> > Date: 07-Mar-1994 10:36am EST > From: Stephen Hart It is a shame that people have to be >educated via an entertainment medium (though the director's intention may >well be to educate). However, such films do spark enough interest where >people go out and research and study the film's subject, and learn what >truly happened despite dramatic license and resulting "inaccuracies". That >was part of Spike Lee's motivation behind _Malcolm X_. > > Why is it a shame? It is true that Shkespeare'e Richard III prevails inthe mind of the general public over that of modern historians as a piece of Elizabethan propaganda - and there has been lots of discussion on this list about the ethical problems of docudrama and the problematics of films like those made by Leni Riefenstahl. Nevertheless, as with *The Boys of St.Vincent*, an NFB/CBC coproduction about the Mount Cashel child abuse in Newfoundaland ( as well as such abuse in any setting), the 'fiction' made real the suffering of those children and the complex nature of evil as no interview or current affairs programme could. Mary Jane Mary Jane Miller Mary Jane Miller, Dept. of Film Studies, Dramatic and Visual Arts, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2S 3A1. Phon;e (416) 688 5550 ext 3584, Fax: (416) 682 9020, e-mail: [log in to unmask]