🚀 go-pugleaf

June 12, 1997

FROM:
Human Rights Watch and the Film Society of Lincoln Center

RE:
1997 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
CONTINUES THROUGH JUNE 19.  (SEE SCHEDULE BELOW)

MENTION YOU SAW THIS ANNOUNCEMENT ON-LINE AND PAY ONLY $5! (Regularly $8;
limit two tickets at special price)


COUNTRIES
Brazil, Chechnya, India, Korea, Palestine, Russia, Rwanda, Taiwan, Zimbab=
we,
USA

THEMES
- Teenage domestic abuse
- Women and social transformation
- Education: the battle over educational access and content
- Crown Heights / Black and Jewish Relations
- Ethnic and cultural conflicts around the globe (Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Korea=
,
Chechnya)
- India: Gender and sexual politics

TICKET INFO
Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center (165 West 65th Street, plaza level
between Broadway and Amsterdam). Admission: $8, $5 Students. Available at=
 box
office before screening or by phone: 777-Film (use theater express code
#954).



MORE INFO
Walter Reade Theater
212/875-5600
www.filmlinc.com

Human RIghts Watch Film Festival
212/972-8400 x371
www.hrw.org/iff

SCHEDULE

IT AIN=1AT LOVE
Susan Todd & Andrew Young , USA , 1997  (58 minutes)
Most Americans don=1At realize that domestic violence  afflicts teen as w=
ell as
adult relationships. It Ain=1At Love introduces us to the young, spirited
members of FACES, a gutsy improv theater company that combines acting and
therapy. Known for "telling it like it is," the company has three months =
to
create a show about abusive relationships, and FACES=1A 15- to 24-year-ol=
ds
start by boldly exploring their own love lives. Intense reenactments brin=
g to
life dramatically the violence they=1Ave experienced and inflicted. The n=
ew
show they ultimately put together is a triumph=1Aand a tribute to the hon=
esty
and courage of this inspiring group of young adults. A striking and
alternative look into the intense world of teens and violence, focusing o=
n
the importance of dialogue and communication. Shown with a short film to =
be
announced.
Saturday, June 14:  8:30 pm

BUDDHA BLESS AMERICA
Nien-jen Wu, TAIWAN  1996, 111 minutes
In the late 1960s, the colorful inhabitants of a little farming village i=
n
South Taiwan include Brains, a schoolteacher fired for political
incorrectness; his younger brother, who preserves in a jar the fingers he
lost in a factory accident and a rickety old lady who knows no fear if he=
r
cabbage field or her husband=1As grave are threatened. When a military
contingent of "mythic" Americans arrive for war games, a veritable flood =
of
hilarious cultural and linguistic misunderstandings is loosed on both sid=
es.
Buddha is full of wonderful moments and images=1Athe tiny grandmother her=
ding a
flock of gigantic tanks out of her field, Brains=1A lost "face" restored =
as he
brings home what he thinks are two A-bombs "for my woman," and a burial
service for  fingers: "Thank you for many years of service...maybe you=1A=
ll
grow new fingers for me, if I feed and water you." Buddha=1As wise and ge=
ntle
humor never denies darker truths about the chasms between radically diffe=
rent
cultures.
Monday, June 16: 2 pm

THE SQUARE CIRCLE
Amol Palekar, INDIA, 1996 (103 minutes)
City-bred and -educated Amol Palekar was first a painter, then an actor i=
n
the Marathi regional theater and in film, and ultimately director of his =
own,
groundbreaking movies, in collaboration with his actress-writer wife. In =
The
Square Circle, a man trained to perform as a woman in musical drama becom=
es
obsolete, replaced by the real thing. The handsome, wandering transvestit=
e
joins up with an innocent countrygirl on the run from some louts pursuing=
 her
for brothel work. After a brutal rape, the young woman disguises herself =
as a
boy. In this unusual road movie, Palekar keeps a sharp eye on the beautif=
ul,
expressive landscapes of rural India.  And his cross-dressing odd couple
encounters all manner of colorful characters and adventures, each providi=
ng
tragicomic insight into the knotty matters of sexual passion and gender
stereotyping. This parody of Hindi musicals  is only superficially outr=CA=
; at
heart it=1As full of tolerant wisdom about the nature of man, woman, lust=
 and
love.
Friday, June 13:  6:30 pm (discussion with director follows)
Monday, June 16: 9:15  pm
Thursday, June 19: 4:30  pm

STORIES OF HONOR AND SHAME
Antonia Caccia, PALESTINE, 1996  (56 minutes)
In this heartbreaking and enraging documentary, director Antonia Caccia
invites Muslim women in the Gaza Strip to tell the stories of their curta=
iled
lives. With unflinching frankness, they speak of abductions into marriage=
 at
12 years of age, of dreams of education and career smashed by annual
pregnancy, of weaning daughters early so as to conceive a coveted boychil=
d,
of acid thrown in the faces of women who go out unveiled, of a husband sh=
ared
by several wives, one of them a "feminist." Despite the cultural bias aga=
inst
their being seen or having any significant impact, the women in Stories a=
re
seared into the mind=1As eye, unforgettable in their dignity and force of
character=1Aagainst all odds.
With
BYE-BYE BABUSHKA
Rebecca Feig, USA  1996  (75 minutes)
Director Rebecca Feig introduces us to a filmful of wonderfully weathered
faces, "babushkas" born in the wake of the Russian Revolution that
transformed their motherland and now living past the death of communism.
Feig=1As camera cherishes all of these survivors=1Athe 90-year-old collec=
tive
farm worker Baba Marina, as stolid as a horse, as placid as a saint;
white-haired Baba Tanya, still passionately devoted to Lenin and the part=
y;
Larissa, a history professor who paid for political protest with a four-y=
ear
sentence in Siberia; a bent old soul selling newspapers on the street,
another proudly showing off a larder of food hidden beneath her bed. Thou=
gh
each has her own take on history, these Russian grandmothers=1Aa generati=
on on
the way to extinction=1Aall find honor in the enduring work of their hand=
s and
minds.
Monday, June 16:  6:15 pm (discussion with director follows)
Thursday, June 19:  2 pm

FLAME
Ingrid Sinclair, ZIMBABWE, 1996 (90 minutes)
Flame is the dramatic saga of two friends who grow into young womanhood i=
n a
village in rural Rhodesia. Florence dreams of college while her pal primp=
s
and hopes for a happy marriage. When the war  for independence comes, the
newly named Liberty and Flame fight alongside other "daughters of Zimbabw=
e
...strong like lions." After the revolution, one-time warrior Flame finds
herself back in the country, married to a drunk and demoted to women=1As =
work.
In a painful reunion, she and Liberty, now a successful citygirl, share t=
he
straight scoop on postwar realities=1Aand these brave, beautiful African =
women
move back into the enduring shelter of their friendship. A strong take on
modern womanhood that never loses sight of the complexities of
liberation=1Apolitical and personal.
Friday, June 13: 4 pm
Saturday, June 14: 6 pm (discussion with director follows)

A PETAL
Jang Sun Woo, KOREA, 1996  (100 minutes)
In 1980, in the South Korean town of Kwangju, soldiers fired into a crowd=
 of
demonstrators, killing hundreds even as the national anthem played on a
loudspeaker. Director Jang Sun Woo powerfully personalizes this ugly chap=
ter
in South Korea=1As political history, creating necessary catharsis for hi=
s
countrymen and at the same time composing an achingly beautiful lament fo=
r a
lost child. Orphaned in the Kwangju massacre, her sanity lost in a mass
grave, Jang Sun Woo=1As ghost of a girl wanders toward Seoul in search of=
 a
long-dead elder brother she dreams of=1Ain striking  animated sequences=1A=
as a
rescuing knight on a white horse.  The mad child=1As plight so speaks to =
the
lumpish, unthinking laborer who has taken her in as a sexual utility that=
 she
resurrects his conscience and his humanity. The blighted innocence of thi=
s
"petal" is also South Korea=1As, or any other nation that brutalizes its
children.
Friday, June 13: 9 pm
Sunday, June 15: 8:15 pm
Tuesday,  June 17: 6:15 pm

FEAR AND LEARNING AT HOOVER ELEMENTARY
Laura Angelica Sim=8Fn , USA; 1996 (90 minutes)
Fear and Learning measures the impact of California=1As Proposition 187, =
which
denies public education and health care to illegal aliens. An immigrant
success story herself thanks to access to the American school system, Fea=
r
interweaves the testimony of two teachers=1Aone Mexican-American (directo=
r
Sim=8Fn), the other an Anglo; interviews with kids and adults who live in=
 Pico
Union, Los Angeles=1A "Ellis Island"; and the story of Mayra, a self-poss=
essed,
ambitious nine-year-old from El Salvador to personalize the ways Prop 187=
 has
divided  school and community. This documentary confirms  that it=1As kid=
s who
suffer most as adults fight through these complex, polarizing issues.
with
NEW SCHOOL ORDER
Gini Reticker, USA, 1997  (57 minutes)
"The future of the country is decided in the principal=1As office, not th=
e Oval
Office. I=1Ad rather elect 1,000 school board members than the president =
of the
United States." =1A Ralph Reed, Christian Coalition
This strong, disturbing documentary exposes the complex dynamics, fiscal =
and
philosophical, that drive a Pennsylvania community into supporting an
extremely conservative school board. Lans-dale=1As North Penn High School
becomes a battleground for the minds of future citizens=1Awho rightfully
complain they don=1At even have a voice in the redesign of their educatio=
n. No
second school to relieve increasingly crowded classrooms, no sex ed or
special ed, down with situational ethics and religious neutrality=1Aas th=
is new
regime takes hold, the idealistic  principal retires, soon followed by
another grief-stricken 22-year veteran, and families begin relocating to =
more
liberal locations. Director Gini Reticker has envisioned a contemporary
horror movie, in which the hearts and minds of America=1As youth are thre=
atened
by  ordinary next-door neighbors.
Friday, June 13: 2 pm
Sunday, June 15: 5:30 pm
Monday, June 16: 4 pm

CHRONICLE OF A GENOCIDE FORETOLD
Dani=CBle Lacourse & Yvan Patry, CANADA  1996 (164 minutes)
In April 1994, nearly a million Rwandan men, women, and children were
slaughtered like animals, mostly Tutsis massacred by Hutus in an act of
genocide that might have been prevented. In three parts, Chronicle shows =
the
roots of ethnic war in this troubled country  where "blood  flowed like a
river"; how and why the international community, including the United
Nations, turned a blind eye on the plight of Rwandan victims; and the
 revenge Tutsi extremists, now in power, wreak on their Hutu enemies. Thr=
ough
interviews with survivors, UN peacekeepers, Human Rights Watch activists =
and
others, the film paints a vast, moving mural of outrage and horror; never
underestimating the enduring power of human hatred, this Chronicle still
leaves room for justice, even reconciliation.
Saturday, June 14: 2 pm (discussion with director follows)
Sunday, June 15: 2 pm (discussion with director follows)
Wednesday, June 18: 2 pm

BLACKS AND JEWS
Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman, and Bari Scott, USA, 1996  (85 minutes)
 This deeply felt exploration of relations between old allies and new
adversaries challenges complacency on all sides, re-examining convictions
long-cherished by Jews and Blacks. Built around five riveting stories of
rage, courage and hope, B & J makes us see race reality through multiple,
radically different lenses: the media blows up pictures of a Hasidic Jew
beaten to the ground by angry Crown Heights Blacks, but never reports on =
how
his life was saved by a Caribbean man of color; when Black kids on a scho=
ol
fieldtrip laugh it up at  Schindler=1As List, everyone=1Afrom school-body
president to Spielberg, from media pundits to vote-hungry politicians=1Ap=
iles
on with contradictory apologias; periodically, in a performance of "Cross=
ing
the Broken Bridge," a Jewish actress and a black actor wrestle passionate=
ly
over hard historical/emotional truths.... An uncompromising look at a
conflict in which, as peacekeepers, agitators or conscientious objectors,=
 we
are all enlisted.
Tuesday, June 17: 2 pm
Wednesday, June 18: 8:30 pm (discussion with director follows)
Thursday, June 19: 6:30 pm  (panel  discussion follows)

THE BETRAYED
Clive Gordon , UK, 1995  (78 minutes)
In December 1994, 3,500 untrained Russian conscripts were ordered to take=
 the
Chechen town of Grozny. What happened to these mothers=1A sons is the bru=
tal
mystery Betrayed exposes. "Should I try to find his grave...dig it up to =
see
if it=1As my son?" grieves a Russian woman, one of a contingent of mother=
s who
have traveled to Chechnya in hopes of an exchange of prisoners. Caught
between their country=1As cover-up and Chechen resistance, they wait  pat=
iently
as the film reconstructs the history of a 300-year conflict, unreeling im=
ages
of moonscape destruction and mass graves, documenting the bureaucratic an=
d
military off-loading of responsibility, and demonstrating how this futile
war=1Awith 40,000 casualties=1Ahas bred Judases on every front.
with
15 CHILDREN
Maria Oliveira & Marta Nehring, BRAZIL, 1996  (18 minutes)
Fifteen individuals tell how it was to be the children of dissidents kill=
ed,
imprisoned or "disappeared" by a Brazilian military dictatorship. The cam=
era
becomes a kind of confessional as these survivors time-trip back to
childhood: pretending not to recognize a father encountered in public;
realizing that the stranger calling from the barred window is your mother=
;
having a school pal burst out, "My father didn=1At kill your father"; and
trying to deal with a "non-material" death: "How can there be an ending i=
f
there=1As no corpse, only a passport picture?" The directors themselves
participate in this brave testimonial by men and women who refuse to allo=
w
parents and  past to disappear=1Athereby casting a vote that history will=
 not
repeat itself.
Tuesday, June 17: 4 pm
Wednesday, June 18: 6 pm
Thursday, June 19: 9 pm