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Download the list of film distributors (24 KB PDF)
» See HRW’s work on Iran
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OPENING NIGHT FILM & RECEPTION
Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud — France — 2007 — 95m — 35mm — animated drama
I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists – Marjane Satrapi
The Ayatollah Khomeini meets Iron Maiden in this spirited, beautifully animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's celebrated graphic novel. When Iran's Islamic Revolution hits home, nine-year-old Marjane remains willful in the face of repression. After the fall of the Shah, the religious fundamentalism that sweeps the country (women must wear veils, rock 'n' roll is banned) takes a particular toll on the outspoken Marjane and her family. When the Iran-Iraq war explodes and Marjane’s uncle is killed in the conflict, her parents grow increasingly concerned about Marjane’s rebelliousness. They make the difficult decision to send their daughter to study in Austria, where she must endure teenage ordeals while adapting to Western culture. A very personal memoir, Persepolis is also a bold testament to the universal need for preservation of individual rights. Splendidly voiced by an all-star cast including Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Sean Penn and Iggy Pop. *Academy Award Nominee, Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. *Winner of the Palm D’Or, Cannes Film Festival 2007.
Persepolis courtesy of Optimum Releasing
Benefit Gala
Wednesday, 12th March
18.15 for 18:45 at Curzon Mayfair Cinema
38 Curzon Street
www.curzoncinemas.com
Show your support for Human Rights Watch by attending the Benefit screening of Persepolis in the company of Marjane Sartrapi and Vincent Paronnaud and meet them at the reception afterwards. For Benefit Gala tickets, donations or more information please contact Erin Rattazzi on 020 7713 2773 or email erin.rattazzi@hrw.org. Tickets start at £75.
Opening Night and Reception
Thursday 13th March
19.00 at The Ritzy
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» See HRW’s work on Brazil
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Maria Ramos — Brazil — 2006 — 80m — 35mm — doc
In Portuguese with English subtitles
Following Justice, Maria Ramos’s razor-sharp scrutiny of the Brazilian judicial system, in Behave Ramos turns her lens on Rio’s juvenile courts and detention centres. In her beautifully framed, unadorned documentary style, Ramos allows us to watch court cases play out, and reveals a system overwhelmed. Brazilian law forbids filming juveniles in the judicial process, so Ramos faced the challenge of how to present her teenage subjects without showing them. Her brilliant solution: she found teens from the Rio favelas, or slums — some themselves veterans of the detention system — to portray their peers. The hearings were all shot facing the judge, so the “actors” could be edited in as countershots, each one carefully but naturally repeating the words spoken by the real, unseen defendants. The one figure who remains a constant and on screen throughout is Judge Luciana Fiala, a no-nonsense type who knows the system has little chance of saving these kids, and yet through irony, cajoling and sternness still tries to tailor her interrogations and punishments to the individuals on trial. Behave shows the process of judging, and how easily we are swayed over questions involving minors breaking the law. Who really knows what to do?
Presented in association with Discovering Latin America Film Festival(DLA) www.discoveringlatinamerica.com
SHOWTIMES:
Saturday, 15 March 16.00, Ritzy
Tuesday, 18 March 18.30, Ritzy
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» See HRW’s work on Afghanistan
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Hana Makhmalbaf – Iran/France – 2007 – 81m – video - drama
In Dari (Persian) with English subtitles
From Hana Makhmalbaf, daughter of acclaimed director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, comes her second feature film, Buddha Collapsed out of Shame. Set in Bamian, amidst the rubble of the massive statues of Buddha blown up by the Taliban in 2001, the film is a deeply felt political allegory of the impossible situation facing girls and women in Afghanistan today. Intimately told from a child’s perspective, including a world of make-believe that is both exhilarating and terrifying, the film follows six-year-old Bakhtay, who decides she will at all costs go to school. She sets out on an odyssey that pits this endearingly obstinate girl against numerous, seemingly insurmountable obstacles — including, most ominously, a band of boys pretending to be the Taliban. *Official selection, Berlin Film Festival 2008.
Presented in association with Afghanaid www.afghanaid.org.uk
SHOWTIMES:
Wednesday, 19 March 18.30 Gate
Thursday, 20 March 21.30 Ritzy
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» See HRW’s work on Chile
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Carmen Castillo — Chile/France/Belgium — 2007 — 163m — 35mm — doc
In Spanish with English subtitles
Chile, October 1974. A house on a suburban street in Santiago is scene of a shootout with Pinochet’s secret police. Miguel Enriquez, a rebel leader, is killed. His companion and comrade Carmen Castillo is wounded. Calle Santa Fé is this courageous woman’s story as she embarks on a raw, uncompromising journey into the present, and into the memory of rebellion defeated. Were those heroic acts of resistance really worth it? Did Miguel die in vain? Through a series of remarkable re-encounters — with the house on Santa Fé street, her family, the neighbor who saved her life, her former comrades, with their lives then and now — Castillo retraces the path from resistance to exile, from the luminous days of Allende to the long, somber years under Pinochet, remembering the men and women who rose up against his tyranny.
Presented in association with Discovering Latin America Film Festival(DLA) www.discoveringlatinamerica.com
SHOWTIMES:
Sunday, 16 March 15.00, Ritzy filmmaker present
Tuesday, 18 March 19.45 ICA filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Darfur
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Ted Braun — US/Sudan — 2007 — 97m — film — doc
In English
Since early 2003 violence raging across Sudan’s western region of Darfur has claimed at least 200,000 lives and displaced 2.5 million people. In a fast-paced chronicle of the crisis as it unfolds in Darfur, filmmaker Ted Braun expertly follows six individuals — refugee camp leader Ahmed Mohammed Abakar; female rebel soldier Hejewa Adam; Academy Award-nominated actor/activist Don Cheadle; Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court; Pablo Recalde, leader of the World Food Programme team in West Darfur; and Adam Sterling, a young activist in the United States — with different strategies and different stories as they tackle head-on the challenge of ending the crisis. This moving story unveils the power of compassion and commitment from total strangers who, by demonstrating their belief in justice for people in every corner of the world, renew faith in the tenacity of the human heart.
Presented in association with Aegis Trust www.aegistrust.org
SHOWTIMES:
Friday, 14 March 21.30, Ritzy
Sunday, 16 March 15.30, ICA
Tuesday, 18 March 18.30, Gate
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» See more on the Case Against Hissene Habré
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Klaartje Quirijns — The Netherlands — 2007 — 75m — video — doc
In English, French and Arabic with English subtitles
If you kill one person, you go to jail. If you kill 40 people, they put you in an insane asylum. But if you kill 40,000 people, you get a comfortable exile with a bank account in another country, and that’s what we want to change here.
– Reed Brody, Counsel, Human Rights Watch
Souleymane Guengueng, a former civil servant, watched hundreds of his cellmates perish from torture and disease during two years in prison under Chadian dictator Hissene Habré. Guengueng took an oath before God that if he ever got out alive, he would bring his tormentors to justice. Habré fell from power in 1990, and Guengueng’s quest for justice began. Guengueng used his considerable charm to persuade still-frightened victims to seek Habré’s trial for killing thousands of his countrymen. For the past eight years Guengueng has been joined in the chase by Reed Brody — known as Human Rights Watch’s “dictator hunter”. Now Habré lives in Senegal, where Brody and Guengueng are attempting to have him brought to trial or extradited. In The Dictator Hunter we follow Brody and Geungueng over the course of two suspenseful and critical years. The Dictator Hunter shows what committed individuals can accomplish when working relentlessly to break the cycle of impunity.
Presented in association with Colourful Radio Sky Digital Channel 0194 and www.colourfulradio.com
SHOWTIMES:
Sunday, 16 March 16.00, Clapham filmmaker and special guest Reed Brody present
Monday, 17 March 18.45, ICA filmmaker and special guest Reed Brody present
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Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand — US — 2007 — 94m — video — doc
In English
In Everything's Cool, filmmakers Gold and Helfand bring their comedic, insightful style to explore one of the most intriguing and troubling questions among international environmentalists: why have Americans lagged so far behind the rest of the world in accepting global warming? In 2004, when US polls showed that global warming ranked last as a voting issue, the filmmakers rented a bio-diesel truck to tour cross-country to find out if the polls were right, and Americans really didn't care. In this new self-described "toxic comedy," Gold and Helfand chronicle the struggle between two groups of global warming messengers: the "good guys"-which include a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who repeatedly tries to retire but can't and the Weather Channel's first climatologist with a "global-warming remit" who must pack her Ph.D. into 30-second sound bites-and the "bad guys," mostly industry-sponsored hacks who derailed media and public attention and paralysed the nation with their manufactured doubt. As much about messaging as it is about the messengers, as much about human nature as it is about humans' impact on nature, Everything's Cool explores what it will take to move the US from laggard nation to world leader on global warming. *Official selection, Sundance Film Festival 2007
SHOWTIMES:
Saturday, 16 March 18.15, ICA
Monday, 17 March 18.30, Gate
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» See HRW’s work on Democratic Republic of Congo
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Lisa Jackson — US — 2007 — 76m — video — doc
In English, French, Swahili, Lingala and Mashi, with English subtitles
Shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this extraordinary film sensitively yet unflinchingly brings to light the plight of women and girls caught in that country’s intractable conflicts. A survivor of rape herself, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson travels through the DRC to understand what is happening and why. The film features interviews with activists, peacekeepers, physicians, and even the indifferent rapists. But the most remarkable moments of the film come as survivors recount their personal stories — inspiring examples of resilience, resistance, courage and grace. *Winner of the Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2008
Presented in association with Colourful Radio Sky Digital Channel 0194 and www.colourfulradio.com
SHOWTIMES:
Monday, 17 March 18.30, Ritzy filmmaker present
Wednesday, 19 March 18.30, ICA filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Liberia
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Daniel Junge & Siatta Scott Johnson — US — 2007 — 76m — video — doc
In English
In a poignant story of recovery and strength, Liberian journalist Siatta Scott Johnson documents the first year of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s presidency in her war-torn country, highlighting the battles and accomplishments of the first female president in Africa. The brutal, ruinous rule of Charles Taylor left Liberia a legacy of lost childhoods and looming unrest. President Sirleaf and her newly appointed advisors face a daunting task: to maintain the country’s momentary stability and restart development of a society long plagued by struggles and despair. This is the story of a woman’s iron strength in tackling the challenges of a society desperate for recuperation, and the struggle that her female government members and even the filmmaker herself endure in their efforts to move their country forward.
Presented in association with Colourful Radio Sky Digital Channel 0194 and www.colourfulradio.com
SHOWTIMES:
Sunday, 16 March 19.00 Ritzy filmmaker present
Monday, 17 March 20.45, Ritzy filmmaker present
Tuesday, 18 March 18.30, Greenwich Picture House
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» See HRW’s work on Belarus
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Yury Khashchavatski — Estonia — 2007 — 73m — video — doc
In Russian and Belarusian with English subtitles
From Belarus’s most celebrated film director, Yury Khashchavatski (An Ordinary President), comes Kalinovski Square, a film that ramps up the volume of his longstanding and personally dangerous film confrontation with ‘Europe’s last dictator’, Belarusian President Lukashenko. Employing his trademark wit and black humour, Khashchavatski fashions a razor-sharp critique of the 2006 rigged elections, Lukashenko’s surreal propaganda machine, as well as astonishing scenes of the pro-democracy rallies and protests in Kalinovski Square that were literally swept away by army and police forces. What emerges is an astonishing piece of work that expertly presents the reality in Belarus today, while poignantly expressing the strong will for democracy and freedom that is growing in the country.
SHOWTIMES:
Tuesday, 18 March 21.00, Clapham
Thursday, 20 March 18.30, ICA
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» See HRW’s work on U.S. Foreign Policy & Human Rights
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Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers — US — 2008 — 81m — video — doc
In English
Lioness presents the untold story of the first group of women soldiers in US history to be sent into direct ground combat, in violation of official policy. Told through intimate accounts, journal excerpts, archive footage, as well as interviews with military commanders, the film follows five women who served together for a year in Iraq. With captivating detail, this probing documentary reveals the unexpected course of events that began with using US women soldiers to defuse tensions with local civilians, but resulted in the women's fighting in some of the bloodiest counter-insurgency battles of the war. Together the women's candid narratives and scenes from their lives back home form a portrait of the emotional and psychological effects of war from a female point of view. Lioness is the first film to bridge the gap between perception and reality of the role women in the military are playing in Iraq, capturing an historical turning point for American society.
SHOWTIMES:
Tuesday, 18 March 18.30, Ritzy filmmaker present
Wednesday, 19 March 21.00, Ritzy filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Corporations and Human Rights
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Jennifer Baichwal — Canada — 2005 — 87m — film — doc
In English
Manufactured Landscapes is both a stunning portrait of Edward Burtynsky, internationally celebrated photographer who specializes in large-scale studies of industrial vistas, and an exploration of the aesthetics and social and spiritual dimensions of globalization around the world today. Acclaimed filmmaker, Jennifer Baichwal (Let it Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles; The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia) follows Burtynsky to China and to Bangladesh, where he captures the effects of the massive industrial revolution those countries currently are undergoing. Baichwal focuses on the human cogs in the machine, contrasting Burtynsky's epic photographs with the tedium the workers endure and the sometimes toxic and alienating impact of globalization on the very people the transformations are supposed to benefit most. Beautifully shot and edited, and conceived with a startling awareness of the repercussions of our mania to control and repackage our environment, Manufactured Landscapes is a truly unsettling look at contemporary existence.
*Official selection, Toronto International Film Festival 2006
Manufactured Landscapes courtesy of BFI
SHOWTIMES:
Friday, 14 March 19.00, Clapham
Saturday, 15 March 21.00, ICA
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» See HRW’s work on International Justice in the Balkans
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Michael Christoffersen — Denmark — 2007 — 69m — video — doc
In English and Serbian with English subtitles
Slobodan Milosevic, nicknamed the Butcher of the Balkans, died of a heart attack on March 11, 2006. His death brought to a premature end the first trial in history of a former head of state before a United Nations court. Filmmaker Michael Christoffersen culls 2,000 hours of trial footage to create a taut and stirring narrative documentary. Milosevic On Trial not only provides a journalistic overview of a historic event, but describes the immensely complex issues involved in a trial of this magnitude and significance. Milosevic considered the trial illegal and a travesty, and conducted his own characteristically brazen defence before the court. However, it is Geoffrey Nice, the trial’s chief prosecutor, who emerges as the film’s most fascinating protagonist and guiding force.
SHOWTIMES:
Saturday, 15 March 18.30, Ritzy
Sunday, 16 March 18.30, Clapham
Tuesday, 18 March 18.00, ICA
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Stephen Walker, Director; Ariel Dorfman & Rodrigo Dorfman, Screenplay — UK — 1995 — 66m — video — drama
In English
This film features a powerful performance by John Hurt as Eric Lomax, a former British soldier who was tortured as a POW of the Japanese and who, fifty years on, still suffers daily bouts of post-traumatic stress. Concluding that revenge is the only way to exorcise his ghosts, he goes in search of Nagase Takashi, the Japanese soldier he believes tortured him. But his quest leads Lomax into dangerous territory, forces him and us to question if redemption is ever possible after terrible crimes have been committed, if those who are most damaged can ever truly find peace, if repentance is enough.*Winner of the 1995 Writer's Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Teleplay.
preceded by
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Rodrigo Dorfman & Ariel Dorfman — US — 1997 — 18m — 35mm — drama
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Based on Dorfman’s poem and story about two children who play “waiting for the enemy” under the shadow of a dictatorship. The film beautifully transfers this situation of terror to undocumented immigrant kids hiding in a house in Durham, North Carolina.
SHOWTIMES:
Saturday, 15 March 15.30, ICA special guest Ariel Dorfman present
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» See HRW’s work on the Pinochet prosecution
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Peter Raymont — Canada — 2006 — 92m — video — doc
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
My first September 11th had been in 1973, when terror was also inflicted on the innocent, when death also rained down from the sky, sending me into exile, making me into the man I have now become – Ariel Dorfman
On September 11, 1973, Chile’s military attacked its government. As the coup took hold, democratically elected president Salvador Allende called government members to the presidential palace to stand against their attackers, facing certain death. Ariel Dorfman was Allende’s cultural advisor, and should have been called too; he later discovered his name had been struck from the list so he could live to tell what happened that day. Three decades later, Dorfman is an internationally respected writer and human rights activist, winner of the Sir Laurence Olivier Award for the play “Death and the Maiden”. Filmmaker Peter Raymont travels to Chile with Dorfman in late 2006, at the time when Augusto Pinochet, Allende’s overthrower and Dorfman’s long-time nemesis, is dying. Raymont follows Dorfman through emotional reunions with his friends and fellow resistors, to personal landmarks that are powerful both emotionally and historically. During the journey they explore exile, memory and the search for justice.
Presented in association with Discovering Latin America Film Festival(DLA) www.discoveringlatinamerica.com
SHOWTIMES:
Friday, 14 March 21.00, ICA filmmaker and special guest Ariel Dorfman present
Saturday, 15 March 20.45, Ritzy filmmaker and special guest Ariel Dorfman present
Monday, 17 March 18.30, Greenwich Picture House
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» See HRW’s work on Nepal
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Julie Bridgham — US/Nepal — 2008 — 90m — video — doc
In Nepali with English subtitles
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties. When Devi, mother of a 15-year-old girl, witnesses her niece being tortured and murdered by the Royal Nepal Army, she speaks publicly about the atrocity. The army abducts her daughter in retaliation, and Devi embarks on a three-year struggle to uncover her daughter’s fate and see justice done. The Sari Soldiers follows her and five other brave women, including Maoist Commander Kranti; Royal Nepal Army Officer Rajani; Krishna, a monarchist from a rural community who leads a rebellion against the Maoists; Mandira, a human rights lawyer; and Ram Kumari, a young student activist organising the protests to establish democracy. The Sari Soldiers intimately delves into the extraordinary journey of these women on all sides of the conflict, through the democratic revolution that reshapes the country’s future.
SHOWTIMES:
Friday, 14 March 19.00, Ritzy filmmaker present
Saturday, 15 March 16.00, Renoir filmmaker present
Sunday, 16 March 16.00, Gate filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Counter-Terrorism Post September 11
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Lynn Hershman Leeson — US — 2007 — 76m — video — doc
In English
Strange Culture chronicles the breathtaking miscarriage of justice that has befallen Steve Kurtz, a college professor, artist, and member of the politically-charged art and theatre collective Critical Art Ensemble. Kurtz, whose work provoked debate about ethical issues involved with genetic engineering, is currently in the midst of an extraordinary legal battle which began in 2004 and could see him serving 20 years in prison. This surreal case began when Kurtz's wife, Hope, died in her sleep of heart failure. Police who responded to Kurtz's 911 call deemed his artworks and equipment (standard off-the-shelf scientific equipment found in any school lab) suspicious, and called in the FBI. Kurtz was arrested as a suspected bio-terrorist and agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work, impounded computers, manuscripts, his cat and confiscated his wife's body. In Strange Culture acclaimed filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson creatively enlists actors Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan, Josh Kornbluth, and Peter Coyote to dramatise part of the story that Kurtz cannot legally discuss, while skillfully interweaving news footage, animation, testimonials, and footage of Kurtz himself-creating a fascinating, highly provocative documentary about post-9/11 paranoia and the risks artists face when their work questions government policies.*Official Selection, Berlin International Film Festival 2007
preceded by
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Gef Senz and Maung Maung Aye — Australia — 2006 — 5m — video — doc
In English
Animation, exile and the internet — a Burmese love story online.
SHOWTIMES:
Sunday, 16 March 21.00, ICA filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson present
Monday, 17 March 18.30, Renoir filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson present
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» See HRW’s work on Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories
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Georgi Lazarevski — France — 2007 — 60m — video — doc
In Arabic with English subtitles
Just east of Jerusalem lies the formerly bucolic Our Lady of Pains, a senior citizens’ home for Palestinians. A few metres from the front door rises the grimly spectacular and unavoidable wall of separation, whose unstoppable progression gradually isolates the seniors from their children’s visits, the outside world, even from the very staff that attends to them. With beautiful imagery, contemplative pacing, moments of laughter, and brilliant use of a quietly humorous ‘guide’ — a memorable character with a trademark knitted cap, weathered expressive face, and savouring appreciation for smoking — filmmaker Lazarevski has fashioned a film whose political message grows like an approaching thundercloud.
preceded by
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» See HRW’s work on Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories
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Claire Fowler — UK/Palestine — 2006 — 22m — video — doc
In Arabic and English with English subtitles
An emotional journey highlighting the plight of the struggling Palestinian healthcare system under occupation. Palestinian couple Iham and Jihad’s baby son’s life is threatened by congenital heart disease. A charity offers the possibility of lifesaving surgery in Jerusalem, but to get there the family must make an uncertain trip through Israeli checkpoints, before the real journey can even begin...
SHOWTIMES:
Tuesday, 18 March 18.45, Clapham
Wednesday, 19 March 18.30, Ritzy
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» See HRW’s work on the Israel - Lebanon Conflict
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Philippe Aractingi — France/Lebanon/UK/Belgium — 2007 — 98m — 35mm — drama
In Arabic with English subtitles
There is a fine line between fiction and documentary, and Lebanese filmmaker Philippe Aractingi walks this line stunningly in his new film, Under the Bombs. Aractingi takes us to Lebanon, to the Israeli-Hezbollah war of summer 2006, and combines real footage of the massive destruction with a moving narrative story. The Israelis have just bombed the south. Into the chaos comes Zeina, a Shiite woman in her thirties, searching for her sister and her six-year-old son, both of whom are reported missing. Zeina pays Tony, a Christian taxi driver, who is the only driver willing to take her to the south. At first they keep their distance, but during the search they grow closer. Aractingi captures numerous remarkable and unscripted scenes, as Zeina and Tony encounter various victims of the war and sights of bombed-out buildings, highways and bridges, witness a Hezbollah rally, and see peacekeeping forces and international journalists arrive. The only side that Aractingi takes is the side of the civilian victims. Under the Bombs asks us to join Zeina and Tony’s journey and keep our eyes open throughout.
Under the Bombs courtesy of Artifical Eye Films
SHOWTIMES:
Friday, 14 March 21.00, Renoir filmmaker and lead actress Nada Abou Farhat present
Sunday, 16 March 18.15, Ritzy filmmaker and lead actress Nada Abou Farhat present
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» See HRW’s work on China
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Yung Chang — Canada — 2007 — 93m — video — doc
In Mandarin with English subtitles
A symbol of China’s economic prowess, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the world’s largest, and China’s biggest engineering feat since the Great Wall. It also represents the end to a way of life and livelihood for two million people along the Yangtze. Among those being forced to relocate are the Yu family. Poor, illiterate farmers with few options available to them, they decide to send their oldest daughter Yu
Shui to work on a cruise ship. Working for the same cruise line is Chen Bo Yu, the only son from a middle class family. Good looking and proficient in English, Jerry (as he is renamed by the cruise line), sees this as an opportunity — a stepping stone to bigger and better things, while Yu Shui (renamed Cindy) would prefer to continue her education. Both struggle with the demands of their jobs, especially the expectation to understand Western social cues and to operate comfortably in a Western social environment. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang crafts a beautifully photographed and moving metaphor for life in contemporary China, as well as a disquieting glimpse into a future that awaits us all.
SHOWTIMES:
Sunday, 16 March 18.30, Renoir filmmaker present
Tuesday, 18 March 20.45, Ritzy filmmaker present
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» See HRW’s work on Uganda
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Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine — US — 2006 — 105m — film — doc
In English and Swahili with English subtitles
For the past 20 years Uganda’s government has been at war in northern Uganda with a rebel force, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). In the war zone children are not only the victims of the rebels, they are the rebels. The LRA employs a chillingly effective process to fill its ranks — abducting children. Profoundly moving and beautifully lensed, War/Dance follows the historic journey of three children deeply affected by the conflict: Dominic, 14, an escaped child soldier; Rose, 13, a choir singer whose parents were murdered; and Nancy, 14, a dancer and sole provider for her three young siblings. Their school in the Patongo refugee camp is the first school from the northern war zone to make it to the finals of Uganda’s national music and dance competition. Amidst unimaginable violence and grief, these children carry with them the hopes and dreams of their school and the entire camp as they sing and dance, in protest and in celebration, on their way to the national competition. War/Dance will renew your faith in the power of the human spirit to soar, against unspeakable odds. *Academy Award Nominee, Best Feature Documentary. *Winner of the Directing Award for Documentary, Sundance Film Festival 2007.
Presented in association with Colourful Radio Sky Digital Channel 0194 and www.colourfulradio.com
SHOWTIMES:
Wednesday, 19 March 18.30, Clapham
Thursday, 20 March 19.00, Ritzy
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Steven Okazaki — US/Japan — 2007 — 86m — video — doc
In English, Japanese, Korean with English subtitles
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki delivers some breathtaking figures in his latest documentary White Light/Black Rain: 75 percent of Japan's population was born after 1945; the atomic explosion on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 killed 140,000 people and 70,000 were killed in the second attack which was in Nagasaki on 9 August 1945; a further 170,000 subsequently died as a result of illness and injuries caused by these nuclear attacks. Yet if the young people who Okazaki interviewed on the bustling streets of modern Hiroshima are anything to go by, many young Japanese today can't recall the significance of these dates. But more compelling than the figures are the unforgettable interviews with fourteen atomic bomb survivors, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, and four Americans intimately involved in the bombings, which reveal both unimaginable suffering and extraordinary human resilience. These indelible accounts are illustrated with survivor paintings and drawings, and historical footage and photographs, including newly uncovered material. As one survivor said, "I'm here to make sure it doesn't happen again". White Light/Black Rain stands as a powerful warning to today's world-which harbours nuclear weapons with the firepower of 400,000 Hiroshimas-that we cannot afford to forget what happened on those two days in 1945.
SHOWTIMES:
Tuesday, 18 March 18.30, Renoir
Wednesday, 19 March 21.00, ICA
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