New Books, Films, Databases, and other Resources: New Films September 2011

This stunningly comprehensive presentation of definitive documentaries brings sharp focus to the momentous, incomprehensible events surrounding our national tragedy.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog investigates the death of preservationist and former television actor Timothy Treadwell, who was killed in the Alaskan wilderness, along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, by the bears he lived among and dedicated his life to protecting.

Presents 26 films by 27 directors representing a variety of film types and styles, from abstract animation to documentary

In the years before World War I, virtually no issue was too controversial to bring to the screen. The first American movies were deeply engaged with society, coming from an era when movies and entertainment were intimately interwoven with public debate. As such, they were shown in commercial movie theaters but also in clubs, churches, schools, and everywhere screens could be hung outdoors--from the sides of city tenements to country barns. This archive sends these treasures back into the world, where they found their inspiration. "The City Reformed" deals with the urban problems: poverty, criminality, health, safety, child welfare, and corruption. Gender, family, and the crusade for equal voting rights dominate in program 2, "New Women." Labor struggles and oppression are central to program 3, "Toil and Tyranny." The final program, "Americans in the Making," brings together films confronting immigration, race relations, and wartime home-front sacrifice.

A community of 18 American film archives has contributed the 50 fully preserved rare films contained in the four programs of this boxed set. The anthology highlights films from the first 35 years of motion picture production in the United States, including: features from the silent era, landmark independent and avant-garde works, documentaries and newsreels, one-reel adventures and comedies, cartoons and experimental animation, pioneering special effects, home movies, travel movies, training films and the earliest American movies

On the 10 year anniversary of 9/11/2001, National Geographic reveals an intimate look back at the day that redefined the nation and also a powerful perspective on the state of the country today.

A young and gifted violinist earns money for his education by prizefighting.

Walter Vale is a widower who teaches economics at a Connecticut university. He lives alone and is no longer motivated by his work. In New York to present a paper at a conference, he goes to the apartment that he has not visited in some time, but has kept since his wife was alive, only to discover a young couple living there. Despite their great cultural differences, Walter befriends Tarek, a Syrian citizen and drummer, and gradually builds a friendship with Esi, his girlfriend from Senegal. One day, when returning from Central Park with Walter, Tarek is arrested for jumping a stuck subway turnstile, despite the fact that he had paid. The police discover he does not have legal papers and transfer him to an immigrant detention center in Queens. Feeling responsible for and connected to Tarek, Walter decides to stay in New York to help and support him. Not hearing from her son, Tarek's mother arrives from Michigan to find out why, and she and Walter support one another while they attempt to free Tarek.

Lindy lives the nightmare of seeing a wild dog carry off her infant, then endures a travesty of a trial by the courts and media.

Shows how human desires are an essential, intricate part of natural history. The program will explore the natural history of four plants -the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato - and the corresponding human desires - sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control. This two-hour documentary begins in Michael Pollan's garden, and roams the world, from the fields of Iowa to the apple forests of Kazakhstan, from a medical marijuana hot house to the tulip markets of Amsterdam.

Documentary about a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a bloody civil war, violent warlords and the corrupt Charles Taylor regime. Includes interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the experiences and memories of the women who were instrumental in bringing peace to their country.