Human Rights Art Festival
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     Silver Spring, Maryland, April 23-25, 2010
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Friday, April 23

8 pm The Traveller
This film presentation will explore “the Traveller,” or the one who looks for inner truth through the essentials of Raja Yoga.
(120 minutes, including discussion) (Meditation Museum)

Saturday, April 24

10:30 Crossing Borders
A screening of two short documentaries Gandhi Brigade’s youth peer educators made in El Salvador (2009) in their Crossing Borders youth media exchange project. The screening will be followed by a panel of Gandhi Brigade youth, and then a skype conversation with the Salvadoran youth producers. Gandhi Brigade (120 minutes) Montgomery College PAC 201

Noon: World Vote Now (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIER)
Explores at the possibility of building the first global democratic system so that every man and every woman can have an equal vote and decide on the biggest issues facing humanity together. The film takes the stance that a global democracy would guarantee and strengthen human rights around the planet.
Joel Marsden (52 minutes) City Place Theater II

1 Five Mondays
Theaters Against War will screen their film "Five Mondays," about a series of vigils they have undertaken to expose the current effects of the “war on terror” in eroding human rights and civil liberties here in the US. This will be followed by a discussion. Theaters Against the War
(60 minutes) Montgomery College PAC 201

1 Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet
His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was only six. But sheltered by a powerful uncle, he made a good start in life, established himself in a profitable business and married well. And then, at the age of 40, he was transformed. A man who could not read or write, he announced that he was the prophet of God. His name was Muhammad, and in the next 23 years he would bring peace to the warring pagan tribes of Arabia and establish the new religion of Islam, which today has 1.2 billion followers. Unity Productions Foundation
(90 minutes, including discussion.) Montgomery College PAC 202

1:15: Sour Milk and Honey
Sour Milk and Honey follows a young man of both Jewish and Muslim descent to the Middle East on a quest to find out what lies behind the headlines and buzzwords of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As he wanders through Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, we see the lives and hear the stories of men, women, students, settlers, activists, soldiers, militants, and others.
(52 minutes plus discussion) City Place Theater II

1:30 The Return of Navajo Boy
An official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and PBS, The Return of Navajo Boy introduces audiences to Native American culture, environmental racism and one Navajo grandmother's incredible struggle for justice. 

The Return of Navajo Boy is an internationally acclaimed film that and triggers an unfolding federal investigation into uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation. Groundswell Educational Films (70 minutes) City Place Theater I

2:30 Encounter Point
A feature documentary film that follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict. Just Vision (90 minutes) City Place Theater II

3:15 Sterile Dreams
This documentary film features Elena, her neighbor, cousin and friend as they cope with their forced sterilization. Their fate mirrors more than 80 other illegally sterilized minority Roma (Gypsy) women, whose cases were substantiated by the Czech Ombudsman, and countless others in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.
Jehan Harney (50 minutes) City Place Theater I

4:30: Race to Execution
Explores the disturbing link between race and the death penalty in America. Following the stories of two Death Row inmates, the film reveals how race infects our capital punishment system. Written by Chris Intagliata and Directed and Co-Produced by Rachel Lyon. Lioness Media Arts
(55 minutes) City Place Theater I

4:30 Taylor Chain
Part I depicts the gritty realities of a seven-week workers’ strike at a small Indiana chain manufacturing plant. In Part II, the filmmakers return to the Taylor Chain plant ten years later, in the middle of a recession, to capture the collective bargaining process. Amid anti-union legislation, global competition, and increasing pressure on both sides, labor and management must work together – against great odds – to save the plant. Kartemquin Films
(63 minutes) City Place Theater II

4:30 Cities of Light
Over a thousand years ago, the sun-washed land of southern Spain was home to Jews, Christians and Muslims, living together and flourishing. Their culture and beliefs intertwined, and the knowledge of the ancients was gathered and reborn. Here were the very seeds of the Renaissance. Unity Productions Foundation
(90 minutes including discussion) Montgomery College PAC 201

5 Exiled in the Promised Land
This short documentary film is based on footage and photos of a lecture delivered by Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou in Beirut, Lebanon. Reverend Sekou passionately argues that, “one of the greatest sins of hegemony is the denial of home.” He links the struggles of citizenz in New Orleans to those in the Middle East. Through the lens of the African American political and existential struggle in the midst of the American empire, the film discerns the similar crisis made manifest in the war on the people of Iraq.  The film presents stark images from Shatila, the Palestinian refugee camp in West Beirut.
Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou (60 minutes, including discussion) Abyssinia

5:45 Prisoner of Her Past
Sixty years ago, Sonia Reich was hunted by the Nazis in Poland. Today, she is living those horrible times all over again. Her son, Chicago Tribune reporter Howard Reich, sought to find out why, and his search into her past is chronicled in this special report. Filmmaker Jerry Blumenthal will be onsite for a discussion after the screening. Kartemquin Films
(100 minutes, including discussion) City Place Theater II

6 Crucible of War
Screening of the Documentary, Crucible of War, followed by discussion and Q&A with filmmaker Leon Gerskovic.  What happens to ordinary people after the war is over, when the news cameras have stopped and aid workers have moved on to new hot spots? This is what Leon Gerskovic was determined to find out when he returned to his homeland, what was once Yugoslavia. His journey took him and his team to Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia.
(90 minutes, including discussion) Docs-in-Progress

7 Out of Cordoba: Averroes and Maimonides in Their Time and Ours
(NORTH AMERICAN PREMIER – co-sponsored by the Jewish Islamic Dialogue Society of Washington, D.C.) A feature-length documentary about Jews and Muslims struggling for social justice and confronting the rise of religious extremism in both of their communities. These contemporary people of faith — in part inspired by two medieval “wise men” from Cordoba, Spain, a Muslim and a Jew — are promoting the values of democracy and tolerance on the frontlines of the often-violent clashes that have come to define our new century. Jacob Bender (80 minutes) City Place Theater I

7:30 The Price of Paradise
An Emmy award-winning documentary that takes a revealing look at the plight of Iraqi citizens: refugees, professional athletes and police cadets. It explores their struggle to survive, hopes and dreams for their families and their country.
Jeffrey Kramer (75 minutes, including discussion) City Place Theater II

8:30 Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes
This film captures the historic artistic journey of Leon Golub, shared with his wife and studio partner of 50 years, the prominent anti-war and feminist artist, Nancy Spero. We see them as each other's most valued critic and most ardent supporter. Golub continued in his later paintings to "report" on what's going on in the world, but he does it with the kind of dissonances and discontinuities that led Theodor Adorno in his essay on Beethoven to proclaim, "In the history of art, late works are the catastrophes." Golub died in 2004.
Kartemquin Films (82 minutes) OUTSIDE ON ELLSWORTH PLAZA

Sunday, April 25

11 Media 4 Green
Presents a forum and screening on the role of film in social movements and developments. The film tells the story of several people who are change-makers in Ethiopia: a farmer's son who organized small coffee farmers; an expatriate couple who sold their multi-million dollar companies in the US and returned home to open a school and hospital; a youth leader who is a recipient of the UNESCO environmental award for organizing street kids; the founder of a world-class cultural resort; and several footages from green and natural building and constructions in Maryland. 
Media 4 Green (60 minutes including discussion) City Place Theater II

11:30 Artists in Resistance
Screening of Artists in Resistance - an original piece documenting the art behind the Honduran Resistance movement ignited by the Coup d'etat of June 28, 2009 and a discussion about the Feminist Movement in Honduras. 
Tamar Sharabi (60 minutes) Mandalay

11:45 Lucky Days
Virginia (Angelica Torn) embarks on a quest for freedom during the last explosive weekend of Coney Island's renowned amusement park. After the reappearance of her childhood sweetheart, Virginia discovers hidden truths about her boyfriend and her neighborhood. LUCKY DAYS is the last movie filmed in the Coney Island Amusement Park and offers a final glimpse into the faded glory of this historical destination that has been lost forever. Angelica Torn
(100 minutes) City Place Theater I

noon JumpStart Media
With Dr. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory as an educational basis, JumpStart Media Project teaches life skills to at-risk youth through media arts education.  The assignment for each JMP group is to make a film on video that reflects their lives.  This is the first of those films. Michael Mack (75 minutes including discussion) City Place Theater II

1:30 Operation Lysistrata
Documents the theatrical protest that took place in March of 2003: The Lysistrata Project, the simultaneous readings of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata (in which the women of Athens organize a sex strike to stop a war) as a protest of the then-approaching war in Iraq. Lysistrata was performed over 1,000 times in all 50 states and 59 countries around the world on one single extraordinary day. Aquapio Films (85 minutes) City Place Theater II

1:45 Blueprint for Accountability: Working the Dark Side
This film documents the first performance of this piece, which was hosted by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. It represents a gripping look into accountability and the U.S. policy of torture in the “War on Terror.” In a multi-media production fusing live theater and journalism, Maddow was joined by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Ron Suskind, Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq during 2003-2004.  After the film, Dr. Jeanne Theoharis will moderate a discussion.
Culture Project (90 minutes including discussion) City Place Theater I

2 My Mother’s Journey
Screening of the Documentary, My Mother’s Journey, followed by discussion and Q&A with filmmakers Sam and Kirsten Hampton.  My Mother’s Journey is the story of the late Liz Hampton who traveled from the south to become a civic leader in Rochester New York; her story is a symbol of the struggle of Blacks for social justice in the 1960s.
(90 minutes including discussion) Docs-in-Progress

3 A Blessing to One Another
In the course of his papacy, John Paul II shattered the chain of 2,000 years of painful history between Catholics and Jews. He was the first Pope ever to enter a synagogue, officially visit and recognize the State of Israel, and formally engage in an act of repentance for the Catholic Church’s historical treatment of Jews. Shtetl Foundation, NY (30 minutes) City Place Theater II

3:30 Drum Major
A short documentary film that explores Martin Luther King’s call for “a radical revolution of values” in his last and most challenging year: April 4, 1967 to April 4, 1968. Palatine Hill Productions
(60 minutes including discussion) City Place Theater I

3:45 Labor Stories
Following the epic struggles of three separate unions, this anthology includes three of Kartemquin’s classic labor films from 1975. An important cultural artifact, it continues to move and inform while carrying on the time-honored tradition of using the camera as a force for social change.
Kartemquin Films (55 minutes) City Place Theater II

4 Robben Island Singers
These three ordinary yet remarkable South Africans open a window into the universal struggle to achieve peace. They dared to fight inequality and apartheid in their South African townships. For that, they were branded terrorists and were imprisoned with Nelson Mandela in the notorious Robben Island Prison. But while they were incarcerated in that brutal environment, they somehow learned to forgive their captors, and uplift one another through song. This movie traces their story. Groundswell Educational Films
(120 minutes, including discussion) Montgomery College PAC 201

4 Sour Milk and Honey
Sour Milk and Honey follows a young man of both Jewish and Muslim descent to the Middle East on a quest to find out what lies behind the headlines and buzzwords of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As he wanders through Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, we see the lives and hear the stories of men, women, students, settlers, activists, soldiers, militants, and others. Tarek Maassarani
(52 minutes plus discussion) Abyssinia

4:30 Media 4 Green
Presents a forum and screening on the role of film in social movements and developments. The film tells the story of several people who are change-makers in Ethiopia: a farmer's son who organized small coffee farmers; an expatriate couple who sold their multi-million dollar companies in the US and returned home to open a school and hospital; a youth leader who is a recipient of the UNESCO environmental award for organizing street kids; the founder of a world-class cultural resort; and several footages from green and natural building and constructions in Maryland. 
Media 4 Green (90 minutes including reception) Addis Ababa

4:45 Women in Refuge: Stories from a Border
A documentary on women that have fled Colombia's internal conflict and have made their way to Venezuela. Crossing into Dominica: A documentary on migrant women in the Dominican Republic whose children are currently stateless. Both by Irene Herrera, Deborah Acosta and Alessandra Villaamil
(75 minutes; two films, including discussion) City Place Theater II

5 Exiled in the Promised Land
This short documentary film is based on footage and photos a lecture delivered by Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou in Beirut, Lebanon. Reverend Sekou passionately argues that "one of the greatest sins of hegemony is the denial of home". He links the struggles of folks in New Orleans folks to those in the Middle East. Through the lens of the African American political and existential struggle in the midst of the American empire, the film discerns the similar crisis made manifest in the war on the people of Iraq.  The film presents stark images from Shatila, the Palestinian refugee camp in West Beirut. Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou (60 minutes including discussion)
Montgomery College Cafritz 101

 




 

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