2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival March 10, 2011

For the last ten years, every March we’ve presented a selection of powerful films with distinctive human rights themes. Just a few of the remarkable works we've presented over the years include the Academy Award-winning Born into Brothels, War/Dance, Shakespeare Behind Bars, Mardi Gras: Made in China, and dozens more. The power of film cannot be underestimated to challenge the viewer and promote calls to action. Rather than wallow in despair, the films in this program will put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the ability of the human spirit and intellect to prevail.

Youth Producing Change
Thu, Mar 10, 7pm
Teen filmmakers turn the camera on their own struggles for human rights and invite audiences to experience the world as they do – as a Kenyan teenager living in Africa's second largest slum, as a 15-year-old girl in India who needs to chose between supporting her family or getting an education or as a 14-year-old Afghan seeking asylum after his father was killed by the Taliban. Youth Producing Change shares ten powerful stories made by teens from across the globe as they share their vision of change. Adobe Youth Voices, Founding Presenter. (2010, 74 min, digital)

Enemies of the People
By Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath
Thu, Mar 17, 7:30pm
Winner of the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize, Enemies of the People follows the project of Thet Sambath, whose parents were among the approximately two million people who perished under the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. With unprecedented access and groundbreaking confessions from the notorious “Brother Number Two,” Nuon Chea, and from numerous grassroots killers, he uncovers terrifying personal explanations for the genocide by allowing the perpetrators to speak for themselves. (2009, 94 min, digital)

Last Best Chance
By Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson
Thu, Mar 24, 7:30pm
Last Best Chance brilliantly presents a political legend, Senator Edward Kennedy, in his final battle for comprehensive immigration reform in the US. Seeking legislation that he believes would best serve US interests and provide greater security and dignity to many of the 20 million people currently living in the shadows, Senator Kennedy joins forces with talented allies on the outside to marshal fellow Senators Obama, Clinton, Menendez, Kyl and McCain toward a “Grand Bargain.” But deep at the heart of this fast-moving story, below the level of strategy and protocol, we find a moral tale of modern American politics. (2010, 100 min, digital)

In the Land of the Free…
By Vadim Jean
Thu, Mar 31, 7:30pm
Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King—the Angola 3—have spent a combined century in solitary confinement in Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Targeted by prison officials for being members of the Black Panther Party and for fighting against terrible prison conditions, they were convicted of the murder of a prison guard, a verdict they continue to challenge and for which new evidence continues to emerge. In the Land of the Free... presents their ongoing story as dramatic events continue to unfold. Narrated by Samuel L Jackson (2009, 84 min, digital)

Where:
2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival – 701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103 – YBCA Screening Room

Public Info:
415-978-2787 or http://ybca.org/content/2011-human-rights-watch-film-festival

$8 regular; $6 students, seniors, teachers & YBCA members

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