Research Guides: Streaming Media: Theme: Anti-Racism

Welcome

We've all been reading a lot lately. As librarians, we generally LOVE to read. But sometimes you want to put a book down and watch something instead and still learn. This page points you to some of the many streaming video resources provided by UCI Libraries that can help you learn and understand the racial injustice this country has been experiencing for centuries. It's broken down into the following categories:

Civil Rights & Unrest

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)
The first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails.
Black Power: America's Armed Resistance (2016)
An investigation to find out what black power means, what its motivations are and why this movement seems to be gaining traction. With rare access to members of the Black Liberation Movement, the filmmaker quickly finds himself in the midst of an armed black militia, outraged at the treatment of black people at the hands of police, patrolling the streets of their communities and calling for change.
I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, resulting in a documentary journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.
James Baldwin: Speech on Civil Rights (1968)
This video shows James Baldwin giving a speech on civil rights to a group of students in London.
The Rise & Fall of Jim Crow (2002)
A four-part series that documents a brutal and oppressive era rooted in the growing refusal of many Southern states to grant slaves freed in the Civil War equal rights with whites. A life of crushing limitation for Southern Blacks, defined by legal segregation known as "Jim Crow" - after a minstrel routine in which whites painted their faces black - shaped the social, political and legal history of the period.
The Area (2018)
In the heart of the South Side of Chicago, an 85-acre area abutting a railyard means different things to different people. For more than 400 African American families, it is home. For Norfolk Southern railroad company, it is space to expand its train-to-truck intermodal depot.
Who We Are (2021)
Interweaving lecture, personal anecdotes, interviews, and shocking revelations, in WHO WE ARE — A Chronicle of Racism in America, criminal defense/civil rights lawyer Jeffery Robinson draws a stark timeline of anti-Black racism in the United States, from slavery to the modern myth of a post-racial America.

Black Lives Matter & Police Brutality

America After Ferguson (2014)
This PBS town hall meeting, moderated by PBS NEWSHOUR co-anchor and managing editor Gwen Ifill, explores events following Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri. The program, recorded before an audience on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, will include national leaders and prominent thinkers in the areas of law enforcement, race and civil rights, as well as government officials, faith leaders and youth.
Copwatch An Organization Dedicated to Filming the Police (2017)
This documentary follows "WeCopwatch", an organization dedicated to filming the police. Its members captured the original videos of the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island and Freddie Gray in Baltimore that ignited the entire nation.
P.S. I Can’t Breathe: Black Lives Matter (2015)
This documentary welcomes dialogue around racial inequality, policing, and the Criminal Justice System by focusing on Eric Garners case.
When Justice Isn’t Just: Unarmed Police Incidents (2015)
Legal experts, local activists and police officers all weigh in in this timely documentary, delving into ongoing charges of inequality, unfair practices, and politicized manipulations of America's judicial system.
Whose Streets? An Unflinching Look at the Ferguson Uprising (2017)
Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, WHOSE STREETS? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising

Mass Incarceration

Broken on All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration and New Visions for Criminal Justice (2012)
Mass incarceration has emerged as America's new caste system. How could this happen? With Philadelphia as an entry point, Broken on All Sides explores the intersection of race and poverty within the criminal justice system.
Fight Hate with Love (2017)
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.
Guilty until Proven Guilty (2018)
Guilty Until Proven Guilty explores Louisiana’s criminal justice system through the story of Tim Conerly, a young African-American man who was arrested in the wake of an armed robbery in New Orleans and waited 28 months for a trial for a crime he says he did not commit.
Law & Order An Examination of Police Practices and Behavior (1969)
LAW & ORDER surveys the wide range of work the police are asked to perform: enforcing the law, maintaining order, and providing general social services. The incidents shown illustrate how training, community expectations, socio-economic status of the subject, the threat of violence, and discretion affect police behavior.
The System: Policing and Mass Incarceration (2016)
Working with community activists and whistleblowers, Common discovers a decades-long pattern of police corruption and sophisticated cover-ups that stretch all the way to the mayor's office. But Common also finds reason for hope. An energized movement in the streets mounts unprecedented pressure for reform. It's clear that the system is broken -- is it finally time for a change?
The Black Fatherhood Project (2013)
Filmmaker Jordan Thierry leads viewers through an honest and essential exploration of fatherhood in Black America, providing historical context and conversation for an issue at the core of the Black experience today.

Racism & White Privilege

Context Matters: The Permanence of Racism (2018)
Focuses on a year at Chicago’s Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRFHS), widely considered to be a safe, well-integrated, academically strong school. In Episode 1, we meet some of its students of color and their families, who have sacrificed to live in this popular district. Their stories begin to reveal the racial cracks and realities of the permanence of racism.
The Long Shadow: How Slavery Continues to Impact American Society (2017)
In an astonishingly candid look at the history of anti-black racism in the United States, THE LONG SHADOW traces the blunt imposition of white privilege and its ultimate manifestation-slavery. Causey and Holst conclude that, without a doubt, artifacts of slavery remain at work in American society today.
Overcoming Personal Racism: What Can I Do? (2003)
Based upon testimony before President Clinton's Race Advisory Board, Dr. Sue suggests what each of us can do to overcome our personal racism. He extracts five basic principles of how one overcomes racism: (1) learn about people of color from sources within the group, (2) learn from healthy and strong people of the culture, (3) learn from experiential reality, (4) learn from constant vigilance of your biases and fears, and (5) learn from being committed to personal action against racism.
The Talk: Race in America (2017)
The Talk – Race in America is a two-hour film about “the talk” that parents have with their children of color (primarily boys) to teach them how to act around the police in order to remain safe.
White Like Me (Race, Racism, & White Privilege in America) (2013)
White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege.

Feature Films

42 (2013)
Jackie Robinson breaks the MLB color barrier when he is signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers by the team's forward-thinking general manager, Branch Rickey. The gifted athlete deals with tremendous pressure and threats from racist fans and players.
A Ballerina's Tale (2015)
Black ballerina Misty Copeland is profiled in this documentary, which explores her career, her recovery from a serious injury and the lack of diversity in the world of dance.
BlacKkKlansman
A black detective sets out to infiltrate the Colorado chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of his Jewish colleague. In the midst of the 1970s civil rights movement, they risk their lives to obtain insider information on the violent organization.
Fences (2016)
Adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a black garbage collector in 1950s Pittsburgh named Troy Maxson. Bitter about his lot in life, Maxson frequently takes out his frustrations on his loved ones.
Get Out (2017)
A black man discovers a sinister conspiracy while visiting his white girlfriend's family. Directed by Jordan Peele.
Malcolm X (1992)
A biography chronicling the life and death of assassinated civil-rights leader Malcolm X. Directed by Spike Lee.

Find More!

If you've watched everything we've already suggested, here are links to some additional streaming resources that are on the same topic: