Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.

The Big Lebowski

22 February, Ho Tung Visualization Lab, Ho Science Center
Dir. Joel Coen, 1998, 117 min.

“The Coen Brothers and their agreeable cast make more fun than sense with this scattered farce about a pothead bowler who is mistaken for a deadbeat philanthropist and drawn into a cluster of kidnappers, nihilists, porn mobsters and Busby Berkeley beauties.” Thus did the original promo for The Big Lebowski surreptitiously convey the film’s subversive message of hope and peace. Looking back on its debut, it is hard to believe that people who first viewed Lebowski’s grotesque reflections on the rational irrationality of international capital and the military industrial complex actually…laughed. Anguish can be hard to distinguish from irony. More than ten years on, however, we think the time is ripe to reconsider the pacifist philosophy of dudeness. Don’t let us down, man.

The First World War

1 March, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Dirs. Marcus Kiggell, Simon Rockell and Corina Sturmer, 2003, approx. 120 min.

Based on the work of Oxford historian Hew Strachan, this landmark series places the First World War in a global military context through archival footage, diary entries, letters of soldiers, and studies of battles and participants. It explores many of the lesser-known campaigns, battles, and actions as well as the major conflicts on the Western Front. Selections from the series will be screened with an emphasis on the political conditions leading up to, and resulting from, the war.

Joyeux Noël

22 March, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Dir. Christian Carion, 2005, 116 min.

In 1914, World War I, then the bloodiest war in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man’s Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. This film dramatizes one such section as the French, Scottish and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate it. Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Best Foreign Film Award Nominee, and nominated for 6 César Awards.

Why We Fight

5 April, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Dir. Eugene Jarecki, 2005, 98 min.

Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower’s legendary farewell speech (in which he coined the phrase ‘military industrial complex’), Jarecki surveys the scorched landscape of a half-century’s military adventures, asking how – and telling why – a nation of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war. Why does America fight? What are the forces – political, economic, ideological – that drive us to do combat with an ever-changing enemy? Winner, 2005 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, 2007 Peabody Award; Nominated, 2007 Documentary Screenplay Award.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

12 April, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Dir. Robert Wise, 1951, 92 min.

A visitor from outer space, Klaatu, comes to earth with a warning. Having developed rocket and nuclear technologies, earth is a potential threat to the galaxy’s other civilizations. Unless war is abolished, the Earth will be destroyed in a preemptive peacekeeping operation. Can Klaatu deliver his message, and will it be heard? A period classic, and winner of a 1952 Golden Globe Award. To be screened with 3 Cold War-era shorts from the Prelinger film archives: “Duck and Cover” (1951, 9 mins.), “The House in the Middle” (1954, 12 mins.), and “Our Cities Must Fight” (1951, 9 mins.).

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

19 April, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
Dir. Gini Reticker, 2008, 72 min.
A celebrated documentary that tells the dramatic success story of the women’s peace movement of Liberia, where Christian and Muslim women banded together to end their country’s civil war. Leymah Gbowee, the central figure in the film, and the Women of Liberia are the recipients of the 2009 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Best documentary, Tribeca Film Festival, and awards at Silverdocs, Jackson Hole, Traverse City, Heartland, One World International Human Rights (Prague), and Movies That Matter (Netherlands) Film Festivals.

Shadow Company

26 April, 114 Little Hall
Dir. Nick Bicanic and Jason Bourque, 2006, 86 min.

In the late 20th Century the distinction between soldier and mercenary became blurred. The recent use of private military companies (PMCs) in Iraq has been more extensive than at any time in modern history. The brutal killing of four PMC employees in Fallujah in April 2004 made it clear that these “contractors” are not merely workers in a foreign land. But are the lives of such men the only thing at risk when we privatize warfare? Shadow Company explores the moral and ethical issues private military solutions create for PMC employees, for the Western governments who foot the bill for their salaries, and for everyday citizens. The filmmakers traveled the globe to expose all sides of the issue, interviewing PMC staff, owners and lobbyists, former mercenaries, academics, journalists and top authors. Winner of four 2007 Leo Awards: Best Documentary, Directing, Writing and Editing.

Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.

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Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.

Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Study

27 September
Directed by Ken Musen, 1991, 51 minutes

In Quiet Rage Philip Zimbardo describes a prison simulation experiment conducted at Stanford University in 1971 with students in the roles of prisoners and guards. This film features archival footage, flashbacks, post-experiment interviews with the prisoners and guards, and comparisons with real prisons. It documents surprise arrests by city police and shows why the two-week study was terminated after only six days. Although the experiment took place decades ago the questions raised in the film about the human capacity to inflict and endure pain are important to contemporary discussions of torture and democracy.

Death and the Maiden

5 October
Directed by Roman Polanski, 1994, 103 minutes

In Death and the Maiden a woman in South America, played by Sigourney Weaver, finds herself hosting a doctor who may have tortured her when she was held as a political prisoner during the military dictatorship. The doctor, played by Ben Kingsley, denies the accusation while her husband wrestles with the implications of this charged encounter. The fluid power dynamics between the three characters raise issues of justice and reconciliation, especially as related to the prosecution of war crimes. This Roman Polanski film is based on a play of the same name by noted author Ariel Dorfman.

Torturing Democracy

12 October
Directed by Sherry Jones, 2008, 90 minutes

The documentary Torturing Democracy explores the evolution of a United States policy that justifies the use of coercive interrogation techniques. The film written and produced by one of America’s exemplary documentary reporters, Sherry Jones, is the result of a collaborative effort by the National Security Archive (which has collected thousands of documents on counter-terrorism) and Washington Media (involved in investigative research since the Abu Ghraib scandal) to preserve an institutional memory of how torture became an accepted weapon in the United States arsenal. ** Winner, 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award **

My Country, My Country

26 October
Directed by Laura Poitras, 2006, 90 minutes

Filmmaker Laura Poitras shot the documentary My Country, My Country in the months leading up to the 2005 elections in Iraq to create an intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Through Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate she captures the passions and fears of a nation anticipating “Western-style democracy”. ** Nominated, 2007 Oscar Award **

The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court

2 November
Directed by Pamela Yates, 2009, 95 minutes

Over 120 countries have united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC) the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators, no matter how powerful, of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The Reckoning follows dynamic ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team for three years across four continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur. ** An Official Selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival **

Well-Founded Fear

16 November
Directed by Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson, 2000, 119 minutes

Well-Founded Fear is a documentary about the American political asylum system that takes you into the closed corridors of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) where American ideals collide with human rights norms. Foreigners that are already in the United States, having fled their home countries, have the opportunity to apply for asylum if that person establishes a “well-founded fear” of persecution in his or her home country. Filmmakers Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson provide a close-up examination of the way that the United States decides the cases of those applying for political asylum, showing the tenuous balance between those who grant and receive protection in the world today.

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Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.

Turtles Can Fly

26 January/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, 98 min., 2005.

In a war-scarred village in Kurdistan on the northern Iraq border children invent their own methods of survival and modes of society: digging up landmines to sell for food, rigging satellite radios to follow the advent of the US occupation. A.O. Scott of the New York Times hailed Turtles Can Fly as “a harsh account of war, displacement and deprivation that is saved from utter bleakness by a tough, earthy lyricism.”

The Big Lebowski

23 February/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, 98 min., 2003.

Commenting on the historical impact of ‘Lebowski,’ the cultural critic Luca Caminati has long pondered the following paradox: “The Big Lebowski is the most devastating depiction of post-conflict discombobulation ever attempted by Hollywood, yet audiences have universally refused to acknowledge it as a political indictment of war.” “Instead,” he laments: “they elect to laugh.” Join members of the Lebowski Studies Association for a screening of this rare look at the aftermath of war, and public insensitivity to it. This screening inaugurates P-CON’s “I’ve decided to become a P-CONISTA” concentration declaration event. Follow the P-CON Calendar for more info.

White Light Black Rain

23 March/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Steven Okazaki, 86 min., 2007.

Straightforward interviews with fourteen “hibakusha” —survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—are intermixed with rarely seen footage documenting the destructive power of those attacks. Steven Okazaki’s award-winning film looks directly at the effects of nuclear warfare and the significant threat posed by the enormous nuclear arsenals of today.

Bombies

13 April/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Jack Silberman, 57 min., 2002.

American bombers dropped more than two million tons of explosives on rural Laos during the Vietnam War. As many as 30 million unexploded cluster bombs still litter the country, regularly injuring people despite their cautious cultivation methods. Children are frequent victims of these bright, explosive little balls. Despite global calls for a halt to the use of cluster bombs, the USA has used them extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq. “If you want to know what Afghanistan will be like in twenty years, watch Bombies” (Jury Citation, San Francisco International Film Festival).

Agent Orange: Personal Requiem

20 April/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium 7:00 p.m.
Directed by Masako Sakata, 66 min., 2007.

The filmmaker pays homage to her deceased husband, photographer Greg Davis, an American victim of Agent Orange, by exploring the impact of the dioxin-based defoliant on the environment and children of Vietnam. “A remarkable film… Sakata’s moving film brought back to me memories of the Vietnam War, the war of my generation, with great poignancy and power” (Roger Pulvers, The Japan Times).

Long Night’s Journey Into Day

27 April/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffman, 95 min., 2000.

Following four hearings from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee, this prize-winning film Night’s Journey explores the challenges of truth-telling, forgiveness, and a country’s halting attempts to get beyond decades of racial domination and violence. “…justice can never really be delivered in these circumstances; the ache of racism and its violent aftermath still remain. This is an issue that the film addresses with as much integrity as the committee shows in its own efforts” (Elvis Mitchell, New York Times).

Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.

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Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.

Obedience

8 September/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed Stanley Milgram, 45 min., 1965.

In 1963, Dr. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, advertised for volunteers to participate in a memory experiment. The volunteers are asked to punish other subjects who remember incorrectly – by shocking them with electricity. The varied responses of the volunteers raise significant questions about legitimate authority, the responsibility to obey commands, and the capacity of human beings to hurt one another. While the experiment took place over 40 years ago, the questions raised in Obedience have become newly relevant remain important in the context of current debates about torture and human rights in the U.S.-led War on Terror.

Discovering Dominga: A Survivor’s Story

15 September/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Patricia Flynn, 60 min., 2003

In Discovering Dominga, a young Iowa mother, Denese Joy Becker, comes to understand that she is a survivor of the 1982 Rio Negro massacre in Guatemala. At the time of the massacre, Denese Becker was a nine-year-old Mayan Indian girl named Dominga Sic Ruiz. Her parents and more than 200 other residents of Rio Negro, who resisted relocation to make way for a dam, were murdered by the state. After the massacre, Dominga escaped to the mountains and was later adopted by a couple from Iowa. The film follows Dominga’s adult journey to uncover her past and work to bring the military commanders responsible for the massacre to justice.

In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies

22 September/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Anne Aghion, 57 min., 2004.

In Rwanda We Say … begins as 16,000 genocide suspects are released across Rwanda, subsequent to confessing and having served the maximum sentence the Gacaca citizen-based-justice tribunals would eventually impose. The film follows the release and return of one man to his village. As villagers articulate their ideas, to Aghion and to one another, the initial presence of distrust and fear of violence among the villagers slowly changes.

Kippur

6 October/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed Amos Gitai, 117 min., 2000

Kippur offers an account of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War through the experiences of two young Israeli soldiers, Weinraub and Ruso, who are members of a helicopter rescuing the wounded Amos Gitai, who served in the war, has created a film striking for the stark textures of violence and daily life that he offers, as well as the collapse of the space between them during war. P-CON’s screening of this film coincides with the 35th anniversary of the beginning of the Arab-Israeli War in 1973.

Taxi to the Dark Side

17 November/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium /7:00 p.m.
Directed by Alex Gibney, 106 min., 2007.

Following the life and death of an Afghan taxi driver, Dilawar, Taxi to the Dark Side explores the practices of detention and torture in U.S. interrogation centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. Viewers are challenged to consider the implications when the rule of law is abrogated in the service of the “war on terror.” The film poses an unsettling question: what happens when a few men use the wartime powers of the executive to undermine the very principles on which the United States was founded?

** Winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Documentary Feature **

Standard Operating Procedure

1 December/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium 7:00 p.m.
Directed by Errol Morris, 116 min., 2008

In Standard Operating Procedure, Morris draws on interviews with five of the seven convicted perpetrators in the Abu Ghraib prison incident to provoke a series of questions about violence, torture, and accountability. Combined with extensive use of the photos taken by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib and recreation of some of the events which took place, the film shows the blurred lines between private/public, state/individual, and following orders/being party to human rights violations. It also raises stark questions about visual media and representation.

** Winner of the Jury Grand Prix at the Berlin International Film Festival **

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Films screen on Mondays at 7 pm

The Shape of Water

11 February
Directed by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, 2006, 70 minutes

“In an intimate encounter with five very different women in Brazil, India, Jerusalem, and Senegal (narrated by Susan Sarandon with introductory narration co-written by Edwidge Danticat) The Shape of Water offers a close look at the far reaching and vibrant alternatives crafted by women in response to environmental degradation, archaic traditions, lack of economic independence and war. The documentary weaves together the daily life stories of Khady, Bilkusben, Oraiza, Dona Antonia, and Gila who, through candor and humor, infuse their communities with a passion for change. The women spearhead rainforest preservation (women working as rubber-tappers in the Brazilian rainforest); sustain a vast co-operative of rural women (India: SEWA: the largest trades union in the world with 700,000 members); promote an end to female genital cutting (FGC) (Senegal: communities abandoning FGC); strengthen opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine (Women in Black in Jerusalem); maintain a farm, Navdanya (in the foothills of the Himalayas) to further economic independence and biodiversity by preserving women’s role as seed keepers.”

No More Tears Sister: Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal

25 February
Directed by Helene Klodawsky, 2004, 79 minutes

“A story of love, revolution, and betrayal, No More Tears Sister explores the price of truth in times of war. Set during the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka over decades, the film beautifully renders the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Wartime mother, university professor, wife, activist, and symbol of hope, Rajani was assassinated at the young age of thirty-five in 1989. Fifteen years after Rajani’s death, her older sister Nirmala, a former Tamil militant and political prisoner, journeys back to Sri Lanka. She has decided to break her long silence about Rajani’s passionate life and her brutal slaying. Joining her are Rajani’s husband, sisters, and grown daughters, as well as fellow activists forced underground. Superbly filmed, using rare archival footage and intimate correspondence, the story of Rajani and her family delves into rarely explored themes—revolutionary women and their dangerous pursuit of justice.”

Women’s Prison

10 March
Directed by Manijeh Hekmat, 2004, 106 minutes

“Famously “banned” for more than a year by Iranian authorities, this taboo-breaking film is based on Manijeh Hekmat’s long fieldwork among women prisoners in Iran. She depicts the lives of Iran’s lost generation in the two decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, using the claustrophobic life of women behind bars as a metaphor for the entire society. Her protagonist, Mitra, is in prison for killing her violent stepfather. On the eve of a prison riot she confronts Tahereh, the new warden, whose dogmatic views she challenges fearlessly. Over the course of the next 20 years, Tahereh’s attitude toward her prisoners changes and softens, which reflects the country’s shifting political stance. Eventually, Mitra, aged and exhausted, is finally released, but Tahereh left behind, is now more like a prisoner herself.”

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo

31 March
Directed by Lisa F. Jackson, 2007, 76 minutes

“Shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this extraordinary film shatters the silence that surrounds the shocking plight of women and girls caught in this country’s intractable conflict. Since 1998 a brutal war has ravaged the DRC, killing over 4 million people and resulting in many tens of thousands of women and girls being systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. Until now, the stories of these women have never been told to the rest of the world. A survivor of gang rape herself, Emmy-Award winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson travels through the DRC to understand what is happening and why, interviewing activists, peace keepers, physicians, and even – chillingly – rapists. But the most moving and harrowing moments of the film come as dozens of survivors recount their stories with an honesty and immediacy pulverizing in its intimacy and detail. Heart-wrenching in its portrayal of the grotesque realities of life in Congo, this powerful film also provides inspiring examples of resiliency, resistance, courage and grace.”

Films screen on Mondays at 7 pm

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Films screen on Mondays at 7 pm

Total Denial

16 September/27 Persson Hall/7:00PM
Directed by Milena Kaneva, 74 min., 2006.

For almost twenty years, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and now the re-named State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has enforced a brutal, repressive military dictatorship in Burma. Total Denial is the story of how fifteen villagers from rural Burma brought, and won, a suit in U.S. courts against oil giant UNOCAL for collaborating with the SLORC and SPDC to commit human-rights abuses in Burma. We will join hundreds of communities across the U.S. and world who will all be watching the film simultaneously with support from Earth Rights International.

The Road to Guantanamo

1 October/27 Persson Hall/7:00PM
Directed by Matt Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom, 95 min., 2006

This film is the story of the Tipton Three — Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul – who were three young British men from Tipton who were captured by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in 2001 and detained at Guantánamo Bay, without charge or legal representation, until 2004. The documentary footage is juxtaposed with dramatizations of their experiences by actors, raising questions about how to represent violence and detention in the present moment. “… a wrenching and dismaying account of cruelty and bureaucratic indifference” – A.O. Scott, New York Times

S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

8 October/27 Persson Hall/7:00PM
Directed by Rithy Panh, 101 min., 2003.

During the Cambodian genocide (1975-1979), approximately 1.7 million people were killed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. In S-21, two survivors and a dozen former Khmer Rouge fighters return to Tuol Sleng, one of the most notorious Khmer Rouge interrogation centers and today a genocide museum, to revisit the past. “Cinema at its most intellectually honest and morally necessary” – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

Chicken Run

29 October/27 Persson Hall/7:00PM
Directed Peter Lord and Nick Park, 84 min., 2000.

Back in the PCON film series by popular demand and with support from PETA (liberation begins at the dinner table), Chicken Run is an animated tale of arbitrary detention and resistance on a chicken farm in England. Led by the plucky hen Ginger, the chickens plot to escape their coop-prison. Chicken Run asks us to confront the un-exceptional nature of arbitrary detention.

Death and the Maiden

12 November/27 Persson Hall /7:00 PM
Directed by Roman Polanski, 103 min., 1994.

In an unnamed Latin American country following a transition from a military dictatorship to democracy, fate brings a torture survivor and her torturer together one evening. The survivor interrogates her former torturer and tries to discover “the truth” about what took place under the military regime. Death and the Maiden forces us to confront the legacies of arbitrary detention and how it wreaks havoc with justice.

Films screen on Mondays at 7 pm

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