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.
IRAN PRACTICES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BY BRINGING BALLOT BOXES TO THE PEOPLE Iran has elections every four years in which all citizens sixteen years of age and above are entitled to vote in a secret ballot for two candidates from a list of several presidential aspirants. The current liberalization trend in Iran is due to careful […]
CAR-WINDOW SOCIOLOGY OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN MÉXICO EMERGES IN Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN Two seventeen-year-old Mexico City boys spend a summer together in the coming-of-age Mexican film Y Tu Mamá También, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. When the film begins, their girlfriends are about to leave for a vacation in Italy, though not before one
The Town is Quiet (La ville est tranquille) is about the impact of globalization on Marseilles, a once-bustling port now used primarily by fishing vessels. The focus is on the impact upon the people of a proud city that has become redundant. In search of new sources of employment-from research thinktanks to tourism-politicians of the left and
JOHN Q. ENCOUNTERS SICKNESS IN THE HEALTH INDUSTRY John Q. is an exposé about the 40 million Americans who have no health insurance and millions more who belong to health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that provide phony health insurance. The hero, John Qunicy Archibald (played by Denzel Washington), is a family man, a churchgoer, and a
A BLACKLISTED HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER SUFFERS A BLACKOUT IN THE MAJESTIC Far from Washington, Hollywood is an easy target for those in Congress to find scapegoats. After World War II, the pattern of emergence of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, involving the media in part, frightened some Americans into believing that a similar fate was in
LUMUMBA TELLS THE TRUE STORY ABOUT CONGELESE INDEPENDENCE The English are inveterate gardeners, proud of turning adverse soil into lush and manicured panoramas of color. Based on a true story, Greenfingers focuses on Colin Briggs (played by Clive Owen), who has spent most of his life in prison for petty vandalism. One day he is
GOOD AND EVIL PRESENT CLEAR CHOICES IN ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE Atlantis: The Lost Empire, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, is yet another Disney cartoon story for kids, with fantastic beauty and a simple story, though the plot is aimed at teenagers more than toddlers. When the film begins, a quote from Plato
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JANITORS FIGHT FOR WAGES AND RESPECT IN AFFLUENT LOS ANGELES Forty million persons have no medical insurance in the richest country in the world, the United States. Among the uninsured are recent immigrants, who often work at wages below the minimum allowed by law while immigration quotas are not relaxed to allow badly needed unskilled
ANTITRUST PUBLICIZES THE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE MOVEMENT The film AntiTrust clearly purports to be an exposé of someone more ruthless than Bill Gates; interestingly, Sun Microsystems and Linux were consulted for the movie. Directed by Peter Howitt, the protagonist is Milo Hoffman (played by Ryan Phillippe), who has followed up his graduation from Stanford to
THE CONTENDER REPLAYS THE CLINTON TAPES When President Clinton was asked whether he had an extramarital affair, was the question itself proper? This is the conundrum subliminally posed in The Contender, written and directed by Rod Lurie, who has improved greatly from the misspelled and misfired Deterence (2000) by cloning the classic Advise and Consent