‘American Teacher’ and other titles from Tugg Inc now available on NJVID

This week NJVID team has digitized and added new titles from the commercial video distributor – Tugg Inc. The content includes topics such as public school system education, impact of large-scale factory farming on our planet and many more topics. These titles can now be licensed by any NJVID member for streaming access. The complete titles in this list are:

• American Teacher – As the debate over the state of America’s public school system rages on, one thing everyone agrees on is the need for great teachers. Yet, while research proves that teachers are the most important school-based factor in a child’s future success, America’s teachers are so woefully underpaid that almost two thirds must divide their time between a second job in order to make a living. Chronicling the stories of five teachers in different areas of the country, American Teacher reveals the frustrating realities of today’s educators, the difficulty of attracting talented new teachers, and why so many of our best teachers feel forced to leave the profession altogether.

• Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret – This film is a is a groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary following an intrepid filmmaker as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today – and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it. As eye-opening as Blackfish and as inspiring as An Inconvenient Truth, this shocking yet humorous documentary reveals the absolutely devastating environmental impact large-scale factory farming has on our planet.

• A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story –  This film is a documentary following the inspiring journey of 26 year old, 58 pound Lizzie from cyber-bullying victim to anti-bullying activist. Born with a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight, Lizzie Velasquez was first bullied as a child in school for looking different and, later online, as a teenager when she discovered a YouTube video labeling her “The World’s Ugliest Woman.” The film chronicles unheard stories and details of Lizzie’s physical and emotional journey up to her multi-million viewed TEDx talk, and follows her pursuit from a motivational speaker to Capitol Hill as she lobbies for the first federal anti-bullying bill.

• The Apple Pushers –  Narrated by Edward Norton, this film follows the inspiring stories of five immigrant pushcart vendors who are rolling fresh fruits and vegetables into New York City’s food deserts – neighborhoods where finding a ripe, red apple is a serious challenge and where obesity rates are skyrocketing. These micro-entrepreneurs, who hail from Ecuador, Russia, Mexico, and Bangladesh, are at the heart of a unique urban strategy, the Green Cart Initiative, which seeks to increase the availability of fresh produce in under-served communities, in an effort to combat the obesity epidemic found in so many of America’s cities.

• Deepsouth – This is a documentary about the rural American South, and the people who inhabit its most quiet corners. Beneath layers of history, poverty and now soaring HIV infections, four Americans redefine traditional Southern values to create their own solutions to survive.

• Dislecksia: The Movie –  An engaging  documentary that weaves vintage classroom footage, celebrity interviews and the comedic touch of dyslexic director Harvey Hubbell V into an engrossingly entertaining film on a serious subject. In the first film to discuss dyslexia as a learning difference, not a learning disability, Hubbell rallies a team of celebrated neuroscientists, heroic educators, high profile celebrities and business leaders with dyslexia who are advocates of Harvey’s belief. The subjects of the film showcase the most up-to-date information and in doing so, a blueprint emerges on how best to manage this learning difference that up to 1.4 billion people cope with daily.

• Documented –  In 2011, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in an essay published in the New York Times Magazine. Documented chronicles his journey to America from the Philippines as a child; his journey through America as an immigration reform activist; and his journey inward as he re-connects with his mother, whom he hasn’t seen in person in over 20 years.

• Forget Us Not –  An in depth look at the persecution and subsequent death of the 5 million non- Jewish victims of the World War II Holocaust and the lives of those who survived. Through stories of survivors and historical footage, these lesser known voices are brought to life. From the Roma and Sinti people who were also targeted for complete annihilation to the thousands of Catholic Priests who were killed for speaking out, Forget Us Not strives to educate and give tribute to those who were killed for their religion, ethnicity, political views, sexual orientation and physical handicaps.

• Lunch Hour –  Lunch Hour explores the National School Lunch Program, childhood obesity, and our addiction to unhealthy foods. It shows what schools, parents, authors, doctors, politicians, celebrities, and chefs are doing to problem solve this issue and help save the children of America.

• Paper Tigers –  Paper Tigers follows a year in the life of an alternative high school that has radically changed its approach to disciplining its students, becoming a promising model for how to break the cycles of poverty, violence and disease that affect families.