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16 and Pregnant is a show on MTV that chronicles the lives of teenagers dealing with pregnancy and its consequences.

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After, Happily Ever After is filmmaker Kate Schermerhorns quirky, funny and moving personal quest for the secret to a happy marriage and for answers to some timely questions about an institution that, surprisingly, is rarely examined in any comprehensive way. Interview with filmmaker.

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Aging Out directors Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth, with support from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Casey Family Programs. AGING OUT is a production of Public Policy Productions for Thirteen/WNET New York.It will be broadcast on PBS nationwide May 26, 2005. Check local listings.

The film follows young people as they exit foster care and become parents, battle drug addiction, face homelessness, and even end up in jail. Despite their struggles, the film also shows these teenagers using the resiliency they developed during their years “in the system” to take control of their lives. It also forces us to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the public systems that serve these youth, as well asthe roles that private citizens and organizations can play.

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The Business of Being Born

Birth is a miracle, a rite of passage, a natural part of life. But birth is also big business.

Compelled to explore the subject after the delivery of her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to question the way American women have babies.

The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal.

Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?

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Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children’s advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children’s marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids.

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The Education of Shelby Knox 

The swift rise in federally funded, abstinence-only sex education under the Bush administration is in the headlines today, sparking an intense national debate about our responsibility to teach teens the facts of life. Those supporting an abstinence-only approach say that teaching anything but abstinence just encourages teens to experiment with sex. Opponents say that withholding information about condom use and birth control will only lead to unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Into the culture wars steps 15-year-old Shelby Knox of Lubbock, Texas. A self-described “good Southern Baptist girl,” Knox herself has pledged abstinence until marriage. When she finds that Lubbock has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the state, and her county’s high schools teach abstinence as the only safe sex, she becomes an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex education, profoundly changing her political and spiritual views along the way. “I think that God wants you to question,” Shelby says, “to do more than just blindly be a follower, because he can’t use blind followers. He can use people like me who realize there’s more in the world that can be done.” Here is a story for our times, where the combustible mix of politics, family and faith aren’t as predictable as the red state/blue state divide would suggest.

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[https://youtu.be/7FQHHgj7s48]

Family Name is a winner of the 1997 Sundance Freedom of Expression Award follows filmmaker Macky Alston from New York to the South, as he embarks on an excavation to unearth the history of his white slave-owning family, and explores the link to the black families that shared his name. P.O.V. is proud to present this Fall special as the launch of the Television Race Intiative, a three-year effort in which diverse, character-driven public television broadcasts create a spine for community dialogue and problem-solving around the issue of race relation.

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FREEDOM TO MARRY documents the stunning celebration which began on February 12th, 2004 in the city of San Francisco when new, straight, married Mayor Gavin Newsom felt compelled to recognize the rights of same-sex couples to be treated equally. Included in the film are passionate comments by comedian Margaret Cho. This courageous act of compassion has caused an explosion of emotion on both sides and if you were not fortunate enough to be in San Francisco for this, don’t miss this chance to experience one of the most important events in the historic fight for civil rights for gays and lesbians everywhere!

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[https://youtu.be/pQGlAM0iWFM]

Google Baby A journey across three continents telling the story of the up and coming baby production industry in the age of globalization.

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In the Name of Love What’s motivating the thousands of Russian women who sign up with agencies to meet and marry American men? From the gray skies of St. Petersburg to sunny California ranches, we see the financial and emotional pros and cons of exporting one’s heart.

Five Russian women, four of them single mothers, struggle for dignity as they endure male chauvinism, poverty, and culture shock, all while searching for love.

In the Name of Love grapples with the tremendous economic challenges and difficult decisions facing Russian women today.

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The Lottery Four children enter a high-stakes lottery. If they win, they can attend one of the best schools in New York. A look at the crisis in public education, The Lottery makes the case than any child can succeed.

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Maybe Baby MAYBE BABY is an intimate, provocative documentary that takes a new look at the emotional journeys of single women in their ’30s and ’40s as they pursue pregnancy through the world of Assisted Reproductive Technology, a multi-billion dollar industry on the cutting edge of medicine and science. Against a backdrop of ticking biological clocks, this riveting 60-minute film illuminates basic human questions of life, love, fertility, and the meaning of motherhood today.

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Mickey Mouse Monopoly— Mickey Mouse Monopoly takes a close and critical look at the world these films create and the stories they tell about race, gender and class and reaches disturbing conclusions about the values propagated under the guise of innocence and fun. This daring new video insightfully analyzes Disney’s cultural pedagogy, examines its corporate power, and explores its vast influence on our global culture. Including interviews with cultural critics, media scholars, child psychologists, kindergarten teachers, multicultural educators, college students and children, Mickey Mouse Monopoly will provoke audiences to confront comfortable assumptions about an American institution that is virtually synonymous with childhood pleasure.

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Nursery University Set in New York City, the epicenter of a phenomenon cropping up in communities across the United States, “Nursery University” provides a good-humored look at the oddly competitive environment of nursery school admissions.

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 Remote Control The average American child spends over 40 hours per week consuming media, the equivalent of a full-time job. This means that by the time children born today turn 30, they will have spent an entire decade of their lives in front of some type of screen. Remote Control, based on the findings of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s landmark study Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8 to 18-year-olds, examines the implications of this unprecedented level of exposure. Putting a human face on the report’s statistical findings, filmmaker Bob McKinnon explores the media habits of two families, supplementing their powerful personal insights with testimony from media experts, educators, and policymakers. Remote Control offers a fascinating look at the centrality of media in our lives, revealing far-reaching effects that we are only beginning to understand, and suggesting ways we might begin to help our children live a life instead of watching one.

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War on the Family A documentary exploring the causes and effects of incarcerating mothers for non-violent drug offenses. War on the Family paints a haunting picture of an issue that is destroying American families.

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When Strangers Click Finding love has never been easy.  But it’s also never been easier.  Online dating sites thrive on the promise that dates and mates are just a “click” away.  But are they?

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Wo Ai Ni Mommy 

From 2000-2008, China was the leading country for U.S. international adoptions. There are now approximately 70,000 Chinese children being raised in the United States. Wo Ai Ni Mommy explores what happens when an older Chinese girl is adopted into an American family. This film reveals the complicated gains and losses that are an inherent aspect of international, transracial adoption.

In 2007 Donna and Jeff Sadowsky of Long Island, New York submitted their dossier to adopt eight-year old Fang Sui Yong from Guangzhou, China. From the very first moment Sui Yong meets her new mother, Donna, we get a real sense of the emotional confusion and loss Sui Yong experiences, as adoption workers translate their first words of communication. This day will change Sui Yong’s life, forever. Language, habits, food, everything she knows will never be the same. Her new life in America is filled with happiness and confusion. As she struggles to survive in this new world, we witness her transform into a lively, outspoken American. Sui Yong has become someone neither she nor Donna could have imagined. In a sense, she’s the same girl Donna met in Guangzhou all those months ago – and yet she’s utterly different.

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[https://youtu.be/nopXjB1FLQU]

Yo Soy Boricua A documentary on New York’s annual Puerto Rican Day parade, identity, directed by Rosie Perez.

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