PROGRAM:
Saturday, March 18, 2017
1:00pm: Astral (2016, 101 min) US Premiere by Jordi Évole & Ramon Lara; Q&A with filmmakers via Skype following the screening
'Astral', a 30-meter sailboat built in the 1970s, had always been used as a luxury pleasure boat, until its owner gave it to the NGO Proactiva Open Arms. 'Astral' became a surveillance and rescue boat and set sail for the coast of Libya to carry out its first rescue mission.
3:30pm: 4 short films - Q&A with many of the filmmakers both in person & via Skype following the screening of all four films
From Damascus to Chicago (2016, 14 min) by Colleen Cassinghan
A newly arrived Syrian refugee family adapts to life in Chicago while missing their homeland. While Akram and Retaj, who are 7 and 10 years old, thrive in their dance classes and embrace their new community, their parents must grapple with health problems and the challenges of finding joy and stability far from what was once home.
Persisting Dreams (2015, 25 min) US Premiere by Come Ledesert;
Toni is a fisherman in Lampedusa. He sees men, women and children arriving from other continents. Who are these migrants traveling by sea on an island at Europe's doors, departing again as soon as they can if they haven't perished on their way? Through his testimony, intercut by animation that take him on a journey as forced witness, this documentary invites us to question our perception of migrants in Europe - between our tenacious fantasies, Toni's reality and the persisting dreams of migrants.
Sugihara Survivors: Jewish and Japanese past and future (2017, 24 min) US Premiere by Junichi Kajioka
This is a short documentary film about Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who saved 6,000 Jewish people in WWII, and some of the "Sugihara survivos" who he helped save. The film shows a Japanese writer, Akira Kitade, trying to trace the identities of some of the survivors. Mr. Kitade discovers some of the extraordinary stories of their escape to Japan.
Who Dies (2016, 13min) World Premiere by Shahnawaz Baqal
A short dramatic film set in Kashmir where two badly wounded fighters, one a soldier and one a Kashmiri militant, coincidentally take refuge in the same hut. How will that situation resolve?
5:30pm: Muslims are Not Terrorists (2016, 57min) US Premiere by Ifeanyi Odenyi; Q&A with filmmaker via Skype following the screening
For Nigerians, the emergence of Boko Haram calls into question Islam as a religion of peace. In this film Nigerian Imams, Islamic scholars and teachers take the time to refute every tenant of the terrorist ideology.
7:00pm: Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, 90min) directed by Alain Resnais; classic film series; Starring: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada
A cornerstone of the French New Wave, the first feature from Alain Resnais is one of the most influential films of all time. A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) engage in a brief, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima, their consuming mutual fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories of love and suffering. With an innovative flashback structure and an Academy Award–nominated screenplay by novelist Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima mon amour is a moody masterwork that delicately weaves past and present, personal pain and public anguish.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
1:00pm: Orizuru 2015 (2016, 25min) NY Premiere by Miyuki Sohara; Q&A with filmmakers via Skype following screening
The film is about a shy Japanese boy who finds courage to make friends with his American classmates, inspired by his elderly neighbor, a Pearl Harbor WWII survivor who has become friends with an atomic bomb survivor from Hiroshima. The meeting of the above two war survivors is based on a true story.
2:00pm: Bad Kids (2016) by Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe; Q&A with filmmakers via Skype following screening
A group of teachers at a Mojave Desert high school take an unconventional approach to improve the lives of their struggling students.
4:15pm: Enemy Alien (2009) by Konrad Aderer; Q&A with filmmaker in person following the screening
A Japanese American filmmaker finds echoes of his own family's World War II internment in post-9/11 arrests of Muslim immigrants and joins the struggle to free Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a Palestinian activist. Farouk organizes resistance among his fellow detainees, incurring abusive retaliation from his captors, as Homeland Security officials investigate the documentary itself, arresting Farouk's son.
6:00pm*: Walls (2015) US Premiere by Pablo Iraburu & Migueltxo Molina; Q&A with filmmakers via Skype following the screening (note: starting time has changed)
Walls tells the story of different people that live in one side and the other of different walls all around the world.
Ticket is valid for 1 day throughout the program!
Co-Sponsored by The Peace & Justice Task Force of All Souls Unitarian Church
*All films are shown in English or English subtitles.
*Time and lineup of the film may subject to change.
