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AFGHANISTAN YEAR 1380
(World Premiere)
Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Alberto Vendemmiati, Afghanistan/Italy, 2002,
60m; video
Following the success of Jung: In the Land of the Mujhaheddin (featured
in the 2001 HRWIFF and winner of the Nestor Almendros Award), filmmakers
Lazzaretti and Vendemmiati returned to Afghanistan a week after 9/11 to
follow the continuing challenges for surgeon Gino Strada and medical
coordinator Kate Rowlands from the NGO Emergency. Having set up a
hospital in Kabul the previous spring, they saw it shut down by the
Taliban. On October 7th, they decided to reopen the hospital with the
city under heavy attack. As they attempt to give medical and
humanitarian support to civilian war victims, they become part of the
rebuilding of Afghanistan. The filmmakers show life from the perspective
of the Afghan people during this extraordinary time, including the
reconciliation among ethnic groups, the role of international forces and
the treatment of Taliban prisoners of war in Northern Alliance jails.
preceded by
VOICE OF THE PROPHET
(N.Y. Premiere)
Bob Edwards, U.S., 2001; 8m
A startling, prophetic interview with Rick Rescorla, combat veteran of
three wars and head of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter at the
World Trade Center, who was killed in the September 11th attack. Filmed
in Rescorla's office on the 44th floor of the South Tower in 1998.
Filmmakers will be present.
Fri June 14: 2 & 6:30; Sun June 16: 1:30
Mon June 17: 4
THE CHILDREN OF RUSSIA
(U.S. Premiere)
Jaime Camino, Spain, 2001; 93m
During the Spanish Civil War, fearing for their families' lives, Spanish
Republican freedom fighters sent their children to the Soviet Union.
They believed that the children would be safe and would soon be able to
return home. No one imagined that they would live in the Soviet Union
for over 20 years, many eventually marrying Russian partners and
creating their own new families there. Jaime Camino finds these
children, who are now in their eighties, and asks them to retell their
journey to and life in the Soviet Union. Generously, with complete
candor, sometimes with sadness and often with humor, they tell us what
really happened to The Children of Russia. Filmmaker will be present.
Fri June 14: 4; Sun June 16: 3:45
Mon June 17: 9
THE NAVIGATORS
(U.S. Premiere)
Ken Loach, U.K., 2001; 96m
In THE NAVIGATORS Ken Loach, cinema's poet of the working class (and
recipient of the 2002 HRWIFF Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award),
follows the fortunes of a group of South Yorkshire rail track workers as
the privatization of British Rail takes effect. When Harpic, the depot's
boss, gives Paul, Mick and the rest of the gang their new work
regulations - the company's "Mission Statement" - "performance related
pay" and unpaid holidays seem like a joke. But before long, the choice
is very clear to the gang: take their chances with layoffs, severance
pay and life as outside contractors, or work for the new company under
the new rules....
Fri June 14: 8:45
MISSING YOUNG WOMAN
(N.Y. Premiere)
Lourdes Portillo, Mexico/U.S., 2001, 75m; video
Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, has a secret:
since 1994 over 200 young women have disappeared from its streets, most
of them being discovered weeks or months later, murdered and abused,
their bodies dumped in a desert that provides few clues. Filmmaker
Lourdes Portillo (winner of the 2002 HRWIFF Nestor Almendros Award)
investigates why this is happening, and who, or what, is to blame: an
Egyptian national, a gang called "the rebels," bus drivers,
narco-traffickers, the police, the military, U.S. nationals, or the
multinational factories where the women worked? As Portillo reveals a
legacy of disinformation, incompetence, and corruption with a forceful,
slowly building anger, Ciudad Juarez's dirty secret spirals into a truly
horrific nightmare. Everyone, and everything, is suspect. Yet while
rumors swirl and officials dally, the women continue to disappear: in 18
months of filming, Portillo states, over 50 women were killed. Powerful,
alarming, and frequently heartbreaking, this is her plea, and psalm, for
them. (Sundance Film Festival, 2002) Filmmaker will be present.
Sat June 15: 2; Sun June 16: 6:15
Mon June 17: 2
Reception to follow Sun June 16: 6:15 screening.
THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER
(U.S. Premiere) Alex Gibney and Eugene
Jarecki, U.S./U.K./Chile, 2002, 80m; video
Part contemporary investigation and part historical inquiry, THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER
follows the quest of one journalist in search of
justice. The film focuses on Christopher Hitchens' charges against Henry
Kissinger as a war criminal - allegations documented in Hitchens' book
of the same title - based on his role in countries such as Cambodia,
Chile, and Indonesia. Kissinger's story raises profound questions about
American foreign policy and highlights a new era of human rights.
Increasing evidence about one man's role in a long history of human
rights abuses leads to a critical examination of American diplomacy
through the lens of international standards of justice. Gibney and
Jarecki use extensive interviews and archival footage to remind us of
Kissinger's powerful role in global affairs, while reconstructing the
cases that Hitchens' so adamantly argues in his book. Both filmmakers
will be present.
Sat June 15: 4:30; Mon June 17: 6:30
Tue June 18: 9:15
FAMILY FUNDAMENTALS
Arthur Dong, U.S., 2002; 75m
What happens when three conservative Christian families have children
who are homosexual? Armed with a digital camera, filmmaker Arthur Dong
takes viewers into the private, and sometimes very public, lives of
families where parents actively oppose homosexuality, despite having gay
kids themselves: Susan Jester, lesbian daughter of a Pentecostal church
leader; Brett Mathews, son of a Mormon bishop; and Brian Bennett,
one-time chief of staff for former U.S. Congressman Bob Dornan, a
strident opponent of gay rights. Bennett lived with the Dornan family
for six years and was considered one of the family until Brian came out.
FAMILY FUNDAMENTALS is a deeply personal look at the cultural wars that
are being fought in families, communities, and the social/political
public spheres of our nation. (Sundance Film Festival, 2002)
Filmmaker will be present.
Co-presented by The New Festival
Sat June 15: 7
Reception to follow screening.
HIJOS
(U.S. Premiere)
Marco Bechis, Italy, 2001; 90m
From the director of Garage Olimpo (HRWIFF, 2000) comes a story of the
past catching up with the present. 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. Raul, an ex-military man, is
unruffled by the news, but his wife, Victoria, seems afraid of a
possible relationship between Rosa and her son. Javier is intrigued by
Rosa but refuses to question his family. Eventually however, 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.
Sat June 15: 9:15
WAR PHOTOGRAPHER
(N.Y. Premiere)
Christian Frei, Switzerland, 2001; 96m
"Every minute I was there, I wanted to flee. I did not want to see this.
Would I cut and run, or would I deal with the responsibility of being
there with a camera?" - James Nachtwey
In one of the world's countless crisis areas, surrounded by suffering,
death, and chaos, award-winning photographer James Nachtwey searches for
the picture he thinks he can publish. He's a shy man who is considered
one of the bravest and most important war photographers of our time, but
he hardly fits the cliché of the hard-boiled war veteran. If we believe
Hollywood pictures, war photographers are all macho men and cynical old
troupers. How can they think about "exposure time" in the very moment of
dread? Nachtwey is no rumbling swaggerer, but an unobtrusive man with
gray hair and the deliberation of a lecturer in philosophy. (2002
Academy Award nominee, documentary film)
Sun June 16: 8:30
GET A LIFE
(U.S. Premiere)
Joao Canijo, Portugal/France, 2001; 115m
Since the early 70s, more than three million Portuguese émigrés have
been living in France, most of them in the suburbs and housing projects
outside Paris. They never witnessed the 1974 revolution that transformed
Portugal from dictatorship to democracy, nor the attendant cultural
transition. Highly conservative, the community fears anything or anybody
that is different. This fiction film is one of the first to shed light
on this particular emigrant community and their fears and concerns. GET A LIFE
focuses on Cidalia and her husband, who struggle to make ends
meet; she's a cleaner in a factory, he's a bartender in a neighborhood
café. They work long hours for very little pay and hate their lives, but
hope to build a better one for their children. Cidalia and her family's
lives quickly begin to implode when their teenage son is murdered during
a stand off between Portuguese youth and the French police. Cidalia,
despite threats by her husband and her community to not make waves,
refuses to remain silent, and fights to find those responsible no matter
the cost - to herself, her family, or her community.
Tue June 18: 1; Thurs June 20: 9
THE EYE OF THE DAY
(U.S. Premiere)
Leonard Retel Helmrich, The Netherlands, 2001, 92m
In 1998 a deep political and economic crisis forced President Suharto to
resign after 32 years in power. This was the beginning of the tumultuous
period known in Indonesia as the Reformasi. With a population of 200
million, Indonesia has seen ongoing political change, accompanied by
protests, poverty and general insecurity. THE EYE OF THE DAY documents
these conflicts as they play out in the lives of sixty-year-old Rumijah,
her two sons Bakti and Dwi, and her friend Ibu Sum. In the cinéma vérité
tradition, filmmaker Helmrich captures the trials and tribulations of
everyday life in Indonesia today. While filming a demonstration in 1995,
Helmrich was arrested and jailed as a suspected spy, then declared
persona non grata. He was not able to return to Indonesia until 1997 -
that same year he began following Rumijah and her family with his
camera. Co-presented by the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
Tue June 18: 4; Wed June 19: 1:30
Sat June 22: 1:30
500 DUNAM ON THE MOON
(World Premiere)
Rachel Leah Jones, U.S./France, 2002, 48m; video
Ayn Hawd is a Palestinian village that was captured and depopulated by
Israeli forces in the 1948 war. In 1953 Marcel Janco, a Romanian painter
and a founder of the Dada movement, helped transform the village into a
Jewish artists' colony, and renamed it Ein Hod. This documentary tells
the story of the village's original inhabitants, who, after expulsion,
settled only 1.5 kilometers away in the outlying hills. This new Ayn
Hawd cannot be found on official maps, as Israeli law doesn't recognize
it, and its residents, deemed "present absentees" by the authorities, do
not receive basic services such as water, electricity or an access road.
Rachel Leah Jones' filmmaking debut is a critical look at the art of
dispossession and the creativity of the dispossessed.
preceded by
RAMLEH
(U.S. Premiere)
Michal Aviad, Israel, 2001, 58m; video
Located in the heartland of Israel, the town of Ramleh is a former
Palestinian territory that serves as a microcosm of the beliefs, biases
and conflicts of women living in the country today. The film profiles
several seemingly disparate women residing in the town - two
ultra-orthodox Jewish women who rediscover religion and support the
conservative Shas party, the third largest political party in Israel; a
single mother and recent immigrant struggling to establish herself in
her new country; and a young Muslim teacher and law student attempting
to find a sense of national identity in a predominately Jewish state.
Filmed between the general elections in 1999 and the 2001 elections,
Ramleh demonstrates the profound cultural and political divisions
barring these women from living together as a united community, and
reveals how their political landscape helped sow the seeds of the
intifada in 2000.
Tue June 18: 6:15; Wed June 19: 8:45
Filmmakers will be present.
IN THE SHADOWS OF THE CITY
Jean Khalil Chamoun, France/Lebanon, 2000; 100m
Jean Khalil Chamoun's first dramatic feature revisits the decade and a
half of civil war in Lebanon that ended in 1990. Khalil Chamoun brings
us into the complexities of Lebanon's civil war, through the lives of
Rami, a twelve-year-old boy on the cusp of adulthood, and his family. In
hopes of escaping the civil war between Christian and Muslims escalating
in the countryside, Rami's family moves to Beirut. However, the war
follows them to the city, and there Rami and his family struggle with
unemployment, death and the disappearance of loved ones. Filmmaker will
be present. Co-presented by Alwan.
Wed June 19: 4; Sat June 22: 9
JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE
(U.S. Premiere)
Jon Osman and Jonathan Stack, U.S., 2001, 86m; video
Academy Award nominee Jonathan Stack (Angola Prison Rodeo; The Farm)
teams up with filmmaker Jon Osman to create this documentary based on
the brutal murder of cousins Antonio Rosario and Hilton Vega, two Puerto
Rican young men who were shot by two NYPD detectives in the Bronx in
early 1995. One detective was Mayor Giuliani's former bodyguard.
Carefully researching the events and questioning witnesses and
investigators, the film builds a steady, powerful argument for a
cover-up at the highest levels. The story follows Margarita Rosario as
she is transformed from a mourning mother and aunt to a powerful
community activist, questioning the police officers' actions. "I will
never stop fighting until I see these two detectives behind bars," she
says. "I fight not only for my son, but for all our sons." Filmmakers
will be present.
Wed June 19: 6:15; Thurs June 20: 4
Sat June 22: 4
GOOD HUSBAND, DEAR SON
(U.S. Premiere)
Heddy Honigmann, The Netherlands, 2001, 50m; video
In the hills near Sarajevo is the village of Ahatovici, which fell into
Serbian hands during the war in former Yugoslavia. Almost all the men
were brutally murdered and the village was burnt to the ground.
Filmmaker Honigmann, known for her strong and thoughtful documentaries,
commemorates these men through their wives, mothers and daughters, and
through the few remaining photographs and personal belongings. A memory
is attached to each object, but it takes the way a man's wife speaks of
him and holds his picture close to let us know exactly who he was. In
exposing the layers of grief, this intimate documentary tells in fine
detail the story of a forgotten genocide.
preceded by
A CONVERSATION WITH HARIS
(N.Y. Premiere)
Shelia M. Sofian, U.S., 2001; 6m
An eleven-year-old Bosnian immigrant to the U.S. recounts his
experiences in the Bosnian war and the tragedy it inflicted on his
family in this exquisitely painted animation.
and
RAVENS
(U.S. Premiere)
Zelimir Gvardiol, Yugoslavia, 2001; 15m
RAVENS tells the story of Dusan Vukovic, who returned the bravery medal
awarded after his only son died in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during
Slobodan Milosevic's dictatorship.
Thurs June 20: 2; Fri June 21: 2 & 6:30
EVC CELEBRATES A DECADE OF YO-TV: YOUTH-PRODUCED DOCUMENTARIES FROM THE EDUCATIONAL VIDEO CENTER
Join us for an evening of award-winning videos from 10 years of Youth
Organizers Television (YO-TV). Selections include segments from YO-TV
works exploring topics such as inequities in New York City's public
schools, the controversial 1993 Biennial art exhibition at the Whitney
Museum, the International Criminal Court, and the treatment of youth in
the criminal justice system.
EVC is an internationally renowned, community-based media center that
has been teaching documentary production and media analysis to New York
City teenagers and educators since 1984. YO-TV is the advanced workshop
for high school graduates at EVC that has produced work for Bill Moyers,
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, and various New York
City museums.
YO-TV producers and EVC colleagues will be present.
Thurs June 20: 6:30
Reception to follow.
SEVEN DAYS N TEHRAN / LES BEAUX LENDEMAINS DE TEHERAN
(U.S. Premiere)
Reza Khatibi, France/Iran, 2002; 100m
After the re-election of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami a French TV
crew comes to Tehran to follow the attempts to introduce democracy
there. For Reza, the Iranian filmmaker who has been in exile, this is an
opportunity to change the West's view of his country. For the French
producer, the most important thing is an accurate account of the
post-Islamic revolutionary period. In the meantime, they look for
Esfandiar, a former student at the Sorbonne, who returned home to teach
at Tehran University. He is also a cabaret singer and theater producer
who dreams of the changes he will probably never see because he is dying
of cancer. During these seven days, the reality the crew has to face up
to goes far beyond anything they had imagined.
Filmmaker will be present.
Fri June 21: 4; Sun June 23: 7:30
Mon June 24: 8:30
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SECRET BALLOT
STEALING THE FIRE
PRESUMED GUILTY
FRONTIER OF DREAMS AND FEARS
AUGUST
(U.S. Premiere)
CITIZEN BISHARA
SKINS(N.Y. Premiere) CLOSING NIGHT