Films that demonstrate how governments or quasigovernmental groups have violated or promoted the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
BRIAN BANKS EXPOSES DISCRIMINATION AND REDEMPTION At the age of 16, Brian Banks (played by Aldis Hodge) is a star football athlete at Long Beach Polytechnic High, looking forward to a scholarship from USC. On campus one day, he encounters a girlfriend, Kennisha Rice (Xosha Roquemore), and the two decide to do some smooching, so […]
AT WAR ENCAPSULATES HOW GLOBALIZATION DESERTS LOYAL WORKERS Directed by Stéphane Brizé as if a documentary, At War (En guerre) begins when workers at a Perrin Industries factory in southwest France are informed that the car part plant will soon close, and 1,100 employees will be terminated. They soon learn that the reason for the
A FILM TITLE I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS ? That’s right. There is a film with such a title. In 1941, the same words were spoken during a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the government of Romania. The words were used to galvanize support for a
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SKIN REVEALS A DANGEROUS SUBCULTURE THAT IS GROWING Some White Supremacists are skinheads with tattoos all over their body, even their heads. Directed by Israeli-born Guy Nattiv, Skin seeks to explain why White Nationalism thrives, what government and civil society have been doing to cope with America’s top source of domestic terrorism, and why some
A BOY GENIUS FISHES FOR HIS LIFE IN CAPERNAUM About 12 years old, Zain (played by Zain Al Rafeea) is a Syrian refugee living in Beirut, Lebanon, along with his refugee family. At the beginning of Capernaum (Capharnaüm), he is in court suing his parents because they gave birth to him. His mother Souad (Kawsar
SAINT JUDY IS VERY DOWN TO EARTH Appropriately released on the beginning of Women’s History Month, Saint Judy (played by Michelle Monaghan) is a biopic of a Los Angeles attorney who went to court and opened the door for Muslim women to apply for asylum in the United States. The film begins as she leaves
THE INVISIBLES BRINGS HIDDEN BERLIN JEWS OUT OF THE SHADOWS Hitler rounded up most of the Jews in Germany for evacuation to death camps. From 1943, when the Nazis declared Berlin free of all Jews, about 7,000 remained in Berlin, hiding out as best they could, whereas only 1,700 survived by the end of the war. The
LITHUANIANS MOURN IN ASHES IN THE SNOW Made for about $5,000, Ashes in the Snow (Tarp pilku debesu) is based on the novel Between Shades of Gray, which dramatizes how Lithuanians were treated by the conquering Soviets during World War II. Beginning with a calm day in a Lithuanian town in early 1941, the film focuses on the fate
ON THE BASIS OF SEX CELEBRATES RUTH BADER GINSBURG’S STRUGGLE The film On the Basis of Sex is a biopic of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1993 and has authored landmark rulings to bring gender equality to the United States. The focus is on her extraordinary quest to be accepted
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GREEN BOOK FOCUSES ON A BLACK PIANIST IN THE SEGREGATED SOUTH Dr. Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali) was a Jamaican-born American musician whose talents Igor Stravinsky described as “virtuosity is worthy of Gods.” After studying and performing in his youth, he decided to pursue a doctorate of Music, Psychology, and Liturgical Arts. The film Green Book features
Political Film Review #579 Read More »