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.
A CHEERLEADER BECOMES A LESBIAN WITH THE UNWITTING HELP OF HER PARENTS In But I’m a Cheerleader, Jamie Babbit (both director and storywriter) takes us on a journey to “True Directions,” a rehabilitation camp for “homosexual” children whose parents want them changed into “heterosexuals.” Entitled Make Me Over at some cinemas, we see the odyssey […]
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CATFISH IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE IS NOMINATED AS BEST FILM EXPOSÉ Catfish in Black Bean Sauce is directed, written, and acted by Sino-Vietnamese Chi Moui Lo, who left Vietnam at the age of six, was sponsored by the Jewish League of America and grew up with his nine brothers and three sisters in Philadelphia before
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LUMINARIAS NOMINATED FOR BEST EXPOSÉ OF THE YEAR 2000 Because Latinas tend to play a stereotypical role in most mainstream films, the movie Luminarias is a window into a subculture that opens and brings fresh air in a manner similar to how The Joy Luck Club (1993) opened the eyes of filmviewers to the difficulties
ERIN BROCKOVICH IS NOMINATED FOR TWO AWARDS Before Erin Brockovich begins, a title tells us that the film is based on a true story. The movie, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by transparently feminist Susannah Grant, focuses on numbers, though the tagline is “She brought a small town to its feet and a huge
THE HURRICANE RECEIVES THE FIRST POLITICAL FILM SOCIETY NOMINATION FOR 2000 Thanks to two Northwestern University professors, a substantial number of men have been released from death row in Illinois because they were wrongfully convicted. In The Hurricane, director Norman Jewison brings to the screen the book Lazarus and the Hurricane: The Untold Story of
SALVADORANS FALL INTO TRAPS SET BY SOCIAL WORKERS IN EAST OF HOPE STREET As the film begins, we are informed that 73,000 persons are under the care of Child and Family Services, a County of Los Angeles agency. As the film proceeds, we see some of the 73,000 as well as a few social workers
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THE INSIDER EXPOSES HOW “60 MINUTES” BOWED TO 30 PIECES OF SILVER Publicity about The Insider stresses the courage of a whistleblowing research scientist, formerly employed by a tobacco company, who in 1995 exposed the fact that cigarettes have been altered in recent decades to enhance their addictivity. As a result of his testimony, there
TEENA BRANDON IS BRUTALLY RAPED AND MURDERED IN BOYS DON’T CRY Earlier this year The Teena Brandon Story was a blockbuster documentary about a true story—a rape and preventable murder involving a Nebraskan male trapped in a woman’s body. Now a feature film, Boys Don’t Cry, dramatizes the same events. The film is directed by Kimberly Peirce, who also
NATURALLY NATIVE SHOWS THE PLIGHT AND HOPE OF AMERICA’S NATIVE PEOPLES Early films depicting the aboriginal inhabitants of North America showed them killed with single bullets by cowboys. From the 1960s, Native Americans have been portrayed with more sensitivity, though from the eyes of Caucasians. At last in Naturally Native, we have an opportunity for
AMERICAN WAR CRIMES AGAINST IRAQ EXPOSED IN THREE KINGS If war is hell, then going AWOL must be a relief. Not so in Three Kings (originally called “Spoils of War”), directed by David O. Russell, who also developed the screenplay after eighteen months of research about the waning days of Operation Desert Storm. At the