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April 2009 DVDs

Media Newsletter: April 2009

New DVDs:    
 

37°2 le matin = Betty Blue.
DVD3311
Unrated director's cut.
Videodisc release of a 1986 French motion picture.
French or dubbed English dialogue with optional subtitles in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Written and directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix.
Stars Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle, Gérard Darmon, Consuelo de Haviland.
Betty and Zorg are not your average French lovers. Together, they make life a magical fantasy in which absolutely anything can happen-- until their dreams collide with reality.
1 DVD, Color, 185 min., 2004

1917:  the People's Revolution
DVD3283
"Instigated in the name of the Russian people, the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II was actually guided by moderates and aristocrats.  What parallels can be drawn between the February and October Revolutions, and in what ways did the two events differ? Did the Tsar's ouster set the stage for Lenin's rise to power, or was it an attempt to stem the tide of true radicalism?  This program provides answers as it sifts through the political and cultural origins of the Soviet system and the historical events leading up to Lenin's return from exile in April of 1917"--Container.
1 DVD, Color with B&W sequences, 54 min., 2008

L'Amico di Famiglia = The Family Friend.
DVD3276
Originally released as an Italian motion picture in 2006.
In Italian with optional English subtitles.
Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino.
Stars Giacomo Rizzo, Laura Chiatti, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Gigi Angelillo.
Geremia, a sixty year old man, earns his living as a moneylender. His face is just as unpleasant as his character. He, on the other hand, has the impression that he is fair and socially useful. He also thinks that he can save families to whom he lends money and interfere in their lives, like a "friend of the family."
1 DVD, Color, 96 min., 2007

Apparitions at Fatima = Aparição.
DVD3295
Videodisc release of a 1994 Portuguese/French motion picture.
A film by Daniel Costelle.
Stars Teresa Costa, Cecile Maupeu, Henrique Reis, Jacinta Henriques.
Story of three young shepherds in Portugal, whose lives were transformed by the apparition of the Virgin Mary and the miracles at Fatima. Her message of repentance and devotion to Her Son to a world plunging into world war convicts all of the seriousness of sin and imparts great hope to the faithful.
1 DVD, Color, 90 min., 2006

Bianco e Nero.
DVD3275
Videodisc release of a 2008 Italian motion picture.
In Italian with English or Italian subtitles.
Directed by Cristina Comencini.
Stars Fabio Volo, Ambra Angiolini, Aïssa Maïga, Eriq Ebouaney.
"Racial integration is Elena's profession and passion, not only filling her working day as a cultural mediator assisting immigrants, but spilling over into her home life as well. All too often her daughter Giovanna and her husband Carlo, a computer technician, must attend evening charity events where they feel distinctly out of place. During one of these evenings, Carlo meets Nadine, a beautiful black woman with whom he establishes an intimate understanding at first glance. Nadine's husband Bertrand, a refined black intellectual and the evening's featured speaker, stirs everyone with his heartfelt words. Later Carlo convinces his wife, who is quite hesitant, to invite Nadine and her children to Giovanna's birthday party. In the midst of the fun and noise of the party, Carlo and Nadine barely say a word, but their feelings are unmistakable. A computer needing repair breaks down the last barriers, allowing their passion to flow free, while others, their family and friends, are flooded with feelings of astonishment, rejection and a certain morbid curiosity: what is it like for a black woman to love a white man? What happens to a passionate love when everything is working against it?"--Filmitalia.
1 DVD, Color, 100 min., 2008

Big Brother, Big Business.
DVD3290
The rapid advance of technology allows companies to monitor our every move and record our most private personal information. Driving habits are being recorded; employees are monitored, shoppers and diners are observed and analyzed; internet searches are saved and used as evidence in court. It is big business that collects most of the data about us. But increasingly, it is the government that's using it. Big brother, big business take an enlightening and sometime disturbing look at how the growth of the information society may be eroding the freedoms many people take for granted.
1 DVD, Color, 79 min., 2008

Les Blues de Balfa ; Cajun Visits - Visites Cajuns.
DVD3287
Les Blues de Balfa(27 min.): Dewey Balfa traces the development of the Balfa Brothers musical family and their contributions to Cajun music. "In addition to the Balfa Brothers, musicians appearing include: Allie Young, Nathan Abshire, Tony Balfa, Rockin' Dopsie, Raymond Francois & the Cajun Playboys and Tracy Schwarz"--Container.  

City Living.
DVD3278
Series:  What the Industrial Revolution did for us
"Scours London to examine how the mechanism of industrialization generated urban life as people know it today"--Container.
1 DVD, Color with B&W sequences, 31 min., 2004

Consuming Kids:  the commercialization of childhood.
DVD3265
"Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids"--Container.
1 DVD, Color, 67 min., 2008

Division of Hearts.
DVD3299
The British division of colonial India into Pakistan and the Republic of India caused tremendous loss of life and relocation of millions of people. After centuries of coexistence, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims fell victim to mutual suspicion as violence and murder swept through the countryside, and village populations changed overnight. In this film, ordinary people from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh tell this history and recount their own tumultuous experiences.
1 DVD, Color with B&W sequences, 57 min., 1987

The Examined Life.
DVD3253
Offers in-depth analysis of the wisdom of the western world. Studies the "great questions" that have intrigued philosophers from antiquity to the present. Using writings of past philosophers and interviews with more than 50 contemporary thinkers, these episodes underscore how these classic questions still reverberate in society today.
4 DVDs, Color, 748 min., 2004

Forgotten Ellis Island.
DVD3280
In the era before antibiotics, tens of thousands of immigrant patients were separated from family, detained in the hospital on Ellis Island, and healed from illness before becoming citizens. 350 babies were born, and ten times that many immigrants died on Ellis Island and were buried in pauper's graves around New York City.
1 DVD, Color with B&W sequences, 62 min., 2009

The General.
DVD3302
Ultimate 2-disc edition.
Full screen (1.33:1) presentation.
Videodisc release of a 1926 silent motion picture.
Written and directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman.
Stars Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glenn Cavender, Jim Farley.
Rejected by the Confederate army, and taken for a coward by his beloved, young Johnny Gray is given a chance to redeem himself when he wages a one-man war against Yankee spies who have stolen his locomotive.
2 DVDs, Color Tinted, 78 min., 2008
2nd disc contains special features.

Generation M:  misogyny in media and culture.
DVD3301
"Despite the achievements of the women's movement over the past four decades, misogyny remains a persistent force in American culture. In this important new documentary, Thomas Keith, Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Long Beach, looks specifically at misogyny and sexism in mainstream American media, exploring how negative definitions of femininity and hateful attitudes toward women get constructed and perpetuated at the very heart of our popular culture. The film tracks the destructive dynamics of misogyny across a broad and disturbing range of media phenomena: including the hyper-sexualization of commercial products aimed at girls, the explosion of violence in video games aimed at boys, the near-hysterical sexist rants of hip-hop artists and talk radio shock jocks, and the harsh, patronizing caricatures of femininity and feminism that reverberate throughout the mainstream of American popular culture. Along the way, Generation M forces us to confront the dangerous real-life consequences of misogyny in all of its forms--making a compelling case that when we devalue more than half the population based on gender, we harm boys and men as well as women and girls"--Container.
1 DVD, Color, 60 min., 2008

The Gospel at Colonus.
DVD3260
Standard full frame presentation.
First shown as an episode of the television program Great performances in 1985.
Stars Morgan Freeman, Clarence Fountain, Isabell Monk, Carl Lumbly.
Told from the perspective of a Black Pentecostal preacher and his congregation, this play dramatizes legendary Greek character Oedipus' last days on Earth. Having blinded himself out of guilt, Oedipus makes a solace-seeking pilgrimage to Colonus, the place where he believes he is meant to die. Primarily through song, the preacher and his congregation translate this story of redemption into a Christian parable.
1 DVD, Color, 90 min., 2008

Hildegard.  (1994)
DVD3257
Written & directed by James Runcie.
Stars Patricia Routledge, Peter Vaughn, Janet Suzman, Amanda Root.
Hildegard of Bingen was one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages--an abbess and woman of God, a visionary, naturalist, playwright, mystic, political moralist and composer. Yet, despite her outpouring of religious creativity, her visions were called into question, and she was put on trial by the Church in 1148. This is the story of the events leading up to that trial and of the trial itself.
1 DVD, Color, 52 min., 2005

Hustle Harder XXL.
DVD3309
"Experience Disco's intensity as he makes and sells beats in the competitive hip-hop industry, fighting corporate power and seeking to short circuit 'The Matrix' with genre defying beats that emanate from his emotional core"--Container.
1 DVD, Color, 2007

Imaginary Witness:  Hollywood and the Holocaust.
DVD3254
This documentary examines the American film and television industry's response to the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi persecution of the Jews before, during, and after World War II. Uses film clips, newsreel footage and interviews of filmmakers and Holocaust survivors.
1 DVD, Color and B&W, 92 min., 2009

Into the Wind:  the Sport of Powered Paragliding.
DVD3286
Examines the sport of paragliding following two paragliding pilots from their initial training to their solo flights.
1 DVD, Color, 90 min., 2005

Jesus & Mary in Art.
DVD3262
Traces the ways Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary, have been represented in art around the world. Dramatically shows how their images have changed over time.
Disc. 1.The Face (2001, 110 min.) -- disc 2. Picturing Mary (2006, 57 min.).
2 DVDs, Color, 167 min., 2008

Lawrence of Arabia.
DVD3293
Collector's edition.
Widescreen (2.20:1) presentation.
Directed by David Lean.
Stars Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy.
A look at T.E. Lawrence, a British officer who unites the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during World War I.
2 DVDs, Color, 226 min., 2008
2nd disc contains special features.

Little Caesar.  (1930)
DVD3292
Full screen presentation.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
Stars Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Glenda Farrell, William Collier, Jr., Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Ince.
A small-time hood rises to criminal fame and power.
1 DVD, B&W, 78 min., 2005

Love is a Choice:  the Life of Gianna Beretta Molla.
DVD3258
This documentary tells the story of Gianna Molla, a wife, mother, and medical doctor who sacrificed her own life to save her unborn child ; includes interviews with her husband and children, friends and relatives, excerpts from her letters, etc.
1 DVD, Color and B&W, 52 min., 2005

The Mahabharata.
DVD3282
Originally produced as a television mini-series in 1989.
Widescreen (1.66:1) presentation.
Directed by Peter Brook.
Stars Urs Biher (Dushassana), Ryszard Cieslak (Dhritharashtra), Georges Corraface (Duryodhana), Mamadou Dioumé (Bhima).
The Mahabharata (which can be translated as 'The Poetical History of Humanity') is an epic tale of two sets of cousins: the Pandavas, the five sons of Pandu, the king of Hastinapura, and the Kauravas, the one hundred sons of Pandu's brother, Dhritarashtra. The eldest brother of each set of cousins claims the throne of Hastinapura for himself and a struggle arises between them. At first the kingdom is divided, but, as a result of a rigged gambling match, the eldest of the Pandavas, Yuddhishtira, loses his half, and he and his brothers are forced into exile for thirteen years, after which time they will be given back their kingdom. However, when the eldest of the Kauravas, Duryodhana, refuses to do so the two sets of cousins gather their armies and go to war.
1 DVD, Color, 170 min., 2008

Miracles... of Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, and Knock.
DVD3294
Gives background about each of the visions and seeks to teach about them through information and inspiration. It points out particularly the spiritual miracles at these various shrines.
1 DVD, Color with B&W sequences, 58 min., 200-?

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.  (1936)
DVD3274
Full screen (1.33:1) presentation.
Directed by Frank Capra.
Stars Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander.
"When small-town innocent Longfellow Deeds heads to New York to collect a $20 million inheritance, he ends up a target of ridicule thanks to Babe Bennett, a cynical reporter whose demeaning stories have made him the joke of the city. So when he discovers his sweet and unassuming new girlfriend is actually the hardboiled Bennett in disguise, a disillusioned Deeds decides to give his fortune away, an act of charity his crooked lawyer will stop at nothing to prevent"--Container.
1 DVD, B&W, 116 min., 2008

Nobi = Fires on the Plain.
DVD3312
The Criterion Collection ; 378.
Widescreen (2.35:1) presentation.

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