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The Center Annouces the 6th Annual Human Rights Film Series!

Four poignant films will be screened over the course of a month
will demonstrat how our human rights film series showcases films that show how film and video can make a difference for human rights. Discussions with expert speakers follow all screenings

Human Rights Film 2005 Series: October 5-November 3

Free screenings and discussion 6:00 p.m. each Wednesday, Washington College of Law room 603, and Thursday at the Mary Graydon Center in Wechsler Theatre in Washington DC.
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October 5 and 6
State of Fear
By Paco de Onís, Pam Yates and Peter Kinoy (Photo by Vera Lentz)
Local premiere! Filmmakers present!
A gripping and beautifully-crafted story of the creation of President Alberto Fujimori's terror state in Peru, with lessons for a world grappling with the problem of stability in the face of terror. The feature-length documentary, by the celebrated filmmakers of When the Mountains Tremble, shows how the Shining Path guerrilla movement led to military occupation and government corruption in the name of protection from terrorists. Filmmakers Paco de Onís and Peter Kinoy will be present to discuss the film!

October 19 and 20
Videoletters
By Katarina Rejger and Eric van den Broek
Whether it's a young man looking for his lost childhood friend or a mother looking for her children's graves, these short TV programs show the reconciling power of storytelling across borders. Dutch filmmakers worked in the Balkans with former friends and neighbors, who were separated as a result of war. Videoletters reunited them, and dramatically-charged half-hour TV shows told the told the world about them. The TV series has created waves in the ex-Yugoslavia, where five national TV stations unprecedentedly agreed to air them simultaneously and where talk shows, internet kiosks and a bus tour of rural areas extended the storytelling. Join the discussion afterwards with Professor Julie Mertus, an expert on human rights and the Balkans, and possibly with a member of the Videoletters team!

October 26 and 27
Sometimes in April
Written and directed by Raoul Peck
In April, 1994 in Rwanda, nearly one million people were massacred over one hundred days by Hutu nationalists trying to exert power over their countrymen, the Tutsis. The fiction film, Sometimes in April, focuses on the consequences of this atrocity on two Hutu Brothers, one reluctantly in the military, and the other a nationalist radio personality. By jumping back and forth between the present and 1994, this chilling drama explores both the extent of human brutality, and courage under overwhelming pressure, as well as the West’s lack of action while the genocide was taking place.

November 2 and 3
Witness’ collection Human Rights in Burma and the book launch of Video For Change
Meet WITNESS representatives!
WITNESS is the pioneering nonprofit that uses video for social change, links film and video to the Internet, and that has changed how human rights activists think about film and video! This collection of short videos showcases the best of WITNESS’s latest strategies, and shows what’s happening under Than Shwe and the SPDC’s brutal military dictatorship in Burma:

Entrenched Abuse: Forced Labor in Burma
No Place to Go: Internally Displaced People in Burma
Always on the Run: Internally Displaced People in Karen State
Voices from the Salween Damn
From Prison to Frontline: Portering for SPDC Troops

And, on November 3rd:
After the screening, we’ll celebrate the publishing of Video for Change, WITNESS’s book for activists on making video for human rights and social justice. WITNESS has distilled their hard-won knowledge in a handbook designed for advocates who are looking for the most effective way to make their own media. This handbook tells you everything from how to stay safe in dangerous situations to how to distribute your video to audiences who can act. Read more>>

Sam Gregory, from WITNESS and the editor of Video For Change, will be present for the reception and celebration. A free copy of the book will be raffled at the event!

The Human Rights Film Series is organized in partnership with Washington College of Law's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Center for Global Peace, Office of the University Chaplain, and International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program.

Are you interested in holding your own Human Rights Film Series?

Check out National Video Resources' Human Rights Video Project

Also, Human Rights Watch Traveling Festival