Calendar Event

September 15, 2011

Illuminating Oppression: 9th Annual Human Rights Film Festival

HRFFPinkSaris_Retouched.jpgThursday, September 15 – Saturday, September 17

Life Sciences Complex Auditorium, Room 001

This three-day festival explores human rights issues through award-winning documentaries and feature films from around the world, and is presented by the SU Humanities Center and the Newhouse School of Public Journalism.

All of the films will be shown in the Life Sciences Complex Auditorium of Syracuse University and are free and open to the public. Public parking will be available for $4 on Thursday, Sept.15, at Booth Garage (Comstock Ave); on Friday morning, Sept 16 at University Avenue Garage; on Friday evening and all day Saturday at Q4 (College Place).

Screenings and Times

OPENING NIGHT

Thursday, September 15, 7pm

Budrus

Julia Bacha (82 mins, USA, 2009)

A Palestinian community organizer unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an inspiring nonviolent movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. The screening of this award-winning film will include an introduction and Q&A with Nadav Greenberg from Just Vision. Co-sponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Program and the Judaic Studies Program.

 

DIGITAL WITNESS SYMPOSIUM

Friday, September 16, 10am

Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium, Newhouse 3

This year’s symposium explores the significance of archives for digital human rights media, highlighting projects related to African American history, AIDS activism and the Holocaust. With Jim Hubbard (filmmaker, archivist and co-founder, ACT UP Oral History Project); Sam Pollard (filmmaker and Professor of Film and Television, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University); Samuel Gruber (Lecturer, Judaic Studies Program); and Lydia Wasylenko (lLibrarian, SU Library).

 

WITNESSES TO THE EPIDEMIC

Friday, September 16, 7pm

We Were Here

David Weissman (90 mins, USA, 2011)        

A reflective and deeply moving look at the early impact of AIDS on San Francisco’s gay community through the perspectives of five people who survived this unimaginable crisis. Includes panel discussion with local AIDS activists Michael DeSalvo and Nick Orth; and Prof. Roger Hallas (SU English). Co-sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center and the LGBT Studies Program.

 

RESISTING GENDERED VIOLENCE

Saturday, September 17, 1pm

Pink Saris

Kim Longinotto (96 mins, UK/India, 2010)

An intimate portrait of the indefatigable Indian activist Sampat Pal Devi, who leads a powerful grassroots movement against the discrimination and sexual abuse faced by Dalit women in Uttar Pradesh.

 

THE SITE OF MEMORY

Saturday, September 17, 4pm

Nostalgia for the Light

Patricio Guzmán (90 mins, France/Chile/Germany, 2010)

In his hauntingly beautiful odyssey across Chile’s Atacama Desert, Guzmán explores an aching paradox: the burial site for many disappeared victims of Pinochet’s regime is also the best place on earth for astronomers to view the heavens. Co-sponsored by the Latino-Latin American Studies Program.

 

FRAGMENTED LIVES/UNBROKEN DREAMS

Saturday, September 17, 7pm

I Am

Onir (110 mins, India, 2010)

Weaving together the tumultuous lives of four characters struggling with their identity, this provocative film paints a compelling portrait of contemporary Indian society as it grapples with the vital issues of religious conflict, homophobia, sexual abuse and single motherhood. Starring Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Sanjay Suri and Purab Kohli.

 

Download HRFF_Poster.pdf