Here it is, our biggest series of the fall, the
annual excursion into that vast, thriving world of new documentaries
that take on issues of social justice, politics, and the environment,
including a panorama
of likely contenders for the 2007 Best Documentary Oscar.
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song Nov.
1 Q&A w/Jim Brown
The Sugar Curtain Nov. 3, 5
Shame Nov. 3, 6
Terror’s Advocate Nov. 4
Manufactured Landscapes Nov. 7
The Camera as Weapon: Combating Human
Rights Abuses *Nov. 8
*discussion with Dr. Anat Biletzki, Bukeni
Waruzi & Steve Apkon
Enemies of Happiness Nov. 9, 10
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash Nov. *9,
11 *Q&A w/Bill McKibben
9 Star Hotel Nov. 10, 12
Hot House Nov. 10, 14
Manda Bala Nov. *11, 12
*NEW: Q&A w/Jason Kohn, Sanford Livingston & Michael Furjanic at 7:00
Taxi to the Darkside Nov. 13 Q&A w/Alex
Gibney
The Devil Came on Horseback Nov. 13, *21
*Q&A w/Annie Sundberg & Ruth Messinger
Banished Nov. 14 w/Marco Williams
War/Dance Nov. 15
Beyond Hatred Nov. 15, 16
Cocalero Nov. 16, 21
King Corn Nov. 17, 19
Meeting Resistance Nov. *17,
20 *Q&A w/Molly Bingham & Steve Connors
For the Bible Tells Me So Nov. 18, 20
Nanking Nov. 19
Global Watch 2007 is sponsored by
Louis & Anne Abrons Foundation
Theodore & Renee Weiler Foundation
Every year the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival presents
films that aim to stimulate passionate conversation about human rights
and inspire new generations of activists. We are happy to include a
selection of these films in the Global Watch 2007 documentary film
festival.
Group Tickets are available for this series.
Click
Here for a flyer to print out for your organization (pdf).
Jim Brown
BUY TICKETS
|
OPENING NIGHT Thurs. Nov. 1 at 7:00
PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG
Jim Brown. 2007. 93 min. NR. US. The Weinstein Company.
"A terrific, multilayered portrait." (Variety)
We’re kicking off this year’s series with a knockout of a documentary, the stirring story of an incredible American, one of the most singular and rousing artists of the 20th century. From his 17-year-long membership on the blacklist and his leadership in the American folk music revival to his devotion to the antiwar and civil rights movements (not to mention his fight to save the Hudson River), Pete Seeger has inspired people for eight decades. Threading interviews with Seeger, his family, and other musicians with concert footage and home movies, the film presents "the high priest of folk music" in all his vigorous, committed glory. And then there’s his music, his glorious music....
Nov. 1 at 7:00: Join filmmaker Jim Brown for a conversation with New York Times critic Janet Maslin, who began her career as rock music critic for the Boston Phoenix.
Three-time Emmy Award–winning producer/director Jim Brown directed Pete Seeger: The Power of Song and is responsible for some of the most popular and critically acclaimed programs on American music in recent decades, including The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time!
A reception upstairs in the Jane Peck Gallery will follow.
Tickets: $12 (members), $16 (nonmembers)
The film will also run Nov. 2 - 4
in our ongoing "Best
of Current Cinema" series. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
THE SUGAR CURTAIN Nov. 3, 5
Camila Guzmán Urzúa. 2006. 80 min. NR. Spain/ Cuba/France, in Spanish with subtitles. First Run/Icarus Films.
"Both love story and memory of underdevelopment, The Sugar Curtain illuminates, with great sobriety and reverence, the paradox of a nation as steeped in tradition as it is in hypocrisy." (Village Voice)
Chilean filmmaker Guzmán Urzúa returns to Havana to reflect on her Revolution-era youth, as part of an idealistic generation dedicated to building a new society. A visit with old friends who stayed on during Cuba’s post-Soviet "special period" forces her to rethink her past. Nostalgia and disillusionment swirl and collide as historical footage and photos are contrasted with scenes of a decaying Havana today. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
SHAME Nov. 3, 6
Mohammed Naqvi. 2006. 95 min. NR. US/Pakistan, in English/Urdu/Sariki, with subtitles. Showtime Independent Films.
"A powerfully written and directed essay in courage." (Variety)
In 2002 Mukhtaran Mai, a woman living in a remote Pakistani village, was publicly gang-raped to atone for her brother’s adultery. Instead of giving in to shame, she confronted her attackers, raising an outcry that eventually grew into an international cause. Now a crusader for children’s rights, Mai has won international awards, including being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. A shocking, potent essay in courage. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
TERROR’S ADVOCATE Nov. 4
Barbet Schroeder. 2007. 135 min. NR. France, in French/German/Khmer/English with subtitles. Magnolia Pictures.
"Jaw-dropping...one of the most fascinating characters on screen in Cannes this year, a figure out of Joseph Conrad, a man whose life and personality become lenses through which a shadowy, paradoxical stretch of the recent past is refracted." (New York Times)
From the great Barbet Schroeder (General Idi Amin Dada) comes this multifaceted portrait of Jacques Vergès, the French public gadfly and lawyer who defended the undefendable - his client list includes Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, and Saddam Hussein. Replete with intrigue and violence, it’s a story that challenges moral certainties and the romanticism of extreme radicalism. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES Nov. 7
Best Documentary, Toronto Film Festival
Jennifer Baichwal. 2006. 90 min. NR. Canada. Zeitgeist Films.
"An extraordinary, haunting, beautiful, insightful, touching, and thought-provoking movie!" (Al Gore)
This cinematically striking film is both a portrait of acclaimed photographer Edward Burtynsky, who specializes in large-scale images of industrial vistas, and an exploration of the massive social, spiritual, and environmental costs of globalization. It presents a brave new world that manages to be both gorgeous and unutterably repellent. |
|
|
|
|
BUY TICKETS
|
THE CAMERA AS WEAPON:
Combating Human Rights Abuses with Film
Thurs. Nov. 8 at 7:15
What is the role of film in human rights work? How can the act of training the camera on real-life events counter the official version of reality? JBFC Executive Director Steve Apkon moderates a program of short movies and discussion with representatives of two organizations that wield the power of film on the front lines of the human rights struggle.
Panel: Dr.
Anat Biletzki, Bukeni Waruzi, Steve Apkon.
Dr.
Anat Biletzki, joined the board of B’Tselem, the
Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories,
in 1996 and served as Chair until 2005 when she assumed a visiting
professorship at Boston University. She has been a tireless
champion of human rights and peace for over 25 years and is a one
of the founders of the peace movement "The Twenty-First Year" devoted
to promoting civil objection to the occupation.
[Oren Yakobovich is unable to join us]
Bukeni Waruzi is Witness program coordinator for Africa and the Middle East. Witness uses video and online technologies to reveal human rights violations around the world. Before joining Witness, Waruzi was founder and executive director of Ajedi-Ka/Child Soldiers Project, through which he produced films on child soldiers and HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Tickets: $6 (members), $10 (nonmembers). |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS Nov. 9, 10
World Cinema Prize, Sundance Film Festival
Eva Mulvad. 2006. 58 min. NR. Denmark, in English/Farsi/Pashto with subtitles.
"Carries the magic uplift of classic Hollywood and the considerable bonus of authenticity." (Village Voice)
In 2005 Malalai Joya - who two years earlier had become infamous for challenging the warlords in Afghanistan’s new government - dodged death threats to run for office in her country’s first democratic parliamentary election in more than three decades. This revelatory portrait of a freedom fighter is also a window into a nation wracked by war, ruled by fear, but desperate for a change for the better.
A selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. |
|
|
|
|
Bill McKibben
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
|
A CRUDE AWAKENING: THE OIL CRASH
Nov. *9, 11
Basil Gelpke/Ray McCormack/Reto Caduff. 2006. 85 min. NR. Switzerland, in English. Telepool Films.
"A terrific work of investigative journalism-as-film that will scare the living crap out of you.... One of the most important films of the year." (Salon)
A Crude Awakening makes the devastating case that we have reached the mountaintop of "peak oil": from now on petroleum supplies will inexorably decline. In this fast-paced film, leading geologists, scholars, oil industry executives, and OPEC officials contribute to a picture of a coming transformation momentous in its implications.
*Q&A Nov. 9 at 7:30: environmentalist/author Bill McKibben & JBFC Programming Director Brian Ackerman. Followed by a book signing.
Environmentalist, educator, author, and activist Bill McKibben frequently writes about global warming and alternative energy. He is also the founder of stepitup07.org, which demands that Congress enact curbs on carbon emissions. His books include Deep Economy and The End of Nature.
Tickets: $9 (members), $13 (nonmembers). |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
9 STAR HOTEL Nov. 10, 12
Best Documentary, Jerusalem Film Festival
Ido Haar. 2007. 78 min. NR. Israel, in Hebrew/Arabic with subtitles. Koch Lorber Films.
"Possesses a brutal immediacy, unfolding like a Middle Eastern Grapes of Wrath." (Time Out New York)
Building luxury apartment complexes by day and sleeping in improvised huts by night, thousands of Palestinian men are illegally employed as construction workers in Israel’s occupied territories. Sharing food, belongings, and stories, they live in fear, under the constant threat of arrest. A surprise hit in Israel, this intensely detailed portrait of the workers’ unseen world documents their neverending fight to survive while staying under the radar. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
HOT HOUSE Nov. 10, 14
Special Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival
Shimon Dotan. 2006. 89 min. NR. Israel, in Hebrew/Arabic/English with subtitles.
"An absorbing look at Palestinians held in Israeli jails, full of remarkable interviews." (New York Times)
There are about 9000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. For most Israelis they are criminals and assassins, responsible for numerous suicide bombings. For most Palestinians they are heroes and freedom fighters, powerful figures in a prison culture that incubates much of the Intifada’s political leadership. A no-holds-barred exploration of life in a maximum security prison in which Hamas and PLO leaders speak freely of their situation and the larger political conflict.
A selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
|
MANDA BALA Nov. *11, 12
Best Documenary, Sundance Film Festival
Jason Kohn. 2007. 85 min. NR. Brazil/US, in English/Portuguese with subtitles. Slowhand Cinema Releasing.
"Spellbinding....You feel as if you’ve witnessed a complete rebirth of the investigative documentary form." (Time Out New York)
The truly shocking, ultraslick documentary about the ubiquitous phenomenon of kidnapping in São Paulo, Brazil. Ultimately drawing a much larger picture about endemic political corruption amid extreme poverty and the almost banal culture of evil that’s sprung out of it, Manda Bala combines unsettling graphic elements with a style as flashy as any Hollywood action film. Groundbreaking documentary filmmaking.
*NEW: Director Jason Kohn and composers Sanford Livingston & Michael Furjanic will join us for a discussion following the 7:00 screening on Sun. Nov. 11. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alex Gibney
BUY TICKETS
|
TAXI TO THE DARKSIDE Nov. 13
Alex Gibney. 2007. 106 min. NR. US. THINKFilm.
"Elegant and terrifying....a contentious and angry film.
If America still has a soul, Alex Gibney is trying to save it." (Salon)
From Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), here’s an early frontrunner for the Oscars: an absolutely searing critique of the administration’s underground "war on terror" and its brazen disregard of the Geneva Convention in its treatment of prisoners. A hugely important wakeup call about the dark consequences of our eroding civil liberties, this film exposes the lengths the administration has gone to to wring information from people who all too often turn out - after torture and sometimes death - to be verifiably innocent.
Q&A at 7:15: filmmaker Alex Gibney & JBFC Programming Director Brian Ackerman.
Alex Gibney is an Emmy- and Grammy- award-winning director/producer whose previous work includes The Trials of Henry Kissinger and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Tickets: $9 (members), $13 (nonmembers). |
|
|
|
|
Ruth Messinger (Photo: Chrystie Sherman)
Annie Sundberg
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
|
THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK
Nov. 13, *21
Ricki Stern/Annie Sundberg. 2007. 85 min. NR. US, in English/Arabic with subtitles.
"Brutal, urgent, devastating...demands to be seen as soon as possible and by as many viewers as possible." (New York Times)
As an unarmed military observer with the African Union in Sudan, former US Marine Captain Brian Steidle witnessed the daily slaughter of men, women, and children in areas of Darfur that few others could penetrate. Horrified, he photographed the atrocities he witnessed, eventually smuggling over 1,000 images into the US, where he has used them to try to rally international intervention and support. Steidle’s impassioned, heroic story is an inspiration, while the toll taken by his efforts tells its own haunting tale.
A selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival.
*Q&A Nov. 21 at 7:15: filmmaker Annie Sundberg & human rights advocate/former NYC mayoral candidate Ruth Messinger.
Annie Sundberg produced, directed, and wrote The Devil Came on Horseback with Ricki Stern. Sundberg was last at the Burns with their previous collaboration, The Trials of Darryl Hunt. Former Manhattan borough president and mayoral candidate Ruth Messinger is currently president of American Jewish World Service, a humanitarian group working in Darfur and other areas in crisis.
Tickets: $9 (members), $13 (nonmembers). |
|
|
|
|
Marco Williams
BUY TICKETS
|
BANISHED Nov. 14
Marco Williams. 2007. 89 min. NR. US.
"It’s refreshing to come across an old-fashioned nonfiction piece that sets its lacerating sights not 'over there,' but right here at home." (IndieWIRE)
In a story virtually erased from American consciousness, Banished chronicles how, in the early 20th century, whole communities of African-Americans in Georgia, Missouri, and Arkansas were forced to abandon their homes and flee in fear of racist violence. They were never able to recover their houses or the value of their property. Looking ahead to the present day, the film raises provocative questions of reparations, responsibility, and equity in yet another long, hard, chapter of African-American history.
Q&A at 7:15: filmmaker Marco Williams.
Marco Williams produced and directed Banished and was codirector/coproducer of the award-winning documentary Two Towns of Jasper. He teaches screenwriting and documentary, fiction, and television production at NYU.
Tickets: $9 (members), $13 (nonmembers). |
|
|
|
|
BUY TICKETS |
WAR/DANCE Nov. 15
Best Direction, Sundance Film Festival
Sean Fine/Andrea Nix. 2007. 105 min. NR. US. THINKFilm.
"A testament to human renewal....An often shimmeringly beautiful and always heartrending documentary." (Boxoffice.com)
The inspiring story of children from a refugee camp in Northern Uganda, an area ravaged by more than two decades of civil war, who compete in the country’s annual national music and dance competition. Gorgeous camerawork and a dazzling soundtrack reveal children whose lives seem suspended between hope and despair, where the slim margin of difference is their love of music. This year’s Born into Brothels, it’s certain to be one of the leading contenders for an Oscar. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
BEYOND HATRED Nov. 15, 16
Best Documentary, Berlin Film Festival
Olivier Meyrou. 2005. 85 min. NR. France, in French. First Run Features.
"A film whose style doesn’t merely suit its story but amplifies its meanings." (New York Times)
Examining the roots of hate crimes as well as the rare human quality of forgiveness, Beyond Hatred solemnly recounts three skinheads’ brutal murder of a young gay man in France. The film chronicles the police investigation, the accused killers’ trial, and - through emotionally raw conversations at home, with social workers, and in the courthouse - the struggles of the victim’s family to understand the source of the perpetrators’ hatred and, perhaps someday, heal. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
COCALERO Nov. 16, 21
Alejandro Landes. 2007. 94 min. NR. Argentina/Bolivia, in Quechua/Spanish with subtitles.
"Essential...brings a trans–Latin American perspective to understanding Morales’ efforts." (Variety)
An examination of one of the most fascinating characters on the world political stage, Evo Morales, the Aymara Indian who traveled the Andes and the Amazon in jeans and sneakers in a successful bid to become Bolivia’s first indigenous president. It’s a film that offers a wealth of fresh insights into outspoken Morales himself, his criticism of the US and its war on drugs (as well as the devastating effect it’s had on the coca regions of central Bolivia), and also the broader political changes afoot in Latin America.
A selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
KING CORN Nov. 17, 19
Aaron Woolf. 2007. 92 min. NR. US. Balcony Releasing.
"By the end of this movie, you’ll understand an enormous amount about why America is the way it is. Funny, wise, powerful - it’s the other end of the Supersize Me story, and every bit as compelling." (environmentalist Bill McKibben)
Just another crop? Think again. Moving at the languid pace of small-town Iowa, this film is a beautiful and gentle critique of American food policy and its unhealthy fixation on producing one thing only: mountains of incredible, inedible, industrial corn. The filmmakers’ simple notion of raising a single acre of Iowa corn becomes a much larger exploration of the implications of this avowedly "successful" agricultural policy and what it means for our health, wealth, and society. |
|
|
|
|
Molly Bingham
Steve Connors
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
|
MEETING RESISTANCE Nov. 17, 20
Molly Bingham/Steve Connors. 2007. 84 min. NR. US, in Arabic/English with subtitles. DJC Films.
"A breakthrough film, the single most astonishing documentary yet on the Iraq war." (Salon)
Set in the Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad, this film explores Iraqi opposition to the American occupation. Molly Bingham - who was held in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib Prison for eight days in 2003 - returned to Iraq with Steve Connors to spend ten months among the "insurgents" there to create this singularly revealing snapshot of their lives, motivation, and goals. Focusing on eight individuals, each with a very different story, this film challenges the notion that opposition members can be dismissed as common criminals or Al-Qaeda operatives. Essential viewing for a deeper understanding of the current situation in Iraq.
Q&A Nov. 17 at 2:00: filmmakers Molly Bingham & Steve Connors.
Directors Bingham and Connors are photojournalists who have chronicled crises the world over. Bingham was captured and held in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib Prison for 8 days in 2003 and subsequently returned to Iraq with Connors to work on this film.
Tickets: $9 (members), $13 (nonmembers). |
|
|
|
|
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS |
FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO
Nov. 18, 20
Daniel Karslake. 2007. 95 min. NR. US. First Run Features.
"Takes on a loaded topic - Christianity and homosexuality - and examines it both intellectually and emotionally; the result may well leave you blinking away a few tears." (Seattle Times)
A huge hit at Sundance, this provocative, entertaining documentary chisels away at every way in which the Good Book is used to sanction discrimination against homosexuals. As we learn about the experiences of five very Christian, very American families - including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson - insightful people of faith offer counsel and clarity to anyone caught in the tangle of scripture and sexual identity. |
|
|
|
|
BUY TICKETS |
NANKING Nov. 19 at 7:30
Best Editing, Sundance Film Festival
Bill Guttentag/Dan Sturman. 2007. 90 min. NR. US, in Japanese/Mandarin/English with subtitles. THINKFilm.
"A vital addition to the small body of reportage on a tragedy whose repercussions continue to be a source of pain and controversy." (Variety)
With disturbing war imagery, Nanking recalls a gruesome tragedy that’s too little known in the West: the 1937–38 massacre of more than 200,000 Chinese during the early days of the Japanese occupation. Previously unseen footage of the violence is enhanced by interviews with participants - and it’s all the more immediate for being backed by a narration from the writings of 22 Western expats who worked to save as many lives as possible. Their heroism stands in stark contrast to the numbing inhumanity that surrounded them. |
Back to Main JBFC Series Page
|
|
