This Thanksgiving, I'm going to show my family two documentaries while I'm home for the long weekend.

First, Michael Moore's Sicko both for the sake of our nation's ridiculously unhealthy health care system and for Michael Moore himself, who lost a lot of his credibility with conservatives (like my Dad) when he released Fahrenheit 9/11. Sicko is an important film, a funny one, and a true one, no matter what Sean Hannity says.

The second film is Darfur Now.

Last year, my sister and I dragged our mother to see Participant Productions's Inconvenient Truth to show her what was happening to our planet. The theater was full.

This time, Participant Productions hopes to get that kind of attention for the people of Darfur in western Sudan. More than 200,000 dead and up to 2.5 million displaced, living in camps. That's only since 2003.

Unlike global warming, the Sudan conflict isn't a matter of bipartisan dispute. The most unlikely Congressmen from both sides of the aisle have banded together to apply pressure, through legislation, to the government in Khartoum.

Even Gubernator Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation authorizing the state of California to drop all its holdings in companies doing business in Sudan. That whole political process is documented in the story of a 24-year-old activist, one of six stories told in the film. Don Cheadle's personal journey is another narrative, as are the stories of an international criminal prosecutor and a Darfurian rebel.

My sister didn't come home for Thanksgiving, but she called to say she saw it last weekend. It was emotional, she said, but inspiring, and more than anything, it showed you how much a single person can accomplish.

And that's something worth being thankful for.

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