|
War dominates in Hollywood
20/11/2007 17:15 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Films spotlighting the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as World War II are among 15 entries jostling for next year's coveted best Oscar documentary, it was announced on Monday.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences revealed an initial shortlist of films which will be whittled down to five nominees in January before the Oscars are handed out at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24.
While the 15 films took in a broad range of subjects - from political hot-button issues such as abortion and gays in the church - war and its effects emerged as the dominant theme of the shortlist.
No fewer than eight of the films deal with issues related to conflicts past and present, with documentaries about the US-led conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan particularly prevalent.
Among them are Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight, which critiques the planning before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Other films include Body of War, which looks at the struggle of a wounded US soldier who is left paralysed after being shot in Iraq, and Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which gives a voice to veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The death of an Afghan taxi driver in US custody at a military base is the subject of Taxi to the Dark Side, which deals with America's policy on torture and interrogation.
Horrors of 1937 Nanjing massacre
Meanwhile, Nanking, a film chronicling the horrors of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, in which some 300 000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered by Japanese troops, also made the shortlist.
The film was inspired by author Iris Chang's 1997 bestseller The Rape of Nanking.
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are the subject of White Light/Black Rain, director Steven Okazaki's look at the legacy of mankind's first use of nuclear weapons in war.
The Rape of Europa, meanwhile, deals with the painstaking efforts of art historians to recover the cultural treasure trove that was either looted or destroyed by the Nazis during World War Two.
The harrowing plight of children who are kidnapped and conscripted by the Ugandan rebel force The Lord's Resistance Army is dealt with in War/Dance.
Other films on the shortlist include maverick film-maker Michael Moore's searing indictment of the US healthcare system Sicko and Please Vote for Me, which looks at eight-year-old children at a school in China as they attempt to hold elections for a class monitor.
- AFP
|
South Africa
