Open Sources Guelph - December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas! To celebrate the holiday season, and to enjoy a well-earned break, this edition of Open Sources Guelph will be a special one. Or rather it will be a special. This week, the show is all about our favourite political movies. From the struggles of standing between competing parties in the Danish parliament to comedic efforts to beat the odds and be elected President of the United States, from the struggles of a Communist fighting the Spanish Civil War to the reconsideration of an American pariah, these are our selections for favourite political movies.

This Thursday, December 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz  and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) Scotty's Pick #1. Borgen: Birgitte Nyborg becomes Prime Minister of Denmark through a political fluke and has to learn the ways of power, quickly. She's an altruistic public servant in an old boys club and must master the art of the deal overnight, manage her image and understand that she has advisors but no real friends. She also must perform the impossible juggling act of maintaining a family life while serving as Denmark s first female Prime Minister. The rigors of public life and the press may attract some of Denmark s finest, but it also exacts a high price from them all for participating in an open democracy.

2) Adam's Pick #1. Head of State: A low-level Washington, D.C., public servant, Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock), is thrust into the national spotlight when he's asked by Martin Geller (Dylan Baker), the head of the Democratic Party, to run for president after the party's presidential and vice-presidential nominees are killed in a plane crash. The odds are against Gilliam, mostly because he has a penchant for telling the truth about what is wrong with the country. Remarkably, his straight-talking style catches on with the public.

3) Scotty's Pick #2. Land and Freedom: David Carr (Ian Hart), a committed member of the Communist Party in his native Liverpool, England, travels to Spain in 1936 with the intention of joining the anti-fascist International Brigades in the country's civil war. Instead, he falls in with the POUM, a Marxist splinter group opposed to Stalin's oppressive totalitarianism. Despite falling in love with the politically passionate Blanca (Rosana Pastor), Carr finds the leftist infighting a distraction from the greater struggle.

4) Adam's Pick #2. W: Flashbacks to key events in his life reveal the rise of George W. Bush from ne'er-do-well party boy and son of privilege to president of the United States. After trading in booze for religion, George mends his aimless ways and sets his sights first on the Texas governorship, then on the presidency. But the country's involvement in the Iraq war decreases his approval rating.

***Programming note: This episode of Open Sources Guelph is pre-recorded.

Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.