FEBRUARY

February 3
Ghosts of Rwanda  
(2004, 115 min., Dir. Greg Barker)

This gripping documentary was made to mark the 10th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a state-sponsored massacre in which some 800,000 people were methodically murdered by extremists as the  international community did nothing. "'Never again' was said after the Nazis. It was said after the killing fields of Cambodia. It was said after Rwanda," says Michael Sheehan, a former aide to Ambassador Albright at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in 1994. "Could it happen again? It certainly could. Will the world respond? I hope so."  You decide.

February 10
A Republic Gone Mad 
(1996, 60 min., Dir. Luc de Heusch, K. Béthune)  

As it recounts Rwanda's history from the 1885 partitioning of Africa which made it a German colony, to Belgian conquest during World War I, the creation of a republic under in 1961, and the ultimately catastrophic Habyarimana regime, A Republic Gone Mad goes further than any film available in providing the background necessary for an analysis of the horrifying genocide.

Gacaca:  Living together again in Rwanda
(2002, 55 min., Dir. Brooks, Bocahut & Aghion)

Gacaca traces a bold experiment in reconciliation: the Gacaca (Ga-CHA-cha) Tribunals, a remarkable democratization of justice. "The film captures quite precisely much of what is most compelling and unsettling about Rwanda's quest for justice after genocide." - Philip Gourevitch, author of We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, Stories from Rwanda.

SPECIAL Exclusive Engagement downtown at the Hamilton Cinema:

February 11 through February 17

Hotel Rwanda

(2004, 110 min., Dir. Terry George)

Nominated for three Academy Awards, based on a true story.  Not to be missed.

The above screenings are part of a month-long series on the Rwandan Genocide, culminating with special guest speaker: Lt.-General Roméo Dallaire, who was head of the UN Peacekeeping mission in Rwanda.

Tuesday, February 15, Love Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

February 24:  Special 9:00 Screening of

The Big Lebowski

 (1998, 117 min., Dir. Ethan Coen Joel Coen)

“The Coen brothers and their agreeable cast make more fun than sense with this scattered farce about a pothead bowler who is mistaken for a deadbeat philanthropist and drawn into a cluster of kidnapers, nihilists, porn mobsters and Busby Berkeley beauties.” is how the original promo for this film surreptitiously conveyed its subversive message of hope and peace. , it is hard to believe that people who first viewed Lebowski’s grotesque reflections on the rational irrationality of international capital and the military industrial complex actually... laughed. It is reported that the first members of the public to view the greatest anti-war film ever made were unable to distinguish anguish from irony. misunderstandings persist.  However, a responsible pedagogy of peace and conflict should be able to encompass the pacifist philosophy of dudeness. We think you can handle this, don’t let us down.   Note change of time (9 PM).

MARCH

March 3

A Funny Dirty Little War

(1983, 80 min., Dir. Hector Olivera) 

A local political dispute erupts into full blown dirty little war complete with death squads, hostages and torture.  Peron's return to power sparks a civil war in a sleepy Argentine village in this fast-paced, corrosively hilarious black comedy. Based on the novel by Osvaldo Soriano, this an ironic but ultimately tragic story. 
 

March 24
Yellow Wasps: Anatomy of a War Crime  
(1995, 70 min., Dir. Ilan Ziv) 

The Yellow Wasps was a Serbian paramilitary unit operating in Bosnia in 1992. They called themselves volunteer patriots defending their people against its many enemies. But to their victims they are criminals, sent to pillage and murder as part of a long-standing plan of naked Serbian aggression. Filmed over two years, YELLOW WASPS documents a spurious war crimes trial held in Serbia itself - a unique window into the roots of ethnic cleansing.
 

Safe Haven: The United Nations and the Betrayal of Srebrenica

(1996, 39 min., Dir. Ilan Ziv)

On July 12, 1995 the U.N. designated Safe Area of Srebrenica fell to the Bosnian Serbs. Eight thousand residents are missing - presumed killed - in perhaps the most atrocious war crime committed since World War II. The Serbian Army Commander Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic have been charged by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. But this documentary investigates the possibility of complicity - knowing or not - by the commanders of the United Nations forces in Bosnia.  "This account of dithering and bargaining in the face of misery and murder makes for a troubling indictment." - Walter Goodman, New York Times

March 31

A Child’s Century of War

(2001, 90 min., Dir. Shelley Saywell) 

 A Child’s Century of War takes the viewer on a journey through the past century, the bloodiest in history, from the perspective of children. It is an examination of the way in which modern wars have increasingly threatened and targeted children. Three contemporary conflicts are the heart of the film. Orphans of the two recent Chechen wars, children growing up on Martyr Street in Hebron (the most dangerous street in the West Bank), and the abducted, raped and amputated children of Sierra Leone. As we listen to the children, their unflinching stories throw a disturbing light on the human condition at the beginning of our new century.

APRIL 

April 7

S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine 

(2004, 105 min., Dir. Rithy Panh) 

Attempting to make peace between Cambodian torture survivors and the Khmer Rouge soldiers who brutalized them, this award-winning film looks close up at the prison camps at the heart of the Cambodian genocide of the mid-1970s. The singularity of the film lies in a confrontation between the survivors, who want to understand what happened so they can warn future generations, and the jailers, who seem stupefied as they re-live the horror to which they contributed.  Director Rithy Panh--who endured four years in a Khmer Rouge labor camp--has made a starkly memorable statement with this grueling film. “The movie is unforgettable; in its modest way, it's as horrific an exposure to evil as 'Shoah.'" - J. Hoberman, The Village Voice.

April 14
First Kill
(2001, 52 min., Dir. Coco Schrijber)  

 What is the psychology of war? Do soldiers become murderers when they enjoy killing? Is war beautiful? Are all humans capable of monstrous acts? FIRST KILL examines these and other questions, as it explores what war does to the human mind and soul.  Interviews with several Vietnam veterans evoke the contradictory feelings that killing produces - fear, hate, seduction and pleasure.  "A chilling (and timely) indictment of the human propensity for violence" - Leslie Camhi, Village Voice "Highly Recommended! Profoundly moving. A compelling portrait of the effect of warfare on the combatant." - Educational Media Reviews Online.

Vietnam: After the Fire
(110 min., 1988, Dir. J. Edward Milner)

This documentary examines the extensive damage to the Vietnamese environment and people by the war, including the bombing which cratered the landscape and left thousands of unexploded bombs, and the use of defoliants such as Agent Orange which devastated the country's eco-system The program also shows Vietnam's environmental restoration efforts, including reforestation, treating acid soil, and replacing wildlife.

April 21

Original Child Bomb

(2004, 57 min., Dir. Carey Schonegevel) 

Beautiful and disturbing, Original Child Bomb revisits  Hiroshima and Nagasaki and puts into perspective the volatile political situations of today. Using declassified footage, still images, archival film, animation, media clips, music and montage, the film is a haunting meditation on the origins of the atomic age. Based on a Thomas Merton poem of the same name, Original Child Bomb views the issues through the eyes of modern  schoolchildren as they confront the truths of the past and try to understand what it means for the future. Original Child Bomb is a powerful reminder that the atomic age is now.
 

What Farocki Taught
(1998, 31 min., Dir. Jill Godmilow)

 In 1969, German filmmaker Harun Farocki attempted to make "visible" and comprehensible the physical properties of Napalm, and to demonstrate the impossibility of resistance to its production and use. Because Farocki's film "Inextinguishable Fire" was never distributed in the U.S., Godmilow made What Farocki Taught as a way of rekindling its political message.  Godmilow prods contemporary filmmakers toward Farocki’s stance and strategies, emphasizing film’s refusal to produce the "compassionate voyeurism" of the classic documentary cinema.

April 28
About Baghdad 
(2003, 89 min., Dir. InCounter Productions)

 About Baghdad takes us on a journey into the hearts and minds of Iraqis to explore what they think and feel about the post-war situation and the complex relationship between the US and Iraq. "About Baghdad is a stunning achievement, at once soulful and analytical, a  veritable ode to Iraq…. Given the absence of Iraqi people speaking on the American media, About Baghdad provides a refreshing polyphony of Iraqi voices… Interweaving a variety of Iraqi traditional songs to underscore a point or to illuminate the painfully absurd aspects of Iraqi existence, this chronicle of a 2003 summer visit to Baghdad turns the film into an unforgettable instance of contemporary cinema verite." -  Professor Ella Habiba Shohat, New York University.
 

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