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.
PRINCESS KA‘IULANI DRAMATIZES THE FALL OF THE HAWAIIAN MONARCHY After years of research at the Bishop Museum, Marc Forby directs Princess Ka‘iulani as a tribute to the sad history of the fall of the Hawaiian monarchy. The drama picks up steam when King Kalākaua (played by Ocean Kaowili) is forced in 1887 to sign the […]
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FORMOSA BETRAYED DEPICTS THE DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN In 1989, the Political Film Society voted A City of Sadness (Bei qing cheng shi) as the best political film at the East-West Center Film Festival. The film depicted the brutal takeover as the Nationalist China Army retreated from Mainland China to the island of Taiwan, killing
A JOURNALIST IS IMPRISONED FOR WITHHOLDING A SOURCE IN NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH In 2005, New York Times journalist Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for contempt of court–refusing to disclose who outed Valery Plame as a CIA agent. In an effort to dramatize the issue, Nothing But the Truth focuses on journalist Rachel
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MILK IS A BIOPIC OF THE MAN WHO MOBILIZED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT The election of Harvey Milk as San Francisco Supervisor in 1977 was of the first openly gay American politician of stature. The film Milk begins with a montage of documentaries about police hostility to gays, including the famous Stonewall Riots of 1969.
CHANGELING EXPOSES HOW “FACTS” CAN BE FIT TO A POLICY TO SUIT A SECRET AGENDA During the Prohibition era the police were asked to enforce laws while lawbreakers made millions. Although The Untouchables (1987) focuses on heroic efforts of the federal government against Chicago mobsters, less attention was directed at corrupt police departments that wiped
FLASH OF GENIUS PITS A LONE INVENTOR AGAINST THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY When Flash of Genius begins, Professor Robert Kearns (played by Greg Kinnear) is lecturing Electrical Engineering students at Wayne State University, Detroit, about the ethics of their field on the first day of class. (However, all the filming takes place in Canada, not
SEPTEMBER DAWN INDICTS MORMONS, INCLUDING BRIGHAM YOUNG, FOR A MASSACRE ON 9/11 In 1844, Joseph Smith, Jr., was assassinated in Illinois. Two years later, Brigham Young led many of Smith’s followers on a trek that ended up in barren Utah, then a part of México. After the Mexican War, in 1850, Utah was recognized as
SHOOTER FIRES A SUBLIMINAL BULL’S-EYE ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION Bob Lee Swagger (played by Mark Wahlberg), whose name suggests the memory of Lee Harvey Oswald, can shoot targets at very long distances. At the beginning of Shooter, directed by Antoine Fuqua, he is a Marine Sergeant defending American troops from an ambush in the Eritrean