nwFilmCenter

Human Rights on Film

Cinema can be entertainment and escape, but for many committed filmmakers its most compelling role is as a vital medium of information and powerful tool for social change. Tackling wide ranging, thought-provoking issues, these filmmakers help deepen our awareness of the values of dignity, equality, and justice as they tell universal stories of human struggle, sacrifice, and triumph. Among the premiere showcases for work by activist filmmakers is the annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival which celebrates the work of committed media makers while focusing hearts and minds on the challenges that still confront humanity. Drawing from films presented at HRW and other international events focused on global humanitarian issues, we hope that the works presented here will broaden understanding and stimulate involvement as they reveal the hardship, courage, and commitment of others.

Thu, Oct 5, 2006 at 7 PM Sat, Oct 7, 2006 at 9 PM	SALVADOR ALLENDE DIRECTOR: PATRICIO GUZMAN FRANCE/CHILE/GERMANY/MEXICO Chilean filmmaker Guzman (THE BATTLE OF CHILE and THE PINOCHE CASE) has brought his country's present and past to life in film. With SALVADOR ALLENDE he turns to one of the 20th century's most inspiring, and controversial, leaders. Elected president of Chile in 1970, Allende committed himself to the socialist transformation of his country, a remarkable goal during the capitalist/communist jockeying of the Cold War era. Three years later, he was deposed by a right-wing coup led by Augusto Pinochet, and committed suicide before being taken prisoner. "I remember September 11, 1973, the somber day on which America instigated a coup d'etat to knock down the peace-loving and democratic revolution which had been built in my faraway country... I will never forget the brutality of the dictatorship then put into place for more than 17 years of suffering, death, exile and the suppressing of memory."-PG. ( 100 min ) Spnsored by the First Unitarian Church of Portland. ^ Top
Wed, Oct 11, 2006 at 7 PM	BLACK GOLD DIRECTOR: NICK FRANCIS, MARC FRANCIS BRITAIN After oil, coffee is the most valuable trading commodity in the world. But while consumers spend billions, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that small growers cannot survive. Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is on a one-man mission to save his coffee cooperative's 75,000 struggling farmers from bankruptcy. As they strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans available, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price. Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey to London, Seattle and New York, the more powerful sides of the international trading system come into focus. ( 78 min ) Sponsored by Stumptown Coffee. ^ Top
Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 7 PM	RAIN IN DRY LAND DIRECTOR: ANNE MAKEPEACE US/KENYA Rain in a Dry Land chronicles two years in the lives of two extended Somali Bantu families as they leave behind a 200-year legacy of oppression in Africa to face new challenges in the U.S. At the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, the families are stunned by what they learn about America in their "Cultural Orientation" class. From this beginning, filmmaker Anne Makepeace brilliantly succeeds in capturing every step of this remarkable journey, from their very different new homes - Springfield, Massachusetts and Atlanta, Georgia - through their encounters with racism, poverty, failures of the school system, and severe culture shock. ( 83 min ) ^ Top
Fri, Oct 20, 2006 at 9:15 PM Sat, Oct 21, 2006 at 7 PM	THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO DIRECTOR: MICHAEL WINTERBOTTON, MATT WHITECROSS BRITAIN Winterbottom and Whitecross recount the true story of four British Muslim men who visit Afghanistan just as war is breaking out in late 2001, and end up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as prisoners of the U.S. government. Subjected to physical abuse and mistreatment, the men are locked in open-air cells resembling dog kennels and interrogated by CIA, FBI, and military personnel for nearly two years without charge before being released. Winners of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, their eye-opening film skillfully blends archival footage, real-life interviews, and dramatized scenes shot on location in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to give a visceral sense of the men's experience. ( 95 min ) Sponsored by the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition. ^ Top
Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 7 PM	THE REFUGEE ALL STARS DIRECTOR: ZACH NILES, BANKER WHITELIN GUINEA/SIERRA LEONE THE REFUGEE ALL STARS tells the remarkable story of a group of six Sierra Leonean musicians who come together to form a band while living as refugees in the Republic of Guinea. Forced from their homes in Sierra Leone, the members of the band represent the thousands of stories that exist amongst the survivors of civil war. Following the group over the course of three years, we see the band travel amongst Guinean refugee camps and back to war-ravaged Freetown as part of the UNHCR's "go-and-see" program. Through their uplifting music and emotional stories we begin to understand the brutal realities of a war and are witness to the ability of individuals to sustain hope and create art in a landscape dominated by rage and loss. ( 80 min ) Sponsored by First United Methodist Church of Portland. ^ Top
Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 7 PM	THE CAMDEN 28 DIRECTOR: ANTHONY GIACCHINO US In August 1971, twenty-eight men and women in Camden, New Jersey, carried out a powerful act of civil disobedience in protest of the Vietnam War. Part of a nonviolent antiwar movement popularly known as the "Catholic Left," the group broke into draft board offices to destroy records that identifying men available for military service. Claiming that their actions showed their belief that killing-even in war-was morally indefensible; they hoped to call attention to war's particularly damaging effect on America's poor. Thirty-five years later, key participants openly discuss their motives, fears and planning, and the tremendous personal costs of their actions-a story of resistance, friendship, and betrayal played out against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods in recent American history. ( 82 min ) Sponsored by West Hills Friends. ^ Top
Thu, Nov 2, 2006 at 7 PM	TOTAL DENIAL DIRECTOR: MILENA KANEVA BULGARIA/ITALY TOTAL DENIAL is the inspiring story of fifteen villagers from the jungles of Burma whose quest for justice eventually leads them to bring suit in a U.S. court against oil giants UNOCAL and TOTAL for human-rights abuse. Over the course of five years five years Kaneva collected accounts from Burmese villagers of forced labor, re-location of villages, rape, and murder associated with construction of the Yadana pipeline. Her "guide" during this journey was activist Ka Hsaw Wa a member of Burma's Karen ethnic minority, who for more than a decade has gathered testimonies and other evidence on numerous cases of human rights and environmental abuse. ( 65 min ) ^ Top
Thu, Nov 2, 2006 at 7 PM	THE FOREST FOR THE TREES DIRECTOR: BERNADINE MELLIS US Mellis' film is an intimate look at an unlikely team of young activists and old civil rights workers who come together to battle the U.S. government. Filmmaker Mellis is the daughter of legendary civil rights lawyer Dennis Cunningham, who started his career representing the Black Panthers and the Weathermen. Judi Bari was a leader in Earth First. Her car was mysterious bombed in 1990, whereupon she was arrested as a terrorist-charges that were later dropped. Convinced it was a ploy by the FBI to discredit her and Earth First, Bari decided to sue. Cunningham took on Bari's case and after twelve years, Judi Bari v. the FBI finally went to court. Mellis' film offers a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary activist and a disturbingly resonant chapter in civil liberties history. "A powerful and elegant document, beautifully done."-Howard Zinn, historian. ( 53 min ) ^ Top
Thu, Nov 9, 2006 at 7 PM	DREAMING LHASA DIRECTOR: RITU SARIN, TENZING SONAM INDIA/UK Karma, a Tibetan filmmaker from New York, comes to Dharamsala-a small town in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, home to the exiled Dalai Lama and the spiritual and political focus of the Tibetan diaspora. One of Karma's interviewees is Dhondup, an enigmatic ex-monk who has recently escaped from Tibet after spending four years in prison for his anti-Chinese activities. Dhondup confides that his real reason for coming to India is to fulfill his dying mother's last wish, to deliver a gahu-a charm box that Tibetans use as a protection amulet-to a man named Loga. Unwittingly falling in love while sucked into the vortex of his quest, Karma begins a journey into Tibet's fractured past and a voyage of self-discovery. "To watch her and other characters navigate their differences, to see it all unfold in such lush settings, and to hear the haunting counterpoint of the Cowboy Junkies singing "Blue Moon" is to understand, just a little , how it might feel to be a young Tibetan now."-Toronto Film Festival. ( 91 min ) Sponsored by Mercy Corps. ^ Top