Films, Series and Documentaries

This is available on Netflix.

In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.

Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert

This is a Netflix documentary and not available through Umich Kanopy.

In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.

This is available on PBS.

Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that will chronicle the contributions, and challenges of Asian Americans, the fastest-growing ethnic group in America. Personal histories and new academic research will cast a fresh lens on U.S. history and the role Asian Americans have played in it.

This is available on ESPN.

“Be Water” — which takes its name from Lee’s observation that water is soft but capable of penetrating the hardest substance — provides much needed context about Lee’s Hollywood struggles, including commentary from his daughter, Shannon Lee; widow, Linda Lee Cadwell; brother, Robert Lee; and friends such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dan Inosanto.

Greg Kinnear, Renée Zellweger, Djimon Hounsou

This is available on Netflix.

A wealthy couple whose marriage is on the rocks befriends a local homeless man who changes their perspectives in this inspiring true story.