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.
STRANGE CULTURE DEMONSTRATES THE CANCER OF THE “WAR ON TERROR” Americans, who feed on genetically modified organisms (GMO), are undergoing a massive human experiment in which Europe, Japan, and other countries are interested but skeptical spectators. Without knowing what is happening to their food, Americans are unwittingly becoming sick while corporations patent the GMOs and […]
TRADE EXPOSES HOW HUMAN TRAFFICKERS BRING SEX SLAVES TO THE UNITED STATES Titles at the end of Trade state that one million persons are transported from one country to another for sale and that at least 20,000 slaves enter the United States each year. Directed by Marco Kreuzpainter, Trade focuses on sex slaves, who account
THE HUNTING PARTY LOCATES THE WORLD’S MOST WANTED MAN–A SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL From 1985, when the Dayton Peace Accords ended the Bosnian War, Radovan Karadžić (aka the Fox), Bosnian Serb leader, has had a $5 million bounty on his head for war crimes (ethnic cleansing, rape, body mutilation, etc.) yet remains at large despite the
SEPTEMBER DAWN INDICTS MORMONS, INCLUDING BRIGHAM YOUNG, FOR A MASSACRE ON 9/11 In 1844, Joseph Smith, Jr., was assassinated in Illinois. Two years later, Brigham Young led many of Smith’s followers on a trek that ended up in barren Utah, then a part of México. After the Mexican War, in 1850, Utah was recognized as
AMU DIGS INTO INDIA’S ANTI-SIKH RIOTS IN 1984 In 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her bodyguards. Both were Sikhs. Immediately, afterward, a three-day riot in New Delhi was responsible for the deaths of at least 5,000 innocent Sikhs. An orphan of that riot, three-year-old Amu (played in a flashback by Ekta Sood),
A MIGHTY HEART DOCUMENTS THE KIDNAPPING & DEATH OF JOURNALIST DANIEL PEARL On January 23, 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (played by Dan Futterman) and his journalist wife Mariane (played by Angelina Jolie) arrive in Karachi, Pakistan. Although scores of reporters descended on Pakistan to cover the war in Afghanistan, by early 2002
BAMAKO PUTS THE WORLD BANK & ITS ACCOMPLICES ON TRIAL FOR MURDER Bamako, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, is filmed in a residential neighborhood within Mali’s capital, Bamako. The principal scene is that of a trial in which residents are the plaintiff and world capitalism (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization,
BLACK BOOK EXPOSES LUNACY FROM NAZI RULE IN HOLLAND Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Black Book (Zwartboek) begins at the Stein Kibbutz in Israel, where a Dutch tourist encounters Rachel (played by Carice van Houten), a teacher, whom she had not seen for 12 years. The scene then reverts to 1944. Rachel and several Jews are
IRELAND’S SOCIALIST TRADITION COMES ALIVE IN THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a fictional story about some of the last years of the Irish struggle for independence. Teddy O’Donovan (played by Pedraic Delaney), an organizer of a guerrilla group in a small town far from Dublin, asks his
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BEYOND THE GATES IDENTIFIES NEW CULPRITS & HEROES OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE Hotel Rwanda (2004) depicts an important hero in the Rwandan genocide. Beyond the Gates provides another look at the tragedy, one that may remind filmviewers that something can be done today in Darfur. On April 11, 1994, some 250 Rwandans died at École