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DOCUMENT 1: Program of the Human Rights Film Festival in Glasgow

nope | 05.09.2003 10:22 | Education

"Document 1 is Glasgow's first ever International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. The main focus is to show work from the regions around the world where asylum seekers in Glasgow have come from.
In doing so, the films will give asylum seekers a chance to see what is happening in their country of origin and give other residents of Glasgow an opportunity to see everyday life in such countries. These films, whilst explaining the conflicts which people have involuntarily had to flee, also show the richness of their societies and cultures."
Paula Larkin & Mona Rai, Co-ordinators

DOCUMENT 1
International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

19th-22nd of September 2003
The UGC, 7 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, Scotland

Festival Day Tickets £5 / £2.50
free to asylum seekers

tel: 0141 333 9522


"We are very pleased to be able to support this event and welcome the positive images portrayed in this film festival. The films you will see during this festival depict the many and varied situations effecting asylum young people were helped to develop their ideas from issues they wished to address and commit to a programme to be shot on video. The resulting five films cover subjects linked with homelessness and the need for improvements in the environment of Drumchapel.

· Up The Drum:
A short journey around Drumchapel seen through the eyes of Kerri-Ann Docherty, a 13 year old schoolgirl, looking at the facilities, the people and the improvements that are happening within this housing scheme which is situated to the west of Glasgow.

· No Signposts:
A look at the problems that cause and create homelessness within Glasgow. This film involves interviews with outreach workers and officials from various agencies and organisations who deal with the rehabilitation of homeless people. This film meets people aged 16 to 60 years old coming from various backgrounds and walks of life, but yet, have all found themselves homeless through a variety of different reasons.

· Why us?
Adolescence and chaos seem to walk hand in hand but compounded with homelessness and disability can be a nightmare and extremely confusing. This is the story of Calan and Angela, two young people who want to stay together and are finding how difficult it is to convince the system to accommodate them.

· Claire's Story:
Claire is a young woman living in Drumchapel with her mother and younger sister, Amanda. This video diary, shot over a six week period in the summer of 2003, shows Claire and her family as they prepare to leave their old flat and move into a new refurbished apartment within the same area.

· Lights, Camera, Action!
Brother and sister team, Alexander and Elizabeth follow and document the crew as they endeavour to shoot their films.

GOING GLOBAL
Going Global is a new resource for schools produced by Glasgow City Council and the Glasgow Film Theatre. The pack consists of 3 short animated films made by groups of young asylum seekers, refugees and local young people in the Glasgow schools: Castlemilk High School, All Saints Secondary School and St Paul'sul's (Whiteinch) Primary. A group of pupils talk about their favourite things like a mobile phone, Irish dancing, a pet baby elephant, the beach in Somalia and sunflowers in Afghanistan.

· The Documentary was filmed as the three animated films were made. The young people talk about their lives, their experiences and their feelings about each other and about making the films. Some of them talk about the experiences that made their families seek asylum.
All schools in Glasgow have been issued with a free copy of the pack.
The pack can also be bought from the Glasgow Film Theatre.

CAMCORDER GUERRILLAS
· Faslane - The Very Big Blockade , 22nd April 2003
Short poetic documentary/coverage on the "Really Big Blockade" at Faslane Nuclear Submarine Base, on the banks of the River Clyde in April 2003. At least 160 people were arrested during the non-violent demonstration, which disrupted work at the base for eight hours.
· Mayday (2003) is a film, which shows an activist view of Scotland's biggest anti-capitalist Maus is an inquiry into claims of mystical experience or divinity (commonly termed delusions of grandeur). Three individuals who have had religious revelation articulate their perspectives alongside the professionals they are determined to convince: Dr Peter Fenwick
(Institute of psychiatry), The Very Rev'd Colin Slee (Bishop of Southwark), Professor Elleen Barker (Sociologist at LSE), Dr Trevor Turner (Psychiatrist, Homerton Hospital) and The Hearing Voice Network). The Film has a broad appeal but particularly focuses on the discourses surrounding subjective belief systems. It addresses debates concerning diagnosis and treatment and will especially be of interest to workers in and users of the mental health system.

CARELESS
Fiona Reid, Scotland, 6 mins, 2003 Now 25 Ian Baker reflects on his experiences being brought up in care between the ages of 13 and 17 years old.

CEILING MAN
James Alcock, Scotland, 30mins
Ceiling Man reveals the growing relationship between a film maker and his subject over a six month phis people on a quest for healthcare and justice. But powerful interests conspire to thwart the villagers at every turn in this two year epic chronicle of the real price of gold.

SHOESHINE PRESIDENT
Gibby Zobel, 14mins, English Subtitles.
Lula a former shoeshine boy with little formal education wins a landslide victory to become the President of Brazil. Lula makes an emotional speech to unprecedented crowds on the night of his victory after a 22 year struggle. It has been easy he says. The difficult part starts now. God give us the health and the courage to change the history of Brazil and make this a happier country in which our people can live with dignity. This film asks ordinary and extraordinary Brazilians what they think.

LOS DESAPARECIDOS
Danny Mitchell, Scotland, 14 mins, English Subtitles.
Los Desaparecidos addresses the politics surrounding the disappeared in Mexico. It focuses on a leading human rights activist called Rosario Ibarra whose son was abducted by the government in 1975. Since then sheay, 27mins, French and Kurdish with English subtitles.
Khalil, a Palestinan refugee who grew up in Algeria, is in prison waiting to be deported. Memories of his homeland accompany him during this long wait. The story of the film is based on the real case of Khalil Abuzarifeh who died in Zurich on 3rd March 1999 while awaiting deportation from Switzerland.

SILENT DEATH
Hüseyin Karabey, Turkey 2001, 85mins, German, Italian and Spanish with English Subtitles.
There are approximately 71.000 prisoners in the Turkish prisons today. Among these, more than 10.000 are political prisoners. The Turkish Ministry of Justice has recently constructed F-type prisons (known as the "isolation cell system") in three locations in Turkey and is planning to construct eight more. These isolation cells will be used mainly for political prisoners. The Ministry of Justice is introducing the F-type prison as being compatible with European standards. The documentary film The Silent Death aims to discuss and display European policies regarding prisons. Through the different interviews made with political detainees and former prisoners in Germany, Italy, Spain, North Ireland and the USA and with their families, we will try to show that the European prison system and the isolation cell system all around the world, is not the ideal system as propagated by the Turkish authorities. Interviews with researches working on this subject shows that the existing model in Europe is the outcome of a hundred-year-old system which has many deficiencies. The film will try to depict the 30 years of isolation cell experience with the aim of pointing out the disparity between what is claimed and what is truly experienced, to the audience. The outcomes of the isolation system and its influence on human life will be told both by the victims and the witnesses.

The Kurdish programme is supported by the London Kurdish Film Festival, and is dedicated to the memory and family of Firsaat Dag, who was killed in Sighthill on Sunday 5 August 2001.

Sunday 7.00pm - 8.0ted when one is accepted into a US re settlement programme while the other remains at a Kenyan Refugee camp.

WELCOME TO DOVER
Beth Armstrong, 26mins.
The Berishas, a family of Kosovan refugees, smuggled themselves in to Dover. Arriving in the back of a lorry to escape war and prejudice, they find themselves up against new forms of hostility. Welcome to Dover follows their search for relatives missing in the NATO bombing and their struggle to assimilate. It is the story of a family pulling together to survive in a strange land and shows life as a refugee.

THE REAL VISION 20/20, LAND IS LIFE
Tony Gosling, 14 mins
The Real Vision 20/20 gives a voice to the farmers in the state of Andhra Pradesh who are in receipt of funds intended to aid and develop agriculture in India. These funds are provided by The Department of Trade and Industry under the name of Vision 20/20. This film documents the lives of Indian Farmers and the disastrous impact upon the rural population of the State of Andhra Pradesh.
 http://www.spiritaid.org.uk

Variant
1/2, 189b Maryhill Rd.
Glasgow, G20 7XJ
+44 (0)141 333 9522
 http://www.variant.org.uk
 variant@ndirect.co.uk

nope


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