Research Guides: Streaming Media: Theme: Obstacles

Theme: OBSTACLES

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 OBSTACLES. These are the barriers that are embedded in our society and various disciplines preventing people from advancing or being recognized for their accomplishment. Learn about the fashion great, Andre Leon Tally, who overcame many obstacles in life to become one of the greatest fashion icons. Or learn more about how the landmark court case Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage in the USA. Or the work of the great environmentalist Rachel Carson, who continued to work to make the environment healthier and helped mainstream society better understand how are actions have consequences. We hope that you enjoy discovering more about these obstacles!

Arts & Humanities

Black Africa White Marble
This is an experimental film that centers the obstacles endemic in Congolese history past and present due to a legacy of colonial violence, interference, and memorialization.
Concrete, Steel & Paint: A Film About Crime, Restoration and Healing
Tells the complex story of men in prison, victims of crime, and an artistic partnership that helps break down barriers between them. In telling this story, the film raises important questions about crime, justice and reconciliation - and dramatically illustrates the power of art as a catalyst to facilitate dialogue about these difficult issues.
Fish Story
J and Jacky have been best friends and inseparable since they met in the first grade. Born in Hong Kong, J was raised single-handedly by his mother, who was a mainland Chinese. Together they shared a subdivided unit of no more than three meter wide. Every time when J's mother had to go back to the mainland for 'permit renewal', she left him with Jacky's family. However, J's life changed after he went on television one day...
The Gospel According to André
This intimate portrait for Andre Leon Tally, a fixture in the world of fashion, takes viewers on a journey from Andre's roots growing up to becoming one of the most influential tastemakers and fashion curators of our times.
Integration Report 1
This is a newly preserved historical film documenting Black activism against the obstacle of segregation.
Reclaiming the Body: Feminist Art in America
After many decades of struggle, women have attained a strong presence in today's art world, as evidenced by the many exhibitions devoted to their work. Loosely based on the two-part BAD GIRLS exhibition at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan, Reclaiming the Body goes beyond the scope of the exhibition to include other significant contributors to feminist art. The film spans three generations of artists, from Louise Bourgeois to Janine Antoni, in order to give an overview of the history of this important movement from the 1960s to the present day.
Silenced: Composers in Revolutionary Russia
While many artists were fleeing the Soviet regime, others decided to stay and attempt to create a new world—but the authorities' repressive stance on liberty of expression and creative output made this a nearly impossible task.
Survival Artists: A Portrait of the Underdogs
A documentary from Holger Preuße and Claus Wischmann on the less glamorous side of classical music: the musicians who cannot live from their art.
Theatre of the Oppressed
Developed by Augusto Boal, this documentary explores how his unique form of performance--theatre of the oppressed--has been used to help people overcome social and political obstacles by aiding them to turn from observers into participants.
Who Does She Think She Is? A Portrait of Female Artists
A film that examines some of the most pressing issues of our time: parenting and work, partnering and independence, economics and art. This gorgeously photographed film follows five women artists as they navigate the economic, psychological, and spiritual challenges of making work outside the elite art world.
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is an excellent example of an author who kept pushing for something better despite the science fiction industry's general view of female authors and her limitations of race and economics.
Zhu Xiao-Mei, How Bach Defeated Mao
Music, and in particular Bach's music, enabled Zhu Xiao-Mei to face the greatest challenge of her life. This film follows her return to China after 35 years of exile, now as a recognized Bach specialist.

Social Sciences

Between Joyce and Remembrance
A documentary focusing on the family of the tortured, poisoned and murdered student activist, Siphiwo Mtimkulu and how his family overcame the obstacles of grief and injustice to advance national healing through the about the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa.
Capturing the Flag
This film centers the 2013 invalidation of part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and subsequent obstacle of voter suppression efforts and the volunteers who organized voter protection activism in response.
Fight Hate with Love
As a young man, Michael Ta'Bon's ex-con father taught him about drugs and crime, and those lessons landed him in prison for 15 years. During his incarceration, Michael promised himself that he would one day start a movement to prevent young black people from getting caught in the cycle of violence he found himself in. Seven years after being released from prison, now married with a pregnant wife and a young son, Michael is a dedicated public servant in his North Philadelphia neighborhood, but those years of incarceration have left him with invisible scars, and his fierce commitment to community work may ultimately cost him his family."
Good Luck Soup
Considering locations where certain demographics may not be apparent, this documentary shows obstacles experienced by minority populations and what it means to fit in culturally and racially.
I Learn America
The obstacle of assimilating to a new environment, language, and society all at the same time is hard for adults let alone children and teens. In "I LEARN AMERICA," five resilient immigrant teenagers come together at the International High School at Lafayette and struggle to learn their new land.
The Loving Story
Oscar-shortlist selection THE LOVING STORY, the debut feature by Full Frame Documentary Film Festival founder Nancy Buirski, is the definitive account of Loving v. Virginia-the landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage."
The Return
In 2012, California amended its "Three Strikes" law--one of the harshest criminal sentencing policies in the country. The passage of Prop. 36 marked the first time in U.S. history that citizens voted to shorten sentences of those currently incarcerated. Within days, the reintegration of thousands of "lifers" was underway. The Return examines this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines--prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions, and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law.
Slaying the Dragon
This documentary , provides “a comprehensive look at media stereotypes of Asian and Asian American women since the silent era”, and “shows how stereotypes of exoticism and docility have affected the perception of Asian-American women.”
The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America
The obstacle to keep Hmong traditions alive once established in America. As a shaman, Paja Thao ministers to the physical and spiritual needs of friends and family with elaborate rituals that bridge the natural and spirit worlds. His young daughter’s narration gives us insight into the transition from an Asian village to Middle America.
White Noise
The Atlantic's first feature documentary is the definitive inside story of the movement that has come to be known as the alt-right.

Engineering, Medicine, & Sciences

Antarctica: Ice & Sky : The Scientist Whose Research First Showed Evidence of Man-made Climate Change
The ability to push against the popular understanding and find the evidence to change people’s minds.
Bad Sugar
The obstacle of not understanding how diseases affect different populations. The Pima and Tohono O'odham Indians of southern Arizona have arguably the highest diabetes rates in the world - half of all adults are afflicted. But a century ago, diabetes was virtually unknown here. Researchers have poked and prodded the Pima for decades in search of a biological - or more recently, genetic - explanation for their high rates of disease.
Do You Dream in Color?
Four vignettes of courageous blind teenagers as they strive to achieve their dreams and the stories that focus on the social and isntitutional obstraces faced by people without sight and what itakes to surmount those barriers.
Facing the Storm
Film explores the epic vision and monumental obstacles to restore bison to immense tracts of the Great Plans and impacts on wildlife conservation and human-animal relationships.
From Flint: Voices of a Poisoned City
From Flint goes beyond the news headlines to spotlight the impact of the devastating water contamination crisis on the people of Flint, Michigan.
Ms. Scientist
Explores how Canada is trying to get female scientists to stay in the fields of science and progress to the top.
The Pollinators
The struggle to fight against changes in the environment that could lead to the collapse of our agricultural system because of bees dying off.
Rachel Carson: The Woman Who Launched the Modern Environmental Movement
Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. Drawn from Carson's own writings, letters and recent scholarship, this film illuminates both the public and private life of the woman who launched the modern environmental movement and revolutionized how we understand our relationship with the natural world.
Save The Green Planet
A well made Korean science fiction film that was the winner of 17 international awards at festivals including the Moscow International Film Festival and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Is the threat to earth in his mind or is it real?
Spotlight on Innovation: AI Trends with Roger Chen
AI can be intimidating and with progress accelerating, so are obstacles to balance the many interdependent concerns of how AI is being deployed to many applications.