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Govindini Murty
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Govindini Murty is the Co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine.

In addition to The Huffington Post, Govindini's writing on film has been published in The Atlantic, the LA Times, and The New York Daily News. Her site Libertas Film Magazine is devoted to promoting the idea of freedom in film, as expressed in a respect for democracy, women's equality, and individual rights.

Govindini has appeared numerous times on TV to discuss film, including on ABC (as co-host of “At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper”), AMC, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, as well as on the BBC, French Canal Plus, Italian RAI, Japanese NHK, South Asia World TV, and Dutch national TV. Govindini is a member of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Govindini received her B.A. in East Asian Studies from Yale University. At Yale, Govindini was active as a debater in the Yale Political Union, where she was Chair of the Women's Caucus and Vice-Chair of the Independent Party. She grew up in India, Canada, and Malaysia (Borneo).

In addition to her work as a writer, Govindini is also an actress and independent filmmaker. In 2004, Govindini co-founded The Liberty Film Festival with Jason Apuzzo. In 2005, she co-founded the original Libertas film site, which was quickly acclaimed by the LA Times' Patrick Goldstein as "a must read" and by A.O. Scott of the New York Times as "insightful as well as provocative." She is married to writer-director Jason Apuzzo, and has worked in film, TV, commercials, and award-winning theater productions in Los Angeles and Vancouver.

Blog Entries by Govindini Murty

Voices Raised in Resistance: Powerful Defiant Requiem Premieres on PBS Sunday, April 7

(2) Comments | Posted April 6, 2013 | 3:11 PM

If a hallmark of great art is its ability to transcend the limited circumstances of its creation, then there is no more heartbreaking realization of this than the 1944 performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Catholic Requiem by Jewish prisoners at the Nazi concentration camp Terezín. The story of Terezín and of...

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Courage & Individual Conscience: The Top 10 Pro-Freedom Films of 2012

(3) Comments | Posted December 31, 2012 | 6:51 AM

Freedom must thrive for the arts to flourish. It's therefore an encouraging sign that so many of 2012's most acclaimed films -- such as Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Les Misérables, or Skyfall -- should explore the centrality of freedom to our civilization. As we celebrate 2012 in film, it's fitting...

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This Holiday Season, What Happens When All of Our Cultural Memories Go Digital?

(15) Comments | Posted December 24, 2012 | 9:16 AM

As we celebrate the holidays, many of us are taking digital photos and videos of our loved ones, thinking that these digital files will be saved forever. The same thinking applies to our movies, books, songs, and stories - we save all of our creative works to the digital cloud,...

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A Conversation With Fashion Icon Ozwald Boateng on Style, Africa, and His New Film A Man's Story

(2) Comments | Posted November 3, 2012 | 8:49 AM

During his meteoric career, Ozwald Boateng's been called the coolest man on Earth, and the fashion world's best-kept secret. Yet the candid new documentary A Man's Story, opening this weekend in New York and Los Angeles, makes certain that the British fashion designer and style icon...

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Supermodels and True Beauty: A Conversation With Timothy Greenfield-Sanders of HBO's 'About Face'

(10) Comments | Posted August 31, 2012 | 9:55 AM

They're among the most iconic faces of the second half of the twentieth century. Isabella Rossellini, Beverly Johnson, Paulina Porizkova and their supermodel sorority helped to shape public perceptions of beauty and womanhood at a time of rapid expansion in the mass media. Their faces graced thousands of magazine covers...

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Basketball Diplomacy: An American Point Guard Becomes a Symbol of Freedom in The Iran Job

(2) Comments | Posted July 17, 2012 | 3:39 PM

NBA fans know that two-time MVP point guard Steve Nash recently joined the Los Angeles Lakers. Fans are buzzing, because the addition of Nash could soon result in a return to championship glory for the league's most glamorous franchise. As big as Nash's impact on the Lakers might be, however,...

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New Film 'Words of Witness' Testifies to Egypt's Hopes for Democracy

(1) Comments | Posted June 26, 2012 | 11:01 AM

Egypt's government announced on Sunday that an Islamist has won Egypt's first competitive presidential election. The superb new documentary Words of Witness, screening at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York through June 26th, sheds much needed light on how Egyptians got to this...

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"We've All Been Brainwashed": China's Dissident Bloggers Speak Out in High Tech, Low Life

(18) Comments | Posted June 8, 2012 | 10:08 AM

Even as Chinese dissidents like Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and artist Ai Weiwei suffer physical imprisonment, hundreds of millions of their fellow Chinese citizens are suffering a form of mental imprisonment thanks to their nation's system of internet censorship. For example, the Chinese government recently blocked online searches for words...

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The Most Provocative Filmmaker in the World: A Conversation With Mads Brügger on The Ambassador

(2) Comments | Posted February 10, 2012 | 8:33 AM

His documentaries have been among the most provocative films featured in the Sundance Film Festival over the past several years. Bolder even than Sacha Baron Cohen, he's punk'd both the North Korean communist government and now, in his new film The Ambassador, the Central African Republic and the...

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As Egypt Fights for Democracy, New Documentary 1/2 Revolution Goes to the Front Lines

(1) Comments | Posted February 7, 2012 | 12:10 PM

As the Egyptian military government prepares to put 19 American employees of pro-democracy NGOs on trial, and thousands of Egyptians continue to demonstrate over the stalling of democratic reforms, the new documentary 1/2 Revolution offers a striking look back at the Egyptian revolution of one year ago.

Premiering recently at...

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The Cinema of Liberty: The Top 10 Pro-Freedom Films of 2011

(81) Comments | Posted December 31, 2011 | 7:22 AM

Freedom is one of the most important prerequisites of artistic excellence. 2011 was distinctive for producing a number of critically acclaimed films that celebrated the history of the arts and of the cinema itself - from Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, to Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten...

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Twilight, and the Return of Women's Blockbuster Films

(48) Comments | Posted December 20, 2011 | 8:05 AM

When The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hits movie theaters on December 21st, it will be the second major female-led franchise movie released in just over a month. The first, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I, has already earned over $640 million dollars worldwide since its...

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A Conversation With Werner Herzog, Part II: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Avatar, & the Hostility of Nature

(43) Comments | Posted December 2, 2011 | 8:15 AM

In Part I of my interview with Werner Herzog, we discussed his new movie Into the Abyss and its searing exploration of evil in human society. Now in Part II we turn to the world of nature, which Herzog sees as even more dangerous. In Les Blanks' documentary...

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Charlize Theron's Young Adult and the Crisis of Narcissism in Our Popular Culture

(82) Comments | Posted November 29, 2011 | 10:22 AM

Charlize Theron's new movie Young Adult offers one of the most striking depictions of narcissism to hit movie screens in some time. Directed by Jason Reitman, Young Adult tells the story of Mavis Gary (Theron), a self-absorbed writer of young adult novels who returns to her hometown to steal back...

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A Conversation With Werner Herzog, Part I: Into the Abyss

(22) Comments | Posted November 11, 2011 | 8:16 AM

Few directors are as willing to venture into the abyss as Werner Herzog. His prolific body of work has ranged from intense dramas like Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Woyzeck that plumb the depths of the human soul to documentaries like Encounters at the End of the World and...

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In Time and Tower Heist: Can Robbing the Rich Solve Inequality?

(119) Comments | Posted November 6, 2011 | 2:00 PM

A pair of new films this week offers a critique of capitalism sure to gladden the heart of any Occupy Wall Street protester. This weekend's Tower Heist depicts a group of employees who plot to rob a Madoff-style financier who cheated them, while the new sci-fi film In Time portrays...

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Sony Makes the Right Decision in Postponing Bin Laden Movie

(153) Comments | Posted October 21, 2011 | 5:56 PM

After months of controversy over Kathryn Bigelow's planned bin Laden movie, Variety has reported that Sony is postponing the release of the film until likely after the 2012 election. This is a wise decision on the part of the studio.

Sony's bin Laden movie had come under...

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