Nun picks her Oscar winners

February 26, 2012
Jim Naughton

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, an enthusiastic film critic, is excited about the Academy Awards coming up. Discover what she says about this year’s movies and how faith and film are connected. Sister Pacatte is currently the Director at the Pauline Center for Media Studies.

What are your picks? Did they win?

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, professor of Political Science at Tulane University, comments on The Help:

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry spent a lengthy chunk of her Saturday show on one of the things that has troubled her most in the past year: the success of the film “The Help.”

The movie, about black maids in the Jim Crow South and the white woman who writes a book about them, is set to clean up at the Oscars on Sunday night, with actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer both favored to take home awards. But “The Help” has caused controversy almost from the moment it was released, setting off an intense dialogue about its portrayal of race and racism.

Harris-Perry was one of a chorus of voices speaking out against the film when it was released last August. She went on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show, where she called it “deeply troubling,” and even live-tweeted her reactions while she watched it, saying it “reduces violent racism, sexism and labor exploitation to a cat fight that can be won with cunning spunk.”

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