CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
THE CLOUD
THE CITY
THE CITY
ODDS AGAINST
TOMORROW
SPOTLIGHTS ON
A MASSACRE
REGRET TO INFORM
THE CHILDREN
OF CHABANNES
THE ROSE SELLER
THE TERRORIST
THE MAN WHO DROVE
WITH MANDELA
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
(NY Premiere)
Maria Fuglevaag Warsinski, Norway, 1998; 75m (video, doc)
Nanjing, My Lai, Srebrenica... History sadly repeats itself. While the International Criminal Court in the Hague proceeds at its own pace, filmmaker Maria Warsinski takes action, presenting a searing, moving visual indictment of Radovan Karadjic and General Radko Mladic, orchestrators of the destruction of Srebrenica, the sight of the worst civilian massacre in Europe since WWII. Utilizing clandestine, startling footage of the town's final days, Warsinski unflinchingly documents Western guilt and the UN's final, bloody capitulation. Powerful interviews detailing the disparate views of combatants on both sides are woven together with vivid descriptions of the impossible journeys faced by the few civilians who made it out alive.
Maria Fuglevaag Warsinski is scheduled to appear at all screenings.
Preceded by
SOLDIER'S BRIDE
(NY Premiere)
Vilka Tzouras-Bosmajian, USA, 1998; 8m (16mm, drama)
Distant sniper fire brings a woman back to the raw suffering of her recent violation.
Vilka Tzouras-Bosmajian is scheduled to appear at all screenings.
Fri June 11: 1 pm
Sat June 12: 2 pm
Mon June 14: 6 pm
Tues June 15: 1 pm
THE CLOUD
(NY Premiere)
Fernando E. Solanas, France/Argentina, 1997; 123m (35mm, drama)
Acclaimed Argentinean director of Tangos: The Exile of Gardel and South, Fernando E. Solanas brings us his first film in five years. He drops us into his vision of presentday Buenos Aires, where people walk backwards and the rain has not ceased for 1,600 days. Through the story of Max, an Argentinean theater guru and his fumbling but talented troupe, the film presents a stunning commentary on the commodification of art and the current state of Argentinean politics. Desperately trying to save their dilapidated theater from the dark forces of modernization (shopping malls and bad TV), Max and the actors try everything (including selling their souls to a TV executive) in the hope of saving the theater and their ideals for the next generation.
Preceded by
DELIVERY OF A NATION
(NY Premiere)
Momir Matovic, Montenegro, 1998; 13m (35mm, drama)
A wry, beautiful meditation on changing meaning in changing times: a red Communist star shines from the mountaintop above a village for years, until some of the townsfolk decide to put it to other uses.
Fri June 11: 3 pm
Sun June 13: 4:30 pm
*Special Screening*
EARTH
(New York Premiere)
Deepa Mehta, India, 1998, 110m (35mm, drama)
From acclaimed filmmaker Deepa Mehta, EARTH is the second film
of a trilogy on the elements.
Set in 1947, when India teeters on the brink of self-rule, Mehta
stunningly interweaves a love story against the backdrop of
societal upheaval and mass violence. Somehow, amid carnage and
terror, a love affair blossoms between Shanta, the nanny to a
wealthy, non-partisan family from Lahore, and the
peace-advocating Muslim, Hassan. The lovers encounter opposition
from all sides. Deepa Mehta seamlessly weaves the various layers
of this stirring film into a complex, organic whole.
Sat June 12: 9:30 pm
Discussion with filmmaker to follow.
THE CITY
(NY Premiere)
David Riker, USA, 1998; 88m (35mm, drama)
With stunning black and white cinematography and an intensive collaboration with the New York immigrant community over a five-year period, THE CITY weaves a rich four-part narrative tapestry of presentday immigrant life. A young laborer, scavenging for bricks, is killed when a wall collapses; two teenagers from the same hometown fall in love, then lose each other in a housing project; a homeless father tries to enroll his daughter in school; a young garment worker seeks justice in the sweat shops. Uprooted, disenfranchised, exploited and heroic, these characters uncover the tragedies and redemptions of everyday life.
David Riker is scheduled to appear at all screenings.
Preceded by
Spotlights on a Massacre:
Pavel Lounguine (3m)
Fri June 11: 6:15 pm
Sat June 12: 4 pm
Sun June 13: 9 pm
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW: Film Noir Explores Racism
(Robert Wise, 1959; 96m)
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW stars Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley as a disaffected trio who band together for a bank heist that begins to go awry when racial tensions explode. John Lewis' haunting score adds emotional resonanance to the story of three social outcasts.
Sat June 12: 6:30 pm
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The Human Rights Watch Film Festival and the Film Society present
Film / Panel Discussion:
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW
Saturday, June 12
6:30 pm screening; followed by discussion
Join us for a special screening and panel discussion of the 1959 film classic. ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW was groundbreaking for its exploration of bigotry and racism in a noir film, and was the first noir to feature a black protagonist. The panelists will discuss the film's background, its social and political implications, and the Hollywood blacklist.
A book signing for Odds Against Tomorrow: the Critical Edition with Abraham Polonsky will follow.
Panel:
Harry Belafonte,
star, producer;
Abraham Polonsky,
screenwriter;
John Lewis,
score composer;
John Schultheiss,
moderator / editor, Odds Against Tomorrow: the Critical Edition (Polonsky's screenplay),
published by California State University, Northridge 1999
Admission for the film and panel is $8.50, $5 for members. |
REGRET TO INFORM
(NY Premiere)
Barbara Sonneborn, USA, 1998; 72m (35mm, doc)
Nine years in the making, and nominated for a 1998 Academy Award, REGRET TO INFORM is filmmaking and storytelling at its finest. Filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn, a Vietnam War widow, takes us to a Vietnam we have never known. As she boards a train in Hanoi, traveling through the lush countryside to the physical site of her husband's death in the small farming town of Que Sanh, Ms. Sonneborn presents an unforgettable group of war widows, from both North and South Vietnam and the U.S. From the Vietnamese women, whose culture seeks to bury personal suffering, to the U.S. women whose culture has collectively buried this tragedy, the filmmaker manages to connect with all on the most intimate level, drawing out in singular interviews a haunting and decisive clarity that illuminates the soul of emotion, memory and loss. Stunning archival footage adds further layers to this unique perspective of a shared bond between women from opposite sides who have survived the emotional aftermath of personal loss in Vietnam.
Barbara Sonneborn and Xuan Ngoc Evans (the chief character in the film) are scheduled to appear at all screenings.
Preceded by
Spotlights on a Massacre:
Fernando Trueba (4m)
Fri June 11: 8:45 pm
Sun June 13: 7 pm
Wed June 16: 6:30 pm
THE CHILDREN OF CHABANNES
Lisa Gossels and Dean Wetherell, USA, 1999; 91m (16mm, doc)
A tale of courage, resilience and love set during WWII, when the people from Chabannes, a tiny village in unoccupied France, chose action over indifference and saved the lives of 400 Jewish children. Filmmaker Lisa Gossels returns to Chabannes with her father and uncle, two of the 400 Jewish children who were saved. Through intimate interviews with these two men and other "children" of Chabannes, the filmmakers recreate an environment that was surrounded by fear and danger, yet full of hope and compassion. Two extraordinary sisters who taught, protected and loved these children recount with self-deprecating wit and charm a remarkable effort by the citizens of Chabannes who risked their lives and livelihoods to protect these children.
Lisa Gossels and Dean Wetherell are scheduled to appear at all screenings.
Preceded by
Spotlights on a Massacre:
Volker Schlöndorff (4m)
Sun June 13: 2 pm
Mon June 14: 3:45 pm
Tues June 15: 6 pm
Thurs June 17: 6 pm
CORAJE
(NY Premiere)
Alberto Durant, Peru, 1998; 110m (35mm, drama)
A powerful portrait of María Elena Moyano, a Peruvian community leader at the forefront of the women's movement during the political turmoil that engulfed Peru in the 1980s. As the director of the Women's Federation of Villa El Salvador, in Lima's desert outskirts, María Elena Moyano was marked for murder by Shining Path for refusing to surrender the women's rights movement to its control. Durant's film shows why her murder by Shining Path in February 1992 led to a vast outpouring of protest from popular organizations and ordinary people--from Lima's slums and around the world.
Alberto Durant is scheduled to appear at 8:30 pm on Mon June 14, 3:15 pm on Tues June 15 and 3:30 pm on Wed June 16.
Preceded by
Spotlights on a Massacre:
Jaco Van Dormael (2m) and Bertrand Tavernier (4m)
Mon June 14: 1 pm and 8:30 pm
Tues June 15: 3:15 pm
Wed June 16: 3:30 pm
THE ROSE SELLER
(NY Premiere)
Victor Gaviria, Colombia, 1998; 120m (35mm, drama)
In this surreal adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fable, director Victor Gaviria uses real street urchins and a cinéma vérité style to explore the lives of young girls living on the streets of Medellin. After fleeing her shantytown home, where her mother's boyfriend hits on her and her mom beats her, Monica joins a gang of street girls and begins to sell roses in hopes of creating a better life for herself. As she confronts the brutal realities of the urban jungle and the difficult relationships formed there, Monica must arm herself with the street smarts necessary to survive. Gaviria's visceral filmmaking shapes this beautiful yet painful coming-of-age story.
Preceded by
Spotlights on a Massacre:
Mathieu Kassovitz (4m)
Tues June 15: 8:30 pm
Thurs June 17: 1 pm and 8:30 pm
Sun June 20:
4:45 pm
THE TERRORIST
(NY Premiere)
Santosh Sivan, India,1998; 95m (35mm, drama)
Hailed as one of the most beautiful films to come out of India in years, THE TERRORIST seduces the eye with luminous cinematography. Set in presentday India, the film focuses on Malli, who has lost her entire family to "the cause." Devastated and alone, she drowns herself in the rebellion, accepting the ultimate assignment: a suicide-assassination of a local politician. In the days before the mission, as Malli rediscovers love, her absolute commitment to the cause begins to fray, and she must choose between a new-found emotional life and the total commitment of extreme politics.
Mark Burton, the US representative for THE TERRORIST, is scheduled to appear at 8:45 pm on Wed June 16 and 8:45 pm on Fri June 18.
Preceded by
Spotlights on a Massacre:
Rithy Panh (5m)
Wed June 16: 1 pm and 8:45 pm
Thurs June 17: 3:45 pm
Fri June 18: 8:45 pm
A co-presentation with The New Festival
THE MAN WHO DROVE WITH MANDELA
Greta Schiller, UK/USA, 1998; 82m (35mm, doc)
The first South African film to win the coveted Documentary Teddy Prize (the only major gay/lesbian prize at an international film festival) at this year's Berlin Film Festival. In 1962, at the height of oppression in apartheid South Africa, a gay white theater director, Cecil Williams, was arrested while driving with Nelson Mandela. Filmmaker Schiller brilliantly unfolds the life of Cecil Williams, who embodied the two most powerful taboos of Apartheid South Africa: race and homosexuality. Using striking interviews with Williams' friends and comrades (some of whom never knew of his double life), intercut with home movies and newsreel footage, Schiller presents a complicated and claustrophobic South Africa. Actor Corin Redgrave, in a tour-de-force performance, helps re-create the life of this complicated man.
Greta Schiller is scheduled to appear at 4 pm on Sat June 19, 3:15 pm on Tues June 22 and 8:50 pm on Wed June 23.
Preceded by
PEOPLE LIKE US(NY Premiere)
Wendy Popadynetz, USA, 1998; 8m (16mm, doc)
Kodak Award Winner Wendy Popadynetz visually captures the effects of internalized homophobia on her own lesbian relationship.
Fri June 18: 1 pm
Sat June 19: 4 pm
Tues June 22: 3:15 pm
Wed June 23: 8:50 pm
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