Mr. Schneider Goes to Washington, directed by Jonathan Neil Schneider, focuses on the role of money in American politics. In the style of a documentarian who injects himself into the role of a reporter seeking answers, he interviews past and present members of Congress as well as lobbyists on and off K Street in Washington. […]
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Henry Moores (played by Linus Roache) runs a tea plantation in rural, upcountry Kerala. When the film begins, he is about to sign a loan for the funds to build a road so that he can make millions by supplying the fragile crops of cardamom and other spices to the world market. To obtain the
The film B.OH.I.CA., directed by D.J. Paul, may be viewed as a low budget version of the theme in Platoon (1987) articulated to the experience of a unit of reservists in Afghanistan (though actual filming is at Agua Dulce, not far from Palmdale, CA). The title is the acronym for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. (In other
BODY OF LIES IS DEAD ON ARRIVAL The point of Body of Lies, directed by Ridley Scott and based on a novel by David Ignatius, is that the CIA is ineffective in the Middle East primarily because of distrust. One source of distrust is between those in the field, personified by Roger Ferris (played by
WAR DANCE IS A DRAMATIC DOCUMENTARY SET IN UGANDA Currently, the Lord’s Resistance Army of Northern Uganda commands such strength that government forces follow a containment policy, although a map would have been a very helpful feature. One of the protected areas is the War Zone Displacement Camp for thousands of members of the Acholi
FROZEN RIVER DEPICTS ILLEGAL ALIENS ENTERING FROM CANADA VIA MOHAWK COUNTRY The independent film Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt, is a well-edited drama that moves quickly from one situation to another with profound implications regarding how illegals enter the United States. The principal focus is on Ray Eddy (played by Melissa Leo), mother of
TRAITOR PRESENTS A SUSPENSEFUL COUNTERTERRORISM SCENARIO The first part of Traitor, directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, sets up the premise that Samir Horn (played by Don Cheadle) is a Muslim terrorist who was born in Sudan, watched his father killed by a car bomb when he was young, became a naturalized American citizen, and as an
STEALING AMERICA BY VOTE IMPLIES THAT THE 2008 ELECTION HAS BEEN DECIDED For centuries, elections in the United States have been decided by ballotstuffing and racial exclusion. The documentary Stealing America by Vote, directed by Dorothy Fadiman, updates the failure to respect the right to vote by focusing on voting fraud from 1986-2006 using more
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GIBNEY DIRECTS GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON Longtime fascinating journalist for Rolling Stone, Thompson ended his life in 2005 at the age of 67. His earliest formative experience is his imprisonment after a wild pre-graduation party in Louisville while parents of rich kid friends got them released from custody. In
MONGOL SHOWS HOW GENGHIS KHAN ROSE FROM BEING AN ORPHAN MARKED FOR DEATH The biopic Mongol begins in 1192 at a critical time of Genthis Khan’s life, when he is imprisoned in a border town, then immediately flashes back to 1172 when at the age of 9 under the name Temudgin (played by Odnyam Odsuren),