Best known for DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE, a riveting investigation into the decimation of tribal culture by Western farm-fishing in Tanzania’s Lake Victoria, Sauper’s new film—winner of the Special Jury Prize for Cinematic Bravery at the Sundance Film Festival—probes the distressed state of modern Sudan. Arriving in a tiny, homemade airplane, Sauper interviews an array of exploited local villagers, brash Chinese oil workers, and ethically awry international politicians. They are all fighting for their piece of South Sudan’s recently partitioned state, which Sauper plumbs with an eye for the ironies, tragedy, and humor unending. “At the moment when the Sudan, the continent’s biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old ‘civilizing’ pathology re-emerges—that of colonialism, the clash of empires, and new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources.”—BBC. In English, Arabic and Mandarin with English subtitles. (110 min.)

Traveling five continents, Valloatto profiles a dozen men and women whose job, obligation, and clear source of joy is to distill the chaos of world politics into a few vivid pen strokes and a pithy quip. The grand tradition of political cartoonists speaking (or rather drawing) truth to power is continued by these artists, from French cartoonist Plantu’s merciless portraits of Sarkozy’s anxious inefficiency to the plump, contentedly smiling cats with which Nadia Khiari satirizes the lazy arrogance of Tunisia’s leadership. Such caricatures haven’t sat well with all their targets, of course, and many of the interviewees share tales of censorship, imprisonment, or worse. Thankfully, none of these experiences has led any of these cartoonists to despair or silence. Instead, their determination to call out corruption and hypocrisy only seems strengthened by such attacks. (106 min.)

Sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon.

Syria. The word likely resonates for many of us who are following the tragic situation there. But what if it resonates because it was your home? This is the case for Dr. Hisham Bismar, the central character of Fitzgerald’s 50 FEET FROM SYRIA. A successful hand surgeon in the United States, Hisham decides he cannot continue to watch images of wounded Syrian refugees flow across international borders without acting on his impulse to help. At the heart of the film, Hisham’s journey serves as a portal into one of today’s most brutal, dehumanizing conflicts and into the lives of remarkable people working to save lives at great personal risk. (39 min.)

VISITING ARTIST - Skye Fitzgerald will introduce the film.

FOLLOWED BY
THE WANTED 18
CANADA/PALESTINE/FRANCE 2014
DIRECTORS: AMER SHOMALI, PAUL COWAN
Through a clever mix of stop motion animation and interviews, THE WANTED 18 recreates an astonishing true story: the Israeli army’s pursuit of 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared “a threat to the national security of the state of Israel.” In response to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, people from the town of Beit Sahour decide to start their own milk co-operative. Their venture is so successful that the collective farm becomes a landmark—and the cows local celebrities—until the Israeli army takes note. Consequently, the dairy is forced to go underground, with the Israeli’s in relentless pursuit of the “Intifada milk.” Recreating the story with creative flair, Sahour and Cowan fashion an enchanting, inspirational tribute to the ingenuity and power of grassroots activism. In Arabic, English, Hebrew, and French with English subtitles. (75 mins.) Sponsored by Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights.

Three courageous women in post-2011 Egypt fight for the original goals of the Arab Spring:“Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice” for all. The battles they wage each day reflect the uncertain crossroads at which the country and its women find themselves. A formerly veiled widow provides guidance for revolutionaries 40 years her junior. A young women’s rights activist demands an end to sexual harassment. A human rights defender from a rural military family is arrested and tortured, setting off a personal quest for justice that mirrors the trajectory of Egypt’s uprisings. (76 min.)

Sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon.

A secret battle consumes a dozen American combat veterans long after their return from the front in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unable to escape the battlefield that rages in their own minds, ghosts and echoes of the war fill their lives. Threats seem to spring out from everywhere. Wives, children, and parents bear the brunt of their fractured spirits, struggling to help their loved ones regain their lives. At The Pathway Home, a first-of-its-kind PTSD therapy center, the film’s protagonists resolve to end the ongoing destruction and forge meaning from their trauma. OF MEN AND WAR explores their grueling paths to recovery as they attempt to make peace with themselves, their past, and their families. In English. (105 min.)

Polish filmmaker Hanna Polak was working for an NGO helping homeless children in Moscow when she befriended a ten-year-old girl living with her family on the Svalka, the largest garbage dump/ landfill in Europe, just a few miles from the Kremlin. Surrounded by a tall fence and guards, the area is closely monitored to keep intruders out. Within exists a lawless society—seemingly hopeless, but somehow sparked by communal solidarity and optimism for the future. Polak’s captivating, sometimes heartwarming film was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the International Documentary Film Association Festival in Amsterdam. “Eye-opening. Sequences of spectacularly dystopian-apocalyptic, third-world bleakness are leavened by moments of incongruous beauty, even grace.”—The Hollywood Reporter. In Russian with English subtitles. (98 min.)

For 25 years Brenda Myers-Powell called herself ‘Breezy’ and she dominated her world—or that’s what she thought. In reality, this world had turned her into a teenage, drug-addicted prostitute. After a violent encounter with a customer, Brenda woke up in the hospital and decided to change her life. Today, she is a beacon of hope and a pillar of strength for hundreds of women and girls as young as fourteen who want to change their own lives. With warmth and humor, DREAMCATCHER explores the cycle of neglect, violence, and exploitation that leaves uncountable girls and women feeling that prostitution is their only option to survive. By following the very charming, charismatic and truly empathic Brenda, we understand their realities from their points of view and the difference that one person can make in the lives of many. Winner of the Directing Award, World Cinema Documentary. (98 min.)

Brenda Meyers-Powell will introduce the film with producer Lisa Stevens.

Saeed “Shariff” Torres is a 63-year-old former Black Panther-turned-counterterrorism informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (T)ERROR interweaves Shariff’s fascinating journey with a penetrating look at the government’s broader counterterrorism campaign, offering a face-to-face exploration of the issues of domestic surveillance, racial profiling, entrapment, freedom of speech, and freedom of religious expression. Taut, stark, and controversial, it illuminates the fragile relationships between individuals and the state in modern America and asks, “Who is watching the watchers?” Special Jury Award US Documentary, Sundance Film Festival and Grand Jury Prize, Full Frame Film Festival. (84 min.)

The Islamic revolution of 1979 banned female singers from appearing in public in Iran. They are no longer allowed to perform solo unless to an exclusively female audience and recordings of former female icons can only be bought on the black market. But Sara Najafi is determined to refresh the cultural memory by roaming Tehran in the footsteps of famous singers of the 1920s and 1960s. She is about to revive the female voices in the present as she courageously plans an evening of Iranian and French female soloists to rebuild shattered cultural bridges—a concert that is not allowed to take place. Director Ayat Najafi follows the preparations between Tehran and Paris that are always touch-and -go. Can intercultural solidarity and the revolutionary power of music triumph? A political thriller and a musical journey, NO LAND’S SONG never loses sight of its real center—the female voice. (93 min.)