I created this list in order to help people interested in activism, social problems, and politics get acquainted with various contemporary issues. I hope that this list provides you with a source of informative, thought provoking, and entertaining documentaries and launches you into political activism. So grab a date and enjoy. Please share this on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
1. People like us: Social Class in America:
“A sprawling look at the class system in the United States, ranging from WASP elegance to trailer-park desperation, with lots of other stuff in between.
2. The Corporation:
“Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance.”
3. Maquilapolis:
“Just over the border in Mexico is an area peppered with maquiladoras: massive sweatshops often owned by the world’s largest multinational corporations. Carmen and Lourdes work at maquiladoras in Tijuana, and it is there that they try to balance the struggle for survival with their own radicalization in this documentary.”
4. Teached:
“More than half a century after Brown v. Board of Education integrated U.S. schools, African-American and Hispanic students still perform far behind white students, and urban, minority youth are dropping out in record numbers. TEACHED Vol. I, a trilogy of three short films, provides a hard-hitting look at public education in America, exposing how the system virtually guarantees that certain populations will continue to fail.
5. Manufactured Landscapes:
“Photographer Edward Burtynsky travels the world observing changes in landscapes due to industrial work and manufacturing.”
6. The Century of The Self:
“The Century of The Self is an award winning British television documentary film. It focuses on how Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Edward Bernays influenced the way corporations and governments have analyzed, dealt with, and controlled people.”
7. Food Fight:
“A fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement rebelled against big agribusiness to launch the local organic food movement.”
8. Manufacturing Consent:
“A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media’s role in modern propaganda.”
9. Tough Guise:
“Tough Guise systematically examines the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the U.S. at the dawn of the 21st century.”
10. Death on a Factory Farm:
“Death on a Factory Farm is a 2009 television documentary film concerning the animal rights abuses at the Wiles hog farm, and the subsequent investigation and trial.”
