# Introduction to Sociology/Sociological Videos

The following are videos - including fiction movies, non-fiction documentaries and recorded lectures - examining topics in the field of sociology.
| Title | Description | Year | Type | Topic | Online |
| A Class Divided | documents Jane Elliott's classroom experiment illustrating discrimination using eye colors | 1985 | non-Fiction | Discrimination | Yes |
| A Dry White Season | South African apartheid | 1989 | Fiction | Race | |
| A map of social theories, 1000-2000 by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on social theories. Lecture 1 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| A Passage to India | Indian independence from Great Britain and ethnic relations | 1984 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| A Raisin in the Sun | depicts a black family trying to move out of their run-down tenement apartment and into a white neighborhood | 1961 | Fiction | Race | |
| A World Apart | South African apartheid | 1988 | Fiction | Race | |
| Adam Smith (1733-1790), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on Smith. Lecture 3 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| Alamo Bay | a despondent Vietnam veteran in danger of losing his livelihood is pushed to the edge when he sees Vietnamese immigrants moving into the fishing industry in a Texas bay town | 1985 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1850), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on de Tocqueville. Lecture 4 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| Al Qaeda's new front | FRONTLINE documentary on Al Qaeda's evolution: Madrid bombings, ideological base, transatlantic differences. Divided into 4 sections; approx. 1h total | ? | non-Fiction | terrorism, Al Qaeda | Yes |
| Amar Te Duele | a variation of the Romeo and Juliet theme with the twist of social class differences between the families | 2002 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| American History X | racism in the U.S. | 1998 | Fiction | Race | |
| An Inconvenient Truth | an American documentary film about global warming by Al Gore. | 2006 | Non-Fiction | Ecology | |
| Angels & Insects | movie about incest and the incest taboo | 1996 | Fiction | Sexuality | |
| Avalon (1990 film) | tells the story of a family of Eastern European Jews who immigrate to the United States | 1990 | Fiction | Migration | |
| Bad Day at Black Rock | illustrates racism and discrimination in a small town in the U.S. post WWII | 1954 | Fiction | Race | |
| The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on de Montesquieu. Lecture 2 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| Black Like Me | describes Griffin's a six-week experience of a white man disguised as a black man traveling throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia in the 1950s | 1964 | Fiction | Race | |
| The Blonde and I | a short film illustrating the basic concepts of Durkheim's "Suicide" | 2009 | Fiction | Theory | Yes & Yes |
| Blue Eyed | documents Jane Elliott's classroom experiment illustrating discrimination using eye colors | 1996 | non-Fiction | Discrimination | |
| Bopha! | depicts the life of a black police officer in South Africa during the apartheid era | 1994 | Fiction | Race | |
| Born Yesterday | tells the story of a corrupt tycoon with a underclass girlfriend who requires re-education to be a member of the upper class | 1958 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Boys Don’t Cry | based on the true story of a young transman who was raped and murdered in 1993 by his male friends after they found out he had female genitalia | 1999 | Fiction | Sexuality | |
| Braveheart | ethnic discrimination and stratification | 1995 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Bread and Roses | deals with the struggle of poorly paid janitorial workers in Los Angeles and their fight for better working conditions and the right to unionize | 2000 | Fiction | Unionizing | |
| Brokeback Mountain | tells the story of two gay cowboys who hide their relationship because it is not accepted by those around them | 2005 | Fiction | Sexuality | |
| Come Back, Africa | tells the story of a migrant worker in apartheid South Africa who does not have a work permit and as such is open to exploitation, arbitrary dismissal and sudden arrest | 1959 | Fiction | Race | |
| Come See the Paradise | depicts the treatment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent following the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent loss of civil liberties within the framework of a love story | 1990 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Conrack | follows a young teacher assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families who have been isolated from the rest of the world | 1974 | Fiction | Race | |
| Country Boys | follows two young men in rural Kentucky in the early 2000s growing up with serious disadvantages, both educationally and financially | 2002 | Non-Fiction | Economic Stratification | Yes |
| Cry, the Beloved Country | South African apartheid and race relations | 1951 | Fiction | Race | |
| Cry, the Beloved Country | South African apartheid and race relations | 1995 | Fiction | Race | |
| Cry Freedom | depicts a charismatic South African Black Consciousness Movement leader in apartheid South Africa and the liberal white editor of a newspaper who exposes police complicity in the death of the movement leader | 1987 | Fiction | Race | |
| Darwin's Nightmare | documents the exploitation of fishing resources in Africa by European businesses and consumers | 2004 | non-Fiction | Globalization | |
| Defiant Ones, The | tells the story of two escaped prisoners who are shackled together, one white and one black, who must co-operate in order to survive | 1958 | Fiction | Race | |
| Diary of Anne Frank, The | a motion picture based on the book The Diary of a Young Girl describing the life of Anne Frank while in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands | 1959 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Digital Nomads | The results of an experiment to share the experiences of people devoted to endless digital communication are presented as online videos by The Economist. Two vidoes: Jonathan Schwartz - 05:25; Jan Chipchase - 09:18 | 2008 | Non-Fiction | Communication, Internet | Yes |
| Dirty Pretty Things | depicts the lives of two illegal immigrants in the U.K. | 2003 | Fiction | Migration | |
| Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The | The film is about a group of upper middle-class people attempting to dine together | 1973 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Do the Right Thing | The film tells a tale of bigotry and racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on the hottest day of the year | 1989 | Fiction | Race | |
| Double Happiness | tells the story of an artistic young woman struggling to assert her independence from the expectations of her Chinese Canadian family | 1994 | Fiction | Gender | |
| Educating Rita | an English working-class girl wants to better herself by studying literature | 1983 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on Durkheim. Lecture 6 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| El Norte | depicts Guatemalan peasants and migrants | 1983 | Fiction | Migration | |
| El Super | looks at life in the U.S. from the perspective of frustrated Cuban exiles | 1978 | Fiction | Migration | |
| Emigrants, The | tells the story of a Swedish group who emigrate to the U.S. in the 19th century | 1971 | Fiction | Migration | |
| Ernest Gellner (1925-1995), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on Gellner. Lecture 8 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| Ethnic Notions | traces deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice | 1988 | non-Fiction | Race | |
| Europa Europa | Antisemitism in Germany | 1990 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Far From Heaven | tells the story of a 1950s housewife living in suburban Hartford as she sees her seemingly perfect life begin to fall apart; deals with complex contemporary issues such as race, sexuality, and class | 2002 | Fiction | Sexuality | |
| F.W. Maitland (1850-1906), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on Maitland. Lecture 9 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| Gaijin - Os Caminhos da Liberdade | depicts the struggles of Japanese immigrants who traveled to and settled in Brazil looking for a better life | 1980 | Fiction | Migration | |
| Gandhi | non-violent social activism, religion, ethnic relations | 1982 | non-Fiction | Social Movements | |
| Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The | chronicles the relationships between the narrator, an Italian Jew, and the children of the Finzi-Contini family from the rise of Mussolini until the start of World War II | 1970 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Gentleman’s Agreement | describes the efforts of a journalist who falsely represents himself as a Jew to research antisemitism in New York City in the 1940s | 1947 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner | tells the story of an upper class white woman who becomes engaged to a black doctor then brings him home to meet her parents | 1967 | Fiction | Race | |
| Hester Street | Hester Street tells the story of Jewish immigrants who come to the Lower East side of New York City in 1896 from Europe | 1975 | Fiction | Migration | |
| High Hopes | pro-socialism in the U.K. | 1988 | Fiction | Economic Systems | |
| Hollywood Shuffle | depicts the stereotyping of African Americans in both film and television | 1987 | Fiction | Race | |
| Home of the Brave | A paralyzed African-American war veteran begins to walk again only when he confronts his fear of being an "outsider" and minority | 1949 | Fiction | Race | |
| Holy Innocents | poverty in Spain in the 1960s | 1984 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman | tells the story of a Frenchman captured by Brazilian natives who adopt him but constantly threaten to eat him | 1971 | Fiction | Culture | |
| Intruder in the Dust | deals with the trial of a black farmer accused of murdering a white man in the 1940s; he is cleared through the efforts of black and white teenagers and a spinster from a long-established southern family | 1949 | Fiction | Race | |
| Is Wal-Mart Good for America? | Documentary on Wal-Mart | 2005 | Non-Fiction | Economy | Yes |
| Jungle Fever | centers on the interracial romance between a successful married African American architect and an Italian-American woman | 1991 | Fiction | Race | |
| Karl Marx (1818-1883), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on Marx. Lecture 5 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| Killing Us Softly 3, by Jean Kilbourne | A documentary about advertising's image of women. Studyguide. 35m | 1999 | Non-fiction | Gender | Yes |
| Live Nude Girls Unite! | documents the efforts of strippers in San Francisco to unionize | 2000 | non-Fiction | Unionizing | Yes |
| Losing Isaiah | black motherhood, custody issues, and drug addiction | 1995 | Fiction | Race | |
| Mandela | documentary of the life of Nelson Mandela | 1987 | non-Fiction | Race | |
| Max Weber (1864-1920), by Alan Macfarlane | recorded lecture on Weber. Lecture 7 in a series of 9. | 2007 | Lecture | Theory | Yes |
| McLibel | documents the McDonald's Restaurants v Morris & Steel case in the U.K. | 2005 | non-Fiction | Corporations | |
| Metropolitan | haute bourgeoisie culture of New York City | 1990 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Mission, The | depicts the Jesuit Reductions, a programme by which Jesuit missionaries set up missions independent of the Spanish state to teach Christianity to the natives | 1986 | Fiction | Culture | |
| Mississippi Burning | racism in the U.S. | 1988 | Fiction | Race | |
| Mississippi Masala | inter-racial and inter-ethnic marriage as well as cultural diversity | 1991 | Fiction | Race | |
| Moscow on the Hudson | depicts a Russian circus musician who defects from the Soviet Union while on a visit to the United States and finds that living in America isn't as easy as he thought | 1984 | Fiction | Politics | |
| My Beautiful Laundrette | ethnic relations in London | 1985 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| My Family/Mi Familia | tracks three generations of a Mexican-American family that emigrated from Mexico and settled in East Los Angeles | 1995 | Fiction | Migration | |
| No Way Out | depicts an African American doctor tending to slum residents whose ethics are put to the test when confronted with blind racism in patients and community members | 1950 | Fiction | Race | |
| Nothing But a Man | race relations in the U.S. in the 1960s | 1964 | Fiction | Race | |
| Panther | Black Panthers in the U.S. | 1995 | Fiction | Race | |
| Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, The | Barry Schwartz is a sociology professor at Swarthmore College and author of The Paradox of Choice. In this talk, he explains how and why the abundance of choice in modern society is actually making us miserable (20m) | 2008 | lecture | | Yes |
| Philadelphia | tells the story of a Senior Associate at a large corporate law firm in Philadelphia who attempts to hides his homosexuality and his status as an AIDS patient from the other members of the law firm | 1993 | Fiction | Sexuality | |
| Pygmalion | tells the story of Cockney flower girl becoming a refined society lady as a result of a bet | 1938 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Quilombo | depicts the conquest of a Brazilian tribe | 1983 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Rabbit-Proof Fence | tells the story of two young, mixed-race Aboriginal girls who run away from a white settlement in order to return to their Aboriginal families | 2002 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Race and Sex - What We Think But Can't Say | A documentary on stereotypes, particularly related to race and gender. ABCNews production? | 2002 | Non-Fiction | Gender and Race | |
| Room at the Top | reflects social class issues in the U.K. in the 1950s | 1958 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Roots | tells the story of a young African sold into slavery in the 1700s in the U.S. | 1977 | Fiction | Race | |
| Roots: The Next Generation | continues the story of the African slave in Roots to his eventual descendant, Alex Haley | 1979 | Fiction | Race | |
| Rules of the Game, The | satire of the French upper classes prior to WWII | 1939 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Salaam Bombay! | kids in poverty in Mumbai | 1988 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Sammy and Rosie Get Laid | poverty and homelessness in the U.K.; also deals with ethnicity and sexuality | 1987 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Schindler’s List | tells the story of Oskar Schindler a German businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust | 1993 | Fiction | Ethnicity | |
| Secrets & Lies | race issues in the U.K. | 1996 | Fiction | Race | |
| Shaka Zulu | tells the story of Shaka, king of the Zulu nation from 1816 to 1828 | 1986 | Fiction | Culture | |
| The Social Construction of Reality | a short film illustrating some of the ideas in Berger and Luckmann's "The Social Construction of Reality | 2009 | Fiction | Theory | Yes & Yes |
| Stand and Deliver | education in predominantly minority schools | 1988 | Fiction | Education | |
| Swimmer, The | thematic exploration of suburban America, especially the relationship between wealth and happiness | 1968 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| The Way We Live: Introduction to Sociology | Advertised as "a comprehensive introduction to Sociology on 22 half-hour videos". | ? | non-Fiction | Economy (and other offline) | Partial: Chapter 14 - 14. Working World: The Economy and Work |
| The Tank Man | FRONTLINE documentary on the Tiananmen Square Massacre, The Tankman, information control in China and so on. Divided into 6 sections; approx. 1h40m total | ? | non-Fiction | China, repressions, resistance, information | Yes (RM stream may be broken, switch to WMP stream) |
| The Soldier's Heart | FRONTLINE documentary on the psychological impact of warfare, based on the modern War in Iraq. Divided into 4 sections; approx. 45m total | ? | non-Fiction | psychological breakdown, impact of warfare, War in Iraq | Yes |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | tells the story of the trial of a black man on trial in the South for rape | 1962 | Fiction | Race | |
| Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North | tells the story of filmmaker Katrina Browne and nine cousins who discover that their New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. They retrace the Triangle Trade and gain a powerful new perspective on the black/white divide. | 2008 | non-Fiction | Race | |
| Trading Places | social class in the U.S. | 1983 | Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Up Series | documents the lives of a dozen or so children over the course of nearly 50 years in the U.K. to illustrate the effects of social class on life outcomes | 1964-2000 | non-Fiction | Economic Stratification | |
| Wedding, The | interracial marriage in the U.S. | 1998 | Fiction | Race | |
| Wedding Banquet, The | tells the story of a gay Taiwanese immigrant man who marries a mainland Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card; his plan backfires when his parents arrive in America to plan his wedding banquet | 1993 | Fiction | Sexuality | |
| White Man’s Burden | race in the U.S. | 1995 | Fiction | Race | |
| Zebrahead | describes an interracial romance between a white man and a black woman and the resulting tensions among the characters | 1992 | Fiction | Race | |
A new website with video clips in Sociology, The Sociological Cinema, has some video clips available as well: http://www.thesociologicalcinema.com/index.html