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.
EMANCIPATION FOLLOWS A SLAVE ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM When Peter (played by Will Smith) hears from one of his masters that the Union Army is freeing slaves in Baton Rouge due to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, he decides to flee horrible conditions near Clinton, Louisiana, where slaves are assisting in […]
HOLY SPIDER CELEBRATES A WOMAN WHO STOPPED A MASS MURDER During the year 2000, bad news came from the holy city of Mashhad, Iran. Women were being murdered, and the local police appeared unable to stop the continuing slaughter. Accordingly, in 2001 journalist Rahimi (played by Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) goes from Iran to Mashhad to investigate
SHE SAID TRACES THE BEGINNING OF #MeToo Women no longer play traditional roles. They work alongside men at most occupations today, including all layers of the film industry. However, gossip in Hollywood has long indicated that men doing the hiring impose a requirement on women when they open their pants during a job interview. Even
OPERATION MINCEMEAT REVEALS MORE WORLD WAR II SECRETS As more classified information about World War II is revealed, Operation Mincemeat reveals why the British landing on Sicily occurred with minimal casualties, based on a nonfiction book with the same title by Ben Macintyre, who updates information about the plot that was previously presented in the
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DONBASS SHOWS LIFE IN EASTERN UKRAINE BEFORE 2022 Before the Russian offensive against Ukraine in 2022, a chuck of Eastern Ukraine had been seized by Russians in 2014 and governed as “New Russia.” Donbass, directed by Sergey Loznitsa, provides slices of life in that region in about 2015. Each of thirteen scenes is self-contained but
THE VIRTUES AND REPRESSION OF FALUN GONG ARE REVEALED IN UNSILENCED In the 1990s, an organization known as Falun Gong was introduced in China by Li Hongzhi. Unsilenced, a film based on true events in 1999, though with mostly fictional persons, exposes a period of Chinese history that few around the world fully understand due
MARGRETE: QUEEN OF THE NORTH CELEBRATES HOW PEACE IS MADE Directed by Charlotte Sieling, Margrete: Queen of the North is a biopic of the one who brought peace to Scandinavia in the fifteenth century. As queen of Denmark, she married the king of Norway, but became regent of both countries when both kings died. She
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HIVE DEPICTS HOW WIVES OF MIAS CAN BEST SURVIVE Directed by Blerta Bashollim, Hive reminds filmviewers that during 1999 Serbian forces slaughtered about 100 Albanian residents of the town of Krusha in Kosovo. Their remains are a mystery, especially to wives who were therefore impoverished. Two decades have passed, and the women stand in front
GIFT OF FIRE REVEALS THE KYOTO PROJECT The recent film Adventures of a Mathematician provides a window into the life of one researcher on the Manhattan Project, which sought to develop an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. He was obviously unaware that Japan was trying to do the same. Gift of Fire, directed by Hiroshi
PEEPAL TREE PREDICTS AN END TO TREES = END OF THE HUMAN RACE When the film begins, a man (played by director Kranti Kanadé) is annoyed that government officials (police) living nearby are cutting down trees on his land. Not until the very end of Peepal Tree is the screen filled with examples of trees