Films that demonstrate how governments or quasigovernmental groups have violated or promoted the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
CARANDIRU EXPOSES A SENSELESS PRISON MASSACRE IN BRASIL On October 2, 1992, some 111 inmates of the House of Detention at Carandiru, São Paulo, were brutally gunned down by a riot squad called in to break up a fight between rival gangs. The film Carandiru, directed by Hector Babenco, recreates those events with voiceovers by […]
THE GATEKEEPER ANSWERS THE MEXICANPHOBIA OF HARVARD PROFESSOR HUNTINGTON When The Gatekeeper begins, a talk-show radio host lambastes Mexicans, saying that they account for 90 percent of the 11 million illegal aliens in the United States, 70 percent of schoolchildren in California and 80 percent of the drug traffic. Further, the voice says that all
Loosely based on a true story, Osama is a retrospective about how women coped with the Taliban in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. The film begins with about one hundred women in light blue burkas demonstrating; banners say that they are widows who want to work, as they are hungry, but also say that they are not
THE STATEMENT DOCUMENTS DENAZIFICATION IN FRANCE AS LATE AS THE 1990s The Vichy regime was a part of France not occupied by the German military but instead governed by French who were willing to collaborate with the Nazis. Although much attention has been directed at Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon,” less well known is
BEYOND BORDERS SHOWS THE UGLY SIDE OF REFUGEE RELIEF According to Sarah Jordan (played by Angelina Jolie) in Beyond Borders, there are some 50 million refugees in the world; the United Nations High Commission for Refugees handles half, and various nongovernmental organizations cope with what they can of the rest. Directed by Martin Campbell, the
TWILIGHT IDENTIFIES ALLEVIATION OF POVERTY AS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT The Iranian revolution of 1979 repudiated the rule of the Shah, in part because windfall revenues from oil went to crony capitalists while the rest of the population lived in poverty. Nearly twenty-five years later, the Shah is gone but poverty remains, including the associated
INITIALLY BANNED IN INDIA, SANDSTORM REVEALS A FIGHT AGAINST ENTRENCHED CASTEISM & SEXISM Some years before the release of Sandstorm (Bawandar), Sanwari (played by Nandita Das) of the Untouchable caste works as an organizer for a feminist organization in India to make some extra money for her family. Shobha Devi (played by Deepti Naval) hired
CATHOLICS LEGITIMATE IRISH SADISM IN THE MAGDALENE SISTERS Ireland once had a method for dealing with teenage girls who yielded to what the Catholic Church calls “temptation.” As illustrated in details so graphic that they may compete with the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps for sadism, The Magdalene Sisters presents the method by which
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PILLEGAL ALIENS EXCHANGE KIDNEYS FOR PASSPORTS IN DIRTY PRETTY THINGS “We drive your taxis, make your beds, and suck your cocks,” according to Dr. Okwe (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) in Dirty Pretty Things, commenting on the fate of illegal aliens in London. A physician who left Nigeria to avoid arrest and prosecution for a murder
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THE DEATH PENALTY IS METED OUT TO MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES INSTEAD OF PSYCHIATRY IN IDENTITY Identity, directed by James Mangold, begins with a confusing fastforward prologue, consisting of newspaper clippings, including photos, about a boy who was abandoned by parents at a motel and then jumps to a second scene, where a psychiatrist (played by Alfred
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