Films that demonstrate how governments or quasigovernmental groups have violated or promoted the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
WOMAN IN GOLD CELEBRATES A VICTORY OVER WAR CRIMES Article 46 of the Second Hague Convention of 1899, which requires military occupation authorities to respect private property, was not honored by the Nazis. Instead, they looted some 100,000 works of art, many of which were never returned to the owners after war. Some ended up […]
TIMBUKTU DEMONSTRATES WHY JIHAD MASKS FOR COLONIZATION Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, but filmed in nearby Oualata, also dating back to the 12th century, Timbuktu begins by showing the peaceful lives of citizens of rural Mali—cattle farming, fishing, and an open market amid sand dunes and ruins of ancient structures. Arabic-speakers with weapons have arrived in
AN EXTRAORDINARY ATHLETE SURVIVES AS A POW OF JAPAN IN UNBROKEN Louis Zamperini (played by Jack O’Connell) learns how to endure, first as a boy picked on for being Italian, then as a runner who wins in the 1938 Olympics, next as a life raft survivor of an airplane crash in the middle of the
FREE THE NIPPLE EXPLAINS HOW TO ORGANIZE A MOVEMENT Photos in the 1920s show that both men and women covered their upper bodies at the beach. Sometime afterward, men showed their pectorals, but women were told that equality in that regard was obscene. Free the Nipple begins by noting that the legality of the public
KILL THE MESSENGER SHOWS HOW TO DISCREDIT AN HONEST REPORTER During 1985-1987, members of the Reagan administration persuaded Israel to sell guns to Iran in exchange for the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon by a group connected with Iran. The United States Central Intelligence Agency then sold replacement weapons to Israel and used
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DIFRET EXPLAINS HOW ETHIOPIA STOPPED BRIDE ABDUCTIONS According to Ethiopian tradition, husbands seize brides after consultation with parents by the macho act of abducting them and having sex with them. But during 1986 in a farming area three hours from Addis Ababa 14-year-old Hirut (played by Tizita Hagere) does not like Tadele (Girma Teshome), the
THE IMITATION GAME EXPOSES HOW A GAY CRYPTOGRAPHER SHORTENED WW2 Up to 1967, consensual sexual acts between male adults in Britain could result in two years of imprisonment. The most celebrated case is that of Oscar Wilde in 1895, whose health so declined in prison that died three years after his release. A lesser known
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Although Daily Show Jon Stewart claims that he has not directed a “political film,” he is not fooling anyone: Titles at the end of Rosewater note that hundreds of journalists have been at risk of their lives for trying to let the world know what is happening. The film focuses on Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari
BHOPAL: A PRAYER FOR RAIN SHOWS HOW THE PRAYER WAS ANSWERED In 1984, 40 tons of chemicals leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, resulting ultimately in some 22,000 deaths and 550,000 injuries. Two years earlier, the company was warned about the problem, as alarm and safety systems were scaled back to
GIOVANNI’S ISLAND PROVES THAT A FABLE CAN SERVE TO SUSTAIN HOPE An animated Japanese film, the historical setting of Giovanni’s Island (Jobanni no shima) is another occupation—Russia’s seizure of Shikotan, a Japanese northern island—which took place after the surrender on August 15, 1945, is announced by the emperor. Kanta and Junpei are been named respectively