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All films are preceded by short introductions only. The program may be subject to last minute alteration; please check with the box office. These films represent many points of view, not necessarily those of Human Rights Watch.
» See HRW’s work on the U.K. and Northern Ireland
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Pete Travis - Ireland/U.K. - 2004 - 106m - 35mm - drama
In English
Pete Travis’s vibrant and emotionally rich drama examines the tragic events and appalling aftermath caused by the bomb that claimed 31 lives and devastated the Northern Ireland town of Omagh in August of 1998. In June of that same year all of Ireland, north and south of the border, prepared to vote for peace in the Good Friday referendum. A small group of dissident Provisional IRA members set out to create a bomb outrage so bloody and calamitous that London and Dublin would be driven apart, unionists would withdraw from the peace process, and Northern Ireland would be driven back into violent conflict. They called themselves the Real IRA and selected their target carefully: Omagh, a small market town where Catholics and Protestants had co-existed remarkably peacefully throughout the thirty years of the “Troubles.” Suspenseful, moving and immensely relevant to current affairs, Omagh tells Northern Ireland’s bloody history from the point of view of its true victims—ordinary people caught between the militants. It shows people who refuse to be beaten forging enduring relationships across nation, class, and religion, and standing as a living monument to those who died. Winner of the prestigious BAFTA Award for best drama 2004.
Film’s distributor Portman Film
Now available for purchase on DVD on Amazon.com www.amazon.com
Co-presented by Irish Arts Center (IAC) http://www.irishartscenter.org
OPENING NIGHT & FESTIVAL SCREENINGS:
Fri, June 10, 9 pm
Sat, June 11, 6:15 pm
Mon, June 13, 4:15 pm
Benefit Screening & Reception
Thursday, June 9, 6:00 pm
Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center
Benefit Tickets
From $250, seating is limited.
Download the Benefit invite as a pdf file (5 pages, 900 Kb)
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» See HRW’s work on Kenya
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Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady - USA/Kenya - 2004/2005 - 84m - video - doc
In English
On September 12, 2002 twenty “at risk” 12-year-old boys from the tough streets of inner-city Baltimore left home to attend the 7th and 8th grade at Baraka, an experimental boarding school located in Kenya, East Africa. Here, faced with a strict academic and disciplinary program, as well as the freedom to be normal teenage boys, these brave kids began the daunting journey towards putting their lives on a fresh path. The Boys of Baraka focuses on four boys: Devon, Montrey, Richard, and Richard’s brother Romesh. Their humor and candor give intimate insight into their optimism, despite the tremendous obstacles they face both at home and in school. Through extensive time with the boys in Baltimore and in Africa, the film captures the kids’ amazing journey and how they fare when they are forced to return to the difficult realities of their city. The Boys of Baraka zeros in on kids that society has given up on—boys with every disadvantage but who refuse to be cast off as “throw-aways.” Funding for this film was provided by ITVS and P.O.V/ American Documentary, Inc. Opening theatrically at Film Forum http://www.filmforum.com , NYC in Fall 2005.
Film’s website http://www.lokifilms.com
Co-presented by the New York African Film Festival http://www.africanfilmny.org and P.O.V./American Documentary http://www.pbs.org/pov , premiering on PBS in Summer, 2006
CLOSING NIGHT:
Thurs, June 23, 7 pm - Discussion with filmmakers to follow
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» See HRW’s work on Peru
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Compadre New York Premiere
Mikael Wiström - Perú/Sweden - 2004 - 90m - 35mm - doc
In Spanish with English subtitles
In 1974, the Swedish photographer and journalist Mikael Wiström traveled across Perú chronicling the lives of people who literally had nothing and were forced to live off what they could find in rubbish dumps. There, Wiström met Daniel Barrientos, a young man stricken with polio. Daniel asks Mikael what a man his age is doing with such an expensive camera. From that moment, a complicated friendship, lasting over 30 years, develops between these two men. Following Wiström’s 1991 documentary The Other Shore, which chronicled Daniel’s family’s continual struggle to create a decent life for themselves, Wiström returns once more to Perú in 2003 in hopes of coming to terms with both his responsibility and Daniel’s plight. In Compadre, Wiström documents the daily life of Daniel’s family and also involves the viewer in the great dilemma of the Western filmmaker being confronted with dire poverty, an existential inequality that puts great pressure on the friendship. Wiström may call Daniel his brother, but how far does his “fraternal” responsibility extend?
Filmmaker Mikael Wistrom mikael.wistrom@chello.se
Co-presented by Cinema Tropical http://www.cinematropical.com
SHOWTIMES:
Thurs, June 16, 3:30 pm
Fri, June 17, 8:45 pm - Filmmaker present
A sign language interpreter will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion on the 17th June
Sun, June 19, 8:30 pm - Filmmaker present
Wed, June 22, 2 pm
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» See HRW’s work on the United States
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Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt - USA - 2005 - 76m - video - doc
In English
The national debate over federally funded “abstinence-only” sex education programs plays out in full force in The Education of Shelby Knox. Fifteen-year-old Shelby Knox of Lubbock, Texas is a self-described “good Southern Baptist girl,” who herself has pledged abstinence until marriage. When she finds that Lubbock has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the nation, and her county’s high schools teach abstinence as the only safe sex, she becomes an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex education, profoundly changing her political and spiritual views along the way. “I think that God wants you to question,” Shelby says, “to do more than just blindly be a follower, because he can’t use blind followers. He can use people like me who realize there’s more in the world that can be done.” Here is a story for our times, where the combustible mix of politics, family, and faith are not as predictable as the red state/blue state divide would suggest. *Winner of the American Excellence in Cinematography Award, Documentary, Sundance Film Festival 2005
Film’s website http://www.incite-pictures.com
Co-presented by the NEWFest http://www.newfest.org, the Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers (AIVF) http://www.aivf.org and P.O.V./American Documentary http://www.pbs.org/pov , premiering on PBS, June 21st at 10 pm (check local listings).
SHOWTIMES:
Tues, June 14, 6 pm - Filmmakers present
Fri, June 17, 1 pm
Sun, June 19, 6 pm - Filmmakers present
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» See HRW’s work on the Brazil
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Maria Ramos - The Netherlands - 2004 - 100m - 35mm - doc
In Portuguese with English subtitles
How and for whom does the judicial system work in Brazil? Without attempting to provide definite answers, Maria Ramos takes her camera to a place where many Brazilians have never been: a criminal courtroom in Rio de Janeiro. She observes the daily routine of several individuals, people on both sides: those who work there every day (public attorneys, judges, prosecutors), and those who are merely passing through (the accused). Strongly reminiscent of the work of Frederick Wiseman, the camera is used as an instrument to see the social theater and the structures of power—things generally invisible to us. The corridors of the Courts of Justice, the design and layout of the courtroom, the discourse, the codes, postures—all the little visual details and sounds become relevant. The filmmaker does not interpret what she films: she gives us no interviews or narration; the camera simply records what goes on in front of it. The film cuts between scenes of hearings and images shot outside the closed world (in the detention centre, at some of the characters’ homes), linking the courtroom with the society of which it is part and showing its impact on people’s lives.
Film’s website http://www.selfmadefilms.nl
Distributor’s website http://www.frif.com
Co-presented by BrazilFoundation http://www.brazilfoundation.org
SHOWTIMES:
Sat, June 18, 3:30 pm - Filmmaker present
Tues, June 21, 8:30 pm - Filmmaker present
Wed, June 22, 4:30 pm
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» See HRW’s work on Iraq
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Sean McAllister - U.K. - 2004 - 75m - video - doc
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
Held up in a heavily fortified Baghdad hotel pianist Samir Peter and filmmaker Sean McAllister try to survive the “peace” of post-war Iraq. Samir Peter, once Iraq’s most famous pianist, now plays in a half-empty hotel bar to contractors, mercenaries, and besieged journalists. In his heyday he described himself as the “Liberace of Baghdad,” but today he sleeps in a hotel room with bricked-up windows, too afraid to cross town to his seven-bedroom mansion. His string of western girlfriends has led his wife and two of his children to leave for the United States. Now Samir has a visa to live in America too, to find fame and fortune in what he calls his “one last adventure in life.” But Sahar, his pro-Saddam daughter who remained in Iraq, hates America for what it has done to her country. She refuses to go and Samir prepares to leave alone. Over eight months of filming the violence escalates, kidnapping is rife, and Samir’s neighbor is murdered on her doorstep. Will Samir now sacrifice his American dream for the sake of his family left in lawless Iraq? *Winner Special Jury Prize (World Documentary), Sundance Film Festival 2005.
Film’s website http://www.seanmcallister.com
Submarine Entertainment Email: josh@submarine.com
SHOWTIMES:
Fri, June 10, 2 pm
Sat, June 11, 4 pm - Filmmaker present
Mon, June 13, 9 pm - Filmmaker present
Wed, June 15, 4 pm
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» See HRW’s work on the Children’s Rights
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Duco Tellegen - Japan/Kenya/Belarus - 2004 - 83m - 35mm - doc
In Japanese, Maasai and Russian with English Subtitles
Filmmaker Duco Tellegen (whose Behind Closed Eyes featured in the 2002 HRWIFF) has made a career of exploring the rich psychological terrain of children and young adults in critical moments of change. In Living Rights, his emotionally powerful and visually striking new film, Tellegen explores dilemmas facing three young people on three different continents. His remarkable ability to relate to these youths is evident as their lives unfold before our eyes.
YOSHI tells the story of sixteen-year-old Yoshinori who has Asperger’s Syndrome—a form of autism exposed in Mark Haddon’s extraordinary novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Yoshi’s dream is to attend a regular Japanese high school. With humor, wit, and creativity Yoshi makes a strong case for all of us to believe he should.
TOTI is a Maasai girl of fourteen. When she was eleven, her mother told her that she would be married off. The cattle her family would receive from her marriage were badly needed for the family to survive. Toti decided to run away, so her twin sister was married off in her place. Three years later, Toti tries to reconnect with her sister and family.
Eleven-year-old LENA lives with her foster mother Galah in a village near the nuclear reactor of Chernobyl. Lena’s biological mother lives in Minsk, where radioactivity readings are much lower. She is unable to take care of Lena who is exhibiting health problems, and hopes Lena will choose to go live with an Italian family that has offered to adopt her. Pulling Lena the other way is Galah, who hopes Lena will choose to stay with her.
Co-presented by UNICEF http://www.unicef.org
SHOWTIMES:
Fri, June 17, 3:30 pm - Filmmaker present
Sat, June 18, 1 pm - Filmmaker present
A sign language interpreter will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion on the 18th June
Mon, June 20, 6:15 pm - Filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on the China
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David Redmon - USA - 2004 - 60m - video - doc
In English, Cantonese, Fujianese and Mandarin
with English subtitles
Mardi Gras: Made in China tracks the “bead trail” from the factory in China to Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, poignantly exposing the inequities of globalization. Filmmaker Redmon gained unprecedented access to follow the stories of four young Chinese women working and living in the largest Mardi Gras bead factory in the world, located in Fuzhou, China. We witness their economic realities, self-sacrifice, and dreams of a better life. Redmon inter-cuts these stories with strikingly candid interviews with the factory manager and the US businessman (who owns the factory) who offer their own visions on why globalization is a success. Brilliantly interweaving factory life with Mardi Gras festivities, the film opens the blind eye of consumerism by visually introducing workers and festivalgoers to each other. A dialogue results when bead-wearing partyers are shown images of the Chinese workers and asked if they know the origin of their beads, while the factory women view pictures of Americans exchanging beads, soliciting more beads, and celebrating. *Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2005
Film’s website http://www.mardigrasmadeinchina.com
FOLLOWED BY:
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» See HRW’s work on North Korea
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Jim Butterworth, Aaron Lubarsky and Lisa Sleeth - USA - 2004 - 54m - video - doc
In Korean, Mandarin, English and Polish
with English subtitles
Seoul Train provides an unprecedented glimpse into the little known “underground railroad” working to help North Korean refugees escape one of the world’s most repressive governments. Today, somewhere between 30,000 and 300,000 North Korean refugees are living in China, having escaped political repression and widespread hunger at home. The Chinese government categorically labels them as illegal migrants and periodically arrests and returns them to North Korea, violating its international obligation to protect and shelter them. Those forcibly returned often face grave human rights abuses including torture, long prison terms, and even execution. For a lucky few, however, there is hope. Via a network of safe houses and escape routes, a group of activists has taken it upon themselves to help the refugees, assisting them on a daring escape to freedom over hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of miles of Chinese territory. It's an epic tale involving North Korean and Chinese agents, courage and deceit, covert border crossings, and the terror of what happens if they get caught. Seoul Train exposes this growing and potentially explosive humanitarian crisis.
Distributor Films Transit International http://www.filmstransit.com
Co-presented by Asian CineVision (ACV) http://www.asiancinevision.org
SHOWTIMES:
Sun, June 12, 1 pm - Filmmakers present
Mon, June 13, 1 pm - Filmmakers present
Tues, June 14, 8:30 pm - Filmmakers present
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» See HRW’s work on the Balkans
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Goran Paskaljevic - Serbia and Montenegro - 2004 - 95m - 35mm,
drama
In Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles
Goran Paskaljevic’s The Powder Keg (aka Cabaret Balkan), which played to sold out audiences at the 2000 HRWIFF, is a seminal film on the tragedy and social self-implosion of Serbian society in the 1990’s. In 2004 Paskaljevic crafted what may be the defining film on postwar Serbia and the quiet tragedy that is unfolding in this psychologically devastated country. Set in the winter of 2004, Lazar, a Serbian Army deserter sent to prison for many years, returns to his home in hopes of reconnecting to his former, normal life. There he finds squatters—Jasna, a single mother who is raising her autistic 12-year-old daughter Jovana (stunningly played by Jovana Mitic who is severely autistic). Refugees from Bosnia, they have been squatting in Lazar’s apartment for some time now. Like Lazar, Jasna, whose husband never accepted their daughter’s autism and abandoned them, also wishes to turn the page on a difficult past. Lazar doesn’t have the heart to make them leave. Little by little, among these three beings marginalized by society, a special kinship develops.
Distributor’s website http://www.bavaria-film-international.de
Co-presented by Reconciliation and Culture Cooperative
Network (RACCOON, Inc) http://raccoon.balkansnet.org
SHOWTIMES:
Fri, June 10, 4 pm
Sun, June 12, 9:30 pm
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» See HRW’s work on Sri Lanka
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Helene Klodawsky - Canada - 2004 - 79m - video - doc
In English
A story of love, revolution, and betrayal, No More Tears Sister explores the price of truth in times of war. Set during the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka over decades, the film beautifully renders the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Wartime mother, university professor, wife, activist, and symbol of hope, Rajani was assassinated at the young age of thirty-five in 1989. Fifteen years after Rajani’s death, her older sister Nirmala, a former Tamil militant and political prisoner, journeys back to Sri Lanka. She has decided to break her long silence about Rajani’s passionate life and her brutal slaying. Joining her are Rajani’s husband, sisters, and grown daughters, as well as fellow activists forced underground. Superbly filmed, using rare archival footage and intimate correspondence, the story of Rajani and her family delves into rarely explored themes—revolutionary women and their dangerous pursuit of justice.
Distributor’s website http://www.nfb.ca/nomoretearssister
Co-presented by Breakthrough: building human rights culture http://www.breakthrough.tv
SHOWTIMES:
Wed, June 15, 1:30 pm
Thurs, June 16, 9 pm - Filmmaker present
Sat, June 18, 6:15 pm - Filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Iraq
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Garrett Scott and Ian Olds - USA - 2005 - 78m - video - doc
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
Occupation: Dreamland offers a rare and intimate window into the daily life of one group of US soldiers stationed in Iraq to “keep peace” less than one year after President Bush announced mission accomplished. The film follows one squad in the US Army’s 82nd Airborne deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. Featuring a series of remarkably candid interviews with the squad’s soldiers who detail their sometimes shocking daily life and the creep of disillusionment with their mission, Occupation: Dreamland brings a first hand view of the moral and operational complexities inherent in American warfare in the 21st century. As low-intensity conflict proliferates, distrust between the Iraqi civilians in Falluja and the US soldiers stationed there increase leading to greater confusion and skepticism on all sides. The film presents a fascinating look at the last days before a final series of assaults in the spring of 2004 effectively destroyed Falluja.
Film’s website http://www.greenhousepictures.com
SHOWTIMES:
Tues, June 14, 3:30 pm
Wed, June 15, 6:15 pm - Filmmakers present
Fri, June 17, 6:15 pm - Filmmakers present
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» See HRW’s work on Iraq
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Margaret Loescher - U.K. - 2004 - 63m - video - doc
In English
In August 2003, Gil Loescher went to Baghdad on a humanitarian research trip. He and his colleagues were in a meeting with the head of the United Nations in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, when a truck full of explosives was driven into the side of the building. Gil was the only survivor from the most devastated section of the building. All of the other people in the meeting died. Through poignantly honest narration, and observational scenes of high emotion, his daughter records the family’s recovery during the months after the bombing. Filming becomes her way of dealing with the suddenness of the family’s changed reality, and a way of re-visiting the haunting images of the bomb site—a place of both horror and hope.
Film’s website http://www.pulledfromtherubble.com
Co-presented by the Tribeca Film Festival http://www.tribecafilmfestival.com
SHOWTIMES:
Mon, June 20, 8:30 pm - Filmmaker present
Tues, June 21, 2 pm
Wed, June 22, 7 pm - Filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Colombia
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Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez - Colombia/USA - 2004 - 84m - video - doc
In Spanish with English subtitles
Shot over the course of a year, La Sierra follows three young people—a leader, a soldier, and a young woman—affiliated with Colombia’s illegal paramilitary armies as they go about their daily lives. The charismatic Edison is a 22-year old commander, de facto mayor of La Sierra, and neighborhood playboy who has fathered six children with six different women. Cielo is a 17-year old widowed mother who has a new paramilitary boyfriend she devotedly visits in jail every Sunday, while trying to find a way to make a living without taking a job in Medellin’s red light district. And wounded 19-year old Jesus seems ready for death while indulging his taste for marijuana and cocaine, but when the war in La Sierra comes to an end and the gang members begin a government-sponsored disarmament process, he starts to think of life without war.
Distributor’s website http://www.frif.com
Film’s website http://www.lasierrafilm.com
Co-presented by Independents Night* and Cinema Tropical http://www.cinematropical.com
*Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFP/New York, Independents Night is a bi-monthly film program devoted exclusively to showcasing new independent American documentary films on the big screen. The festival is proud to be collaborating with Independents Night on the screening of La Sierra.
SHOWTIMES:
Thurs, June 16, 6:30 pm - Filmmakers present
(Thursday is also Independents Night Screening)
A sign language interpreter will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion on the 16th June
Sat, June 18, 8:45 pm - Filmmakers present
Mon, June 20, 1 pm
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» See HRW’s work on Peru
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OPENING NIGHT
Pamela Yates, Paco de Onís and Peter Kinoy - USA/Perú - 2005 - 94m - video - doc
In English and Spanish with English subtitiles
How can an open society balance demands for security with democracy? State of Fear dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a “war” against terror, a “war” potentially without end, all too easily exploited by unscrupulous leaders seeking personal political gain. The film follows events in Perú, yet it serves as a cautionary tale for a nation like the United States. Filmmakers Pamela Yates, Paco de Onís and Peter Kinoy masterfully blend personal testimony, history, and archival footage to tell the story of escalating violence in the Andean nation and how the fear of terror undermined democracy, making Perú a virtual dictatorship where official corruption replaced the rule of law. Terrorist attacks by Shining Path insurgents provoked a military occupation of the countryside. Military justice replaced civil authority. Widespread abuses by the Peruvian Army went unpunished. Terrorism continued to spread. Nearly 70,000 civilians eventually died at the hands of Shining Path and the Peruvian military.
Distributor: Films Transit International http://www.filmstransit.com
Co-presented by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) http://www.ictj.org and the Tribeca Film Festival http://www.tribecafilmfestival.com
SHOWTIMES:
Fri, June 10, 6:30 pm - Filmmakers present
Sun, June 12, 4:15 pm - Filmmakers present
Tues, June 14, 1 pm
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» See HRW’s work on Argentina
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Alejo Hernán Taube - Argentina - 2004 - 88m - 35mm - drama
In Spanish with English subtitles
December 2002: Argentina is in turmoil over the economic crisis and demonstrators are flooding the streets of Buenos Aires. Filmmaker Taube uses this as the backdrop for his gritty, fictional drama about a small rural town trying to cope with the real affects caused by the deflation of the peso. The story centers around Martin and Pilar, two people living on the fringe of society. While everyone else in the town struggles to find a few pesos for a beer, Martin mysteriously has enough money to buy beers for everyone. Martin says he has a job, but when asked what it is he exactly does he’s reluctant to share any details. Pilar is from a good family which is rapidly slipping into poverty. Martin and Pilar are drawn together by a powerful erotic undercurrent and eventually fall in love while struggling to get by.
Distributor: Premium Media http://www.premiummedia.com.ar
Co-presented by Cinema Tropical http://www.cinematropical.com
SHOWTIMES:
Sat, June 11, 9 pm - Filmmaker present
Mon, June 13, 6:30 pm - Filmmaker present
Thurs, June 16, 1 pm
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» See HRW’s work on the Balkans
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Katarina Rejger and Eric van den Broek - Bosnia and Herzegovina/Slovenia/Macedonia/Croatia/Serbia and Montenegro (including Kosovo) - 2004/2005 - 75m - video - doc
In Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian and Slovenian with English subtitles
With strong vision and intense dedication, filmmakers Rejger and van den Broek (The Making of a Revolution) present Videoletters, a truly groundbreaking and emotionally uplifting series of twenty short documentary films—a selection of which will be featured in this year’s festival in two independent programs (‘group 1’ and ‘group 2’). Videoletters is remarkable for many reasons, not least because it exemplifies the power of change inherent in the documentary form; the very making of the films fostered reconciliation between estranged individuals of the war-scarred former Yugoslavia. After the war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and drove millions from hearths and homes, the country crumbled into five separate republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.
In Videoletters, which was shot over the past five years frequently in tough and often dangerous conditions, the filmmakers act as initiators, mailmen, and recorders of a dispersed population who hardly have contact beyond the borders. In each episode, two people of different nationalities send each other a video letter, explaining how this could have happened. In each case, they were friends, neighbors, or colleagues before the war drove them apart.
“We are still friends, none of you are guilty, we don’t blame all Serbs,” a Croatian man says on the screen; on the couch a Serb family is in tears as they watch the video letter of their friend whom they have not seen since the 1990s, when war drove the two families apart. People express their anger and sadness. They try to put rumors and false information behind them. They admit guilt. This stunning series of films literally reaches across the emotional and physical divide to open up a new path for the future. After exchanging the video letters, the participants usually arrange a meeting, the first since the war erupted.
And, in a true testament to the power of the series and commitment of the filmmakers, they have managed the remarkable feat of convincing every public television station in the former Yugoslavia to broadcast at least ten of the video letters. This is the first time the stations have agreed to work together on joint programming since before the war. The series began these broadcasts on April 7, 2005, ten years after the Dayton peace agreements that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia were signed. *Winner of the 2005 HRWIFF Nestor Almendros Prize.
Videoletters website http://www.videoletters.net
Co-presented by the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival http://www.amnh.org/mmead and Reconciliation and Culture Cooperative Network (RACCOON, Inc) http://www.raccoon.balkansnet.org
*Please note: group 1 and group 2 are distinct programs which can be seen independently of one another.
SHOWTIMES:
Group 1
Sun, June 19, 1 pm - Filmmakers present
A sign language interpreter will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion on the 19th June
Mon, June 20, 3:30 pm - Filmmakers present
Tues, June 21, 6:15 pm - Filmmakers present
Thurs, June 23, 2 pm
Group 2
Sun, June 19, 3:30 pm - Filmmakers present
A sign language interpreter will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion on the 19th June
Tues, June 21, 4 pm - Filmmakers present
Wed, June 22, 9 pm - Filmmakers present
Thurs, June 23, 4:15
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» See HRW’s work on Israel and the Palestinian Authority
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Simone Bitton - France/Israel - 2004 - 100m - 35mm - doc
In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
Simone Bitton (whose Citizen Bishara featured in the 2002 HRWIFF) etches a haunting portrait of one of the most controversial barriers of our time: the wall of separation constructed by Israel. With masterful restraint, Bitton both abstracts her subject and extracts its key contradiction as a strangulating protector of life. The film begins with a silent scene of workmen erecting the concrete sections of the wall. These uniformly grey wedges slowly block out the beautiful landscape that lies behind them until all we can see is grey concrete. It’s an astounding, deeply troubling sequence—and a powerful piece of cinema. Traversing various regions, Bitton interviews Palestinian and Jewish subjects (many off camera) regarding the wall’s significance.
These diverse commentators, including an Israeli Defense official interviewed in his office, alternately decry Palestinian terrorist bombings, or term the construction of the wall a disguised Israeli landgrab. Many question the wall’s efficacy and its long-range benefits, bemoaning their separation from neighbors and friends. “The fence is worthless. Without peace it’s worthless—it’s a joke,” claims one Israeli, a survivor of a suicide bomber. In contrast, the Palestinians Bitton interviews are largely shell-shocked. It’s easy to understand why: they appear powerless observers of their encroaching dispossession. *Winner Best Film, Jerusalem Film Festival 2004. *Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2005
Distributor: Cine-Sud Promotion Email: cine-sud@noos.fr
PRECEDED BY
Cynthia Madansky - USA - 2004 - 15m - 35mm - doc - In English
Details of landscapes in the Palestinian territories, reduced to rubble, reveal the destructive effects of occupation.
Film website http://www.madansky.com
Co-presented by Makor http://www.makor.org
SHOWTIMES:
Sat, June 11, 1 pm - Filmmaker present
Sun, June 12, 6:45 pm - Filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Darfur
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Human Rights Watch and Magnum Photos present:
Photographs by Paolo Pellegrin
On Exhibit June 9-24, 2005
at the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theater
An unnatural disaster is devastating the Darfur region of Sudan, where civilians are fleeing in terror from government-supported mass killings. Since early 2003, the people of Darfur have experienced a government-coordinated, scorched-earth campaign combining the systematic use of indiscriminate aerial bombardment and the deployment of proxy armed forces known as Janjaweed. Almost all of the population has been affected, either directly through attacks on villages, killings, rape, looting and destruction of property, and forced displacement, or indirectly through the near total collapse of the region’s economy. Thousands are dead and millions have been forced from their homes. Millions more are at risk.
In 2004, photographer Paolo Pellegrin traveled to Sudan to expose the consequences of the ongoing human rights crimes that are fueling this unnatural and avoidable disaster. What he found was an already vulnerable and terrified people who had fled brutal conflict only to confront renewed vulnerability in their homelessness and perhaps the harsher reality of having their plight ignored by most of the world. One after another, his images show us the immense suffering that civilians are facing because of actions by their own government and inaction by the international community. Now, nearly a year later as this catastrophe continues unabated, Paolo’s photographs urge us to recognize that time is of the essence – ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are still unfolding. The strongest political action is urgently needed. The people of Darfur cannot wait any longer.
Paolo Pellegrin became a Magnum associate in 2003 and has been a Newsweek contract photographer since 2000. Paolo has received numerous awards including: The Overseas Press Club Olivier Rebbot Award for his work in Darfur (2005); World Press Photo awards for his work in Palestine (2004), Algeria (2002), Kosovo (2000), Cambodia (1998), and Uganda (1995); the Leica Medal of Excellence (2001); and the prestigious Hasselblad Grant (2000). His most recent publication is the 2002 book Kosovo, The Flight of Reason (www.trolleybooks.com).
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