When's the last time a film about a mayor got your pulse racing? For attendees of the recent Human Rights Watch Film Festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the answer must be Life Is Sacred, Andreas Dalsgaard's portrait of Antanas Mockus. And before that, it was surely Dalsgaard's 2009 documentary Cities on Speed: Bogota Change. That too centered on heady, twinkle-eyed Mockus.
The two-time mayor of Bogota is perhaps best summed up by the caped persona he playfully assumed...
Human Rights Watch is one of the largest and most influential independent international human rights organizations. It has been carrying out global research on virtually all violations of human rights and published empirically based and verified reports about these violations. A most recent example is Human Rights Watch identification through photos and satellite images of war crimes committed by Jihadists in the rogue ‘Islamic State’. These reports have been influencing decision mak...
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 ...
Director: See Woo Kim.
A brother and a sister who were bereaved of their
parents in early adolescence…Beside an older brother,
Bada, a blind, deaf-mute sister, Hanul, has been living
hopelessly…In the world of complete darkness, Bada has
been the only light for Hanul…As for Hanul, her brother
is the only small door through which she can communicate
with the world…All of a sudden, Bada is driven to
despair after he realized his sister’ imminent death…#
and Hanul gradually falls in love with Bada…then
eventually, they come to have physical relationship,
contravening a social norm…"
by Sandy Mandelberger, Film New York Editor
These challenging times call for courage, determination and a selflessness that was woefully out of fashion in the Me-Me-Me Decade that preceded the worldwide economic collapse. That there is potential for the global community to learn from its mistakes is always a hopeful sign (although let us remember that the Great Depression was followed almost immediately by its antidote, World War II). When this moral courage needs to be inspired i...
Wednesday, June 13--------With the US at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the crumbling situation in the Middle East and our own citizens rights under fire in the homeland, the films of this year's Human Rights Watch International Film Festival are simply required viewing for informed New Yorkers. The humanitarian group Human Rights Watch and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will celebrate the courage, resourcefulness and advocacy of the many filmmakers who tackle the world’s most pressing...
