In Pictures

New Videos | New Feature Films | Featured Video of the Month | Other News

New Videos

Golden Venture (Film 352.73 G5658 2006 DVD) - Story of the Golden Venture, a freighter smuggling 300 illegal Chinese immigrants into the United States, which ran aground off New York City.  The disaster raised a number of questions and issues related to U.S. immigration policy.

Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter (Film 616.831 C73854 2000 DVD) - Looks at the progression of a mother's Alzheimer's disease and her daughter's changing response.

Coming of Age: Ethnographic Profiles from a Global Perspective (Film 306.C7352 2005 DVD) - Looks at six children and adolescents from Russia, China, Malaysia, Uganda, the Dominican Republic, and Canada's Baffin Island, all of whom are undergoing key stages in their transition to adulthood.

Classroom Challenge: Debating Darwin in the 21st Century (Film 576.8 C5699 2006 DVD) - An ABC Nightline show looks at evolution, intelligent design, and science education.

Life of Buddha (Film 294.363 L6263 2004 DVD) - Tells the story of Prince Siddhartha and his spiritual transformation into the Buddha.

Typhoid Mary: The Most Dangerous Woman in America (Film 614.511209 T98 2005 DVD) - Looks at Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant cook, who was quarantined against her will on an island off Manhattan after being identified as the source of typhoid fever that struck in Oyster Bay.

Health for Sale (Film 338.476151 H3495 2007 DVD) - Tries to answer the question of whether the pharmaceutical industry is a barrier to a healthier world, especially in the poorer parts of the globe.  The film focuses on Big Pharma, the world's ten largest pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Healing Words: Poetry and Medicine (Film 615.851 H3491 2008 DVD) - Looks at patients at a teaching hospital in Florida whose therapy and recovery incorporates poetry.

How Difficult Can This Be?: The F.A.T. City Workshop (Film 371.9 H8301 2004 DVD) - A group briefly experiences life as a learning disabled student while learning ways to teach and help such students.

Beyond F.A.T. City: A Look Back, A Look Ahead (Film 371.9 B4687 2005 DVD) - Strategies and advice for teachers and parents of learning disabled students.

New Feature Films

Lust for Life (Feature Film L9763 1956 2006 DVD) - Kirk Douglas stars as Vincent Van Gogh in this film based on the novel by Irving Stone.

A Man for All Seasons (Feature FilmM3112 1966 2007 DVD) - Paul Scofield stars as Sir Thomas More, torn between his conscience as the Catholic Chancellor of England and his duty to the crown (Henry VIII, played by Robert Shaw) when Henry seeks approval to divorce his wife in order to marry his mistress.

I Shot Andy Warhol (Feature Film I17 1995 2001 DVD) - Film version of the shooting of pop-art star Andy Warhol by Valerie Solanas.

Intolerance (Feature Film In889 1916 1998 DVD) - A classic of the Silent Film Era, this is four stories held together by the theme of man's inhumanity to man.  The film was D. W. Griffith's response to criticism that his previous film, Birth of a Nation, was overtly racist.

The Sword in the Stone (Feature Film Sw74 1963 2008 DVD) - Walt Disney's 1963 animated take on the Arthurian legend and how Arthur became King.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Feature Film It6 1966 2000 DVD) - Originally broadcast as a television special, this Peanuts feature looks at the gang's celebration of that day and Linus's belief in the Great Pumpkin, this holiday's version of Santa Claus.

Mulan (Feature Film M8969 1998 2004 DVD) - Disney's animated take on a Chinese tale of a girl, who disguised as a man in order to join the army, saves her country.

Tron (Feature FilmT752 1982 2002 DVD) - A man (Jeff Bridges) finds himself inside a computer game battling Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) in this Disney tale that was among the first animated films to make use of computer animation.

Featured Video -

     It's Campaign '08 and the library has a number of videos related to politics, elections, the presidency, and the media's role in politics.  Starting with documentaries, we have The War Room (Film 324.9730928 W195 1993 2004 DVD), a behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton's run for the presidency.  This year it appears Ohio will once again play a crucial role in electing either McClain or Obama.  Swing State Ohio: A Journey to the Heartland of a Divided Nation (Film 324.973 Sw64 2006 DVD) looks at the electoral process by looking at the 2004 campaign in Ohio, which also reminds us why Ohio will again likely play a key role in the election of a new president.

     On the feature film side are six films of interest.  In Tanner '88 (Feature Film T1573 1988 2004 DVD) Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate (Jack Tanner, played by Michael Murphy) and put him on the 1988 campaign trail to rub elbows with the real candidates and politicians.  Robert Altman directs this satire of American politics in a media age that was originally broadcast as a television series.  Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) plays Tanner's daughter.

     Bill Clinton's campaign again provided the background in Primary Colors (Feature Film P9351 1999 DVD), originally published as a novel by "anonymous," although Newsweek columnist Joe Klein was soon shown to be the author.  In the film version, John Travolta plays Jack Stanton, a character based on Bill Clinton.

     The line between ambition and integrity has been blurred for longer that we suspect, as evidenced by Frank Capra's 1948 film, State of the Union (Feature Film St2939 1948 2006 DVD) in which Spencer Tracy stars as a presidential candidate caught between a string-pulling owner of a newspaper chain and his devoted, honest wife, played by Katharine Hepburn.

      Along similar lines, in The Candidate (Feature Film C161 1972 1997 DVD), Robert Redford plays an idealistic lawyer running for the U. S. Senate, who, as his chances for winning improve begins to act and speak more like a politician than an idealist.

     Richard Gere stars in Power (Feature Film P8716 1986 1999 DVD) as a media guru who can package a politician, doctor a spin and transform a gaffe into a moment of glory - but only if the candidate pay.  The candidate's ideas and beliefs don't matter, only winning. 

      Finally, how can we forget Wag the Dog (Feature Film W121 1998 DVD or Feature Film W121 1998 VHS),
starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro, in which the President's "fix-it" man hires a Hollywood producer to create a fictitious war to take attention away from a presidential sex scandal - all just two weeks before the election.

Other News

     The next Flicks with Friends: The Friends of the Library Film Festival will be at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 in the Pritchard Room of the Library.  We will be showing Ben X, a Belgian film.  For more information on Ben X, please visit http://www.filmmovement.com/downloads/press/Ben_X_FM_Kit.pdf. The Friends will also be running a "concession stand" with soft drinks and popcorn available for $1 each.