Department of History

In 1961, segregation seemed to have an overwhelming grip on American society. Many states violently enforced the policy, while the federal government, under the Kennedy administration, remained indifferent, preoccupied with matters abroad. That is, until an integrated band of college students - many of whom were the first in their families to attend a university - decided, en masse, to risk everything and buy a ticket on a Greyhound bus bound for the Deep South. They called themselves the Freedom Riders, and they manages to bring the president and the entire American public face to face with the challenge of correcting civil-rights inequities that plagued a nation. Veteran filmmaker Stanley Nelson's inspirational documentary is the first feature-length film about this courageous band of civil-rights activists. Gaining impressive access to influential figures on both sides of the issue, Nelson chronicles a chapter of American history that stands as an astonishing testament to the accomplishment of youth and what can result from the incredible combination of personal conviction and the courage to organize against the odds.

Land in the American West was once advertised as free for the taking. Under the Homestead Act nearly two million families came to settle virgin territory-the frontier. Now, three modern families were chosen from thousands of applicants to test themselves. After a rigorous traininig program to learn survival with only the tools and technology of the time, they load their wagons and head back to 1883. Can they carve a community of homesteads out of the Montana wilderness? Soon the three time-traveling families learn what homesteading was all about: earning a living and putting food on the table. They make difficult choices-what kind of animals to raise, how much hay to harvest-and soon discover the consequences for their actions. As the rigors of homesteading life become clear, the families begin to realize the personal costs of the experience-lonliness, lack of romance, and struggling to cope with each other and the small intertwined community. How has each family come together, or been drawn further apart? What is the meaning of frontier family values, as each family must work together for a common goal, and every hand is needed? The final lesson for the families, however, comes as they re-enter their lives in the 21st century, and discover what really mattered in 1883, and what really matters now.

Directed by Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese (2006, Best Director, The Departed), this epic tale of vengeance and survival stares two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis (1989, Best Actor, My Left Foot; 2007, Best Actor, There will be Blood), Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. After years of incarceration, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) returns to lower Manhattan's lawless, corrupt Five Points section seeking revenge against the rival gang leader (Day-Lewis) who killed his father. But before long, Amsterdam's personal vendetta becomes part of an erupting wave of full-blown gang warfare. Feel your heart pound while weapons and cultures clash in chaotic symphony of life and death, and surrender to the tumultuous atmosphere of 1860s New York.

Documentary on the Holocaust.