STANLEY AWARDS ARE ANNOUNCED
Political Film Society members selected the following films as the best of 2010:
>Best film promoting consciousness of the need for DEMOCRACY: Blood Done Sign My Name, directed by Jeb Stuart.
>Best film exposé, bringing to light facts not generally understood: Shake Hands with the Devil, directed by Roger Spottiswoode.
>Best film promoting HUMAN RIGHTS: My Name Is Khan, directed by Karan Johar.
>Best film promoting PEACE: The Ghost Writer, directed by Roman Polanski.
>Best film on Hawai‘i: Princess Ka‘iulani, directed by Marc Forby.
Award certificates are to be sent to the directors of all five films.
POLITICAL FILM SOCIETY TO CELEBRATE 25TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY
At the initial meeting of the Hawai‘i Political Studies Association (HPSA) called by Theodore L. Becker, who chaired the Department of Political Science of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, a group gathered together to discuss the possibility of a club devoted to giving awards to courageous filmmakers for challenging filmviewers with compelling political themes in feature films. What resulted at the April 1986 meeting is the present Political Film Society, which soon adopted bylaws. The 1950s, the era of blacklisting film directors for their views, long needed an antidote, and the Political Film Society began operation immediately. After its formation, the Political Film Society expanded in membership beyond HPSA to attract members from around the world. A website was developed in 1999, when the headquarters moved from Honolulu to Hollywood, by Los Angeles webmaster David Oshima. The first film reviews then appeared on the website, and reviews of the new Political Film Review were posted on the International Movie Data Base (www.imdb.com). In 1999, the Political Film Society incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California. For a time (1999-2004), selected reviews were also featured on a weekly program of the American Radio Network, broadcast and webcast on KCLA-FM. Articles on the Political Film Society have appeared in the Hollywood Reporter and other publications over the years. The most important achievement of the Political Film Society has been to encourage more and more politically relevant filmmaking. The need is considerable in a world of undemocratic rule, ignorance of basic political information, violations of human rights with impunity, wars undertaken without peaceful methods of conflict resolution, and a special part of the world, Hawai‘i, that provides both a tragic political history and a model for the rest of the planet to follow in exemplary human relations. MH