I'd heard weeks ago that Tower Records was going out of business. It looks like the digital age has claimed another victim. We can get our media in cheaper and more direct ways than the storefront in this day and age.
I'd been intending to stop in and see what they had. I use a lot of films in my teaching. Students today are a wired generation. Their media and visual literacy skills are, by-and-large, much stronger than their reading skills. Beyond that, the medium to which they respond best is televisual. Hands down.
So I went a little nuts, thanks to Mr.-40%-off-on-all-DVDs sale. I did get a Christmas gift and a copy of "Dark Side of the Moon" for myself. Other than that, though, it was all DVDs for school:
Documentaries
- Contact 1, 2, &3: Interviews with photographers about their work in a three-part series
- Hijacked: Sept. 6, 1970, Palestinian Freedom Fighters hijacked 4 planes. Film charts progress and evolution of "terrorism" over the last few decades
- Death in Gaza: Similar theme about child martyrs. In an interesting turn, the filmmaker is killed by an Israeli soldier during filming
- 24 Hours on Craigslist: A trenche de vie from one of the most ubiquitous online communities today. Had to get this for the cultural value
- The Boys of Baraka: Streetwise 12-year-olds in Baltimore are sent to a boys' boarding school in Kenya
- Born into Brothels: Academy Award winner in 2004, this film documents children of prostitutes living and working in Calcutta's red light district
- Bowling for Columbine: This film risks being a little dated, but it unfolds in such a thought-provoking manner that I've used it successfully in classes before. I think it holds up.
Cinema
- Maria Full of Grace: Pregnant 17-year old smuggles cocaine in her stomach for passage to the US. A subtle indictment of international trade and inequality, and of the poverty that limits womens' choices.
- The Sea Inside: 2004's Best Foreign Language Film, this is based on the true story of a Spanish man who fought a 30-year "right to die" battle. Good for ethics debates.
- Black Girl: Ousmane Sembene's 1966 New Wave film about decolonization. Seminal African cinema
- Tsotsi: 2005's Best Foreign Language Film. A boy in South Africa steals a car and is changed by the chain of events that unfold
- Abouna: Two young men in Chad set out to find their father. Youth, culture, and some nice-looking photography.
I tend to choose Academy Award winners and nominees because, quite frankly, the distinction of the Awards helps give credibility to these films as valid pedagogical tools. I mean, if "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp" didn't win the Academy Award for Best Song from 2005's Hustle & Flow, I might run into some trouble using the song and the film in my courses.
Pats came with me to Tower, God bless her, and she pointed out that I picked some heavy subject matter. My students commented on the same thing when I showed them documentaries about the World Trade Center and Pompeii back to back. I don't mean to be depressing. But I do want students to be exposed to things that make them think. Sometimes it's the big ugly issues or events that provoke one to stop and think.
You will also notice that the cinema section is completely foreign. This is done not quite on purpose, but it's a happy accident. Subtitles are good for the soul!
And yes, I did spend a fair amount of tax-deductible dough on these materials. But honestly, I will make academic hay from these DVDs for a long time. I will use most of these in several contexts, either as a student or as a teacher. It's nice to get an infusion of new material in time for me to take it in and to start doing some planning for upcoming courses.
I think I'll go curl up on the couch and start screening.
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