Films that demonstrate how governments or quasigovernmental groups have violated or promoted the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
CAMBODIANS STRUGGLE IN A RIVER CHANGES COURSE Although publicized as a documentary, A River Changes Course films actual rural Cambodians, who no longer can count on nature to make their lives secure. Directed by Kalyanee Mam, Cambodians explain their plight to the camera as they live and work. Where once there was plenty of fish, […]
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The Romeo & Juliet paradigm has been one-upped in Out in the Dark, directed by Michael Mayer. The film not only depicts a forbidden love affair between an Israel and a Palestinian but also between two gay men, whose sexual orientation is not accepted by either side in the political conflict. The Palestinian, Nimr Mashrawi
WADJDA DEPICTS THE LIFE OF A GIRL IN SAUDI ARABIA Every society has etiquet prohibitions of various sorts. But the life of a girl growing up in a strict Muslim country is particularly difficult, as portayed in Wadjda, directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker. Ten-year-old Wadjda (played by Waad Mohammed) lives with
THE BUTLER CELEBRATES CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS Released during the week of the 50th year anniversary of the March on Washington, The Butler provides a feel-good historical summary of civil rights developments for nearly a century. The Butler (played by Forest Whitaker) is Cecil Gaines, who is born on a cotton plantation in Georgia in the
42 STANDS FOR FORTITUDE On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman) took the field at Ebbets Field as the first African American major league baseball player. Brooklyn Dodger manager Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford) decided that the time had come to break the color line in sports for several reasons, as
A DARK TRUTH EXPOSES HOW EVEN RAINWATER IS DENIED TO RAINFOREST DENIZENS A Canadian company has purchased water rights from the government to an Ecuadorian rainforest, extracts all water for sale abroad, but a torrential rain overflows the sewage system, causing an outbreak of cholera. Rather than calling upon WHO to stop the epidemic, the
A ROYAL AFFAIR REVEALS HOW DENMARK BECAME A MODERN STATE When the film begins, a narrator speaks of her selection as the queen for King Christian VII (played by Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) of Denmark-Norway, but she is writing to tell the whole truth to unidentified persons. Princess Caroline Matilda (played by Alicia Vikander), age 15,
MULBERRY CHILD REENACTS THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION FROM A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE What suffering occurred during the Cultural Revolution? Whereas the autobiographical Mulberry Child (2008) by Jian Ping describes the suffering of one family, the film Mulberry Child presents a docudrama of that experience while focusing on the interplay between Jian Ping (played by the author herself)
CRIMES AGAINST THE LAKOTA HAUNT WEST OF THUNDER When the film begins, credits inform filmviewers of the Wounded Knee massacre and the forcible resettlement of the Lakotas to Pine Ridge Reservation in 1890. It is 1899, and Simon Seed (played by Dan Davies) appears in the town just outside the reservation. As the film progresses,
FOR GREATER GLORY ENDS ABRUPTLY IN TRAGEDY The Catholic Church used the threat of excommunication to control civilian authorities for many centuries until the rise of militarism and secularism. From the mid-19th century, México had sought to establish a clear boundary between church and state, but in practice the appropriate formula was difficult for a