Friends on a deck overlooking Cowles Mountain celebrating California Big Hunks

Cultural Films

Cultural
Films

Films that document and reflect the cultural, social, and institutional concerns of their time.

Rather than fitting neatly into documentary or instructional categories, these works occupy a contextual space. They reveal how video was used to explain, frame, and present contemporary life, often for specific audiences and moments.

A California Big Hunks poster on display at a trade show booth, with two members of the New & Unique Videos team standing beside it
California Big Hunks® on display at a trade show booth

Scope of the collection

Films as cultural artifacts

Each title offers insight into the values, anxieties, and frameworks of the period in which it was made.

  1. 01Popular culture and performance
  2. 02Institutional communication and public concern
  3. 03Social norms, identity, and representation
  4. 04Public awareness and explanatory media
  5. 05Media made for specific cultural or professional audiences

In the collection

Six titles

Cultural Films · 06 entries

[IMAGE: California-Big-Hunks-e1787690107286.png]
CF–01 · FEATURED

California Big Hunks®

Performance, masculinity, and spectacle in late-20th-century consumer video culture — how fantasy, presentation, and identity were shaped and marketed in the VHS era.

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[IMAGE: Anti-Terrorism-Weapons-Tactics-16×9-thumbnail-e1787685342371.png]
CF–02 · FEATURED

Anti-Terrorism: Weapons & Tactics

An explanatory film on the security concerns, terminology, and institutional frameworks of its time — a record of how fear, risk, and authority were communicated on video.

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[IMAGE: Cultural-Awareness-Training-16×9-Thumbnail-e1788895576112.png]
CF–04

Cultural Resources Awareness Training Video

Clear, practical instruction that helps workers meet their cultural resource responsibilities in the field.

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[IMAGE: Peace-Out-San-Diego-1.png]
CF–05

Peace Out San Diego

An award-winning musical documentary of San Diego’s marches, vigils and rallies opposing the War in Iraq, 2003 to 2007.

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[IMAGE: Soaring-in-a-Sailplane-2.png]
CF–06

Soaring in a Sailplane

Pilot Rolf Schulze takes Patty Mooney aloft in this 1983 glider flight, riding the thermals to a new score by Patty Mooney.

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Screen it, study it, license it

Titles may be available for viewing, research, exhibition, or licensing, depending on title and format.