Subject: Social History
Social histories are not historical depictions (purposeful stories about events in the past), but are explanatory representations that tell us more about the era in which they are made.
5 Broken Cameras
- Director: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: France, Israel, Palestine
Given a video camera when his son is born, Burnat records his son's life as he grows up alongside the concrete barrier the Israeli government is constructing through the middle of their land. One day Burnat is filming the first steps of his child and the next catching the violent retaliation of the Israeli guards to the Palestinian villagers' non-violent protest to being separated from their ancestral lands.
A Dry White Season
- Director: Euzhan Palcy
- Release Date: 1989
- Production Country: United States
When the black gardener at Ben Du Toit's school asks for help finding his son, who he fears has been killed by the police, Ben, who is a white teacher, refuses—he is certain that the government he trusts would not be so unfaithful to any citizen. But when the boy turns up dead, Ben can no longer ignore the brutality and inequality sanctioned by his government and, as it becomes more and more difficult to simply stand by, Ben steps up.
Bal poussière
- Director: Henri Duparc
- Release Date: 1988
- Production Country: Ivory Coast
When a local village chief decides he needs a sixth wife, he sets his sights on young Binta, whose parents are happy to oblige him. But Binta is a modern woman, educated, visionary; soon, all parties involved—her husband, his other wives, and Binta herself—come to rue the day that she bowed to tradition and married the chief as custom demanded.
Bananas
- Director: Woody Allen
- Release Date: 1971
- Production Country: United States
Caught up in a Latin American revolution while trying to impress his social activist girlfriend, a neurotic American finds himself on trial for impersonating the leader of a 'banana republic.'
Black Friday
- Director: Anurag Kashyap
- Release Date: 2004
- Production Country: India
Police and federal authorities investigate a series of deadly explosions in Mumbai, uncovering a complicated tale of religious conflict, historical revisionism, disinterested authorities, and a vengeful mob boss.
Border
- Director: Christopher Burgard
- Release Date: 2007
- Production Country: United States
Fraught with charges of racism and intolerance, the topic of illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States is complex, with many facets, issues, and opinions on both sides of the border. The parties involved (including the people seeking a better life, those who prey on them as they travel north, and the ranchers and volunteers in the United States wanting an end to the damaging passage across their land) have many stories to tell.
Börn náttúrunnar (Children of Nature)
- Director: Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
- Release Date: 1991
- Production Country: Germany, Iceland, Norway
Too old to run his farm anymore and unwelcome in his daughter's city home, an elderly man moves into a nursing home. Ends up meeting his childhood sweetheart in the nursing home and, together, they decide they have better things to do than sit around unwanted, waiting to die, so they head out into the wilderness to meet their end on their own terms.
Bowling for Columbine
- Director: Michael Moore
- Release Date: 2002
- Production Country: Canada, United States, Germany
The United States is not the only nation with easy access to guns, a violent national history, or violent media, yet it has an astronomical crime rate compared to other nations that share these traits. Michael Moore sets out to examine how and why, focusing on the racial violence, bigotry, and corporations that make the guns in order to find his answers.
Catfish
- Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
- Release Date: 2010
- Production Country: United States
When an 8-year-old child prodigy artist, Abby, sends a New York photographer, Nev, paintings based on his photos, Nev befriends Abby and her family, primarily through online social networking. But the pitfall of long-distance relationships based solely on online interactions has always been and remains the same: participants can present any portion of themselves—or anyone else—that they want.
Cinema 500 km
- Director: Abdullah Al-Eyaf
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: Saudi Arabia
Movie theaters do not exist in Saudi Arabia, so a young Saudi fan applies for a visa and travels to Bahrain so that he can see a movie in a theater for the first time in his life.
Cinema Is Everywhere
- Director: Teal Greyhavens
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: United States
Actresses, actors, directors, film-goers, all find their own truths in film, yet the truths found are often universal human truths. Four different "film stories" are told here: an actress struggling to find success despite racial barriers; a novice director in a saturated film market; a documentary filmmaker going against cultural taboos; and a successful actress and director trying to forge new connections with film audiences. Together, they document how film not only tells our stories but is our story.
Cirkus Columbia (Circus Columbia)
- Director: Danis Tanovic
- Release Date: 2010
- Production Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Serbia
With the fall of Yugoslavia's totalitarian government, Divko sees his chance to return to the village he left twenty years ago, flush with wealth—and the trappings that go with success. But though his circumstances and those of his country seem different, Divko discovers that, just like the family he abandoned all those years ago, there is much that has not changed... and money cannot insulate either the man or his country from their past.
Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon
- Director: Peter Richardson
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: United States
Philomath, Oregon has long been a lumber town, but the decline of the timber industry in the late twentieth century threatens the community's traditional way of life. The older, rural culture built on the rhythms of the lumber trade and the urban identity of the newer residents are at odds, a difference crystallized in the battle over a decades-old tradition of providing scholarships to local high school graduates—grants funded by the largesse of an industry many of the newer residents neither understand nor value.
Cría Cuervos
- Director: Carlos Saura
- Release Date: 1976
- Production Country: Spain
Stifled in her authoritarian aunt's care, eight-year-old Ana finds solace in conjuring her mother's ghost and in contemplating the 'powerful poison' her mother once gave her, promising that 'one spoonful would kill an elephant'--and a spoonful appears to have been enough to kill Ana's father, a fascist supporter of Franco.
Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)
- Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: Germany
Assigned to spy on an acclaimed playwright and his actress girlfriend, a Stasi agent finds himself captivated by the couple and their obvious love for one another. His duty is to observe and report, but the agent must eventually decide if he is going to remain only an observer, or if he is going to step out and involve himself in the lives of others.
Das Lied von den zwei Pferden (The Two Horses of Genghis Khan)
- Director: Byambasuren Davaa
- Release Date: 2009
- Production Country: Germany
With the head and neck of her grandmother's beloved violin in tow, a singer returns to Mongolia, seeking both the repair of the violin and the words to the verses of an ancient song about Chinggis Khan. Once carved on the body of the violin, the verses were lost when her grandmother was forced to destroy the instrument during China's Cultural Revolution.
Desert Flower
- Director: Sherry Horman
- Release Date: 2009
- Production Country: United Kingdom, Germany, Austria
Born into a desert nomad family in Somalia, Waris Dirie flees her home to avoid an arranged marriage, and builds a career as a supermodel in Europe, but she finds her true life purpose when she speaks publicly about female genital mutilation and launches a campaign to end the practice, bringing education and a better standard of living to children in her homeland.
Donnie Darko
- Director: Richard Kelly
- Release Date: 2001
- Production Country: United States
Time-travel, mental illness, and a menacing rabbit named Frank frame a teenager's attempts to understand life as it is presented to him.
État de siège (State of Siege)
- Director: Costa-Gavras
- Release Date: 1972
- Production Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Sent to a South American country to train police in counter-insurgency methods, an American embassy worker is kidnapped by the guerrillas he is working against. Placed on trial for his life, he refuses to admit the devastation his help wreaks on not only the insurgents, but also the people of the nation—although, there is no guarantee that his execution will bring about any real change with the rebels and their country.
Falja e Gjakut (The Forgiveness of Blood)
- Director: Joshua Marston
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: United States, Albania, Denmark, Italy
When the ancient "blood feud" code is invoked against a family, the children suffer—the only safe place for popular and gregarious Nik is inside the family home, while Rudina, a straight-A student, must drop out and take up the family's delivery business. Trapped in a life far removed from their days as modern students in a modern school, Nik and Rudina must endure until the blood debt is settled, one way or another.