Stanford Center for Internet and Society

Ask Not is a rare and compelling exploration of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The film exposes the tangled political battles that led to the discriminatory law, and profiles charismatic young activists determined to abolish it. As wars in the Middle East rage on, Ask Not reveals personal stories of gay Americans who serve in combat under a veil of secrecy.

How did a rebel public defender from Boulder, Colorado, throw a monkey wrench into America’s "death machine"? Slip into a juror’s seat as David Wymore and other nationally recognized criminal defense attorneys bring their fight against the death penalty to the front line: the courtroom.

Casting a revelatory and often uncomfortable light on our justice system, The Life Penalty shakes the ethical and moral foundations of capital punishment in the contemporary United States. Featuring two Bob Dylan songs including the never before released "Ballad of Donald White".

The Powder & the Glory tells the story of two of the first highly successful women entrepreneurs in America, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. One hundred years ago these women immigrated to the United States and, starting with next to nothing, created what is today the $150 billion global health and beauty industry. They lived and worked only blocks apart but by design they never met. They were fierce rivals.

Shocking and informative, SPLIT: A DIVIDED AMERICA takes a behind the scenes look at the partisanship dominating our politics. Balancing candid discussions with citizens coast to coast and commentary from some of the sharpest minds analyzing government and society today, it’s a cross country investigation of democracy in America.

Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston until tragedy strikes. Rather than turning inwards, grief compels these women to focus on the country where the terrorists who took their husbands’ lives were trained: Afghanistan. Over the course of two years, as they cope with loss and struggle to raise their families as single mothers, these extraordinary women dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows whose lives have been ravaged by decades of war, poverty and oppression – factors they consider to be the root causes of terrorism.

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Debate Team is a documentary exploring the weird subculture of competitive college debate. Competitors battle at 360 words per minute, hauling around mountains of evidence called “cards” and nearly every debate ends in global nuclear annihilation.

In 2005, nearly 200 teams converged on San Francisco State to compete in the National Championship. The documentary follows four teams, from Michigan State, Harvard, West Georgia, and Berkeley in their quest for the national title.

What emerges is not simply a chronicle of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but a more disturbing examination into the nature of competition itself and the American fetish with championships and champions.

Debate Team is sponsored by Film Arts.