Rough Aunties
plus director Q&A

Filmmaker: Kim Longinotto

UK / 2009 / 103 min / English

Awards: Winner: Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2009

ICA Cinema 1, March 7, 2.30pm & ICA Cinema 2, March 9, 6.15pm

A celebration of the strength and compassion of the ‘Rough Aunties’ who care, and fight, for South Africa’s abused children, from one of the world’s best documentary makers.

Caring for Durban's abused children and fighting for their rights in equally fierce measures, the women behind Bobbi Bear are a force to be reckoned with. Strong, passionate and fearless, they show an unbounded capacity for love and empathy in the face of harrowing work and personal tragedies. Rough Aunties (Grand Jury Prize, Sundance 2009) handles painfully raw subject matter with honesty and respect – a testament to the unerring wisdom and compassion of the 'Rough Aunties' of Bobbi Bear.
Kim Longinotto

From Divorce Iranian Style (Grand Prize for Best Documentary, San Francisco, 1998) to Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go (a highlight of BEV 2008), Kim Longinotto’s films are the benchmark for heartfelt, but never patronising, social issue documentaries.

Screening in partnership with Branchage Film Festival, kicks off a campaign to raise awareness and funds for Bobbi Bear

We are also screening My Neighbour, My Killer on Thursday March 11th, which is a documentary about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

My Neighbour, My Killer

Filmmaker: Anne Aghion

USA/France / 2009 / 80 min / French (with English Subtitles)

ICA Cinema 1, Thur March 11, 8.30pm

Truth and Reconciliation, Rwandan style - a hugely insightful exploration of the complicated process of restoration in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.

One of the rare documentary films to be accepted as Official Selection at Cannes, this in-depth study explores the Gacaca Tribunals in Rwanda, open-air hearings in which Rwandan Hutus charged with the 1994 genocide and having been released from prison, are judged by Tutsi survivors and citizen-judges. Aghion charts the complicated emotional impacts as well as the practical consequences of this groundbreaking legal experiment in reconciliation and justice.

"Quietly devastating" The LA Times

"A much-needed examination of the challenging yet necessary process of justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of genocide" Newsweek
Anne Aghion

Documentarian Anne Aghion spent almost ten years filming My Neighbor in a tiny hamlet in Rwanda and is ensuring her film now reaches a wide global audience through screenings at Cannes, Human Rights Watch and ongoing public and private screenings. Her previous work includes the astonishing Ice People (2009), on the lives of scientists in Antarctica.

Screening in partnership with DocHouse