“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.”
–John Hope Franklin

Last week we gave you a starter list of summer reads. Continuing this thread of mental exploration and amusement, today’s post features treats for summer days via film and music.

Waking Life is about an unnamed young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. He initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions of issues such as reality, free will, the relationship of the subject with others, and the meaning of life. Along the way the film touches on other topics including existentialism, situationist politics, posthumanity, the film theory of André Bazin, and lucid dreaming itself. – (Description from Wikipedia)

Food, Inc. Topping the list is the 2008 documentary exposing the underbelly of industrialized food, from treating animals as units of production as opposed to living beings to exploring the power our consuming choices/dollars hold.

We Shall Remain. In 5 parts, PBS’s American Experience series chronicles the history of Native Americans and their fight for their land and culture. RE that reparations argument: The folks you’re petitioning for that 40 acres and a mule don’t really have the right to give it.

The Story of Stuff. Annie Leopard’s simply presented 20-minute cartoon sheds light on Americans’ disconnect from the millions of consumer products we indulge in then discard, from extraction, production, and distribution to consumption and disposal.

The Corporation. Calling the corporation the “dominant institution of our time,” this film explores and critiques today’s giants and features interviews with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva (woman crush!), and Michael Moore.

Wattstax. Captures the Wattstax concert of 1972, featuring acts such as the Staple Singers, and interviews with black men and women and snippets of Richard Pryor commenting on race relations and the black experience. If nothing else, watch it to peep Isaac Hayes in orange spandex and gold-link suspenders.

These are just a taste, so stay tuned to the blog and our tweets for other interesting links! @ArtOfficialShop on twitter