236

Razón de la memoria 1995

Young people whose parents disappeared as a result of political terrorism in Argentina share how this has affected them.

1 videocassette (18 min.)

MEDIA 2-7231

Real stories from a free South Africa: Vol. 4: Umgidi The celebration 2004

The film explores a family and a country trying to embrace both modernity and tradition. While Sipho struggles to help his brother accept his roots, his brother desperately wants to escape them.

1 videocassette (74 min.)

MEDIA 2-7261

Real stories from a free South Africa: Vol. 5: Nabantwa bam' With my children 2004

A case study of the emergence of social classes even within the same South African family.

1 videocassette (41 min.)

MEDIA 2-7262

Remote sensing 2001

This video essay discusses the routes and reasons women travel across the globe for work in the sex industry.

1 videocassette (56 min.)

MEDIA 2-7217

Respiro 2003

Grazia is a carefree mother of three, who soon becomes the focus of her neighbors' gossip. While her fellow Lampedusians work and live hard - oblivious to their native paradise - Grazia alone is courageous enough to blissfully embrace life's treasures. Her wild, sensual and free-spirited behavior reflects the unrivaled beauty of her heavenly seaside village. She is not understood or accepted by the social conventions of the town, nor its strict tribal rules. Brings to light the network of true affection inside the family.

1 videodisc (95 min.)

MEDIA 10-525

SEWA: Self-employed Women's Association made in India 1999

A portrait of the women's organization in India, called SEWA, that holds to the simple yet radical belief that poor women need organizing, not welfare.

1 videocassette (ca. 55 min.)

MEDIA 2-7216

Shelter dogs 2003

Each year, almost 5 million dogs end up in animal shelters, but not every dog is safe to place with a family. What if a shelter dog shows aggression, or is a known biter. Should he be adopted out? For two years filmmaker Cynthia Wade was given unprecendented access to Rondout Valley Kennels and its controversial owner, Sue Sternberg, and the result is an award-winning film about ethics in a morally ambiguous world.

1 videocassette (72 min.)

MEDIA 2-7213

The sheltering sky 2002

An American artist couple, drawn by desire to the Sahara, travel there shortly after World War II in order to follow their passionate obsessions in an attempt to recapture the love they once shared.

1 videodisc (139 min.)

MEDIA 10-532

Soul of justice Thelton Henderson's American journey 2005

The story of conflict and contradiction faced by Thelton Henderson, the second African American judge appointed to the Federal District Court of Northern California.

1 videocassette (60 min.)

MEDIA 2-7256

The ten commandments of communicating with people with disabilities 1994

A video demonstrating the proper way to communicate with people with disabilities.

1 videodisc (26 min.)

MEDIA 10-539

Teorema 2005

A handsome stranger enters the lives of a bourgeois Italian family and proceeds to seduce each member, including the maid.

1 videodisc (98 min.)

MEDIA 10-531

La terra trema episodio del mare = The earth will tremble 2002

Sicilian villagers plot to overthrow the tyranny of wholesalers depriving them of a decent living.

1 videodisc (154 min.)

MEDIA 10-553

Thérèse Raquin 2005

Therese and Laurent think they have gotten away with murder after Therese's husband "falls" from a speeding train. But a blackmailer's demands along with accusations from Therese's mother-in-law could trip the couple up.

1 videodisc (102 min.)

MEDIA 10-517

Tire dié Throw a dime 2000

This film focuses on the underveloped suburbs of a city, Santa Fe, Argentina. Birri and his crew succeeded in filming a moving document about extreme poverty, and the main protagonists were children with no future.

1 videocassette (33 min.)

MEDIA 2-7249

Uccellacci e uccellini The hawks and the sparrows 2003

Pier Paolo Pasolini uses a comic crow, which philosophizes amusingly and pointedly about the passing scene as a counterpoint to the performers, representing humanity, as they progress down the road of life, caught between the Church and Marxism.

1 videodisc (88 min.)

MEDIA 10-536

Una casa sola se vence An empty house cracks 2004

At the end of February, 1997, paramilitary troops ordered Afro-Colombian families of Choco to leave their farms. After walking a few weeks in the jungle, the people found refuge in the sports stadium of Turbo. Survivors tell the story of how and why they were forced off their lands.

1 videocassette (49 min.)

MEDIA 2-7242

Up the down staircase 1994

Sandy Dennis stars as an idealistic new teacher in the New York's Calvin Coolidge High where there are no books, no chalk, too many students and no discipline.

1 videocassette (123 min.)

MEDIA 2-7263

La vida es una sola You only live once 199-

Portrays a village in the Peruvian Andes that is caught between the tyrannies of the terrorist group, Sendero Luminoso, and the Peruvian military. Acted by indigenous people from the region.

1 videocassette (84 min.)

MEDIA 2-7229

A world inscribed 1998

"This program is a concise history of the illuminated manuscript and monastery libraries, and depicts the workings of a scriptorium and the arduous art of copying and illustrating/gilding medieval and Renaissance literature"--Container.

1 videocassette (24 min.)

MEDIA 2-6808

A world inscribed 2004

A concise history of the illuminated manuscript and monastery libraries, and depicts the workings of a scriptorium and the arduous art of copying and illustrating/gilding medieval and Renaissance literature.

1 videodisc (24 min.)

ART 06

Yãkwa the banquet of the spirits 1995

Documentary on the Yãkwa ritual of the Enawene-Nawe [Saluma] Indians who live along the Amazon in Mato Grosso state, Brazil. The ritual, believed to maintain the harmony of the world, lasts for seven months, and involves the procurement and preparation of food, which is offered to the spirits along with dance, instrumental music, and singing.

1 videocassette (54 min.)

MEDIA 2-7251