Arcadia Public Library

Delves into the seldom-seen world of Black Santas in America, presenting a narrative that is as heartwarming as it is eye-opening. At the heart of this documentary is the exploration of the complex duality these Santas experience – the joy and magic they bring to families during the holiday season, contrasted sharply with the racism they face in their roles. Through a series of intimate interviews and candid moments, the film paints a vivid picture...

The extraordinary life of Abdus Salam, 1979 Nobel prize winning Pakistani physicist, today, even as he casts an outsized shadow on the world of physics, Salam’s legacy remains deliberately blotted out in Pakistan. The epitaph on his tomb initially read “First Muslim Nobel Laureate”, but ‘Muslim’ was scratched out on official orders. SALAM: THE FIRST ****** NOBEL LAUREATE depicts this extraordinary yet ultimately tragic life, intertwining...

A playful and mesmerizing performance documentary on the extraordinary Mexican/Chicanx performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s 40+ year career of radical artistic practice alongside his international troupe La Pocha Nostra.

As the world grappled with pandemic isolation, Edith Espinal entered her third year of sanctuary in a Midwestern church. A SHELTER FOR EDITH sheds light on the solitary life of one undocumented woman and the threat that sent her indoors--not the pandemic, but the fear that ICE could tear her family apart.

On Chicago's South and West sides, gun violence is destroying countless lives. Two men dedicate their lives educating, empowering, and healing young Black men at high risk for being victims-or perpetrators-of shootings.

A selection of episodes from The Dick Cavett Show featuring inspirational black icons across a variety of careers.

Follows four immigration attorneys over a multi-year odyssey as the U.S. government under President Trump upends every law meant to protect those fleeing from persecution, violence and war.​From setting up a legal clinic in a Volkswagen bus in the middle of five thousand desperate migrants, to persuading border guards to follow the law and accept a blind woman into U.S. custody, to crossing the border to counsel African migrants stuck in Tijuana,...

Black women in the United States are three to five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than their white peers, a statistic that has actually gotten worse over the last 30 years. BIRTHING JUSTICE captures the experiences and challenges of Black women, their families, caretakers and advocates, and examines the structures and systems that determine these disparate mortality rates.The film addresses the myriad issues fueling...

On September 12, 1974, police were stationed outside Boston schools as Black and white students were bused for the first time to comply with a federal court desegregation order. Shocking violence, directed mostly at children, ensued. THE BUSING BATTLEGROUND illuminates the volatile effort to end school segregation, and the decades-long struggle for educational equity that preceded the crisis.

A captivating revelation on a little-known chapter of cinema: the Chinese in American feature films. From the first Chinese American film produced in 1917, to Ang Lee’s triumphant Brokeback Mountain nine decades later, HOLLYWOOD CHINESE brings together a fascinating portrait of actors, directors, writers, and iconic images to show how the Chinese have been imagined in movies, and how filmmakers have and continue to navigate an industry that was...