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.
MACHUCA PORTRAYS THE CLASS STRUGGLE THAT BROUGHT ABOUT & UNSEATED ALLENDE IN CHILE In 1973, after the reelection of Richard Nixon, the government of democratically elected Salvador Allende was replaced by a military coup led by General Agusto Pinochet. Machuca, directed by Andrés Wood, attempts to recreate events before, during, and after the coup from […]
DOWNFALL EXPOSES THE LAST TEN DAYS OF HITLER’S SURREAL WORLD In Downfall (Der Untergang), director Oliver Hirschbiegel presents a vivid docudrama of the last ten days of the Third Reich, mostly inside Hitler’s Berlin bunker surrounded by the luminaries of the Nazi state. To achieve historical accuracy, the script relies on Joachim Fest’s Inside Hitler’s
THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON FINALLY CONFERS WARHOLIAN FAME ON SAMUEL BICKE What kind of person would formulate an intention to assassinate a president of the United States? The Assassination of Richard Nixon, directed by Niels Mueller, attempts to answer that question by reconstructing the personality of someone whose life ended on February 22, 1974,
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MOOLAADÉ CUTS THROUGH THE TABOO OF FEMALE CIRCUMCISION Moolaadé, directed by Ousmane Sembène, is a truly remarkable film from Sénégal that focuses on the injustice of female genital circumcision (FGC). When the film begins, the annual FGC ritual is underway in a remote Burkina Faso village that has a beautiful mosque and a sculpture of
Why would an apolitical medical student from an affluent family in Buenos Aires become a revolutionary? The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de Motorcicleta), directed by Walter Salles, not only explains why but also reminds filmviewers that the same injustices, which affected him so profoundly, still exist. With one semester to go in order to complete medical
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POLITICIANS ARE BOUGHT & SOLD FOR PIECES OF SILVER IN SILVER CITY If documentaries shaped public opinion, Control Room, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Corporation, The Hunting of the President, Outfoxed, and Bush’s Brain would have already sewed up the election for John Kerry. The feature film Silver City appears to be an indictment of the naïveté
AMERICAN JOURNALISM ABANDONS ITS DEMOCRATIC ROLE, ACCORDING TO SHATTERED GLASS Journalism is a serious business, according to Shattered Glass. Directed by Billy Ray, the film is a biopic of Stephen Glass (played by Hayden Christensen), an associate editor of The New Republic until 1998, when he was found to be fabricating stories. The film operates
RUNAWAY JURY DEPICTS THE NRA IN A JURY TAMPERING FRENZY On June 26, 1996, thirty-six-year-old Irish journalist Veronica Guerin was gunned down while driving her car on a motorway outside Dublin. The film Veronica Guerin, directed by Joel Schumacher, tells why she was assassinated and how her death changed the political landscape in Ireland. After
RUNAWAY JURY DEPICTS THE NRA IN A JURY TAMPERING FRENZY Early in Runaway Jury, we are told that 30,000 Americans die and 100,000 are injured each year by guns, statistics that do not stop the National Rifle Association from serving as the public relations front for an industry that rakes in $2 billion each year.
INITIALLY BANNED IN INDIA, SANDSTORM REVEALS A FIGHT AGAINST ENTRENCHED CASTEISM & SEXISM Some years before the release of Sandstorm (Bawandar), Sanwari (played by Nandita Das) of the Untouchable caste works as an organizer for a feminist organization in India to make some extra money for her family. Shobha Devi (played by Deepti Naval) hired