cinéma-engagé in nyc this month
Two notable film festivals currently ongoing in NYC: NewFest, the New York LGBT Film Festival, which actually started several days ago, and Human Rights Watch's 17th Annual International Film Festival, which opens tonight. Lots of good stuff at both; NewFest has very strong lineups from South Africa and Israel in particular, while HRW has several excellent films on the Middle East that I can't wait to see. Still sorting out schedules and plans, but on Saturday S.F. and N. and I will go see Many Peoples, Many Desires (a multifaceted look at queer people in India, focusing in particular on the Bangalore-based org Sangama), and maybe some of the collections of shorts. Sadly, I can't go see Lesbian Pulp-o-Rama Goes to Sweden!, as I will be on a train returning from DC at the time it plays. There's a Turkish short called "Brothers" as well, but I missed it already.
As for the HRW lineup, it might be better to just ask, what won't I go to? because it all looks so good. I have work to do, though, and must show restraint. I'm surely going to see James Longley's new docu Iraq in Fragments, which is supposed to be excellent (his last, Gaza Strip, is one of the best films on Palestine that I've seen). I also want to see Shonali Bose's film Amu (starring Konkona Sensharma...what parallel cinema isn't, these days?) which deals with the legacy of the 1984 Delhi riots, and Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo. There's an interesting pair of short documentaries dealing with women in the Islamic world: Shadya, about a seventeen-year-old Palestinian-Israeli karate champion, and They Call Me a Muslim, which juxtaposes two women (one French, one Iranian) and their responses to their respective governments' policies on the hijab. Rosita is a documentary about a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl who was raped and became pregnant; her parents fight for her to get access to a therapeutic abortion despite massive opposition from the state and the church. The trailer is wrenching; I'm not sure I even want to endure the whole thing. And then there's The Camden 28, Shooting Dogs, and The Refugee All-Stars (reviewed in today's NYT): all in all, a stunning selection of films. If you aren't in NY, keep an eye out: the Festival travels throughout the year (several of the films already screened in London in March) and may well be coming, as they say, to a theater near you.
As for the HRW lineup, it might be better to just ask, what won't I go to? because it all looks so good. I have work to do, though, and must show restraint. I'm surely going to see James Longley's new docu Iraq in Fragments, which is supposed to be excellent (his last, Gaza Strip, is one of the best films on Palestine that I've seen). I also want to see Shonali Bose's film Amu (starring Konkona Sensharma...what parallel cinema isn't, these days?) which deals with the legacy of the 1984 Delhi riots, and Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo. There's an interesting pair of short documentaries dealing with women in the Islamic world: Shadya, about a seventeen-year-old Palestinian-Israeli karate champion, and They Call Me a Muslim, which juxtaposes two women (one French, one Iranian) and their responses to their respective governments' policies on the hijab. Rosita is a documentary about a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl who was raped and became pregnant; her parents fight for her to get access to a therapeutic abortion despite massive opposition from the state and the church. The trailer is wrenching; I'm not sure I even want to endure the whole thing. And then there's The Camden 28, Shooting Dogs, and The Refugee All-Stars (reviewed in today's NYT): all in all, a stunning selection of films. If you aren't in NY, keep an eye out: the Festival travels throughout the year (several of the films already screened in London in March) and may well be coming, as they say, to a theater near you.
posted by kitabet at 4:28 PM
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