Films that demonstrate how governments or quasigovernmental groups have violated or promoted the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
SIDDHARTH LINKS CHILD LABOR WITH HUMAN TRAFFICKING Bollywood idealizes the high life of India. Not so Siddharth, directed by Richie Mehta. The film is a slice of life of the underclass in India. The story is about Mehendra Saini (played by Rajesh Tailang), who sends his 12-year-old son Siddharth from Delhi to work for a […]
DEVIL’S KNOT EXPOSES JUDICIAL BIAS IN CONVICTING THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE The documentaries Paradise Lost (1996) and West of Memphis (2012) now compete with Devil’s Knot, a feature film about the plight of the three teenagers convicted of murdering three pre-teens in 1993 in a town across the river from Memphis. The film begins with
WALKING WITH THE ENEMY IS A BIOPIC OF A HUNGARIAN JEWISH HERO The fame of Pinchas Rosenbaum (played by Jonas Armstrong) can now be shared with those who did not realize the heroism of someone who did everything he could to save the lives of Hungarian Jews in 1944 after Eichmann (Charles Hubbell) came into
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THE RAILWAY MAN IS A BIOPIC OF SOMEONE WHO DERAILS HIMSELF With talk of “war crimes” from Rachel Maddow in anticipation of publication of the report on “enhanced interrogations,” there is talk that the phony torture scene in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) will be cut. But there will be no such call in The Railway
BIOPIC CESAR CHAVEZ TRIUMPHS THROUGH NONVIOLENCE When Cesar Chavez (played by Michael Peña) was 11, he was an exploited grape picker in Delano, California, but he left for Los Angeles to learn about community organizing. When he returned, he had a vision of how to liberate farm workers, as portrayed in Cesar Chavez, directed by
OMAR EXPOSES LIFE ON THE WEST BANK AS NEVER BEFORE Under Israeli occupation, life in the West Bank is graphically displayed as in Omar, directed by Hany Abu-Assad. In his late teens, muscular Omar (played by Adam Bakri) has a girlfriend, Nadja (Leem Lubany), who is passionate about him; using knotted ropes, he has to
THE MONUMENTS MEN PRESENTS AN EPIC TRUE STORY Despite Article 56 of the Hague Convention of 1899, which bans seizure of cultural property, Adolf Hitler planned to transfer art from Belgium, France, and the Netherlands to a museum in Germany. He believed that he could deprive those countries of cultural pride and thus any identity
MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM IS THE PREQUEL TO THE 2009 FILM INVICTUS Whereas Invictus shows President Nelson Mandela healing a nation during his first years in office, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedomis the story of his life up to his election as president. Based on Mandela’s autobiography and directed by Justin Chadwick, the
CAN ALL GOD’S CHILDREN BRING A BETTER LIFE FOR TRAFFICKED HUMANS? A Canadian man, Peter (played by Michael Ironside), married Tatiana (Rodica Oanta), who has returned for vacation to her homeland in Transnistria Moldova with her husband. Their 10-year-old son had died in a traffic accident, and she cannot have any more children. As she
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12 YEARS A SLAVE IS A STARK REMINDER OF THE BRUTALITY OF SLAVERY Abolitionists gained momentum for their cause over the fate of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), as described in 12 Years a Slave, directed by London-born Steve McQueen. (The facts are based on the book of the same title by David Wilson,