Film Title: Vote Democracy
Company: Independent Lens
Age Range: High school
Includes Teaching Materials
Topic: Government
Subject Areas: Government, Political Science, Social Studies, Current Events, Language Arts, Debate, Ethnic Studies, Sociology
Film Synopsis: Engages students in discussions about democracy abroad, elections, gender, the role of dissent in democracy, and media literacy. Investigate the changing mature of democracy in America and the World.
Running Time and Sections: 7 sections—total of about 47 minutes
Alex’s Review:
Democracy, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary, is “a government by the people, directly or through representatives.” As people of the United States of America, we should be very thankful for the type of government that we have. A democracy allows citizens to have a voice in our government, a privilege that many other countries do not share. The beginning of this DVD has a section that details a class president election from a classroom of little children in China. The sheer fact that those children initially do not know the meaning of “voting” is a very sad thing. This DVD does an excellent job of inciting awareness of democracy and what it entails. There is a section about the first woman president of Liberia. The DVD also contains a few sections about the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and the riots that ensued from non-violent anti-war protesters. The DVD does a good job at showcasing democracy, however it was not one of my favorite movies because I felt it was mostly about the negative side of government and there was not much of the positive people fighting for what they belief and winning. Which, yes, I know is narrow-minded of me, but I like videos that empower people. And I did not leave this video feeling empowered, but rather upset at the outcome of the riots and the ignorance of some people at all the privileges we, as Americans, have.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Film Title: Woman’s Empowerment
Company: Independent Lens
Age Range: High school
Includes Teaching Materials
Topic: Women’s Empowerment
Subject Areas: Social Studies, Global Studies, Civics, Economics, Government, Political Science, Sociology, World History, Language Arts, Geography, Women’s Studies, Media Studies
Film Synopsis: This DVD examines key social and political issues impacting women through curriculum and supporting videos. From an indigenous Bolivian leader fighting for labor rights to a young Israeli-Arab karate champion with feminist ideas, from three Egyptian women working for fair elections to a Kenyan woman leading a nationwide environmental movement, these 4 documentaries explore stories of women’s empowerment and leadership in the world.
Running Time and Sections: 4 different women, 8 different sections—about an hour
Alex’s Review:
This DVD portrays the struggle to fight for your beliefs in the eyes of four very different women. Wangari Maatha is a Kenyan woman who fights her country’s dictator by herself for her fellow people. One woman stands up against a power-hungry dictator, and wins. After years of rallying people and doing non-violent acts of protest, Maatha is able to correctly portray a ruler and truly help the people of Kenya. After I watched her section, I wrote “speechless” in my notes; this story was truly inspiring. In Bolivia, there is an organization called “PLANE” which helps employ women. When election time rolls around, the PLANE organization is in serious trouble of losing its funding and the women must fight to keep their jobs. Three, seemingly well off, women from Egypt join together and create “shayfeen.com.” This website is the place of action when there are elections in Egypt or anything dealing with the people of Egypt being treated unfairly. If these women are successful in getting the attention of another country’s president, you can only imagine all the things they will achieve for their country. And finally, the DVD ends with introducing you to Shadya from Israel; she is a young feminist and she fights, literally (she does karate) to maintain power over her life in the customs of the Israeli people.
Being a female myself, I felt a little bias towards the DVD. I found each story to be quite remarkable and would suggest this DVD to anyone. I think it was quite genius for the makers of this DVD to have divided the movie into sections. There are four different women and eight different sections. So, each woman gets two sections and each one leaves the watcher with questions and makes you want to see how everything ends. Also, apparently this DVD is just clips and a summary of actual full-length movies about these women; I can only imagine what they would be like and I suggest that you should watch them.
Company: Independent Lens (PBS)
Age Range: High School and College
Includes Teaching Materials
Topic: Immigration
Subject Areas: Social Studies, Current Events, Language Arts, Debate, Sociology, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Ethics, Psychology
Film Synopsis: Raised as American’s in inner-city projects near Seattle, 3 Cambodian refugees each made a rash decision as teenagers that shaped life. Facing deportation, they find themselves caught between past and future by a system that doesn’t offer any second chances.
Running Time and Sections: 4 programs—17 minutes
Alex’s Review:
Sentenced Home is a documentary that follows three different Cambodian-American men as they face deportation from America. The video was definitely interesting because I had no idea about the various circumstances that happen when immigrants commit crimes and, quite honestly, I did not really know much about the immigration and deportation process. The film should only be shown to high school students and up, it is not meant for younger children and I do not think they would really understand it. The film did a great job of translating information when a deportee said some language that a common person would not understand.
Sentenced Home follows Kim Ho Ma, Loeun Lun, and Many Uch who are each facing deportation. All raised in the projects of inner-city Seattle, these young men are faced with leaving a country they have known as familiar and entering their country of origin as foreigners. When the men, not related, arrived in the United States in the early 1980s, they found themselves face to face with the American immigration system after committing crimes as teenagers. Because they are “permanent residents,” they are not given the same protections as American citizens. Also, in 1996 a new anti-terrorism legislation was created that denied “permanent residents,” who had committed violent crimes, the chance to “challenge” deportation.
Kim Ho Ma arrives in Cambodia and is frustrated at not being able to find any work. He is a Cambodian-American and does not know how to create a livelihood to support himself, or a family. Loeun Lun had a family in America, a wife and children, when he was separated from them and deported to Cambodia. Many Uch awaits his deportation throughout the video, and decides to take advantage of whatever time he has left by helping the young Cambodian-Americans with little-league baseball; he hopes that this will help other kids get off the streets and provide them with the feeling of belong somewhere.
In my personal opinion, I understand that these men were teenagers when they committed their offenses. But, in a way, the events that are happening are occurring as consequences to stupid decisions. Their families risked everything to bring them to America and to give them a safer and better life than if they had stayed in Cambodia. Yet, these individuals brought shame upon their mothers and fathers by getting into trouble. I understand that if the offense was not too horrific, then a second chance seems reasonable, but you cannot try to negotiate when you are the person that got into trouble in the first place. The moral of the story is, stay out of trouble.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blog 1, Pennies a Day, Pennies for Thought
Film Title: Pennies a Day
Company: izzit.org
Age Range: Grade 4-12
Includes Teaching Materials
Topic: Poverty, Microcredit, Women in Society, Entrepreneurship
Subject Areas: Business, Civics, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Geography, Global Issues, Government, History, International Studies, Peace, Political Science, Poverty, Religion, Social Studies, Sociology, Women’s Studies
Film Synopsis: Features work of Muhammad Yunus who developed the concept of microcredit. His Grameen Bank gave small loans to millions of villagers in Bangladesh; helping poor women begin businesses and help their family’s poverty. Story is about one family and microcredit’s world wide phenomenon.
Running Time and Sections: One program—13 minutes
Alex’s Review:
I found this story extremely fascinating! It was able to keep my attention throughout the entire film and very easy to understand (grades 4-12). The film is intended to show how one man’s idea of a currency and banking system can have a positive effect on entire villages, communities, and nations. I really didn’t have much previous knowledge over the topics of third world countries or how to even create a banking system, but the film does a wonderful job at explaining the impact this man has on others and how simple it was to create this idea.
Professor Muhammad Yunus travels to his birthplace of Bangladesh and realizes the poverty that has stricken so much of the country. He discovers that for only $27 dollars, he could start a system that would affect the lives of 40 families; these people could start small businesses and, hopefully, escape poverty. The system of microcredit –the lending of very small amounts of money at low interest – was born. Surprisingly, the people who received the credit and were in charge of starting businesses for their families were actually the women. Not only is this system wonderful because it’s helping reduce poverty in third-world countries, but, in these countries especially, it is increasing the role of women, which is amazing.
The simplicity of which the villages use this system makes you wonder why no one else thought of this before, but one thing is for sure, they were in desperate need of this man to come along and improve their way of life. In the recent years, microcredit has begun to be used all over the world and reduce poverty. This DVD documents how Professor Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank are able to positively affect this one family and their entire village.
I recommend that everyone watch this documentary, so they can be as influenced to make a difference as I was.
Hi, my name is Alex Shimalla and I’m currently a high school sophomore in Savannah, GA working with the Nobis Project. Considering you were able to find this website, you probably already know that the Nobis Project is an educational non-profit organization that supports youth, educational leaders, and community organizations in building skills to analyze issues that impact our society and take actions towards initiating positive change.
As an intern of Nobis Project I have been tasked with creating a database of videos depicting social issues and ways in which individuals, or groups, have worked to make a difference in the world, and the major influence they were able to make on a single village, community, or nation. In this blog I will review the videos and offer you a student perspective on the subject matter and overall quality of the film. I hope this blog will be useful to:
- Teachers looking for teaching aids to support lessons in subject areas ranging from social studies, science, math, english, history, the visual and performing arts, and many more
- Students in middle and high school interested in learning more about how to make a difference in the world (or who are working on class research), and the ease at which they can make this difference
- Community Leaders, such as leaders of Boy or Girl Scout troops, youth groups, 4H Clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs, afterschool programs, and many more to be inspired to think of projects of their own
I plan to post a new review every month. So, check back frequently and read a new review. I hope that my readers will benefit from my perceptive and I encourage you all to watch these films and witness what others have done to help a community and, hopefully, be inspired to do the same.
If you want to be notified each month when I post about a new DVD, just click follow at the bottom right hand corner of the page and sign up! Be sure to click on the confirmation link that WordPress sends you, so you can definitely be notified!
