POLITICAL FILM SOCIETY NEWSLETTER #21
2424 Maile Way, #639
Honolulu, HI 96822
January 1, 1998
Nominations closed on December 31, 1997, for the films that best raised
political consciousness in 1997. The list below contains all nominated
films.
Political Film Society members are urged to see these films during January.
The February newsletter will contain a ballot, which is due by March 1.
DEMOCRACY
"Red Corner" (shows how extralegal considerations endemic in crony rule
within
China prevent the criminal justice system from producing a just outcome)
"The Rainmaker" (portrays the elusiveness of justice in the cases of a
battered wife who fears revenge or poverty if she divorces, a wealthy widow
dazzled by a televangelist who needs money for his private jet, and an
accident victim who cannot get an insurance company to pay for urgent medical
treatment because it prefers to defraud insurees in various ways, including
"tort reform legislation")
EXPOSI
"Amistad" (brings to light a hitherto obscure trial about the fate of
mutinous
African slaves before federal courts, resulting in their release after an
eloquent Supreme Court plea by John Quincy Adams)
"The Peacemaker" (presents a plausible scenario in which renegade Russians
could smuggle nuclear weapons to Iran, Iraq, or other countries; the film
prompted Congress to study the issue)
"Rosewood" (portrays the massacre of Blacks in a Florida town just after
World
War I, an event nearly unknown until release of the film)
"Seven Years in Tibet" (shows the way in which China has stamped out
religious
and other freedoms in Tibet)
HUMAN RIGHTS
"L.A. Confidential" (reminds us of the era, before many important Supreme
Court rulings, in which police trampled on the rights of criminals and
ordinary citizens alike and in effect ran City Hall)
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (contains a plea for acceptance of
gays as upstanding "members of the community" who should be treated fairly)
"Rosewood" (depicts how Blacks were stripped of their rights during the Jim
Crow era)
"Seven Years in Tibet" (argues implicitly that China will never respect the
human rights of Tibetans)
PEACE
"Seven Years in Tibet" (contrasts the peaceloving culture of the Tibetans
with
the militaristic Chinese, who reportedly are responsible for the deaths of
one
million Tibetans and displacement of many more)
HAWAI`I INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
"Beyond Barbed Wire" (reveals how Generals Clark and Dahlquist used Japanese
American soldiers in World War II, and how offspring of the war heroes
perceive themselves and their parents)
"Homeless" (shows how Chinese who moved to Korea in the last century are kept
on the margins of society)
"Poverty Outlaw" (describes how the poor organized in North Philadelphia to
claim their rights)
"Deep in Paradise" (shows the problems of a Philippine project known as
"Doctors in the Barrios," wherein new M.D.s go to the provinces and try to
press for government spending to provide better sanitation and paved roads so
that farmers can take their crops to market)
"Welcome to Sarajevo" (shows how journalists, in the midst of the
inhumanities
of war, took the lead in bringing children of Bosnia to safety in Italy)
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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite
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