If there is one film that could indict the genocide-killers of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, who are currently being 'tried' under an International Tribunal ,which has already taken several years and cost nearly $ 150 million, it is this one.
What's astonishing is that it has not been seen or used by the Tribunal as evidence, judging by the statements of some of the members of the Tribunal, who addressed the media ,at the FCCT in Bangkok recently.
The film is especially import...
Running its 22nd edition in cooperation with the Film Society of Lincoln Center the Human Rights Watch Film Festival presented from June 16 – 3019 films from 12 countries and premiered 17. As in past editions, most productions selected were first rate prompting animated debates reinforcing the audience commitment to human rights issues. Thus the viewers enjoyed again reflexive cinema at its best. Most filmmakers were present to discuss their productions and to provide additional insights into...
Over a period of fifteen years through 1975, known as the golden age of the Khmer cinema, Cambodia produced almost 400 films. Under the four year terror regime of the Khmer Rouge the Cambodian film industry and most of its worker were terminated with only 30 films left intact. Laboratories, films, and theatres were destroyed; actors and directors slaughtered. Very few were able to leave the country. Others lived underground, like the noted Mao Ayuth, disguising their professional background fo...
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 83rd Academy Awards®. One hundred-one pictures had originally qualified in the category. The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:• “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” Alex Gibney, director (ES Productions LLC)• “Enemies of the People,” Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, d...
Main International Competition Jury members: Zbigniew Rybczyński (Poland) – Chairman, Siddiq Barmak (Afghanistan), Judith Blackburn (USA), Nino Kirtadze (Georgia), Bojidar Manov (Bulgaria) awarded following prizes: Grand Prix – Another Sky by Dimitri Mamulia, Russia, 2010Best Feature Film – Nothing Personal by Urszula Antoniak, Netherlands / Ireland, 2009Best Documentary Film – Enemies of the People by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, Cambodia / UK, 2009 (Award goes to Thet Sambath)Best...
It is always a leap of faith to go into the heart of darkness, but the rewards can be great. This sentiment comes to mind with the release this Friday of one of the most harrowing and compelling personal documentaries of the year. ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE exposes for the first time the truth about the Killing Fields and the Khmer Rouge who were behind Cambodia’s brutal genocide of its own population.
The film recounts historical facts through the personal ...
In its 21st edition the festival organized by Human Rights Watch and the Film Society of Lincoln Center presented from June 10-24 thirty films from 25 countries with 28 New York Premieres. The Human Rights Watch organization is an international group with offices in 18 countries publishing well received investigative reports about human rights violations which are taken seriously by policy makers. It is no wonder that the film festival is also shaped by the expectation that it has an impact...
Last July, the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch put out a hefty report drawn from its prior two decades of watching dogs in some 20 countries. Called Selling Justice Short, the dossier showed why accountability was a good thing for peace and, if nothing else, could help heal victims by acknowledging their anguish.
I didn't read it – nor likely did you – but the Human Rights Watch Film Festival supplies some visual Cliff's Notes. This year it gives witness to human rights violations ...
by Marla Lewin
Jeff Bridges CRAZY HEART Photo by Lorey Sebastian (c) Fox Searchlight 2009
The final day of the 25th festival was proclaimed Jeff Bridges day. It is a full day of films starring Jeff Bridges concluding with a screening of Crazy Heart for which he is nominated for a Best Actor nomination by the Academy. A tribute to the Santa Barbara native will cap the evening.
At a Sunday morning brunch at the famed Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort the winners of the 201...
Winding Down
By
Kimberly Deisler
Could it possibly be day ten already? While the week was excruciatingly long in that everyone’s exhausted and choking with some kind of cough or cold, we’re finally here … on the last day of the festival.
Although most of the world considers this to be Valentine’s Day, those in Santa Barbara are celebrating the local sweetheart with Jeff Bridges Day by screening all of his Oscar nominated films, The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt...
The 25th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced the winners of the 2010 festival competition at a Press Conference and Sunday morning brunch at the famed Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort, hosted by KTYD Radio's Julie Ramos. The festival, which celebrated its Silver Anniversary February 4-14, was a huge success. By the look of the theaters you'd never know the economy was in the fight of its life as audiences packed the theaters for the last 11 days, proving once again how p...
In a somewhat strange convergence, European documentaries were the overall winners in all categories at the Sundance Film Festival, which announced its awards Saturday evening. While this is certainly a boon for European non-fiction makers, the European dramatic films in the World Cinema competition were uniformly snubbed. .
However, there was much love for European docs, which is certainly something to celebrate. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section...
by Marla LewinJohn Cooper and David Hyde Pierce opened with a hilarious wrap act to get things started.Alfred P. Sloan Award for depicting Science in Film went to OBSELIDIA by Diane Bell who said she was worried about paying her rent for the next six months and now she knows where it is coming from.The World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Documentary Film goes to ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE Directors Rob Lemkin & Thet Sambath are humbled: "we had a great purpose in making the film."...
While Amsterdam certainly boasts its own unique cast of characters that one can observe on the streets, in the stores and the coffee shops, some of the most intriguing people I met during my stay at IDFA were on the film screen. When you immerse yourself in as many films as I did (an average of four per day), one comes away with a contact high from the encounters with unique individuals with unique stories and circumstances that stay with you (with me, at least). And while I am already...
While Amsterdam certainly boasts its own unique cast of characters that one can observe on the streets, in the stores and the coffee shops, some of the most intriguing people I met during my stay at IDFA were on the film screen. When you immerse yourself in as many films as I did (an average of four per day), one comes away with a contact high from the encounters with unique individuals with unique stories and circumstances that stay with you (with me, at least). And while I am already at a new ...
Getting a prize at IDFA, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, can be of major significance to a documentary film at the start of its long journey through the Festival circuit and, hopefully, to theatrical, television and ancillary distribution. The Festival's imprimatur is highly regarded and respected in the world of programmers and festival directors, who are here in Amsterdam scouring for the best in non-fiction film.
Here is the first part of the films compet...
One World, 6th Annual Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Prague, Czech Republic, 15-22 April 2004The Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic Award for the Best Film:Arna's Children, directed by Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel ArnaDanniel, Israel, Netherlands, Palestine When you sign on as a juror for the One World International Human Rights Film Festival you know you will be meeting people whose rights are being wronged and whose stories are deeply moving. But few of us jurors expected to m...
