OFFICIAL BALLOT
The following films have been nominated for awards for the year 1996:
Nominees for Human Rights Awards
o The Crucible (Salem’s persecution of witches)
o Dead Man Walking (the effort of a nun on behalf of the soul of a murderer on death row)
o Get on the Bus (Spike Lee’s spin on the Million Man March)
o The Ghosts of Mississippi (successful 1989 retrial & conviction of Medgar Evers’s assassin)
o The People vs. Larry Flynt (extending the boundaries of free speech, esp. to cover Hustler magazine’s admittedly tasteless satire of Rev. Jerry Falwell, who sued unsuccessfully for “emotional distress”)
Nominees for Exposé Awards
o Basquiat (exposes how a Black artist was discovered & exploited by Andy Warhol)
o Dead Man Walking (exposes the brutality of death by lethal injection)
o The People vs. Larry Flynt (exposes the “outrageous” behavior of Larry Flynt)
o none of the above
Nominee for the Best Film on Peace
Michael Collins (the hero of Irish independence, who was driven to use violence because British authorities would not listen to peaceful methods)
Since there is only one nominee, the vote is either Yes to give an award or No to give no award this year:
o Yes
o No
Nominees for the Best Political Film at the Hawai`i International Film Festival
o Buddha Bless America (shows how the U.S. military treated local residents in Taiwan in a cavalier manner while undertaking military exercises)
o The Flor Contemplacion Story (examines the tragic circumstances of the Filipina who left for Singapore to make money for her family and then was executed for allegedly killing a fellow domestic and her charge)
o Hawai`i‘s Last Queen (tells the tragic life story of Lili`uokalani)
o A Single Spark (depicts governmental repression of complaints against substandard labor conditions rather than enforcement of the law in South Korea)
o Six O’Clock News (a documentary about the adverse consequences of violence on television within the USA)
Mark your ballots and mail to the above address!
Deadline: Receipt by March 1, 1997.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
Meanwhile, be sure to nominate films for awards in 1997. The categories are Democracy, Exposé, Human Rights, and Peace.