Posts Tagged ‘film’
Posted on October 7, 2008 - by Frank
Film Review - Shoah
Many of us have grown up hearing stories about the holocaust through school, television, film, books and museum trips. There is a sense where sometimes it feels too familiar; that the horror of the event is just another of those tales we hear of the past and thus the horror of the catastrophe of the second world war loses it’s human face – a face of darkness and suffering.
Shoah is a 9 hour catalogue of the humanity that lived and breathed during the holocaust. It gives us the face of the tragedy and introduces us to real people with real stories. Its method is pure and simple; interviews and location shots. There is no archival footage with images of countless broken people we will never remember. There are no images that so haunt the memories of humanity where we see rough black and white footage of starved, suffering people who have been subjected to the ravages of human oppression. How many of us forget the faces of those people because when shown that footage, there are so many? Shoah does not allow us that escape. It does not allow the blur of images past.
Posted on July 31, 2008 - by Frank
Review - Standard Operating Procedure
Written By Jacob Powell (Film Critic)
Reprinted with permission from Filmguide. For more reviews from the NZ Film Festival or more reviews by Jacob Powell, visit Filmguide.
Chances are you’ve seen some of the shocking photographs of torture, humiliation and death that emerged into the wild from the goings on of the American military prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq; or at least you’ve heard of these pictures via the media aftermath that followed their release. The latest offering from inimitable documentarian Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War), Standard Operating Procedure (Hereafter: S.O.P.) is, not so much a direct indictment of the comportment of the American military during the war in Iraq, but an exploration of the Abu Ghraib photographs themselves and the specific contextual situations that produced them.
Posted on July 18, 2008 - by Frank
Film Review - The Devil Came on Horseback
Originally written by The Humanitarian Chronicle for Filmguide. Documentary supplied by Filmguide, for review.
Directed, written and produced by filmmakers Annie Sundberg and Rikki Stern, The Devil Came on Horseback follows the experience of former Marine Captain, Brian Steidle and his experiences in monitoring the peace agreement between northern and southern Sudan, his following of the developing humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western Dafur region and his subsequent work to compel the international community towards action to stop the genocide taking place and the crimes against humanity.
It begins by introducing us to Brian’s move into the military, a natural move considering his upbringing in a military home. Upon completing his obligated four years in the marines, Brian went looking for something else as he did not want to take a desk job and eventually took a job monitoring the ceasefire between northern and southern Sudan in 2004.
Posted on May 4, 2008 - by Frank
NZ Human Rights Film Festival 2008
The Humanitarian Chronicle received this email regarding the New Zealand Human Rights Film Festival:
Dear Human Rights Supporter
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”
The Human Rights Network of Aotearoa is proud to present the fourth annual New Zealand Human Rights Film Festival - a cinematic event celebrating extraordinary people striving for success and achievement amidst the most difficult circumstances and conditions.
2008 is a particularly special year for the Human Rights movement as it’s the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the films shown during the festival not only celebrate how far we have come since the signing but also where work is still needed if the promise of the first Article - All human beings are born free and equal - is to be realised.
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