Looking for something to watch on these long, cold winter evenings that goes beyond the latest action or romantic offerings? Try these films, funded in part by Mass Humanities, available at your local library or your local video store. This is just a smattering of films we have funded over the years. More will be listed soon.

John Brown's Holy War (1999)
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/brown
He led a righteous crusade against the evils of slavery yet used horrifying violence to carry out his mission. Martyr, madman, and murderer, John Brown was an extremist who was as controversial and misunderstood in the mid-1800s as he is today. His execution at Harper's Ferry sparked a chain of events that led to the Civil War. Hear his story and gain fresh insight into a unique figure in American history.

Imagining Robert (2002)
www.florentinefilms.org/imagrob/film
Is a story of two brothers, one who has suffered the horrors and sadness of mental illness for thirty-eight years--the other, a prize-winning novelist who has been his brother's primary caretaker through those years. Based on the life experiences of Jay and Robert Neugeboren, Imagining Robert is a true story--true not only for the protagonists, but for millions of other Americans.

A Midwife's Tale (1997)
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife
To understand eighteenth-century America through a woman's eyes, historian and author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich spent eight years working through Martha Ballard's massive but cryptic diary. "A Midwife's Tale," produced by Laurie Kahn-Leavitt, chronicles the interwoven stories of two remarkable women: an eighteenth-century midwife and healer and the twentieth-century historian who brought her words to light.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2010)
www.mostdangerousman.org
Examines what happens when a former Pentagon insider, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified documents, decides to challenge an "Imperial" Presidency-answerable to neither Congress, the press, nor the people-in order to help end the Vietnam War.

The Political Dr. Seuss (2004)
www.pbs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/film.html
Traces the evolution of Theodore Geisel's art and political philosophy and shows how he deftly combined his delightful, otherworldly creations with moral parables and progressive ideas. The film explores his little-known World War II era cartoons, his educational and propaganda film work

The Powder and the Glory: Elizabeth Arden & Helena Rubinstein (2007)
www.pbs.org/thepowderandtheglory
Studies Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden, their lives, their times and their rivalry, focusing on two women from meager means who immigrated to the US nearly a hundred years ago, reinvented themselves, and ultimately created the cosmetics, health, and beauty industry we know today.

Sacco and Vanzetti (2007)
www.willowpondfilms.com/sacco_and_vanzetti.html
Bbrings to life the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists accused of a muder in 1920, and executed in Boston in 1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial. The ordeal of Sacco and Vanzetti came to symbolize the bigotry and intolerance directed at immigrants and dissenters in America.

Talking to the Wall: The Story of An American Bargain (2003)
www.talkingtothewall.com/pages/about.html
Wal-Mart's plan to build a large store in a small town in this sharp-edged comedy goes well for the corporate giant until an 11th hour citizens' rebellion resists the lure of low prices to reveal another side of the bargain--a side which paves over open land, annihilates Main Street businesses, and rolls back wages. The film examines the proliferation of big box chain stores, and citizens turned into a nation of consumers.

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North (2008)
www.tracesofthetrade.org
Tells the story of filmmaker Katrina Browne's forefathers, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. Given the myth that the South is solely responsible for slavery, viewers will be surprised to learn that Browne's ancestors were Northerners. It is a remarkable journey which brings the Browne family face-to-face with the history and legacy of New England's hidden enterprise.

Tupperware! (2005)
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tupperware
Interweaves rare archival footage of Tupperware parties, annual Tupperware Jubilees, and home movies with the thoughtful, often humorous recollections of Tupperware salespeople and executives who experienced firsthand the company's meteoric rise.