International Community Film Festival Archive 2008

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The International Community Film Festival 2008

Patron: Baroness Falkner of Margravine 

The second International Community Film Festival was held at The University of Northampton 11^th September – 12th October 2008. The festival featured a selection from over 100 films sent to us from twenty countries. Several films included in the opening night presented issues of conflict, peace and violence. They remind us of an ongoing cycle of terror, aggression and dogma that 9/11 is an occasion to commemorate.

But the stories selected by our film-makers were primarily concerned with the people behind the headlines, and by the work that they are undertaking to improve their community-life. The directors find ugliness and beauty; a sense of visual poetry often reminds us of compassionate and redeeming human qualities. A sense of hope, based in collective action, comes through more powerfully than the familiar portraits of tragic situations and political deadlock.

We find evidence that individuals and community groups are taking up the camera rather than the gun as the best tool to fight for a better world. One example of new media being used to reflect and reform the world is the Network of Community Video Units in India:

“We will show our lanes, our slums and our issues. We will not show our problems, we will show our struggles and our victories … You will get information about our slums. It will have your words, your voices, which we will present through Hamari Awaaz (Our Voice).”

We hope you enjoyed the films presented at the ICFF 2008 launch event. (Prof Ian McCormick)

Race and Diversity/ War and Conflict

1pm – 4 pm on Thurs 25th Sept; The Avenue Cinema

13:00	Red Terror	Joel Jonsson	Sweden	15:00
13:15	Lights	Reem Al Ghazzi	Syria	4:00
13:19	Tuesday at the Grand	Chris Taylor	UK	10:00
13:30	Little Babel	Idhebor Kagho Crowther	Nigeria	11:00
13:42	Te Whare	Richard Green	Aotearoa (NZ)	31:00
14:15	Survivor	Nicole Volavka	UK	14:00
14:30	Something Invisible	Ryuichi Hiraishi	Japan	37:00
15:08	Perceptions	Ali M. Ali	Nigeria	10:24
15:19	Furrows -  The Pain of Memory	Nawafeth Youth Forum/zaLa	Palestine and Italy	24:30

13:00

Red Terror

Joel Jonsson

Sweden

15:00

Red Terror tells the story of an Ethiopian family in the 1975 revolution. During the time of the Red Terror the Ethiopian army forced every first born male to join the battle against the rebellious liberation front. Scared of the ruthless dictatorship Mahari sends his son Alemu away to hide from the military forces. But when the army arrives and finds the son gone, they take Mahari instead; leaving behind his wife and his younger son Tatek.

Unable to bear this burden, Alemu trades himself for his father and joins the army while Mahari reunites with his family. In a twist of fate the army returns to the village presenting the dead body of Alemu to the village, to make clear how they handle disobedience. This leaves Mahari with a tough decision to make.
http://www.mandy.com/1/film3.cfm?id=11007

13:15

Lights

Reem Al Ghazzi

Syria

4:00

It’s about a place without its basic needs of living,

But it’s also about People with hope and courage.

A whole community live in a hard condition, and get used to it,

But what about their future; their children?

It’s about a place where there is no electricity but it is full of Lights …

It has its own kind of Light.

13:19

Tuesday at the Grand

Chris Taylor

UK

10:00

'Tuesday at the Grand' illustrates the personal traumas and struggles faced by young asylum-seekers in and around the complex of a successful hotel.

This setting infused the film with a familiarity that provided a framework to then explore issues that may be alien to British citizens.

By contrasting the comfort of the British workers with the issues faced by the young people 'Tuesday at the Grand' is able to subtly help its audience to recognise that these troubles are encountered on their own doorstep and not simply in the headlines.

http://www.superkrush.com/community/community-tuesday-at-the-grand.php

13:30

Little Babel

Idhebor Kagho Crowther

Nigeria

11:00

Hot spot social drama about 4 young and easy living Southerners who find themselves in the cultural melting pot, Jos in the middle of 2001. Not familiar with the local dialect (Hausa) they get mixed up in a fight with a local suya seller, which stemmed from a controversial pun on halla. Confusing the word to mean a derogatory attack on his faith, the suya seller takes offence and moves in for the kill, fanning the flames for an ethnic/religious conflict. The film gives an insight of what can easily give birth to ethnic crises in this part of the world and it is due to these little misunderstandings, which can easily be avoided, if we give way to peace to prevail.

13:42

Te Whare

Richard Green

Aotearoa (NZ)

31:00

This parable explores the relationship of Tangata Whenua (people of the land - Maori) and Europeans who signed The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 confirming Maori Tino Rangatiratanga (Sovereignty) and Crown Governance. Te Whare sees Hone opening his home to his friend Richard who has just broken up with his girlfriend and need a place to stay. Initially the relationship is positive, but slowly Richard invites his own friends to come to the house and by film's end Hone finds himself on the couch - a guest in his own home. The film parallels the experience of Maori and many other indigenous peoples who have experienced the devastation of colonization.

14:15

Survivor

Nicole Volavka

UK

14:00

What happens when a Rwandan genocide survivor meets a young man from Darfur? This is a tale of a friendship made on fragile emotional grounds. A subtle treatment of a complex subject, set in the world of London’s night cleaners. Survivor is based upon the Director’s experiences living in Rwanda whilst working on the feature film Shooting Dogs…

14:30

Something Invisible

Ryuichi Hiraishi

Japan

37:00

About 4 months before the atomic bomb, there was the last ground battle between Japan and the US/UK. It was the battle of Okinawa. Yomitan village in Okinawa was where the US soldiers first landed for the battle. In this village there is a cave called Chibi-chili-Gama. 143 civilians were in the cave to protect them from the bombing. For a long time after the war, the survivors had been silent about what happened in the cave. It had been a taboo in this community. This document tells the story of what happened in the cave, how it happened, and why it happened.

15:08

Perceptions

Ali M. Ali

Nigeria

10:24

Nigeria, a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society has three major ethnic groups; Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. These three ethnic groups characterize the three major regions of the country (North, East and West), thus defining the behaviours and outlooks of the life of the people. The diversities of these three languages has made it possible for each to have its own perceptions about the others thereby creating a mixture of perceptions that is very important in defining the picture and story of the Nigerian nationhood and the struggle of its people to understand their differences for better co-existence and respect for each other.

15:19

Furrows -  The Pain of Memory

Nawafeth Youth Forum/zaLa

Palestine and Italy

24:30

Furrows on an old people’s face. Furrows on the fields.

Wounds. Maybe fertile.

Or maybe just carrying the weight of memory – that is, in Palestine, sometime oppressive. Memory that shapes a public, sometimes obsessive, victim’s identity.

We’ve searched for a different way to listen.

We were looking for histories, not History.

In a village in which nearly the entire population is formed by refugees, a community film crew’s job is to listen, to save, to challenge collective memory.

In a country in which memory is a soldier in the conflict, sharing memories can be a step in a path toward peace.

 

Thursday 2^nd October 2008

16.00-17.42 @ The Avenue Cinema

16:00	Brad: One More Night on the Barricades	Miguel Castro	Brazil	55:00 Boardroom
16:00	Trouble Sleeping	Robert Rae	UK	1:42:00

16:00

Brad: One More Night on the Barricades

Miguel Castro

Brazil

55:00 Boardroom

When Mexican paramilitary forces shot Brad Will in the chest (27^th October 2006), killing him, his camera fell from his hands. But it didn't stop recording. It continued moving from hand to hand, telling Brad's story, as well as the story of the movement of movements that he was a part of. From the squats of New York to the forests of Oregon, from the anti-globalization protests in Seattle, Prague, Quebec to the popular uprising in Oaxaca, Brad's camera paints us a picture of what his life was about, and what so many of his friends continue to struggle for.

16:00

Trouble Sleeping

Robert Rae

UK

1:42.00

Trouble Sleeping was the brainchild of Robert Rae, artistic director of the Edinburgh Theatre Workshop. ‘It was an opportunity to tell a story from their perspective,’ he said. ‘For refugees escaping political persecution, the fact they are political makes them committed to where they come from. To go into a strange world and a strange culture is tough.’ Rae hand-picked a team of writers with direct experience of the issues facing refugees in Scotland’s capital, including Edinburgh-based Palestinian playwright Ghazi Hussein. ‘We listened to each other’s stories and made them into a fairly coherent, complex narrative,’ Rae explained.
One character has been refused asylum so turns to a woman friend for help - although if she does help him her own life will be ruined. It also features an Iranian who poses as a gay man in order to claim refugee status while disguising the fact from his Iranian friends that he really is a homosexual. ‘Although it is fictionalised, everything is true and the individual refugees are often playing their own stories,’ says Rae. ‘You can have a legitimate claim to asylum but through lack of communication skills you can find yourself being deported. ‘Security forces say on their websites that in many situations if they can’t deport someone because they have no evidence then they will do it on the basis of non-compliance. ‘So people coming here are faced with a really complex legal challenge in a different language and documents written with a different script. And they have to try to represent what happened to them. I hope people see the film and look at the world through their eyes.’
Producer Eddie Dick believes Trouble Sleeping is a wake-up call to people who are hostile towards asylum seekers and to politicians seeking to grant longer detention powers to the police. ‘How can we sleep soundly unless we treat these people equitably and fairly?’ he asked. ‘It is something urgent for us to deal with on a human level, not in terms of extending detention to 42 days or charging people when they are not even allowed to know the charge against them.’
Rae persuaded professional actors Gary Lewis, Alia Alzuogbi, Alison Peebles and Nabil Shaban to work alongside the amateurs, but there is no question of who the real stars are. However, some of the refugees involved wish to keep a low profile, fearing that their families might be persecuted in their home countries. One of the few actors willing to speak was Waseem Uboaklain, 38, who worked as an aircraft engineer in Palestine but now runs a cafe in Edinburgh: ‘Scottish people are generally very welcoming, but only after they know you. Perhaps a film like this will give more people an idea of who asylum seekers are.’

21.15-22.00 The Film Lab @ The Picturedrome

Selection of films from Community Video Units in India and from local film makers in Northampon UK.

 

Health, Education, Arts

16.00-18.30 pmThursday 9th October 2008

16:00	Tanvir’s Travelogue	Ranjan Kamath	India	78:00 Boardroom
16:30	Securing Livelihoods: Fighting HIV and AIDS	VSO	UK & Mozambique	3:41
17:18	1000 Journals	Andrea Kreuzhage	USA	88:00 Boardroom
16:34	Penye Nia Pana Njia	Derek Thorne	Tanzania	18:17
16:52	My Life as a Carer	Jay Robinson	UK	29:00
17:30	Turnabout: The Story of the Yale Puppeteers	Dan Bessie	USA	58:00
17:30	My Time My Space	Philippa Forsey	UK	5:30 Foyer
17:36	Fit for Life	Philippa Forsey	UK	5:30 Foyer

17:30	My Time My Space	Philippa Forsey	UK	Foyer
17:36	Fit for Life	Philippa Forsey	UK	Foyer

My time My Space highlights NESA’s creative work with women experiencing post-natal depression, enabling their journey towards recovery. This project enables women to increase their self-confidence and self-esteem using the creative arts as an inspirational tool. Participants are able to determine their own artistic outcomes and encouraged to develop their own interests and skills. The project shows the progression of individuals on their creative path.

Fit for Life highlights NESA’s creative work with school children emphasizing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Norton Radstock has some of the highest levels of obesity in Bath and the North East Somerset and the range of creative activities on offer encouraged physical and creative engagement in exploring healthy lifestyles.

16:00

Tanvir’s Travelogue

Ranjan Kamath

India

78:00 Boardroom

Tanvir Ka Safarnama is the enthralling theatrical journey that happens when a pipe-smoking urban sophisticate like Habib Tanvir travels via Europe to return to his homeland - in Chhattisgarh - to create an essentially Indian theatre. Working with unschooled, uneducated villagers, living together as a family over 50 years, Tanvir has ploughed a lonely furrow to produce theatrical masterpieces. His adaptations of Shakespeare, Brecht and Indian Sanskrit classics have regaled audiences around the world with humour and humanism. This film joins the joys, trials and tribulations of Habib Tanvir and Naya Theatre on the road over two years.

16:30

Securing Livelihoods: Fighting HIV and AIDS

VSO

UK & Mozambique

3:41

Many communities in Mozambique struggle to feed themselves. The problem isn’t purely a lack of food: lack of access to markets, seasonal variations and underlying poverty contributes to what is termed ‘food insecurity’. At the same time, 14.5% of the population in Mozambique is HIV positive. Life expectancy is expected to drop to 35 years by 2010. Already vulnerable, the people have no guarantee they will be able to feed themselves over time – in other words they are food insecure – because their crops are periodically destroyed by drought and flooding.

This has created a cycle of poverty that two VSO volunteers, Maryrose Ikumi from Kenya and Rosemarie Obana from The Philippines, are trying to break, working with the Association of Agriculture and Livestock Technicians to tackle the issues together. Maryrose, who specializes in HIV & AIDS says:

“In rural areas, when you want to do an HIV project, it is difficult to talk to people about HIV, as their main problem is that there is no rain or food. So we approach food security and HIV together, giving people seeds to grow their own food and explaining the importance of growing nutritious food.
We take community educators to our centre and they stay there for five days while we train them on HIV & AIDS, micro-enterprise and nutritional issues. Then when they come back to the community, they disseminate the information. That way we are building up knowledge, and increasing the possibility of open discussions on HIV & AIDS issues.” Rosemarie, an agricultural small business adviser says, “As part of my job, I go out to the fields to check the plants that the communities are growing, to see if we can improve the way they plant the crop and make production better.” Such has been their success that both Maryrose and Rosemarie have extended their placements beyond the original two years they started in 2002. Maryrose says: “I’ve seen a change in the community – people can talk about condoms now, though it was taboo before, especially in front of a crowd. When people have educators within their own community, they know them and listen to them. That’s why we believe in training people in the community so people don’t depend on us.”

The presence of the volunteers has reaped other social changes too. “When I arrived in 2002, most of my colleagues were surprised to see that I was brown and a woman. They thought women were supposed to sit and say nothing, but now the women express themselves more and their suggestions are considered,” says Rosemarie. 

17:18

1000 Journals

Andrea Kreuzhage

USA

88:00 Boardroom

The 1000 Journals Project is an ongoing collaborative experiment attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels. The goal is to provide a method for interaction and shared creativity among friends and strangers.

How it Works: Those who find the journals add something to them. A story, drawing, photograph, anything really. Then they pass the journal along, to a friend or stranger, and the adventure continues. Unfortunately, you've got a better chance of winning the lottery, then of getting a hold of a journal. That's the problem when there are only 1000 of them. Now, you're best bet is to check out 1001 Journals where you can sign up for a journal, or launch your own traveling, location, or personal journals. You can also check out the new book, which contains entries from journals around the world. It looks just like a journal, has these crazy stitched pages inside.

16:34

Penye Nia Pana Njia

Derek Thorne

Tanzania

18:17

Written and filmed by six young people at the FolkDevelopmentCollege in Iringa, which is a vocational training college.

Penye Nia Pana Njia translates as ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’. This drama follows the story of two young people, one boy and one girl, as they try to make money and get ahead in life. The boy finds he can’t get a good job without the necessary education certificate; but where can he find the money to get more education? Meanwhile, the girl works in a bar and wonders whether her terrible working conditions are worth putting up with.

16:52

My Life as a Carer

Jay Robinson

UK

29:00

My Life as a carer is a moving and uplifting film that features carers and young carers speaking about what their role means for them, the impact on their lives of caring for a relative with a long term illness or disability and the strength and support to be found from other people in the same position.

17:30

Turnabout: The Story of the Yale Puppeteers

Dan Bessie

USA

58:00

“This is a brilliantly, sweet film that offers a slice of history not easily accessible to most. Written and produced by the Yale Puppeteers' nephew, the viewer has a chance to witness, thanks to this film, the puppeteers passions, work and lives in the context of a time that just wasn't ready for them. A bit eccentric, certainly off beat and creative, the puppeteers and their story - as well as their place in history - is meticulously documented and tugs at the heartstrings. Politics, love, a despicable era in US history, theater, music, creativity and two unusual personalities shape this film in an wondrous way. I love it. It's one understated film that stays in your head for myriad reasons.” (Internet Movie Database)

Films about the Environment

Friday 10th Oct 2pm-8.30 pm @ The Avenue Cinema

14:00	Polis Is This	Henry Ferrini	US	56:48
14:57	Crafta Webb	Adrian Lambert	UK	40:00
15:37	Organic Farming	AWFT	Zimbabwe	10:16
15:48	Bike2OZ	Paul O’Connor	Ireland	34:00
16:17	Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea	Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer	USA	58:10
17:20	The Rising Wave	Yask Desai/Shweta Kishore	Australia	65:00
18:25	We are the City	Jam Vafai	USA	18:00
18:43	Garbage In	Pithon G. Muchoki	Kenya	13:26
18:56	The Source	Martin Maracek	CzechRepublic	75:00

Further Information:

14:00

Polis Is This

Henry Ferrini

US

56:48

Polis is This wrestles with the six foot eight inch 275lb colossus of poetry. Charles Olson, in the squared circle of understanding. Through never before seen footage and interviews actor John Malkovich leads an all-star unit in a search and explore mission.

Olson, the "big fire source" for a restless generation of poets known as The Beats stands more revealed than ever before. Through Ferrini's poetry-in-motion lens, viewers can now see Olson's landscapes through the fresh eyes of America's Archaeologist of Morning.

"Sublime...simply stunning" says Author Jim Harrison. "An invaluable contribution to our literature" notes Russell Banks.

Charles Olson the "original aboriginal" fights to save his town from so-called progress as the bullzoder of change rumbles down Main Street USA.

His challenge to us? We must either rediscover the earth or leave it. Have we all become estranged from that which is most familiar? See Polis Is This before the cultural wetlands are completely drained and maybe you can save the place where you live.

14:57

Crafta Webb

Adrian Lambert

UK

40:00

When 11-year old Anna finds herself dumped in the English countryside to start a new life, it’s one she’s sure she never asked for or ever really wanted. Alone and isolated, she wanders the empty lanes until a chance meeting creates an unlikely friendship that reveals the story of Crafta Webb. Three Herefordshire villages embarked in this ambitious community film project with the Rural Media Company to attempt to discover the story of Crafta Webb and its legacy. The result is a powerful new drama devised and performed by the local community that captures the spirit of this mythical village.

15:37

Organic Farming

AWFT

Zimbabwe

10:16

Africa Women Filmmakers Trust (AWFT) was launched in 1992 by a group of young Zimbabwean women who were moved by a desire for a more inclusive and democratic audio-visual landscape. See ‘Participatory Video’ screening on 11^th September for more information.

15:48

Bike2OZ

Paul O’Connor

Ireland

34:00

Bike2Oz is the the epic adventure of a young school teacher and a train worker in Oxford. After teaching her pupils about global warming, Lowanna decided she couldn't risk damaging the climate by flying home to Australia. With her partner Kevin, the couple travel the 12,000km to Sydney using only sustainable transport- the train, bicycle and cargo ship.Pedalling through 16 countries over 485 days, the couple joined in Car Free day in Italy, escaped arrest in Iran, got groped in Pakistan and fell ill in India.
Their journey brought them through storm ravaged forests in France, torrential downpours in the Mediterranean and severe drought in Iran.
The effects of Climate Change could be seen everywhere they went.

16:17

Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer

USA

58:10

“Fabulously offbeat and refreshingly upbeat, this lovable film gets friendly with the natives of the Salton Sea, an inland ocean of massive fish kills, rotting resorts, and 120 degree nights located just minutes from urban Southern California. This award-winning film from directors Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer details the rise and fall of the Salton Sea, from its heyday as the "California Riviera" where boaters and Beach Boys mingled in paradise to its present state as a decaying, forgotten ecological disaster. From wonderland to wasteland, PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA captures a place far more interesting than the shopping malls and parking lots of suburban America, a wacky world where a beer-swilling Hungarian Revolutionary, a geriatric nudist, and a religious zealot building a monument to God all find solace and community. Crisply and hilariously narrated by oddball auteur John Waters, and featuring music by desert lounge rockers Friends of Dean Martinez, PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA melds high camp with stark realism, offering both a sobering message about the consequences of tampering with nature and a heart-warming tale of individualism.”

17:20

The Rising Wave

Yask Desai/Shweta Kishore

Australia

65:00

In India water has a deep spiritual and functional significance. The Rising Wave explores water, both as a sacred element and as a common resource essential for survival and generating livlihoods. The film eloquently presents a culture built on water being shared, used and managed in ways unchanged for centuries. Richly filmed in three different states of India, The Rising Wave uncovers groups that have been dependant on their local natural water resource for generations as they fish and farm for livelihood. In the rapidly transforming economy of India, corporations now lay claim to control and determine access to this natural resource.  A contrasting picture emerges; a contrast between the two divergent views of water; water as a billion dollar industry against water as a sacred natural gift for all humankind. This spells conflict for the future. Renowned ecologist Vandana Shiva interprets the current situation.

18:25

We are the City

Jam Vafai

USA

18:00

We Are the City: Voices from the West Side was one of the four documentaries screened as part of Channels - Stories from the Niagara Frontier, a new community based documentary production program of SqueakyWheelMediaArtsCenter. The four documentaries demonstrated a unique and affirmatively strong perspective of the city to its residents like Kevin. "We are the city", the voices from West Side can be applied to the whole city of Buffalo facing confusions towards future development, as one of the community worker interviewed in the documentary said, "We want to make residents believe that they should do something for their own neighbourhood, instead of waiting for people to fix the problems, because it will take forever for other people to fix the problems, maybe never." Looking at the four groups of people already doing it, the message was clear to the audience. As Kevin said after the screening, "Now I feel the urge to really get involved into my neighbourhood activities."

18:43

Garbage In

Pithon G. Muchoki

Kenya

13:26

A documentary highlighting littering as a social menace that is threatening to harm the environment and also cause harm to the Embu. The documentary showcases those responsible for keeping the environment clean and how at it is in the end the Embu locals who will ensure a clean environment and good littering habits.

18:56

The Source

Martin Maracek

CzechRepublic

75:00

Documentary filmmaker Martin Marecek´s and activist Martin Skalský´s film opens with an animated sequence that illustrates in shorthand the road from the mining fields of Baku to the full fuel tank, to the real price of oil. Contemporary Azerbaijan is implicitly undemocratic, with a strong presidential system and clan mentality, exploited by Western corporations.

Looking at the broader context, the film explores the project of oil pipelines supported by the World Bank. The documentary is the first filmic output of the extensive social project Auto*Mat, which confronts various forms of human mobility.

While the power of the heir to the presidential throne Ilham Alyiev is satirized by the straightforward image of the matrushka dolls, each concealing another one (concealing, too, wilful arrests and torture of local opposition), one of the key motifs of the film is – aside from the portrayal of the irony of the symbols of power floating over the disconsolate social landscape, or tokens of civic resistance – to unmask the use of language, where the idioms of the Communist apparatchiks are used to convey the message of globalization.

The authoritarian use of language defending the benefits of global corporations anticipates the control of a certain territory by ownership without context, where there is no responsibility towards the borders of local culture, which is often also the border of local language. In an unknown and unspecified language of the new power, there thus merge the residue of communist totalitarianism and the imperial ambitions of expanding capital, non-concrete and non-committant, which aptly reminds us of the waning power of individual countries to decide their fate.

The oil stain thus mirrors a new, updated version of capitalism, a neo-liberal challenge that is the driving power of rapid social, political and economic changes. But what to do with those who don't want things that way? Entertain them to death, or throw them in jail.
Auteur documentary by Martin Marecek and Martin Skalský. Baku in Azerbaijan, the site of the world’s first oil well, is once again becoming a focus for foreign investors eager to exploit the country’s vast oil riches. “Source” traces the pipeline from our commuter highways back to this surreal and sinister landscape on which our way of life depends, where cows graze on polluted land and children play in toxic gunge. With three quarters of the population living under the poverty line, the country’s post-Soviet government is promising oil will turn Azerbaijan into a ‘real country’, a prosperous and flourishing ‘New Kuwait’.

 

People and Places

Sunday 12^th October 2008, 1-5:15 pm @ The Avenue Cinema

13:00	“600”	James Z. Feng	Chinese- American	7:19
13:08	Unity day	Kenneth Yates	UK	13:50
13:22	One Day in Northampton	Rob Farmer	UK	30:00
13:52	Four Stories	Derek Thorne	Tanzania	19:04
14:22	Common Thread	Akira I Thompson	US	7:20
14:30	Photographing Shenzhen	Yu Tiangqi	China	25:00
14:55	Building the Future Together	AWFT	Zimbabwe	14:42
15:20	A Journey of Faith	Rebecca Ohene-Asah	Ghana	35:00
16:00	Before Nine	Hana Abdul	Canada	26:00
16:26	Freedom Ain’t Free	Chocolate Films / FLM	UK	9:24
16:36	Lil’ Red	NDCS/FLM	UK	5:21
17:00	Uswazi	Derek Thorne	Tanzania	14:05

Further Information

13:00

“600”

James Z. Feng

Chinese- American

7:19

Winner of 2 awards at Shanghai Short Film Festival: Best Actor + 2nd Best Film. James Z. Feng's movie about life in a new country after a few years. Questioning life decisions and soul searching. James Z. Feng is a new Asian-American filmmaker talent and this is his first film. This film is currently sent out to many festivals(17), many are Asian-American film festivals all across USA

13:08

Unity day

Kenneth Yates

UK

13:50

Unity Day is an annual event held on Hyde Park Leeds, planned, organised, and staged by the local community of the Leeds 6 Area. After a devastating riot in 1996 the community united with the aim of providing a focal point top showcase the skills and talent of local people. This film features interviews volunteers involved and footage of the whole fun day.

13:22

One Day in Northampton

Rob Farmer

UK

30:00

Celebrates the work of a group of ethically minded volunteers who organised the 2007 Umbrella Fair Festival in Abington park, Northampton. The purpose of the festival was to promote the issues of environmental awareness, economic sustainability and the local community in Northampton, and the festival featured music, poetry, storytelling, art and crafts from local people, all of whom gave their time for free in order to support the event. The film begins in the early hours of the morning of the festival, with the arrival of first people on site, and goes on to document the work of the volunteers throughout the day and into the evening as they strive to make the event a success.

13:52

Four Stories

Derek Thorne

Tanzania

19:04

Written and filmed by four young deaf people who work at Neema Crafts in Iringa. Neema Crafts is an organisation set up by the Anglican Church which provides employment for people who are deaf and people with disabilities.

The film features four young deaf people – Godfrey, Eliza, Modestus and Zawadi – telling their life stories in Swahili sign language. They talk about childhood, education, employment, and how they have worked to earn the respect of those around them.

14:22

Common Thread

Akira I Thompson

US

7:20

A young boy travels from his village to a large city market, where he discovers a world he didn’t know. Upon his return to attempts to share what he has discovered and create change, but will the older generation accept these new ideas?

14:30

Photographing Shenzhen

Yu Tiangqi

China

25:00

This documentary has been awarded the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Documentary at Screentest 2008-UK’s national student film festival. It has also been broadcast by Discovery Network Asia.
The film is a journey through time and space, chronicling her father, an established Chinese social photographer, Yu Haibo, as for more than two decades he has been capturing the social transformation of Shenzhen, the fast developing young city built up by migrants in three decades and among the first cities open to the world in modern China. It is also a personal journey of her own as she has herself migrated to Shenzhen with her family at the age of 9.

14:55

Building the Future Together

AWFT

Zimbabwe

14:42

Africa Women Filmmakers Trust (AWFT) was launched in 1992 by a group of young Zimbabwean women who were moved by a desire for a more inclusive and democratic audio-visual landscape. See ‘Participatory Video’ screening on 11^th September for more information.

15:20

A Journey of Faith

Rebecca Ohene-Asah

Ghana

35:00

The true story of Janet Obobigu, born in a poor Navarongo community, upper-East Ghana. Unable to go to school due to the difficult economic conditions, Janet joins the dangerous head-potter business, where young girls carry loads throughout the day for a little fee. Quite often these girls are abused by clients or street boys. With hard work and determination she goes through basic education, establishes a business, employs and trains the youth in various aspects of textile designing. She is recognised internationally. The film was produced by a four – member crew in Ghana for the ILO.

16:00

Before Nine

Hana Abdul

Canada

26:00

Before Nine is a short fiction that explores issues of identity among Canadians who are subject to racism, alienation and gentrification. It is also a story about friendship and the ways in which sexual and ethnic differences can serve to bind people together in hostile environments - such can be the Canadian urban landscape. Award-winning filmmaker Hana Abdul is a Torontonian writer/director/producer. Her short films have screened in festivals across the country as well as in the US, UK, Spain and South Africa. Hana is currently working on her second television documentary.

16:26

Freedom Ain’t Free

Chocolate Films / FLM

UK

9:24

Influence by the work of artists Jennifer and Kevin McCoy a group of 16 to 18-year-olds created this powerful docu-drama focusing on individuals’ troubling stories as their worlds collide when ordering food in a chicken restaurant. From near-fatal stabbings and mistaken arrests to parents being deported the young people share their pretty harrowing tales with the camera.

16:50

Lil’ Red

NDCS/FLM

UK

5:21

Lil’ Red is a group of eight 13-18 yr old contemporary version of the classic fairytale Little Red Riding hood. Punctuated with imagery and words from the original story Lil’ Red brings together a world of internet chat rooms and teenage relationships to create a modern day morality tale with a dark twist of an ending.

16:56

Uswazi

Derek Thorne

Tanzania

14:05

Written and filmed by six young people from the Makolongoni ward of Iringa.

This is a visual dictionary of Tanzanian slang, in which five young people select five popular slang words and explain their meanings by using drama and interviews. There’s a word for gossip, words for boys and girls who like to party, and even a word for someone who likes to ‘get full by using cunning’.

Programme for the Opening Night – 11 September 2008

18:00	Crack	Reem Al Ghazzi	Syria	4:13
18:05	Under The Same Roof	Nawafeth Youth Forum/zaLa	Palestine & Italy	19:17
18:25	The Wiener Library	The Media Trust	UK	4:00
18:29	Participatory Video	AWFT	Zimbabwe	6:16
18:35	The Forgiveness Project	The Media Trust	UK	4:00
18:41	Children Need Playgrounds	Samvad/ Community Video Unit Gujarat	India	6:00
18:47	Harmony	Sakshi Media/ Community Video Unit, Gujarat	India	6:00

 

Further Information

18:00

Crack

Reem Al Ghazzi

Syria

4:13

A man separated from his life by a closed shop door, and his son, by a prison door.

In a City

Where there could be millions of doors …

Millions of stories … and possibilities …

The closure of one small laundry shop says it all.

Where  a man closes the door that earns him money …

When a Self stands behind a door …

On the borderline of need and desire:

          “secrets and losses become familiar friends”

When the eyes tell it all and the music fills the soul,

Then it’s a crack …

                   In the soul

                   In the door,

                   In the self,

                   & in the City.

18:05

Under The Same Roof

Nawafeth Youth Forum/zaLa

Palestine and Italy

19:17

“Mohamed and Taghreed live in Biddu, a village which is soon going to be enclosed by a wall. Mohamed spends his days on the streets and playing pool. He left school, and no longer believes in a possible future since a roof is the only missing element to definitively close his people in a cage. Taghreed stays at home: she can’t continue her studies because she doesn’t have a permit to cross the wall. Conflict emerges both in their daily life and in their stories. The film was produced thanks to a co-operative effort focussed on opening windows through the wall. It is the first story that comes out of the window. The film won the Pieve Corto Concorso Festival  and was selected for Sole Luna Festival (Italy) and Inventario (Spain).”

“The author of these films is an independent, youth-led, grassroots youth centre. His name is Nawafeth, which in Arabic means openings. And to open windows in the Wall is the main goal for the centre. It runs English, music, photography and painting courses; it also runs afternoon lectures for students preparing exams for secondary school, and it animates a project on human rights.”

 

18:25

The Wiener Library

The Media Trust

UK

4:00

 “If we don’t save our history it will perish”

“The Wiener Library is one of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era. Formed in 1933, the Library’s unique collection of over one million items includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony.

18:29

Participatory Video

AWFT

Zimbabwe

6:16

Africa Women Filmmakers Trust (AWFT) was launched in 1992 by a group of young Zimbabwean women who were moved by a desire for a more inclusive and democratic audio-visual landscape. The founder members, among them, Tendai Munawa, Rebecca Kapenzi and Chido Matewa had no experience of using participatory video. There was also no institution in the country or region to their knowledge using it, hence no point of reference. The founder members were exposed to propaganda mobile films by the then Ministry of Information during the colonial era. They had therefore witnessed how the tool had been effective in maintaining the status quo (Cruz, 1999). Africa Women Filmmakers Trust founders, based on their experiences, looked at ways the same media could be used for the empowerment of the marginalised rural communities. Inspired and encouraged by the late Reverend Stephen Matewa who was also an educationist and development activist, Africa Women Filmmakers Trust was launched. The project therefore believed in an ecumenism, which sought to combine the spiritual and material to develop a whole person in the target groups. Such a philosophy it was believed, would contribute immensely to the emphasis of development as an enterprise in favour of the poor. This firmly anchored on its concerns in the political, social and economic circumstances under which AWFT found itself (AWFT Project Document, Undated:3). The founder members observed that Media Women were greatly marginalised and lacked the means to produce programmes highlighting issues of concern to women. The 'Trust' therefore hoped to establish a production house which media women could access at nominal fees. Establishment of a production house would also give women an opportunity to control and manage a media institution whose major aim was the production of programmes highlighting issues of interest and concern to women. The participatory approach was to be adopted in the production of these programmes. However, neither the participatory process nor the extent to which the targeted communities were to have a say in the project was defined in the project document.

18:35

Forgiveness Project

The Media Trust

UK

4:00

The Forgiveness Project is a charitable organisation which explores forgiveness, reconciliation and conflict resolution through real-life human experience.
We use stories, and in particular our powerful exhibition The F Word, to open up a dialogue and promote understanding. Many of those whose voices are celebrated on this website, also share their stories in person. We work in prisons, schools, faith communities, and with any group who want to explore the nature of forgiveness whether in the wider political context or within their own lives. Aims:

1. Awareness – raise the debate by collecting and sharing personal stories (and images)
2. Education – encourage and empower people to explore the nature of forgiveness and alternatives to conflict and revenge
3. Inspiration – engage civil society, as well as transform hearts and minds

If you would like to hire The F Word Exhibition or book speakers, info@theforgivenessproject.com

18:41

Children Need Playgrounds

Samvad/ CVU Gujarat

India

6:00

“We will show our lanes, our slums and our issues. We will not show our problems, we will show our struggles and our victories … You will get information about our slums. It will have your words, your voices, which we will present through Hamari Awaaz (Our Voice).”  This is the message of the Community Video Unit Hamari Awaaz, which is one of a number of Community Video Units in India set up by different local NGOs in partnership with two media organizations, Drishti (www.drishtimedia.org) and Video Volunteers (www.videovolunteers.org.)

“Every eight weeks each Community Video Unit makes a new video, on a topic decided by the community, and then they screen it on wide screen projectors. Between 150-400 people come each night to the screenings. This approach bridges the literacy barrier, and communicates to people in the visual medium they like best. Finally it promotes community-led change, through focussed discussions and follow-ups with audiences around a Call to Action in community screenings that often reach the majority of villages and slums.”
“Through the establishment of Community Video Units in which the disenfranchised produce and distribute their own locally relevant video programs, we empower local communities to lead, connect and change, and then voice their issues to a global audience. With a five-year goal of training more than 200 Community Video Producers on four continents, Drishti and Video Volunteersaim to transform the global media landscape by enabling those who are currently excluded to be seen and heard around the world.”
“Samvad did a month long video workshop with slum children to build loyalty with their fellow slum residents, who paid a small fee for their children to participate. The children made a film demanding playgrounds in their areas, because playing in the streets [they] get harassed by adults or hurt in road accidents. The children took the video to the Collector who agreed to act on their request, which became a great lesson in civic engagement for the children and their families. The video is now being screened on schools throughout the city and the kids who participated describe it as one of the best.”

18:47

Harmony

Sakshi Media/ CVU Gujarat

India

6:00

Sakshi media is a Community Video Unit set up by the NGO Yuvshakti in partnership with Drishti and Video Volunteers. Sakshi Media means ‘Witness’ Media. The Producers in this CVU were all witnesses to terrible violence in their district of Gujarat in 2002, when communal riots led to the deaths of more than 2000 Muslims in their state. They are supported by the NGO Yuvshakti, who believe that this half-Hindu and half-Muslim team can build unity amongst Hindus and Muslims, by uniting them around their common development challenges.”

 

European Dialogues

12-3.30 pm Saturday 20 ^th September

12:00	Statement 710399	Refik Hodzic	Bosnia	54:00
12:54	Doboj / Fingerprints – 15 years later	Aldin Arnautovic	Bosnia	27:37
13:21	The Migrators	Ana-Maria Caia	Romania	55:00
14:21	The InvisibleCity	Lucia Asue Mbomio	Spain	52:00
15:10	The Nogay and Crimean Tatars: An Oral History	Funda Ozyurt Torun	Turkey	Audience Choice
15:10	A history of 4000 years: the Laz	Funda Ozyurt Torun	Turkey	Audience Choice

12:00

Statement 710399

Refik Hodzic

Bosnia

54:00

The Story of a father trying to find out what happened to his son who slipped out of his hand and disappeared during Srebrenica genocide is in fact a story of Bosnia and Herzegovina, country permanently scarred by war crimes and their legacy.

12:54

Doboj / Fingerprints – 15 years later

Aldin Arnautovic

Bosnia

27:37

One of a series of 24 documentary TV programmes which will address the efforts of local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to overcome the legacy of war crimes committed during the nineties. The episode tells the story about Doboj and how its citizens are dealing with the legacy of war crimes. It shows a portrait of people who belong to the victim population in the community and their efforts to re-establish their lives in the community, and on the other hand a portrait of individuals forming the ethnic group whose members perpetrated the war crimes and their views of the past events and how they shape the life of the community today.

107

The Migrators

Ana-Maria Caia

Romania

55:00

“Tells the stories of four million Romanians who left their country to search for a better life. It is a succession of migrant portraits, representative of a general situation. The final conclusion is in fact one big fear … that all this impressive number of Romanians living in other countries of the EU will remain suspended in time, between countries, between identities.”

42

The InvisibleCity

Lucia Asue Mbomio

Spain

52:00

It is the largest illegal settlement in Europe. Abdul’s house has just been demolished like many others. It was built on an ancient cattle breeding path. La Canada Real is home to 40,000 people from 4 different communities: Spaniards; Muslims; Spanish Gypsies and Romanians live there either in shacks or more luxurious dwellings. There are also drug pushers, drug addicts, volunteers … and 10,000 children. But there are no schools, no hospitals and there definitely aren’t any cattle. These communities have been occupying the land for 40 years but now according to some, it’s time to go … but where?

8

The Nogay and Crimean Tatars: An Oral History

Funda Ozyurt Torun

Turkey

X

A documentary about the migration of the Nogay and Crimean Tatars to the “White Territory” of the Ottoman Empire … the film presents a series of migration stories, lands left behind and new horizons; the old and continuing traditions of these people; their language, sociology and architecture, birth, wedding and funeral traditions, children’s games, culture and poetry, grammar, alphabet and history, their past migrations, food culture, fabrics, ethnography, folk dances and farming traditions

11

A history of 4000 years: the Laz

Funda Ozyurt Torun

Turkey

X

“The Greeks, Urartians and Assyrians referred to them as Colchis. The Laz protected the borders of the Byzantine Empire; they trained warriors for the Trabzon Empire. Empress Anna Anachoutlu’s accession to the throne was preceded by a Laz invasion. They brought about great turning points in history. Now, for the first time ever, they are retrieved from the annals of history to become the subject of a documentary.”