Despite democratic advances around the world, human rights violations continue to persist. News headlines remind readers that challenges from genocide in Darfur to discrimination against HIV-positive children in Romania call for greater attention.

To answer the need for awareness and education on these and other issues, UNC Asheville’s Amnesty International Student Chapter will hold its fourth annual Human Rights Film Festival from January 28-February 2. Some 11 films will be screened; audience discussion led by a number of the University’s most distinguished faculty will follow each screening. The festival, which has become the largest of its kind in the Southeast, is free and open to the public.

Two films will be screened each week day. Matinee showings will be held at 4:30 p.m. in UNC Asheville’s Highsmith University Union room 224. Evening presentations will be at 7 p.m. in the Highsmith University Union Grotto.

The film festival schedule is as follows:
 

Monday, Jan. 28

Image from "The Devil Came on Horseback"

4:30 p.m. – “We’ll Never Meet Childhood Again”
This 80-minute film examines lives of a group of HIV-positive living in Bucharest, Romania.

7 p.m. – “The Devil Came on Horseback”
The 85-minute documentary exposes the genocide raging in Darfur, Sudan as seen through the eyes of a former United States marine who returns home to make the story public.


Tuesday, Jan. 29

4:30 p.m. – “Enemies of Happiness”
This 58-minute film follows Malalai Joya, the first Afghan woman to enter parliament, during her campaign to introduce democracy to a country long ruled by warlords and the Taliban. This foreign-language film, with English subtitles, won the World Cinema Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

7 p.m. – “Hot House”
The 90-minute film examines how Israeli prisons have become the breeding ground for the next generation of Palestinian leaders, as well as the birth place of future terrorist threats. This Israeli film on the World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.


Wednesday, Jan. 30

Image from "Cocalero"

4:30 p.m. – “City of Photographers”
This 80-minute documentary depicts the photographers and photojournalists who documented strikes, demonstrations, and protests during the Chilean military regime of Augusto Pinochet. It is presented with English subtitles.

7 p.m. – “Cocalero”
The 86-minute documentary centers on the union formed by Bolivian farmers in response to their government's effort to eradicate coca crops and the man who would come to represent them, Evo Morales. It is presented in Spanish with English subtitles.


Thursday, Jan. 31

4:30 p.m. – “Manufactured Landscapes”
Photographer Edward Burtynsky, who travels the world observing changes in landscapes due to industrialization, is profiled in this 80 minute film. This Canadian documentary was winner of Best Documentary at the 2007 Genie Awards.

7 p.m. – “White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”
Featuring interviews with 14 atomic bomb survivors -- many who have never spoken publicly before -- and four Americans intimately involved in the bombings, this 86-minute film provides a detailed exploration of the bombings and their aftermath.


Friday, Feb. 1

Image from "Election Day"

4:30 p.m. – “Election Day”
This two-hour film unravels the complex electoral process by following an eclectic group of voters on Election Day 2004.

7 p.m. – “Banished: American Ethnic Cleansing”
This 87-minute documentary recounts the story of four U.S. cities that violently forced African Americans from their communities in post-reconstruction America. It was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Miami International Film Festival.


Saturday, Feb. 2

7 p.m. – “The Lives of Others”
The festival will wrap up with the feature-length thriller “The Lives of Others,” which portrays the monitoring of the cultural scene in East Berlin by the agents of the Stasi. This film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is presented in German with English subtitles.

For more information, call Mark Gibney, UNC Asheville Belk Professor of Humanities, at
828/250-3870.