Kanopy Videos
On-demand streaming video for over 16,000 films including content from the BBC, PBS, and Critereon Collection. Public performance rights for educational use are included.
These videos are searchable via the Cerritos College Catalog or directly through Cerritos.kanopystreaming.com
Made in L.A. is an Emmy award-winning feature documentary that follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. In intimate observational style, Made in L.A. reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman's life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Compelling, humorous, deeply human, Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice.
Maid in America is an intimate look into the lives of three Latina immigrants working as nannies and housekeepers in Los Angeles, three of the nearly 100,000 domestic workers living in that city.
Directed by a schoolteacher, this film became a lightning bolt in the immigration debate as the Rockefeller Foundation labeled it "One of the most important films on American race relations." Hoover Elementary is located in Pico-Union, known as the 'Ellis Island' of Los Angeles. After the passage of Proposition 187 into law, teacher Laura Angelica Simon feared she would be forced to turn in her undocumented students to the INS. She was equally disturbed by the support the Proposition was receiving from teachers, even though it would harm their own students. Armed with borrowed equipment, Simon began chronicling this troubled and divisive chapter at Hoover Elementary.
In this deeply personal award-winning documentary that gives an insider view on the contemporary immigrant experience, divorce and family psychology, and the personal filmmaking process, filmmaker Alvin Tsang reflects on his family's migration from Hong Kong to Los Angeles in the early 1980s - fraught with betrayal from his parents' divorce, economic strife and communication meltdown between parents and children. This poetic exploration of 17 unresolved years moves moodily across different channels and modes, bending into labor histories and Hong Kong's colonial trajectories. Tsang turns the camera on his own family, cautiously prodding for answers, but fully acknowledging that the only closure he can get will be from deciding for himself how to move on.
86 min / 2016
The Immigration Paradox takes a critical and in depth look at one of the most divisive issues in human global history–immigration. After encountering an immigrant crossing the Arizona desert, Emmy Award Winner and Filmmaker Lourdes Lee Vasquez set out to understand why people would risk their lives to come to the U.S. Her quest takes a shocking twist when she musters enough courage to cross the line at a protest and has an encounter with whom she believed was her enemy. From there on her journey, spanning 7 years searching for answers and solutions to this complex social issue, takes her and the audience to places never before considered in the immigration debate.. The Immigration Paradox is a feature length documentary that exposes the missing information to the immigration issue by interviewing an array of people from various backgrounds, which include economics, sociology, philosophy, history, policy, and activism. This documentary will move you beyond the villain or victim scenario, the heated rhetoric and sensationalism to reveal the bigger picture. No matter what your viewpoints or beliefs are regarding this deeply emotional issue; the information exposed in The Immigration Paradox will surely leave you shocked.
78 min / 2014
In an era of increased global mass migration what does it mean to be an American? In this conversational piece, Filmmaker Lourdes Lee Vasquez unlocks additional never before seen footage filmed during her original 7 year journey. The Immigration Paradox - Encore delves into some of the ideological and historical precedents that have led up to now. It brings to light often omitted and over looked historical facts such as the Doctrine of Discovery, which shine a new light on our ideas of immigration, rule of law and justice.
73 min / 2014
What is an American? is part of a series of history teaching resources, American Future - A History by Simon Schama.
In What is an American?, Simon Schama looks at the bitter conflict over immigration in American history. Who should be allowed to enter America and call themselves an American has always been one of the nation's most divisive issues - and it continues to be so at this election. He traces the roots of this conflict to the founding of America.
The early settlers were themselves immigrants but they saw America as fundamentally a white and Protestant nation. Simon looks at the key events that challenged this view: the annexation of parts of Mexico in 1848 that made 100,000 non-whites American citizens, the immigration and subsequent expulsion of the Chinese in the late 19th century, and the massive immigration from Eastern Europe during the industrialisation of the Twenties.
Each time there have been those who have insisted America must stay white if it is to stay true to itself, and each time they have been defeated by the sheer force of history. John F Kennedy defined America as a Nation of Immigrants in 1964 and Simon argues that the candidacy of Barack Obama represents the final triumph of the vision of America as a multi-ethnic nation.
Part of a series of BBC documentaries about American history and politics.
51 mins / 2009
Take a historical look at immigration into the U.S. over the millennia. This program makes the important point that everyone in America immigrated from another part of the world. What brought people to this continent? What similarities do we all share? What does the future hold? Discover attitudes about immigration, learn why millions emigrate to America and how immigrants effect national culture.
18 min / 2005
2015 marks the centennial of the beginning of the Great Migration in which six million African Americans relocated from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from 1915 to 1970. In many ways, the epic internal migration created what we now consider the modern American city, particularly Chicago. For Blacks fleeing the south during the Great Migration, economic and racial exploitation were inextricably linked. Black Americans in search of some semblance of freedom from racial terror also longed for the opportunity to provide for their families outside the racial plunder of the Southern plantation system. In this manner, the purported racial openness of the north was believed to translate into more economic opportunity for Black migrants, their families, and future generations.
However, as is the case with much of the American story, this dream remains just out of reach for many. This experimental documentary chronicles the contemporary manifestation of the economic and social histories of Black Americans who came to the north during the Great Migration in search of economic opportunities. The implications of their migration, and the lack of economic opportunity they encountered, has far reaching consequences for Black America today.
13 min / 2015
Narrated by Martha Teichner, the film follows the trajectory of Jewish American life from the earliest arrivals in the mid-17th century through the impact of the Nazi regime in World War II, the creation of Israel, and the new challenges of 21st century assimilation.
Explore the personal stories many faced as they migrated to America, whether for economic opportunity or to escape persecution.
56 min / 2015