Nonny de la Pena Movies
- 2004
- Add Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties to QueueAdd Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties to top of Queue
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States Congress passed what became known as "The Patriot Act," a package of legislation President George W. Bush and his cabinet claimed was intended to help law enforcement officials take steps to stop terrorism. However, the bill was run through Congress so quickly that very few lawmakers were able to read it before it was passed, and it wasn't long before many Americans began to ask if the act posed a real threat to civil liberties and constitutional freedoms at home. Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties is a documentary that takes a close look at the Patriot Act, offers opinions from legal and constitutional scholars about its possible dangers, and features interviews with law-abiding citizens who've run afoul of the broad interpretations and implications of its regulations. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Oscar-nominated documentarian Amy Sommer (Waco: The Rules of Engagement) turns her attentions toward family matters in this in-depth look at the bizarre and sometimes deadly phenomenon of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP). In this outlandish form of supposed child abuse, mentally unstable mothers attempt to gain the attention and sympathy of the medical community by allegedly faking their child's illness or intentionally making their own healthy children sick. Though the founder of this supposed medical phenomenon has been discredited, doctors across the globe have still seen cases of child illness that they believe to be a direct result of MSbP. In this documentary, Sommer explores instances in which MSbP may have been used to punish mothers seeking medical assistance for their ailing children. The prospect of doctors prescribing drugs never approved for pediatric use to infants is also explored, as are cases in which medical professionals diagnose cases of MSbP without even meeting the mother of the child in question. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
From the production team of the Academy Award-nominated Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997) comes this harrowing account of two men wrongly accused of sexual molestation. Stephen Matthews fathered a child with his girlfriend before coming out of the closet. For a while, they enjoyed an amiable relationship, until his ex-girlfriend married an ultra-conservative man who took a dim view of Stephen's lifestyle. Tension rises when Stephen notices that his child has a black eye and suspects child abuse; the child's stepfather admits to believing in firm discipline in family matters. Soon after Stephen broaches the subject, he and his father Melvin find themselves accused of sexually torturing the boy. Not long after, they begin receiving death threats, and business at Melvin's bait shop appreciably drops. Sensational reports in the local media only fuel the growing hysteria in their rural Michigan town. The Jaundiced Eye is a piercing look at how hysteria can run justice afoul and how hate and delusion can drastically warp the life of a child and those around him. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Oscar-nominated documentarian Amy Sommer (Waco: The Rules of Engagement) turns her attentions toward family matters in this in-depth look at the bizarre and sometimes deadly phenomenon of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP). In this outlandish form of supposed child abuse, mentally unstable mothers attempt to gain the attention and sympathy of the medical community by allegedly faking their child's illness or intentionally making their own healthy children sick. Though the founder of this supposed medical phenomenon has been discredited, doctors across the globe have still seen cases of child illness that they believe to be a direct result of MSbP. In this documentary, Sommer explores instances in which MSbP may have been used to punish mothers seeking medical assistance for their ailing children. The prospect of doctors prescribing drugs never approved for pediatric use to infants is also explored, as are cases in which medical professionals diagnose cases of MSbP without even meeting the mother of the child in question. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
