Films that demonstrate how governments or quasigovernmental groups have violated or promoted the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Blue Bayou features fictional Antonio LeBlanc (played by director Justin Chon), who was adopted from Korea by a Louisiana Caucasian family at age 3. During the film he faces many challenge and almost reaches the point of suicide several times. Later in the story, filmviewers learn that his adoptive parents evidently could not accommodate him […]
WHO WAS ON TRIAL IN AMERICAN TRAITOR? An American citizen named Mildred Gilliars (played by Meadow Williams) was in Germany when World War II began, hoping to became a famous actress. Approached by radio program director Max Otto Koischwitz (Carsten Norgaard) one day in 1941, he presents her with an extraordinary opportunity—work as a high-profile
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 IS HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED On August 26, 1968, the Democratic Party was scheduled to begin its national convention at the Chicago Hilton and was expected to nominate as their presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey, who was expected to continue American involvement in Vietnam. Protesters from several different groups called
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KEN LOACH IS BACK WITH SORRY WE MISSED YOU Director Ken Loach has long demonstrated genius for portraying the plight of the working class. In Sorry We Missed You he traces the impact of nonunionization of workers on the family of Ricky (played by Kris Hitchey) and Abby (Debbie Honeywood) and their children, Sebastian (Rhys Stone) and Liza
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BURDEN IS HEAVY WITH STEREOTYPES Based on an event in Laurens, South Carolina, Andrew Heckler directs Burden as a unique portrayal of Blacks and KuKluxKlan members living side by side in a town of about 9,000 during 1996. The focus is on Mike Burden (played by Garrett Hedlund), a Caucasian who has returned to town
CLEMENCY PROVIDES MANY REASONS FOR ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY Most arguments against capital punishment are based on morality—that there is a right to life. But Clemency gives many social psychological reasons—how killing one person in fact corrodes the lives of many others. Directed by Chinonye Chukwu, the focus in Clemency is on unsmiling yet composed
JUST MERCY HONORS THE ONE WHO GOT 140 BLACKS RELEASED FROM DEATH ROW Bryan Stevenson (played by Michael B. Jordan) decided to establish the Equal Justice Initiative in Monroe County, Alabama, in 1989. Mistreated as an African American while growing up in Delaware, he accepted an invitation from local advocate Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) to utilize
SEBERG TRIES TO EXPLAIN WHY A BUDDING ACTRESS DIED AT AGE 40 Iowa-born actress Jean Seberg (played by Kristen Stewart), icon of the French New Wave films, flies from Paris to Los Angeles in 1968. When Hakim Jamal (Anthony Makie) demands to sit in first class, she supports him. When she walks off the plane,
A HIDDEN LIFE SHOWS THE EFFECTS OF NAZI CONTROL OF AUSTRIA The Austrian Alps are a cinematic paradise where farmers work hard but happily. The Anschluss changed the situation, as depicted in A Hidden Life, directed by Terrence Malick. At the center is Franz Jägerstätter (played by August Diehl) and his family in St. Radegund.
RICHARD JEWELL PROVES THAT THE FBI MAKES MISTAKES—TRAGIC ONES On almost the very day when the Inspector General of the Department of Justice filed a report containing criticisms of FBI officials, Richard Jewell was released to provide vivid evidence of the same. In 1996, security guard Jewell (played by Paul Walter Hauser) spots a possible