FINAL BALLOTING FOR BEST POLITICAL FILMS OF 2005
Many films were pre-nominated for Political Film Society awards for 2005. Since Political Film Society rules require the number of nominated films to be reduced to no more than five in each category, members voted in January to narrow the choices. Accordingly, the final ballot appears below:
To submit your vote now, click on this button: 
For the category DEMOCRACY (for promoting increasing consciousness of the need for more political decisionmaking by the people rather than by elites), two films were nominated. Select the best of the two:
| FILM TITLE |
YES |
NO |
UNDECIDED |
CONTENT |
| Downfall |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Hitler condemns Germans to death for losing the war |
| Machuca |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Pinochet's brutal coup in Chile |
Select the best from the category EXPOSÉ, fact-based films that raise political consciousness:
| FILM TITLE |
YES |
NO |
UNDECIDED |
CONTENT |
| Crash |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
How racism still permeates American thinking |
| Good Night & Good Luck |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
How McCarthy was hoisted by his own petard |
| Lord of War |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Former USSR weapons sold to anyone with cash |
| North Country |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
The first successful sexual harassment lawsuit |
| Turtles Can Fly |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Saddam Hussein's mistreatment of the Kurds |
Vote for the top film that raises consciousness of the need for improvements in HUMAN RIGHTS:
| FILM TITLE |
YES |
NO |
UNDECIDED |
CONTENT |
| The Constant Gardener |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Drug companies use Africans to test unsafe drugs |
| Innocent Voices |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Recruitment of child soldiers in El Salvador |
| The Ninth Day |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Nazi mistreatment of Gentiles as well as Jews |
| North Country |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Sexual harassment stopped at an iron mine |
| The War Within |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Abuse of a terrorist suspect creates a terrorist |
Vote for the film that best raise consciousness of the need for PEACE:
| FILM TITLE |
YES |
NO |
UNDECIDED |
CONTENT |
| Downfall |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Hitler's minions continue war despite imminent defeat |
| In My Country |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Confession, not vengeance, heals South Africans |
| Jarhead |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Irrelevance of U.S. Marine Corp training |
| Munich |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Revenge violence as counterproductive |
| Private |
( ) |
( ) |
( ) |
Palestinians refuse to be intimidated by Israelis |
HOW TO VOTE IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL THE FILMS
The three voting choices have special meanings. If you mark YES, you are saying that you agree, after seeing the film, that the content best merits an award. If you mark NO, you have seen the film and believe that the content is unworthy of an award. If you mark UNDECIDED, you have not seen the film or just have no opinion regarding the merits. Political Film Society members must return ballots by February 28, 2006. Mail to the above address, including your email address, or vote on the Political Film Society website. The Board of Directors of the Society will meet at 8481 Allenwood Road, Los Angeles, at 9:00 p.m. on March 1 to count ballots. VOTE FOR AWARDS.
FATELESS SHOWS THE POWER OF MIND OVER MATTER IN A NAZI LABOR CAMP
Fateless, directed by Lajos Koltai, is based on Nobel laureate Imre Kertész's 1975 autobiographical novel Sorstalanság (the Hungarian title of the film) about a Hungarian Jewish boy, György Köves (played by Marcell Nagy) who at the age of fourteen is sent to the Nazi labor camp Zeitz, experiences the horrors, and survives wanting to talk about the good aspects of the experience. His year of horrors include the irrational roundup, stark relocation, abusive treatment by Nazis, hard labor, living on the edge of starvation, the filth, dead bodies piled up, gruesome physical conditions of the inmates, and György's gangrenous knee with lice feeding on his blood. What's the good in all that? Rather than comedic fiction, as in Life Is Beautiful (1997), György treasures memories of Budapest, is helped by such fellow inmates as Bandi Citrom (played by Áron Dimény), and receives compassionate care from a German medic, while providing a clue to his inner serenity with placid voiceovers. Most of all, what he learns from fellow inmates is that Jewish people have an extraordinary resilience and self-esteem based on thousands of years of persecution which help to transcend harsh treatment on the part of those who supported a Nazi regime that was in part a response to only a decade-long economic downturn. MH
