Cultural Film Projects

Cultural Film Studies for Interpreters

All Documentary Projects = 0.25 CEUs each

Choose from over 75 curated cultural documentary films that explore the complex, multiple, and layer cultural identities of the diverse clients we serve in the Deaf community. 

How does it work?  

Step 1: Choose the film and see where you can find it (listed after each film in parenthesis).  Register to receive an immediate link to the one click on-line Reflection Form.

Step 2: Rent and watch the film (Due to copyright law, participants must obtain the film on their own, unless it's open source on YouTube, which is free and links are provided).

Step 3: Answer approximately 10 short-answer questions in casual, written responses using the new one-click online Reflection Form. And then click 'Submit'.  VOILA!

Earn CEUs!  Ginevra Deianni, RID CMP Sponsor, will review the Reflection Form and award CEUs directly to your RID transcript (for RID members), and/or send Certificates of Completion for non-RID records.

Please feel free to email us anytime to ask for curriculum specifics on any project, or sample questions/materials.

DESCRIPTIONS OF AVAILABLE FILM PROJECTS: 

• 13TH (Netflix/YouTube): This documentary examines American cultural beliefs of race and how laws and behaviors have encouraged oppression and criminal stereotyping that have had catastrophic effects on African-Americans. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Adventures in English - Etymology (YouTube): This trilogy is a series of three videos that examine the roots of our modern spoken English, its proliferation and transition to American English, offering a better understanding of the US lexicon.($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Amish: A Secret Life (YouTube/Daily Motion):  This film peeks into the lives of the Old Order Amish culture of Pennsylvania: their values, culture, practices and personal struggles. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Andrew Jenks, Room 335 (iTunes):  This film shows life from the inside of an assisted living facility in Flordia through the eyes of a 19-year old man, Andrew Jenks.  His insights are valuable for any interpreters working in these facilities and with senior Deaf populations. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• The Anonymous People (Amazon/Vimeo):  This film guides viewers through the history of the Addiction movement and explores the stigma of those in the recovery community. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Becoming Helen Keller (American Masters on PBS: Season 35, Ep: 10): Dive into the true story behind Helen Keller with Deaf and Deaf-Blind perspectives on her complicated life story.  ($32, 0.25, PS)
• Behind Closed Doors (YouTube): In this film we seek to understand Domestic Violence for the purposes of better serving our clients in this situation.  The cycle of abuse, the victims fears of reporting, their reluctance to prosecute, and propensity to return to the relationship are explained by domestic violence experts in the UK. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs) 
• Being Mortal-Facing Death (YouTube): Examine the conversations we interpret in these difficult moments for both physicians and patients for a deeper understanding of how to navigate medical interpreting.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs) 
• Best & Most Beautiful Things (AppleTV): This documentary dives into the cultural of the Blind through a precious young American woman. Examine parallels to the Deaf experience and see a broader system of oppression toward all disability communities. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Black Boys (Amazon):  Review the history of society profiting off Black bodies in labor and sports, and pull back the curtain to see the deep sense of pain, resilience and hope in African-American mens' hearts, minds, and souls as they battle and challenge systems of power & oppression.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Black in Japan (YouTube):  This film examines what it means to be black and African American in Japanese culture: facing stereotypes and a look at their own cultural identity, as both black and American, in the face of being celebrated and 'othered'. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• The Celluloid Closet (Amazon):  This film examines how Hollywood has chosen to show LGBTQ characters in films throughout the last century, the affects these depictions have had on societal stigma, an the actors & advocates who have fought for change in the industry. (0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Cobra Gypsies (YouTube):  This film offers a rare view from inside the Cobra Gypsy world in India:  their culture, beliefs and practices. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Crip Camp (Netflix):  This film looks at America's view of the disabled starting in the 1970s and the protests that led to passing Section 504 & the ADA. (0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• A Dangerous Idea (Amazon): This film describes how the theory of eugenics has been used to oppress people of color, women, people with disabilities and the poor for a century in the US. (0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Deaf Parent Trilogy (YouTube):  These three mini-documentaries shine the camera on Deaf parents in New Zealand and Australia as they talk about raising their children in a hearing world and what it means to be a CODA. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Descendant (Netflix):  This film describes the story of the Clotilda, the last ship to bring enslaved Africans to the US for the slave trade, and their descendants who settled in Africatown and continue to endure racism and oppression across all areas of life, surrounded by the history of oppression that brought their families there a century ago.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Deinstitutionalization in the 1970s (YouTube):  This duet of documentaries "The Shadows of Fairview" and "Unforgotten" looks at the deinstitutionalization and the disability rights movement from the 1970s, examining how Deaf schools thrived while state hospitals became places of despair and neglect. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Diffability Hollywood (Amazon):  This film looks at the representations of People with Disabilities in Hollywood since the 1920s and examines the damage and advocacy done by them. ( 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Disclosure (Netflix):  Examine depictions of trans people in film and media to understand the discrimination, oppression, marginalization and damage proliferated in society, and the current movement of the trans community to own their stories.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• (Dis)Honesty: The Truth about Lies (YouTube): This film is an ethics studies credit and examines how we perceive our own moral code and apply it to our work.  It shows research in human decision making and our tendencies to lie and overcome. *This project includes Ethics Study credit. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Disturbing the Peace (Amazon): Gain a deeper understanding of the Israel-Palestinian cultural war through this intimate view through the eyes of elite Israeli soldiers & Palestinian fighters who agree to come together and commit to a different future. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Documented (Amazon/YouTube): This film is about the current struggle of immigrants living in the US without legal papers. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Eldorado, Everything the Nazis Hate (Netflix):  Step back to the roaring 20s in Berlin's thriving LGBTQIA+ community bar.  Then follow the rise of Hitler and subsequent shutdown, regulation and murder of homosexuals in Nazi Germany from where the pink triangle rose as a symbol reclaimed today.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
  
• Escape From Saudi (Amazon):  Watch brave women defy the power & oppression of the Saudi guardianship law and female driving bans to find a life of physical, emotional, financial and intellectual freedom.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• NEW: The Eugenics Crusade (YouTube):  Review the popularity & power of the American ideal to create a superior race, oppressing and sterilizing thousands of individuals deemed 'defective'  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Girl in the River (HBO/Amazon/Vimeo): This Academy Award winning film exposes Honor Killings and cultural views on love, gender, and family structure in Pakistan. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• A Good Day To Die (Amazon):  This breakout film looks at the rise of the Native American Civil Rights Movement in the 70s and brings heroes into the spotlight from tribes across the country. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Good Hair (Amazon, Hulu): Step into the cultural & business world of the African American hair industry.  This film examines the power & oppression of beauty standards as Chris Rock travels the globe to understand the cultural meaning and money behind this important practice. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• God Grew Tired of Us (Daily Motion: free): This film recounts the Sudanese Lost Boys genocide crisis and their journey and transition to American life. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Hawai'i: The Stolen Paradise (YouTube): This project explores the unlawful overthrow of the Native Hawai'ian government & the power and oppression exerted on Polynesian people to subjugate their culture. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Hear & Now (YouTube): This film looks at a year in the life of Sally & Paul, a 65-year old Deaf couple who decide to get cochlear implants together, viewed through the lens of their hearing daughter, the film-maker. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Hillbilly (Hulu): This film looks at the stereotypes that fuel oppression of rural and poor people specifically in Appalachia. It dives into the rich culture of heart of these marginalized Americans. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• The History of Swear Words (Netflix): This film examines the etymology of taboo language across cultures, examining how and why human have developed and used this expressive part of our language. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast (Amazon):  This film explores ageism, stereotypes and how this impacts health & wellness of elderly clients with whom we work. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Inside Islam: What A Billion Muslims Really Think (Amazon/YouTube): This documentary examines the largest global poll done about and with Muslims about their culture, beliefs, & experiences. (*Note*: this is not the History Channel show called "Inside Islam") ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Ishaare Gesture Sign in Mumbai (YouTube): This film enters the Deaf world in Mumbai, India, showing how Indian hearing culture easily gestures and communicates with Indian Deaf and Deaf-Blind people in everyday life. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Is There A Science Behind Human Kindness? (YouTube): This film examines the nature of human morality and how the brain can promote oppressive, discriminatory ideas, as well as acts of empathy and kindness. *This project includes Ethics Studies credit ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• NEW: Is That Black Enough For You? (Netflix):  Analyze images of Black representation in American films, the stereotypes & oppression they feed in society and the impacts of change over the past decade.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• It's a Girl (Amazon): This film is about how several cultures negatively view the female gender as unwelcome daughters. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Latino Americans (YouTube):  This film examines the immigrant experience and history in the past 50 years in America.  Videos of Deaf Latinx are supplemented (YouTube) for a wide range of perspectives. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Life and Deaf (vs) Sound & Fury (YouTube): This project watches the Sound & Fury documentary and 2 other short films that discuss cochlear implants & the Deaf identity in the US and Great Britain. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Living on One Dollar (YouTube): College students travel to Guatemala to live amongst a small, poor village. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• The Mask You Live in (YouTube/Amazon):  This documentary examines the notion of masculinity in American culture and how the strict limitations on "Being a Man" impacts us all. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Amazon/YouTube): This film examines sexual abuse history at St Johns School for the Deaf in Wisconsin and the plight of Deaf victims for justice in the Catholic Church domestically and around the world. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Mentality (YouTube): This film examines mental health barriers, the old and modern system of psychiatry, and the prevailing stereotypes that patients and providers face in trying to serve, treat, and heal. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Mountain Talk (YouTube):   This film describes the cultural and linguistic aspects of Appalachian English and the cultural community who call themselves 'Mountain People'.  Explore this fascinating language and make parallels to Deaf culture & ASL. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Not A Boy, Not A Girl (Vimeo):  This film focuses on people who identify as gender nonbinary, the challenges they face, including oppression, accessibility, and identity issues. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Of Two Minds (Amazon): For mental health interpreters, this is a film about the complexity of bipolar disorder and how it may manifest in clients with whom we work.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• One Child Nation (Amazon):  This film explores China's 35-year One Child Policy and the cultural identity and oppression nested in its enforcement and consequences. (0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• NEW: One of Us (Netflix):  Enter the closed world of Hasidic Jews of Brooklyn, NY and follow defectors who pay a high price for their freedom in the secular world. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Oriented (YouTube/Amazon):  This film explores the identity of being Palestinian and Israeli in Tel Aviv within the gay community.  Issues of family traditions, gender bias, and behavioral mores are analyzed within Palestine. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Reel Injun (Amazon): Examine the stereotypes of Native American people upheld by media and Hollywood images that have negatively impacted the community, as they now take back control and demand accurate representation. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Risky Drinking (YouTube & HBO): This documentary reviews the current medical diagnostics for alcohol use disorders through four stories, with a resource on Deaf addiction and treatment. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Saudi Arabia Uncovered (YouTube/Netflix): A peek into Saudi Arabian culture, their connection to the US and how refugees who leave the strict cultural mores adapt to the Western world. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• See What I'm Saying (Amazon):  This films looks at the beauty, diversity and depth of Deaf talent, and the oppression and discrimination Deaf artists face to be seen in mainstream culture. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Soul Food Junkies (PBS Subscriber/Amazon) Go on a historical journey to learn more about the soul food tradition and its relevance to black cultural identity. Through candid interviews with soul food cooks, historians, scholars, doctors, and everyday people, this film examines economic injustice and oppression and the consequences to Black lives and communities. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• A Suitable Girl (Amazon): This film looks at Indian cultural views of marriage and what it means to find a life partner.  It follows several families in the matchmaking process that leads to a wedding. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs)
• Summer of Soul (Hulu/Amazon/AppleTV/YouTube rental): Go behind the scenes of the historic Harlem Cultural Festival ("Black Woodstock") in the Summer of 1969 from the performers and audience members who fought for equality, respect, and recognition of the beauty of Black people and the Black community. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• They Call it Mayanmar (Amazon/YouTube):  This film explores Mayanmar/Burma culture.  The film serves as a platform to explore Deaf people in Burma and compare & contrast culture, oppression, and Deaf education in both countries. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Trans (Amazon):  This is a collection of stories of trans American youth and aging adults who come to terms with their identity with the help of professionals in the field. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• An Uncomfortable Truth (Amazon): This film looks at the history and timeline of racism in the US through the lens of a family who once owned slaves. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• The US-Dakota Conflict (YouTube): Learn about the misuse of power by the US government in the decimation of the Dakota nation in the Dakota War of Minnesota, how Native people are now fighting for the rights of their ancestors, and preserving their culture. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Voices from El-Sayed (YouTube):  Come inside the largest community of Deaf & hearing people living together currently on the globe in a bi-lingual community that is reminiscent of Martha's Vineyard days.  Learn about their language and cochlear controversy akin to that in the US.. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• White People (YouTube): This film dives into the topic of white privilege, speaking openly with Americans who reflect on the experiences that have formed their current views. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• Women of the Holy Kingdom (Amazon):  This film glimpses into life in Saudi Arabia for women and their cultural views of gender.  ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• We Were Here (Amazon):  Stories from the front line of the AIDS crisis in 1980s San Francisco, highlighting homophobia and the dangerous effects of oppression on the lives of the gay community. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)
• The Worlds Worst Place to Be Disabled (YouTube): This film travels around the globe to explore cultural beliefs and societal treatments of those with disabilities. ($32, 0.25 PS CEUs + PPO)

All project curriculum is copyrighted by iCEU Central, LLC.  The film rental or purchase is not included in the project per copyright law.  YouTube Videos are usually free and open source.  All RID CEUs are overseen, & administered by RID CMP Sponsor: Ginevra Deianni.  

A Note about CEU calculations: CEUs are calculated at a passive-learning 2:1 time-to-CEU ratio, per RID rules for CMP Activities of this genre. If you have any questions about the time calculations or pre-approved CEU amounts, please contact us.

Why don't you see non-fiction film titles at iCEU Central?   iCEU Central is committed to the highest quality of cross-cultural education and thereby strictly follows RID CMP criteria for sponsorship content selection & approval.  RID rules for CMP projects prohibit works of entertainment to be the sole focus of a CMP project.  For this reason, regardless if a film or show has characters/plot based in the Deaf community, we do not use works of fiction. Our titles are selected based on teaching use from higher education classrooms intended for cultural anthropology study from lived experiences to broaden our understanding of the diversity of intersectional identities with whom we work as interpreter professionals.