Newsletter

TWO FILMS FEATURING CITIES IN DISTRESSNOMINATED FOR BEST FILM ON PEACE What happens to otherwise normal people when the amount of civil disorder is so rampant that authorities cannot stop the chaos? Contrast Belgradians and Beirutians in two recently Political Film Society-nominated films: In most Eastern European countries as the Cold War ended, the answer […]

NIXON IS LAMPOONED; HIS SECRETS ARE EXPOSED BY FEMALE FORREST GUMPS Who was the “deep throat” who informed Washington Post reporters the secrets about Watergate? Who caused the 18½ minute gap in President Richard Nixon’s tapes? Since nobody in Washington is likely to divulge the answers any time soon, the puzzles are fair game for

AMERICAN TERRORISM IDENTIFIED IN TWO RECENT FILMS How extensive is terrorism inside the United States? The film Arlington Road, directed by Mark Pellington, poses this question through the words of Michael Faraday (played by Jeff Bridges), a widowed Professor of George Washington University, who lectures to students that most political assassinations and bombings are pinned

THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The General’s Daughter, based on the novel of the same title by Christopher Bertolini which in turn is constructed from a true story, is a powerful film about discrimination against women in the military, recalling the publicity over the Tailhook incident and similar exposés. Directed by Simon

XIU XIU NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The Cultural Revolution (1967-1976) was perhaps the cruelest period of modern Chinese history. Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, the latest portrayal of the ruthlessness of the People’s Republic of China in trampling on the individual during the Cultural Revolution, is based on Yan Geling’s novella Heavenly Bath (Tian

HARD NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) startled filmviewers by portraying a serial killer of gay men who enjoy sadomasochistic sexual arousal, with an undercover cop who was straight. Hard, released to the general public in Los Angeles in midsummer 1999, ups the ante on Cruising by focusing on closeted gay homicide

BASTARDS NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD AS A FILM EXPOSÉ The film Bastards reminds us that while in Vietnam for two decades, many Americans paid Vietnamese women for sex. An estimated 30,000 children were born as a result of these encounters. After the American pullout in 1975, these Amerasian offspring were ostracized within Vietnam, deprived of

POLITICAL FILM SOCIETY MEETING The Board of Directors of the Political Film Society will hold a meeting at 8481 Allenwood Road, Los Angeles, on June 19 at 7 p.m., primarily to reword legal documents to satisfy IRS regarding the Society’s application to be a tax-exempt organization. ITALIANS RE-FIGHT WORLD WAR II IN FILM Benito Mussolini

POLITICAL FILM SOCIETY MEETING On Saturday, June 5, the Political Film Society will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. to reword legal documents in response to a letter from IRS regarding the Society’s application to be a tax-exempt organization. The meeting, to be held at 8481 Allenwood Road, Los Angeles, is open to all. GOOD

THREE SEASONS IS NOMINATED FOR BEST FILM EXPOSÉ OF 1999 With the war in Yugoslavia rapidly turning a modern country into a Third World nation, release of Three Seasons, a film about contemporary Vietnam, seems unusually well timed. Despite the fact that the United States was allied with Ho Chi Minh during World War II,