FREAK SHOW EXPOSES THE REAL FREAKS Transgender persons are increasingly finding acceptance on an equal basis with everyone else, based on the doctrine of integrationism. The Social Darwinist doctrine of assimilation requires conformity, leaving transgender persons as permanent outsiders. The two doctrines collide in Freak Show, directed by Trudie Styler. Most action in the film surrounds Billy […]
FREAK SHOW EXPOSES THE REAL FREAKS Transgender persons are increasingly finding acceptance on an equal basis with everyone else, based on the doctrine of integrationism. The Social Darwinist doctrine of assimilation requires conformity, leaving transgender persons as permanent outsiders. The two doctrines collide in Freak Show, directed by Trudie Styler. Most action in the film surrounds Billy
Political Film Review #569 Read More »
MARY SHELLEY FINDS WHY LOVE IS COMPLICATED Mary Shelley (played by Elle Fanning) wrote Frankenstein based on her experiences in the tiny free love community of Britain in the 1810s. She was the daughter of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who died a few days after Mary was born. Her father was the philosopher William Godwin (Stephen Dillane), who ran
MARY SHELLEY FINDS WHY LOVE IS COMPLICATED Mary Shelley (played by Elle Fanning) wrote Frankenstein based on her experiences in the tiny free love community of Britain in the 1810s. She was the daughter of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who died a few days after Mary was born. Her father was the philosopher William Godwin (Stephen Dillane), who ran
Political Film Review #568 Read More »
BEIRUT EXPOSES NEGOTIATION PERFIDY In 1972, U.S. diplomat Mason Skiles (played Tom Hamm) hosts a lavish party at an estate overlooking Beirut (though filming is in Tangier, Morocco). Suddenly a CIA agent demands to collect his 13-year-old adopted son Karim (Yoau Saian Rosenberg) for questioning in regard to the role of his big brother, Abu Rajal
BYE BYE GERMANY EXPLAINS WHY 4,000 JEWISH REFUGEES STAYED IN GERMANY After World War II, some 7 million displaced persons were placed in 800 resettlement camps operated by the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Agency. Due to bombing, dislocation, political chaos, and starvation, many had no home to return to. Within the American occupation zone, as featured
BYE BYE GERMANY EXPLAINS WHY 4,000 JEWISH REFUGEES STAYED IN GERMANY After World War II, some 7 million displaced persons were placed in 800 resettlement camps operated by the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Agency. Due to bombing, dislocation, political chaos, and starvation, many had no home to return to. Within the American occupation zone, as featured
Political Film Review #567 Read More »
BITTER FATE EMERGES IN SWEET COUNTRY In the 1920s, Australians were still trying to set up cattle farming in the Northern Frontier, using some of the aboriginal peoples but not all. The farmers, an unruly lot, meet for booze in a nearby town but otherwise have to cope with difficult terrain. Some of the aboriginal people
BITTER FATE EMERGES IN SWEET COUNTRY In the 1920s, Australians were still trying to set up cattle farming in the Northern Frontier, using some of the aboriginal peoples but not all. The farmers, an unruly lot, meet for booze in a nearby town but otherwise have to cope with difficult terrain. Some of the aboriginal people
Political Film Review #566 Read More »
CHAPPAQUIDDICK DROWNS MORE THAN MARY JO KOPECHNE The Kennedy curse may have accounted for the death of the first Kennedy son and the assassination of the next two Kennedys, but not for what happened to Ted Kennedy (played by Jason Clarke) on the night of July 18, 1969. At 11 p.m., after a party with a