nwFilmCenter

Global Concerns: Human Rights on Film

While cinema can provide entertainment and escape, for many committed filmmakers and viewers it is a vital medium of information and a powerful tool for social change. Tackling wide-ranging, thought-provoking issues, activist filmmakers help deepen our awareness of the values of dignity, equality, and justice, as they tell universal stories of human struggle and triumph. We hope that the works presented in Global Concern will broaden understanding and stimulate involvement as they reveal the hardship, courage, and commitment of those whose hearts and minds are focused on the many challenges confronting humanity. Special thanks to Andrea Holley, Human Rights Watch Film Festival and media sponsor KBOO radio.

Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 7 PM	FLOW: FOR THE LOVE OF WATER DIRECTOR: IRENA SALINA US Salina's cautionary film is an urgent and unflinching examination of the role of politics, pollution, corruption, and human rights in the often-invisible and underreported global water crisis. Roused by a thirst for survival, people around the world are fighting for their birthright. In Africa, plumbers reconnect shantytown water pipes under cover of darkness to ensure a community's survival; in California, a scientist forces awareness of shockingly toxic public water sources; in India, a “water guru” sparks new community water initiatives in hundreds of villages; in Canada, an author uncovers the corporate profiteering that drives global water business; and a CEO of a billion-dollar water company argues that water privatization is the wave of the future. While locale and issues may differ, the message is the same: water and our future as a species are quickly drying up. ( 93 min ) Sponsored by Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center with a reception at 6 PM preceding the film and a presentation and Q&A on local water issues afterwards. ^ Top
Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 7 PM	SECRECY DIRECTOR: PETER GALISON, ROBB MOSS US This new film by Galison and Moss (THE SAME RIVER TWICE) offers a compelling exploration of the invisible world of government secrecy and its tug-of-war with civil liberties. We live in a world where the production of secret knowledge—in a single recent year the U.S. classified about five times the number of pages that were added to the Library of Congress that same year—dwarfs the production of open knowledge. Gathering key experts on various sides of the issue, including former counterintelligence officers who insist that lives are saved by not making public the sources of their information, and examining key points in legal history (Abu Graib and the landmark case U.S. v. Reynolds), the filmmakers add animation, installations, and a mesmerizing score to probe a critical issue: When does security erode, rather than enhance, democracy? ( 85 min ) Sponsored by ACLU Foundation of Oregon ^ Top
Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 7 PM	CHINA'S STOLEN CHILDREN DIRECTOR: JEZZA NEUMANN UK “I think there must be something wrong with treating children as goods, but I can't figure out what it is.”—Wang Li, veteran Chinese human trafficker. In a society where the one-child policy has made it beneficial for a family's one child to be a son, child trafficking is thriving on an imbalance of supply and demand. Approximately 70,000 children are snatched from the streets of China each year, while families who break the policy by having a first child without a permit may be forced to sell their children if they cannot pay the required fee. Five-year-old Chen Jie was kidnapped from a market while his grandmother sold vegetables nearby. CHINA'S STOLEN CHILDREN follows Chen Jie's parents as they try to secure their son's safe return, risking fines from the government for doing so. ( 87 min ) ^ Top
Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 7 PM	RAPE IN THE CONGO DIRECTOR: LISA JACKSON US Jackson travels through the Democratic Republic of Congo in this sensitive yet unflinching look at the plight of women and girls caught in the country's intractable conflicts. Jackson, a survivor of rape herself, interviews activists, peacekeepers, physicians and even the indifferent rapists. But the most remarkable moments of the film come as survivors recount their personal experiences—remarkable stories of resilience, resistance, courage and grace. Winner of the documentary Special Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. ( 76 min ) Sponsored by Portland Women's Crisis Line. A Q&A led by Nancy Glass, of Great Lakes Foundation, will follow the film. ^ Top
Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 7 PM	THE DICTATOR HUNTER DIRECTOR: KLAARTJE QUIRIJNS NETHERLANDS “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 Hissène Habré. When Habré fell from power in 1990, Guengueng's quest for justice began. For the past eight years, he has been joined by Reed Brody, Human Rights Watch's “dictator hunter,” who worked on the case of Chile's former tyrant Augusto Pinochet. Habré now lives in Senegal, where Brody and Guengueng are attempting to have him brought to trial or extradited. ( 75 min ) ^ Top
Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 7 PM	THE SARI SOLDIERS DIRECTOR: JULIE BRIDGHAM US/NEPAL When Devi witnesses the torture and murder of her niece by the Royal Nepal Army, she speaks publicly about the atrocity. The army abducts her 15-year-old girl daughter in retaliation, and Devi works to uncover her daughter's fate and see justice done. Filmed over three years during the most historic and crucial moment in Nepal's modern history, THE SARI SOLDIERS follows Devi and five other brave women in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents and the King's crackdown on civil liberties. An extraordinary journey through a democratic revolution reshaping a country's future. ( 90 min ) ^ Top
Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 8 PM	THE RECRUITER DIRECTOR: EDET BELZB US Bringing new meaning to the slogan “An Army of One,” THE RECRUITER follows U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Clay Usie, one of the most successful recruiters in America, as he solicits the young men and women of Houma, Louisiana. Sergeant Usie's infectious can-do spirit draws in kids as many as four years before they are able to enlist. He becomes their mentor, role model and, in some cases, surrogate father, as he pushes his recruits to their physical limits. When four of Sergeant Usie's recruits enter boot camp, the realities of the day-to-day life of a soldier—physical exhaustion, separation from their families, and the prospect of actual combat—come all too soon. ( 86 min ) Sponsored by Vancouver Peace and Justice Fair ^ Top
Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 7 PM	TO SEE IF I'M SMILING DIRECTOR: TAMAR YAROM ISRAEL Israel is the only country where 18-year-old girls are drafted for compulsory military service. TO SEE IF I'M SMILING is a disturbing look at the actions and behavior of female soldiers in the Israeli army who, stationed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, help maintain the 40-year-old occupation of Palestinian territories. One woman recounts how she posed for a photo with a Palestinian corpse; she searches for that picture, saying, "I wanted to see if I'm smiling." At a time when women in the military are increasingly on the frontlines, this powerful film explores the ways that gender, ethics and moral responsibility intersect during war. ( 59 min ) Sponsored by the Marc Zwerling Fund for Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, Portland Chapter with a panel discussion to follow the film. ^ Top
Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 7 PM	DEADLY PLAYGROUND DIRECTOR: KATIA SALEH UK/LEBANON Thirteen-year-old Hussein of the village of Sadikkeen in south Lebanon has been watching the de-mining experts in his area clearing the estimated three million cluster bombs that the Israeli forces dropped in the war with Hezbollah in 2006. A projected one million of these remain unexploded and scattered around villages and mountains. Hundreds of children, like Hussein, are still fascinated by them. ( 23 min ) ^ Top
Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 7 PM	PROJECT KASHMIR DIRECTOR: SENAIN KHESHGI, GEETA V. PATEL US Two American friends, one Hindu and one Muslim, enter the war zone of Kashmir to investigate the 60-year rivalry between their homelands, India and Pakistan. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Ross Kauffman, the film captures the physical splendor of Kashmir, while expertly juxtaposing moving personal stories of Kashmiris with those of the American friends who strive to reconcile their ethnic and religious heritage with the violence that haunts their native lands. ( 89 min ) Sponsored by Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility ^ Top