Film Screenings
Date
Thursday, March 18, 2021 - Thursday, April 8, 2021
Building & Room/Office/Space
The International Studies program and Doane Library are excited to announce the 16th Annual Human Rights Film Festival! Screenings will be held every Thursday from March 18th-April 8th.
The films range from documentary, to crime, to drama, and lend a microphone to minoritized voices from around the world. From exiled Iraqi street artists to unions for workers’ rights in Bangladesh, this festival offers a great opportunity to learn about the global tensions that inform our multicultural world.
The selected films are:
March 18: Mirrors of Diaspora
Co-sponsor: Middle East and North African Studies Concentration
Director Kasim Abid, Iraq, 2018, 88 min, Doc
Filmed over three decades, this ambitious project explores the lives of 7 Iraqi artists. Following them from graduation, to street art, to recognition, Abid showcases how interwoven the Iraqi’s art and lives are.The film focuses on the artists’ experiences with exile, alienation, creativity, memories, nostalgia, war, and survival.
March 25: Coded Bias
Director Shalini Kantayya, United States, 2020, 90 min, Doc
MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers a disparity in the accuracy of facial recognition technology and people of color. She examines the racial biases that are encoded in modern algorithms that profile faces on the streets of London and Hong Kong. Artificial intelligence collects data on Americans often without their knowledge or consent. Her efforts are documented as she works to establish laws in the U.S. against biases in algorithms.
April 1: Blood of the Condor
Director Jorge Sanjinés, Bolivia, 1969, 70 min, Drama/Crime
This drama focuses on the Quechua Tribe’s struggle against exploitation by U.S. development teams. As the film unfolds, these native Bolivians discover that the Progress Corps has secretly been sterilizing women during other standard health operations. The main character, Ignacio, rallies fellow tribesmen in order to seek revenge and justice. Two years after this film was released, the Peace Corps were expelled from Bolivia in 1971.
April 8: Made in Bangladesh
Director Rubaiyat Hossain, Bangladesh, 2019, 95 min, Drama
Shimu fled to the capital to avoid an arranged marriage. She works grueling hours for little pay at a textile factory. After a factory fire kills a co-worker, Shimu is approached by a union advocate who gives her a crash course on women workers’ rights and tools to enforce them. Shimu’s unionizing attempt is resisted not only by her patriarchal employers, but also her colleagues who are desperate to keep their jobs.
The Human Rights Film Festival will be preceded this year by the Middle East Film Festival, hosted by the Middle East and North African Studies Concentration (MENA). Four films will be screened Feb 25-Mar 18 related to uprisings in the region that began 10 years ago.
Mirrors of Diaspora is co-sponsored by the Middle East and North African Studies Concentration (MENA). The Human Rights Film Festival is sponsored by International Studies and the Library.