Skip to Main Content

On Race Matters and Social Justice

Academic Videos Online (AVON)

From AVON, you can find over 60,000 live-streaming films, including documentaries on race and social justice issues, such as:

  • John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020)  An intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’ life, legacy and more than 60 years of extraordinary activism. 98mins.
  • RBG [Ruth Bader Ginsberg] (2018). RBG is a revelatory documentary exploring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg 's exceptional life and career from Betsy West and Julie Cohen. 99 mins.
  • America to Me (2018). America to Me focuses on a year at Chicago’s Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRFHS), widely considered to be a safe, well-integrated, academically strong school.
  • Bias (2018). The toxic effects of bias make headlines every day: sexual harassment, racial profiling, the pay gap. As humans, we are biased. Yet few of us are willing to admit it. 98 mins.

  • Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart (2017). While most may know the widely studied and performed A Raisin in the Sun as their only reference point for Hansberry, the documentary Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart makes abundantly clear that there is much more to know about the author. 118 mins

  • 3 1/2 mins: 10 Bullets (2015). On Black Friday 2012, four African - American teenagers stopped at a gas station to buy gum and cigarettes. One of them, Jordan Davis, argued with Michael Dunn, a white man parked beside them, over the volume of music playing in their car. The altercation turned to tragedy when Dunn fired 10 bullets at the unarmed boys, killing Davis almost instantly. 99 mins.

  • Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick (2008). UNNATURAL CAUSES sounds the alarm about the extent of our glaring socio-economic and racial inequities in health and searches for their root causes. 4 hrs.

  • Promises (2001). A beautiful and deeply moving portrait of seven Palestinian and Israeli children. Emmy award - winning and Academy award - nominated. 102 mins.

  • Eyes on the Prize (1990) Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. 14 videos; 55-58 mins each.

Films and Documentaries

KANOPY

From Kanopy, another live-streaming database, you may request films and documentaries such as:

  • Ethnic Notions (1986)
  • Every Mother's son: Policing and Race in America (2004)
  • I am a Man - Black Masculinity in America (1998)
  • I am Not Your Negro (2016)
  • Moonlight (2016)
  • National Insecurities: Muslims in America (2005)
  • Selma (2014)
  • White Like Me: Race, Racism, & White Privilege in America (2013)