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.
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. […]
W. EXPOSES A STRUGGLE FOR POWER FOR ITS OWN SAKE—WITHOUT PURPOSE W., directed by Oliver Stone, places filmviewers in the role of amateur psychologists, seeking an explanation for the irrational behavior of the current President Bush (played by Josh Brolin) from the prolonged adolescent rebelliousness of a son who never grew up. Flashing back to
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
STILL LIFE DEPICTS LIFE INNUNDATING IN CHINA The aim of Still Life (Sanxia haoren), directed by Jia Zhang-Ke, is to demonstrate the impact of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China upon those whose homes were inundated along the upper Yangtze. Two phases of the project have been completed, and workers are demolishing
BATTLE IN SEATTLE PROVIDESAN INSIDE LOOK AT A PEACEFUL PROTEST & BLOODTHIRSTY POLICE The opening session of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle on November 29, 1999, was canceled because peaceful demonstrators blocked all the intersections leading to the meeting. The quasi-docudrama, written and directed by Stuart Townsend, carefully recounts the events of that
MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA EXPOSES THE RACISM OF THE “GREATEST GENERATION” Based on the novel by James McBride, Miracle at St. Anna will keep filmviewers in suspense to ascertain what exactly is the “miracle.” In 1983, when the film begins, Hector Negrón (played by Laz Alonso) is watching a World War II movie, The Longest
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THE BANK JOB DEPICTS POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST SCANDAL & CERTAINLY THE BIGGEST HEIST OF ALL TIME Photographs were taken while the late Princess Margaret was sleeping with someone at a Caribbean island resort in 1971. They were conveniently stored in the safety deposit box of Michael X (played by Peter De Jersey), a gangster kingpin,
THE COUNTERFEITERS IS ON THE MONEY The German film The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher) reveals a true story about Jewish prisoners of the Nazis who were recruited from the death camps to make counterfeit British and American currency. Under the direction of Salomen Sorowitsch (played by Karl Markovics), they are successful with the pound and make
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AMERICAN GANGSTER REVEALS THE “FOODCHAIN” OF THE DRUG TRADE In the early 1970s, heroin from Southeast Asia follows a specific path to distribution points in New York after a deal is struck between African American Frank Lucas (played by Denzil Washington) and a Southeast Asian heroin kingpin, who in turn pays off members of the
UPTON SINCLAIR’S OIL! COMES TO THE SCREEN AS THERE WILL BE BLOOD Socialist Upton Sinclair’s novels are not heartwarming. Oil! (1927), written in the context of President Harding’s teapot dome scandal, is no exception. The film version, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, exposes not only the ruthlessness of capitalism but also the hypocrisy of evangelists–both
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