Men's Studies

Films

The Age of Reason This is the fifth and final film in renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall's Doon School Quintet, his long-term study of India's most prestigious boys' boarding school. In this film he focuses on the life of one student whom he discovers at the school.

The Band When filmmaker David Zeiger spends a year documenting his son Danny's high school marching band in Decatur, Georgia, he gets a crash course in love, friendship, and marching in formation. Featuring refreshingly candid student commentary on everything from anorexia and Ritalin to divorced parents and race relations, "The Band" is a lively, engrossing look at the ups and downs of all-American teenage life, 1990s style.

Blink This powerful and thought-provoking documentary examines the dramatic story of one-time white supremacist leader Gregory Withrow, and in so doing explores the underlying themes of violence, racism. and domination in American life and culture.

Dance With the Wodaabes This widely acclaimed and visually stunning ethnographic documentary explores, from the point of view of its participants, the complex cultural significance of one of Africa's most spectacular but frequently misunderstood and sensationalized ritual celebrations.

The Doon School Quintet This groundbreaking, five-part study of India's most prestigious boys' boarding school is a contemporary masterwork of renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall. Sometimes called "the Eton of India," Doon School has developed its own characteristic style and presents a curious mixture of privilege and egalitarianism. Each of the five films can stand on its own but taken together as a series the five films provide a unique and revelatory cultural portrait that will take its place among the classics of ethnographic cinema.

Funny Old Guys Frank Tarloff was a man for whom there were "no more victories." This poignant and deeply affecting documentary, filled with the sparkling humor of its subjects and a perceptive eye for compelling moments of revelation, follows Frank and his friends through the last months of his life.

Making Maasai Men: Growing Courage Toward Circumcision This remarkable ethnographic documentary explores the complex meanings of masculinity and Maasai ethnicity, and the place of circumcision and its attendant rituals in their cultural construction.

Men at Work: Voices from Detroit's Underground Economy Detroit, which came in first on Forbes magazine's "Miserable Cities Index" last year, is viewed as the national reference point for all that has gone wrong in urban America. But abandonment and decay are not the only stories in the poorest, most dramatically shrinking major American city. Detroit is also a tale of ingenuity and reinvention born of necessity. This is the story of how, in an economic climate apparently designed to ensure their failure, some resilient men find work on their own terms, get food and shelter, and raise their children -often making up the means to do so as they go along.

Monti Moments: Men's Memories in the Heart of Rome This rich and revelatory documentary provides a uniquely intimate portrait of social change in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Rome.

The New Boys This landmark documentary is the fourth film in renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall's long-term, five-part study of childhood and adolescence at the Doon School in northern India.

Some Alien Creatures In this carefully observed and richly nuanced film about a progressive co-educational boarding school in South India, young boys and girls jokingly accuse each other of being like "alien creatures." In exploring this gender divide, renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall examines the lives of three boys at the school.

Tempus de Baristas "Time of the Barmen" is one of the most acclaimed works of renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall. It profiles three goatherders in the mountains of eastern Sardinia and, with extraordinary insight and nuance, explores a traditional way of life that is rapidly disappearing as commercial farming displaces herding and young people drift to the coast for the higher pay and glamour of the tourism industry.

The Thread of Karma In 1991, filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam made "The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche," which followed the search of a Tibetan monk, named Choenzey, to find the reincarnation of his recently deceased master, Khensur Rinpoche. Sixteen years later, the directors revisit the reincarnation at Drepung Monastery in South India, where he has been brought up within the age-old traditions of Tibetan Buddhist monastic life.

Under the Men's Tree At Jie cattle camps in Uganda men often gather under a special tree to make leather and wooden goods and talk, relax, and sleep. This brilliant ethnographic documentary by renowned filmmakers David and Judith MacDougall captures one particularly riveting discussion one afternoon under the men's tree.

What Keeps Them Going The road, to most of us, is simply a highway leading to a destination. But to many truck drivers, the road itself is their destination, their goal, and their home.

With Morning Hearts This new documentary by renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall continues his long-term study of the Doon School. "With Morning Hearts" focuses on a group of twelve-year-olds during their first year in one of the "houses" for new boys.

XXXY The most frequent question posed to new parents is: "Is it a boy or a girl?" But this question can't be answered in an estimated one out of every 2,000 births. This thought-provoking documentary is the first film to provide an intimate look at the long-term emotional, psychological, and physiological effects of being born "intersex," or with ambiguous genitalia.

You Don't Know Dick Simply put, this is the most profound, compelling, and thought-provoking documentary ever made on gender identity. It may also be the most entertaining. It provides extraordinarily honest and riveting portraits of six men who once were women.