Wednesday,
March 10 – Sunday,
March 14, 2004
Selections
from Human Rights Watch Film Festival
For
eighteen years, the Human Rights Watch has presented annually
a film festival whose purpose is stated as follows: “Through
the eyes of committed and courageous filmmakers, we showcase
the heroic stories of activists and survivors from all over
the world. The works we feature help to put a human face on
threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the
power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail. We seek
to empower everyone with the knowledge that personal commitment
can make a very real difference.”
For
the second consecutive year, Film @ International House along
with the Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical
Conflict and the Greenfield Intercultural Centers at the University
of Pennsylvania, will be hosting the Philadelphia premieres
of works from this powerful Human Rights Watch program.
Wednesday,
March 10 at 8:00 PM
Life
On The Tracks
dir.
Ditsi Carolino, UK/Philippines, 2002, Beta SP, 70 mins, color,
Filipino w/ English subtitles
Filmmaker
Ditsi Carolino achieves an amazing intimacy in her cinema verite
portrait of a young Filipino couple, Eddie and Pen Renomeron,
and their five children. The family lives in a neighborhood
teeming with makeshift houses crowded dangerously close to the
railway tracks. Eddie and Pen have
serious worries, because the landlord has announced that their
"house" is to be demolished. Filmmaker Carolino exhibits
remarkable skill in capturing the seminal moments of emotion
and humor in one family's life journey.
preceded
by
Poison (Sanpeet)
dir.
Giuseppe Petitto, Enrico Pizianti and Gianluca Pulcini, Italy/Thailand,
2002, Beta SP, 27 mins, color, Issan w/ English subtitles
 Sanpeet
Petnonnoi is a small, beautiful, unblemished seven year-old
boy who lives in the poor region of northeast Thailand known
as the 'Golden Triangle.' Like many boys his age, Sanpeet earns
his family some extra money by kickboxing, encouraged as a way
of hardening young people against the temptations of opium and
heroin. But this questionable sport is further tainted by another
addiction: gambling.
Thursday,
March 11 at 8:00 PM
When
the War is Over
dir
. Francois Verster, South Africa, 2002,
Beta SP, 52 mins, color, English and Afrikaans w/ English subtitles
When
the War is Over
deals with the after-effects of the South African struggle
against apartheid, as experienced
by survivors from the Bonteheuwel Military Wing (BMW), a militant
teenage self-defense unit from the mid-1980s and a guerrilla
branch of the ANC. Focusing on two ex-activists, Gori and Marlon,
this documentary reveals the scars left among what has become
the country's lost generation.
preceded
by
Gacaca,
Living Together Again in Rwanda?
dir.
Anne Aghion, France/US, 2002, Beta SP, 55 mins, color, Kinyarwanda
w/ English subtitles
In
1994, decades of politically motivated ethnic scapegoating by
Rwanda 's Hutu-led government culminated in a wholesale slaughter
of the country's Tutsi minority. Rwanda is rebuilding its physical
and administrative infrastructure, but its most difficult task
is to foster reconciliation between the Hutu and Tutsi. Gacaca,
Living Together Again In Rwanda? follows the first steps
in one of the world's boldest experiments in reconciliation.
Friday,
March 12 at 8:00 PM
Hijos/Figli
dir.
Marco Bechis, Italy, 2001, video, 90 mins, color, Spanish and
Italian w/ English subtitles
Raul
and Victoria Ramos' tranquil, bourgeois life is suddenly turned
upside down when Rosa, a young Argentine woman, arrives at their
home in Milan and claims
that
Javier, their son, is her long-lost twin brother. Eventually,
Rosa drags Javier with her to search for the truth about what
happened to their parents during Argentina's dirty war, and
Javier faces a reality far worse than he imagined.
Saturday,
March 13 at 8:00 PM
War
Takes
dir.
Patricia Castano and Adelaida Trujillo, Colombia/UK, 2002, Beta
SP, 78 mins, color, English and Spanish w/ English subtitles
For
over four years, three Colombian filmmakers turned their cameras
on themselves, using personal stories to expose the tough reality
in their violent,
war-ravaged
country. Their film moves between
conversations in the jungle with guerrillas to elegant dinner
parties with society's elite. War Takes allows the
real lives of its heroes, forever changed by war, to break through
the stereotypes, forcing us to rethink our own conceptions,
or misconceptions, of the beliefs and values by which these
Colombians live.
Sunday,
March 14 at 7:00 PM
Power
Trip
dir.
Paul Devlin, US/Republic of Georgia, 2003, Beta SP, 83 mins,
color, English and Georgian w/ English subtitles
AES,
an American global power company, has purchased Telasi, the
ailing electricity distribution company in Tbilisi, capital
of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Under Soviet communism,
the cost for electricity was negligible.The
people of Tbilisi must face the painful reality that a significant
portion of their already meager income now will have to go to
pay their power bills, and they choose not to comply. Power
Trip takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride as AES struggles
to help build a modern nation from the rubble of the Soviet
collapse.
Tickets
are $6.00 general admission, $5.00 I House members, students
and seniors. Available one hour in advance at the International
House box office.
Links:
Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org
Solomon Asch Center http://psych.upenn.edu/sacsec/
Greenfield Intercultural Center http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~gic/
|
