United Nations Association Film Festival turns 17.
on human rights, environmental themes, population, migration, women’s issues, refugees, homelessness, racism, health, universal education, and war and peace, all in all 70 films from all over the world.
These are some of the outstanding film this year, that
explore cultural writers, celebrities, scorned leaders and the manipulation of
images created by media that drives public opinion.
“Regarding Susan Sontag”, a film about the late intellectual
and cultural critic will be screened at Stanford University on Oct 18. The film
made by Nancy Kates skillfully weaves archival footage with testimony of the people
who remember her life. Actress Patricia Clarkson reads Sontag’s own words from
her writing. Sontag was an open critic of war and proclaimed that the terrorist
actions of 9/11 were a proclamation against the US as a superpower, a viewpoint
that brought strong criticism. She held her own with her contemporaries and was
outspoken on a number of issues. She refused to be called a woman writer - just a writer. This film fits well with
the film festival’s theme of Bridging the Gap.
“Brave Miss World” by Cecilia Peck chronicles the
experiences of former Miss Israel, Linor Abargil who was kidnapped, assaulted
and raped in Milan, Italy six weeks prior to the Miss World competition. She
was only 18 at the time, and later decided to come out in the open and speak
about her experience. She traveled to parts of the US where she openly addressed
groups of primarily women and encouraged them to send to her their survivor experiences. The film screens Oct 20 at Stanford
University.
“In the Wake of Stalin” is a French Russian coproduction by
Thomas Johnson. 60 years after
the death of the dictator and 20 million people under his watch, comes the
disturbing news that his legacy is being positively revived and for some as a
person who was a hero of the Soviet Union. To counteract this propaganda human
rights activists in Russia tell the truth about his deadly regime, and are interviewed
in this film. The documentary screens Oct 19 at Stanford.
“Valentino’s Ghost” by Michael Singh in collaboration
with the Center for Asian Americans takes its title from the image of
Rudolph Valentino in “Son of the Sheik” in 1921 , where the famous actor is dressed
as an Arab. From this Singh explores the U.S. media portrayal of Arabs and Muslims
and its relationship with the American foreign policy agenda in the Middle
East. The filmmakers speak with a panel of experts and try to piece together
how media images originally allowed Americans to project their fantasies on the
Middle East and later were induced to loathe Arabs, Muslims and Islam. Although
there was a romantic attraction to the Middle East for adventure and excitement
with films starring Valentino to Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, the
conquest of the Middle East by the British changed this image. When these
countries tried to regain their land they were called ruthless or barbaric
savages. "Valentino’s Ghost" is an
exceptional documentary that turns the tables on Middle Eastern history
perpetuated by the media and its representation of this area of the world. The
documentary takes up the Palestinians who shot and killed Israeli athletes in 1972 at the Olympics in
Berlin, a turning point for the
representation of Arabs. This was
followed by the representation of Islam as the religion of disobedient Muslims.
The film screens Oct 25 in Palo Alto.
Other exceptional films this year tackle subjects such as city
slums, global warming, black photographers, mental illness, revolution,
spirituality, and civil disobedience .
© 2014 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 10/15/2014
Movie Magazine International
Movie Magazine International
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