UNSPOKEN Film Festival Schedule

October 11th 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Kevin Marken

The UNSPOKEN Human Rights Film Festival will take place October 18th thru 21st at the Uptown Theatre, 2014 Genesee Street, Utica. Tickets will be sold at the door and are $6 for adults and $4 for students.  The festival includes a special WITNESS presentation on Thursday night, and a variety of films throughout the weekend.  For more detailed descriptions and scheduling, visit our website at www.iamunspoken.com.

WITNESS Presentation on Video Advocacy THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18th at 9:00pm Uptown Theatre

Join Rose Anderson and Kelly Matheson from WITNESS as they discuss their video projects along with the importance of using video to fight injustice, and to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools that can pressure those in power or with power to act. This presentation includes 3 short films: TRUST Arizona, Our Plea, and No Longer Silent.

WITNESS is an international nonprofit organization that has been using the power of video and storytelling for 20 years to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. It was co-founded in 1992 by musician and human rights advocate Peter Gabriel, Human Rights First, and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation.

Film Guide

A Little Revolution- A Story of Suicides and Dreams (India). Director: Harpreet Kaur
This story follows the remarkable journey of filmmaker Harpreet Kaur, who travels from the rural villages of Punjab to the capital of India with children of farmers who have committed suicide.  Runtime: 60 min.

After I Pick the Fruit (USA). Director: Nancy Ghertner
This film follows the lives of five immigrant farmworker women over a 10-year period as they labor in the fields of rural western New York. Runtime: 1 hour 33 min.

American Autumn: An Occudoc (USA). Director: Dennis Trainor, Jr.
A year after the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, this documentary captures the fervor and passion that spread through the nation in Fall 2011. Runtime: 1 hour, 15 min.

Axis of Light (Middle East) Director: Pia Getty
Seen through the work of eight leading artists, this film is a poignant and absorbing observation of the beauty and mystery of the Middle East. Runtime: 1 hour

Born in Goma (Dem. Rep. of Congo). Director: Chris Carpenter
Dr. Chris Carpenter travels to Goma, a war-ravaged city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to work at the HEAL Africa Hospital where he cares for the sickest and most desperate children in the world. Runtime: 48 min.

Carbon for Water (Kenya). Director: Evan Abramson
This film begins with the hardships of the people of Kenya’s Western Province, where safe drinking water is scarce. In this film, we are introduced to a unique solution to this problem. Runtime: 22 min.

Child 31 (India/Kenya/Malawi). Director: Charles Kinnane
This film captures Mary’s Meals’ life-changing work in action throughout Malawi, Kenya, and India and its mission to help millions of children around the world realize their dreams. Runtime: 31 min.

Children of Kabul (Afghanistan). Directors: Jon Bougher & Jawad Wahabzada
This film provides rare access to the war-torn streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, documenting the unfolding tragedy of child labor.  Runtime: 24 min.

Dreaming Nicaragua (Nicaragua). Director: Marcelo Bukin
This film portrays five children’s lives submerged in extreme poverty in Nicaragua. Insurmountable hunger, child labor, and violence punctuate their daily struggle for survival. Runtime: 1 hour.

The Echo of Pain of the Many (Guatemala). Director: Ana Lucia Cuevas
This film depicts the story of a Latin American woman’s return from exile and into the still dangerous and volatile political environment of contemporary Guatemala.Runtime: 1 hour, 35 min.

Europe’s Last Dictator (Belarus). Directors: Mathew Charles & Juan Luis Passarelli
This film exposes the torture, state-sponsored murder, and kidnappings in Belarus under the Presidency of Aleksandr Lukashenko. Runtime: 55 min.

FUIR (Run Away) (France). Director: Virginia Bach
In this film, the extreme isolation of domestic violence is exposed in a dramatic and startling way.  Runtime: 19 min.

The House of Tomorrow (Israel/Palestine). Director: Shamim Sarif
Palestine and Israel: conflicting narratives and a world of preconceptions. Can we see this world differently?  Runtime: 1 hour, 4 min.

I Want to Say (USA). Director: Peter Sorcher
When touch-enabled computing was introduced to the world, no one could have anticipated that this technology might help open up a new world for autistic children.  Runtime: 28 min.

Kulajo – My Heart Is Darkened (Iraq). Director: Helena  Appio
Kulajo was one of the thousands of Kurdish villages targeted by Saddam Hussein during his murderous Anfal campaign in 1988. This documentary allows the people of one small community to tell their extraordinary stories.  Runtime: 1 hour, 20 min.

Mapping the Slave Trade (Africa/USA). Director:  Mary Rose Synek
A new book, “Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” aims to turn historic data from the period into a more coherent view, through maps and data. Runtime: 5 min.

Mayan Renaissance (Central America). Director: Dawn Engle
This film documents the glory of the ancient Maya civilization, the Spanish conquest in 1519, 500 years of oppression, and the courageous fight of the Maya determine their own future. Runtime: 1 hour, 8 min.

Never Again: Lessons from the Holocaust (USA). Director: John C. Swanson
How do instructors teach students about the Holocaust? Are there “right” and “wrong” ways?  Runtime: 25 min.

Nickel City Smiler (USA). Directors: Brett Williams & Scott  Murchie
After spending more than 20 years in the confinement of a refugee camp, Smiler and his family were selected for resettlement in the U.S. and assigned to live in Buffalo, New York.  Runtime: 1 hour, 44 min.

No Longer Silent (Uganda). Director: Jane Anywar Adong
Beginning in 1986, Northern Uganda experienced one of the longest-running conflicts in Africa. Now, women are calling upon their government to uphold its commitments and to provide them with the ability to rebuild their lives. Runtime: 14 min.

One Day After Peace (Israel/Palestine/South Africa). Directors: Erez Laufer & Miri Laufer
Robi Damelin lost her son David to a Palestinian sniper’s gun. This film follows Robi’s quest to launch a dialogue with her son’s killer, and to achieve forgiveness and reconciliation after years of apartheid.  Runtime: 1 hour, 26 min.

Our Plea (Central African Republic). Directors: Bukeni Waruzi & Lewis-Alexis  Mbolinani
In this film, two courageous young women recount their abduction by the LRA and the rapes, sexual violence and beatings they suffered while in captivity. Runtime: 10 min.

Our Voices Matter (Dem. Rep. of Congo). Director: Bukeni  Waruzi
This film features women and girls as victims and survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Runtime: 26 min.

The Pink Room (Cambodia). Director: Joel Sandvos
The Pink Room follows the journey of young girls in the turbulent world of sex slavery in Cambodia. Runtime: 45 min.

Paper Planes (Africa). Director: Storm Ashwood
Paper Planes follows the plight of a young African family struggling to escape the blood shed during a civil war.  Runtime: 15 min.

Pearls (USA). Director: Howard Shack
This film explores a women’s sense of loss, trepidation and ultimately her courage to leave an abusive marriage. Runtime: 18 min.

The People and the Olive (PalestinianTerritories). Director: Aaron Dennis
When a group of American ultra-marathoners sets out to run 129 miles in 5 days across the West Bank they discover that in replanting uprooted olive trees they are planting hope and building cultural bridges. Runtime: 1 hour, 10 min.

Raid of the Rainbow Lounge (USA). Director: Robert L. Camina
This film recounts the events surrounding the widely publicized and controversial raid of a Fort Worth, Texas gay bar in 2009. Runtime: 1 hour, 43 min.

Restoring Sight in Bangladesh (Bangladesh). Director: Tatiana McCabe
This documentary explores the issue of cataract blindness in Bangladesh. Runtime: 13 min.

Roadmap to Apartheid (South Africa/Israel/Palestine,/USA). Director: Ana Nogueira
This film takes a close look at the apartheid comparison often used to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Runtime: 1 hour, 35 min.

Ru (Water is Life) (Sudan). Director: Shawn Small
This film follows a day in the life of a child profoundly affected by her community’s lack of access to clean water. Runtime: 19 min.

Speaking Cotton (Uzbekistan). Director: Stefanie Trambow
This film portrays the ongoing exploitation of children in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields. Runtime: 12 min.

TRUST Arizona: Calling for Climate Recovery (USA) Directors: Sean Solowiej & Kelly Matheson
Jaime Lynn Butler is an 11-year old Navajo Artist from Arizona. Follow her story as she tells about the ways climate change is affecting her and her family, and her fight to be heard. Runtime: 7 min.

Wells Bring Hope (West Africa). Producer: Barbara Goldberg
This film depicts a project that is committed to drilling wells to bring safe water and good sanitation to rural villages in Niger, West Africa. Runtime: 14 min.

What I Have Been Through is Not Who I Am (USA). Directors: Carol Smolenski, Christine Fantacone, Ana Morse, & Kelly Matheson
This heart-wrenching documentary provides an informative look at the hidden world of commercial sexual exploitation of children and what we are doing to combat it. Runtime: 22 min.

By Richard