|
2009 Films
|
|
Sanjeev Chatterjee - USA - 2007 - 68 min
We look around us and see water everywhere. The earth is a planet lined with vast arterial networks of streams, rivers and oceans; a sky that opens up and unleashes rain and snow; pipes and taps that have long serviced washing machines, icemakers, swimming pools and spas. So how can we suddenly be facing a threatening global water crisis?
Now, at a time when more than half of the world is imperiled by imminent water shortages, One Water celebrates the poignant emotional life of water and the myriad ways it washes through the global human experience – in moments of joy, struggle, labor, conflict and hope. A voyage through five years, 14 countries and a multitude of uncounted miles, the film portrays a direct and personal experience of water’s beauty, utility and wonder – and also raises the provocative and important question: What are we doing now to ensure the world’s children will have access to all that this universal source of life has to offer?
*A panel of experts will speak following the screening, to include Kirk Anderson of Water 1st, with Joe Cook, Jonathon Mayer, and Susan Bolton of the University of Washington.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 7:00 pm
|
 |
|
Marc Evans - UK - 2008 - 96 min
In Prison My Whole Life follows 25 year old William Francome’s investigation into the arrest of Mumia Abu Jamal, famed death-row prisoner and award-winning Black Panther journalist. Francome, born on the day of Mumia’s 1981 arrest, engages intellectuals, writers and musicians in an effort to expose the truth about justice in America for black activists in general and Mumia in particular.
The energetic, poetic and deeply moving interviews of Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Mos Def, Snoop Dogg and Steve Earle raise questions about the repercussions and damage of racial injustice not only to those targeted, but to the American culture itself. And most pointedly the film asks, what does it signify that Americans are still determined to put to death potential leaders and powerful political voices of the African-American culture?
*A panel of very special guests to include Robert Hillary King of the
Angola 3, and Derrel Myers, co-founder of the Mobilization to Free
Mumia Abu-Jamal, will speak at our Opening Night premiere.
Thursday, February 5, 2009 7:00 pm
|
 |
|
Steve James and Peter Gilbert - USA - 2008 - 85 min
At the Death House Door is a personal and intimate look at the death penalty in the state of Texas through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous "Walls" prison unit in Huntsville. During Pickett's remarkable career journey, he presided over 95 executions, including the world’s first lethal injection. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of his trip to the death chamber.The film also focuses on the story of Carlos De Luna, a convict Pickett counseled and whose execution troubled Pickett more than any other. He firmly believed De Luna was innocent, and the film tracks the investigative efforts of a team of Chicago Tribune reporters who have turned up evidence that strongly suggests he was.
From award-winning directors Steve James ("Hoop Dreams") and Peter Gilbert ("Vietnam: Long Time Coming").
*President of the WA Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Professor of Law, Jeff Ellis, will speak following the screening.
Friday, February 6, 2009 7:00 pm
|
|
|
Eric Bergkraut - Switzerland - 2008 - 83 min
On October 7, 2006, Vladimir Putin’s 54th birthday, the journalist Anna Politkovskaja is shot in the lift of her Moscow home. Anna’s death is a personal tragedy: she has just learnt that she is to become a grandmother. But the murder is also a political act, for Politkovskaja was the President’s fiercest critic. Why was she shot in cold blood, this elegant woman who was always on the side of the weak and those who had no rights? Was it because of the stance she took against the war in Chechnya – a war that was virtually ignored in the world at large and yet became a turning point in Anna’s life?
*UW Professor and Director of the Human Rights Education and Research Network, Bruce Kochis, will speak following the screening.
Friday, February 6, 2009 9:00 pm
|
|
|
Michelle Mason - Canada - 2006 - 56 min
Breaking Ranks is a moving documentary that examines the current phenomena of US soldiers seeking refuge in Canada as part of their resistance to the war effort in Iraq. With intimate access to four American military deserters, their lawyer and families, this film documents their experiences as they try to exercise their consciences amidst profound emotional, ethical and international consequences. If deported, they face the venom of mainstream American opinion and one to five years in prison. If Canada instead follows the legacy established by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau during the Vietnam War, when Canada welcomed tens of thousands of war resisters, there may well be an unprecedented crisis in US-Canadian relations.
Filmed over the course of the refugee process, this provocative film explores the meaning of duty through the powerful testimonies of these young soldiers. In so doing, Breaking Ranks poses challenging political, cultural and historical questions for Canadians and the world.
*Director Michelle Mason will speak following the screening.
Saturday, February 7, 2009 11:30 am
|
 |
|
Makoto Sasa - USA/Japan - 2008 - 75 min
Arrested by the Chinese Communist Army in 1959, Palden Gyatso spent 33 years in prisons and labor camps for the "crime" of peaceful demonstration. Tortured, starved and sentenced to hard labor, he watched his nation and culture destroyed, his teachers, friends and family displaced, jailed or killed. The film covers Palden's birth in 1933, and follows him through the Orwellian nightmare that began with the Chinese invasion. It explores the escalating cycle of interrogation and physical violation that ended decades later with Palden's escape from Tibet, and a cathartic meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India.
Fire Under the Snow reveals the contours of an inspirational story: It is the survival of a mind and soul under unthinkable duress.
*Local Tibet activists, Thinley Gyatso and Rigdzin Tingkye, will speak following the screening.
Saturday, February 7, 2009 1:00 pm
|
 |
|
Tamar Yarom - Israel - 2007 - 59 min
Israel is the only country in the world where 18-year-old girls are drafted for compulsory military service. In this award-winning documentary, the frank testimonials of six female Israeli soldiers stationed in Gaza and the West Bank pack a powerful emotional punch. The young women revisit their tours of duty in the occupied territories with surprising honesty and strip bare stereotypes of gender differences in the military. The former soldiers share shocking moments of negligence, flippancy, immaturity and power-tripping as they describe atrocities they witnessed and participated in.
At a time when women in the military are increasingly on the frontlines, and the actions of soldiers all over the world are being questioned, this powerful film explores the ways that gender, ethics and moral responsibility intersect during war.
*UW student and faculty members of the Masters of Cultural Studies program will speak following the screening.
Saturday, February 7, 2009 3:00 pm
|
|
|
Kiya Bodding and Moni T. Law - USA - 2008 - 50 min
The effects of the Iraq war on women are grossly overlooked. The public needs to know that, in addition to the already astounding $12 billion in American dollars spent each month in almost seven years of engagement, women are paying an extraordinary price. One out of seven US troops are women who not only serve in unprecedented numbers, but deal too often with the violence of sexual assault on top of the horrors of combat. Iraqi women, who are in the line of fire with their families, also face the violence of personal attacks. Female Faces of War explores the impact of the Iraq war through the personal stories of individual women who all have important stories to share.
Female Faces of War is a Shunpike Partner Artist.
*Filmmakers Kiya Bodding and Moni T. Law will speak following the screening.
Saturday, February 7, 2009 5:00 pm
|
|
|
Julie Bridgham - USA/Nepal - 2008 - 90 min
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 shaping the protests to reclaim democracy. The Sari Soldiers intimately delves into the extraordinary journey of these women on opposing sides of the conflict, through the democratic revolution that reshapes the country's future.
*Director Julie Bridgham will speak following the screening.
Saturday, February 7, 2009 7:00 pm
|
|
|
Mohammed Naqvi - Pakistan/USA - 2006 - 110 min
Shame is the story of a poor and illiterate woman, Mukhtaran Mai, who was raised in a remote village in Pakistan. Her tragedy begins in 2002, when the tribal council sanctions a punishment against her for a crime of which her brother was accused - interest in a girl from a higher social class. She is judged guilty only because of her membership in the same family. Mukhtaran is paraded naked in public after she is gang-raped in retribution. Her family and other villagers expect her to commit suicide soon after. Instead of following the tragic path of other women, Mukhtaran decides to seek justice without the help of her family or the villagers.
Shame is a critically important and powerful film that challenges its viewers with the harsh realities that face poor, rural women in Pakistan and other parts of the world.
*Asst. Producer Sabina Ansari, and Nitika Raj from Chaya, will speak following the screening.
Saturday, February 7, 2009 9:00 pm
|
|
|
Daniel Grandclément - France - 2008 - 50 min
It is a dangerous crossing... yet, every day, thousands of Somali and Ethiopian migrants risk their lives in the Gulf of Aden, as they flee misery and war to seek refuge on the coast of Yemen. Martyred by smugglers, crammed into boats, they embark on a voyage into hell that could take several days, and often results in death. In this exceptional documentary, Daniel Grandclément follows the route of these desperate migrants, bearing witness to their horrific journey.
*UW student and faculty members of the Masters of Cultural Studies program will speak following the screening.
Sunday, February 8, 2009 11:30 am
|
|
|
Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young - USA - 2008 - 37 min
In the 1990s, Argentina embraced economic globalization, but instead of making everyone rich, the economy collapsed. Businesses failed, unemployment soared, the government was paralyzed - until ordinary people from all walks of life began to push their country in a new direction. Several years later, what has become of this outpouring of grass-roots energy? Have there been fundamental changes, or is it once again back to business as usual?
From the producers of Argentina: Hope in Hard Times, comes a new film that revisits worker-run factories, talking with journalists, economists, and unemployed workers to provide an inside look at a country in the midst of transformation. Argentina: Turning Around provides an intimate view of the new models of work, politics and community development that are now underway in Argentina, as people reinvent their society to offer a better life for all.
*Special guests Mirta Wymersberg and Peter Costantini will speak following the screening.
Sunday, February 8, 2009 1:00 pm
*double feature with Voice of a Mountain!
|
 |
|
Michael Field and Tyler Rumph - USA - 2008 - 55 min
Voice of a Mountain documents the lives of rural Guatemalan coffee farmers who took up arms against their government in a civil war that lasted 36 years. The film explores Guatemala's dark history from the perspective of those who saw armed revolution as their only hope for change in a poverty-ridden nation under years of military dictatorship. Ex-combatants talk about the bleak reality of the country that led to their involvement in the war, and the response of genocide from the Guatemalan government against its people. The documentary gives insight into their motives for joining an armed conflict as interviews reveal personal accounts of struggle, hope, tragedy, and the fruits of their resistance.
*Special guests Mirta Wymersberg and Peter Costantini will speak following the screening.
Sunday, February 8, 2009 1:00 pm
*double feature with Argentina:Turning Around!
|
|
|
Daniel Junge and Patti Bonnet - USA - 2008 - 27 min
Coming home is an emotional journey for everyone. But for Lado Jurkin and his fellow Sudanese refugees, it’s the journey of their lives. With the signing of peace accords between the North and South Sudanese governments in 2005, now is the time for the country’s first peace in two decades, and its first real chance at building a future. For Lado, Mabi and Deng, who haven’t seen their villages since they were 8 years old, now is the time to reunite with long lost family and to know the country they left behind. For their adoptive American mother, a woman they call “Momma Jean”, now is the time to see Africa for the first time, and to see how she can help. Now is the time to Come Back to Sudan.
*Social Justice activist and co-founder of the Southern Sudanese Women's Assoc., Agnes Oswaha, will speak following the screening.
Sunday, February 8, 2009 3:15 pm
*double feature with As We Forgive!
|
|
|
Laura Waters Hinson - USA - 2008 - 53 min
Could you forgive a person who murdered your family? This is the question faced by the subjects of As We Forgive, a documentary about Rosaria and Chantal—two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. The subjects of As We Forgive speak for a nation still wracked by the grief of a genocide that killed one in eight Rwandans in 1994. Overwhelmed by an enormous backlog of court cases, the government has returned over 50,000 thousand genocide perpetrators back to the very communities they helped to destroy.
Without the hope of full justice, Rwanda has turned to a new solution: Reconciliation. But can it be done? Can survivors truly forgive the killers who destroyed their families? Can the government expect this from its people? And can the church, which failed at moral leadership during the genocide, fit into the process of reconciliation today? In As We Forgive, director Laura Waters Hinson and narrator Mia Farrow explore these topics through the lives of four neighbors once caught in opposite tides of a genocidal bloodbath, and their extraordinary journey from death to life through forgiveness.
Sunday, February 8, 2009 3:15 pm
*double feature with Come Back To Sudan!
|
|
|
Paul Freedman - USA - 2008 - 93 min
Offered exclusive and unparalleled access to the situation on the
ground inside Darfur, director Paul Freedman joins a contingent of
African Union peacekeeping forces while a tragic and disturbing
chapter in human history unfolds. John Prendergast, Samantha Power,
and New York Times columnist Nick Kristof lead the viewer through
burgeoning refugee camps along the Chad-Sudan border, past mass
graves, and into offices of the United States Senate to plead on
behalf of the innocents of Darfur. Executive produced and narrated by
George Clooney, and featuring a special appearance by Barack Obama,
Sand and Sorrow journeys into the heart of the crisis in Darfur.
*Director Paul Freedman and President of the Darfur People Assoc. of New York, Bushara Dosa, will speak following the screening.
Sunday, February 8, 2009 7:00 pm
|
|
|
Gina Reticker - USA - 2008 - 72 min
Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the
courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war
and bring peace to their shattered country. Thousands of women -
ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian
and Muslim - came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent
protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white
T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a
resolution to the country's civil war. Their actions were a critical
element in bringing about a agreement during the stalled peace talks.
A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to
Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia.
Inspiring, uplifting, and most of all motivating, it is a compelling
testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 7:00pm
*This is a special engagement. The SHRFF festival pass will not be valid for this screening. Tickets may be purchased at the event box office.
|
|
|
|
