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POLITICAL FILM SOCIETY MEMBERS NARROW LIST OF NOMINEES FOR BEST PEACE FILM Because one of the rules of thePolitical Film Society is that there can be only five nominees per category each year, members voted to determine the top five of the seven films of 1998 pre-nominated for promoting political consciousness of the desirability of […]

THREE FILMS FOCUS ON HOW INDIVIDUALS COPE WITH DISABILITY AND DISEASE Patch Adams, At First Sight, and Hilary and Jackie are among the most profound recently released films. All three provide important insights about how stress adversely affects health and are based on true stories. Patch Adams begins in a mental institution, where the protagonist

POLITICAL FILM SOCIETY MEMBERS VOTE TO NARROW LIST OF NOMINEES One of the rules of thePolitical Film Society is that there can be only five nominees per category each year. In 1998, seven films were pre-nominated for promoting political consciousness of the desirability of settling conflicts peacefully. Accordingly, members may now vote to narrow the

1998–THE MOST POLITICAL YEAR IN RECENT FILMMAKING Nominations for the best political films of 1998 closed on December 31. Fifteen films have been nominated, a record in the twelve-year history of the Political Film Society. According to the rules governing awards, film directors have been sent notifications that their films have been nominated. Since there

THREE FILMS SHOW HOW ANTI-TERRORISM METHODS IMPERIL LIBERTIES In The Siege, nominated for the best film of 1998 raising consciousness of the need to protect both democracy and human rights,  Edward Zwick (director of Courage Under Fire and Glory) poses a hypothetical:  What if terrorism graduated from retail bombings to wholesale slaughter in New York

“AMERICAN HISTORY X “ NOMINATED FOR BEST FILM ON PEACE Never before has the filmviewing public been sensitized to the conditions that spawn the American neo-Nazism of the skinheads.  In American History X, British-born Tony Kaye zeroes in on race relations within the United States in graphic detail (though he has attempted to dissociate himself

“REGENERATION” NOMINATED AGAIN As a film that brings to light the war protest of poet Siegfried Sassoon, who claimed that Britain’s role in World War I changed from defender to aggressor and therefore wanted to become a conscientious objector to the war, Gillies MacKinnon’s Regeneration has been nominated for an award as 1998’s best exposé

TWO FICTIONAL ANTI-WAR FILMS PROVIDE NEW TWISTS Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” has been nominated as the best film of 1998 in the category peace, promoting the virtues of peace over violence.  Ostensibly about the heroism of soldiers who did their duty in World War II, the film tells theater audiences that the combat of

“THE TRUMAN SHOW” NOMINATED FOR DEMOCRACY AWARD Peter Weir’s continuing effort to inspire filmviewers to reflect on the stupid mistakes committed by those in power has hit the jackpot again.  Whereas his Gallipoli questioned why Britain used soldiers as cannon fodder, and his Dead Poets Society depicted the cruelties of authoritarianism and antisemitism, The Truman

“WILDE” NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The life of bisexual Oscar Wilde, focusing on his affection for young adult men and the consequences of his desire to fulfill his destiny, is passionately portrayed in the British film Wilde.  Directed by Brian Gilbert, the film pits Oscar Wilde against the Marquess of Queensberry, whose son is