Educational Film & Home DVD Catalog

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
(Special Educational Package)

Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Produced by: Teri Lang and Taggart Siegel

Winner of 31 International Film Festivals

"A loving, moving, inspiring, quirky documentary."
- Roger Ebert

“An extraordinarily personal and invigorating saga of one man’s reclamation of traditional American ideals… this symbiotic artistry is surely one of the greatest films ever made about America’s farming traditions.”
- Jeff Shannon, The Seattle Times

“Unbelievably special…a real and gripping story told with insight and humor.”
- Al Gore, former Vice-President

“…one man's extraordinary life as a gateway to a larger history of tragedy and transition. It's an unflinching account of what farming takes—and, more important, what it gives back...”
- Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
(Non-Theatrical Home Edition)

Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Produced by: Teri Lang and Taggart Siegel

Winner of 31 International Film Festivals

The epic tale of a maverick Midwestern farmer. An outcast in his community, Farmer John bravely stands amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and violence. By melding the traditions of family farming with the power of art and free expression, this powerful story of transformation and renewal heralds a resurrection of farming in America.

Disenchanted Forest

Directed by: Sarita Siegel
Produced by: Taggart Siegel

We call them o-rang-u-tans, which literally means "forest persons" in the Malay and Indonesian languages. They are the only great apes native to Asia. Of all the apes, they are the closest to man in genetic makeup. And they face extinction.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$100
Home Viewing	$23.99

Who Does She Think She Is?

Directed by: Pamela Tanner Boll
Produced by: Pamela Tanner Boll

From the producing team that won an Academy Award for Born into Brothels comes Who Does She Think She Is?, a film that examines some of the most pressing issues of our time: parenting and work, partnering and independence, economics and art. This gorgeously photographed film follows five women artists—from Hawaii to Sante Fe, from Ohio to New York—as they navigate the challenges of making work outside the elite art world.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$249
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99
Home Viewing - House Party Kit	$29.95
Home Viewing	$24.95

Out in the Silence

Directed by: Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer
Produced by: Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer

OUT IN THE SILENCE captures the controversy that ensues when filmmaker Joe Wilson's same-sex wedding announcement is published in the newspaper of the small Pennsylvania hometown he left long ago. Drawn back by a plea for help from the mother of a gay teen being tormented at school, Wilson's journey dramatically illustrates the challenges of negotiating the morally charged issue of sexual orientation and the potential for building bridges when people with differing opinions approach each other with openness and respect.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$155
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99
Home Viewing	$25

Freedom on the Fence

Directed by: Glenn Holsten and Andrea Marks
Produced by: Andrea Marks

Freedom on the Fence details the evolution of Polish poster art by revealing the unique role posters played in the social, political and cultural life of Poland, from WWII through the fall of Communism. The 40 min. documentary brings this story to life through interviews with leading Polish poster artists, and commentaries from both American and Polish scholars on the significance of the Polish poster as a cultural icon.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.95
Home Viewing	$24.95

Between Earth & Sky

Directed by: Kalyanee Mam
Produced by: Kalyanee Mam

Torn from home and country and set adrift in a foreign world, three young Iraqi refugees struggle to find hope as they yearn for a lost past and face a desperate and uncertain future. Unique in its storytelling, Between Earth & Sky takes you into a world within – a world of lost dreams, quiet beauty and gentle strength.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$100
Home Viewing	$20

Ballot Measure 9

Directed by: Heather MacDonald
Produced by: Heather MacDonald

The Sundance-winning feature Ballot Measure 9 is the chilling chronicle of an historic gay-rights battle in Oregon.  As the anti-gay violence escalates, the film evolves into an exposé of hate politics that crosses lines of race, religion, and sexual identity. Awarded prizes internationally, this galvanizing classic continues to resonate for a new generation.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.95
Home Viewing	$24.95

Bolinao 52

Directed by: Duc Nguyen
Produced by: Duc Nguyen

One boat with 110 passengers escaped from Vietnam. After 37 days of drifting only 52 survived.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$200
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.95
Home Viewing	$23.95

The Women and the Waves

Directed by: Heather Hudson
Produced by: Heather Hudson and Peck Euwer

The Women and the Waves documents the female surfing experience through the lives of ten women from age 17 to 64. The film pays tribute to pioneers who paved the way and recognition to the everyday surfers who keep the dream alive.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.99
Home Viewing	$24.95

Return to Tarawa: The Leon Cooper Story

Directed by: Steven Barber
Produced by: Leon Cooper

In 1943 US Navy ensign Leon Cooper was charged with protecting the lives of hundreds of US Marines in the first major US amphibious assault upon the heavily defended Japanese stronghold Tarawa, an island archipelago in the South Pacific. Sixty-six years later Leon decided to return to the scene of his first (of six) battle experience because he had learned that the remains of many Americans still lay where they fell during the battle of “Bloody Tarawa,” in unmarked graves. Academy Award nominated actor Ed Harris narrates this veteran’s emotional struggle with his past.

For Mature Audiences.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.95
Home Viewing	$24.95

Journey with Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol to the heart of the Amazon rainforest in search of the indigenous children she photographed fifteen years ago. This film invites you to see through the eyes of these remarkably resilient people whose lives are transformed by a road carved through their forest home by an outside world. From Chief Amir Surui’s embattled efforts to stop illegal loggers to the assassination of legendary rubber tapper Chico Mendes, this poetic and visually stunning film engages our senses and sympathies as global issues take on a profound human perspective.

LICENSE	PRICE
Home Viewing	$21

The shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia. For nearly a year, filmmakers Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, so they could capture first-hand the stories of residents, day laborers and activists on all sides of the debate. This timely and powerful film is more than a story about illegal immigration. Ultimately it challenges viewers to ask what the 'American dream' really means.

Resource guide, Discussion guide and Transcript available from Active Resource's Farmingville campaign page.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION
LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.95
Home Viewing	$21

BILINGUAL SPANISH/ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION
LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.95
Home Viewing	$21

A Dream in Doubt is an immigrant story in a world in which patriotism has morphed into murder. When Rana Singh Sodhi’s brother is killed in America’s first post-9/11 revenge murder, he begins a journey to reclaim his American dream and fight the hate that continues to threaten his community. This intimate, hour-long documentary of one man’s odyssey from persecution in India to embracing America as his homeland proves that courage and hope have the power to overcome hate.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$265
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99
Home Viewing	$24.95

Correction

Directed by: Michael Mulcahy

CORRECTION follows four recruits through the Arizona Department of Corrections seven-week training academy, and then over their first eight months within the state prison system. By exploring the complex relationship between correctional officer and prison inmate, this documentary tells a story about power, justice and the American prison system.

Mai’s America

Directed by: Marlo Lopas

Mai's America is an intimate portrait of Mai, a spunky, mini-skirted daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s revolution who leaves cosmopolitan Hanoi on a high school exchange program.  Anticipating Hollywood, Mai crash lands in rural Mississippi…where her relationships with white Pentecostal and black Baptist host families, self-proclaimed rednecks, transvestites, and South Vietnamese immigrants challenge her long-held ideas about herself, about freedom, about America, and even about Vietnam.

"...This fine first feature is a disarming personal documentary that turns into a very moving consideration of...individual heroism. Winner of a well-deserved jury prize..."
- Variety

Born on Cambodian New Year in a refugee camp, Socheata grew up in the United States not knowing anything about her family’s past. She journeys to Cambodia to discover the secrets of how her family came together during the Khmer Rouge period. She finds that what her parents hid in shame also proves their great heroism. NEW YEAR BABY is a love story – a celebration of family and the power of commitment.

“It gets in your blood,” says a resident of Picher, Oklahoma about his sense of hometown pride. His words, however, take on a powerful irony in this documentary about the toxic legacy of Picher’s lead mining industry. Since their town was declared a Superfund site in 1981, Picher’s residents have been forced to choose between preserving their image of the American dream and preserving their health. THE CREEK RUNS RED carries us into the heart of this sharply divided community to reveal with extraordinary intimacy and insight the full human tragedy of environmental catastrophe. 

"AN ANGEL IN THE VILLAGE” deftly weaves Yeh’s Africa sojourn together with the story of her evolution from tradition-bound artist to social change visionary.”
—Eils Lotozo, Philadelphia Weekly

AN ANGEL IN THE VILLAGE is an inspiring documentary which traces the 20-year journey of Lily Yeh, a Chinese-born activist artist who uses art to create social change among residents of inner-city Philadelphia and Korogocho, Kenya. 

“The effects of the US/Cuba impasse has never felt more personal than in this true story of twin sisters......an incredible documentary. An emotional convergence of politics and family.”
– Festival of Women’s Film & Media Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2007

Two sisters. One passion. Romance. Revolution. Estrangement.

MIRROR DANCE tells the story of Margarita and Ramona de Saa, twin sisters who danced with the National Ballet of Cuba, whose once inseparable relationship was torn apart by love and politics.

Academy Award-nominated LEGACY is the unflinching chronicle of one family’s triumphant journey out of poverty and despair. Touchingly narrated by Nickcole Collins, a teenage girl wise beyond her years, the film follows the Collins family over five years as they slowly pull themselves out of the haze of poverty, drug addiction, and violence that plagues their public housing project in Chicago.

Every Child Is Born A Poet

"The deeply felt resonance of "EVERY CHILD IS BORN A POET" derives from Piri Thomas' unique ability to connect with his own interior life of feelings, and then to verbalize them through his art to the rest of the world."
– Jon Gartenberg

A fiery mix of documentary, drama, & spoken-word poetry, EVERY CHILD IS BORN A POET explores the life and work of Piri Thomas, the Afro-Cuban-Puerto Rican author of the classic autobiographical novel Down These Mean Streets. The film traces Thomas’ path from childhood to manhood in New York City’s Spanish Harlem, El Barrio, from the 1930's through the 1960’s – from home life during the Great Depression, to membership in barrio youth gangs, from a life of crime through six years spent in prison to his emergence as a writer.

Special Educational 16 Page Study Guide Included

Modern industrial agriculture is destroying the earth: desertification, water scarcity, toxic cocktails of agricultural chemicals pervading our food chains, ocean ecosystem collapse, soil erosion and massive loss of soil fertility.

Our ecosystems are overwhelmed. Humanity's increasing demands are exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity. A simple recipe to save the world? One man and a bucket of cow dung. Are you crazy?

The Split Horn:
Life of a Hmong Shaman in America

"It would be difficult for another documentary to equal the scope of Taggart Siegel's film "THE SPLIT HORN: Life of a Hmong shaman in America."
— Justin Lowe, Asian Week

The Split Horn is the sweeping story of a Hmong shaman and his family living in Appleton, Wisconsin. Documenting the journey of Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America this poignant film shows a shaman's struggle to maintain his ancient traditions as his children embrace American culture. American has become the testing ground for the enduring strength of Hmong culture. The evocative narrative captures the daily struggle to Paja Thao's family between two worlds.

Between Two Worlds

Between Two Worlds: The Hmong Shaman In America powerfully exposes the struggle of Hmong refugees in America. This classic documentary traces the lives of three Hmong families displaces thousands of miles from their villages in Northern Laos and alienated in American cities. Renowned anthropologist, Dwight Conquergood, narrates the rich history of shamanic rituals and explains the similarity between Hmong beliefs and those of Aboriginal people of the Americas.

The Heart Broken in Half

The "HEART BROKEN IN HALF" reminded me of Spike Lee's best work; as a documentary it taught me about street life in today's Chicago—and by analogy about many of America's inner-cities."
- Richard Schechner, Professor of Performance Studies, New York University

Gangs are society's ultimate devil figure. They symbolize transgression and embody the deepest fears of middle class citizens. Few filmmakers have dared or been able to get behind the headlines to confront the human reality and complexity of street gangs in urban America. Challenging stereotypes, this documentary gives voice to the street youths and reveals their underground culture. Here is an intricate web of symbols and passions, territory and brotherhood, honor and all to often, death.

Blue Collar and Buddha

"BLUE COLLAR AND BUDDHA" is that rarity among documentary films - a compelling human document, a proactive statement, a moving exploration of both anger and gentleness. This is not merely a first rate film—it's an important one."
- Donald Spoto, author, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

This Dramatic Documentary explores America's most recent refugees, struggling against the mounting tension of a post-Vietnam era filled with guilt and anger. A group of Laotian era filled with guilt and anger. A group of Laotian refugees have built a Buddhist temple on a small farmstead on the outskirts of a resolutely blue collar town. Their efforts to preserve their culture and religious heritage have been greeted by several terrorist attacks upon their temple.

Blue Collar and Buddha is a moving portrait of the experience of today's refugees and the dramas that results when East meets West.

Body Memories

Body Memories is a wild and often comic ride, one man's journey inward to find meaning in his life. He becomes an archeologist of the soul, digging through the layers of his past. Evocative images blend with a riveting performance that uncovers family secrets and buried traumas.

One part Spalding Gray, one part Pan's Labyrinth, Body Memories is more than a poignant and enchanting story, it is mythic revelation of hope and possibility.

Children of IBDAA:
To Create Something Out of Nothing

CHILDREN OF IBDAA: To Create Something Out of Nothing is about the lives of several adolescents in a Palestinian children's dance troupefrom Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank. They use their performance to express the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people, specifically the fight to return to their homeland. Through interviews and documentation of the children, the film offers insight into their families' displacement from their villages in historical Palestine, the physically and emotionally stressful aspects of life in a refugee camp, and the unique experience of participating in the politically motivated dance troupe. The story culminates in a visit by the children for the first time to demolished villages from which their grandparents were expelled in 1948.

Self-taught artist Stuart Buehler has a bad case of artistic gridlock. After his close friend and gallery owner William Jamison (Jamison/Thomas Gallery- Portland,Oregon & New York City) dies in 1995, huge loads of Stuart's unique work is returned to him, burying him under his own obsessive talents...until he starts the purging process. Relief comes in the form of the chaotic clean-up, including art jettisoned into the Willamette River and dolls floated down historic Tanner Creek, readings from Buehler's own "Gridlocker's Manifesto" and his final wild west get-away.

Richart

Best Video Documentary - Microcinefest

While confined to a psychiatric ward at age 50, Richard “Richart” Tracy made this discovery: “If you want to get out of the hospital – start making art like this. They will get rid of you - fast!" Seventeen years later, he’s turned three residential lots into a massive maze of his artistic, sculptural visions. A true, original thinker, Richart's genius turns your waste into his inspiration. "Out of your garbage, I become you!"

This documentary takes a trip through his yard, art, methods and his mind. Wait until you see what he keeps in his basement!

Ridin' & Rhymin': A Documentary About the Poetry and Perseverance of Cowgirl Georgie Sicking

"RIDIN' AND RHYMIN" captures the grace and grit of the remarkable Georgie Sicking: a cowboy, a poet, and a survivor. This sensitively crafted story reveals the uncomplicated wisdom and indomitable spirit of a sturdy soul who is an inspiration for us all.”
—Margo Metegrano, Editor, CowboyPoetry.com

Cowgirl poet Georgie Sicking pens tough rhymes for hard times. Whether on horseback, driving cattle across mountains, or onstage reciting to hundreds of fans, this intimate documentary captures the remarkable life of America’s most honored cowgirl poet.

Featuring the music of Lisa Miller & Ian Miller (from Lisa & Her Kin), Wylie & the Wild West, Leon Autrey, and David Lipkind.

OMAR & PETE is a compelling and highly personal film that examines the social, economic, and personal barriers two ex-offenders face as they try to reintegrate into their communities and families. Following the two long-time friends for several years after what they hope will be their final prison release, the film reveals two divergent paths as one wrestles with addiction and fear while the other finds success and freedom through helping others.

Aimee’s Crossing

Directed by: Tod Lending

In this very intimate, honest and provocative character study, the story of juvenile offender Aimee Meyers unfolds over four years as she struggles to overcome her addictions and destructive behavior.

Growin' Up Not A Child enters the violent living conditions of urban America and exposes communal violence on a scale that we never thought was possible in the U.S. Filmed in Chicago, it follows the lives of children living in dangerous communities who are making decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.

Breaking Ties focuses on three kids who are breaking their families' ties to poverty in the US. The film takes us inside the lives of these three kids, telling the story from their unique point of view while showing how poverty has molded their sense of the world and their future in it.