Last modified: wed, 17 Aug, 2011 18:00 GMT.
DVD for New Documentary: The Learning - learningemall.com

*** Notice: For the protection of property rights, this catalog is available for online browsing only. Please drop us a line if you would like to receive a copiable version of this catalog. Thank You!

Content

New Documentary: The Learning

New Documentary: The Learning


LEARNING, THE

By Ramona Diaz

There is a shortage of teachers in American public school systems. Consequently, a significant number of urban school districts across the country have begun hiring foreign teachers. School districts across the nation have traveled the world in search of highly qualified teachers. In this search, the Philippines has emerged as a recruitment hub American-based education system, and its English-speaking population.

THE LEARNING follows four Filipina teachers - Dorotea, Angel, Grace, and Rhea - during their freshman year in America. Across the school year's changing seasons, the film chronicles the sacrifices they make as they try to maintain a long-distance relationship with their children and families, and begin a new one with the mostly African-American students whose schooling is now entrusted to them. Their story is at once intensely personal, as each woman deals with the implications of her decision to come to the U.S., and fundamentally public, as they become part of the machinery of American education reform policy.

Reviews
  • "Few real-life narratives can be more involving or inspiring than a teacher's impact on students. ...Packed to the gills with human interest." - Variety

  • "...illuminating, absorbing documentary...Diaz's heroines become the unforgettable faces of a story all the more shocking for being so little-known." - The Washington Post

  • "The Learning' is like no other teaching film you've ever seen -- it sensitizes you in fresh and unexpected ways to the transactions between instructors and students... The film raises multiple questions without hitting you over the head." - The Baltimore Sun

    Item no.: GE01880538
    Format: DVD (English, Filipino, Color, With English subtitles)
    Duration: 98 minutes
    Copyright: 2011
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    DISH: WOMEN, WAITRESSING AND THE ART OF SERVICE

    By Maya Gallus

    Why do women bring your food at local diners, while in high-end establishments waiters are almost always men? DISH, by Maya Gallus, whose acclaimed GIRL INSIDE (2007) won Canada's Gemini Award for documentary directing, answers this question in a delicious, well-crafted deconstruction of waitressing and our collective fascination with an enduring popular icon. Digging beyond the obvious, Gallus, who waited tables in her teens, explores diverse dynamics between food servers and customers, as well as cultural biases and attitudes they convey. Her feminist analysis climbs the socio-economic ladder-from the bustling world of lower-end eateries, where women prevail as wait staff, to the more genteel male-dominated sphere of haute cuisine. Astute, amusing observations from women on the job in Ontario's truck stop diners, Montreal's topless"sexy restos," a Parisian super-luxe restaurant, and Tokyo's fantasy "maid cafes", as well as male customers' telling comments, disclose how gender, social standing, earning opportunities, and working conditions intersect in the food service industry.

    Reviews
  • "Filled with sharp observations about the social dynamics of customer relations and workplace solidarity, the film should be an excellent starting point for discussions of gendered and class-stratified labor." Fran Michel - Women & Gender Studies, Wilamette University

  • "DISH delves into... gender, power, and the art of service... What's revealed are the fantasies, desires, and prejudices projected onto women servers - including those of substitute wife, girlfriend, and personal servant." - Hot Docs International Film Festival

  • "Dish is a highlight of Hot Docs. Beautifully shot with a clear line of sight to point and purpose, fast-paced with impressive attention to detail." - XTRA Magazine

    Item no.: EE01880540
    Format: DVD (English, French, Japanese, Color)
    Duration: 70 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    MADE IN INDIA: A FILM ABOUT SURROGACY

    By Rebecca Haimowitz & Vaishali Sinha

    In San Antonio, Lisa and Brian Switzer risk their savings with a Medical Tourism company promising them an affordable solution after seven years of infertility. Halfway around the world in Mumbai, 27-year-old Aasia Khan, mother of three, contracts with a fertility clinic to be implanted with the Texas couple's embryos. MADE IN INDIA, about real people involved in international surrogacy, follows the Switzers and Aasia through every stage of the process.

    With its dual focus, this emotionally charged, thoroughly absorbing film charts obstacles faced by the Switzers and presents intimate insights into Aasia's circumstances and motivation. As their stories become increasingly intertwined, the bigger picture behind offshore outsourcing of pregnancies-a booming, unregulated reproductive industry valued at $450 million in India alone-begins to emerge. So do revealing questions about international surrogacy's legal and ethical implications, global corporate practices, human and reproductive rights, and commodification of the body.

    Reviews
  • "[A]n extraordinary film ... akin to a psychological thriller, inspiring both the family and the viewer to question their moral and ethical scruples, and to wonder whether they could do the same.... A touching and important document." - Woodstock Film Festival

  • "This perspective on international surrogacy is a common one but also an overly simplified one, and MADE IN INDIA delves into the complexities... It exposes the glitches in the system as communication breaks down..., yet it also looks at the joy that both parties get from creating a family together." - Real Screen

    Item no.: ME01880546
    Format: DVD (English, Hindi, Color)
    Duration: 97 minutes
    Copyright: 2010
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    TIGER SPIRIT

    By Min Sook Lee

    Korea is a divided nation. Millions of families were split apart in the 1950s when war broke out between the Soviet-occupied North and the American-controlled South. For more than a generation, families have not been able to visit, speak to, or even write one another. Tragically, the last survivors to remember a unified Korea are dying without ever having seen their grandchildren-nobody knew their good-byes would be forever.

    Korean-Canadian director Min Sook Lee's search for both the real and symbolic "Tiger Spirit" of Korea leads her on an amazing journey along the Koreas' border where she encounters a wild-eyed tiger hunter, a courageous woman who defected from the North years ago, a young bus guide whose job it is to shuttle workers across the DMZ border everyday, and many hopeful families dreaming of the day they can once again see their lost loved ones. With unprecedented access and never before seen footage of North Korea's industrial zone and state-sanctioned reunification centers, Lee brings us an emotion-charged journey into Korea's broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary families.

    Reviews
  • "A rare look at what happens when mindsets from the two drastically different societies have the chance to mingle... [Lee] pursues these moments of connection and healing with her inquisitive camera...situating them within her own context of the emigrant's relationship to her country of birth and ancestry..." - J.R. McConvey, filmCAN

  • "31/2 Stars, Explores the division of Korea into North and South, and its slow reunification.... A thoughtful exploration into the current state of Korea." - Katie Clancy, A'n'E Vibe

    Item no.: BU01880488
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 78 minutes
    Copyright: 2008
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    MOTHERLAND: CUBA KOREA USA

    By Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

    How do we decide where is home? For millions of immigrants, loyalties are divided between the land of their birth and the country in which in they choose to live. Feeling increasingly isolated in her adopted homeland of the United States, accomplished documentarian Dai Sil Kim-Gibson travels to Cuba to discover stories from a relatively unknown group in the Asian diaspora. There, she meets Martha, a woman of Korean descent, who after the Revolution began identifying herself as Cuban, not Korean. Kim-Gibson then travels to Miami to meet Martha's emigre sister and her extended, multicultural family.

    The filmmaker asks probing questions to both the Cuban and U.S. branches of the family about the issues of economic and social justice in socialism and capitalism, and about issues of identity. With extended interviews and photographs from the personal archives of her subjects, Kim-Gibson explores the complex ways in which we determine our ethnic, national and cultural loyalties. The stories of both women and their families weave a complex web that searches for an understanding of "motherland" in a globalized society.

    Reviews
  • "A beautiful and deeply-felt exploration of identity, attachment and collective values in our age of global migration and displacement." - Charles Armstrong, Assoc. Prof. of History, Dir. Of the Center for Korean Research, Columbia Univ.

  • "If anyone can give a new twist...[on] the ubiquitous topic of identity in an original way...it's this veteran." - Catherine Manabat, Asia Pacific Arts

  • "Inspiring...Convinces me that solidarity...among immigrants...could create a new meaning for this world and make it a more peaceful home for all of us." - Mingwei Song, Asst. Prof. of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Wellesley College

    Item no.: FS01880010
    Format: DVD (Spanish, Color)
    Duration: 41 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    TRANSNATIONAL TRADESWOMEN

    By Vivian Price

    Inspired by organizers at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, former construction worker Vivian Price spent years documenting the current and historical roles of women in the construction industry in Asia - discovering several startling facts. Capturing footage that shatters any stereotypes of delicate, submissive Asian women, Price discovers that women in many parts of Asia have been doing construction labor for centuries. But conversations with these women show that development and the resulting mechanization are pushing them out of the industry. Their stories disturb the notion of "progress" that many people hold and show how globalization, modernization, education and technology don't always result in gender equality and the alleviation of poverty.

    Celebrating a range of women workers - from a Japanese truck driver, to two young Pakistani women working on a construction site in Lahore, to a Taiwanese woman doing concrete work along side her husband - this film deftly probes the connections in their experiences. In a segment exploring the history of the Samsui women in Singapore (Chinese women who were recruited as construction laborers in the 1920's until they lost their jobs to mechanization in the 1970's) unique archival footage and interviews with surviving Samsui offer an importation perspective on the historical and global scope of women workers' struggles.

    Reviews
  • "An important and inspiring film. Recommended."-Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Graphic and eloquent...Capturing both the common and distinct forms of sexism and oppression, [this film] demonstrates women's heroic efforts to unionize and fight for their rights as workers."-Mary Romero,Professor of Justice Studies and Social Inquiry, Arizona State University

  • "Provocative and compelling ... offers rare insight into the impact of globalization and workers' dignified acts of resistance and independence. A highly recommended educational resource." - Linda Trinh Vo, Associate Professor, Asian American Studies, Irvine, University of California

    Award
  • CINE Golden Eagle Award

    Item no.: BH01880327
    Format: DVD (Chinese, Japanese,Thai, Tamil and Urdu, Color)
    Duration: 62 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    WOMEN'S KINGDOM, THE

    By Xiaoli Zhou

    Keepers of one of the last matriarchal societies in the world, Mosuo women in a remote area of southwest China live beyond the strictures of mainstream Chinese culture - enjoying great freedoms and carrying heavy responsibilities.

    Beautifully shot and featuring intimate interviews, this short documentary offers a rare glimpse into a society virtually unheard of 10 years ago and now often misrepresented in the media. Mosuo women control their own finances and do not marry or live with partners; they practice what they call "walking marriage." A man may be invited into a woman's hut to spend a "sweet night," but must leave by daybreak. While tourism has brought wealth and 21st century conveniences to this remote area, it has also introduced difficult challenges to the Mosuo culture - from pollution in the lake, to the establishment of brothels, to mainstream ideas about women, beauty and family. This finely wrought film is a sensitive portrayal of extraordinary women struggling to hold on to their extraordinary society.

    Review
  • "3 ? stars. Highly Recommended. Sophisticated... does a fine job of presenting an overview of a fascinating and complex culture." - Video Librarian

    Awards
  • Student Academy Award, Silver Medal
  • San Francisco Women's Film Festival, Best Editing

    Item no.: ZE01880351
    Format: DVD (Mandarin, Color)
    Duration: 22 minutes
    Copyright: 2006
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    HIGHWAY COURTESANS

    By Mystelle Brabbee

    This provocative coming-of-age film chronicles the story of a bold young woman born into the Bachara community in Central India - the last hold-out of a tradition that started with India's ancient palace courtesans and now survives with the sanctioned prostitution of every Bachara family's oldest girl. Guddi, Shana and their neighbor Sungita serve a daily stream of roadside truckers to support their families. Their work as prostitutes forms the core of the local economy, but their contemporary ideas about freedom of choice, gender and self-determination slowly intrude on the Bachara way of life.

    Highway Courtesans follows Guddi from the ages of 16 through 23 as she turns her world upside down, incurring the wrath of her fathers and brother as she struggles with tradition, family and love in hopes of realizing her dreams. In probing beyond the surface of a world of paradoxes, Highway Courtesans resists easy moralizing and reveals the very real costs - financial, social and personal - for breaking with tradition. As a community hangs in the balance between traditional and contemporary values, this gripping documentary raises universal questions about sex, the roles of women, and the right of one culture to judge another.

    Reviews
  • "Timeless in its observations"- Jeanette Catsoulis, The New York Times, Critic's Pick

  • "Candid interviews with the subjects are impressive."- Erin Clements, Time Out New York

  • "Extraordinary documentary... fair-minded portraits"- Andrew O'Hehi, Salon.com

    Awards
  • Galway Film Fleadh, Best Feature Documentary
  • Chicago Int'l FF, President's Jury Award

    Item no.: GL01880516
    Format: DVD (Hindi, Color, Black & White)
    Duration: 71 minutes
    Copyright: 2005
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    HEAVEN'S CROSSROAD

    By Kimi Takesue

    Heaven's Crossroadraces an impressionistic journey through Vietnam exploring the nuances and complexities of "looking" cross-culturally. Structured in a series of observational yet stylized vignettes, this visually driven experimental documentary investigates shifting relationships of voyeurism and intimacy, while linking the observer with the observed. Takesue's mesmerizing cinematography captures sweeping country landscapes and cities in motion, provoking questions about what it means to truly see another culture.

    Heaven's Crossroad charts a singular journey yet it also explores common desires which surface through travel: the desire to be transported to another place; to communicate beyond language; the desire to arrest time and repossess a moment, a glance, a feeling, an encounter-transforming mundane events into moments of surprising beauty and an utterly new way of seeing.

    Reviews
  • "A treasure...A lyric travelogue."- Nathan Lee, New York Sun

  • "An extended mediation on the nature of sight...recalls nothing so much as the travel diary of a master poet."- Peter X. Feng, Ph.D., University of Delaware

  • "Delivers a beautiful panoply of people, places, colors, languages and sounds from contemporary nothern Vietnam...would serve well in courses in anthropology, film studies, Southeast Asian studies and other fields moving beyond the older conceits of cross-cultural communication."- Glen Mimura, Asian American Studies, University of CA, Irvine

    Awards
  • Sblack Maria Film & Video Festival- Juror's Choice Award
  • Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema- Best Documentary
  • Slamdance Film Festival- Spirit of Slamdance Award

    Item no.: GL01880515
    Format: DVD (Vietnamese, Color)
    Duration: 35 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    CHILDREN OF THE CROCODILE

    By Marsha Emerman

    This timely documentary tells the story of two young Timorese-Australian activists - one a high profile human rights worker, the other a performance artist and lesbian - and their personal journey to further the cause of peace in the homeland they were forced to flee. Although merely infants when their families left East Timor to seek political asylum in Australia, Cidalia Pires and Elizabeth Exposto carry on their parents' human rights work promoting the Timorese struggle. Their tireless activist efforts are documented through two amazing years in East Timor's history - from the joy of voting for freedom in August 1999 to the rage at the destruction that followed and time of renewed commitment and hope. Their country's independence fulfills their lifetime dream, but it also brings hard choices and painful returns for them both. Cidalia, in particular, faces the additional challenge of being an openly gay Timorese woman in a culture heavily steeped in tradition and conservative gender roles. "Children of the Crocodile" tells a story which is personal yet universal - about ideals, identity, and the strength of an exile community that is committed to furthering the cause of peace in their native land.

    Reviews
  • "[an] evocative journey...This is a genuine, courageous, warm tale worth seeing." - Lindy Sterling, Victorian Association of Social Studies Teachers

  • "... a fascinating documentary ...a moving insight into the lives of two passionate young women and a reminder that behind every grand historical moment there is a multitude of individual stories just waiting to be told." - Sian Prior, The Age

  • "... tells the dramatic but little known story of the East Timorese independence struggle from the perspective of young people of the diaspora... Highly recommended for its attention to the role of generation, gender, and sexuality in the construction of both nationalist and diasporic identities." - Elizabeth G. Traube, Anthropology Dept, Wesleyan University

    Award
  • Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival- Audience Award

    Item no.: JM01880115
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    FOURTH DIMENSION, THE

    By Trinh T. Minh-ha

    Acclaimed filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha ventures into the digital realm with her stunning new feature, "The Fourth Dimension," an incisive and insightful examination of Japan through its art, culture, and social rituals. As is the case with Trinh's previous films, her new video is a multi-layered work addressing issues around its central theme: the experience of time, the impossibility of truly "seeing," and the impact of video on image-making.

    THE FOURTH DIMENSION is an elegant meditation on time, travel, and ceremony in the form of a journey. In her first foray into digital video, Minh-ha deconstructs the role of ritual in mediating between the past and the present. She explains, "Shown in their widespread functions and manifestations, including more evident loci such as festivals, religious rite and theatrical performance, 'rituals' involve not only the regularity in the structure of everyday life, but also the dynamic agents in the world of meaning." With its lush imagery, Minh-ha's Japan is viewed through mobile frames, with doors and windows sliding shut, revealing new vistas as it blocks out the old light.

    Reviews
  • "Trinh T. Minh-ha's newest essayistic work and her first videotape, cuts an intricate key for unlocking this elusive culture. Her tack finds great visual pleasure in the everyday, composing and decomposing the social landscape, while constructing a poetic grid of temporalities, symbolic meaning, and ritual. In The Fourth Dimension, Trinh's lyrical narration guides us through 'Japan's likeness,' the perfected framing of the sacramental familiar." - Steve Seid

  • "Reminiscent of Peter Greenaway...a mesmerizing mix of fluid images and poetic narration." - John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune

  • "Striking visual compositions and juxtapositions, a stunning sound design and an incisive voiceover...[She] engages us in a profound and deeply satisfying dialogue with our own preconceptions and desires, and encourages new ways of seeing." - Irina Leimbacher, Release Print

    Item no.: RP01880175
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 87 minutes
    Copyright: 2001
    Price: USD 395.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    CHILDREN WE SACRIFICE, THE

    By Grace Poore

    Shot in India, Sri Lanka, Canada and the United States, this evocative, visually powerful documentary is about incestuous sexual abuse of the South Asian girl child. By interweaving survivors' narratives, including the producer's own story, with interviews with South Asian mental health professionals, and with statistical information, as well as poetry and art, "The Children We Sacrifice" discloses the many layers of a subject traditionally shrouded in secrecy. Insights into the far-reaching psychological, social and cultural consequences of incest are accompanied by thoughtful assessments of strategies that have helped adult women cope with childhood trauma. The video also analyzes social and cultural resistance in South Asia and the Diaspora to dealing with incest's causes and its effects on its victims. This personal and collective letter from South Asian incest survivors and their advocates is both a validation of their struggle and a compelling charge to protect future generations of children better.

    Reviews
  • "The Children We Sacrifice' is a groundbreaking film that poignantly exposes the silenced subject of incest and sexual abuse against girls. The survivors' stories of pain and strength will undeniably touch your heart and inspire you to speak out against the violence." - Prema Vora, Sakhi for South Asian Women

  • "Poore's voice is powerful and unhesitating, yet never shrill. 'The Children We Sacrifice' is not just a saga of victimization; it is a celebration of girls' and women's strength, resilience, and the beauty of life." - Shamita Das Dasgupta, Manavi, Inc.

    Awards
  • 2001 Creating a Voice Award
  • 2000 Rosebud Award

    Item no.: WR01880173
    Format: DVD (Color, With Discussion Guide)
    Duration: 61 minutes
    Copyright: 2000
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    GAEA GIRLS

    By Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams

    "This fascinating film follows the physically grueling and mentally exhausting training regimen of several young wanna-be 'Gaea Girls', a group of Japanese women wrestlers. The idea of them may seem like a total oxymoron in a country where women are usually regarded as docile and subservient. However, in training and in the arena, the female wrestlers depicted in this film are just as violent as any member of the World Wrestling Federation, and the blood that's drawn is very real indeed. One recruit, Takeuchi, endures ritual humiliation not seen on screen since the boot camp sequences of 'Full Metal Jacket'. In 'Divorce Iranian Style', Kim Longinotto cinematically explored the previously unexplored world of the Tehran divorce courts. Working with co-director Jano Williams, Longinotto has been given access to shoot an insider's verite account of this closely guarded universe." - Chicago Film Festival

    Reviews
  • "Longinotto and Williams's ability to penetrate facades is remarkable. The filmmakers build their story in a way that's more compelling and suspenseful than many narrative films." - Chicago Film Festival

  • "Gaea Girls is about more than wrestling. Like 'Divorce Iranian Style' it smashes preconceptions about the women it depicts, transcending its subject in the process." - Kay Armatage, University of Toronto, Toronto International Film Festival

    Awards
  • Edinburgh International Film Festival, Best of Festival Section
  • Chicago International Film Festival, Silver Hugo

    Item no.: SL01880177
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 106 minutes
    Copyright: 2000
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SUBROSA

    By Helen Lee

    Subrosa traces a young woman's journey to Korea, the land of her birth, to find the mother she's never known. This exquisitely crafted drama probes the idealized, often false constructions of cultural and maternal identities wrought by the adoptee's return. Subrosa tracks the unnamed heroine from a sterile adoption agency office to seedy bars and motel rooms on neon strips, then to a stark U.S. army camp town and the bustling flower markets of Seoul. Though her path to self-destruction and ultimate self-revelation ironically and tragically mirrors that of her imagined biological mother, the past remains elusive to her, the secret intact. Originally shot on digital video, the film captures the grit and garishness of an alien urban landscape while plumbing the melancholy dream space where the character retreats even as she searches for her very life. Brimming with surreal, breathtaking, elegiac imagery, this sensuously rendered tale of loss, love and longing resonates long after its shocking conclusion.

    Review
  • "Moves beyond easy ideas about cultural identity to express an almost existential longing, capturing the senses of desire, uncertainty, desperation and salvation with a wondrous luminosity." - Laura U. Marks, Assistant Professor, Carleton University

  • "Depicts with great artistry the profound loneliness of the Korean adoptee's search for her irretrievable origins. A compelling and unforgettable film." - Elaine Kim, Asian American Studies, UC-Berkeley

    Item no.: VB01880193
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 22 minutes
    Copyright: 2000
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    WRITING DESIRE

    By Ursula Biemann

    "Ursula Biemann's 'WRITING DESIRE' is a video essay on the new dream screen of the Internet and how it impacts on the global circulation of women's bodies from the third world to the first world. Although under-age Philippine 'pen pals' and post-Soviet mail-order brides have been part of the transnational exchange of sex in the post-colonial and post-Cold War marketplace of desire before the digital age, the Internet has accelerated these transactions. Biemann provides her viewers with a thoughtful meditation on the obvious political, economic and gender inequalities of these exchanges by simulating the gaze of the Internet shopper looking for the imagined docile, traditional, pre-feminist, but Web-savvy mate. 'Writing Desire' delights in implicating the viewer in the new voyeurism and sexual consumerism of the Web. However, it never fails to challenge pat assumptions about the impossibility for resistance and the absolute victimization of women who dare to venture out of the third world and onto the Internet to look for that very obscure object of desire promised by the men of the West. This tape will promote lively discussion on third world women, the sex industry, mail order brides, racism and feminist backlashes in the West, and on women's sexuality, desire, and new technologies." - Gina Marchetti, Ithaca College

    Reviews
  • "Maps the digital networks of sexuality and gender that utterly redefine feminism. A brilliant surf through the digital landscapes of desire as they morph the gaze for transnational exchanges. An intellectually and artistically edgy tape by one of the most important visual artists working the politics of the analog/digital divide."
  • Patricia R. Zimmermann, Author, "States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies"

  • "'Writing Desire' is a short, experimental video that documents the traffic in internet brides. By showing how women are deploying the web to market themselves and express their desire (for a good home, for love, to escape poverty), the video functions as a sort of trompe l'oeil that unsettles categories such as love and desire that generally go unquestioned." - Silvia D. Spitta, Dartmouth University

    Award
  • Center for Media Art, Germany - International Art and Media Award

    Item no.: PS01880152
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 23 minutes
    Copyright: 2000
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    MADE IN THAILAND

    By Eve-Laure Moros and Linzy Emery

    In Thailand, women make up 90 percent of the labor force responsible for garments and toys for export by multinational corporations. This powerful, revealing documentary about women factory workers and their struggle to organize unions exposes the human cost behind the production of everyday items that reach our shores. Probing the profound impact of the New World Order on the populations that provide the global economy with cheap labor, "Made in Thailand" also profiles women newly empowered by their campaign for human and worker's rights. Several of these women are survivors of the 1993 Kader Toy Factory fire, one of the worst industrial fires in history. Today they are highly effective leaders in the grass-roots movement mobilizing workers in their recently industrialized country.

    Reviews
  • "...An eye-opener...showing us striking images of Thai women factory workers that totally contradict prevailing stereotypes and present instead a picture of strong, courageous defenders of human rights." - Michael Feinberg, Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition

  • "For the past year, we have been on the lookout for materials that we can use to educate young people about economic issues--in particular, the consequences of 'globalization'. ' Made in Thailand', we believe, will be a useful tool in educating young people about such critical economic issues as child labor, sweatshops, and corporate responsibility." - Laura McClure, Educators for Social Responsibility

  • "An excellent portrayal of the lives of working women in Thailand...[it] will galvanize girls...to do something about the issue of sweatshop labor." - Cydney Pullman, Institute for Labor & the Community

    Item no.: TL01880178
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    NU SHU: A HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF WOMEN IN CHINA

    By Yue-Qing Yang

    In feudal China, women, usually with bound feet, were denied educational opportunities and condemned to social isolation. But in Jian-yong county in Hunan province, peasant women miraculously developed a separate written language, called Nu Shu, meaning "female writing." Believing women to be inferior, men disregarded this new script, and it remained unknown for centuries. It wasn't until the 1960s that Nu Shu caught the attention of Chinese authorities, who suspected that this peculiar writing was a secret code for international espionage. Today, interest in this secret script continues to grow, as evidenced by the wide critical acclaim of Lisa See's recent novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, about Nu Shu.

    NU SHU: A HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF WOMEN IN CHINA is a thoroughly engrossing documentary that revolves around the filmmaker's discovery of eighty-six-year-old Huan-yi Yang, the only living resident of the Nu Shu area still able to read and write Nu Shu. Exploring Nu Shu customs and their role in women's lives, the film uncovers a women's subculture born of resistance to male dominance, finds a parallel struggle in the resistance of Yao minorities to Confucian Han Chinese culture, and traces Nu Shu's origins to some distinctly Yao customs that fostered women's creativity.

    Reviews
  • "An eye opener. Good documentaries are able to not only uncover facts but get to the emotional core of their human subjects. Yue-Qing Yang does just that." - Mark Andrews, Vancouver Sun

  • "Yang's film is an intimate look at all aspects of the women's lives: their abusive husbands, the hardships and hunger they faced, and the beauty of their songs and embroidery." - Lisa Smedman, Vancouver Echo

  • "We just don't get a chance to see China on such an intimate level. This film is absolutely fascinating." - Netty Wild, Filmmaker

    Item no.: GC01880130
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 59 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SEARCHING FOR GO-HYANG

    By Tammy Tolle

    A moving personal documentary, SEARCHING FOR GO-HYANG traces the return of twin sisters to their native Korea after a fourteen year absence. Sent away by their parents for the promise of a better life in the US, they instead suffered mental and physical abuse by their adoptive parents, including the erasure of their cultural heritage and language. Reunited with their biological parents and brothers, the young women explore their past in an attempt to reconnect with their "Go-Hyang", their homeland, which they find they may not have a place in anymore. Thousands of Korean and Chinese girl babies have been brought to the US for adoption in the last twenty years. This beautiful DVD is a rare feminist look at the issues of cross-cultural adoption and national identity.

    Review
  • "Searching for Go-Hyang's exquisite design and rich, densely layered imagery penetrate deeply into that sacred territory of family and our fantasies of it."- Patricia R. Zimmerman, Ithaca College

    Award
  • New England Film and Video Festival - Best Student Video

    Item no.: NV01880261
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 32 minutes
    Copyright: 1998
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    VISITORS OF THE NIGHT

    By An van Dienderen

    The failures of the ethnographic endeavor to discover "reality" are revealed in this expository and experimental film. The narrator-ethnographer embarks on an expedition to encounter the Mosou, an isolated and matrilinear tribe in the mountains of South West China. Their society is built on the principle of the axia-relationship, ties between 'visitors of the night'. This means that a man only stays in his wife's house at night and during the day he works for the benefit of his grandmother. Since men and women do not have economical obligations, their unique, polyandric relationships are based on love only. Recently due to funding by the Han government, The Lugo region has turned into a major touristic area, where tradition and modernity clash -- particularly when the polyandry of the Mosuo is seen as prostitution by outsiders. Van Dienderen, a visual anthropologist, playfully reveals the distance between textual knowledge and the experience of a cinematographic journey in a thoughtful and fascinating documentary.

    Item no.: CR01880140
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 34 minutes
    Copyright: 1998
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    OUT OF PHOENIX BRIDGE

    By Li Hong

    This groundbreaking work from Li Hong, China's first independent female documentarian, follows two years in the lives of four young women from the countryside who have come to Beijing for jobs. Although they work long hours as maids or street vendors and share a tiny room no bigger than a closet, they savor these years- between living as a daughter at home and returning to the village to marry -as probably the freest time of their lives. Documenting both her deepening relationship with these women and the gulf of experiences and opportunity that separate them, Hong carefully charts their hopes for a better future and dreams of self-determination.

    In interviews and intimate footage, Hong elicits remarkably candid and complex testimony from her subjects as they frankly discuss their work, pressures from home, and experiences with men. A remarkable achievement, this touching film is a fascinating look at the lives of women whose experiences are rarely explored. As they straddle traditional and modern roles, their stories uniquely exemplify the conflicts between the swift changes in women's roles occurring in China and around the developing world.

    Review
  • "... a remarkable work by China's first woman independent documentarist..."
  • Chris Berry, Cinema Studies, La Trobe University

  • "This is a powerful work in which a reportage approach transforms into a documentary." - Yamagata Int'l Doc Film Festival

    Awards
  • Yamagata Intl. Doc. Film Festival, Ogawa Shinsuke Prize
  • Munich Film Festival, Special Mention, Media Net Awards

    Item no.: NM01880131
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 110 minutes
    Copyright: 1997
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    THROUGH CHINESE WOMEN'S EYES

    By Mayfair Yang

    "THROUGH CHINESE WOMEN'S EYES offers an insightful journey into the transformations in the lives of Chinese women over the 20th century. In a fascinating overview, anthropologist/director Mayfair Yang documents the attempts to erase gender differences under Mao, today's changing ideas of femininity, and the crystallization of Chinese feminism at the UN Women's conference in Beijing. As propaganda films and news footage of the 1960's, present day television images, and interview footage from the 1990's mingle in a rich visual history, teachers, karaoke singers, organizers, and others share their lives. This sensitive portrayal of the daily experiences and historical memories of Chinese is essential to an understanding of contemporary feminisms." - Faye Ginsburg, New York University

    Reviews
  • "A visual and conceptual compilation of incredible interest and a fascinating exploration of the contradictions and satisfactions of Chinese feminism." - Janet Walker, UC Santa Barbara

  • "A remarkable and complex visualization... compelling both as image and scholarship." - Shirley Lim, UC Santa Barbara

    Item no.: YM01880197
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 1997
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    WOMAN BEING

    By Wen-Jie Qin

    In a critical examination of changing concepts of beauty and sexuality in modern China, Woman Being illustrates how a flood of Western pop culture is adversely affecting women's expectations and self-worth. Revisiting her hometown Chengdu after a long absence, videomaker Wen-Jie Qin traces the impact of a newly booming beauty industry in a country where thirty years ago women were beat up for wearing makeup. Combining interviews and footage from glamour photo studios and television, Woman Being explores the rise of a new super-feminine, highly sexualized ideal. "This hard-nosed look at women in contemporary China makes a persuasive case for how the economies of pleasure, beauty, and consumption are transacted through exploiting women's bodies and images. It provides a sobering prognosis of what Ofreedom' might mean for women in China today." - Marina Heung, Baruch College, CUNY

    Reviews
  • "Insightful and distinctive...shows how young women's passion in grasping Western concepts of beauty reflects China's economic transformation..." - Vivian Huang, Asian Cinevision

  • "This candid film takes you into the heart of Chinese women's lives." - Richard Rogers, Harvard Film Study Ctr

    Item no.: BZ01880199
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 20 minutes
    Copyright: 1997
    Price: USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    ETERNAL SEED: AMRIT BEEJA

    By Meera Dewan

    With insightful interviews and rare footage from India's agricultural industry, this keenly observed film depicts Indian women's struggles to use traditional farming practices instead of chemically-based agriculture. Comparing the practices of women who consider seeds sacred with multinational companies' use of sterilized hybrids, this evocative analysis celebrates the scientific basis of women's native traditions in a provocative look at the evolving meanings of healthy land use.

    Review
  • "With biting satire and a brutally truthful camera, Eternal Seed debunks popular misconceptions about technology and tradition, men and women, growth and decay." - Nikhat Kazmi, Sunday Times of India

    Awards
  • Indian National Film Festival, Best Environmental Film
  • Okomedia Film Festival, Germany, Grand Prize
  • Bombay International Film Festiva, Non-Fiction Film Award, Second Place

    Item no.: NH01880174
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 43 minutes
    Copyright: 1996
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    HIDDEN STORY, THE

    A videotape by Shikha Jhingan and Ranjani Mazumdar

    Its title referring both to women's hidden lives and the hidden work of creating ethnographic realities, this nuanced look at the lives of four rural Indian women paints a portrait of survival and advancement against great odds. Examining the lives of women tenant farmers, it depicts women balancing resistance and activism with a deep commitment to diverse myths and traditions. As scenes of India's changing urban and rural landscapes mingle with candid interviews and first-person narration, this perceptive film showcases how issues of class, education, and political consciousness shape documentary practice and women's circumstances.

    Reviews
  • "A personal and interestingly constructed film...a travelogue into the myths, dreams, and minds of four amazing peasant women." - India Today

  • "Reflective, meaningful...The varied geographical, social, and cultural milieu of the country is evoked, complete with music, dance, and even mythical representations..." - The Times of India

    Item no.: HJ01880124
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 58 minutes
    Copyright: 1995
    Price: USD 275.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    REMEMBERING WEI YI-FANG, REMEMBERING MYSELF

    By Yvonne Welbon

    Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography charts the influence of the filmmaker's six-year experience as an African American woman in Taiwan after college graduation. The highly original film recounts Welbon's discovery, through another language and culture, of being respected for who she is, without the constant of American racism, and how it helped her achieve self-knowledge. Linking this story with that of earlier women in Welbon's family, the richly textured memoir blends dramatic sequences with documentary footage.

    Reviews
  • "Yvonne Welbon's pungent commentary on racism and self-realization sings with ideas. Welbon as a creator shows purpose and ability." - Variety

  • "A remarkable piece of work." - Andrew Beck, Metroline

    Awards
  • Black International Cinema, Berlin, Best Film
  • Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Honorable Mention - Documentary

    Item no.: KZ01880084
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 29 minutes
    Copyright: 1995
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SHINJUKU BOYS

    By Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams

    From the makers of DREAM GIRLS, SHINJUKU BOYS introduces three onnabes who work as hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo. Annabes are women who live as men and have girlfriends, although they don't usually identify as lesbians. As the film follows them at home and on the job, all three talk frankly to the camera about their gender-bending lives, revealing their views about women, sex, transvestitism and lesbianism. Alternating with these illuminating interviews are fabulous sequences shot inside the Club, patronized almost exclusively by heterosexual women who have become disappointed with real men. This is a remarkable documentary about the complexity of female sexuality in Japan today.

    Reviews
  • "...extraordinarily brave and honest, presenting issues commonly regarded as taboo and avoiding any pat answers." -Lesley Parkinson, Japan Times

  • "A fantastic documentary...The subjects are both intelligent and erudite." - Simon Hunt, Sydney Star

    Awards
  • Chicago Film Festival, Silver Hugo
  • Houston Film Festival, Gold Prize
  • SF Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Outstanding Documentary

    Item no.: FE01880135
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 53 minutes
    Copyright: 1995
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    TALE OF LOVE, A

    By Trinh T. Minh-ha

    Portraying the Vietnamese immigrant experience through Kieu, A Tale of Love follows the quest of a woman in love with 'Love'. The film is loosely inspired by 'The Tale of Kieu', the Vietnamese national poem of love which Vietnamese people see as a mythical biography of their 'motherland,' marked by internal turbulence and foreign domination. A free-lance writer, Kieu also works as a model for a photographer who idealizes the headless female body and who captures Kieu sheathed by transparent veils. Voyeurism runs through the history of love narratives and voyeurism is here one of the threads that structures the 'narrative' of the film. Exposing the fiction of love in love stories and the process of consumption, A TALE OF LOVE marginalizes traditional narrative conventions and opens up a denaturalized space of acting where performed reality, memory and dream constantly pass into one another. Sublimely beautiful to watch, A TALE OF LOVE eloquently evokes an understanding of the allusive and powerful connections between love, sensuality, voyeurism and identity.

    Review
  • "Trinh T. Minh-ha's cinema is theoretically rigorous and intellectually demanding, certainly; but hers is also a cinema of great beauty, where the edges of difference rub against each other in stunning and challenging ways." - Judith Mayne, Ohio State University

    Item no.: AW01880195
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 108 minutes
    Copyright: 1995
    Price: USD 395.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    DREAM GIRLS

    By Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams

    This fascinating documentary, produced for the BBC, opens a door into the spectacular world of the Takarazuka Revue, a highly successful musical theater company in Japan. Each year, thousands of girls apply to enter the male-run Takarazuka Music School. The few who are accepted endure years of a highly disciplined and reclusive existence before they can join the Revue, choosing male or female roles. Dream Girls offers a compelling insight into gender and sexual identity and the contradictions experienced by Japanese women today.

    Reviews
  • "Fascinating, reveals a unique and wonderful world. Libraries looking to strengthen their Japanese or women's studies collections should add Dream Girls to the acquisition list." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

  • "A tantalizing backstage glimpse of Japan's Takarazuka Revue." - Amy Taubin, Village Voice

    Award
  • Films de Femmes, Creteil, Best Documentary

    Item no.: HW01880117
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 50 minutes
    Copyright: 1993
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    GOOD WIFE OF TOKYO, THE

    By Claire Hunt and Kim Longinotto

    Kazuko Hohki goes back to Tokyo with her band, the 'Frank Chickens', after living in England for 15 years. This wry and delightful film records her re-experiencing of Japan after a long absence, examining traditional attitudes to women and those of Kazuko's friends who are trying to live differently.

    Reviews
  • "Forget those demure ladies with fragrant fans and meet the new breed of Japanese women!" - Amanda Casson, London Film Festival.

  • "This is a remarkable film which will appeal to general audiences as well as educators teaching about women, the family and/or religion in contemporary Japan. It deserves to be widely shown." - Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership Center for Educational Media.

  • "4 stars. An educational work that is entertaining and thought-provoking." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

    Item no.: EH01880121
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 1992
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SHOOT FOR THE CONTENTS

    Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha

    Reflecting on Mao's famous saying, "Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend," Trinh T. Minh-ha's film-whose title refers in part to a Chinese guessing game-is a unique excursion into the maze of allegorical naming and storytelling in China. The film ponders questions of power and change, politics and culture, as refracted by Tiananmen Square events. It offers at the same time an inquiry into the creative process of filmmaking, intricately layering Chinese popular songs and classical music, the sayings of Mao and Confucius, women's voices and the words of artists, philosophers and other cultural workers. Video images emulate the gestures of calligraphy and contrast with film footage of rural China and stylized interviews. Like traditional Chinese opera, Trinh's film unfolds through "bold omissions and minute depictions" to render "the real in the illusory and the illusory in the real." Exploring color, rhythm and the changing relationship between ear and eye, this meditative documentary realizes on screen the shifts of interpretation in contemporary Chinese culture and politics.

    Reviews
  • "Independent in thought and delicate in craftsmanship, strung with the tensile strength of a piano wire." - Karen Jaehne, Film Comment

  • "Poetic, lyrical, sensual, her work is densely textured and rich with breathtakingly beautiful images, elegant camera work and eloquent multi-layered soundtracks." - Susan Ditta

  • "One of the most extraordinary documentaries of recent years....A beautiful and moving film, as challenging and stimulating formally as it is politically." - London Film Festival Award
  • Sundance, Best Cinematography

    Item no.: SL01880189
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 101 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SOMETHING LIKE A WAR

    By Deepa Dhanraj

    Something Like A War is a chilling examination of India's family planning program from the point of view of the women who are its primary targets. It traces the history of the family planning program and exposes the cynicism, corruption and brutality which characterizes its implementation. As the women themselves discuss their status, sexuality, fertility control and health, it is clear that their perceptions are in conflict with those of the program. Something Like a War is an excellent resource for the study of international development and aid, population control, reproductive rights, health and women.

    Reviews
  • "A very fine addition to library collections." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

  • "This riveting documentary makes a searing impact...it should be seen by everyone concerned about the problem of population." - The Sunday Observer (London)

    Item no.: ZE01880191
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 1991
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    EAT THE KIMONO

    By Claire Hunt and Kim Longinotto

    Eat the Kimono is a brilliant documentary about Hanayagi Genshu, a Japanese feminist and avant-garde dancer and performer, who has spent her life defying her conservative culture's contempt for independence and unconventionality. She denounced Emperor Hirohito as a war criminal, and dismissed death threats made against her by right-wing groups. "You mustn't be eaten by the kimono," says Genshu, making reference to the traditional Japanese dress designed to restrict movement for women, "You must eat the kimono, and gobble it up." From the directors of The Good Wife of Tokyo and Hidden Faces.

    Review
  • "A feast of contrasts-past and present, ritual and instinct, urban wealth and rural poverty: a fascinating biography...handled with immense skill and sensitivity." - Angela Sweeney, Independent Media

    Item no.: JR01880118
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 60 minutes
    Copyright: 1989
    Price: USD 250.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SURNAME VIET GIVEN NAME NAM

    Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha

    Of marriage and loyalty: "Daughter, she obeys her father/ Wife, she obeys her husband/ Widow, she obeys her son."

    Vietnamese-born Trinh T. Minh-ha's profoundly personal documentary explores the role of Vietnamese women historically and in contemporary society. Using dance, printed texts, folk poetry and the words and experiences of Vietnamese women in Vietnam-from both North and South-and the United States, Trinh's film challenges official culture with the voices of women. A theoretically and formally complex work, Surname Viet Given Name Nam explores the difficulty of translation, and themes of dislocation and exile, critiquing both traditional society and life since the war.

    Reviews
  • "A challenging and rewarding work that places Trinh T. Minh-ha as one of the leading American independent filmmakers." - New Directors/New Films

  • "Keenly intelligent, sensuously multi-layered...Emotionally, the film leaves you with the courage and persistent strength of Vietnamese women." - Stuart Klawans, The Nation

  • "A visually striking film, weaving many elements into a rich tapestry of sights, sounds and ideas." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

    Item no.: JT01880194
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 108 minutes
    Copyright: 1989
    Price: USD 495.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    NAKED SPACES: LIVING IS ROUND

    Directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha

    Shot with stunning elegance and clarity, "Naked Spaces" explores the rhythm and ritual of life in the rural environments of six West African countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkino Faso, Togo, Benin and Senegal). The nonlinear structure of "Naked Spaces" challenges the traditions of ethnographic filmmaking, while sensuous sights and sounds lead the viewer on a poetic journey to the most inaccessible parts of the African continent, the private interaction of people in their living spaces.

    Reviews
  • "Trinh's images are as unpretentious as home movies...there are times in Naked Spaces when representation decom-poses into isolated details and pure sensation. More than a mosaic of impressions however, the film is nonlinear, de-centered, and deliberately unsettling." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice

  • "A narrative full of poetic pronouncements mourns the loss of traditions and argues that the word primitive is misapplied to tribal life." - Karen Jaehne, Variety

  • "Breathtaking in their tactile beauty, the images seem to be edited in an almost intuitively associational process... the silences which punctuate the sound track are like another voice inviting us simply to look and look again." - Kay Armatage, Toronto Festival of Festivals

    Awards
  • Athens Film Festival, Gold Athena
  • American Film Festival, Blue Ribbon

    Item no.: TV01880028
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 135 minutes
    Copyright: 1985
    Price: USD 495.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    ADYNATA

    By Leslie Thornton

    A formal 1861 portrait of a Chinese Mandarin and his wife is the starting point for this allegorical investigation of the fantasies spawned in the West about the East, particularly that which associates femininity with the mysterious Orient. Adynata presents a series of oppositions-male and female images, past and present sounds-which in and of themselves construct a minimal and fragmentary narrative, an open text of our imaginations, fears and fantasies.

    Review
  • "Beautiful and beguiling...mixes Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player with The Bride of Frankenstein, a TV cop show and a Betty Boop cartoon-yielding a complex form of signification run riot." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Sight & Sound

    Award
  • Athens Int'l Film Festival, Special Merit Award

    Item no.: NU01880170
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 1983
    Price: USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    ***Price on web-site may not be current and is subject to modification by quotation***


    Email :
    inquiry@learningemall.com

    Websites :
    http://www.learningemall.com [ English ]
    http://www.learningemall.com.hk [ Chinese ]