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.
By far, the best of the lot is The Stoning of Soraya M., directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and based on an event in 1986. The venue is a small town in Iran, where Soraya (played by Mozhan Marnò) was stoned. When the film begins, a journalist’s car has broken down in that town. Freidoune Sahebjam […]
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THE HURT LOCKER MAY LEAVE YOU NASEOUS ABOUT WAR Directed by Kathryn Bigelow to be as realistic as possible of the combat experienced by Americans in the Iraq War, The Hurt Locker focuses primarily on a bomb squad in 2004 as the insurgency was trying to annoy GIs as if an embedded journalist were there.
AMERICAN VIOLET EXPOSES INSTITUTIONAL RACISM IN TEXAS’ CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM Based on a true story, American Violet first establishes the reputation of Dee Roberts (played by Nicole Biharie) as a well-qualified waitress in Melody, Texas, who is a fine mother of four. One day one of her daughters is in the parking lot of a
STATE OF PLAY CELEBRATES INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM Released on the weekend before Pulitzer Prizes were announced, State of Play tracks the efforts of investigative reporter Cal McAffrey (played by Russell Crowe) to find corruption in Washington. Shrunk from a six-hour TV miniseries focused on British politics to two hours about American politics, the film ties together
SIN NOMBRE EXPOSES THE PERILS OF MIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES Sayra (played by Paulina Gaitan) is on a long train trip from Honduras to relatives in New Jersey through Guatemala and México in Sin Nombre (Nameless), directed by Cary Fukunaga. Although she must elude the border patrol, the main peril is gang warfare inside
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12 REMAKES12 ANGRY MEN WITH A RUSSIAN ACCENT In 1957, the film 12 Angry Men peered into the inner workings of a hypothetical jury in which an 11-1 vote to convict turns into a 12-0 acquittal because a lone juror insists that the evidence must be reviewed logically rather than allow a rush to judgment.
1,800 JEWS ARE SAVED FROM EXTERMINATION IN DEFIANCE Knowing that the Nazis are rounding you up because you are Jewish, what would you do? The conventional answer—flight or passive acceptance of fate—leaves out resistance as an option. In Byelorussia, one form of resistance was to hide in a forest (though filming is in Lithuania). Defiance
VALKYRIE PORTRAYS THE LAST & MOST EXTENSIVE PLOT TO KILL HITLER There were 20 plots to kill Hitler. One was the failure of a bomb to explode in 1943 on the aircraft carrying Hitler out of Smolensk. The most complex and well planned effort, which failed on July 20, 1944, involved several generals and other
CHE GETS INTO THE NITTY GRITTY IN CUBA & BOLIVIA In Motorcycle Diaries (2004), director Walter Salles tracks the life of Ernesto Che Guevara from Argentina to Venezuela. Director Steven Soderberg’s current Che, which exceeds four hours in length, focuses on his time in Cuba and Bolivia, though press interviews and his speech to the
FROST/NIXON GOES BEHIND THE MINDGAME In 1977, three years after President Nixon resigned from the presidency, talk-show host David Frost conducted four televised interviews. Not politically savvy, he was interested in advancing his career by sitting opposite the biggest newsmaker in the world. Directed by Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon not only goes behind the scenes to