Ethnic Notions

Undercover reporter Mark Daly reveals racism among police recruits in Manchester, England.

Year after year hundreds of thousands of fans line the route of the Tour de France, cheering on their heroes and willing them to victory, while millions of viewers worldwide tune in on their televisions. Academy Award-winning director Pepe Danquart, fascinated by the spectacle of the three week race, chose to focus on the courage, the pain and the fear of the riders of the Tour. Training his lens on German superstar sprinter Eric Zabel and his loyal domestique Rolf Aldag, Danquart captures the thrill of the race and the teamwork behind the stars of the peleton. He also shines light on the Tour's supporting cast - the director sportifs, masseurs, and, of course, the wildly enthusiastic fans. Reveling in the stunning landscape - from the Alps to the Pyrenees to the Massif Central to Paris - and with a nice dollop of Le Tour's history, HELL ON WHEELS transcends the sport it celebrates to reveal an astonishing human endeavor.

The life story of Richard Pryor (1940-2005), the legendary performer and iconic social satirist who transcended racial and social barriers with his honest, irreverent and biting humor.

"Journey to the West" is an embedded documentary film into a bus full of Chinese tourists visiting Europe (6 countries in 10 days!) for the very first time. This road movie captures with humor, poetry and spirit the cultural differences between China and Europe in a play of mirrors and contrasts. It also destroys the stereotypes about the emerging Chinese middle class and reveals what they think about the "others" who are "us", the Westerners.

In this highly anticipated sequel to his groundbreaking, ADVERTISING AND THE END OF THE WORLD, media scholar Sut Jhally explores the devastating personal and environmental fallout from advertising, commercial culture, and rampant American consumerism. Ranging from the emergence of the modern advertising industry in the early 20th century to the full-scale commercialization of the culture today, Jhally identifies one consistent message running throughout all of advertising: the idea that corporate brands and consumer goods are the keys to human happiness. He then shows how this powerful narrative, backed by billions of dollars a year and propagated by the best creative minds, has blinded us to the catastrophic costs of ever-accelerating rates of consumption.

Concerning Violence is based on newly discovered, powerful archival material documenting the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon.

Je ne suis pas un singe

Radical resistance in the postwar British Caribbean community, from the 1948 Nationality Act to the 1958 Brixton riots.

On June 21 2007, the Howard Federal Government launched an intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. It was one of the most dramatic policy shifts in the history of Aboriginal affairs. Relentless media attention focuses on ideological arguments for and against the Intervention, while the voices of those affected by the policy are rarely heard. For this film more than 40 Alice Springs town camp residents were interviewed in depth over the course of eight months to find out the answer to the question - is it working?

Henry Browne, an African American farmer, and his family are profiled in this film. The important job of a farmer during times of war is highlighted, specifically his efforts growing peanuts and cotton. This role is made even more poingnant when they visit the eldest son who is a cadet in the 99th Pursuit Squadron.

Narrated by Robert Culp, this special examines racism in the sixties

The story of anti-apartheid activist John Harris - who was hanged after a fatal bombing in Johannesburg in 1964 - told by those who knew him best and through newly discovered home movies.

In 1936, Victor H. Green (1892-1960) published The Negro Motorist Green Book, a book that was both a travel guide and a survival manual, to help African-Americans navigate safe those regions of the United States where segregation and Jim Crow laws were disgracefully applied.

Based on Lee Smith's book of the same name, this documentary follows the story of the biggest political scandal in U.S. history.

Documentary short that explores the meaning of the locals’ African identity through the Carnival festivities.

How does a state with the motto “Live Free or Die” and a celebrated legacy of abolitionism confront and understand its participation in slavery, segregation, and the neglect of African-American history? What happens when we move toward a fuller understanding of our history by including all voices? No other documentary has explored Black history in New Hampshire, no less Black history in New England. Shadows Fall North brings to light a forgotten history and continues a dialogue that is more important today than ever before. Without acknowledging our past, accepting it and embracing it, we will never move forward in our actions about race in this country.

This documentary charts 20 years of the French national soccer team, Les Bleus, whose ups and downs have mirrored those of French society.

In France’s last presidential election, Marine Le Pen, a right-wing candidate, won over 30 per cent of the vote after an attempt to rebrand a party long associated with her controversial father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. See how three of her supporters faced similar obstacles in changing the narrative.

Through clippings, the film draws a narrative line between the construction of racism in Brazil and the United States, having as base the European invasion of the continent, police violence, the genocide of the black people, the massacre of indigenous peoples, religious violence, the criminalization of funk music, structural racism in art and education, the importance of quota policy and the need urgent historical repair as a commitment by the Brazilian state to the black people.

The film expresses the history of oppression, discrimination, violence and hate in America. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.