Psychology Resources: Video Resources

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner reveals our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the support of the USDA and FDA. The USA's food supply is controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

Cleveland Indians. Washington Redskins. Atlanta Braves. What's wrong with American Indian sports mascots? This moving, award-winning film addresses this subject. IN WHOSE HONOR? is a critical look at the long-running practice of "honoring" American Indians as mascots and nicknames in sports. It follows the story of Native American mother Charlene Teters as she struggles to protect her cultural symbols and identity. IN WHOSE HONOR? looks at the issues of racism, stereotypes, minority representation and the powerful effects of mass-media imagery, and the extent to which one university will go to defend and justify its mascot.

Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population - accounting for one-sixth of all Americans and tracing their origins to more than 20 countries. Latinos are also a rising force in American politics. But, from broadcast media to cable television and Hollywood film, the realities and richness of the Latino experience are hardly to be found. Latinos Beyond Reel examines how US news and entertainment media portray - and do not portray - Latinos. Using the insights of diverse Latinos, a pattern of gross misrepresentation and gross under-representation emerges - a world in which Latinos often appear, if at all, as gangsters, Mexican bandits, harlots and prostitutes, drug dealers and welfare-leeching illegals. The film asks viewers to think critically about these media stereotypes, and envision alternative representations and models of media production more able to show the humanity and diversity of real Latinos.

An exploration of Native American-based mascots, especially the Washington Redskins, and their impact on real-life attitudes, issues, and policies. Through interviews with scholars, tribal leaders, lawyers, policy experts, activists, and Washington Redskins fans, the film explores the history of the slanderous term “redskin,” and delves into cultural stereotypes of Native Americans and their relationship to history. Ultimately, the film argues for representations that honor and celebrate the humanity of Indigenous people.

Dividing the world's peoples into distinct groups - "red," "black," "white" or "yellow" peoples - is so deeply imbedded in our psyches many would promptly reject as crazy a suggestion of its falsity. RACE - THE POWER OF ILLUSION questions the very idea of race as innate biology, suggesting that a belief in inborn racial difference is no better than believing that the Earth is a cube. Yet race still matters. Race is not biological, but it is persistently perceived as real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.

UNNATURAL CAUSES examines the socio-economic and racial inequities in health, looking for the root causes. UNNATURAL CAUSES investigates the conventional understanding of what makes us healthy or sick. This is a medical detective story about what's killing us before our time, especially the less affluent and darker-skinned. Its investigators peel back layers, looking beyond the immediate causes of death to the causes existing in our neighborhoods, jobs, and history. These are slow deaths, the result of a life of grinding wear and tear, thwarted ambition, segregation, and neglect. This is also a story of hope and possibility, of communities organizing to gain control over their destinies and their health. The good news is that if bad health comes from policy decisions that our society has made, we can make other, better, decisions. Some countries already have, and they are living longer, fuller lives as a result.

On August 29, 2005, New Orleans was forever changed by Hurricane Katrina, breaching levees, flooding neighborhoods, and killing more than a thousand residents. One year later, director Spike Lee presents this four-hour, four-part HBO documentary that recounts one of the United States' most profound natural disasters through words and images. In addition to revisiting the hours leading up to the devastating storm, the film tells the personal stories of those who lived to tell about it.

White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In an analysis of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. Tim Wise’s bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen - to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about.

Acclaimed author TIM WISE has been speaking on the college lecture circuit with his deeply personal take on whiteness and white privilege. In this lecture, the author of “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son” offers an inside-out view of race and racism in America. Expertly overcoming the defensiveness that often surrounds these issues, Wise provides a non-confrontational explanation of white privilege and the damage it does not only to people of color, but to white people as well. This is a valuable resource; an ideal introduction to the social construction of racial identities, and a critical new tool for exploring the often invoked - but seldom explained - concept of white privilege.

Willing to do anything to have a baby, Maria (Kim Basinger) throws herself into a world run by smugglers, prostitutes, and violent criminals. (Streaming, through KCLS's Hoopla access.)

Documentary filmmaker Lee Fulkerson explores the possibility that so-called "diseases of affluence," such as heart disease, can be reversed by simply adjusting our diets to include less processed and animal-based foods. The film also records the experiences of a group of patients with chronic maladies as they participate in an experiment in which their diets are altered by adding wholesome, plant-based food. (Available as a DVD.)

Following up on one of the most influential documentaries of all time, this video includes never-before-seen footage from the film's expert interviews, covering several themes in greater depth and addressing important issues that weren't touched on in the movie. (Available as a DVD.)

Inequality for All features Robert Reich - former U.S. Secretary of Labor and teacher at the University of California Berkeley - as he demonstrates how the widening income gap is devastating the American economy. Since the mid-1980s, Reich has been outspoken about the growing divide between America's rich and poor, a divide slowly wiping out the middle class, and - if left unchecked - will lead to an economic catastrophe. Features Reich's lectures to students, interviews with the author, and his conversations with Americans from many walks of life. The film shows how stagnating wages, growing personal debt, an economy based on consumer spending, and the decline of manufacturing are weakening the American economy. (Available as a DVD. Also available on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvAFPHLFMa0 - but with commercials.)

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.

This is Fed Up! Genetic Engineering, Industrial Agriculture and Sustainable Alternatives. Fed Up! was released in 2002 by Wholesome Goodness Productions. Over two decades later it remains relevant. Unfortunately, most of the statistics are worse now. Using hilarious and disturbing archival footage (from archive.org) and featuring interviews with farmers, scientists, government officials and activists, FED UP! presents an entertaining, informative, and compelling, overview of our current food production system - from the Green Revolution to the Biotech Revolution and what we can do about it. FED UP! explores the unintentional effects of pesticides, the resistance of biotechnology companies to food labeling, genetic engineering, the Green Revolution, ‘genetic pollution’, modern pesticides, and the links between government officials and major biotechnology and chemical companies. FED UP! also introduces us to Bay Area organic farmers, presenting community supported agriculture and small-scale organic farming as real alternatives to agribusiness and industrial food.

Agribusiness attempts to keep the public from learning the truth about how our food is produced. Learn how our food is really produced and its impacts on the environment, workers, and communities. This talk from the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition's Founder, Katie Cantrell, is a must-see for people who care about food, for people who care about people, and for people who love seeing cute animal photos.