Daughter from Danang color, 81 minutes
Back in distribution, the Academy Award nominated film Daughter from Danang cuts between mother and daughter separated after the 1975 Operation Babylift. Hiep journies from Vietnam to Pulaski, Tennessee, where she is adopted by a single woman and renamed Heidi. In 1997, Heidi decides to return to Vietnam in search of her mother, and the filmmakers follow. Read more 
Posted on February 2nd, 2012
Southern Belle color, 57/75 minutes
Southern Belle examines the 1861 Athenaeum Girls’ School where young women eagerly sign up to become that iconic and romantic image of Southern identity: the Southern belle, replete with hoop skirt, hat and gloves, singing the region’s anthem, Dixie. Is the camp a self-esteem building, living history experience or does it ultimately reinforce divisions between race, gender, and geography in the present? Read more
Shooting for Democracy color, 60 minutes,
Shooting for Democracy follows students in Bhutan and the US as they participate in an international video education program. Juxtaposing youth perspectives on democracy during the 2008 election year, it follows the personal experiences of students while exploring the social and political contexts of these distinct nations, now linked by their use of a democratic system. Read more
Posted on January 26th, 2012
Hudson Shad and Planning for Floods color, 18/29 minutes
Hudson Shad makes a statement about our responsibility for keeping the waters of the Hudson clean enough for the shad to thrive. Planning for Floods by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) spread the message of public environmental responsibility for flood management well beyond the immediate community of the Mississippi River. Read more
Posted on December 20th, 2011
'Are'Are Music & Shaping Bamboo color, 174 minutes
A fascinating 2-DVD set that extensively documents the traditional musical culture of the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands. Includes the film Shaping Bamboo, which shows the making of panpipes, from the cutting the bamboo in the forest to the fashioning of the final bindings. Read more
Posted on November 17th, 2011
When the Mountain Meets its Shadow color, 80 minutes
A powerful film which tells the stories of Ashraf, Mne, Zoliswa and Arnold, who fight for survival in the informal settlements around Cape Town. While fighting against evictions, and water and electricity cut-offs in the townships, they struggle to find work. In hardly any other city of the world can poverty and wealth be found as close together. Read more
Undala and Undala Conversations color, 58 minutes
Undala was filmed in 1964 in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan in an early era of ethnographic filmmaking just before the emergence of synchronous sound. Included on the disk is Undala Conversations (2011), in which ethnographer Thomas Rosin and filmmaker Allison Jablonko watch and discuss the original film. Read more
Posted on October 12th, 2011
A Family in History: a 2-DVD set color, 2hrs, 51 minutes
Living at Risk, made in 1984-85 brought us inside Sandinista Nicaragua five years after the revolution that overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza. Now updated by a second DVD, The Barrios Family 25 Years Later, a group of 20 short films made in 2009-10, carries forward the story of the Barrios family and their country, tracing their multi-generational struggle to find ways to live and work according to the ideals that inspired their youth. Read more
Bound by Haiti color, 47 minutes
The story of Aaron Jackson and John Dieubon - two activists forced to deal with the tragedy of the Haiti earthquake first-hand. Featuring rare footage from immediately following the earthquake Bound by Haiti follows these unlikely friends on a journey for change before and after the most devastating international event of our time. Read more
6 Generations color, 57 minutes
The impact of loss of land, language, culture and life itself is made all the more clear as Ernestine De Soto tells the story of her ancestors, documented through missions records and the work of anthropologist John Peabody Harrington. Read more
Posted on September 5th, 2011
Jathilan color, 27 minutes
Jathilan is an Indonesian folk dance that uses the power of music and dance to channel powerful and sometimes terrifying forces. Led by a spiritual guide and a whip-bearing ringleader, a group of dancers ride woven horses in rhythmic unison until they are entered by spirits. Read more
Ritual Burdens color, 25 minutes
Ni Ketut Kasih who has lived her whole life surrounded by the complex rhythms of the Balinese ritual calendar. However, the pressures of ritual requirements often overwhelm her, crowding her mind with memories of her difficult childhood during Indonesia’s war for independence. Read more
Memory of My Face color, 22 minutes
Bambang Rudjito, a university-educated Indonesian man in his late thirties is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, the film illustrates how the residues of colonialism and the pervasive influence of globalization affect the subjective experience of mental illness. Read more
Kites and Monsters color, 22 minutes
The film focuses on a growing boy, Wayan Yoga, and explores the protective aspects of culture that may guide developmental neuropsychiatric processes. Read more
Posted on August 15th, 2011
Gringolandia color, 54 minutes
Americans have been living the expat life in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for more than 50 years. Recently, though, their numbers have increased dramatically, impacting this once sleepy provincial locale. Read more
The Uprising of ‘34 color, 88 minutes
The story of the General Strike of 1934, a massive but little-known strike by hundreds of thousands of Southern cotton mill workers during the Great Depression. Read more
Posted on July 12th, 2011
Bastards of Utopia color, 55 minutes
Three Croatian activists struggle to change the world amid the aftershocks of socialism’s failure. They fight in their own way for a new leftism, whether clashing with police or squatting in an old factory, risking everything to live their politics. Read more
Posted on June 2nd, 2011
The Films of Richard Broadman
Committed to presenting the complexity of society’s problems from “the voices and tales of people not usually presented in the media,” Richard Broadman (1946 - 2000) was an uncompromising filmmaker who specialized in chronicling the American urban experience through oral history. DER is proud to inherit this invaluable film collection, most of which are now available on DVD for the first time:
Brownsville Black and White color, 83 minutes
Explores the complex history of interracial cooperation, urban change, and social conflict in Brownsville, New York - location of the 1968 Ocean Hill Brownsville School War, in which the African-American (and Hispanic) community battled the predominantly white-and-Jewish teachers union. Read more
Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston b&w, 60 minutes
Spurred by the large institutional forces that reshaped Boston, developers and speculators buy and sell the neighborhood as the displaced poor population and an encroaching affluent population play out the story of urban renewal together. Read more
Down The Project: The Crisis of Public Housing b&w, 60 minutes
The story of the early days of two Boston-area projects that housed working families and how they, along with the concept of government housing, have since been in decline. Read more
Water and the Dream of the Engineers color, 80 minutes
A feature-length film in 4 sections for easy classroom use, Water is an educational odyssey exploring engineering, environmentalism, and the troubled relations between these two traditions. Read more
Love Stories: Women, Men, & Romance color, 85 minutes
Provides both a history and a modern-day portrait of the changing attitudes and expectations surrounding romantic relationships. Part I, “Women,” documents the growth of feminist values; Part II, “Men,” shows male reaction to a changing world; Part III, “Romance,” portrays a new dynamic of male/female relations. Read more
The Collective: Fifteen Years Later b&w, 60 minutes
The story of one collective in the 1970s - their successes, failures, and how they view themselves and the ideals for which they campaigned, while looking back fifteen years later. Read more
Children of Labor: A Finnish-American Histoy b&w, 55 minutes
Three generations of Finnish-Americans recount how they coped with harsh realities by creating their own institutions: churches, temperance halls, socialist halls, and cooperatives. Read more
Posted on May 11th, 2011
