Film Descriptions
BETWEEN TWO STONES: NEPAL’S DECADE OF CONFLICT
Nepal (21 min)
Director: IRIN Films
In 1996, the first shots of Nepal’s civil war rang out across the Himalayas. Ten years later, more than 12,000 people have lost their lives, and the civilian population is trapped in the middle. This film is a rare glimpse into a struggle most know little about.
BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT, THE
***Winner: 2007 Academy Award***
China/USA (39 min)
Director: Ruby Yang, Thomas Lennon
This film tracks Gao Jun, a young HIV-positive orphan, as his closest surviving kin - his uncles - decide whether to seclude or socialize him. Gao Jun is one of several children we come to know in this film. As a result of misinformation about HIV, the suffering of these orphans is all the more devastating for being largely unnecessary.
BUSTING OUT
USA (57 min)
Director: Francine Strickwerda, Laurel Smith
An examination of the good, the bad, and the ugly historical and political sides of America’s fascination with women’s breasts, delving into the history and politics of the obsession. Told from the point of view of Strickwerda, who lost her mother to breast cancer as a child, Busting Out will challenge us to question our obsession with breasts, and to gain a healthier perspective
BYSTANDER
USA (32 min.)
Director: John Reilly
Bystander portrays three individuals who intervened to thwart the mass murder of innocent victims as genocide and war crimes unfolded. It is framed with riveting psychological experiments that demonstrate the scarcity of moral courage.
IN THE TALL GRASS
Rwanda/USA (57 min.)
Director: John Coll Metcalfe
With unprecedented access, the film explores universal themes of justice in post-conflict societies and the challenges countries like Rwanda face in attempting the transition from genocide and violence to peace.
INTERVIEW WITH AN EXECUTIONER
USA (13 min.)
Director: Ken Russell, Nancy Brown, Terry McCaffrey
From his days as a warden at Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi to his anti-death penalty work thirty years later, Don Cabana describes the emotional pain of carrying out executions, and in one particular case, the near-certainty that he executed an innocent man. Cabana reveals how he could not reconcile his Catholic faith with the dirty work of an executioner.
LA SIERRA
Colombia/USA (84 min.)
Director: Scott Dalton, Margarita Martinez
During the last decade over 35,000 people have been killed in Colombia's civil war, a now 40-year-old conflict that has moved from the nation's jungles to its cities, where left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries combat each other and government forces. Today urban gangs allied with either side are engaged in a war for the control of neighborhood slums, with adjoining barrios pitted against one another, and the civilian populace caught in the middle.
LESSONS IN FEAR
Israel/Palestine (73 min.)
Director: James Cullingham, Igal Hecht
In a media world obsessed with conflict, Lessons in Fear takes a humanized, behind-the-scenes look at how ordinary kids are educated among the angry, fearful streets of Israel and Palestine.
LIMA'S STREETS
Peru/Spain (13 min.)
Director: Marcelo Bukin
The cruel reality of the children living on the streets of Lima, Peru and struggling to survive by means of begging, consuming drugs, and stealing is brutally depicted in this short but powerful film.
MAN WHO SAVED A MILLION BRAINS, THE
Australia (24 min.)
Director: Kate Riedl
Imagine a condition that causes the IQ of entire nations to plummet from 110 points to a mentally retarded 85, creates deafness, deformed skeletons, and monstrous growths that protrude from its victim’s bodies. This film looks at the work of Professor Cres Eastman, who has spent the past 20 years fighting Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) in remote parts of Tibet.
ROSITA
Nicaragua/USA ( 58 min.)
Director: Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwatert, Janet Goldwater
When a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl becomes pregnant as a result of a rape, her parents - illiterate campesinos working in Costa Rica - seek a legal "therapeutic" abortion to save their only child's life. Their quest pits them against the governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the medical establishment, and the Catholic Church.
SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL STARS
Sierra Leone/USA (80 min)
Director: Zach Niles and Banker White
This film follows a band of Sierra Leonean refugee musicians living in the Republic of Guinea.Despite the unimaginable horrors of civil war, they were saved through their music. The film reveals unique and inspiring personal stories of survival and rebirth through the universal language of music. As violent conflicts multiply around the globe and the worldwide refugee crisis deepens, this film is a humanizing tribute to all the innocent survivors of war whose brutal realities are often dismissed by surface mass media sound bytes.
TRIBE, THE
USA (18 min.)
Director: Tiffany Shlain
What can the most successful doll on the planet show us about being Jewish today? The Tribe weaves together archival footage, graphics, animation, Barbie dioramas, and slam poetry to take audiences on an electric ride through the complex history of both the Barbie doll and the Jewish people - from Biblical times to present day.
THEY CHOSE CHINA
Canada/China (52 min.)
Director: Shui-Bo Wang
In January 1954, months after the end of the Korean War, U.S. soldiers held in POW camps were free to return home. A small group, however, refused repatriation and, after being given 90 days to reconsider, 21 decided to stay in China. The film chronicles this group who were hailed in China as "peace fighters" and denounced in America as "turncoats" and "traitors."
TSUNAMI GENERATION, THE
Germany/Indonesia (52 min.)
Director: Folke Ryden
This is the untold story of the Aceh province in the wake of the Tsunami disaster in which 200,000 people perished and half a million became homeless. In the ensuing turmoil, the Indonesian government, religious organizations, and the GAM guerrillas all aspired to gain in some respect from the new situation with promises of rebuilding Aceh.
**Film Selection Subject to Change**
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