Fifth Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival : NOLA Indymedia

2008 New Orleans International Human Rights Film Fest Highlight Hope and Solutions
By Jamie Menutis

Unlike other Human Rights Film Festivals, New Orleans is preparing to hold a truly different kind of event. With an aim towards building awareness around many difficult global human rights issues, this year’s festival includes over 50 award-winning and truly inspirational films made by local and international filmmakers. Many of this year’s films will focus upon the creative ways people around the world have sought to lift themselves up while living amidst crisis and injustice. The 2008 festival will be held at Canal Place, Zeitgeist, SUNO, The Porch in the 7th Ward and Craige Cultural Center and takes place April 9-20th with the majority of films being screened at Canal Place and Zeitgeist.
Academy Award-winning Director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, etc…) is kicking off this year’s festival by introducing his latest work, a documentary film about New Orleans, Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower 9t Ward, following with a Q & A Session with the Director. Demme will host a panel featuring displaced residents from New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward and the evening will end with an opening night party with live music performances from New Orleans artists. The special screening of Right to Return and event with Jonathan Demme will be held on April 9th.
This year’s festival will be its biggest so far and will be filled with numerous live music and dance performances as well as guest appearances, panels and Q & A with many of the film’s directors present. A special panel dealing with the housing crisis in New Orleans and other social justice issues such as globalization, Darfur and Katrina are included in this year’s Festival.
Each day of the festival promises to be unique in its focus and individual events. A number of this year’s films are made by New Orleans filmmakers and deal with issues relevant to the City’s recovery.
Some of the films included in this year’s festival that deal with New Orleans and/or were made by New Orleans artists include Vows of Silence written by Jason Berry that looks at corruption and abuse within the Catholic Church; Jacquie Soohen’s Jena Six a film about the controversy coming from Jena, Louisiana; The Recruiter, a film that looks into the life of the top military recruiter in Houma and the lives of his recruits; From the Mouthpiece on Back, a film about the “To be Continued Brass Band,” Wade in the Water, a film made by local 8th grade documentary students who were given cameras after the hurricane and artfully documented their experiences; Finding our Folk and Ya Heard Me, a film about the New Orleans home-grown bounce music phenomenon that follows with a live bounce music performance.
Some of this year’s other highlights and international favorites include the 2008 Academy Award-winner for Best Documentary, Taxi to the Darkside; Shock Doctrine, a film from the popular book by Nation columnist Naomi Klein and “Children of Men” Director, Alfonso Cuaron. Paul Chan’s film about Lynn Stewart, the noted Civil Rights Attorney who became a target of the U.S government’s “War on Terror” for her representation of the 1993 World Trade Center bomber; Caramel, a fictional romantic comedy from Lebanon; Driving to ZigZigland, a comedy about a Palestinian taxi driver living in L.A.; Democracy in Dakar, a film about hip-hop and youth activism in Senegal and War/Dance, an award winning festival favorite from Africa about hope and dance in a Ugandan Village by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix.
Other notable films include The Chicago Ten, Intimidad, Inside the Circle, Finding our Folk, Black Lesbian Women in Conversation, A series of shorts from the Middle East, A series of shorts from New Orleans, Fulness of Time, Traces of the Trade, Democracy in Dakar, Glory at Sea and Subar Babies. There are many more films from Europe, S. America, Africa, Middle East, India and elsewhere on the 12 day film festival schedule.
The film festival which aims to highlight human rights issues both in New Orleans and around the world was formed five years ago by a coalition of local activists and community members in consultation with local and international organizations. For a complete schedule of all events for the 2008 New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival, visit http://www.nolahumanrights.org