Research Guides: Streaming Media: Theme: Advocates

Theme: ADVOCATES

UCI Libraries wants to help you discover, learn about, and celebrate people and ideas that history has overlooked because of the color of their skin, gender identity, or sexual orientation. This series, ReWatching History: Uncovering Diversity in Our Past, will point to streaming videos already in our collection that you can watch anytime.

This page focuses on ADVOCATES. These are people who have worked to correct wrongs and educate the public. Examples like Edward Said, a literary critic advocate for Palestinian justice. Or Dolores Huerta, the Chicana labor activist who tirelessly worked to organize farmworkers for better working conditions. And mothers who work to curb illegal dumping of radioactive waste so that their families and neighbors can live in a healthy environment. We hope that you enjoy discovering more about these advocates!

Arts & Humanities

Brother Outsider: The Life Of Bayard Rustin
This film introduced the life and work of Bayard Rustin — a visionary strategist and activist who has been called “the unknown hero” of the civil rights movement. A disciple of Gandhi, a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, Rustin dared to live as an openly gay man during the fiercely homophobic 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Edward Said: The Last Interview
An avid advocate for Palestinian justice, literary critic Edward Said spoke at length with the filmmakers about his illness, his work, Palestine and politics, his life and education, and his continuing preoccupations.
Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Known as 'Gabo' to all of Latin America, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's sensual, 'magical' sensibility led him to the forefront of the political struggles of the 1970s and 1980s through his indelible writing.
Howling into Harmony
This documentary offers a portrait of young Chinese rock musicians in Beijing and provides a glimpse into the lives of a generation awakened by Western cultural forces, despite the conservatism of their parents’ generation and their government.
In Motion: Amiri Baraka
This documentary profiles the outspoken representative - formerly LeRoi Jones - of the Black consciousness movement who has been a major figure on the American literary and political landscape for three decades.
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
• Appreciated by both the art cognoscenti and the public, Basquiat was launched into international stardom. However, soon his cult status began to override the art that had made him famous in the first place. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist, conceptual art was the fad; as a successful Black artist, he was constantly confronted by racism and misconceptions. Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat's own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man.
Lagartijas tiradas al sol: El Rumor del Incendio
In 1960s Mexico, young revolutionaries took up arms in a desperate attempt to change society. A few decades later, the children of those guerilleros retrace the struggles of their elders, revealing this shadowed chapter of Mexican history through the personal experiences of one woman, Margarita Urías. El Rumor del Incendio blends witness accounts, archive film, and scale models as the actors unearth the artifacts of recent history. Nourished by the force of history, Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol has concocted a bold documentary play that reignites the political heritage of their ancestors.
Luis Valdez on El Teatro Campesino
Luis Valdez, proponent and creator of Latinx theatre for the last half century, reads an exclusive excerpt from his book Theatre of the Sphere, charting the birth of his historic company El Teatro Campesino. Valdez describes his collaboration with civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, his use of Brechtian and Commedia dell’arte techniques, and the creative processes of his unique theatre company.
Musical Matters: Black Artists on Inclusivity
George C. Wolfe, five-time Tony Award-winning writer and director (Caroline, or Change, Shuffle Along), and actress Nikki Renée Daniels (Hamilton, The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess) discuss their involvement in seminal musicals, breaking ground and developing an inclusive curriculum.
Sado Tempest
This Japanese language version of Shakespeare’ s the Tempest was filmed entirely on Sado Island in Japan. Sado is famous as the “island of exile,” where numerous important cultural and religious figures have been banished throughout the ages. The film blends traditional Japanese Noh cultural aspects with Shakespeare’s play, throws in some modern Japanese punk-rock and the beautiful landscapes of Sado Island in the dead of winter and the heat of summer, to create a poetic, moody “rich and strange”.
Truth Be Told: The Cases Against Supinya Klangnarong
Supinya is an advocate for freedom of speech. This film chronicles “the crucial moment in the life of Thai media activist Supinya Klangnarong in her fight against the 400 million Baht (11 million USD) defamation charges from Shin Corporation, the telecommunication giant owned at the time by the family of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, following her 2003 comment about the government's conflict of interest towards the corporation.
Wildness
• WILDNESS is a resonant portrait of a Latino Los Angeles LGBT bar, the Silver Platter. WILDNESS integrates elements of fiction and documentary structures to vividly portray Tsang’s multi-layered relationship with the bar, one that explores her role as an artist and activist, and a member of a younger generation introducing itself into a gay scene that started before the Stonewall riots – the Silver Platter’s birth year is 1963.

Social Sciences

Cesar Chavez: An American Hero
This film is about Chicano labor organizer and activist, César Chávez, as he co-founds United Farm Workers union (with Dolores Huerta) in the 1960s.
Dolores
Dolores is a film about Dolores Huerta, a Chicana labor activist who worked to organize farmworkers in California. Despite overt sexism, she co-founded United Farm Workers with César Chávez in the 1960s and demonstrated to women how to make their voices heard. Dolores Huerta has been a lifelong advocate for social justice and coined the expression, "¡Sí se puede!"
Guns and Mothers
Two advocacy groups, The Million Moms and the Second Amendment Sisters, are diametrically opposed on gun control, but they agree on one point: mothers will and should have a voice in determining gun control policy in America. GUNS and MOTHERS explores the grassroots beliefs of both movements by focusing on two different women, living in two different Americas.
How to Start a Revolution
Gene Sharp hardly seems like one of the world's most dangerous men. But to the world's most brutal dictators, Professor Sharp's ideas have proven catastrophic.
It Takes a Child
Craig Kielburger was 12 years old when child labor activist Iqbal Massih was killed in Pakistan. He immediately went on a seven-week trip to South Asia. What he learned has turned him into a passionate, articulate and effective advocate on behalf of child laborers everywhere. He is determined to put child labor on the international agenda. He is 15 years old in this film.
Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger
Trailblazing performance artist-theorist-activist, Kate Bornstein, takes us on a mind-bending quest through her world dismantling gender and seeking answers to the age-old question: What makes life worth living?
Milk
Milk is a film about Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and politician based in San Francisco in the 1970s. He was California's first openly gay official who advocated for workplace protections for the LGBTQ community until he was tragically assassinated in 1978.
Portraits of People Living with HIV
• An up-close compilation of interviews and discussions with people living with HIV in the early 1990s. "We have to use these forms, no matter how tired they are, in order to experiment and to develop new forms. It's the way I feel about art and documentaries: how are we going to develop more effective means of representation 'for us', for the people who are affected by AIDS, unless we use the available forms?
RBG
POLITICAL SCIENCE. At the age of 85, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a lengthy legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. Explore her unique and unknown personal journey of her rise to the nation's highest court.
잼 다큐 강정 Jam Docu Gangjeong
Gangjeong used to be a peaceful place like any other fishing village in Jeju Island. Until 2007, no one would've guessed that a naval base would be built here. In this documentary film, eight Korean directors independently yet collaboratively orchestrated a clever and humorous mission in this place where devastated villagers took their own ways to “fight” against the government plan.

Engineering, Medicine, & Sciences

Advocates of Change: Science & Disease
These remarkable individuals have pioneered, developed and forever improved their industry and the world in which we live. Engaging and relevant, these individuals will change the way you view the world, and remind you that it only takes one person to make a difference.
Atomic Homefront
This film focuses on a group of moms-turned-advocates who confront the EPA and other government agencies, & corporations who are both slow to provide aid yet complicit with illegal dumping of dangerous radioactive wastes in their backyards. The lasting toxic effects that nuclear waste has on communities and how this St. Louis group of moms turned this around.
Breaking Boundaries
Examples of several passionate change-makers, the subjects include a physician/neuroscientist turned astronaut who participates in NASA support project PoSSUM; the leader of the Nerd-cool design teams that reinvent urban architecture & design; how a young engineer helpeddesign a selfdriving roboti wheelhair and encouraged other girls to pursue STEM careers; another youg person dedicated their life to make democracy cool, increasing voter turnout among apathetic millennials through photography & technology.
Science for Every Student
SCIENCES. Advocating for STEM this very short film shows how one man can be an inventor, entrepreneur and bring affordable science education to kids across Africa. Story that is inspiring and impactful for next generation Africa.