HEDU 5300: Diversity & Health

More than 30 million Americans are stuck in jobs that pay less than the federal poverty level for a family of four. Shot over a 3 year period, this documentary chronicles the day-to-day struggles of four low-wage earners to support their families. Jean Reynolds (nursing assistant) and Mary Venittelli (waitress) of New Jersey, Jerry Longoria (security guard) of San Francisco, and Barbara Brooks (student and single mother) of Freeport, N.Y. relate their dreams, frustrations, and accomplishments.

A documentary about the trials of the three men implicated in the murder of James Byrd, Jr. Byrd was beaten, chained to a pickup truck, and dragged to death in Jasper, Tex. on June 7, 1998. Through interviews, this film examines the effect that the murder and the trials had on the townspeople and race relations within the town. Black townspeople were filmed and interviewed by a Black crew and Whites by a White crew.

Follows a predominately Arab-American high school football team from a working-class Detroit suburb as they practice for their big cross-town rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, revealing a community holding onto its Islamic faith while they struggle for acceptance in post 9/11 America.

When an Arab American community center brings an Egyptian poet to perform a 1000-year-old epic, sparks fly. The result is a familiar American tale: parents trying to pass on cherished traditions and language, while their children are at home in a world of McDonald's and MTV

The tiny kingdom of Bhutan is hidden away in the Himalayas and dwarfed by its giant neighbors, India and China. While the rest of the world pounds the treadmill of economic development, Bhutan has continued on its alternative path, pursuing the ultimate goal for its people: happiness. For centuries, its benevolent kings ignored technological advances, seeking to protect their people from outside influences. Then, overnight, 47 satellite stations began broadcasting in the country. The impact on the sheltered society has been profound. Following a surge in teenage violence, the government decided to ban all channels considered to be a dangerous influence on their peaceful way of life. This documentary examines Bhutan's quandary: Can the nation's mythical spiritual principles withstand this Western onslaught?

After twenty years surviving refugee camps in Nepal, the Kingdom of Bhutan's forgotten exiles abandon hopes of returning to their lost land and seek a new life in a place called America.

In 1992, the multi-ethnic city of Banja Luka, Bosnia was invaded by militant Serb forces. Fearing for their children's lives, Emir and Aida Vajraca sent their 15 year-old daughter and 6 year-old son to safety in nearby Croatia. Eleven months later, Aida followed, leaving behind her husband and home. Forced out of his own house, and under the constant threat of "ethnic cleansing," Emir struggled to save the country he loved by joining a humanitarian organization dedicated to bringing aid to prisoners of war and helping people escape nearby concentration camps.

Danijel is a soldier fighting for the Serbs, and Ajla is a Bosnian held captive in the camp he oversees. They two knew each other before the war, and could have found love with each other. But as the armed conflict takes hold of their lives, their relationship grows darker, their motives and connection to one another ambiguous, and their allegiances uncertain.

Far East Deep South explores the seldom-told history of Chinese immigrants living in the American South during the late 1800s to mid-1900s through the eyes of Charles Chiu and his family as they travel from California to Mississippi to find answers about his father, K.C. Lou.

This documentary describes how King Leopold II of Belgium turned the Congo into its private colony between 1885 and 1908. Under his control, the Congo became a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber. Families were held as hostages, starving to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber. Children's hands were chopped off as punishment for late deliveries. The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a "tendentious diatribe" for depicting King Leopold II as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo. Yet, it is agreed today that the first Human Rights movement was spurred by what happened in the Congo.

"Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over 4 million people have died, and many tens of thousands of women and girls have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. Until now, the world has known nothing of their stories. A survivor of gang rape herself, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson has created an extraordinary film in which these brave women finally speak."

Brutal wars that have cost a thousand lives a day are nearly over in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. People are returning home after more than a decade as refugees, but many come home to find someone else has claimed their land. Cousins Lalia Mawazo and Safi Muzaliwa are in the middle of such a dispute.

The ongoing bloodshed in the Democratic Republic of Congo is of such enormity that within the region it is sometimes referred to as the First African World War. In this ABC News program, Ted Koppel presents two successive stories about the struggle going on in Congo. First, he uses a wide-angle lens to capture a decade of crises: the Tutsi genocide in neighboring Rwanda, the resulting flood of refugees into Congo, the irreparable ecological damage done to Congo's wildlife, and the depredations against native Congolese and Rwandan refugees by Rwandan Hutu raiders and others. Then, Mr. Koppel focuses in on the town of Shabunda, where a Catholic priest is trying to help his traumatized flock deal with the rape and murder it endures.

Follows four years of the lives of a group of contemporary immigrants as they journey to start new lives in America, including a couple from India in Silicon Valley, a Mexican meatpacker in rural Kansas, two families of Nigerian refugees, two baseball players from the Dominican Republic joining the L.A. Dodgers, and a newly-wed Palestinian woman in Chicago. The detailed portraits of these immigrants not only result in a kaleidoscope of immigrant life but offer 'first impressions' of America.

Barack Obama was elected on a platform of change, promising a new era of diplomacy and international cooperation. Can President Obama really deliver a new vision of America? In this edition of the Journal, Bill Moyers speaks with Mark Danner, author of Stripping Bare the Body, a moral history of American power over the past quarter century, about Obama's challenges in changing the mind-set of America from war to peace and redefining the U.S. as a nation. Afterward, the Journal profiles public health doctor America Bracho, who serves her Santa Ana, California, community--notorious for crime, poverty, and disease--with her organization, Latino Health Access.

The Oral History on Film Project records on film in-depth testimonies of the survivors and first-hand witnesses of Ba'thist atrocities, to give voice to the many thousands of victims and survivors of atrocity in Iraq between 1968 and 2003. The unprecedented opportunity to speak openly with so many Iraqis, coupled with the fleeting nature of human life and memory, makes this work extremely urgent. This four-part set is a series of annual survivor testimonies published by the Iraq Memory Foundation.

In the telling of the life and death of Billy Jack Gaither, explores the roots of homophobia in America and asks how these attitudes, beliefs and fears contribute to the recent rise in violence against gays.

"An exploration of what happens when experienced teachers talk to their students about lesbians and gay men. Students are asked to consider issues related to homosexuality at six elementary and middle schools."

Sela Panapasa lectures on the health problems of United States Pacific Islanders.

Young Samoans tell about their experiences as being a part of the United States.

Explores the indomitable spirit of three "Lost Boys" from the Sudan who are forced to leave their homeland due to a tumultuous civil war. Chronicles their triumph over seemingly insurmountable adversities and a relocation to the United States, where the Lost Boys build active and fulfilling new lives but remain deeply committed to helping friends and family they have left behind.

The journey of two teenage Sudanese boys, orphaned by their war torn country, who traveled to America looking for a safer environment and learning to cope with the unfamiliar complexities of contemporary American society.
Originally released as a documentary feature in 2003.

Nightiline follows the journey of Syrian refugees who now call America home. Meet students attending American schools for the first time and see protests against refugee arrivals.

Over a period of seven months in 2012, a group of Syrian women created video diaries to let the world know what living under Bashar al-Assad's rule is like. In this documentary, the six tell how revolution and war transformed their lives. "At first I was for the reforms," says Sima. "When did I change my mind? When there was blood." Although most support the anti-government revolt and have paid for that stance-Ayat's house was bombed, Khawla was imprisoned-Yara, a reporter for the official news agency SANA, explains why she still supports the regime. Viewers also meet Maria, a member of the Christian opposition, and Maya, a filmmaker who is deeply involved in the pro-democracy movement.

The first feature documentary dealing extensively with Tibetan medicine, one of the most higly developed medical systems. This documentary presents evidence that deserves serious consideration as a supplement to Western medical technology.