Human Rights Watch Film Series Brings Four Movies to Campus
January 21, 2014
The eighth annual Human Rights Watch Film Series brings four movies in February to campus, all of which are free and open to the public.
The event is organized by anthropology Professor Robin DeLugan and literature Professor Nigel Hatton. Each film starts at 7 p.m. in the Classroom and Office Building, Room 105.
The films are:
"An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story" — Feb. 7
In 1986, Michael Morton’s wife, Christine, was brutally murdered in front of their only child and Michael was convicted of the crime. Locked away in Texas prisons for a quarter of a century, he had years to ponder questions of justice and innocence, truth and fate. Though he was virtually invisible to society, a team of dedicated attorneys spent years fighting for the right to test DNA evidence found at the murder scene. The discoveries ultimately reveal that the price of a wrongful conviction goes well beyond one man’s loss of freedom.
"Rafea: Solar Mama" — Feb. 14
Rafea is a Bedouin woman who lives with her daughters in one of Jordan’s poorest desert villages on the Iraqi border. When she is selected for an intriguing programme called the Barefoot College in India, Rafea doesn’t need to think twice and travels to join 30 illiterate women from different countries train to become solar engineers over the course of six months. Rafea immediately understands that she has a unique opportunity to give her children a better future and to provide the whole village with solar power.
"The Naked Option" (with writer, producer, director Candace Schermerhorn in person) — Feb. 21
Fueled by the determination for a better future, grassroots women in Nigeria’s Niger Delta use the threat of stripping naked in public -- a serious cultural taboo -- in a deadly struggle to hold oil companies accountable to the communities in which they operate. The women, at the risk of being raped, beaten or killed, are trained and armed, but not with anything you can see.
"My Afghanistan: Life in the Forbidden Zone" — Feb. 28
Nagieb Kaja, a Danish journalist of Afghan origin, travels to Lashka Ga, capital of Helmland province in Afghanistan. Because journalists are not able to move safely outside the capital, contact with the civilian population in rural areas is almost impossible. But Khaja has a trick up his sleeve. He gives people living in outlying communities mobile phones equipped with cameras and asks them to film their daily lives, providing a rare glimpse into the war-torn existence of ordinary Afghans.
