Films that bring previously obscured truths about the political process to the attention of the public, showing for example how offices of public trust are used for private purposes.
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), […]
THE CONQUEST EXPLAINS WHY NICOLAS SARKOZY BECAME FRANCE’S PRESIDENT The world has been hearing more about French President Nicolas Sarkozy nowadays. He is the one behind the intervention in Libya, and he recently confided that he perceived Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “liar.” The Conquest (La conquête), directed by Xavier Durringer, begins with
Placid Gang In-ho (played by Yoo Gong) reports for a position as art instructor at a school for the deaf in Gwangju Province, Korea, and soon discovers that the children are being sexually molested and viciously punished by an instructor and the twins running the school. After reporting what he sees to human rights activist
5 DAYS OF WAR IS JUST TOO LONG Beginning with a quote from Hiram Johnson that truth is the first casualty of any war and a frame revealing that 500 war correspondents have died during the last decade, 5 Days of War reports on the five-day war in Georgia during mid-2008, which received little attention
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
IMMUNITY IS IMPUNITY IN THE WHISTLEBLOWER Lincoln, Nebraska, police officer Kathy Bolkovac (played by Rachel Weisz) decides to take a lucrative offer as a UN peacekeeper in Bosnia (though filmed in Romania) during 1999 and is soon appalled at how women are treated in the country, where nearly half the men have been killed in
THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE REVEALS INNERMOST SECRETS OF SADDAM HUSSEIN’S BAGHDAD Some rulers are so nervous about their security that they hire doubles. Saddam Hussein was one, as revealed in The Devil’s Double, directed by Lee Tamahori. But the film is not about Saddam. Instead, the focus in the embellished biopic is a screenplay adaptation of
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