Season 3

2001

Sep 7, 2001 · 60m

Confederacy Theory presents and unflinching portrait of the cultural war that has erupted around the confederate flag - a century-old symbol that threatens to divide the South like no issue since the Civil Rights movement. Using never-before-seen archival footage and exclusive interviews with politicians, pundits, activists, and scholars, Confederacy Theory traces the history of this symbol and its impact on Southern culture, history, and identity - from the Civil War to the frontlines of a modern-day secession movement.

E2. Who Owns the Past?

Sep 14, 2001 · 60m

The final decades of the twentieth century brought unprecedented changes for American Indians, especially in the areas of human rights and tribal sovereignty. In 1990, after a long struggle between Indian rights groups and the scientific establishment, the Native American Graves Repatriation and Protection Act was passed.For American Indians, this was perhaps the most important piece of civil and human rights legislation of this century. Skeletons and grave goods that had been gathering dust in museums around the country could come home again, and Indian graves would be protected from further desecration.But a case tested these claims, and Who Owns the Past? focuses on the controversy that emerged. The discovery of a 9,000-year-old skeleton on the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington, reignited the conflict between anthropologists and Indian people over the control of human remains found on ancestral Indian lands. Anthropologists insist that these remains hold the key to America's past and must be studied for the benefit of mankind, while many Indian people believe that exhuming and studying them is a desecration of their ancestors.Kennewick Man has become a test case for NAGPRA and all that it symbolizes for American Indians. To a large extent, its outcome will determine Indian sovereignty over their past and their future in the 21st century.Who Owns the Past? examines how two ways of seeing the world - scientific versus traditional - are clashing in the case of Kennewick Man.

E3. Secrets of Silicon Valley

Sep 15, 2001 · 60m

SECRETS OF SILICON VALLEY is a shocking exposé of the hidden downsides of the Internet revolution and also a funny and moving meditation on America's love affair with technology. Told without narration, the film chronicles a tumultuous year in the lives of two young activists grappling with rapid social change and the meaning of globalization on their own doorsteps.

E4. Gibtown

Sep 21, 2001 · 60m

In Gibsonton, FL, thousands of carnival and circus show people have built a close-knit community in the twilight of the carnival sideshow. The residents include the keeper of the "freak animals," a "half-girl" married to the "tallest man in the world," and an octogenarian couple who have produced monkey acts for more than 40 years.

E5. Abandoned: The Betrayal of America's Immigrants

Sep 22, 2001 · 60m

This film illustrates the most recent wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. Through a close look at the personal impact of new immigration laws, this film depicts the severity of current detention and deportation policies. Lives are changed forever, as legal residents find themselves being torn away from their American families and sent to countries they barely know. For political asylum seekers, dreams are put on hold, as they are kept for years in county jails that profit from their incarceration.

E6. Good Kurds, Bad Kurds

Sep 28, 2001 · 60m

With a population of 25 million spilling across the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and the former Soviet Union, the Kurds have maintained their way of life for more than 2,000 years, despite attempts by various empires and nation states to eradicate their culture, and, in many cases, the Kurds themselves. Forbidden in Turkey to speak their own language, to sing their own songs, even to call their children by Kurdish names, the Kurds for generations have struggled to preserve their identity and to foster their traditions. In the early nineties, the Kurds of nearby Iraq found themselves suddenly supported in their old war for independence against Baghdad, when their interests coincided with those of Western powers fighting against Saddam Hussein. In the eyes of the State Department, the happy coincidence transformed them into "good" Kurds.

E7. Open Outcry

Oct 5, 2001 · 60m

In the securities markets, virtually everything is now automated as we increasingly trade online. But the legendary, hyper-charged sense of danger and controlled chaos of the trading pits survive at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. There, traders still scream "buy" and "sell" orders in a frenzied system known as "open outcry." This documentary captures the language and atmosphere of what may be the last gasp of a centuries-old ritual.

E8. The Split Horn

Oct 12, 2001 · 60m

THE SPLIT HORN is the sweeping story of a Hmong shaman and his family living in Appleton, Wisconsin. Documenting the 17-year journey of Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America, this poignant film shows a shaman's struggles to maintain his ancient traditions as his children embrace American culture.

E9. Undetectable

Oct 19, 2001 · 60m

Filmed over three years, this award-winning film examines the complex physical and psychological effects of the multi-drug therapies for HIV disease on three women and three men of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

E10. Romancing the Throne

Nov 9, 2001 · 60m

The sudden death of the King of Lesotho in January 1996 led to the coronation of his thirty-something bachelor son, Prince Mohato. Shot over a period of four years, the program follows Prince Mohato as he returns to the small country of Lesotho from London, is crowned King, and soon finds himself in need of a suitable wife. Soon Mohato becomes attracted to Karabo, "KB," a shy young woman attending the local university.