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HRW’s
film festival boasts a strong focus on issues concerning
Muslims, including Palestine.
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Though
the rain poured steadily last Friday, a steady flow of people
gathered at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City’s famous
Lincoln Center for the opening night of the Human Rights Watch
International Film Festival. Now in its 13th year, the
festival is garnering a new level of attention in light of September
11th and more recently the escalating violence in the
Middle East – more than a third of the films focus on
Islam-related topics.
Opening
night festivities included the world premiere of Amen, a
drama that examines the situation in which ethics and
self-preservation collided in the Vatican’s complicity during the
Holocaust. Also the directors of last year’s critically acclaimed Jung:
In the Land of the Mujaheddin premiered Afghanistan Year 1380,
the next post-9/11 chapter in the saga of a Kabul hospital run by an
Italian surgeon and a British medical coordinator.
The
next two weeks will feature 33 documentaries, dramas, videos,
animated films and shorts that highlight numerous human rights
struggles worldwide and real human stories of conflict,
contemplation and continuation. According to the festival’s
organizers, the “need to protect human rights around the globe has
never been stronger. The filmmakers in this year’s festival have
embraced these ideals, drawing on the power of film to communicate
across borders and to tell some of the most important stories of our
time.”
From
the New York and London festivals, the Human Rights Watch
organization will select 10 films for its traveling festival, which
will journey to nearly 20 cities across the United States throughout
2002/2003, including Boston, Chicago, Houston, San Diego and San
Francisco. But for Muslims (and all) New Yorkers, the time is ripe
to catch as many of these jarring, provocative films as possible,
especially those that focus on Islam. For rare are the films that
show the Muslim side of conflict bereft of media bias.
The
following is a list of some films that may be of particular interest
to Muslim viewers. For more information, visit www.hrw.org/iff.
Afghanistan
Year 1380: (In Dari and Italian with English subtitles)
Filmmakers Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Alberto Vendemmiati return to
Afghanistan after September 11th to continue the story of
an Italian surgeon and a British medical coordinator who opened a
medical clinic in Kabul. They started the clinic last spring only to
be shut down by the Taliban. In October they opened it again while
Kabul was under heavy fire to treat the victims of United States’
war on beleaguered Afghanistan.
Bethlehem
Diary: (In Arabic with English subtitles) It is Christmas, 2000
in Bethlehem, and the Israeli Army closes off the town after the
second Intifada that started the September before. The town
is heavily shelled and blocked off. The film focuses on two
Palestinian families and a human rights lawyer caught in the web of
the Israeli Army.
Frontiers
of Dreams and Fears: (In Arabic with English subtitles) During
the liberation of South Lebanon and at the beginning of the Al-Asqa Intifada,
two young girls on separate sides of the border – Mona, from
Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp and Manar from Bethlehem’s Dheisha
camp – build a friendship via email. Their relationship climaxes
with an emotional meeting across the border.
Citizen
Bishara: Azmi Bishara is a highly educated and politically
charged Palestinian citizen of Israel about to stand trial for his
controversial opinions of the country. Bishara fights for equality
for Israel’s Arab citizens (nearly 20%).
A
Boy Called Mohammad: (In Arabic with English subtitles) This
short film follows a young Palestinian boy who quits school to earn
money to buy a bicycle. Months later he begins to carry goods across
the Israeli checkpoint.
Debris:
(In Arabic with English subtitles) This short film shows a
Palestinian family’s land, which once was covered with crops,
bulldozed by the Israeli Army.
A
Conversation With Haris: A young Bosnian boy tells the story of
his tragic experiences in the Bosnian war and what befell his family
and friends.
In
the Shadows of the City: (In Arabic with English subtitles)
During Lebanon’s long civil war, a boy named Rami comes of age and
struggles through the pangs of love, his first job and ongoing
family conflicts. Most disturbing for Rami is how his friends begin
to choose sides as they grow up in war-torn Beirut.
Ramleh:
(In Hebrew, Russian and Arabic with English subtitles) The town of
Ramleh, formerly a Palestinian town, is located in the heart of
Israel. Here Jewish and Muslim women coexist in a strained setting
of mistrust, misconstrued beliefs and private conflicts. The film
focuses on two orthodox Jewish women and their support of the
Israeli conservative party; a single mother and recent immigrant to
Ramleh; and a young Muslim teacher and law student trying to find
some “sort of national identity.”
500
Dunam on the Moon: (In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles)
Ayn Hawd is a Palestinian village that was “captured and
depopulated” by the Israeli Army in 1948. The Muslim residents
moved to a new village 1.5 kilometers away, yet are treated as
non-existent people. This film follows the people of the “new Ayn
Hawd,” who receive no basic amenities for their dispossessed
status.
Secret
Ballot: (In Farsi with English subtitles). It is election time
in Iran, and two poll workers disperse to the rural countryside to
obtain the votes of reluctant citizens. The film paints a poignant
and often humorous picture of the Iranian election process. 
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