VIDEOS/DVDs BEGINNING WITH LETTER W
- A Walk in the Night. San
Francisco, CA: California Newsreel, 1999. 1 videocassette (78 min.)
Recounts a single terrible night when the fragile world of Mikey Adonis, a young colored steel worker, disintegrates; illustrates how a decent man can be driven to an act of brutality by a racist society which humiliates him at every turn. AFR Video 429 - Waq¯a'i` sanaw¯at al-djamr = Chronicle
of the smoldering years. Seattle, WA: Arab Film Distribution,
1997?. 2 videocassettes (177 min.)
Epic look at Algeria's struggle for independence from France. AFR Video 497 - Waking Up from the Dream. MPI
Home Video, 1994. 1 videocassette (23 min.)
Afro-Americans measure how much social and economic progress they made after Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. AFR Video 120
The Watermelon Man. Culver City, CA: Columbia Tri-Star Home Video, 2004. videodisc (ca. 98 min.)
A comedy concerning a bigoted white man who is permanently turned black and must now contend with a shocked wife, his kids, angry neighbors, cold shoulders at the office and a back seat on the bus. AFR Videodisc 102
- W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four
Voices. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel, 1995. 1 videocassette
(116 min.)
In this film, four prominent African American writers, Wesley Brown, Thulani Davis, Toni Cade Bambara and Amiri Baraka each narrate a period of DuBois' life and describe his impact on their work. AFR Video 197
- Wend Kuuni = Le Don de Dieu. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel, 1982-1992. 1 videocassette
(70 min.)
A mute, memoryless child is raised in an African village by a weaver and his family. In gratitude they rename him Wend Kuuni, or "God's gift." In a series of flashbacks, we learn how bigotry and cruelty ironically drove Wend Kuuni to discover the compassion of his adopted village. AFR Video 56
What I’ve Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World. Culver City, CA: F. Dorrel, 2002? 1 videodisc (ca. 120 min.)
A compilation of video segments seeking to prove that "the Central Intelligence Agency, the military-industrial complex, the Pentagon, the multinational corporations, the media and the government of the United States are responsible for the deaths of millions of people in the Third World, not to mention the poverty and oppression of millions more."--Www.addictedtowar.com AFR. Videodisc 116
- What’s Race Got To Do With It? Berkeley, CA : California Newsreel, 2006. 1 videodisc (49 min.)
This program chronicles the experiences of Berkeley undergraduate college students enrolled in "Facing you, facing me," a 16 week intergroup dialog on race and class and its impact on lives in 2005. As they confront themselves and each other about race, they discover they often lack awareness of how different their experience of campus life is from their peers, to the detriment of an inclusive campus climate. AFR Videodisc 224
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. New York, N.Y.: Home Box Office: HBO Video, 2006. 3 videodiscs (ca. 256 min.)
Four acts document distinct perspectives on the pivotal events that preceded and followed Katrina’s passage through New Orleans, a catastrophe during which the divide between race and class lines has never been more pronounced. AFR Videodisc 248
Where Do We Go From Here? Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2001. 1 videocassette (58 min.)
Filmed during a guided tour of civil rights landmarks, [the program] blends potent archival footage and photos with group discussion to sensitively explore race relations in the U.S. Visits to Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, Memphis, Atlanta, Orangeburg, and other locations, combined with eyewitness accounts of key events by survivors of those years, steer the group's dialogue. Together, these concerned individuals -- white as well as black -- grapple with the issues of anger, identity, prejudice, discrimination, education, and reconciliation.--Container. AFR Video 476
Which way is up? Universal City, CA: Universal Studios, 2002. 1 videodisc (95 min.)
Richard Pryor plays three roles -- a beleaguered, sex-starved farm worker named Leroy Jones; the farm worker’s randy old father Rufus; and the hypocritical town preacher Rev. Lenox Thomas - and Pryor has never been so outrageously funny. AFR Videodisc 91
- A Wife Among Wives. Berkeley,
CA: University if California Extension Center for Media and Independent
Learning, 1981. 1 videocassette (68 min.)
An ethnographic documentary on the Turkana of northern Kenya. This is an inquiry into the Turkana view of marriage. AFR Video 499
Wild Women Don't Have the Blues. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel, 1989. 1 videocassette (58 min.)
Shows how the economic and social transformation of African-American life early in the century gave birth to the blues. Captures the lives and times of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters and others. AFR Video 39
The Wind of Change: The End of Colonialism in Africa. Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2004. 1 videodisc (57 min.)
Discusses nationalism in black Africa through the experiences of the Gold Coast, French Guinea, and the Belgian Congo, the first colonies to gain independence after World War II. Also considers the effects on Africa of the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. AFR Videodisc 268
Welcome to Death Row. Santa Monica, CA : Produced and distributed by Xenon Pictures, c2001. 1 videodisc (104 min.). Death Row Records exploded on the music scene in 1993. Presents largely untold story of this music enterprise. AFR Videodisc 37
What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party Library. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2006. 4 videodiscs (720 min.)
Features three films on the Black Panther Party made in 1968-1969 by the Newsreel film collective and additional footage on Black Panther history and legacy from Roz Payne and the Newsreel filmmakers. Includes extensive video and audio interviews with party members and movement participants as well as documents from the Roz Payne Archives chronicling both the movement and government attempts to suppress it. AFR Videodisc 280
Whoopi: Back to Broadway. United States: HBO Video, 2005. 2 videodiscs (ca. 90 min.)
The 20th anniversary DVD features a refreshing mix of familiar and new Goldberg creations. Taped before a live audience at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. Also includes Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway from her 1985 performance (full screen presentation) AFR Videodisc 195
Who's Gonna Take the Weight?: A
Video Dialogue Featuring These & Other 16-19 Year OldsNew York: The Cinema Guild, 1997. 1 videocassette (60 min.)
Interviews with African-American and African youth on topics like politics,
education, the importance of things, relationships and music. AFR
Video 532
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in The Cafeteria? Washington, D.C.: C-SPAN, 2006.1 DVD (80 min.)
Beverly Daniel Tatum talks about her book, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” at the University of Florida in Gainesville? The author discusses how African Americans deal with racism in everyday life and urges not only Blacks but people of all races to fight against social injustice. After the presentation, Ms. Tatum answers questions from the audience. AFR Videodisc 176
The Wire. New York: HBO Video, 2004. videodiscs (ca. 780 min.)
Follows a single sprawling drug and murder investigation in Baltimore. Told from the point of view of both the police and their targets, where easy distinctions between good and evil are challenged at every turn. AFR Videodisc 251
Witches in Exile. San Francisco: California Newsreel, 2005. 1 videodisc (79 min.)
Witches in Exile introduces us to four women who have taken refuge in the Kukuo witches’ camp and who represent a cross section of the ’witch’ population of Northern Ghana today. It leads us on a step by step journey on how a woman becomes stigmatized as a ’witch. AFR Videodisc 272
The Wiz. Universal City, CA: Universal Studios, 1999 1 videodisc (135 min.)
Modern African American version of The Wizard of Oz, based on the Broadway show. Dorothy is a shy Harlem kindergarten teacher who is transported to the Land of Oz during a blizzard. There she meets up with assorted characters who accompany her on her journey down the yellow brick road. AFR Videodisc 95
Wole Soyinka: A Combative Soul.
London: Bandung Production for Channel Four, 1987. 1 videocassette (41
min.)
The 1986 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Nigerian author and political
activist Wole Soyinka talks on African creative traditions and the Nigerian
political climates. The video shows his acting scenes when he talks
about his dramatic works and career. AFR Video 400
The Women of Brewster place. Santa Monica, CA: Distributed by Xenon Pictures, 2001. 1 videodisc (180 min.)
Mattie Michael, whose life has been plagued by misfortunes, is alone in a ghetto tenement on Brewster Place. She gradually unites the other tenement women to help them struggle for a new life. AFR Videodisc 149
- A Woman's Place: Short Stories.
Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films, 2002. 1 videocassette (70 min.)
Six 10 minute videos by women about the status and condition of women in 6 countries. [1] In Fiji women are involved in new sea farming projects. [2] In South Africa a literacy campaign gives birth to an effective anti-liquor campaign. [3] In South Africa, the Women's Health Project ensures that women will have a voice in shaping the new health care system. [4] A new generation of Caribbean women are using drama and reggae to focus attention on domestic violence. [5] Thousands of Filipino women are leaving children and country behind to work as domestics in Hong Kong. [6] Guatemalan women widowed in the civil unrest have formed an organization, Conavigua, to conduct literacy classes and encourage political participation. AFR Video 507 - Women and Islam. Princeton, N.J.:
Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1994, c1993. 1 videocassette
(30 min)
Leila Ahmed, professor of women's studies at Amherst, argues the case for revision of the widely-held views of the Islamic world about the role of women, using examples from history and the role played by women in the contemporary society. She explains the origin of the veil, and discusses the issue of marriage and women's rights within marriage. AFR Video 469 - Women, Changing Our Role. Evanston,
IL: Beacon Films, 1990. 1 videocassette (15 min.
Documents traditional role of African women and their slowly evolving opportunities in education and business. AFR Video 66
Women Pharaohs. Bethesda,
MD: Discovery Channel Video, 2000. 1 videocassette (52 min.)
New discoveries by Egyptologists have found that women pharaohs wielded
secret powers in ancient Egypt. These women pharaohs may have been the
key to why Egypt was a great civilization before those of Greece and
Rome. AFR Video 526
Wonders of the African World with
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Alexandria, Va.: PBS Home Video, 1999.
1 videocassette (120 min.)
Black Kindoms of the Nile:
Gates embarks on an epic journey through Egypt and Sudan in search of
ancient Nubia - an ancient African civilization which once rivaled Egypt.
Pyramids, ruined temples and royal tombs survive in the deserts of Sudan.
And along the ruins an ancient Nubian capital; the oldest city so far
uncovered in the whole of Africa.
The Swahili Coast: Gates travels along the palm-fringed
coast of Kenya and Tanzania and on to the legendary island of Zanzibar.
The journey presents an intriguing historical puzzle. Who are the Swahili
people? Are they truly African? On the idyllic island of Lamu, Gates
finds people proud of their Arab ancestry only, believing their civilization
owes little to Africa. On Zanzibar, two encounters - one withe the Canon
of the Anglizan Cathedral and the oher with a black descendant of Zanzibar's
most notorious slave trader - give him an insight into the Swahilis'
troubled and bloody history. AFR Video 411, Tape 1
Wonders of the African World with Henry Louis
Gates, Jr. Alexandria, Va.: PBS Home Video, 1999. 1 videocassette
(120 min.)
The Slave Kingdoms:
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. travels through the old kingdoms of
Asante and Dahamey in modern Ghana and Benin to unravel the real story
of the transatlantic slave trade. From slave castles on the coast to
royal courts in the interior, he finds both pride in these powerful
African kingdoms and discomfort about the source of their wealth and
power.
The Holy Land: For over 1600 years, Ethiopia was a
Christian kingdom, whose rulers traced their lineage back to Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba. Gates' journey takes him to rock-hewn churches,
mountain monasteries and royal shrines; and on to Aksum, birthplace
of an ancient civilization, and home, the Ethiopians believe, to the
Lost Ark of the Covenant. AFR Video 411, Tape 2
Wonders of the African World with
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Alexandria, Va.: PBS Home Video, 1999.
1 videocassette (120 min.)
The Road to Timbuktu:
Everyone has heard of Timbuktu, but how many know that it was a greate
trading city, famous in the Middle Ages for its university? Gates sets
out on a journey through modern Mali, following ancient trade routes
from the goldmines of the south to the legendary city on the shores
of the Sahara desert, in search of the forgotten libraries of Timbuktu.
Lost Cities of the South: Under Apartheid, the official
history of South Africa began in 1652, when the first Dutch settlers
landed. In the new South Africa, th myth that this was an empty land
is bening overturned. Traveling from South Africa to Zimabwe, Gates
explores a thousand-year-old African city kept from public view for
seventy years, sings karaoke with Afrikaner holiday-makers, and heads
for the medieval stone ciadel of Great Zimbabwe. AFR Video 411,
Tape 3
The World, a Television History.
15, Africa Before the Europeans, 100-1500. Falls Church, VA: Landmark
Films, 1985. 1 videocassette (26 min.)
Describes the civilizations and empires of Africa before the arrival
of the Europeans. Tells how the Bantu people left their homeland in
the Cameroons and displaced the peoples in the south. AFR
Video 277
A World Apart. Los Angeles, Calif.: Media Home Entertainment, 1989. 1 videocassette (VHS) (114 min.)
Set in South Africa in 1963, the story concerns an idealistic journalist Diana Roth who defies the government and becomes the first woman arrested under the 90-day Detention Act-- both a story of government abuse and a look at one mother’s neglect of her family because of her involvement with a larger cause. AFR Video 653
Wylie Avenue Days. Pittsburgh,
PA: QED Communications, 1991. 1 videocassette (60 min.)
Presents a remembrance of the heyday of Pittsburgh's Hill District,
featuring music clubs, the Negro League baseball team, and neighborhood
social life. AFR Video 361
Why the Hate?: America Fights
Back. Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities & Sciences,
2002. 1 videocassette (44 min.)
The ABC News program Nightline explores the mixed emotions felt by
many Muslins toward the U.S. Topics on the agenda include American
culture, often perceived as offensive, and U.S. foreign policy, frequently
viewed as threatening. AFR Video 483
