Calendar – Past Event

For the December installment of the Flaherty NYC monthly screening series, The Flaherty will present and discuss recent advocacy videos produced by WITNESS and the grassroots human rights defenders it works with around the world. WITNESS staff will also highlight recent short videos from US-based collaborative production and editing campaigns focused around elder justice in the USA, and legislative action for effective genocide prevention. The program is a perfect complement to the current season of Flaherty NYC, which revolves around the theme of the 2009 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, "Witnesses, Monuments Ruins."

There will be a post-screening discussion with representatives from WITNESS: Sam Gregory (Program Director), Kelly Matheson (Program Coordinator for North America), and Violeta Krasnic (Program Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia).

Since its founding in 1992, WITNESS has empowered human rights defenders to use video as a tool to shine a light on those most affected by human rights violations, and to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools of justice. On the creation of WITNESS, co-founder and musician Peter Gabriel told Paste Magazine, "Time after time, good, written evidence has been ignored by the media or governments. When a WITNESS partner has produced a short and powerful video on the same issue, there is often immediate action."

Films to be Screened:
Hear Us: Zimbabwean Women Affected by Political Violence Speak Out
(Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and WITNESS, 2009, 16min, Zimbabwe/USA)
In 2008, political violence erupted throughout Zimbabwe as a result of the contested national elections. Zimbabwean women of all ages, targeted for their political affiliations, were abducted from their workplaces and homes and raped, tortured, and beaten in secret torture centers. Hear Us features four of these women, who have come forward to demand justice from the Zimbabwean government and the Southern African Development Community.

An Age for Justice: Elder Justice Now
(National Council on Aging and WITNESS, 2009,16min, USA)
Imagine if someone you love was beaten, neglected or exploited and you were in a position to help. This film shares powerful stories of the reprehensible abuse endured by our elders in every community across the country and gives us a critical and historic step we can take to protect older Americans. The associated '100 Voices' online campaign at elderjusticenow.org shares personal perspectives from elders across the country on the need for action.

Crying Sun: The Impact of War in the Mountains of Chechnya
(Memorial and WITNESS, 2007, 26min, Chechnya/USA)
Chechnya has been deeply scarred by years of fighting between separatists and Russian federal forces. In the Chechen Mountains, the conflict has forced families from their homes and is gradually destroying the unique culture of these communities. Crying Sun is the story of Zumsoy, a village torn apart by war. The video amplifies voices of the people who are struggling to preserve their identity amidst violence and suffering.

About The 2009 Roberty Flaherty Film Seminar Founded in 1955, the Flaherty Seminar is an annual showcase for nonfiction cinema. This year's program, "Witnesses, Monuments, Ruins," explored the act of bearing witness - to bring memory, experience and history into the present - through an eclectic range of topics and formal approaches. Flaherty NYC will continue to explore this theme on the second Monday of every month at Anthology Film Archives with the screening of a film followed by a discussion with the filmmaker(s) and a guest moderator.

Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study and exhibition of film and video, with a special emphasis on alternative, avant-garde, independent productions and the classics. The theater is located in the old Second Avenue Courthouse building in the East Village on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street.

About The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar is named after Robert Flaherty (1884-1951), who is considered by many to be the father of the American documentary. Flaherty's groundbreaking documentary of Eskimo life, Nanook of the North is among the most noted films of the silent era. He was also the creator of such classic poetic films as Moana, Man of Aran, and Louisiana Story. The Seminar began in 1955-before the era of film schools-when Flaherty's widow, Frances, convened a group of filmmakers, critics, curators, musicians, and other film enthusiasts at the Flaherty farm in Vermont. For more than fifty years the Flaherty Seminar has been firmly established as a one-of-a-kind institution that seeks to encourage filmmakers and other artists to explore the potential of the moving image. The films of such directors as Robert Drew, Louis Malle, the Maysles brothers, Mira Nair, Satyajit Ray, and Robert M. Young were shown at the Seminar before they were known generally in the American film community. New cinematic techniques and approaches first presented and debated at the Seminar have routinely made their way into mainstream American film.

For more information on The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar please visit their website at: www. flahertyseminar.org

TICKET INFORMATION:
General admission tickets to the Flaherty NYC series at the Anthology Film Archives are $9. Tickets are $7 for students with valid I.D. and $6 for Anthology members with membership card. Tickets can be purchased at the Anthology box office the day of the show. For more information, call the Flaherty at 212-448-0457 or visit www.flahertyseminar.org.

Anthology Film Archives is located in the old Second Avenue Courthouse building in the East Village at 32 Second Ave. at the corner of 2nd Street. For subway take F, V to Second Ave., B, D, F, V to Broadway-Lafayette, 6 to Bleecker.