Films that portray the way in which ordinary people have a right to choose public policies and can bring about political change by making officeholders accountable to the people.
BIOPIC CESAR CHAVEZ TRIUMPHS THROUGH NONVIOLENCE When Cesar Chavez (played by Michael Peña) was 11, he was an exploited grape picker in Delano, California, but he left for Los Angeles to learn about community organizing. When he returned, he had a vision of how to liberate farm workers, as portrayed in Cesar Chavez, directed by […]
MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM IS THE PREQUEL TO THE 2009 FILM INVICTUS Whereas Invictus shows President Nelson Mandela healing a nation during his first years in office, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedomis the story of his life up to his election as president. Based on Mandela’s autobiography and directed by Justin Chadwick, the
CAPITAL IS FILLED WITH EPIGRAMS Costa-Gavras scores again with Capital, which features a French bank CEO saying that he is a modern Robin Hood, stealing from the poor to help the rich, to the applause of his bank’s principal shareholders. After Phenix bank CEO Jack Marmande (played by Daniel Mesguich) falls ill, his ghostwriter sidekick
THE BUTLER CELEBRATES CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS Released during the week of the 50th year anniversary of the March on Washington, The Butler provides a feel-good historical summary of civil rights developments for nearly a century. The Butler (played by Forest Whitaker) is Cecil Gaines, who is born on a cotton plantation in Georgia in the
PROMISED LAND ASKS FILMVIEWERS WHAT KIND OF AMERICA THEY WANT To frack or not to frack is the question posed, as a small town mulls over the prospect of riches if only residents will sign a contract for future royalties from drilling for natural gas two miles below from oil shale deposits. Steve Butler (played
LINCOLN PORTRAYS A HUMBLE SAINT Filmviewers may be familiar with Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), directed by John Cromwell, especially Raymond Massey’s stirring performance. Or perhaps Massey’s role as Lincoln in television films. Amazingly, no director ever dared challenge Massey’s interpretation until director Steven Spielberg released Lincoln just before Thanksgiving 2012. What changed is that
THE LADY DEPICTS FAMILY LIFE AMID the POLITICAL STRUGGLE OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI Fortuitously timed for release while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Myanmar (Burma), The Lady is a biopic of Aung San Suu Kyi (played by Michelle Yeow) from her return to Rangoon in 1988 to be alongside her dying, hospitalized
IS ELITE SQUAD 2 A PARADIGM FOR POLITICS EVERYWHERE BESIDES BRAZIL? News stories emerging from Brazil nowadays mention that the police are cleaning up the slums (favelas) in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games but are vague on details. Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within (Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora É Outro),
JOHN SAYLES SCORES ANOTHER HOME RUN WITH AMIGO Feature films are often more effective than documentaries because they humanize issues, depicting interpersonal relationships that symbolize policy problems. From 1899-1902 the United States conquered the Philippines by suppressing the independent Philippine Republic in a war with perhaps 1.5 million casualties. In Amigo, Political Film Society awardwinner
OF GODS AND MEN ASKS, “WHAT PRICE TERRORISM?” Grand prize winner at Cannes in 2010, Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) is a true story of seven French Catholic monks in Tibhinine in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria (though filmed in Morocco) during the war of independence from 1954-1962. As monks, they