Newsletter

TWO FILMS FOCUS ON HOW POOR CHILDREN SEE THE WORLD Do filmviewers need to see another film in which a white man brings black boys to the Promised Land? Paramount Pictures, which produces many films focusing on African Americans, evidently thinks so.Based on a true story, as recounted in Daniel Coyle’s Hardball: A Season in […]

THAI VOLLEYBALL TEAM TRIUMPHS IN THE IRON LADIES In 1996 a mostly gay Thai volleyball team, the first of its kind, won the national amateur championship. The Iron Ladies (Sa-ree-lex), a film based on the story with clips from some of the games as credits roll, won Audience Awards for best feature film in the

GUNFIRE DROWNS OUT THE PLATITUDES OF POLITICIANS IN COLOMBIA Our Lady of the Assassins (La Virgen de los Sicarios) focuses on Fernando (played by Germán Jaramillo) , who was born in Medellín, Colombia, when it was a peaceful if boring farming community. His literary talents took him to Europe, where presumably he lived a full

BORN UNDER LIBRA EXPOSES IRAN’S MORAL MINEFIELD Born Under Libra, directed by Ahmad Reza Darvish, is the latest of several films from Iran that focus on the absurdity of Khomeni-era restrictions in general and the plight of women in particular. Mahtab Peyman (played by Mitra Hajjar) attends a distinguished private university in Tehran where her

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CODDLES PARENTS WHO ABUSE ADOPTED CHILDREN Director Stanley Kubrick wanted filmviewers to leave a cinema with profound questions, not answers. When he started Artificial Intelligence, he again had existential puzzles in mind, but he did not live to finish the project. Steven Spielberg, with whom he communicated about Artificial Intelligence, then took over

LUMUMBA TELLS THE TRUE STORY ABOUT CONGELESE INDEPENDENCE On June 30, 1960, King Leopold II of Belgium granted independence to the Congo (Zaïre from 1971), and Patrice Lumumba was named Prime Minister. Two months later Lumumba was out of power. Western news accounts identify Lumumba as a reckless pro-Soviet leader, but the truth has a

A STRAIGHT MAN SAVES HIS JOB BY TELLING HIS CO-WORKERS HE IS GAY IN THE CLOSET To come out or not to come out. That is the question for many gays and lesbians at work. The consequences could be no laughing matter. Accordingly, Le Placard (The Closet) is perhaps the most refreshingly therapeutic gay comedy

BABY BOY NOMINATED AS AN EXPOSÉ ABOUT AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES Baby Boy begins with a voiceover that quotes a psychological theory that racism has made black men into babies, citing three reasons: (1) They call their spouses “mama.” (2) They call each other “boy.” (3) They call their home “the crib.” However, no such terminology

DIVIDED WE FALL IS NOMINATED FOR BEST FILM ON PEACE During the wartime occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, many tragic and many subtle happenings kept the population on edge. Divided We Fall, directed by Jan Hrebejk, peaks into the window of ambiguity and inhumanity and emerges with considerable healing for the country, quite a

FORMULAIC PEARL HARBOR ADMITS TO RACISM, BOMBS A JAPANESE AMERICAN, AND PERPETUATES A MYTH Pearl Harbor has the distinction of having more advance publicity than any film in recent memory, but of course the $140 million project commemorates events exactly sixty years ago and doubtless will be re-released on December 7. Although the trailer may