The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files

Babylon

July 2012 •Arabic

After the insurrection erupted in Libya in the spring of 2012, more than a million people flocked to neighboring Tunisia in search of a safe haven from the escalating violence. When a massive refugee camp was hastily constructed near the Ras Jdir border checkpoint in Tunisia, a trio of filmmakers carried their cameras in and began filming with no agenda. This on-the-fly chronicle of the camp's installation, operation, and dismantling captures a postmodern Babel complete with a multinational population of displaced folk, a regime of humanitarian aid workers, and international media that broadcasts its “image” to the world. Visually stunning and refreshingly undogmatic, Babylon reveals a rarely seen aspect of the Arab Spring.

Faceless Heroes

July 2012 •English

Brussels, Béguinage church. Migrants organize a hunger strike to obtain papers. A man dies. Tunisia, Libya. A border camp of Choucha refugees tell the horror of crossing the Sahara to the north. Liège. In a refugee center, a man narrates his Mediterranean crossing in a chamber of air. Three moments of a battle for survival.

Greensboro: Closer to the Truth

February 2007 •English

On November 3, 1979, members of the Communist Workers Party were holding a Death to the Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. Suddenly a caravan rounded the corner, scattering the protesters. Klansmen and Nazis emerged from the cars, unloaded an arsenal of guns and began firing. Five people were killed in what became known as the Greensboro Massacre. Greensboro: Closer to the Truth reconnects 25 years later with the players in this tragedy—widowed and wounded survivors, along with their attackers—and chronicles how their lives have evolved in the long aftermath of the killings. All converge when the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission ever held in the United States is convened in Greensboro from 2004-2006 to investigate the Massacre. As the Commission struggles to uncover what actually happened and why, the participants confront the truth of their past, and struggle with the possibility of hope and redemption.

Washington, le président McKinley adressant son message au peuple

March 1897 •French

A crowd of spectators listen to President William McKinley's speech during his inauguration ceremony outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Five Steps to Tyranny

February 2001 •English

A look by Sheena McDonald at how ordinary people come to do horrible things. This is a politics lesson based on history and psychology.

Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War

September 1971 •Japanese

On their way back from the Cannes Film Festival in 1971, filmmakers Wakamatsu Koji and Adachi Masao visited Lebanon to meet Japan's Red Army faction and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to shoot a newsreel film promoting the Palestinian resistance. Conceived as a ‘declaration of world war’ that implicates us all, the directors capture the everyday banality of military training and preparation exercises for imminent battle.

8 Presidentes 1 Juramento: A História de um Tempo Presente

November 2021 •Portuguese

The movie is a collage and comentary of varied third party footage on news relating to each and every one of the eight Presidents of Brazil who took office since the end of the military government, from José Sarney to Jair Bolsonaro.

Strange Fruit

May 2002 •English

In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billy holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic. Written by Excerpted from Coolidge Corner Theatre Program Update

Black Sun

May 1998 •German

A historical analysis of how groups such as the Nazi’s may use language, symbols, and religious connotation in order to come to power. It raises questions that deserve in depth analysis and consideration. Questions include: Where do legends expand our thinking and where do they bury it? When does spiritual pursuit suddenly turn into fanaticism and violence? Last, have we as a society learned from our past, and if so have forgotten the lessons of the 20th Century? Are we now embarking on a new level only to learn the same old lessons about humanity again? In addressing these questions we are taken into the back drop of the history of Germany beginning in the late 1800’s through the late 20th Century at the eve of the 21st. “A society that does not take archetypes, myths, and symbols seriously will possibly be jumped by them from behind.”

All the President's Men Revisited

April 2013 •English

The Watergate case was the original game changer of America politics. How has Watergate changed the Presidency? What effect has the scandal had on our political leaders? And has hope and optimism forever been replaced in our national dialogue by doubt and cynicism? In 1973, Watergate's most pivotal year, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein doggedly investigated the scandal exposing the long, twisted trail of cover-ups and lies.

Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther

August 1970 •English

The portrait of Eldridge Cleaver, the "Minister of Information" for the Black Panthers movement, in exile in Algiers.

The Gordon Affair

December 2021 •English

As a small liberal arts college on the North Shore, Gordon College has not been without its issues. Budget cuts in 2019 resulted in the downsizing of several departments which impacted students' college career. In 2020 during the heat of the pandemic, racial tensions rise after hate crimes are committed on campus. This is the story of the class of 2022.

The Martyred Presidents

October 1901 •English

This film is difficult to classify. It opens on a scene showing a mourner with bowed head sitting in front of what appears to be a tombstone. Shortly afterwards, the face of Abraham Lincoln and then of two other presidents, Garfield and McKinley, can be seen on the monument and then they disappear. There is a figure huddled at the foot of a statue of Justice, as if asking forgiveness.

WIN-NIP-EGG

January 2015 •French

When a state phantomizes a population, another reality. When history distorts the truth. When my (her)story meets another (her)story. When women disappear without a trace. When, white and privileged, I attend a rehearsal of stories. When violence done to women’s bodies equals the violence done by words. The bodies of those we don’t want to see or hear. From my studio window, I look out and my life intersects with theirs. In Winnipeg there are those who Win, generally the whites. There are the nips, the name given to Asian immigrants (the Latinos included in the insult) And everyone walks on EGG shells.

A Sense of Loss

January 1973 •English

Shot over six weeks in December 1971, and January 1972, the film consisted of interviews with Protestants, Catholics, politicians, and some soldiers, combined with TV news clips of bombings and violence. The deaths of four individuals formed the central focus of the film, which Ophüls described as ‘an old, middle-aged, humanistic, social-democratic attempt to give people an idea that life after all is not that cheap’. The BBC refused to transmit the completed film on the grounds that it was ‘too pro-Irish’ (Sunday Times, 5 Nov. 1972). (via http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/media/docs/freespeech.htm)

Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border

March 2013 •Spanish

A deeply human portrait of the chaotic reality of the US - Mexico border. Full of stunnig images and crafted like a classic city-symphony where the sum of the pieces add up to a larger whole, Purgatorio, a Journey Into the Heart of the Border brings together a universe of small stories to create a compelling and visceral cinematic experience that takes audiences into the very soul of life on the border.

Goldman Sachs: The Bank That Runs the World

April 2012 •French

This documentary is a case study of the multinational tentacles of the world's biggest bank, how it started and what its power means to everyone.

Afganistanbul

May 2018 •Turkish

They Come To America II

March 2013 •English

A documentary that measures the cost of providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

Silent Britain

May 2006 •English

Long treated with indifference by critics and historians, British silent cinema has only recently undergone the reevaluation it has long deserved, revealing it to be far richer than previously acknowledged. This documentary, featuring clips from a remarkable range of films, celebrates the early years of British filmmaking and spans from such pioneers as George Albert Smith and Cecil Hepworth to such later figures as Anthony Asquith, Maurice Elvey and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock.