Films that demonstrate how governments or quasigovernmental groups have violated or promoted the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH PORTRAYS AMERICA MEETING A WATERLOO In the Valley of Elah, directed by Paul Haggis, is a combination of Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) but focuses on the Iraq War. One day, Hank Deerfield (played by Tommy Lee Jones) receives a telephone call from […]
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SEPTEMBER DAWN INDICTS MORMONS, INCLUDING BRIGHAM YOUNG, FOR A MASSACRE ON 9/11 In 1844, Joseph Smith, Jr., was assassinated in Illinois. Two years later, Brigham Young led many of Smith’s followers on a trek that ended up in barren Utah, then a part of México. After the Mexican War, in 1850, Utah was recognized as
PIERREPONT PROVES THATEXECUTIONS DESTROY THE EXECUTIONER Pierrepoint, directed by Adrian Shergold, is a biopic of England’s most famous and most prolific executioner, Albert Pierrepoint (played by Timothy Spall). From 1933 to 1955, according to titles at the end of the film, he performed 608 hangings, some of which are portrayed on the screen. Hanging was
BAMAKO PUTS THE WORLD BANK & ITS ACCOMPLICES ON TRIAL FOR MURDER Bamako, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, is filmed in a residential neighborhood within Mali’s capital, Bamako. The principal scene is that of a trial in which residents are the plaintiff and world capitalism (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization,
BEYOND THE GATES IDENTIFIES NEW CULPRITS & HEROES OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE Hotel Rwanda (2004) depicts an important hero in the Rwandan genocide. Beyond the Gates provides another look at the tragedy, one that may remind filmviewers that something can be done today in Darfur. On April 11, 1994, some 250 Rwandans died at École
AMAZING GRACE CELEBRATES WILLIAM WILBERFORCE Amazing Grace, directed by Michael Apted, is a biopic of William Wilberforce (played by Ioan Gruffodd), who sought to abolish slavery in his role as a member of parliament on moral grounds. In so doing, he was opposed by British businesses that made immense profits from the slave trade. Accordingly,
BLOOD DIAMOND ASKS “HOW MANY HANDS HAVE BEEN CHOPPED OFF FOR WEDDING RINGS?” `Directed by Edwark Zwick, Blood Diamond is a dramatization of one of the world’s worst human rights tragedies of the twenty-first century–the use of forced labor by rebels to extract diamonds in Sierra Leone in exchange for weapons. Various facts are presented
CAUTIVA BRINGS THE ARGENTINE “DIRTY WAR” INTO A BROKEN HOME From 1976-1983, some 30,000 persons who were arrested on orders of the Argentine military junta disappeared without a trace. Some of the missing persons, perhaps as many as 500, were pregnant women. Their children were adopted by those loyal to the junta but never told
GOVERNMENTS & THE MEDIA BABBLE WHILE PEOPLE SUFFER IN BABEL Babel, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, illustrates how simple accidents in one part of today’s globalized world can profoundly touch the lives of individuals who are thousands of miles away, yet governments and media still think inside the box, trapping almost everyone into badly constructed
BLOOD STAINS THE THRONE OF THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND Based on the 1998 novel by Giles Foden, an extraordinary story of a mythical young Scottish physician in The Last King of Scotland begins in Scotland, where idealistic young Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (played by James McAvoy) decides in 1970 to escape from his family for
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