New Videos - October 2006
On DVD:
Brokeback Mountain - DVD TAC-751
It's 1963, a time in the United States when life was simple, straightforward and the lines between the sexes and sex roles were crisply drawn and severely delineated. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist find themselves thrown together when they are hired to tend sheep in the remote area of Brokeback Mountain , Wyoming . Because of the job, the two are forced to spend many hours together alone in the wild. Ennis and Jack are inexorably drawn to each other through their proximity, loneliness and through a shared lack of tenderness and emotion in their lives and are emotionally, physically and psychically bonded to each other almost from the start.
Letters from the Other Side - DVD TAC-753
Heather Courtney's film interweaves video letters carried across the U.S.-Mexico border by the film's director with the personal stories of women left behind in post-NAFTA Mexico . The video letters provides a way for these women to communicate with both loved ones and strangers on the other side of the border, and illustrates an unjust truth - as an American Courtney can carry these video letters back and forth across a border that these women are not legally allowed to cross. Focusing on a side of the immigration story rarely told by the media or touched upon in the national debate, the film offers a fresh perspective, painting a complex portrait of families torn apart by economics, communities dying at the hands of globalization, and governments incapable or unwilling to do anything about it.
Abouna - DVD TAC-754
After two young Chadian boys discover their father has abandoned them, they embark on a desperate quest to bring him home. They spend their days trying to find him, skipping school, and already a handful for their overburdened mother, the boys are shipped off to a strict Koranic school for discipline.
Finding Neverland - DVD TAC-755
Well-known playwright James M. Barrie finds his career at a crossroads when his latest play flops and doubters begin to question his future. Then by chance he meets a widow and her four adventurous boys. Together they form a friendship that ignites the imagination needed to produce Barrie 's greatest work. Traverses both fantasy and everyday reality, melding the difficulties of adult life with the spellbinding allure and childlike innocence of the boy who never grows up.
Gosford Park - DVD TAC-756
Drama set at the country estate of Sir William McCordle in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guests and downstairs servants at a hunting party weekend when one of the group is murdered.
Barry Lyndon - DVD TAC-757
The rise and fall of a young 18th century Irishman bent on achieving fame and fortune, mainly by marriage.
Hustle & Flow - DVD TAC-758
Rapper DJay, who dreams of becoming the next big rap superstar, works all the angles to get his first record made. He even has the help from assorted people in his Memphis 'hood. When he hears that rap superstar Skinny Black is heading to his area, DJay decides to throw together a supreme hustle to grab Skinny's attention.
A History of Violence - DVD TAC-759
Tom is a loving, well-respected family man from a small Indiana town. When two criminals show up at his diner, Tom is forced to take action and thwart the robbery attempt. Suddenly heralded as a local hero who took the courage to stand up to crime, people look up to Tom as a man of high moral regard. But all the media attention attracts the likes of the mob, who show up at Tom's doorstep. Is it a case of mistaken identity or does Tom have a history that no one knows about?
The Sixth Sense - DVD TAC-760
A noted child psychologist attempts to help a frightened 8 year old boy who is experiencing terrifying visions of the dead.
In The Bedroom - DVD TAC-761
The Fowlers are a normal family in Maine . Matt is the town doctor and loves to fish, his wife, Ruth, is the school's choir leader, and their son, Frank, is home from his first year of college. Frank is in love with Natalie, a young mother who isn't quite divorced yet from her ex-husband, Richard Strout, whose family runs the local cannery. It makes Richard's blood run cold to see his wife running around with another man. And soon, an unthinkable tragedy happens that will tear the Fowlers apart.
The Cider House Rules - DVD TAC-762
Tells a compelling and heartwarming story about how far a young man must travel to find the place where he truly belongs. Homer has lived nearly his entire life within the walls of an Orphanage in rural Maine and has been groomed by its proprietor to be his successor. But Homer falls in love and strikes out on his own.
In the Realms of the Unreal - DVD TAC-763
A haunting portrait of Henry Darger, a reclusive janitor by day and a visionary artist by night.
No Logo: Brands, Globalization, Resistance - DVD TAC-764
Using hundreds of media examples, No Logo shows how the commercial takeover of public space, destruction of consumer choice, and replacement of real jobs with temporary work (the dynamics of corporate globalization) impact everyone, everywhere. It also draws attention to the democratic resistance arising globally to challenge the hegemony of brands.
First Person: The Complete Series - DVD TAC-765
Errol Morris brings his unrivalled talents to the small screen for a stylized series of intimate interviews with a unique and fascinating array of people. Includes all 17 episodes from the original series.
Every Mother's Son: a Film - DVD TAC-766
Story of three mothers, Iris Baez, Kadiatou Diallo, and Doris Busch Boskey, fighting for justice for their sons, Anthony Raymond Baez, Amadou Diallo, and Gary (Gidone) Busch. All three men were killed by police.
North Korea : a Day in the Life - DVD TAC-767
Documentary that demonstrates the daily life of a typical North Korean family.
Hexing a Hurricane - DVD TAC-768
The film begins back when life was "normal" in New Orleans -- six weeks before Hurricane Katrina forever changed the landscape of the city. Hexing opens with a 9th Ward VooDoo Ceremony asking for protection from dangerous storms. After the ominous hurricane strikes a few weeks following the service, the film follows locals on a roller coaster ride of despair, tragedy and most of all -- hope.
Transparent - DVD TAC-769
Looks at 19 female-to-male transsexuals living in the United States who have given birth and, in all but a few cases, gone on to raise their biological children. Focuses on their lives as parents, revealing the diverse ways in which each person reconciles giving birth and being a biological mother with his masculine identity. Traditional views of gender are re-examined through the variety of genders the children use to conceive of their parents. Challenges the ways that people relate to one another, particularly within immediate families, based on gender.
Kramer vs. Kramer - DVD TAC-770
When his wife walks out, Ted Kramer and his six-year-old son have a chance to really get to know each other. Then Ted's wife returns and she wants her son back.
Dangerous Liaisons - DVD TAC-771
Set in 18th century France , this is the story of two bored aristocrats and the havoc they wreak when they play dangerous games with people's lives. The beautiful widow Merteuil challenges rakish Valmont to seduce a virtuous young married woman, never suspecting that he would violate his personal credo and fall in love.
Fargo - DVD TAC-772
A midwestern policewoman investigates a series of brutal and interconnected crimes. Steadily, she tightens the net on the killers and their accomplices in a kidnapping scheme gone wildly wrong.
The Deer Hunter - DVD TAC-773
Tracks a group of steelworker pals from a Pennsylvania blast furnace to the coal hunting grounds of the Alleghenies to the lethal cauldron of Vietnam . It is a drama of friendship and courage and of what happens to these qualities under stress.
Out of Africa - DVD TAC-774
The true story of Karen Blixen, a strong-willed woman who runs a coffee plantation in Kenya in 1914.
Schindler's List - DVD TAC-775
The story of a Catholic war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who risked his life and went bankrupt in order to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps. He employed Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army. At the same time he tries to stay solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant and negotiates business with a vicious Nazi commandant who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa that overlooks the prison camp he commands.
Forrest Gump - DVD TAC-776
The story follows the life of low I.Q. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) and his meeting with the love of his life Jenny. The film chronicles his accidental experiences with some of the most important people and events in America from the late 1950's through the 1970's including a meeting with Elvis Presley, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, fighting in Vietnam , etc. The problem is he doesn't realize the significance of his actions. Forrest comes to embody a generation.
Peter Shaffer's Amadeus - DVD TAC-777
Views the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the memories of an envious rival, Salieri.
Down by Law - DVD TAC-778
A comedy feature about two lowlifes, a small time pimp and an unemployed disc jockey, framed for a crime they didn't commit, who escape from jail with an eccentric Italian tourist. Set in New Orleans and the swamps of Louisiana .
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser - DVD TAC-779
Based on a real historical event, this is the story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who appeared in a small German town in 1820 after having lived in total isolation from humans since birth. He is taught to speak, read, and write by the townspeople, but is then mysteriously murdered.
Even Dwarfs Started Small - DVD TAC-780
The inmates have taken over an institution in a bleak and savage world in which everyone's a dwarf. As one of the institution's directors holds a rebel hostage while issuing orders for calm, the other inmates run amok, smashing equipment, setting fires, fighting for power and tormenting two blind prisoners. In this land of reversed proportions, these revolutionary outcasts not only destroy the symbols of civilization -- cars, typewriters and dinner plates -- but trees and flowers and animals as well.
Lessons of Darkness - DVD TAC-781
Lektionen in Finsternis: a documentary of 1992 post-Gulf War Kuwait , focusing on the oil well fires ignited by retreating Iraqi soldiers. Fata Morgana: Herzog brings his cameras to the Sahara desert in order to film mirages. He combines the apocalyptic, often hallucinatory images of the desert with passages from the Mayan creation myth, the Popol Vuh, set to songs of Leonard Cohen.
Heart of Glass - DVD TAC-782
Set in the 18th-century, this film tells of a Bavarian village that loses the secret of making its unique ruby glass. The townspeople turn to madness, murder, and magic in a desperate effort to recover the pure ingredient they have lost. During the filming, Herzog hypnotized his actors in order to help convey the atmosphere of hallucination, prophecy and the visionary.
Little Dieter Needs to Fly: a Film - DVD TAC-783
Growing up in post World War II Germany , Dieter Dengler, the son of a Nazi slain during the war, dreamed about becoming a pilot. At age 18 he emigrated to the United States and worked odd jobs until he was accepted into the Navy and began pilot training. He was sent to Vietnam around 1966 and on his first mission was shot down and taken prisoner. There, the Vietcong tortured him until Dengler engineered a hair-raising escape and eventually returned to the U.S. His story is recounted here via interviews with Dengler, archival footage and new footage seamlessly spliced together. Includes postscript filmed in 2001.
Stroszek - DVD TAC-784
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by the thugs who have been Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin . That winter on the barren prairie, Bruno works as a mechanic, Eva as a waitress. They buy a trailer. Then, bills mount, the bank threatens to repossess the trailer, Eva wants privacy, and the promise of a happy life deserts Bruno.
Born on the Fourth of July - DVD TAC-785
A young man joins the army and fights in Vietnam , only to become a wheelchair-bound paraplegic resulting from battle. He then becomes a loud voice in the anti-war movement.
Driving Miss Daisy - DVD TAC-786
Set in Atlanta in the 1950's, a textile factory owner insists on hiring an ever-patient chauffeur for his aging head-strong mother. The Jewish woman and her African American driver eventually build a relationship over many years.
Titanic - DVD TAC-787
Two people from different worlds meet and fall in love on the brief, tragic maiden voyage of the grand ocean liner "Titanic".
Shakespeare in Love - DVD TAC-788
When Will Shakespeare needs passionate inspiration to break a bad case of writer's block, a secret romance with the beautiful Lady Viola starts the words flowing like never before!
The Thin Red Line - DVD TAC-789
World War II battle between the Japanese and the American military forces for control of the strategic island of Guadalcanal .
The Silence of the Lambs - DVD TAC-790
FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist.
Mario Puzo's The Godfather: Part III - DVD TAC-791
Two decades have passed and crime kingpin Michael Corleone has nearly succeeded in keeping his promise that his family would one day be legit. A philanthropist devoted to public service, Michael is to receive a special award from the Pope for his good works. Determined to buy redemption, Michael and his lawyer B.J. are working on a complicated but legal deal to bail the Vatican out of looming financial troubles. However, trouble looms in the form of mob underling Joey Zaza, who is muscling into the Corleone turf. "The Commission" of Mafia families, represented by patriarch Altobello doesn't want to let Corleone out of the Mafia. Not to mention Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate and equally temperamental son of Michael's long-dead brother Sonny. Vincent desperately wants into the family, and at the urging of Connie, Michael welcomes the young man and allows him to adopt the Corleone name. However, a flirtatious attraction between Vincent and Michael's naïve daughter Mary develops, and threatens to become a full-fledged romance and undo the godfather's future plans.
Ordinary People - DVD TAC-792
The "ordinary" existence of an upper middle class family is shattered with the death of the older son and the struggle of the younger son against guilt and suicide.
Hetch Hetchy: Yosemite 's Lost Valley - DVD TAC-793
Features interviews about the history and current campaign for restoring Hetch Hetchy, and spectacular footage of Hetch Hetchy's great granite walls and booming waterfalls (Tueeulala and Wapama).
The Telling Takes Me Home - DVD TAC-797
Tells the story of activists and folk singers Guy and Candie Carawan. Includes the filmmaker's own reflections on growing up in the rich musical and political landscape her parents provided. Also includes footage from the Highlander Research and Education Center .
United 93 - DVD TAC-806
Fact-based story about the 40 passengers and crew aboard San Francisco bound flight United 93, who sat down as strangers and found the courage to stand up as one. This hijacked flight was the fourth terrorist attack plane on September 11, 2001 . As a result of a delay on takeoff, the passengers on the flight, are behind the carefully scheduled planned attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Once hijacked, the passengers and crew are able to discern that this is no mere hijacking. While the real events that caused the ultimate crash of the plane can never be known, the events depicted would appear to be as might be expected. The scariest part of the film is the unpreparedness of the FAA and the military in dealing with the situation.
What's Race Got to Do With It? - DVD TAC-807
This program chronicles the experiences of Berkeley undergraduate college students enrolled in "Facing you, facing me," a 16 week intergroup dialog on race and class and its impact on lives in 2005. As they confront themselves and each other about race, they discover they often lack awareness of how different their experience of campus life is from their peers, to the detriment of an inclusive campus climate.
On VHS:
Frankensteer - Videorecord TAC-1897
An exposé on Canada 's cattle industry, driven by the economic incentives of agribusiness. Beef cattle are raised on huge feedlots which expose them to diseases, then treated with antibiotics and growth hormones. A disturbing documentary that reveals how the ordinary cow has been turned into an antibiotic-dependent, hormone-laced potential carrier of toxic bacteria, all in the name of cheaper food.
Glen Canyon : A Dam, Water and the West - Videorecord TAC-1899
Glen Canyon Dam would create one of the world's largest man-made bodies of water in a desert, while at the same time drowning a thousand years of human history ... and a million years of natural history. It was the future of the West-a story of winners and losers, of the politics of power, and the few who stood in the way.
The Wilderness Idea - Videorecord TAC-1900
Examines the beginning of the American conservation movement and the impact of the idea of wilderness on American society and culture. Chronicles the lives of John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, including their opposition over the use of the Hetch Hetchy valley in Yosemite National Park .
Wild by Law - Videorecord TAC-1901
Wild by law is the story of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the three men responsible for its passage: forester/philosopher Aldo Leopold, author of the bestselling A Sand County Almanac and the first to bring the word 'ecology' into standard usage; Bob Marshall, millionaire socialist and founder of the Wilderness Society; and Howard Zahniser, a tireless bureaucrat with a profound love of the wild places he seldom saw. Singly and together, these three fought against the current of American thought from the 1920s through the 1950s to attain what had once seemed an unimaginable victory. More than just the story of an historic struggle to preserve the natural world, Wild by law provides an invaluable overview of the roots of the environmental movement, offering a deeper understanding of one of the most important issues facing contemporary civilization.
