Race, Inclusion & Society

A documentary film about the first African-American expedition to tackle North America's highest peak, Denali.

You can watch the full 24 minute film on KRCB's National Public Television series Natural Heroes (scroll halfway down their page.)
After decades struggling to protect her ancestors’ burial places, now engulfed by San Francisco’s sprawl, a Native woman from a non-federally recognized tribe and her allies occupy a sacred site to prevent its desecration.

"Wars of the future will be fought over water, as they are today over oil, as the source of all life enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling fresh water supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor water management. Will ours too?" Available in the Detroit Mercy library.

"When we throw away our plastic trash, where does it go? In this hard-hitting talk, Van Jones shows us how our throwaway culture hits poor people and poor countries "first and worst," with consequences we all share no matter where we live. He offers some ways to reclaim our planet from plastic garbage." (13:19)

"From both local and global perspectives, this documentary examines the harsh realities behind the mounting water crisis. Politics, pollution and human rights are all intertwined in this important issue that affects every being on Earth." Available as streaming video or in DVD form in the Detroit Mercy library

Explores the U.S. commercial food industry, examining corporate control of supply and market. The film seeks to demonstrate how the incentive for corporate profit can overwhelm consumer health needs, as well as the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and the environment. Reveals various details of food ingredients and additives, and how contemporary mass production methods of food affects U.S. culture." Available in the Detroit Mercy library.

"Filmmaker Josh Fox travels the United States along the Marcellus Shale formation to uncover the negative environmental and health effects of fracture drilling as a means of extracting natural gas."Available in the Detroit Mercy library

"Former Vice President Al Gore explains the facts of global warming, presents arguments that the dangers of global warning have reached the level of crisis, and addresses the efforts of certain interests to discredit the anti-global warming cause. Between lecture segments, Gore discusses his personal commitment to the environment, sharing anecdotes from his experiences." Available in the Detroit Mercy library

A fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from whats really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you've heard about cap and trade, but aren't sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you. (9:56)

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. (21:16)

The high cost -- to both the environment and our health -- of bottled water is the subject of this documentary that enlists activists, environmentalists, community leaders and others to expose the dark side of the bottled water industry. Americans may rethink their obsession with bottled H20 when they learn of the unregulated industry's willingness to ignore environmental and health concerns, and the problems that arise as a result. (1:15:09)

PBS web video: "The environmental justice movement came from communities that historically bore the brunt of hosting waste sites in their backyards. When a predominantly black county in North Carolina protested a toxic waste landfill, it galvanized the nation to talk about environmental racism." (1:56)

"Investigates the development and demise of the fuel-efficient, environment-friendly electric car. Examines the Bush administration's role in the car's being peremptory pulled from production, the influence of the automobile industry and oil interests, and implications for the future of sustainable energy in the United States.
Investigates the birth and death of the electric car, as well as the role of renewable energy and sustainable living in the future." Available as streaming video or in DVD form in the Detroit Mercy library

Dr. McClain was the founder and director for the Harambee House Inc./Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ) in Savannah, Georgia. (4:00)

PBS web video: "Learn why the Indian women of the Chipko Movement became known as tree huggers and what their defensive tactics were. The Kenyan environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai (1940 - 2011) founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 and was the first African women to receive a Nobel Peace Prize." (2:13)