Filmography

views updated

filmography

Film is the twenty-first century's lingua franca as visual images of daily events are seen around the globe. The power of film to enlighten and inform the public of genocide and crimes against humanity necessitates its inclusion as a research source. The films selected in this filmography were done so on the basis of availability and recognition by the film and human rights communities. The list includes fictional stories based on real events as well as documentaries and television series.

Marlene Shelton

[AFGHANISTAN]

Kandahar [2001]

d. Mohsen Makhmalbaf
This film—part documentary, part fiction—follows a woman's journey as she searches for her sister in wartorn Afghanistan.

Return to Kandahar [2003]

d. Paul Jay and Nelofer Pazira
The star of the film, Kandahar, returns to Afghanistan to find her childhood friend, the inspiration for the original film.

[ALGERIA]

Chronicle of the Years of Embers [1975]

d. Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina
This film deals with Algeria's struggle for independence from France's colonial rule. This story follows the journey of a peasant from his impoverished village to his involvement with the Algerian resistance prior to the Algerian war for independence.

1975 Winner of the Palm D'Or (Cannes)

Battle of Algiers [1966, 2004 (RE-RELEASE)]

d. Gillo Pontecorvo
This internationally acclaimed film was banned by the French government for its realistic portrayal of the vicious battle for independence fought by the Algerian resistance fighters in the 1950s. This film is considered a classic for its documentary style of storytelling. It contains a prescient scene of Algerian women planting a bomb in a popular cafe.

1966 Winner of the Golden Lion (Berlin)

1968 Academy Award Nominee: Best Director and Screenplay

[AMAZON REGION]

At the Edge of Conquest: The Journey of Chief Wai Wai [1993]

d. Geoffrey O'Connor
This film follows the leader of the Waiapi Indians of the Amazon region and their extraordinary leader, Chief Wai Wai, as he journeys from isolation to Brazil's capital to fight for his people.

1993 Academy Award Nominee

Amazon Journal [1996]

d. Geoffrey O'Connor
This film chronicles events in the Amazon region beginning with the assassination of Chico Mendes in 1988 through 1995 and the impact of the encroaching modern world on the indigenous people of the region.

[ANCIENT WORLD]

The Trojan Women [1971]

d. Michael Cacoyannis
This film, based on the play by Euripides, has an all-star cast led by Katherine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, and Irene Pappas. Euripides story of the fall of Troy and the fate of the women as the Greek army approaches.

1971 Best Actress Award, National Board of Review (Irene Pappas)

[ANTI-SEMITISM]

Gentlemen's Agreement [1947]

d. Elia Kazan
This film is about a reporter (Gregory Peck) who pretends to be Jewish in order to write a story about anti-Semitism in 1940s New York. This film was controversial and thought provoking for its time.

1948 Academy Award Winner: Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm)

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis [1971]

d. Vittorio de Sica
This beautiful film is set in Italy in 1938. In the town of Ferrara, the Finzi-Contini's are a wealthy Jewish family (Dominique Sanda) living in luxury and seclusion from the gathering clouds of war outside the walls of their estate. Their fate is inevitable as Mussolini's racial laws goose-steps in line with Hitler's.

1971 Academy Award Winner: Best Foreign Language Film

Cabaret [1972]

d. Bob Fosse
Life is a cabaret old chum, until the Nazi's come to town. 1930s Berlin at its most decadent with showgirls and naughty banter and a showgirl (Liza Minnelli) who lives life large and uncensored.

1973 Academy Awards Winner: Best Director, Best Actress (Liza Minnelli), Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music Score, Best Sound

Liberty Heights [1999]

d. Barry Levinson
This coming of age film is about fathers and sons (Adrien Brody), and life in 1954 Baltimore when Jews were not allowed to cross the tracks or swim in the pool.

[APARTHEID-NELSON MANDELA]

Cry Freedom [1987]

d. Sir Richard Attenborough
This is the true story of South African journalist Donald Woods and his friendship with black activist Steve Biko (Denzel Washington). The film covers Woods attempts to get answers to the suspicious death of Biko while in custody and his fleeing the country as a result of his investigation.

1987 Academy Award Nominees: Best Supporting Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Music and Best Song

Cry, the Beloved Country [1995]

d. Darrell Roodt
This film is about apartheid in South Africa through the experiences of an African Cleric, (James Earl Jones) and a wealthy, white landowner, (Richard Harris) in the 1940s.

Mandela and de Klerk [1997]

d. Joseph Sargent
This made-for-television movie is Nelson Mandela's (Sidney Poitier) story of his crusade against the repressive apartheid government of F.W. de Klerk (Michael Caine).

[ARGENTINA]

The Official Story [1985]

d. Luis Puenzo
This is a fictional account of events during Argentina's Dirty War. High school history teacher Alicia Marnet de Ibanez (Norma Aleandro) lives a comfortable life in Buenos Aires with her husband, Roberto, a lawyer, and their five-year-old adopted daughter. This tranquil life is forever changed when Alicia discovers the truth about her daughter's adoption.

1986 Academy Award Winner: Best Foreign Language Film

La Amiga [1988]

d. Jeanine Meerapfel
This film is the story of two girls growing up during the time of Argentina's Dirty War and the struggles to remain friends as their lives change and go in different directions (Liv Ullmann). The film focuses on the organization of Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Mayo Plaza in Argentina) who marched and demanded the return of their children.

1990 Berlin Film Festival: Peace Film Award—Honorable Mention (Jeanine Meerapfel)

1988 San Sebastian Film Festival: Best Actress Awards (Liv Ullmann and Cipe Lincovsky)

For These Eyes [1998]

d. Gonzalo Arijon and Virginia Martinez
This film is the story of a young girl named Daniela who thought she was the daughter of an agent of the SIDE, the Argentinean Secret Service but she was in fact, Mariana Zaffaronni, the daughter of two Uruguayan activists who disappeared during Argentina's Dirty War from 1976 to 1983. This story follows her grandmother's 16-year search and the legal and emotional outcome of finding her.

[ARMENIANS IN OTTOMAN TURKEY]

Ararat [2002]

d. Atom Egoyan
This film travels between 1915 Turkey and present-day Canada and tells the story of an Armenian-Canadian family and how they come to terms with the history of the 1.5 million Armenians killed during World War I. This film has been criticized by the Turkish government as one-sided and propaganda.

Germany and the Secret Genocide [2003]

d. Michael Hagopian
This film uses archival footage to document the involvement of Germany in the first genocide of the twentieth century when 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman government.

[AUSCHWITZ]

Night and Fog [1955]

d. Alain Resnais
This documentary was filmed in postwar Auschwitz and is stark in its image of what took place during the Nazi regime.

Playing for Time [1980]

d. Daniel Mann and Joseph Sargent
This made-for-television film is adapted from Fania Fenelon's autobiography by Arthur Miller. It tells the story of a group of female prisoners (Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander) at Auschwitz whose lives are spared when they perform music for their captors.

1981 Emmy Award Winner: Outstanding Drama Special, Lead Actress (Vanessa Redgrave), Supporting Actress (Jane Alexander), Outstanding Writing (Arthur Miller). Peabody Award

Sophie's Choice [1982]

d. Alan J. Pakula
Polish beauty Sophie (Meryl Streep) falls in love with Nathan (Kevin Kline) in postwar America but is haunted by the memories of a decision she made during internment in Auschwitz.

1983 Academy Award Winner: Best Actress, Meryl Streep

[AUSTRALIA]

Rabbit-Proof Fence [2002]

d. Phillip Noyce
This film set in 1931 is the true story of aborigine Molly Craig who leads her younger sister and cousin over 1,500 miles of the Australian outback to return them safely to their homes after being taken by white settles to become domestic staff. This story deals with the Stolen Generations, a program to civilize the aboriginal population.

2003 Australian Film Institute Winner: Best Film

[BABI YAR]

Holocaust, Part 2: The Road to Babi Yar [1978]

d. Marvin Chomsky
Holocaust is a four-part miniseries that aired in 1978. This miniseries follows the fate of two families—the Weiss family, who are Jewish, and Erik Dorf's (Michael Moriarty), who joins the Nazi party. Part two is set in 1941 and the massacre of Jews at Babi Yar is depicted.

1979 Emmy Award Winner: Best Drama Series, Best Directing (Marvin Chomsky), Best Costumes, Best Film Editing, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series (Michael Moriarty), Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series (Meryl Streep)

[KLAUS BARBIE]

Hotel Terminus [1988]

d. Marcel Ophuls
This documentary details the life and times of Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, who was Gestapo chief during the Nazi occupation of France.

1989 Academy Award Winner, Best Documentary Film

[BOSNIA and HERZEGOVIA]

Welcome to Sarajevo [1997]

d. Michael Winterbottom
The Bosnian war in Sarajevo is backdrop to a British journalist's attempt to save an orphaned girl from the brutality of war.

Shot through the Heart [1998]

d. David Attwood
Two best friends (Linus Roache and Vincent Perez) end up on opposite sides of the war in Sarajevo with tragic consequences.

1999 Peabody Award

Srebrenica: A Cry From the Grave [1999]

d. Leslie Woodhead
This documentary narrated by Bill Moyers tells the story of the massacre in July 1995 of over 7,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Bosnia, a city that was supposed to be a safe-zone protected by the UN and NATO.

Harrison's Flowers [2000]

d. Elie Chouraqui
The wife (Andie MacDowell) of a Newsweek reporter missing in 1991 war-torn Yugoslavia risks her life to find him aided by a fellow journalist (Adrien Brody).

[BURMA/MYANMAR]

Inside Burma: Land of Fear [1996]

d. David Munro
Investigative reporter and award-winning filmmaker John Pilger exposes the brutality and repression inside Burma.

Bullfrog Films

[CAMBODIA]

The Killing Fields [1984]

d. Roland Joffe
This film is based on the true story of the friendship between Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterson), a reporter for the New York Times and Dith Pran (Dr. Haing S. Ngor), a translator and assistant. When Pot Pol conducts his cleaning campaign of Year Zero, Dith Pran's family with Schanberg's help escape to the United States and he remains behind to help cover the story.

1985 Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Dr. Haing S. Ngor), Best Cinematography (Chris Menges), and Best Film Editing (Jim Clark)

Samsara [1989]

d. Ellen Bruno
Documentary on the devastation of the war in Cambodia and the tragic impact it has had on the country.

Sundance Film Festival: Special Jury Award

[CANADA]

Kanehsatake [1994]

d. Alanis Obomsawin
This documentary film by Native American Alanis Obomsawin covers the armed confrontation between the Native American Mohawks and the Canadian government forces during a 1990 standoff in Kanehsatake, a village in the Mohawk nation.

Produced by The National Film Board of Canada

Best Documentary Film, American Indian Film Festival

A Fight Against Time: The Lubicon Cree Land Rights [1995]

d. Ed Bianchi
A documentary focusing on the case made by the five hundred Lubicon Lake Cree Indians that logging, gas, and oil companies are profiting from their lands while they become increasingly impoverished.

No Turning Back: The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples [1996]

d. Greg Coyes
A documentary film on the Royal Canadian Commission that traveled and interviewed more than a thousand aboriginal representatives on their history with the Canadian government.

[CATHOLIC CHURCH]

Amen [2002]

d. Constantin Costa-Gavras
This film focuses on two characters, one an SS officer (Ullrich Tukar) and the other a Jesuit priest (Mathieu Kassovitz), and makes a case that the Catholic Church collaborated with the Nazis during the war.

[CHECHENS]

Immortal Fortress: A Look Inside Chechnya's Warrior Culture [1999]

d. Dodge Billingsley
Dodge Billingsley's film leads him through down dark alleys and secret meetings to film the Chechen perspective on its fight for independence from Russia.

[CHEYENNE]

Little Big Man [1970]

d. Arthur Penn
This film is the story of Jack Crabb looking back on his life from old age and recalling his life spent with the Cheyenne Indians.

New York Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (Chief Dan George)

[CHILDREN]

Forbidden Games [1952]

d. Rene Clement
This film set in 1940 follows five-year-old Paulette as she witnesses the death of her parents and takes refuge with a family in the countryside. There, she and the farmer's son take part in ritual burials in a cemetery they create for themselves.

1952 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Children of War [2000]

d. Alan and Susan Raymond
This documentary chronicles the effects of war and terrorism on children in four parts of the globe: Bosnia, Israel, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland.

2000 Emmy Award: Outstanding Non-fiction Special

[CHILE]

Missing [1982]

d. Constantin Costa-Gavras
This film is based on the actual experiences of Ed Horman (Jack Lemmon) and his search for his son, missing in Chile during the Pinochet coup.

1983 Academy Award: Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Chile: Hasta Cuando? [1987]

d. David Bradbury
The director and film crew captured on film the arrests and murders taking place during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

1987 Academy Award Nominee

Inside Pinochet's Prison [1999]

This documentary was secretly filmed by East German journalists and filmed in the concentration camps of the Pinochet regime.

Journeyman Pictures

Chile: A History in Exile [1999]

This documentary records the journey of Cecilia Aranada as she returns to Chile after escaping the bloody Pinochet regime. Cecilia interviews Chileans who lost family members or survived torture at the hands of the military.

[CHINA]

To Live [1994]

d. Yimou Zhang
This story of a married couple (Li Gong and You Ge) struggling to survive and not lose hope through the dramatic changes occurring in communist China. 1994 Winner of Cannes Grand Jury Prize for director Yimou Zhang

Xiu Xiu, The Sent Down Girl [1998]

d. Joan Chen
A young teenage girl, Xiu Xiu, is sent to a remote area of China to do manual labor. 1999 National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award for Joan Chen

Morning Sun [2003]

d. Carma Hinton, Richard Gordon, Geremie R. Barme
This two-hour documentary focuses on events during the Cultural Revolution using newsreels combined with first-hand accounts of members of a then high school generation reflecting back on those disturbing times.

[COLLABORATION-RESISTANCE]

Pimpernel Smith [1941]

d. Leslie Howard
The Scarlet Pimpernel theme is revisited once again by Leslie Howard. This time he plays Professor Horatio Smith who takes his students on an archaeological dig in 1939 Germany where his students discover their professor is smuggling enemies of Hitler out of the country. This film angered the Germans for its less-than-flattering depiction of them.

Casablanca [1942]

d. Michael Curtiz
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), an American nightclub owner in Casablanca during World War II, has his life turned upside down when Ilsa Lund Laszlo (Ingrid Bergman) walks into his.

1942 Academy Award Winner: Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz), Best Screenplay (Julius and Philip Epstein, Howard Koch)

The Sorrow and the Pity [1969]

d. Marcel Ophuls
This documentary investigates France's Vichy government's collaboration with the Nazis during the occupation.

1972 National Board of Review: Best Foreign Language Film

Julia [1977]

d. Fred Zinnemann
This film, based on Lillian Hellmann's (portrayed by Jane Fonda) novel Pentimento, tells of her relationship with a childhood friend, Julia (Vanessa Redgrave), and the devotion she has to her. Their friendship is put to a test when Julia asks Lillian to smuggle money from Paris into Berlin.

1978 Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actors (Jason Robards and Vanessa Redgrave), Best Screenplay Based on other Material

The Last Metro [1980]

d. Francois Truffaut
In occupied Paris in 1942, a theater director's wife (Catherine Deneuve), valiantly struggles to manage the Montmartre Theatre, while her husband, a German Jew, is in hiding.

1981 Winner of 10 Cesar awards

Terrorists in Retirement [1985]

d. Mosco Boucault
This documentary film narrated by Simone Signoret was initially banned by French television. In interviews with the terrorists, the truth is revealed that they were Jewish communists who were resistance fighters during the Nazi occupation of Paris. The film reveals their arrest and torture at the hands of the French police.

Au Revoir Les Enfants [1987]

d. Louis Malle
This film is based on events in the life of director Louis Malle while he was at a boarding school during World War II. In this story two boys become friends at a Catholic boarding school, one is French and the other is being hidden by the friars because he is Jewish.

1987 Winner of the Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival

Europa Europa [1990]

d. Agnieszka Holland
A Jewish boy separated from his family in Germany reinvents himself as a German orphan and joins the Hitler Youth. Based on a true story.

1992 Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film

Sisters in Resistance [2000]

d. Maia Wechsler
This story about four French women who showed amazing resilience and courage during the Nazi occupation by participating in the French resistance. They were arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Ravensbruck concentration camp. They survived to tell their stories in this documentary.

Unlikely Heroes [2003]

d. Richard Trank
This documentary narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley tells the stories of seven previously unknown Jewish heroes whose courageous acts saved thousands of lives from the Nazis.

[COMICS]

The Great Dictator [1940]

d. Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin plays two roles—that of the dictator of Tomania, named Adenoid Hynkel, and a Jewish barber—in his satire on Nazi Germany.

To Be Or Not To Be [1942]

d. Ernst Lubitsch
In Poland during the occupation, two actors (Carole Lombard and Jack Benny) engage in their form of resistance.

The Shop on Main Street (Obchod Na Korze) [1965]

d. Jan Kadar, Elmar Klos
Set in Slovakia during World War II, a small notions shop run by a Jewish woman, Mrs. Lautman, is given to a good-for-nothing young man named Tono. Mrs. Lautman (Ida Kaminska) is old, deaf, and oblivious to her situation and thinks the young man is looking for a job and hires him. As Tono becomes aware of the fate of Jews, he drunkenly makes an effort to save Mrs. Lautman.

1965 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

To Be Or Not To Be [REMAKE (1983)]

d. Alan Johnson
This time it is Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft as the actors fighting the Nazis in occupied Poland.

[DEATH CAMPS]

Camps of Death [1983]

This film is a collection of actual footage shot by the Allied forces of the death camps of World War II.

[DEATH MARCH]

Colors of Courage: Sons of New Mexico, Prisoners of Japan [2002]

Produced by Tony Martinez and Scott Henry This film tells the story of the veterans of the New Mexico's 200th and 515 Coast Artilleries who endured the infamous Death March. A Japanese guard, Yukio Yamabe, who took part in the march is interviewed.

Available through Albuquerque's PBS affiliate, KNMETV Channel 5

A New Mexico Story: From the Bataan Death March to the Atomic Bomb [2003]

d. Aaron Wilson
This documentary gives the oral histories of the men of the New Mexico National Guard who withstood starvation and brutal treatment by their Japanese captors.

McGaffey Films

[DENIAL]

The Man in the Glass Booth [1975]

d. Arthur Hiller
Arthur Goldman (Maximilian Schell) lives a good life in Manhattan, but all changes when Israeli agents hurry him out of the country to stand trial a Nazi war criminal.

The Music Box [1990]

d. Constantin Costas-Gravras
Jessica Lange portrays a Chicago lawyer who defends her father against charges that he was a SS officer for the Nazis. As witnesses come forward she faces a personal crisis as her certainty in his innocence begins to wane.

Death and the Maiden [1994]

d. Roman Polanski
A woman (Sigourney Weaver) is convinced that the man (Sir Ben Kingsley) her husband has brought home is responsible for the rape and kidnapping she endured by the government.

[DEMJANJUK TRIAL]

The State of Israel v. John Ivan Demjanjuk [1988]

This documentary is about the Cleveland auto mechanic, who was accused of being Ivan the Terrible and supervised the gas chambers of Treblinka.

Ergo Media

[DIARIES]

The Diary of Anne Frank [1959]

d. George Stevens
A young Jewish girl (Millie Perkins) hides in an attic with her family and their friend's from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.

1959 Academy Award Winner: Best Supporting Actor (Shelley Winters) and Best Set Design

[DISAPPEARANCES]

Fire in the Andes [1985]

d. Ilan Ziv
This documentary investigates the disappearance of thousands of Peruvians targeted as members of the Shining Path by the Peruvian Armed Forces.

First Run/Icarus Films

[HOLOCAUST DRAMAS]

This Land is Mine [1943]

d. Jean Renoir
A schoolteacher (Charles Laughton) in German occupied France is drawn into the resistance.

The Pawnbroker [1964]

d. Sidney Lumet
Rod Steiger plays a holocaust survivor who is shut down emotionally in a self-made prison (he is literally behind bars) in his New York pawnshop.

Ship of Fools [1965]

d. Stanley Kramer
A ship traveling to Europe from Mexico in the 1930s provides an opportunity to look at a cross section of society. Starring Vivian Leigh and Oskar Werner.

1965 Academy Award Winner: Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography

The Damned [1969]

d. Luchino Visconti
This film tells the story of a wealthy Junker family and their demise under the Third Reich.

The Night Porter [1974]

d. Liliana Cavani
A concentration camp survivor (Charlotte Rampling) and her tormentor, now the night porter in a hotel in Vienna, engage in a twisted relationship. This was a controversial film for its time.

Jakob, der Lugner (Jacob the Liar) [1975]

d. Frank Beyer
This East German film is the original about a Jewish man who invents stories heard on his secret radio to bring hope to the Ghetto.

Voyage of the Damned [1976]

d. Stuart Rosenberg
A ship leaves Hamburg, Germany, with 937 German Jews (Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner) on board seeking refuge in 1939 Havana, Cuba.

The Boys From Brazil [1978]

d. Franklin J. Schaffner
Gregory Peck plays Josef Mengele in this tale of a Nazi hunter in South America who uncovers a plot to restore the Third Reich.

Holocaust [1978]

d. Marvin J. Chomsky
A miniseries detailing the plight of a Jewish family in Nazi Germany contrasted with the rise of a German soldier. Stars Michael Moriarty, Meryl Streep, and Ian Holm.

The Tin Drum [1979]

d. Volker Schlonodorff
Young Oskar Matzerath (David Bennet) in 1930 Danzig cannot abide the society he is in and so at age three decides not to grow up.

1979 Academy Award: Best Foreign Language Film

Das Boot est Voll (The Boat Is Full) [1981]

d. Markus Imhoof
German and Austrian refuges arrive in Switzerland and discover even though the Swiss are not involved in the war they do not want any refuges.

Escape from Sobibor [1987]

d. Jack Gold
This miniseries recreates the escape of Jewish inmates from the Sobibor death camp in Eastern Poland. Stars Rutger Hauer and Alan Arkin.

1988 Golden Globe: Best Mini-series

War and Rememberance [1988]

d. Dan Curtis
This 12-part miniseries is based on the Herman Waulk novel. This series covers the events during World War II and the toll it takes on the Henry family. Robert Mitchum stars.

The Nasty Girl [1990]

d. Michael Verhoeven
A young girl begins to question her town's Nazi past and finds herself shunned by her community.

1992 BAFTA: Best Foreign Language Film

Alfa's Wonder [1993]

d. Luke Matin
This story of a French family's struggles during the Holocaust focuses on the youngest daughter's (Natalie Portman) curiosity about the events occurring around her.

1993 Winner of Grand Jury Prize at Cannes

Schindler's List [1993]

d. Steven Spielberg
Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) uses Jews from the concentration camps to run his factory in Poland. He becomes increasingly aware of the horrors inflicted upon them by the Nazi commandant Amon Goeth, (Ralph Fiennes) and with the help of his Jewish bookkeeper (Ben Kingsley) devises a plan to save as many Jews as he can.

1993 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Music Score, Best Screenplay Based on Other Material

Shine [1996]

d. Scott Hicks
The life of Australian pianist David Helfgott (Geoffrey Rush), a child prodigy who is driven to the edge by his father, a survivor of the Holocaust.

1996 Academy Award: Best Actor (Geoffrey Rush)

Bent [1997]

d. Sean Mathias
Max (Clive Owen) is gay and sent to Dachau where he denies his homosexuality and is given a yellow star for Jews. His friend Horst wears the pink star (for gay) and this story tells of their struggle for survival. Based on the stage play of the same name. Mick Jagger and Sir Ian McKellen co-star.

Life Is Beautiful [1997]

d. Roberto Benigni
A Jewish man brings his love for life and his sense of humor to a Nazi death camp in order to help his young son survive.

1999 Academy Awards: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Actor, (Roberto Benigni), Best Music Score

Left Luggage [1998]

d. Jeroen Krabbe
A Jewish girl becomes the nanny of a young mentally disabled Jewish boy and becomes very close to him. Stars Isabella Rossellini, Maximilian Schell, and Topol.

Aimee and Jaguar [1999]

d. Max Farberbock
A Jewish woman (Jaguar) using a false identity falls in love with the wife of a German soldier (Aimee).

Sunshine [1999]

d. Istvan Szabo
This film follows a Jewish family in Hungary through three generations from humble beginnings to wealth and prosperity and loss again. Stars Ralph Fiennes.

Conspiracy [2001]

d. Frank Pierson
The Wannsee Conference where the Final Solution of the Nazi's Holocaust plan is discussed is told through this film starring Stanley Tucci, Kenneth Branagh, and Colin Firth.

Nowhere in Africa [2001]

d. Caroline Link
A German Jewish family moves to Kenya just before the start of World War II to run a farm. The change is difficult to adjust to but events in Germany make it impossible to return.

2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

The Pianist [2002]

d. Roman Polanski
The true story of Polish Jewish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), and his struggle to survive after escaping from the Warsaw ghetto during World War II.

2003 Academy Awards: Best Director (Roman Polanski), Best Screenplay Based on Other Material, Best Actor (Adrien Brody)

[EAST TIMOR]

Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy [1994]

d. John Pilger
This documentary film covers the genocide in East Timor by the Indonesian army using Western arms.

[EICHMANN TRIAL]

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann [1997]

This documentary uses actual trial footage as well as the recollections of key witnesses.

[EL SALVADOR]

El Salvador: Another Vietnam [1981]

d. Glen Siber and Tete Vasconcellos A documentary that focuses on the civil war in El Salvador.

El Salvador: The Seeds of Liberty [1981]

d. Glen Siber and Tete Vasconcellos
This film focuses on the four U.S. churchwomen who were raped and murdered by the Slavadoran National Guard in 1980.

First Run/Icarus Films

[ERITEA]

The Forbidden Land [1990]

d. Daniele Lacourse and Yvan Patry
The human cost of the war for independence is the focus of this film.

Eritea: Hope in the Horn of Africa [1993]

By Grassroots International
The dawn of a new nation after a long fought war for independence.

First Run/Icarus Films

[ETHNIC CLEANSING]

Genocide [1981]

d. Arnold Schwartzman
Film documentary about the Holocaust. Narrated by Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles.

1982 Academy Award: Best Documentary

The Genocide Factor [2000]

d. Robert J. Emery
This documentary covers four periods from the Biblical to the Holocaust through the more recent twentieth century killing fields of Cambodia and East Timor.

[ETHNOCIDE/CULTURAL GENOCIDE]

The Searchers [1956]

d. John Ford
John Wayne searches for five years for his niece (Natalie Wood), who kidnapped and raised by Comanche Indians.

Five Centuries Later [1992]

d. German Gutierrez
This documentary features Rigoberta Menchu, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and focuses on the status of Central American aboriginal cultures five hundred years after the arrival of Europeans.

First Run/Icarus Films

[FEMALE INFANTICIDE]

Gift of a Girl: Female Infanticide [1997]

d. Jo Smith and Mayyassa Al-Malazi
This film examines the practice of female infanticide in southern India.

Matrubhoomi [2003]

d. Manish Jha
First time writer-director Manish Jha presents a story of an India without enough women due to female infanticide. The result is a rich landlord is forced to buy a young woman from her father for his five sons with tragic consequences.

[FILM AS PROPAGANDA]

Triumph of the Will [1934]

d. Leni Riefenstahl
This Nazi propaganda film focuses on the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg for which a well rehearsed, perfectly executed rally and parade was staged. This is considered to be one of the most accomplished propaganda films ever made.

The Eternal Jew [1940]

d. Fritz Hippler
Another of the Third Reich's propaganda films, this one is done in documentary style, giving it a look of authenticity that describes Jews worldwide in terms of an infestation of rats.

The Ducktators [1942]

d. Norm McCabe
Mel Blanc provides the voices of Hitler Duck, Hirohito Duck, and Mussolini Duck all trying to take over the barnyard. The Allies are portrayed as the Dove of Peace.

[EUGENICS]

Ninteen Eighty-Four [1984]

d. Michael Radford
George Orwell's classic story of a totalitarian society where a man (John Hurt) rewrites history for a living then does the unthinkable and falls in love.

[GUATEMALA]

Under the Gun: Democracy in Guatemala [1987]

d. Pat Goudvis and Robert Richter
A inside look at life in Guatemala where military and civilians fight for control and human rights issues remain.

First Run/Icarus films

The Man We Called Juan Carlos [2001]

d. Heather MacAndrew and David Springbett
This film tells the story of Wenceslao Armira, a man called Juan Carlos, whose two children were murdered by death squads.

Bullfrog Films

[HIROSHIMA]

No More Hiroshima [1984]

d. Martin Duckworth
A documentary of the hibakusha's (survivors) of Hiroshima.

[IRAQ]

Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq [2000]

d. John Pilger
This film reveals the devastation that the sanctions on Iraq have had on its children.

[IRAN]

The Tree That Remembers [2002]

d. Masoud Raouf
A young Iranian student hangs himself from a tree outside a town in Ontario, Canada. This film investigates what his life and those who feel betrayed by the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Bullfrog Films

[KOSOVO]

Kosovo: Rebuilding the Dream [2003]

This documentary looks at efforts to rebuild Kosovo under the protection of the UN Interim Administration Mission.

First Run/Icarus Films

[KURDS]

In the Name of Honour [2000]

d. Alex Gabbay
This documentary looks at the oppression of the minority Kurds in northern Iraq and how violence is being directed more at women.

Bullfrog Films

[NUREMBERG TRIALS]

Judgment at Nuremberg [1961]

d. Stanley Kramer
The trial of the Nazi war criminals by a U.S. court in 1948 Germany.

1961 Academy Awards: Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Maximilian Schell)

[P.O.W. CAMPS]

Stalag 17 [1953]

d. Billy Wilder
A film about Allied prisoners in a German POW camp, starring William Holden as the cocky American outwitting the Germans.

The Bridge on the River Kwai [1957]

d. David Lean
British soldiers are forced into labor to build a bridge for their Japanese captors that the Allied forces plan to blow up.

1957 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Based on other Material, Best Editing and Cinematography, Best Music Score and Best Actor, (Alec Guinness)

The Great Escape [1963]

d. John Sturges
The Allied soldiers in a German POW camp make a daring escape. An all-star cast lead by Steve McQueen.

[ROMANIA]

Diamonds in the Dark [1999]

d. Olivia Carrescia
Life before and after the Ceausescus regime as told by ten Romanian women.

[ROMANIS]

A Cry for Roma [2003]

d. Gillian Darling Kovanic
A stark look at the continued persecution of Europe's most reviled minority, the Romani's.

[RWANDA]

Rwandan Nightmare [1994]

d. Simon Gallimore
A documentary that probes the slaughter of over a million Rwandans.

Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold [1996]

d. Daniele Lacourse and Yvan Patry
The massacre of 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children are the focus of this film.

[STALIN]

The War Symphonies [1997]

d. Larry Weinstein
This film focuses on Stalin's bloody purges and Shostakovich's musical response.

[WAR CRIMES]

The Deer Hunter [1978]

d. Michael Cimino
Harrowing film of the horrors of war during the Vietnam era. This story follows three friends from a small mining town in Pennsylvania and the impact their tour of duty has on them. Robert de Niro and Christopher Walken star. 1978 Academy Award Winner: Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken).

Apocalypse Now [1979]

d. Francis Ford Coppola
This film based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, focuses on a mission assigned to Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) to kill a renegade Green Beret (Marlon Brando).

1997 Academy Award winner: Best Sound, Best Cinematography

Platoon [1986]

d. Oliver Stone
The story of a young recruit (Charlie Sheen) in Vietnam and the horrors of war he experiences.

1986 Academy Award winner: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Sound

Full Metal Jacket [1987]

d. Stanley Kubrick
A group of soldiers in Vietnam become dehumanized by their experiences of war.

Kim's Story: The Road From Vietnam [1996]

d. Shelley Saywell
This film is the story of the little girl, Kim Phuc, whose photo of her running naked down the street burned from napalm fueled the antiwar movement and what became of her.