May 13, 6:30-8:30pm-Thomson 101

SIS 202 Film Showing 'Sometimes in April' 

Film Synopsis: When Hutu nationalists raised arms against their Tutsi countrymen in the African nation of Rwanda in April of 1994, the violent uprising marked the beginning of one of the darkest times in African history. Over the course of the next 100 days, brother would turn against brother, tearing families apart and resulting in the death of almost 800,000 people. Based on actual events that occurred during the uprising, this war drama tells the tale of two such brothers, whose differing loyalties found them on opposing sides of the conflict, and whose lives would never be the same following this tragic turn of events.  Director Raoul Peck explores the shame and grief of those who survived—grief for those they lost, and shame for surviving, not only because they survived when so many died but sometimes because of what they had to do in order to survive. It is a story of coming to terms with extreme violence. He is also not afraid to point fingers, at Africans, and at the media, and at the UN.  During a period of 100 days, over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered while the world turned its back. Instead of recognizing that a massacre was taking place, the U.S. and European nations started debating whether "acts of genocide" had occurred or whether "genocide" had occurred. What is the difference between "acts" of genocide and genocide? If it was "genocide," the world community would have been obligated to do something about it, according to treaties signed after World War II, when we claimed "never again." As eloquently stated by journalists since 1994, "never again" happened and the world stood by. (Quotation selected from video distribution materials)

May 13, 2008 - 6:30-8:30pm

Location: UW Ethnic Cultural Theater: 3940 Brooklyn Ave NE

Premier Screening of 'The Life I Got to Live - Lo que Me Toco Vivir'

Please join Amnesty International at the UW and the Students of Women Studies (SOWS) this upcoming Tuesday in the special debut of the film 'The Life I Got to Live.' The film recounts Seattle resident Alicia Barrera's life growing up in rural Chile and the dramatic turn the lives of all Chileans took on September 11, 1973. With her husband wounded the day of the coup, and later imprisoned and tortured by the Pinochet regime, Barrera's story unfolds as one common, yet often untold, experience lived by thousands of women who suffered, struggled, and preserved in the face of extended family rejection, a wider public paralyzed by fear, the terrorist brutality of a US-funded dictatorship, and the alienation of political exile. With contributions from an international array of photojournalists, artists, and musicians, Lo que Me Toco Vivir - The Life I Got to Live, both personalizes the political lens and widens the narrative scope of ineffable memories created in the struggle for human rights.

FREE and open to public.

May 28, 6:30pm -  Miller 301

SIS 202 Film Showing 'No Man's Land'
Set during the height of the Bosnian War in 1993, a group of Bosnian soldiers are advancing on Serb territory under the cover of a foggy night. At daybreak, the fog lifts, and the Serbs open fire. Soon there is only one Bosnian survivor because he was able to dive into a trench in no man's land. He then watches as two Serbian soldiers use the body of a fallen Bosnian to bait a land mine. He fires on them, killing one, and taking the second hostage. Now both are alone and equally armed, so they are forced to share a wary trust as they try to attract help from either side. This is the basic setup of "No Man's Land," a tense Bosnian anti-war movie directed by documentary filmmaker Danis Tanovic that won a special Jury Prize at Cannes (in 2001). As an intrepid television reporter gets wind of the bizarre standoff and it turns into a media event and a political hot potato, no one in the French and British U.N. peacekeeping forces can figure out quite how to deal with it. The situation steadily becomes a metaphor for the insanity, ferocity and futility of the Balkan civil wars, and it's interesting that director-writer-composer Tanovic doesn't heap his scorn so much on the Serbs or Bosnians as on the U.N. peacekeepers, who, in the context of the movie, have a responsibility and completely evade it.  His movie also is especially astute in showing us the impact of CNN-style media on modern warfare. The reporters relish their power and everyone is playing to the cameras: especially the U.N. brass, who are so terrified of bad publicity they're morally paralyzed. (Quotation selected from  WILLIAM ARNOLD,  SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER Friday, December 21, 2001)